Zach's 2013 DCSB Build

I have been thinking of making a portable power pack. If you could do it over would you still buy one or make one?

 

Probably make one. The National Luna is great but a little bulky and not the best for actually carrying it around. Making something more compact in a case that has a handle would be nice. If I were to do it again I might have just gotten a normal dual battery kit and set it up under the hood.

 

Project bed lights is finished thanks to the various write ups here on the forum. I used waterproof cheapo lights from Amazon and so far they are great. Pretty durable look and feel. They are setup on the aux battery with a switch in the bed. I just stuck them to the tops of the window trim on the snugtop. The extra switch is for the eventual camp area lights on the outside of the truck on the caprac.

 

Few more lighting updates and a teaser for the On board water setup I installed. It was my birthday last week and my wife allowed me to spend a little money on the truck. All these lights are cheapo versions off Amazon but after a weekends use I am impressed. We will see how they do long term.

Camp lights mounted to the rack on my snugtop. These are great for area lighting and I can actually open the annex on one side and get the light inside there.





Work Lights on front bumper. These lights were only $22 a piece so I couldn't resist. they are about as bright as my headlights and are wired to my aux battery so I can use them around camp without having to worry about draining the main battery. I like how the 2 separate ones turned out rather than getting a single 20" bar like I have thought about doing before.







OBW - Here you can see the in and out quick connect fittings and the on switch for the OBW system. No heater yet, I really just wanted this to do dishes and such and not so much for showers. The pump is mounted in the little cubby box underneath the quick connectors. I simply connect the in hose and stick the end in a 5 gallon jug, connect the out hose that has a garden sprayer and turn on the pump. We used it this weekend for dishes and it works great. Really good pressure and flow.

 

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend. A few random shots my brother in law was taking around camp including a shot of two moose that were near our camp saturday morning. Also an attempt to show how well all the new lighting works.

 

Loving your truck sir.

How does your shell handle the weight of a RTT loaded with people? I want to mount an RTT to my ARE CX shell but i cant help but wonder about all that weight up there.

 

I haven't had problems yet and do see signs of any. Yes I am sure the shell will fatigue over time, but I don't think it will be extremely soon. We are all pretty small too, between me my wife and boy I doubt we pass 310-320lbs

 

Sub"d

We should swap bed cap ideas. I just swapped bolts for eye hooks that held down my Thule rack with the intent of putting a cargo net on the cap ceiling. Still undecided of the exact cargo net but I put up some bungees to get an idea of it. Also used 2 of the bolts coming threw the cap to mount my "camp lights" which I use for beach fishing.

 

Nice, I actually had the same idea about a cargo net. It would be super useful. I like your lights inside too. I have some LED strip lights on the inside that work good. Mounted some little pods like yours on the outside but I think I am going to get some CBI ditch light brackets and mount them up there. They aren't getting much use on the outside of the topper with the rack.

What type of beach fishing do you do? I have my topper off right now working on a custom project for a customer that should make any beach fisherman jealous. It is a sweet project.

 

Cool. What rail system did you use to mount your shell's rack?

 

Did your cap not come with an interior light or you wanted more light? I thought the pods would have defined blocked light from the cap being mounted on the inside but surprisingly not



I only fish for striped bass which run our beaches threw spring and fall. I smell a custom project with fishing pole holders

 

Mine is thule, However, I bought a set of Yakima rails of the local craigslist for another project and they are the exact same thing. Just different plastic end caps.

 

Mine came with a dome light but it was a battery powered one that didn't do anything. I also wanted the lights wired to my aux battery.

Lets just say the project has fishing pole holders but they are for big fishing poles. To catch big fish, well if you consider a shark to be a fish.

 

Yea lol shark is a big fish. My rods are 9'-10' for beach fishing tho, stripers can get up to 30-40 even 50lbs and to fight them in the surf can be tough. When I drive on the mainland with my rods in the holders I try to avoid whacking trees hanging over the road lol. Can't wait to see this project

 

Once the shark rack project arrives I will be posting plenty of pics. Zach did an amazing job on the design and CBI is taking care of fabrication! There is a big tournament coming up in two weeks and it will hopefully get a short test run prior to tourney weekend....

 

Great looking build so far!

 

great build my friend

 

DUDE!!!! i love the bed box designs.. was thinking of something for my bed and you have definitely inspired me...

 

Thanks for the comments everyone. Figured I would throw a few pictures up of the truck from this last weekend. I drew a limited entry elk tag for a pretty sweet area so we were out doing some scouting in preparation for the hunt. Not too many mods to the truck these days as my money has been going into something behind it. More on the new trailer later.

 

Well I can't wait to see the build on the trailer. I have a old military trailer wanting some idea set ups. Love the idea of a RTT but don't want to crawl my old ass that high up. The trailer mount looks like a good idea plus then I can bring more stuff.