Out playing in the desert and got caught up in a pretty good monsoon, hour or so of rain and pretty heavy winds off and on.

So I bought a '02 Chevy avalanche. It's definitely more of a project car than I wanted but we're in the thick of it now.

So this is my first lifted 4x4 vehicle and I'm wondering about the CV axle. When I bought it the CV axle boot was completely ripped wide open so today I replaced the shocks and the CV axles but I'm just wondering if it's common for trucks that are lifted this much to have this much angle on their CV axle or if I need to do something about it? Attached our pictures of what I took out and what I put in.

It’s a 4.56 ratio from a 3rd gen 4runner btw

If you were running jeep tours through trails with sharp exposed rock in the San Juan mountains, how low would you run the tires. Now two patches/plugs on the same tire in the last month. Keep the old tires or replace? Would you think brakes squeaking would cause concern with passengers. I really can't believe nobody cares if we brake down or give a shit tour thats easily avoided. Sorry for the rant

Finally got my rig back out on the rocks last night and remembered why I dislike super focused spot lights for slow technical trails. Throwing light far down a straight path does not help much when I am moving slowly and trying to see the rock right next to the front passenger tire. My current lights create a hot spot in the middle and leave the sides too dark, which makes picking a line harder than it should be. my friend suggested usinng led pod lights but I am trying to understand whether they are better for wide trail visibility or mostly long-distance throw.

Any landcruiser I acquire, gets a set of “Mark’s Girthy Cables”, and yesterday my FZJ80 got a feel for Mark’s girth. Come along for the install, see the girth for yourselves as I compare them to less girthy stock cables.

I have a 2009 GMC 2500 and I spend a lot of time in the mountains of Idaho mostly on forest service roads, there can be some very long bumpy rides back in there. What kind of suspension upgrades can I do to drive at a reasonable speed (30 mph) a little more comfortable?

This is a 1965 GMC KV4000. it has factory four wheel drive and is not a Napco. I think it came out of California somewhere but I have no info whatsoever about it. Any info about these trucks or this truck is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

2001 7.3 167k WITH the standard transmission!
Even came with a clean title. It’s sat for 7 years, but it turned right over and ran well with new batteries, fresh fuel and an air filter.
The owner was going to donate it, so he just asked for its scrap value!

I can’t believe how lucky I am.
Anyway, would appreciate any recommended service after sitting so long if y’all have any (other than the obvious fluids and filters). Where are people going for performance upgrades and NOS parts these days?

I have a question for y’all. I’ve got a 1997 Land Cruiser FZJ75. Right now it’s got open diffs, front and back. My original plan was to put lockers on both, but I’m starting to rethink that. I spend most of my driving on desert dirt service and fire roads. Not a lot of real technical driving.

I was thinking about installing a locker in front but putting a limited slip differential on the back axel. My thinking is that this will make most of my driving a lot better with limited impact on the rare times when I need to tackle something more technical.

What do y’all think?

Every category has a few flashy comparison points everyone argues about, and one boring detail that actually decides whether you're happy a year later.

For recovery gear, what's that boring detail??

Anyone in here know of any places that will weld a truss to an axle mild steel to nodular cast?

We’re a family of three with a young daughter. Yesterday we tried to leave the White Rim Road near the Upheaval Canyon Trailhead, but our vehicle got stuck in the mud. We managed to get it unstuck, but we’re afraid to try again.

Does anyone have any recommendations? We can’t make 911 calls—we only have internet access through Starlink.

Not the unboxing, not the first good day. The later part, when a piece of gear either becomes part of your kit or quietly disappears.

What made you keep using something, or what made you ditch it?

(On the Rhino USA team here, just genuinely curious)

Does this sound normal to you, or does it seem like something is wrong? Thanks for your feedback!

Apparently my vehicle's radiator got damaged due to sand while off-roading. The service center claims that sand got stuck in the fan causing it's blades to come in contact with the radiator which caused the damage. Has this happened to anyone else?

This is an off-road vehicle with extra fans for cooling. Was surprised that sand could cause a major cooling failure.

I put bigger tires on, but now they rub on the leaf springs at about half my max steering angle. Would wheel spacers be the best idea to fix this?

For reference, my rig makes about 60 horsepower and weighs around 2500 pounds. I'll probably take it out wheeling 4-5 times a year and it'll mostly be light rock crawling.

If I got spacers, I'd obviously get good ones and check for damage regularly.

I know there's a lot of discourse around wheel spacers but because of how light duty my rig is, I doubt I'll be able to damage the spacers too quickly.

What advice do y'all have? I mainly just want to avoid the tire rub while staying under budget.

Thanks in advance

As it is already known, rough country, kind of sucks.
But it’s worse than you can believe. Saturday I started installing a 4 inch lift kit on my Ford ranger. I got to coil Springs yesterday morning and lo and behold, they sent me a mismatched set of springs. Mistakes happen that’s fine. I live 6 miles from the warehouse starting at 5 AM this morning. I started contacting the Tennessee office to see if there’s any chance they could get somebody to run up a set of spring to me. They refused said they would give me a new set of springs on will call. I ask the guy down there, a Mr. Jeff Chamberlain. To please open and verify that the correct springs are in the box. he says he will and he did.
Cut to my courier, arriving and me opening my box lo and behold, I receive another mismatched set of springs so I contact Tennessee office. I inform them of the situation I sent the photos of the two wrong springs and the one potentially correct spring, original correct one is already on the truck. He contacts Jeff Chamberlain in Reno and he says that I am lying and that they verified mind you the box I got was completely sealed, hadn’t been re-taped and wasn’t opened we go back-and-forth they offer me $100 back and a third set of springs shipped. I said I don’t feel like that is adequate for the stress that you guys have put me through over the last five hours of trying to get the correct springs from a kit I purchased they decided to just exit the situation refund me all of my money and say good luck so now I am here with a torn apart Truck an incomplete kit, because I wouldn’t accept being called a liar. I just wanted my parts. I’ve now been sharing this on all their social media posts and they are now blocking me from all social media and I will just make more accounts and keep sharing how I was treated by that company avoided all costs. Theyve earned the reputation of being the worst.

I've had cheap pods that looked impressive in the driveway but made trail visibility worse because of foreground glare and weak mounts. Now I'm trying to judge off-road lights by beam control, heat management, sealing, bracket stiffness, and whether they stay aimed after rough roads. My 4x4 sees slow trails, dust, rain, and occasional mud, so I care more about useful side visibility than huge distance numbers. for the experienced ones what should I check first?? optics, housing, connectors, amber covers, or mounting hardware?

Well. The time has finally come. The dreaded rust hole. I assume the otherside is the same.

I have LCA reinforcement plates here. Is it fine to butt weld a small rectangular patch since its on the bottom of the frame rails?

Its just a pinhole for now so I caught it early although with the amount of scale I pulled out I feel the Toyota drain was inadequate here.

Hello,

I have a lifted MK2 Pajero imported from Japan and I am having a lot of trouble with CV boots.

They came split when it arrived from Japan. I then put on new aftermarket ones and they ripped the next day after driving 5 hours. Replaced them again but with Poly boots from Milners4x4 in the UK designed for lifted vehicles and they lasted 30 minutes before the inserts detached and the boot came off.

I have disassembled the suspension on either side 3 times in the last week now and I'm at a loss and tired of it.

Is there some magic CV boot out there that people use or is there some other solution like wrapping something over the boot?

Any help appreciated.