That is nice - but - you might want to consider reinforcing the sheet metal skin on the inside of the door - at least keep an eye on it for tearing.

Looks good Olija!  Did you just weld a stub to your spare tire rack?  Love your vintage spare tire!

Thanks for the word of warning, Fordem. I am going to keep an eye on it for sure because I know the 32" spare tire on steel rim is already adding a fair bit of extra weight, not to mention the extra leverage added by having the cooler mounted another 18" back. That being said, I did have a 31" spare on steel rim on my old 4 door Sidekick, with two 40 lb mountain bikes on it, and I remember if I hit speedbumps head on, the tailgate would dent and then pop back out. I think the 2nd gen Suzukis have slightly thicker sheetmetal than the 1st gens, plus I don't think my cooler will ever amount to 80 lbs. I gave this setup a quick test by hanging my 200 lb body off it and bouncing up and down a bit...there's a bit of flex there, but I think it will be ok. Plus, time will tell how often this setup actually get used.

Jollyzuk- when I put the lift and bigger tires on, I used some heavy 3" flat bar to relocate the spare tire higher. Then when I added this rack, I just used a 6" length of 2x2 ID welded directly onto the flat bar. The rack uses a piece of 2x2 OD that slips inside the piece welded to the flat bar and is kept in place with a 5/8 bolt or hitch pin. I used a bolt for now (sucked down with an impact) because I thought the sloppy fit between the two tubes would drive me nuts. Then the rack pivots on a 1/2" bolt and is held in the horizontal position with a 5/8 hitch pin.

In the meantime, I my friend finally sent me some videos from our trail day last October! It takes forever to upload videos online so I just took a couple stills for now:







The snow is melting...the trails will be clear soon!

Mounted a Tundra Tested 8500 lb winch to a Champion Speed-Mount. Ran the cables through a 2-pole plug intended for commercial trailers with a power liftgate so the cables can be easily connected/disconnected when the winch is installed/removed. I might run another set of cables to the rear for the same purpose or else just make a set of long jumper cables that reach around to the back. Here it is on it's first big pull:



Now our campsite is a little cleaner.

Next, went out for a drive to Top Lakes in Telkwa Pass to enjoy Father's Day on the Summer Solstice:


Except the beach was underwater from all the snow melt. Normally we don't go here until later in the summer, so I guess we should have known.

Here is a pic of the winch getting trail rated. It seems to be mounted high up enough that even though it sticks forward about a foot it doesn't seem to interfere with the approach angle.





Wildlife



Do you see the bear?


Was visiting again in the Fraser Valley last week and took my mom and the kids up the nearby mountain.




And then I was just checking the vehicle over before the 12+ hour drive home and found a leaking RR wheel seal. Jacked up the wheel and checked the wheel bearing and it was super loose and clunking bigtime. Disappointing to say the least, since these are high-grade FAG bearings I just put in 45000km/3.5 years ago. But, it turned out, after tearing it apart, the bearing was probably still ok but it had spun on the axleshaft and machined about 1/16" off the press-fit section where the inner races go. So, a used axleshaft had to be sourced, which is getting difficult on a 17-year old oddball like this, and then a new wheel bearing and seal put on. The drive home was uneventful but I had alot of time to dream about a Ford 9 inch or 8.8 inch rear axle swap...

Got a chance to redeem the XL7 up Nine Mile Mountain in Hazelton BC today. I've never taken the rig there, and I knew it's a pretty rough, steep climb until you get into the alpine, but the trail has deteriorated significantly since they replaced the diesel-fueled radio station at the top with a couple fiberglass microwave repeater towers. I guess since there is no more need for vehicle access the road has not been maintained in recent years. But the Zuk still owned the trail like a boss.







Old miner's shacks

I did the Whipsaw Trail in Princeton, BC (about 12 hours drive from Smithers where I live) with my brother and a few friends. It's a 2 day trail that follows an old Hudson's Bay Company route that was the original route from the Fraser Valley into the interior and northern parts of BC before the mule trail that became today's highway 97 existed. It was a pretty wet summer this year so the trail was in pretty rough shape, although it was not actually wet for us in the end of August. I did it 4 years ago in my old 62-series Land Cruiser and found it considerably more difficult in the XL7, probably due to the fact that the Zuki is IFS and the FJ62 was solid/solid and the weight distribution on the Cruiser is more rearward which is better for hillclimbs. I was really wishing for a locker this time around, and was having trouble even keeping up with my friend's stock 80-series Land Cruiser. All the other vehicles had traction control which made it pretty straightforward for them...whenever a wheel lifts, they just wait for the brake to grab the wheel and off they go. It worked so well on my brother's JK it was almost like he had twin lockers. So when is someone gonna start making a locker for the rear of these XL7's?

Airing down:


4Runner going up Dutchman's Climb. A steep little gully which is pretty heavily rutted. The traction control guys made it looks easy. I tried it and spun out halfway up, then as I put my foot on the brake, the ABS kicked in full tilt and released the pressure to the front brakes because they were sliding backwards on the loose soil. Instinct took over and I yarded up on the E-brake handle as fast as I could and a major catastrophe at the outset of the trip was narrowly averted! Sorry, no video of that one...


The 2nd generation Sequoia really impressed everybody with its tight traction control. He had no lift or skid plates which meant he had to be extremely careful over the rocks.


Plastic bumpers for the win!


Memorial Rock, a super steep and bouncy obstacle. The JK walked up it, the 4Runner made it look really sketchy. I declined attempting it, just didn't seem worth it.


Wells Lake, the halfway point.


Heading up Falcon Hill, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a rock that my tires kicked up and wedged against my chassis. It was literally touching my rear driveshaft which I just rebuilt right before this trip. If I had just backed up and tried ramming over it instead of getting out and assessing what the issue was, it would have been a bad week!


IFS Ledge bypass


IFS Ledge


My 1 year-old son taking a shot at driving


Then around the same time as the batteries for the VHF died, the power steering belt walked off the pully and destroyed itself. So nobody knew why we weren't coming or responding. By the time I had the remnant of the belt cut off with a knife and we were just heading back on our way, my brother had come back to find us.




The classic group shot in front of the Coalmont Hotel. This is at the little town at the end of the trail.


Altogether it was a great experience to get down to Princeton with my family and drive the trail. But it was pretty stressful thinking about the likelyhood of a blown CV or axlehousing with my wife and 3 little kids along. Thankfully the XL7 held together once again, but it definitely felt like it was at the maximum limits of what it could do. A locker would have made all the difference. And maybe some stiffer suspension to control all the extra weight of the camping gear rocking back and forth on some of the rolling left-right bumps. Would I do it again? We'll have to see...

Oh and we got out a couple times after that too. Nothing hardcore, just enjoying the last days of summer.