Spurshot

Yes, the same ones that get steel.

Yes. It's the new football thread.

Yeah, Roth came back in and threw the game away. The backup was doing great.

I drove it. After all the mods I've done with the goal of making it better for bird hunt trips, I finally got away on a hunt from SoCal over to southern Arizona. I took the truck over there December 30, and we returned yesterday. It's about a 1300 mile round trip, not counting the local travel. So about 1600 miles total. Probably about 100 miles of dirt roads on this trip. The truck was flawless. The King shocks rode and handled excellent on and off road. The Cooper ST Maxx 305/60-18 tires provided great off-road grip as expected The LED and HID light mods I made proved to provide excellent night vision and convenient use with the way I wired them to the OEM high beam control. My choice of the 6 1/2 ft bed and the Snugtop camper for this truck paid dividends for hauling all the gear for three guys and a dog on this trip. The stock 5.3L provided all the power I ever wanted . I really like this truck.

Dude! Where's the chrome wheels?

The FX-r has some challenges to install them nicely. I think there are better fit possibilities for someone willing to make adapter plates. The Mini, Hella, and RX350 seem to have potential .

Nah , you don't need to align it. Save your $50 for something important like some Chinese LED lights that can strobe.

The one in the picture belongs to Bass Mechanic. I owe it back to him in the same condition I borrowed it from him.

Which tires will fit boils down to wheel offset. Your stock wheels should be a 5.5" backspace. The Duratrak 295/65 will be close with those wheels. You may get some light rubbing on the plastic fender liners at the bottom edge (front tires only). You can tie them back with zip ties. I have 305/60 (real specs 32.6 x 12.1) and they didn't rub with the stock wheels (even without a level kit) for about 8 months. I now have the same tires on some Fuel Anza 18x9, 5.75" backspace wheels with a couple inches of lift and haven't had any rubbing yet., but I haven't driven it much either. Wheel offset is more critical when you get larger tires. All this talk about needing a leveling kit to clear the tires isn't how I approached it. I figure if a tire would rub on a stock height truck setting still, it would rub on a level when you turn the wheel and hit a small bump that compressed the suspension a couple inches. I guess some guys don't hit bumps and turn at the same time.

I thought I'd better get going on my HID retrofit and make some progress during the holidays I have off work. I coordinate measured the two projectors (OEM and RX-350 BiX) and started hand making a plate. With these plates, I hope to not have to get into the housing and modify the mount like others had to do to fit the FX-R. I'm planning for a straight bolt it fit.

That's what I took out. Loud as hell. The new cog-belt drives are whisper quiet...and grease free.

....and flinging grease. Mine gave me a last dowsing of grease even after I had removed it from the garage. I was cutting it up with a radiac and slimed me on my shirt.

My 2014 wouldn't open the garage door unless I was within about 100 ft and then it was marginal and the truck orientation influenced it. The opener was a 15 year old Genie. Fortunately, it recently self-destructed internally and I bought a Chamberlain 1.25 hp opener. I programmed it and now I can open the garage door from the end of the street 200 yds away. It may work further than that, but I can't see past that. Jeeze, that ol screw drive opener was noisy. I love this belt drive.

I'm setting here holding a Sierra projector. The lense is held in a molded FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) assembly of two parts. There is the nose portion of the projector that holds the lense out away from the reflector bowl, then there is a FRP part I'll call a retainer that goes in behind the lens and holds the lens in. In the picture above, you can see the pen indicating where the retainer is held by a melted stud (hot plastic "rivet"). You'll need to cut this off to get the retainer out of the nose of the projector. The nose is also attached to the reflector bowl in the same manner, as can be seen at the center top of the reflector. You'll have to put screws in after cutting off the rivet studs. None of the work above is difficult. But it seems to me that the projector itself is a poor performing unit, even with HID bulbs. If you go to the trouble to open the housing, either from the front or back, the projector replacement would be a more logical choice. Many have put the FX-R projector in. But I'm not happy with the fit and the way it has to be modified. I like the RX-350 non-afs BiXenon. The Hella looks like a good fit as well.

Shawn, What caps?

I really don't know. Maybe some of the guys that have had them for a couple hundred thousand miles (GMT900 guys) can tell us if they've had problems. I suspect not. My old GMT800 (99 1/2) had 250,000 on it last time I saw it. No CV changes yet, but it was a 2500 at stock height. So, there's a baseline of a stocker.

Dan, did they do the work at Expert?

That was with a 5100 shock. They don't let the control arm extend any further than stock and bang against the ball joint limits, even on their highest setting. Guys with the 2-2 1/2" spacer kits in the GMT900 (same suspension as a K2) were experiencing very short UCA ball joint life. Any leveling or lift that doesn't move the front differential down will increase the angles on the CV joints (all leveling kits and ride height adjustable shocks)

If you're going to install a spacer kit of any kind that gives in the area of 2" lift or more, you're likely going to loosen the upper ball joints prematurely unless you go to an aftermarket UCA. The shock is the extension limit stop on these trucks. Spacing the shock for lift, also lets the suspension extend further and reportedly over travel the upper ball joint angle. Shocks like the 5100 and others that have adjustable height, don't change the extended length when you adjust the spring pad height to change the ride height. Even my 2008 with 5100s only went about 140,000 and the upper ball joints were shot. Those 5100s were set at the first position above the lowest. (5/8" lift).

I've always used Photobucket to host my pics and their Snapbucket app.

Shawn, You're right. It will be a more objective comparison if you go to full manual control, set the camera on a tripod or shoot from the same location have the lights on the same wall, etc.. The guys that do this a lot over on HIDPlanet.com have this figured out pretty well. But comparing one guy's lights on the internet to another guy's lights halfway across the country with a picture taken with no consistency, is really not very telling.

It seems that the FX-R is the most popular projector. I picked the RX because I just read the TRS descriptions and looked at dimensions, then just picked the one I though was touted as the best, given the size, etc.. I'm sure I'd be happy with the FX-R, especially if it fit better.

My pile-o-parts

Mikey, I'm doing RX350 projectors. I already have them tuned and ready. Ballasts and details like the plates need some work. Soon.