That fall, I took the truck to Colorado, and hit a couple trails with it.  Very quickly, I found out that there are certain techniques to wheeling with a basically stock truck.  I quickly learned the art of what has henceforth been known as “the nine-grand assault”, and earned the nickname of “Baja boy” because of the bounce-it-over-the-rocks driving style needed to traverse hard trails without lockers or wheel travel.

   All the while, the truck had been developing a parts-hungry attitude; any time I could, I bought an upgrade part, or made a minor improvement to it.  For a long time, this devotion was rewarded only with more parts hunger; I bought a good part, and a necessary stock part would give up the ghost.  Fuel pump, starter, battery, there was usually something that would go wrong shortly after installation of any upgrade part.  Finally, I scrimped and saved (on a college student’s budget) and bought a lift kit.  I was on cloud nine.  And in keeping with the black cloud that seemed to follow the truck, between when I ordered the lift kit, and when it arrived, the truck was wrecked, head-on.  I had a paid-for lift kit and a mangled truck, and I had to do something about it. 

   Fortunately, the damage was not too extensive, and the frame was still straight, so I was able to do most of the repair work myself.  The real buildup began… and when the dust settled, I had a 4” Trailmaster suspension lift kit, a 1” body lift, and near-bald 33” tires, under Downey front fenders and Bushwacker rear flares.

   Of course, that much lift left me a little more room than I’d expected, and 35” tires were next, about six months later.  Still stock gears, axles, and an engine that was severely strained trying to turn the big meats, but I knew what was next: an engine that could do the job.  As it happened, I four-wheeled that setup for the next six months or so, and by that time, the engine was really getting tired.  Since I wanted something that would run well at idle for rockcrawling, I knew I would have to do something dramatic to the engine.  I listed off my criteria: American, V6 or bigger, fuel injected, ’86 or newer to keep it legal, and capable of bolting onto my transmission of choice: a ’92-94 GM NV4500.  Since I was still a student, low price was a big selling point too.

   I started shopping the wrecking yards, the insurance companies, and anywhere else I could find to buy a good donor engine, and eventually bought an ’87 Ford LTD Crown Victoria for $500.  After pulling the engine out of it, I spent the next eight months getting ready to drop it into my Toyota, as my stock 22R got more and more tired, having to drag a truck on 35’s around.

   Once I was finally ready to drop the engine in, I enlisted the help of a couple friends to strip and remove the stock engine, transmission, and transfer case, and then I switched the transfer case over to the tail end of my NV4500.  A modified Lakewood scatter shield coupled the GM transmission to the Ford block.  Lo and behold, a V8 doesn’t actually fit into a Toyota engine bay very well.

   After a week of wrenching, I had a V8 Toyota truck, and it even ran and drove.  Another two weeks, and with the aid of the V8, my stock 7.5” IFS differential was shredded.  I’d long suspected that it wouldn’t survive the V8, so I had started assembling a replacement: the IFS Ford 9”.  That had to be strong enough to take V8 power.  But before the IFS 9” was ready, the rear diff met a similar fate to the front.  A quick stock replacement bought me enough time to swap in the IFS 9” with a mini spool, the cheapest traction available, and at the time, I couldn’t afford anything better.  Within another few months, I’d destroyed all the rear axle guts I had, and it was time to swap in a rear Ford 9” as well.  Fortunately, I had started preparing for this eventuality as well, and the 9” rear was installed about a year after the engine.  Originally, it was installed with a LockRight locker, which was moved to the front after an affordable used Detroit Locker was found for the rear.

   By now, I had a 4” wider than stock rear axle, and the front was still stock.  Work began on building a new set of control arms to widen the front end to match, and to provide for more wheel travel than the stock IFS provided.  The arms were ready and installed in time for the ’98 Dakota Territory Challenge, with travel limited to about 18”.  I found out through serious breakage in South Dakota that travel should be limited to less than that; it is now around 12” and much more reliable.

   Later that same year, I finally finished my B.S. at Colorado State University, eventually switched jobs to slightly better match my degree, and the building has slowed to more of a crawl, both literally and figuratively.  The most recent major modifications have been a 4.7:1 Marlin-built transfer case, and the front LockRight has been replaced with an ARB Air Locker.

Along the way, I fabricated most of the unusual parts on the truck myself, such as:

• Three-hoop custom rollcage
• Nerf bars
• Control arms
• Back bumper
• Winch mount into a non-winch Smittybilt bumper
• Full belly pan
• Machine work on the Lakewood scatter shield
• Rear disc brake mounting
• Traction bar
• Hydroboost power brakes
• Ford engine mounts
• Twinstick transfer case shifter
• Heavily gusseted rear Ford 9” axle
• and quite a few other minor fabrication projects.

All this has left me with the equipment to fab up all kinds of slick little parts, from tube bending to machine work to welding, and then some.  So I’m working on starting my own business, so far just making a few small parts, but looking to expand.  My website is at http://www.frii.com/~ellinger and has more information on certain modifications, current and upcoming products and projects, etc.    

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