jesusgatos

Took it out for a drive yesterday afternoon and it handles a lot better with the new tires, but it still wallows and floats a bit when pushed hard. Rolls around more than I'd like in a sports car, but to be fair, it handles a lot better than any of my trucks.

Handles these kind of potholes pretty well when they're isolated hits, and not as well when there are multiple events in succession. Was playing around with different suspension settings in different terrain at different speeds and settled on level three as the best compromise for most of the driving I was doing. Seemed to handle really well on-road at those higher suspension settings too. Probably due to to firmer spring-rate.




Level three creek crossing! haha. No, I turned around and went back to take this picture to show where this happened...




Wasn't really any kind of hard hit there, just a relatively smooth path across that shallow creek. But I was carrying some speed and the G-out caused the suspension to compress enough that I stuffed the frontend. Not bad. Just a little scrape. Was honestly pretty surprised that it happened. Not used to driving cars I guess. But I'm going to have to try to do something about the long overhang ****ty approach angle. Maybe not much room for improvement, but it looks like I can whack a bit off the bottom of the plastic bumper. Just have to try to figure out how to make that look halfway decent.




Evolution skidplate took it like a champ. The aluminum is a little bit scraped-up, but it's still nice and straight. Makes me think I'm definitely going to want to add a layer of plastic or something though.




Ended up finding a really cool old abandoned house at the end of a dirt road. Could have driven just about anything out there, but this allroad sure is cruisey.

jesusgatos

Took it to get an alignment this morning. Took it to Firestone and bought the lifetime dealie, as I figured that with the adjustable air suspension and the way I'm planning on driving this thing, and any modifications I might make to it... was an easy choice. Was wondering how the frontend is actually aligned, as there didn't appear to be any slots or cams or method of adjusting the caster/camber on the frontend. Asked the alignment tech and he told me that the alignment is done by shifting the whole cradle? Interesting. Anybody know anything more about that?

jesusgatos

Hauled the old wheels/tires down to the tire shop to have them dismounted, and something occurred to me that I hadn't considered before. What do you guys think? Had a spare tire in the back of a Jeep once and hated the way it smelled, but think it might be okay if I made some kind of a cover for it? Really like the way it fits in there. Seems to make good use of space and would allow me to ditch the whole swingout spare tire carrier, which would be awesome. Think I'm going to do it. Was planning on splitting the front section of the cargo platform anyway (like the seatbacks) and I can just cut a pocket for the spare tire to sit in. Secure it with a tiedown strap. Done.

jesusgatos

Wanted to be able to haul at least one dirtbike without having to pull a trailer, so bought a cheap hitch-mounted motorcycle carrier off craigslist and modified it a bit. The rack was positioned much further away from the back of the vehicle than it needed to be, and I was concerned about the tongue-weight and ground clearance. Cut about 6" off and drilled new holes for the hitch-pin. Now the moto rack is exactly 12" behind the hitch-pin and there's still plenty of clearance between a bike and the back of the wagon. Also cut off the outer tiedown point that stuck straight out behind the rack and made a new one that's at a 45-degree angle (up). Sticks out the same amount, but has a lot better departure angle now. Rides and handles great. Hardly know it's back there, except for the way the rack rattles around. Doesn't sag at all though, thanks to the load-compensating air suspension. Eventually I'll get around to designing and building a really nice hitch-mounted moto carrier, but this will work for now.

G0to60

I like the idea of the spare tire carrier. Keeps it easy to get too. Are you going to use some type of tire bag or make a hard cover to keep the smell and muck contained?

jesusgatos

Yeah, I would definitely make/buy a cover for it.

mflyn03706

What have you settled on for tire pressures? I think I'm at 45psi all around if I remember correctly. Seems to be wearing fine.

jesusgatos

What kind/size tires are you running? These are at 40psi right now and they seem a little bit squirmy. Not sure if they're under-inflated or if maybe they're a little too tall and narrow, but they start squealing if I carry any kind of speed into a corner. Haven't got much of a sense of how this thing really handles yet and haven't pushed it very hard at all, but this isn't exactly a corner-carving setup. Not overly concerned about it, but hope I might be able to get it a little better sorted out.

mflyn03706

bfg all-terrain LT215/70R-16
I just checked this morning and I am at 45... but reading the tire, the max is 50, so I might just see how it is up there. The front tires also look a bit underinflated, which probably isn't wearing them right. Tire noise does increase a LOT when I go into a hard turn on mine as well.

btw, I like how your geolanders look!

jesusgatos

Oh yeah, I think I remember seeing some pictures of your allroad recently. We were talking about rubbing issues up front, right? Those BFG's a great tires. Run them on all my trucks and the AT's are my all-time favorite all-around tires. Anyway, our tires are both rates for 1765lbs at 50psi. Will try increasing the pressure in my tires too.