Gauges, Gears, and Giddyness

In the last post we mentioned our rigs were off getting some upgrades...well the gears are done on the jeep and the gauges are done on the truck (as well as front shocks and brakes).  Boy do these upgrades make a difference!

With the gears, we didn't grab pictures before they went in but here are the gears that came out.

Wow that front axle set of gears (Dana 30) is a lot smaller compared to our rear axle gears (Ford 8.8).  We took the jeep for a spin after the install and we fell in love all over again.  All of the power is back...it really gets up and goes again! (For a lifted jeep at least)

The next set of upgrades came for the truck.  The old front shocks were pretty much shot (the truck would bounce a few times after a stop with the camper on).  Time to upgrade to Rancho 9000XL shocks (heavily recommended all over RV.net for us TCers).

The ford no longer bounces a few times after we stop with the camper on and it rides WAY way better.  This penguin likes a good ride.

Second upgrade for the truck was replacing the warped rotors on the truck. This is how bad the old rotors were:

All that scoring on the rotors really made braking a rough ride.  It's so much nicer to pull to a stop now.  No more pulsing and bouncing everything when we touch the brake pedal!  

The final upgrade (and the most noticeable change) is the gauges! 

They not only look good but help us better monitor our transmission temperature (very important when towing), oil pressure, and water/coolant temperature (much more accurate than the stock gauges).  This will help us during our big trip to Moab late in the year by giving us the information we need to know when we need to stop or if the truck is working too hard and we need to change something (or fix something).

A big thanks and shoutout to Koso Kustomz who did all the work on the truck (as well as taking care of a lot of other little things along the way).  A bit out of the way but great work and awesome customer service is definitely worth it.

It's all starting to come together for the trip...grille guard install and StableLoads remain to be done for the truck and the Jeep is Moab ready!!