raysobi
Adventurer
I agreed!
I like how you show up from no where with no nonsense mods and pics!
Subscribed!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Rambo Penguin's Gen 3 Build!
- Thread starter Rambo Penguin
- Start date
I agreed!
I like how you show up from no where with no nonsense mods and pics!
Subscribed!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Rambo Penguin
Member
Thanks man! I have really enjoyed building it and exploring in it
Rambo Penguin
Member
Thank you very much! I wish I had started over here a little earlier so there was a little more time between posts, in the future I hope to get some crowd input on future mods.
HMSEndeavour
New member
Love your build!
There are definetly some aspects that I will be plagiarizing (I'd copy all of it, but I happen to be pretty inept at DIYing).
I had a quick question, when you removed your factory sidesteps, did you have a plastic lip sticking out? If so, did you cut it off?
There are definetly some aspects that I will be plagiarizing (I'd copy all of it, but I happen to be pretty inept at DIYing).
I had a quick question, when you removed your factory sidesteps, did you have a plastic lip sticking out? If so, did you cut it off?
Rambo Penguin
Member
Thanks man!
Yeah when I took off the side steps I had to cut the plastic piece. Just grabbed a saw and lopped it off. If you cut it straight you won’t even notice that it’s missing.
Rambo Penguin
Member
I believe I did 15 or 20 minutes at 270 degrees. I know it sounds crazy but as long as you don’t let any metal touch the plastic it’s ok. I’d go a little cooler and take more time if I did it again.
On the reseal: same procedure and then I just pressed the two halves together until it had cooled enough to hold. Maybe 2 minutes. Some people recommend using more rubber sealant but I just used what came from the factory. If they start leaking I will redo it with more.
On the reseal: same procedure and then I just pressed the two halves together until it had cooled enough to hold. Maybe 2 minutes. Some people recommend using more rubber sealant but I just used what came from the factory. If they start leaking I will redo it with more.
Rambo Penguin
Member
Alright time for a little review and evaluation of how this project has gone so far. I will warn you right now, this post will be a lot of writing. I wanted to take some time to look back and examine how this Montero has turned out so far. I wanted to do it now because I am at a pretty good crossroads in the build and in life. In the build because I just hit 157,000 miles which means that I am due for a new timing belt and water pump. I wanted to wait on doing lift and tires until I had hit this point to see how the car was running before sinking too much money into it. In light because I recently moved from Colorado to Montana. Colorado is one of the best places in North America do go exploring and off-roading and it will be sad to be further away. However, Montana also has some amazing country to explore with a different set of challenges and terrain to conquer.
So given that i’m at a good stopping point, I want to evaluate a few things and answer some questions:
Is this turning out how I expected?
What has been my favorite mod?
What has been my least favorite?
How much money have I spent?
How will the change in location affect the build
What is next up for this truck?
So if you are interested in looking into my thoughts and feelings about stuff, grab a beer/coffee (depending on the time of day.. Use you best judgement) and read on! If not, that’s cool.. Skip this one. I’ll put some pictures from my adventures throughout the post.
1) Is this build turning out how I expected?
Before getting too deep into something, it’s good to make sure that you have a clear picture of where you are going and if you are still on the right track. In my first post about this build I mentioned that “My goal is to build a very capable overlanding/camping rig for me and my wife. It needs to drive at 75 MPH on the highway for days at a time and then be able to jump into the dirt and light 4x4 trails to take us to camping spots, sweet views and mountain tops”. I am very pleased to say that everything has worked out perfectly in that area! I’ve driven 11,000 miles in this truck since i bought it in January (so only 6 months) and it’s been through a lot. It’s driven in snow, rocks, mud, sand, water crossings and a lot of pavement. I can have it in 4lo crawling out of a sand pit and then throw it in 2H and be cruising at 75mph without any issues at all. Having the sleeping platform in the back means that my wife and I can keep our camping gear loaded up all the time and be ready to an overnight trip in just a few minutes. In 11,000 miles I have not had any notable mechanical issues and the truck has run smooth as can be. A lot of this i’m sure is due to the PO’s meticulous maintenance. It’s obvious that he didn’t know anything about cars so he always took it in to a shop and always did what they recommended. The result is that my Montero is very well cared for AND I have every record for it since 37,000 miles. It spent its whole life in CO before I moved it to MT so it has almost no rust. Seeing that the truck runs strong and seems to have a lot of life left in it makes me more confident about building it up even though it’s spent 15 years on the road.
2) What has been my favorite mod?
This one's tough. There are a lot of mods that I have really enjoyed about this truck. So i’m going to cheat and break this one into three sub categories. Favorite for 1)Daily driving 2) Offroading/camping 3)Appearance.
First: Daily Driving. This one has to be the stereo. Even a bad day of being stuck in traffic can be remedied with some good tunes. Given that I really enjoy stereo work this isn’t a surprise. I also really enjoy having tunes for off-roading as well. The slim sub allows me to have amazing quality and never even think about the space that it’s taking up.
Second: Offroading/camping. ½ Aluminum skid plates! When you hear a bump under your car, it’s never good. But it feel better when you know that you can support the entire weight of your vehicle on a ½ sheet of aircraft grade aluminium! These have saved my bacon a couple times already and i’m very pleased with how they turned out. Also the price makes them hard to beat
Third: Appearance. Grill and headlight retrofit. Like I mentioned before, i think the front end of the gen 3 montero is horrible. So changing these two things basically saved the car for me. The grill makes it look much cleaner and the headlights update the look and make it distinguished.
3) what is my least favorite mod?
This one is easy. I hate the hitch. I knew from the second i put it on that it was going to be an issue. It’s so low and the Montero already suffers in departure angle because it hangs so much weight off behind the rear wheels. I basically bump my hitch on a rock once a trip if not 10 times. At this point i just consider it body armor. Good thing is that it still works perfectly, it’s just annoying. I will be cutting it and rewelding it in a higher spot as soon as I decide how I want to design my rear bumper.
4) How much money have I spent?
Some people shy away from this question when talking about their car, and understandably so because this can get spendy. However, I’m on a really tight budget and that has forced me to do things in a way that keeps everything cheap. My goal in going over the numbers is not to shame those who spent a lot and built up their rigs with the latest and greatest stuff, but rather to show that even on a budget you CAN build a very capable overlanding rig. With that in mind.. The grand total that I have in this truck to date is somewhere around $6,000, Including the initial $3,500 to buy it. I’m guesstimating on the numbers a little since i do not have every receipt. So where did the $2,500 in mods go?
Full stereo build: $750
Headlights: $110
Sleeping platform: $60
2nd battery system: $225
Roof rack and accessories: $250
Hitch and trailer light harness: $190
Body armor (sliders, skid plates): $100
Tires $450
Window tint: $150
Other supplies and parts: ~$250
Overall i’m very pleased with where this money has gone and how much i’ve spent. I know there are plenty of people that have more money invested in their roof rack system than I do in my entire truck. It’s not all about building something sexy for instagram, it’s about enjoying what you have.
5) How will the change in location affect the build?
I’m still just getting to know the terrain here in Montana. It’s beautiful, full of mountains, rivers and valleys. Come winter, it will be like living in a snowglobe. There is also a fair amount of mud compared to colorado (which is all rocks). Therefore self recovery becomes a higher priority since snow and mud can turn a regular dirt road into a devastating obstacle. Recovery boards and/or a winch is looking like a strong consideration for future purchases. Bigger and more aggressive tires are at the top of the list. I will be driving less for the next few years due to my proximity to work, however the truck still needs to be able to do road trips across multiple states. Additionally, there are a LOT of animals out here. Animals are great to look at and fun to spot on the trail, but hitting one on the road can ruin all your fun. So a front bumper is also high on the list. With that in mind…
6) What is next up for this truck?
Wheels/lift/tires: These three are at the top of the list and will all happen together. A lot of guys run M/Ts out here for the wet season. While i’d love to get into a more offroad specific tire, I cannot compromise the highway ability that I currently have. So I will likely be sticking with an A/T tire but I will be looking for something a little more aggressive and also moving up to a 33”. In order to fit a 33” I’m going to need a lift, so i’m going to run a 2” lift all around using spacers. I’ll use aluminium in the front and rubber in the rear. More on that to come. And then because the lift will push the truck up, and pull the wheels in, I will be going to a wider offset wheel. I’m currently looking into a 0 offset basic steel wheel.
Slider kick outs: Even those the sliders i have right now have saved me from damage, I really need them to be wider to protect more of the slide of the vehicle as well as offer a proper high lift spot.
Bumpers: As mentioned before I’m most worried about animal strikes. However, I would love to make something that would hold a winch for the future, and i’d like to make a new rear bumper that offers more ground clearance. I will likely be building these, not buying them.
I hope to do the wheels/lift/tires and slider kick outs sometime in the next month. The bumpers will have to be a winter project so I can recover my funds and spend some time designing everything.
So given that i’m at a good stopping point, I want to evaluate a few things and answer some questions:
Is this turning out how I expected?
What has been my favorite mod?
What has been my least favorite?
How much money have I spent?
How will the change in location affect the build
What is next up for this truck?
So if you are interested in looking into my thoughts and feelings about stuff, grab a beer/coffee (depending on the time of day.. Use you best judgement) and read on! If not, that’s cool.. Skip this one. I’ll put some pictures from my adventures throughout the post.
1) Is this build turning out how I expected?
Before getting too deep into something, it’s good to make sure that you have a clear picture of where you are going and if you are still on the right track. In my first post about this build I mentioned that “My goal is to build a very capable overlanding/camping rig for me and my wife. It needs to drive at 75 MPH on the highway for days at a time and then be able to jump into the dirt and light 4x4 trails to take us to camping spots, sweet views and mountain tops”. I am very pleased to say that everything has worked out perfectly in that area! I’ve driven 11,000 miles in this truck since i bought it in January (so only 6 months) and it’s been through a lot. It’s driven in snow, rocks, mud, sand, water crossings and a lot of pavement. I can have it in 4lo crawling out of a sand pit and then throw it in 2H and be cruising at 75mph without any issues at all. Having the sleeping platform in the back means that my wife and I can keep our camping gear loaded up all the time and be ready to an overnight trip in just a few minutes. In 11,000 miles I have not had any notable mechanical issues and the truck has run smooth as can be. A lot of this i’m sure is due to the PO’s meticulous maintenance. It’s obvious that he didn’t know anything about cars so he always took it in to a shop and always did what they recommended. The result is that my Montero is very well cared for AND I have every record for it since 37,000 miles. It spent its whole life in CO before I moved it to MT so it has almost no rust. Seeing that the truck runs strong and seems to have a lot of life left in it makes me more confident about building it up even though it’s spent 15 years on the road.
2) What has been my favorite mod?
This one's tough. There are a lot of mods that I have really enjoyed about this truck. So i’m going to cheat and break this one into three sub categories. Favorite for 1)Daily driving 2) Offroading/camping 3)Appearance.
First: Daily Driving. This one has to be the stereo. Even a bad day of being stuck in traffic can be remedied with some good tunes. Given that I really enjoy stereo work this isn’t a surprise. I also really enjoy having tunes for off-roading as well. The slim sub allows me to have amazing quality and never even think about the space that it’s taking up.
Second: Offroading/camping. ½ Aluminum skid plates! When you hear a bump under your car, it’s never good. But it feel better when you know that you can support the entire weight of your vehicle on a ½ sheet of aircraft grade aluminium! These have saved my bacon a couple times already and i’m very pleased with how they turned out. Also the price makes them hard to beat
Third: Appearance. Grill and headlight retrofit. Like I mentioned before, i think the front end of the gen 3 montero is horrible. So changing these two things basically saved the car for me. The grill makes it look much cleaner and the headlights update the look and make it distinguished.
3) what is my least favorite mod?
This one is easy. I hate the hitch. I knew from the second i put it on that it was going to be an issue. It’s so low and the Montero already suffers in departure angle because it hangs so much weight off behind the rear wheels. I basically bump my hitch on a rock once a trip if not 10 times. At this point i just consider it body armor. Good thing is that it still works perfectly, it’s just annoying. I will be cutting it and rewelding it in a higher spot as soon as I decide how I want to design my rear bumper.
4) How much money have I spent?
Some people shy away from this question when talking about their car, and understandably so because this can get spendy. However, I’m on a really tight budget and that has forced me to do things in a way that keeps everything cheap. My goal in going over the numbers is not to shame those who spent a lot and built up their rigs with the latest and greatest stuff, but rather to show that even on a budget you CAN build a very capable overlanding rig. With that in mind.. The grand total that I have in this truck to date is somewhere around $6,000, Including the initial $3,500 to buy it. I’m guesstimating on the numbers a little since i do not have every receipt. So where did the $2,500 in mods go?
Full stereo build: $750
Headlights: $110
Sleeping platform: $60
2nd battery system: $225
Roof rack and accessories: $250
Hitch and trailer light harness: $190
Body armor (sliders, skid plates): $100
Tires $450
Window tint: $150
Other supplies and parts: ~$250
Overall i’m very pleased with where this money has gone and how much i’ve spent. I know there are plenty of people that have more money invested in their roof rack system than I do in my entire truck. It’s not all about building something sexy for instagram, it’s about enjoying what you have.
5) How will the change in location affect the build?
I’m still just getting to know the terrain here in Montana. It’s beautiful, full of mountains, rivers and valleys. Come winter, it will be like living in a snowglobe. There is also a fair amount of mud compared to colorado (which is all rocks). Therefore self recovery becomes a higher priority since snow and mud can turn a regular dirt road into a devastating obstacle. Recovery boards and/or a winch is looking like a strong consideration for future purchases. Bigger and more aggressive tires are at the top of the list. I will be driving less for the next few years due to my proximity to work, however the truck still needs to be able to do road trips across multiple states. Additionally, there are a LOT of animals out here. Animals are great to look at and fun to spot on the trail, but hitting one on the road can ruin all your fun. So a front bumper is also high on the list. With that in mind…
6) What is next up for this truck?
Wheels/lift/tires: These three are at the top of the list and will all happen together. A lot of guys run M/Ts out here for the wet season. While i’d love to get into a more offroad specific tire, I cannot compromise the highway ability that I currently have. So I will likely be sticking with an A/T tire but I will be looking for something a little more aggressive and also moving up to a 33”. In order to fit a 33” I’m going to need a lift, so i’m going to run a 2” lift all around using spacers. I’ll use aluminium in the front and rubber in the rear. More on that to come. And then because the lift will push the truck up, and pull the wheels in, I will be going to a wider offset wheel. I’m currently looking into a 0 offset basic steel wheel.
Slider kick outs: Even those the sliders i have right now have saved me from damage, I really need them to be wider to protect more of the slide of the vehicle as well as offer a proper high lift spot.
Bumpers: As mentioned before I’m most worried about animal strikes. However, I would love to make something that would hold a winch for the future, and i’d like to make a new rear bumper that offers more ground clearance. I will likely be building these, not buying them.
I hope to do the wheels/lift/tires and slider kick outs sometime in the next month. The bumpers will have to be a winter project so I can recover my funds and spend some time designing everything.
Michael Brown
You followed me, so now we're both lost
I know you mentioned hating the low hanging trailer hitch. This was something I disliked as well, but I needed it to tow my race car. After scraping it on both my 01 and my 05 several times, I found this guard for the hitch insert. It is all 1/4" steel plate. I have hit this several times and it supports the full weight of the rear without deforming. I don't like hitting the hitch if I can help it, but this gives me a skid so it doesn't dig into the ground.
https://www.skidmark4x4.com/skid-plates/
https://www.skidmark4x4.com/skid-plates/
coffeegoat
Adventurer
Flipping the hitch is a standard option as well (it's on my to do list). Basically, if you look at most of the aftermarket hitches they have a square cross bar and then they welded the receiver to the bottom (with some angle iron pieces). If you cut the receiver off carefully, you can flip it over and weld it to the top of the cross bar. Then you'll just need to put a square notch in the plastic bumper and you're good to go. It saves roughly 2-3 inches with very minimal work.
Rambo Penguin
Member
Thanks for the hitch tips guys! Armored plate isn’t a bad idea, but the bigger thing is just getting a better departure angle, not just protecting it. I rarely tow things with my gen 3. So I will likely do the flipped hitch thing, or figure out how to incorporate the whole thing into a custom tubular bumper
Rambo Penguin
Member
Thanks man! Yes I do have the wiring. Went ahead and bought the pre-made harness for it and I’m glad I did. It’s my less of a head ache
Rambo Penguin
Member
I’ve taken the summer off from updating this build thread. I figure, why spend time on the computer when you can spend time on the trails? This was my first summer season with the montero and it was great to see all the hard work and time pay off! Here is how to Montero is currently sitting
As hinted about before, lift and tires are on. I’ve actually had them for about 5,000 miles and 2 months at this point. I went with a 285/75/16 BFG Ko2 all terrains, and I couldn’t be happier! The are aggressive enough for all the trails i end up on and they handle the highway like a true street tire. The side way is much stronger than my previous Goodyear wranglers.
It seems that not matter how many times the topic is brought up, people still want to know about how the Gen 3 will handle 33’s (myself included). The short story is: it does awesome. You definitely feel the loss of power on the hwy. My speedo runs about 5mph lower than stock and i spend less time in the higher rpms (which is where the power band is on these 3.8L engines). Around town it’s less noticeable. Acceleration feels just a touch sluggish but within a week I had completely adjusted to it. Braking time is increased and less effective, but not unbearable or unsafe. Off Road (dirt or gravel) in 2H, 4H or 4HCL it feels really sluggish. I'm pushing the accelerator nearly to the floor before it downshifts and gives the power I need to maintain normal driving speeds. 4LCL is a different story. 4LCL is still punchy, powerful and torquey. It still crawls up and down everything with ease. I’ve never been lacking for power in 4LCL. However, the different tire size does seem to confuse the transmission shift points. For example, the transmission likes to stay in 3rd gear at nearly any speed offroad in 4LCL.. Which is absurd. This puts the rpms down in the 1,500 -2,000 range which is barely above idle. I often downshift manually into 1st or 2nd off road and that fixes the problem.
What about Gas mileage? Well. If you bought a montero for the MGPs then you messed up haha. When mine was stock I saw close to window sticker numbers. Somewhere between 15 and 19 mpg with mixed driving conditions. Now that i’m on a much heavier 33” tire i’m seeing closer to 12-15 in normal driving and 10mpg offroad. It’s pretty bad. This isn’t a huge problem for me because i live in a small town and bike to work. So I only really use the Montero for trips and adventures.. And that’s the price you pay to play with an offroad rig.
Fitment:
Rumor has it that 285/75/16s can fit on a gen 3 with stock suspension with just a little bit of trimming of the plastic bumper. I bet this is true given how big the wheel wells are. However, I opted to do a cheap spacer lift to get me through this summer. Everything i do to this truck is on a tight budget, so while i’d like to just swipe my card and build it, i have to wait and time my mods and upgrades accordingly with my budget and time constraints. I will be making a separate post with details about spacer lift options and their different outcomes. It was a mess to get this the way i wanted, but in the end I ended up with something that works really well, is safe and cost effective.
The lift I ended up with is a 1.5” spacer lift front a rear. I used some rubber pucks for the rear and aluminum discs for the front. I got the rear ones from a fellow montero owner and have no idea where they came from. They are just ok. I will be replacing them over this upcoming winter for better weight support and a little more height. I will be going with OME medium duty springs without any spacers. The fronts were home made. I cut some aluminum discs 6” in diameter and ½” thick. These slipped right on top of the stock strut mount. This safely lifted the front up 1.5 inches. The difference in spacer thickness and lift height is due to the geometry of the IFS. A little bit goes a long ways. With these spacers the CVs sit almost flat so angles were not an issue.
Wheels:
I did attempt to get a cheap set of steel wheels for the new tires. I want a 0 offset, but the brake calipers in the front make it hard to fit some kinds of cheap wheels. So i decided to hold off on wheels until i can spend the money and do it right. Hopefully that will happen soon because wow is this thing narrow and tippy offroad. At least it has amazing balance and a lower center of gravity.
With the lift on my next order of business was to handle the slider kick outs. I scored on some left over steel that was already bent to the perfect angle and size for my kick outs. This was kinda a quick and dirty job. I eyeballed the fitment, cut the ends down, tacked it, welded it and gave it a rattle can finish. Nothing pretty, but they did save my doors 2 or 3 times this summer. Before next season I will go back and put some additional supports in the middle for increased rigidity and hopefully the ability to use a Hi lift jack on them.
