Craig posted on November 04, 2011 10:10
I was holding off on posting any pictures until I finished the entire outside of the truck: wheels, winch install, rear tire swingout, roofrack, and trim removal but what the heck. This is a build thread so I might as well post the progress as it happens. As of about a month ago, the truck is sitting on Land Rover genuine NATO tubeless wheels and as of today it has an ARB roofrack.
The NATOs are fantastic with the 2" Old Man Emu (OME, not OEM) lift, and 235/85-R16 (32s) tires. The NATOs give the tire a slightly narrower profile and a slightly wider track width which makes it so the tires no longer rub with the bump stops in their factory adjustment. The NATOs are great wheels. Very heavy duty, so I'll take a hit on the MPG but also very very strong. These wheels allow the Land Rover fully floating half-shafts to be removed with out first removing the wheel. Perfect for broken axles on the trail. The steel wheels can be pounded back into shape if they go out of round, but honestly these things are beefy enough that there is no reason for that to happen. Great off-roading wheels.
My friend Lloyd met up with me at ARB planning to help me install the roofrack. We were greeted with a new sign along the lines of, "No customer installations on ARB property". Uh oh. I have no way to get this rack home then. There's no way to fit it inside my RRC. After a little shmoozing with the guys at ARB they let me pull off to the side and assemble/install it on the premises. I suspect I owe a few guys some good beer now.
The ARB roofrack is made from Aluminum Alloy and weighs about 60 lbs but is very very strong. I also like how the ARB fits on the RRC. I'm looking forward to using it with my 38lb Oasis RTT which sits well inside the roofrack rails. It should make a good rack/RTT combination for the wooded off-camber PNW trails.
Two steps backwards, one step forward.... I've removed the front skid plate, driving lights, license plate, etc in order to install the winch. The paint needs another round of TLC and the side trim needs to be removed. The main exterior items should be all buttoned back up within the next month or so... except the motor started running poorly today. Is that 300TDI getting bumped up the priority list?
