Toyota Truck of the Month - Troy Muse and his 1984 Toyota Pickup - Toyota 4x4 @ Off-Road.com
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Toyota 4x4
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Troy Muse loves rock
crawling. He lives just an hour away from the world famous
Rubicon
Trail and is a member of the Pirates of the Rubicon
club. He runs the trail several times each summer and can
often be found repairing trucks and assisting others on the
trail. Last year I had a chance to meet him and run the
Rubicon trail with him.
About 5
years ago he started building up his current toy. Lower gears
were his first priority. At the time there were no bolt on
transfer case options. He choose to use a Nissan transfer case
divorce mounted behind the stock Toyota case. The with his
long wheel base there was plenty of room for this second case but
it made for an unusual front drive shaft. 
Troy decided to cut the stock crossmember and
install a bearing inside it that allows the drive shaft to pass
through it. Now the front drive shaft goes from the front
differential up to a U joint and through the crossmember, then back
past the stock toyota case and into the Nissan case. Wanting
even lower gears he later opted to add 4:70 gears to the stock
transfer case. A huge custom skid plate protects the
cases.
Troy's tire of choice? 38.5"Swampers! This makes the truck a little top heavy but with
the sprit of a true trail rig he did not care about a few
rollovers. After putting the truck on it's side (5 times!)
and a few axle failures it was time for an axle upgrade.
Troy choose a full-width GM 14 bolt rear axle with
Detroit locker. Up front sits a full-width Dana 44 with ARB
locker. Differential gears are 5:13 to 1 and give an overall
crawl ratio of 208 to 1. The Rear suspension is a 3/4
elliptical setup allowing for extra extra travel.
When I first saw the truck I thought to myself how
does he get that thing through the narrow sections of the
trail? Those tires stick out more than a foot on either
side! It turns out to be just a matter of attitude. The
rest of us drove between and around the larger rocks, often with
only inches to spare. Troy drives OVER these rocks.
His wide wheel base is much more stable and he has not rolled the
truck since putting on the full size running gear. Watching
him come down the big sluice reminded me of watching monster trucks
drive over old cars.
This purpose
built rock crawler has hit so many rocks and rolled over so many
times that it now has and all over "crinkle" finish to it.
The only the roof and hood are relatively flat. To get to and
from the trail, Troy bolts on a set of removable mud flaps and zip
ties on a set of stock brake/turn lamps.
You may have seen a picture of Troy's truck in FOUR WHEELER
recently. He has been selected as one of the 67 finalists in
the Top Truck Challenge. The only part of the challenge he
will have trouble with is the show and shine contest!
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