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Right on! I bet that V6 makes your rig pretty capable though. Seems like the only restriction my buddy has with his, is power. That said, he just added an overdrive, and that's been a world changer so far. Basically, he now has a gearing option between first and second - First low, First High, then Second Low, and so on...

Overdrive is a nice feature. Can't do that with my dana 20 but I do have terralow gears which takes the dana 20 to a 3.15:1 ratio. Combined with a 4 speed tranny and spartan lockers both ends it makes for a fun trail rig. Hope to run into you guys on the trails one of these days.

@@mikeleonard2510 - I hope so to. Where are you typical wheeling grounds?

I usually head over to the naches trail system over by cliffdell. Lots of dispersed camping and several fun trails. I'm in the tri cities so it's only a hundred or so miles - not bad for flat towing the willys.

Heck yeah! And in the RAV4, it will take a licking, but keep on ticking. Those are great little rigs!

Without his glasses on, he kind of is 🧐

Thanks! I do trailer my rig, but I also use it for dates with my wife, and drive it on the highway to work on warm sunny days. The KM3's are high on my list to consider.

Thanks for the info! I’ll have to check those out. Im assuming you didn’t see much mud in Baja tho 😂 Any experience with them in the wet stuff?

Amen to that!

😂😅 well put!

Thanks! And great saying 😂 I agree with the underdog reference - overcoming an obstacle with skill, ingenuity, stubbornness, etc provides a sense of accomplishment otherwise unachievable if a challenge had not existed. Good luck with your Subaru! I’d be interested in hearing about your plans for it.

Fun is the goal, and we are always successful 😂 That old Willys is quite the rig, and a blast to watch!

Yep - just get it on the road (or off), and enjoy it for what it is! 👍 That said, one thing I have to upgrade on my rig tho are the tires. I made a mistake on the KO2’s. Mud terrains in my neck of the woods are a must. But, they aren’t getting any bigger. Bigger tires means more stress. More stress means you have to beef things up. It snowballs fast.

@@FJAdventurer I agree on the tires. All my previous trucks came with AT's and I always swapped for MT's as soon as the tread was even even remotely close to being gone. Very worth the little bit of extra road noise. I am trying Cooper STT Pro's for my first go around as they got decent reviews without the Big Brand name mark ups. If they don't do well I will consider other options next go around. Hopefully will have the truck done this year and have fingers crossed with the softer Offroad Design (Alcan) custom spring lift it will be comfortable enough for my back and neck to do a fair amount of lighter to medium offroading. Hopefully I made decent build decisions. Time will tell if all the changes were well thought out over stock or not. Lol

@@MrBillsfishin - I'll be interested in hearing about your experience with the Alcan Springs. When I had to replace my springs and ran with procomp. They turned out to be harsher than this 50-year-old back would like. I considered Alcans originally but was deterred some by the cost.

@@FJAdventurer I wasn't thrilled by the cost either but I figured if I didn't get the better ride offered in theory due to the thinner more flexible leaf design the entire truck was a waste given my significant neck and back issues. Hopefully a few months from now I will finally know. The shop has been over promising and under delivering somewhat so if it is done by the end of year I will be thrilled. Lol

@@FJAdventurer I think I paid around $800 per set of springs but that was almost 4 years ago now.

You my friend are spitting facts! I have a couple more Elbe videos in the works that demonstrate how true this really is 😅

Absolutely. I've found keeping (at least these two rigs) as stock as possible has contributed to that.

Fun is the goal, right? I guess what ever gets us there. For some, it’s the build, for others it’s the adventure, and so on.

That said, I actually do need to upgrade my tires. The all terrains are great everywhere but the mud, and , we have a lot of mud in WA state. My KO2’s can’t get the job done.

Heck yeah! I’m looking to add a rust bucket flatty to my collection as well. They are beautifully simple, and will dang near fit on a quad trail 😂

Great comment, and thanks for sharing it!

You got that right!

The goal is to keep them as original as possible, and enjoy them for what they are.

Turns out it was a defective “new” condenser. Apparently Chinese condensers are quite frequently trash. But also unfortunately, China is the only maker of condensers anymore. So, moral of the story is, when you need a condenser, buy 3 and hope 1 works.

I replaced the seal, and it still leaked. So I siliconed it, and used a thicker gear oil. That has finally stopped it.

Thanks for the recommendation! (especially since its a cheaper option than what I was considering) 😉

Thanks! It's hard to believe that decades of advancement since these relics were built hasn't done much more than jack up costs and over complicated funtion. 😂

Thanks for the tip! New MT's are in my future, and I like hearing what actually works. Thats said, I'm stuck in the world of 15" wheels, so size options are much more limited. BUT, at least with 15" wheels, the tire height and width are explicit! 😂 I had to run to the interweb to diagnose what a 235/85 equates to, haha...

Maybe close to 31x10,50r15

Interestingly enough, per TireSize.com, 235/85/16 equates to 31.7/9.3/r16. So, you are getting a little extra bang for the buck on diameter than maybe you thought. Well done Falken! BFG's are generally a little shorter than advertised.

Yes I like this size 235/85r16 because they are still narrow but still keeping a good side wall, I think you can found 31x10,50r15 so more narrow than the first size I said but not a lot of brand are doing this size

Truth.

I had them down to 25, but the ruts were deep in a lot of areas, so ground clearance was a premium. It was a balancing act.

@@FJAdventurer Gotcha. Totally fair. I usually run 18lbs. but it does lower your ground clearance.

I ran 17 lbs on a more recent trip, and they did work a little better, but still not great. Ultimately, the little Willys and it's ancient tire tech embarrassed me on back-to-back trips. But to be fair, KO2's are not supposed to be mud tires. I also ended up getting dirt stuck in one bead and ended up with a flat the next day.

Is that a screaming popcorn emoji?

I like the recommendations! I’m guessing there are better mud tires out there, but km3’s probably handle well on the highway as well.

Actual racing slicks may have been an improvement. It was a hilarious day.

@@FJAdventurer😂😂

Nope - They are Super Traxion 6.50x16. They haven’t been great in the snow, but they were killing it in the mud.

8” mt’s vs 10.5” at’s to be exact. But yeah, the FJ also has twice the power. But it only has limited slip in the rear. The CJ has front and rear lockers. Ultimately it all kind of evens out at the end of the day 😂

Skydio 2+. It’s been excellent for autonomy tracking, but it’s horrible if you want to fly it by remote.

@@FJAdventurer I'll check it out! Thank you!

Unfortunately, it looks like Skydio may have discontinued their consumer line.

I also learned that TH-cam likes to autocorrect "Skydio" to "Skidoo" which is unfortunate as well.

@@FJAdventurer I found some used.

We met a couple guys on the trail, but I can recognize you by your TH-cam avatar? Were you the fella on the KLX?

That was even sped up to 150% because it dragged on so long 😂

Yep - Lock-rites front and rear. And I agree with your theory. In fact, he actually unlocks one of his hubs once in a while to help. But this was some nasty snow for sure.

You’d think so, right? 😅

That’s a fair point! But it’s too late now, I guess… Victory was within my grasp, but then snatched away due to a simple tally error.

Unfortunately she had decades of cleaning neglect before I got the old girl. So the rust has already taken hold in all the common places. She’s part Swiss cheese at this point 😅

@@FJAdventurerWell just look at it this way, it carrying on it’s rusty tradition.

Oh yeah! I’d love to have a diesel, but in my area the only way that would happen is if I swapped one in. The BJ’s never made it to the states, and the ones that are here are unicorns!

The funny thing is the jeep has and external resistor as well as a coil with an internal resistor. Neither were bad, but definitely redundant. Your comment led to that discovery. So, the external was removed, and she still runs just fine. 👍

It’s getting harder and harder to remember what life was like without one.

Those are 15”x9” Chevy square body rally wheels with 33”x10.5” BFG KO2 tires. I bought the wheels off Craigslist for $25 (for 5), and had the centers bored out a little to fit over Toyota hubs. Then I used self tapping sheet metal screws to attach FJ40 hub caps to them to get a semi-OEM look. I bought the tires off Amazon 😂

@@FJAdventurer Very nice, the deep dish look with the original style hubcaps looks really cool.

lol. Well played.

Wise words, my friend.

I have not swapped or modified the steering linkage; however, it does have Saginaw power steering conversion, so I'm sure the pitman arm is different from stock (installed prior to my ownership). I have 15" rims with near 3.75" backspace with closer to 1/4" gap, so that checks out. I haven't rubbed yet, so fingers crossed and knock on wood.

I hear that! I’ve never known the luxury of a plasma cutter or torches.

Cutoff wheels aren't the greatest, but they will always beet a saws-all. 😆

@@givinyouthewillys hahah very true. Also you have an awesome flat fender, I really enjoy seeing the upgrades you have both done on your rigs.

Haha… and you are safer for it!