survey of last years wheeling

Each new years i try to recover my truck from the previous years adventures...

this year will require a new gas tank and some work on my skid plates. I lost about 5 gallons of capacity in my tank over the year and have mangled my factory skids now to the point where i had to drill a hole to get to my filter doing an oil change tonight.

undercarriage pics.



closer in



omg what happened here???

Nice! You're gonna have to ease up on the gas tank abuse!

i dont know how i did that... i dont remember ever hitting it too hard.

Haha looks like my gas tank skid.

My skids are toaty too Looks like it's time for an upgrade but Buds are pricey

Now i see why your milage has gone down a bit. I don't know how much more the factory skids can handle but they seem to just bend and can be reformed. I have hammered mine back into form a couple times but now i have some weak points near the attachment areas. I guess Toyota didn't think we would really use these things for off roading. $1,290.00 for a full set from BudBuilt that includes powder coating $1,050. bare.

Ok they can be rebent from mild bends... Mine are creased and folded. Done.

In other damage news... My front passenger side wheel bearing was toast. replacing it next week.

Both rear lower links are bent and need to be replaced to get my truck to track straight

The rear 3rd member studs on the around the bottom of the diff are broken off

My mid skid is has pulled the bolt heads that hold it on through to the point where I cant get a socket or wrench on them.

few more weeks of wrenching to get my pile back in shape.