Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

What did you do to your GMT today?

Trailblazer and Envoy related, but not off-road related...

by RyansTBLS » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:48 pm

Starting to think limb risers for our platform either aren't necessary or look silly. Would be nice to keep branches from hitting the windshield though.... :safari:
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by DirtyBacon04 » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:20 pm

One of our members had them for a lil while. Can't remember who... i'll do some digging

EDIT: Found it. JCrayton99 had them

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Last edited by DirtyBacon04 on Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by mikekey » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:21 pm

I was seriously considering it once I get a bumper.
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by Trail X » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:53 pm

Kinda silly considering the profile of the front of our trucks is pretty close to the same angle that the wires would be. Not like the 80 degree angle between the windshield and hood that you see on defenders.

If you really wanted an effective setup, you'd need something closer to the "overhead wire mitigation systems" that are on some of the mraps over in dirkastan. I think that might be cooler than the limb riser wires, but you'd certainly get some odd stares.

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by RyansTBLS » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:03 am

Ha! I like it! I'd actually though about mounting a couple of the 8 1/2 foot whips, one on either side of the brush guard and clip them down to the roof rack, and let them serve the purpose. Similar arcs as that truck. But, yea I'd ran into the fact that the wire angle and truck angle were about the same. :safari:
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by Trail X » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:35 am

Not sure a whip would really be strong enough to do what you're really wanting. I was thinking something more like PVC pipe. Clamp it vertical at the brush guard on the extreme left and right, then bend that over and down to the roof rack. But even in the thickest areas we hit during TECORE, I'm not sure that limb risers are entirely necessary.
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:46 am

I have a harbor freight c-clamp that is snapped in half from trying to remove a u-joint. They are cheap for a reason.
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by navigator » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:59 am

I had one break pushing in a brake caliper.
the only 2 "tools" I remember breaking from HF are a C Clamp and those rachet bar clamp/spreaders, they are not designed for any decent amount of pressure.
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by mikekey » Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:58 am

Yeah but that's not like a regular c-clamp. That came from a Ball Joint Removal Kit. Just made from cheap shit Chinese metal apparently.
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by Moots1288 » Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:16 pm

mikekey wrote:Yeah but that's not like a regular c-clamp. That came from a Ball Joint Removal Kit. Just made from cheap shit Chinese metal apparently.
Hey just like what they're going to redeck the Verrazano bridge with lol.
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by NC_IslandRunner » Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:40 am

I've been bad

This is the view I had of my brother pulling me home
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Worst I've ever been stuck, sitting on my skids in the front and my diff buried almost half way in the back
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Wasn't really out to get dirty, just going down in the woods to a pond with a clearing some friends and my brother were pulling sleds behind atvs, they called when I was on my way in and said they were back at the house but my wife was saying we really didn' do much riding at CFW just on little ride with Jamie.

So down the trails I went, nothing difficult, nothing dangerous, on the way back my passenger side gave and we slipped into the deep mud hole. Had I just drove through the deep hold I would have been fine, it was more of a large muddy puddle than a true mud hole but instead I end up high centered, longways. Called the guys to come pull me out, two show up on a Honda Rancher 420...Really. anyway after humoring them for a few minutes they call another guy who comes down with a Taco, open diffs, bald tires, in the snow. So after his tranny starts smoking he gives up. I call joe, If he can get his Burban behind me it's a wrap, he can't the trails are to tight and he would high center, from the front he can't do it, I won't budge. So I borrow my brothers truck to go buy a winch, no one close enough to get back before dark sells a winch stronger than 4500lbs, I almost bought it and a few pulleys, but didn't. Went home and got the HighLift, no it wasn't on my truck and I didn't have my spare either, wasn't exactly planning on doing more than diving through a little snow. So I jack the rear end of my truck up as high as I can without the jack tipping over, make sure the jack handle is down, clear the surrounding area of any possible bystander and have a friend pull me with his Titan, took a few times but it worked, and I left my window down again so I took another mud bath. I would not recommend doing this, pulling yourself off a jack is dangerous and could have done some major damage to my truck as well. Luckily the jack was buried halfway down in mud so it didn't even more it just tipped a few inches.

the aftermath

My power steering pump is shot, I think it was starting to go anyway, but trying to turn in the how finished it.
On my way to dinner with my brother my transmission kicked the bucket, it was already on the way out.

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by dvanbramer88 » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:06 am

Dang.... You have been bad.
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by mikekey » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:09 am

All your bumpers seem to have fallen off Rory.
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by NC_IslandRunner » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:11 am

mikekey wrote:All your bumpers seem to have fallen off Rory.


Those have been off for a while, stuffed them in the upper level of my barn.
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by mikekey » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:24 am

Wish I had a barn :(
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by v7guy » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:30 am

looked stuck pretty good, sounds like a long evening. At least you'll have a strong reliable transmission soon!
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by Trail X » Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:05 pm

Rory, something to try next time is lifting the entire rear end of the truck up with the hilift, and then "tipping" the hilift over, so your truck is pushed sideways. It's a way I've seen referenced a few times to attempt to get a vehicle out of nasty ruts like that. It's a bit dangerous, just like pulling the truck off of the raised hilift, but it is a potential self-recovery tactic that is often forgotten.
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by NC_IslandRunner » Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:16 pm

JamesDowning wrote:Rory, something to try next time is lifting the entire rear end of the truck up with the hilift, and then "tipping" the hilift over, so your truck is pushed sideways. It's a way I've seen referenced a few times to attempt to get a vehicle out of nasty ruts like that. It's a bit dangerous, just like pulling the truck off of the raised hilift, but it is a potential self-recovery tactic that is often forgotten.


That was the original plan, couldn't get the truck high enough. If I had a 6ft highlift then I could have but I have a 4ft, Driver side tire was to low to push sideways.
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by The Roadie » Fri Jan 31, 2014 10:31 am

I've lifted the downhill side using my wabfab adapter on the rock slider to get out of being high-centered, then driven off the jack. Works like gangbusters.
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by Moots1288 » Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:00 pm

Received this Image
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