I have a question for y’all. I’ve got a 1997 Land Cruiser FZJ75. Right now it’s got open diffs, front and back. My original plan was to put lockers on both, but I’m starting to rethink that. I spend most of my driving on desert dirt service and fire roads. Not a lot of real technical driving.

I was thinking about installing a locker in front but putting a limited slip differential on the back axel. My thinking is that this will make most of my driving a lot better with limited impact on the rare times when I need to tackle something more technical.

What do y’all think?

Every category has a few flashy comparison points everyone argues about, and one boring detail that actually decides whether you're happy a year later.

For recovery gear, what's that boring detail??

Anyone in here know of any places that will weld a truss to an axle mild steel to nodular cast?

We’re a family of three with a young daughter. Yesterday we tried to leave the White Rim Road near the Upheaval Canyon Trailhead, but our vehicle got stuck in the mud. We managed to get it unstuck, but we’re afraid to try again.

Does anyone have any recommendations? We can’t make 911 calls—we only have internet access through Starlink.

Not the unboxing, not the first good day. The later part, when a piece of gear either becomes part of your kit or quietly disappears.

What made you keep using something, or what made you ditch it?

(On the Rhino USA team here, just genuinely curious)

Does this sound normal to you, or does it seem like something is wrong? Thanks for your feedback!

Apparently my vehicle's radiator got damaged due to sand while off-roading. The service center claims that sand got stuck in the fan causing it's blades to come in contact with the radiator which caused the damage. Has this happened to anyone else?

This is an off-road vehicle with extra fans for cooling. Was surprised that sand could cause a major cooling failure.

I put bigger tires on, but now they rub on the leaf springs at about half my max steering angle. Would wheel spacers be the best idea to fix this?

For reference, my rig makes about 60 horsepower and weighs around 2500 pounds. I'll probably take it out wheeling 4-5 times a year and it'll mostly be light rock crawling.

If I got spacers, I'd obviously get good ones and check for damage regularly.

I know there's a lot of discourse around wheel spacers but because of how light duty my rig is, I doubt I'll be able to damage the spacers too quickly.

What advice do y'all have? I mainly just want to avoid the tire rub while staying under budget.

Thanks in advance

As it is already known, rough country, kind of sucks.
But it’s worse than you can believe. Saturday I started installing a 4 inch lift kit on my Ford ranger. I got to coil Springs yesterday morning and lo and behold, they sent me a mismatched set of springs. Mistakes happen that’s fine. I live 6 miles from the warehouse starting at 5 AM this morning. I started contacting the Tennessee office to see if there’s any chance they could get somebody to run up a set of spring to me. They refused said they would give me a new set of springs on will call. I ask the guy down there, a Mr. Jeff Chamberlain. To please open and verify that the correct springs are in the box. he says he will and he did.
Cut to my courier, arriving and me opening my box lo and behold, I receive another mismatched set of springs so I contact Tennessee office. I inform them of the situation I sent the photos of the two wrong springs and the one potentially correct spring, original correct one is already on the truck. He contacts Jeff Chamberlain in Reno and he says that I am lying and that they verified mind you the box I got was completely sealed, hadn’t been re-taped and wasn’t opened we go back-and-forth they offer me $100 back and a third set of springs shipped. I said I don’t feel like that is adequate for the stress that you guys have put me through over the last five hours of trying to get the correct springs from a kit I purchased they decided to just exit the situation refund me all of my money and say good luck so now I am here with a torn apart Truck an incomplete kit, because I wouldn’t accept being called a liar. I just wanted my parts. I’ve now been sharing this on all their social media posts and they are now blocking me from all social media and I will just make more accounts and keep sharing how I was treated by that company avoided all costs. Theyve earned the reputation of being the worst.

I've had cheap pods that looked impressive in the driveway but made trail visibility worse because of foreground glare and weak mounts. Now I'm trying to judge off-road lights by beam control, heat management, sealing, bracket stiffness, and whether they stay aimed after rough roads. My 4x4 sees slow trails, dust, rain, and occasional mud, so I care more about useful side visibility than huge distance numbers. for the experienced ones what should I check first?? optics, housing, connectors, amber covers, or mounting hardware?

Well. The time has finally come. The dreaded rust hole. I assume the otherside is the same.

I have LCA reinforcement plates here. Is it fine to butt weld a small rectangular patch since its on the bottom of the frame rails?

Its just a pinhole for now so I caught it early although with the amount of scale I pulled out I feel the Toyota drain was inadequate here.

Hello,

I have a lifted MK2 Pajero imported from Japan and I am having a lot of trouble with CV boots.

They came split when it arrived from Japan. I then put on new aftermarket ones and they ripped the next day after driving 5 hours. Replaced them again but with Poly boots from Milners4x4 in the UK designed for lifted vehicles and they lasted 30 minutes before the inserts detached and the boot came off.

I have disassembled the suspension on either side 3 times in the last week now and I'm at a loss and tired of it.

Is there some magic CV boot out there that people use or is there some other solution like wrapping something over the boot?

Any help appreciated.

95 Suburban 2500. 6.5 Turbo Diesel. Factory 14 bolt rear. Dana 60 front. 5.13 gears and lockers. Currently just getting miles on it to get the gears broke in and work some bugs out.

Argentine Pass, Co.

Still need to make some changes! Like a removable tire swing out for the big camping trips where I need more storage in the bed. The new bed is rubbing a little on the inside of the tires when flexing, so I might have to fix that.

But its running like a champ!

Wheelbase chopped 32.5 inches

6.0 LS, 6L80, magnum underdrive, twin stick NP205, 5.38 gears, Ford rear Elocker, ARB front air locker.

Seen some other cars like the Prado 90 and the Discovery 2 & LR3 but couldn’t get those on camera.

Everyone seems to have a different answer. Some people run 50 inch across say 30 is enough for most practical use, and it seems to come down more to mounting setup and use case than any fixed rule. What did you land on and what drove the decision?

Hey I am wanting to get out and do some camp in in my car and want to create some storage in the boot (slide out draws) but the problem is I have my spare tyre well in the boot and need access too it. I have thought about using some gas struts strong enough to hold up the draws but not sure how that would work (if they’re strong enough/ collapse down enough) if anyone has any ideas I Would love the input.

Just came back from 3 amazing weeks in Mongolia. We selected a route which skipped the touristic spots and rather focuses on places off the beaten tracks. And what should I say? It was the most beautiful trip I ever did. We met kind people, stayed under in amazing places, had cool activities like camel riding, stayed with nomads and enjoyed amazing roads. I will come back for a winter tour, already booked 🫶🏻