Tomtaylz build and adventures

tomtaylz

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Well as a lot of people know I've been Jeepless for awhile now, about a year ago I bought a Chevy Colorado ZR2 diesel. I've been going on trips, and I am starting to build it out, and thought I would document my journey here, for my Jeep friends.

Here is the truck as I bought it. It had 32's, a spacer lift, a snug top rebel topper and full skids underneath, the spare relocated to the bed, with a ham radio inside.

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It wasn't long until I was on the rocks, thanks @Thunderhead

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with front and rear lockers and plenty of torque, the truck doesn't do bad off-road. I mainly spent the fall doing trips to Yosemite and generally enjoying the truck, knowing there was changes I wanted to do. One big reason I got rid of the jeep was that I had longer trips in mind, lots of highway driving made the truck a no-brainer.

With winter fast approaching, I knew I wanted to do a longer trip over the holidays. The plan was set - spending a week in Death Valley. You can read about the adventure here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/trip-report-a-christmas-in-death-valley.30103/

Spending a week off-road, I really got to know the truck. What was working, what wasn't. Maybe the most pressing issue was with a longer trip, a cooler added to the list of anxieties. I am admittedly not the best with cooler diligence, only opening as needed, and I didn't want a tub full of warm food floating in water. A fridge was in order. But how do I power the fridge??

I decided on getting a goal zero system to power a lot of my accessories. I knew it was expensive, but it made my electrical very uncomplicated which is great for the sake of reliability, and it was portable which appealed to me with more and more frequent power cuts. It also allows me easily to power laptops, blenders or other electronics I might need for extended trips without having multiple components. I ended up getting a Yeti 1400, and bought the car charging kit. The car charging kit charges the goal zero only when the voltage is higher, unfortunately for me Chevy has some sort of smart alternator where it only outputs the load it "needs" so to hit the threshold to power the goal zero, I have to have my headlights on. I paired the goal zero with a dometic 75 dual zone fridge. It might be a bit overkill and large but I loved the idea of a dual zone, and I have grown really fond of cooking more complicated non-traditional dishes when camping. This allows me to carry lots of food, and drinks as well.

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My first trip with the fridge was to the Mount Shasta area for a long weekend. I can't express enough how fantastic having a fridge is, they really are great and even small things like not having to reach into a freezing cold ice bath to get a ice cold can on a chilly morning is a luxury.

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One thing which was becoming increasingly obvious was not having side access on the topper was a pain in the ass. While I liked the look of the topper and it was built well, I would have picked different if I had originally ordered it. Getting certain items in the fridge involved climbing into the truck, getting to certain items involved climbing in the truck. Also, I wanted something I could leave gear with a bit more confidence. It was always a desire to be able to pack up the night before and save myself hours very early in the morning. My truck is parked in an apartment parking garage.

Studying my options, metal toppers quickly came to the top of my list. They were a lot lighter than fiberglass - my eventual plans include a roof top tent so I wanted to be cautious of weight to not exceed the load rating- and they provided more functionality with wide opening side entry. This would allow me to access the fridge, goal zero and various items from the side of the truck. I settled on Alucab, the wait (and wait and wait) started as the canopy was very delayed. In that time, I had sold my old topper and went on a week long trip exploring about 250 miles of dirt roads in southern Oregon.

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Finally, the new canopy had come in, the Alucab Explorer Canopy and I picked it up from the dealer in Sacramento.

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I stopped by @Alex01 on the way home where he graciously wired the back brake light and the lights on each windoor. The functionality and quality on this thing is insane. It also mounts in a way, attaching to the bed side, which gives me a lot more confidence in it not shifting going over rocky terrain. With the track like system, I was able to add my matrax to the ceiling, clean and out of the way, I also added some blueridgeoverland gear bags on a bit of unused space on the back wall. These are great to hold small items such as headlamp, batteries and with the side door opening up it is super easy to grab.

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While I was waiting for my canopy, I ordered a Bush Company Alpha tent and awning. While a bit on the heavy side, I really do think the tent is the best on the market for the clamshell style. It has an Anderson plug underneath, which I made a cable from my goal zero to connect to. There is his/hers USB, 12V, and power pole, and a light on top. It has a huge fly/awning on the outside and numerous other features I could nerd out about all day. It felt that someone has really lived in it and spent a lot of time in it making improvements verses some of the competition with annoying design flaws. I really wanted. a 270 awning too, I felt the fast set up shade is something I would use often and it bolts right to the side of the tent without a rack (an advantage of an aluminum tent vs fiberglass). It was time to go to smokey smokey Oregon to pick it up.

8 hour road trip, and I paid for CVT to install it. Super nice guys, the install was okay - it is definitely something I am improving on and cleaning up but it was secure and more than I could have done myself. Here are some pictures after the install:

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You can kind of see above the awning gets in the way of the rear passenger door. @Alex01 and I adjusted the awning bracket in its other position, getting up and running along the side of the tent (I think it looks better too). In the tent, I added a bracket for a sirocco fan I had wired up. This allows me to have some air flow plugging into the 12V port and sipping power on those hot nights. I also had chevy under warranty repaint my hood, the hoodscoop was rubbing against the hood which was causing the paint to fail. It seems like a fairly common issue and it looks like a good repair the body shop completed. My diesel turbo's intercooler also died in this time frame and was replaced under warranty.

I needed an escape from the smoke, and wanted to take advantage of working remote, so I decided to go to southern Utah, get a condo and work remote a few days and then head to Zion national park to try out the new setup. The maxtrax work great to level the rig also.

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I am really pleased with how the gear worked. It is super fast to set up and tare down, maybe taking 1-2 minutes for both in a leisurely pace. With the added weight to the back, the back definitely feels more unsettled. I ordered Old Man Emu heavy duty leaf springs I am hoping returns the suspension to more of a stock feeling.

Lastly, I started playing with a solar panel connecting to my goal zero. I am new to solar, so I am experimenting around before eventually mounting it to the roof top tent. I plan on running two of the flexible 100w panels wired in parallel.

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Whats next?

I am mainly working on the front end next, I had ordered an aluminum bumper from CBI Offroad (it came super early and currently sitting in @Alex01 garage). Before the install, I am buying a winch, lights for the bumper, a front trail cam and upgrading the headlights. This will lead to more electrical work which I plan on simplifying with a sPod mounted to a power tray. I am also planning to mount my arb dual compressor under the hood (it has been transformed to a mobile in a Tupperware box unit), my general rule of thumb is the less things I need to pack, the less I can forget.

When these tires wear down I am a bit mixed as to what to do there. I don't "need" 35's, and probably would be great with 33's BUT AEV runs a highline kit where you can run 35s with just a level after a lot of cutting. I would likely need to go to 4.10 gears if I go this route but its tempting for both looks and that I could keep stock-ish suspension for reliabilities sake. The 33's might require a coilover suspension with a slight lift.

I likely will end up with kings shocks eventually down the road also, and considering relocating the rear shocks outboard as they hang really low. I am going to switch my rear bumper to the one off the "Bison" model as it provides more protection and does not add much weight, and tuck my exhaust up higher out of the way.

I am hoping in the spring to do an extended trip where I can work remote during the week, and explore different areas during the weekend, but I am in the early planning stages.
 
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Glad to see you're documenting the build here. It's been fun working on something that's not a jeep. ]]

That truck sure would look good on 35's (with the rubicon as a backdrop ;))
 
Nice. Truck is looking good. Chevy really missed the mark on wheel and tire size, or at least giving an option for owners to upsize tires. What did they think people were going to do with an offroad spec truck? It really should have come with 33's from the factory.

I guess it's not terrible to get 33's under them, little bit of fender trimming and a budget boost. Been looking into different options for that when my tires wear out.
 
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Nice. Truck is looking good. Chevy really missed the mark on wheel and tire size, or at least giving an option for owners to upsize tires. What did they think people were going to do with an offroad spec truck? It really should have come with 33's from the factory.

I guess it's not terrible to get 33's under them, little bit of fender trimming and a budget boost. Been looking into different options for that when my tires wear out.

The peak suspensions coilover conversion is likely what I would run especially with the added weight of the winch and bumper and yes a little trimming, but just doing the high mark sure is tempting, I just want to be cautious going 35s for the sake of it... however not having to change the suspension does take away some of the reliability concerns

Love the build, keep sharing!

Thanks! As I was going to start the more major modifications soon it felt like a good time to start documenting and forcing myself to take photos more.
 
Switched out the tent mounting last night. Previously it was clamped onto my load bars with a spacer, the result being the tent was slightly off center as the T-tracks on the tent and my canopy were nearly the same. It also didn't look the greatest.. I bought a set of "z-bars" which allowed me to bolt directly to the load bars (which have their own t-tracks). I prefer this because everything is bolted and it's a ton cleaner, it bolts rather than is clamped, and it also brings the tent to center. We were also able to trim down the load bars so that they are narrower, leading to better aesthetics and also allowing me to open the side doors wider. Thanks for @Alex01 for the help, it maybe surprisingly wasn't actually too bad of a job. Also t-tracks are fantastic, this being a 3-t-track connection seems complicated (load bars to canopy, z-bar to load bar, z-bar to tent) it was actually pretty darn simple.

I used a bit of a hodgepodge of hardware because I bought some of the wrong size, but I ordered a bunch of stainless hardware I'm going to swap everything out in the next couple of weeks.

Before (This was the one more inner, the other clamp was to the outside of the track on the other side):
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After:

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Spent the weekend in Yosemite. I had added a 1” latex topper to the RTT mattress and got a 12v heated blanket. With the thick canvas the tent actually keeps in the heat pretty darn well. It was very very comfortable too, definitely comparable to a bed. It’s a bit harder to close now which I’m still figuring out.

Sounds like my new leaf pack is arriving this week. I may try and get them in sooner than later to return the ride to a more stock comfort.

Photo dump of around Yosemite, will likely be back this coming weekend. The valley is very quiet right now due to the reservations which is great, we actually saw a bear in the valley. We also did clouds rest which is a about 15 mile 3000 elevation gain hike.

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Installed new heavy duty leaf springs last night. My first time tackling leafs. It was pretty straight forward and would have been easier if GM flipped the bolt by the gas tank so we didn't have to cut it off 😅. All in all though a pretty smooth install, nothing was in the way and not much cursing. was had.

Overall it probably took about three hours including a run to Home Depot to get a better blade for the sawzil.

Before: (the bump stops are some active bumps the previous owner put on)
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After: (the bump stops went back on when we had completed the other side)
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Unfortunately, when I got home from @Alex01 I did drop the old leaf springs getting them out causing a nice gouge in my bed. Might look at getting that fixed in the future - I just put some touch up paint in it for now.

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It drives a lot better with the upgraded springs, there is a lot less uncertainty in the back and you feel the weight I added a lot less. It feels stock again which I am very happy with.
 
Ouch! on the paint scratch. @Alex, wanna come over and work on my jeep? Lol!
Sounds like fun. I'll meet you over at Mike's for a custom frame and outboard to narrow down those vibs. @Midnight LJR keeps mentioning to me how he is bored and really needs another large fabrication project back in his life.