Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

Last weekend was a LOT of rebuilding on my setup. Put about 40 hours into it over 4 days.

Water tank moved from inside the cab to the bed. I was originally going to go with one of the thin Frontrunner tanks, but they are pretty tall (another 3" taller than that tank), and over $200, so I made this one work.
Fridge platform moved from passenger side to drivers side.
Air compressor tank moved from inside bed to behind the box on the drivers side in the bed.
Air compressor mounted on the other side of the bed.
Another auxiliary fuse panel in the bed (main one is under hood).
Made hi-lift mounts for the lift to go on the roof. It was sideways across the bed but the tank was too tall and it needed to move.

Wire shelving keeps anything in the lower area from sliding forward into the compressor/wiring or the tank. But allows the compressor to have room to breathe.


Hidden tank



Water pump is behind the panel on the right side.



Divider in, wiring done, solar controller mounted on top of the box that covers the top of the water tank.



It will be nice to have the larger seat available. Before, I only had the driver rear seat in.


On the to do list is organize the in cab stuff better. I put the organizer in behind the seat, but may take it out and do something else.

Need to work on a better water distribution area. I currently have the yellow air hose that you can see on the right side that makes a great hose, and i have a flexible faucet. But I want to figure out a better way to mount it.

May attempt to build a panel/box in place of one of the topper side windows that can hold the recovery gear that is accessible from the outside.

 

Great weekend out with the buds in NC.

 

I've always been a fan of HF jacks in skids for our terrain, have never really been a big fan of the hi lift, but i'm sure ill try one out eventually.

 

They both have their places and uses. I have both just in case.

 

how is it @Crom successfully gets his sides dirty before the front!?

nice pic @Crom , and thank you for your build thread I have followed suit in many ways.

 

Thanks for the details on that. I have been looking for a better way to jack my truck up to do wheel changes and so forth in my driveway. So may have to look at that setup then as my current jack works, but I have to put blocks of wood underneath it since I have the lift on the truck.

 

Lift from the diff.

 

Pretty straight forward. I welded up a simple frame that attached to the slides, and bolted the Engel transit lock (base that holds the fridge) to the frame. On my Tacoma I just drilled through the bed floor and bolted it down. I'm not using it in my Land Cruiser and did the same thing by drilling through the cargo area floor, but this time I welded some captured nuts to the underside of the floor. This makes it easy to put it in or take it out because I can twist the eyebolts into place and secure it without needing to get under the truck to hold nuts.

 

Bryce Canyon National Park, Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument area.

 

Thanks and welcome.

The front stays mostly dust free, because it's forward of the dust making front wheels. If I drove a few miles in reverse at speed, front would probably match the back, lol, which is horrendous at catching dust.

One very nice bonus feature, an unexpected benefit, is that my ARB twin compressor puts out so much air, I now use it regularly to blow the dust off the back of the truck when it's time to air back up.

It's so nice!

If you look at the doors carefully in my pic, you can see where I tried the compressed air on the doors. Sort of gave it a swirl appearance.

 

Works for the rear, front is a different story, I guess I could lift from the skid plate then.

 

That's what I do, lift from my mid skid. But don't let me get in the way of a new truck purchase!

 

Do you use the ARB inflation kit or something else with your compressor?

 

I rolled my own. I use a modified ARB tire inflator with gauge, and 25' of quality flexible air hose. All Milton brass "V style" high flow fittings.

Very happy with my OBA solution.

 

Nice. That's why I was asking. I was going to do the plug and play ARB one but the lack of a pressure gauge turns me off.

 

Wow, awesome picture Nick. IDK why I thought you had a color matched grill

 

Thanks! I think the color matched ones look great, wish I had one. Not sure if I'll ever get around to changing or painting it.

 

lol

Well said!

 

$10 in paint and a couple hours of your time and chrome is gone! Just saying