1991 Isuzu Trooper: Do-It-All Box on Wheels

After a proof-of-concept stuck: It was time to hit the harder trails.

Yes, this is a trail. Welcome to Florida.

Sometime around here, I started hanging out with some locals who knew what they were doing. They turned me on to this little compressor, which made airing down a reasonable proposition:

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Flow-MF-1050-MasterFlow-Compressor/dp/B000L9AD2U It was $40 at the time, now it's $60. It's quick, light, cheap, and it survives being submerged quite well.

For the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona, I rigged up an awning:

I also slept in the Trooper. Not fancy, but it worked:

All but the base-model Troopers have split rear seats that fold into beds, including a little pillow pad that fills the space where the rear passengers would normally put their legs. It's just over 6' long when folded down, which means I just barely fit.

At this point, I'd owned the Trooper for six months or so. I knew. KNEW that open differentials were a shameful thing, and I had to join the cool kids club as soon as possible.

LOKKA TIME

A Lokka is an automatic differential locker, which means it replaces the spider gears with a ratcheting mechanism. Under any load, the ratchet ramps shut, locking the rear end. I installed it myself in a few hours, and it's been great in the 30,000 miles since. Yes, it clunks on the street. Yes, it's worth it off-road.

While I was working on the axle, I rebuilt the spring packs with an extra leaf, and added longer shackles. The rear has about 2.5" of lift, and a rate that works quite nicely both off road and towing a car on a trailer. At some point (probably around the same time) I changed to Bilstein shocks, too.

Interesting note for those following along: Based on axle/gear/housing sizes, an Isuzu 12-bolt rear is more comparable to that of a 3/4 or 1-ton truck than anything else. It puts a Tacoma to shame in the drivetrain strength department–most say it's about as strong as a Dana 60. I'm not real worried about breaking anything in the rear.

Success! Your fine publisher (and my father) fishing from the mighty, locked Trooper.

And the Trooper acting as track support vehicle:

Then, my high school graduation present arrived:

Thanks for adding more info...see ya' in a month or two when this thread falls to page 34...

I'm working on it! Slowly but surely. XD

Ooh some manual trans action

Tom Suddard wrote: I also started learning how off-roading worked. And, uh, wow–I had a few EPIC stucks (yes, I'll dig up the photos). Then, after a few months, General was kind enough to send me a new set of tires. The size? 31x10.50R15. I needed wider wheels to handle them, so I hit eBay and pieced together a set of 5 "Snowflake" wheels that would have come on a different Isuzu.

Tom, how are those tires? When I wind up fulfilling my current fleet void I want some tires that aren't pure highway but aren't too noisy at highway speed. I'll probably wind up doing 6-8k miles per year of highway at 500+ miles per weekend of use and 2k of secondary, gravel, dirt, roads exploring that might turn into "oh crap, what happened to the "road"?". I won't be intentionally heading for your "test hole" but might wind up there.

They're not true mud tires, but they're quiet on the street and surprisingly capable off-road. They clear fairly well, but you have to spin them quite fast–I'm at the top of 3rd gear to get them to clear effectively, while my friends with real mud tires are in the middle of second. On the rocks, they're totally competent–no complaints there.

My one complaint is that as they wore, they got noisier. Definitely preferred the first half of their life to the last.

I replaced them with a set of Falken Wildpeak A/T3W. I haven't had a chance to try them out off-road, but I can definitely say they're much quieter on the street. If tread pattern is any indication, I think they'll hold their own in the dirt, too.