Quick update...

The wife put some new shoes on her while I was in Afghanistan. 33" Goodyear Duratracs boy are these nice on the road..We'll see how they do in the rough stuff soon. I think they'll do well.






I had an exhaust leak in the muffler since I hit it in a rock in Big Bear when I was out with Nick R, Ghostraider, and Dirtdriver last year. I had the muffler shop tuck this one up closer to the body. The 2" body lift gives you some more room to work with. This muffler has a nice tone to it not too loud but has a little bit of a rumble to it.



Also, I had a radiator that Ghostraider sent me, It looked good but I had it rodded out just to be sure and put it in. Too bad the guy put the side pieces on in reverse and I had to fix it myself. I took the time to re-drill the mounting holes so I could lower the radiator 2" to compensate for the 2" BL. Now its running with a full shroud as it should be.



I've been reading a bit about cooling systems, and its amazing how much efficiency you lose if your running without or with only half a shroud. Something to consider if your running a body lift without dropping the radiator.

Justice,

What muffler are you running? I'm running a Magnaflow on the Trooper behind a header, and it sounds pretty annoying sometimes with the 2.6.

Also, were those tires pretty reasonable? I'm trying to decide what to get for the Trooper.

Thanks.

Muffler is a Flowmaster. Its not too noticeable on the street but when I took it out on the dirt at Palomar Divide it had a definite rumble to it when I was putting around in low range.

The Duratracs are pretty cheap comparative to BFG MT's or The Wrangler MTR's. I see tire rack has them for 153 ea for 33's. Not sure how durable they are, but the neither the BFG's or the MTR's Ive owned have impressed me with sidewall durability as I punched holes in both. Only with the cheap General Grabbers I had was I never able to poke a hole in the sidewall..Go figure. The traed compound on these seem a bit flexible, but that might be due to the siping. I bet they would be killer on the slickrock in Moab.

That's cool. I found a set of "70-80%" BFG ATs on CL I'm going to look at tonight. I'll be interested in your experience with these tires. I just wish they offered them in a 33x10.5.

Thanks for the muffler info.

Small project this week but its progress. I put in a set of Hella Conversion headlamps. I almost went with the crappy Ebay ones but glad I didn't now.



Side by side comparison



Made in Germany. That cant be bad.















These things kick <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" /> compared to the Sylvania Silver Starr conventional lights..Good mod in my opinion that should be on all Gen 1's.

They do.

Tire Rack Specs

John B.

I think He was refering to the GY Duratracs. The selection is a bit limited with those as they're pretty new.

Thanks, JohnnyB, I've been pricing those already. As Justice mentioned, I was referring to the GYs. I'm thinking about going with the 33x12.5s.

Justice, those lights are "Hella" better aren't they (yuk yuk)? I put them in the White truck and Black truck and LOVED 'em! Glad you're wrenching away on that rig.

Welcome to the club! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> So far I am finding the Duratracs to be far superior to any BFG AT I ever had (not that they were ever outstanding in desert traction anyway), and at least comparable to the M/T's in dirt traction. Clearing seems to be good too, though I haven't found much mud yet. They paddle sand just like a paddle wheel too.

As for sidewalls, well I did crack one this weekend. Unfortunately nothing fun, a guy decided to drive into the side of my truck in a parking lot. Awful hard to see a tire taller than your hood when it is carefully hidden directly in front of you, I know but still... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

That being said, the sidewall did crack just above the bead. The funny thing is that he hit me hard enough to shove the whole truck three feet to the left and yet the tire held air though the night. Best I can tell, some piece of his mangled grill pierced it, but the leak was really slow. As pressure dropped through the night, it cracked to a final length of about 3/4". It really was a pretty hard hit though so all in all I was pretty impressed it lasted long enough to get the truck towed home. Now Discount has that rim and will be replacing the tire. All it costs me is $23 for a new warranty. So far I think these tires were the best choice out there if one doesn't want to go full M/T, or needs better street manners anyway without sacrificing much off road. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

After re-reading that...yep. Oops.

If somebody wanted real pizza cutters, you can even get the BFG's in 33x9.5's, too. Way to slice the wind.

FWIW.

John B.