Got rid of the 67', but man is my Rodeo fun

[RamAirZ]

Well guys, I ended up selling Ol' Bessy a few weeks ago. I put alot of work into her, but it just wasn't practical for our situation. we live in an apartment with no garage, I can walk to work but I have 2 trucks and a new Camry for the wife. The 67' only got started every few days so I had to let her go. on the up side it allowed me to do some things to my 97' Isuzu rodeo that I have been meaning to do (had a crap load of parts sitting for it, but never felt like working on it cuz i was always on the 67'). I bought the truck all stock as a baby-mobile for our new son, but now it's a pretty damn capable offroad rig. One thing I love about California, all the 4x4 play area's run by the state!!!!! I went up to Gorman this weekend to do some trail riding and play on their 4x4 test area. Man was it a beautiful site, and fun as hell too!! Here's a link to 2 albums with TONS of pics

http://s583.photobucket.com/albums/s...0Isuzu%20Trip/

http://s586.photobucket.com/albums/s...0%2029%202009/

My truck made it through every obstacle they had except the HUGE boulder course (the rocks were bigger than my truck so I didn't even try, it's for the strictly pro trucks). On the "smaller" boulder course a Jeep lifted on 35's gave up and had to move out of my way, and I just cruised right through!! Open diff's front and rear too!! This truck is amazing offroad and it went right up some really steep (i'd say 60 degrees easy) sand inclines on the trails. Here are some of my favorite pics

[RamAirZ]

When I bought the Rodeo at the end of August

Looks alot different now huh

A motor swap is in the near future as well as other upgrades hehe

I was pretty surprised by the factory equipment on this truck. Dana 44 rear with 4-wheel disc's, full frame chassis, gear-drive transfer case (with true stick for shifting, no push button crap), surprisingly strong Isuzu 10 bolt front end, 4.30 gears. I was planning alot of mods coming up (tera-low t-case gears, new ring-n-pinion, diff drop, etc etc), but after this weekend I don't think I need them lol. I may add lockers to it and upgrade the cv-axle boots to some Mecatech's. If I keep the 3.2 I think I want to go up to 4.77 gears but I'm thinking either a built 4.3 or even a new Gen III V8 swap in the future, if I do that I think the 4.30's will be fine. I only had to switch out of 2hi to 4lo on a few very steep sand hills on the trail (not seen in the pics).

[84 400]

yeah my buddy back in high school had a 98 amigo. Thing was awsome off road with the 5 speed and V6. we lifted it 3 or so inches with custome coils in back and turned up tortion bars in front. It was on 31 buck shot mudders and we made custome bumpers and put a winch on it. People would laugh at it but that lil truck would out do any wrangler we came up against.

[RamAirZ]

lol, ya I loved the look of the Jeep guys when we first pulled up. Then after one of them gave up on the rock course and I went right through, the look of shame fell over them haha. these trucks are AWESOME rigs. That 98' was the first year of the 2nd gens, more powerful 3.2. I love my 97'

[OARNGESI]

That truck sure did change alot

[RamAirZ]

Yeah it has, my wife is always telling me "why can't you just leave anything alone" lol