LMTV Fun

[jpinreno]

Hello LMTV friends,

Well I have been on here since 2020, but don't post much. I have made some amazing contacts, with Suprman being at the top of the list of parts and advice over the years. My LMTV was modified extensively over the years, and I have taken on a LOT of projects from the forum and wanted to share a little. I've put a little over 20K miles on my 2002 A1 truck since purchase in 2019, many. many have been dirt. Living in Reno NV, we regularly haunt the Sierras, Oregon and Washington.

While I love the expedition box conversions, with a family of 4, we have several camp setups, but the LMTV is always chosen for large trips where patio furniture, motorcycle, and outdoor kitchen, shower, and 2 king ikamper tents make for great desert exploration. I am on version 2.0 of the build out of the bed area, with more permanent camping storage, larger water storage (275 gals) etc. I put a bed on mine from the longer 2 axle 1083 on my 1078 as I don't need to two but like the exter 2 ft and find it hardly changes practicle departure angle usability for me.

Anyhow, here are few pics, as I haven't seen many take this approach.... projects have been (80% done by me)
Cab Stuff
Cab sound deadening, new seats, AC, boost and egr digital guages, steering wheel, stereo, power windows/locks, Acrylic skylight (turret cover), molle racks, lighting, tint, etc. bus mirrors.

Electrical
Solar, 300ah storage, group 31 batt conversion, new alternator, water pumps, inverter, charger etc. moved tail lights, led updates, lbdc delete, batt wiring upgrades, higher pressure sender for tires . CTIS

Engine
filters, all fluids changed a few times, oil pan gasket, oil pump upgrade, steel line mods, fuel hose replacements, new starter,

Trans
Ran new harness for dedicated soilenoid power, signal etc circuit to ECM harness, new solenoids, speed turbine sensor, internal trans harness, filters, transynd change, dedicated ground strap, newer flashed TCM, new trans shifter pad

Driveline
High speed gear conversion, re-balanced drive shafts, new u-joints, hub axle oil change, new rear yoke, new 10-ply G rated tires,

Camping MISC
metal superstructure welded on back frame to support teak deck, ikamper tents, fold out kitchen hinged to bed sides, propane hot water on deman, 3-burner kitchen, truck boxes with slide out fridge / freezers on solar side, water pump, outdoor shower, recovery gear lcker, 275 gal IBC Tote for water, dustprrof sealed storage boxes on casters, dedicated tool cabinet, interor lighting, electric exterior dometic awning for kitchen.

It has been great fun, and I love taking it out. Just wanted stay connected to the group, as I appreciate you all and the advice I have gleaned to make the adventure so fun and ongoing. I am fortunate to keep this as a hobby and have the time to enjoy it. Here a few pics of adventures over the years,

Josh

 

[ckouba]

Awesome setup, love the "Westy"! I like the out of the box thinking (pun was coincidental, but definitely intended now!).

 

[Keith Knight]

Love the setup, with the porch between the two pop ups. Always beautiful views from up there.

 

[jpinreno]

 

[jpinreno]

This has been a great community. When I joined it was a great forum, but probably just a real handful of people using these trucks for the outback, it has been great to see more get into the hands of us civilians, and with them the increase in how-to's and such. The only disadvantage is in the early days more were buying and breaking down for parts which made parts a little easier to source, and with trucks being more valuable they seem harder to find at times and or more expensive. I didn;t mention it above as I kind of wanted to forget it, but Suprman shipped me a transfer case for my truck in 2021 (thanks Will!) at reasonable price. I can only imagine what some of this stuff runs now. The correct AC unit, condensers, A/C brackets etc seem to be rare, while now we have ECO hubs which would have been amazing in 2019 when I did gears. All in all though, the more FMTV's on the road the better!

Also for others, I used dirt legal to register mine, and chose Utah. Utah has been an amazing mail order registration process, and only runs me 60$ a year for registration, and Hagerty's is running me $863 I believe for all year, not bad.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

I have Utah plates from DL as well. They apparently don't do them anymore. Montana is what you can get now but that's heavily on the radar around CA and other places that are cracking down on out of state plates. Montana of course wants to keep it going as I'm sure Utah also does. With license plate cameras all over the US now it's getting tough to not get caught out. The state laws don't care and for places like CA - if you drive it for 30 days in their state you are required to register it regardless. There are no exceptions. I just keep mine looking like it might be from the local base and my plates are behind my seat in case some imperial storm trooper gets a hair up his rectum.