Wombat and The Wanderer builds/BS/my insane ramblings.

Awesome, looks good.

 

I'll try to get some better pictures of it all Monday when I'm off again.

 

work sucks. your thread is way more interesting when you're doing truck stuff

 

I feel you on the work thing burned about 30 lbs of 5/32" 7018 today... just started my short turn around today. (3 days on, off day one and 3 nights on... FML) I probably won't have any garage time till next weekend or the one after. I'm off Monday but I have some side work to get done that day. Just a boring railing project for a local business. Im up at 4am on the road at 4:30 and don't get home till 8:30pm. Don't ever get to see my truck in the daylight when I'm on day shift.

 

Little hot work today...

 

As promised some day light pictures of the rack and grille. Now to finish the fab work on the sliders. Not going to go into great detail on the slider or rack completion. These may go into production in the future so please forgive me on that note.

 

On my short turn around at work so I stayed up all night for my shift swap and finished, painted and installed my sliders on the truck.

 

One more before dark.

 

Picking up roof top tent and annex room tomorrow.

 

RTT installed.

 

New shoes today. 265/75r16 E rated Ko2s. They were on sale and I got $200 worth of rebates on them as well. Out the door with 5 mounted and balanced for $860.

 

Well we are back home from Big Bend today. The only issues I had were the spare tire loosened up on the winch and the rear springs were too soft for the load I was carrying (+/-1000lbs of gear and 2 passengers).

Fixed both issues today. Tightened up the spare and cut down some Old Man Emu D6XL heavy leaves and made a set of 30" long add-a-leaves out of them. All issues are gone now and truck rides better than stock.
Rear passenger leaf ready to rip into
Before 21.25" hub center to fender
After 22.5" hub center to fender.

Finished ride height.

 

Great build log! Cant wait to see what else you make.

 

Thanks man... bumpers are next on the docket. Planning my own take on an ARB for the front and a swing out rear.

 

Exciting! The ARB has potential to be a good looking bumper, it just needs to be tweaked a little to fit the truck better and not stick out so far. I'm tempted to get a swing out bumper. The matching spare I carry in the bed takes up too much space! I have also have been thinking about adding a 2nd spare due to hearing stories of people blowing multiple tires out on trails. 2 spares in the bed is definitely going to take up too much room.

 

The ARB definitely sticks out to far. I am planning to build something close to it that only hangs out about half as much. I don't care about pedestrian crush zones I want a bumper that does it's job protecting the truck.

As far as 2 spares go I do this from time to time depending on the trails I'm heading to. Most of the time a good set of E rated tires and a tire repair kit will get you through. Then again my tire repair kit includes the stuff to break a tire down and actually patch it on the trail.

 

That sounds liek its going to be a great looking bumper!

The way you use 2 spares is what I was thinking about doing. I havent stepped up to E rated tires yet but I may next time I'm due for new tires. I need to learn how to use a tire repair kit so I have the ability to throw a patch on if the situation arises. I still have a lot to learn and things to get to make myself feel ready for any situation but I am getting there faster than I expected. For now I just trust my judgement because I dont want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere without a plan to get back out.

 

Find a old school tire shop and see if you can get them to show you how to break down a tire by hand and do a patch repair. It is not hard with the right tools. Hi-lift jack is great for breaking the bead seat loose. Also there are lots of videos on YouTube that you might find handy. I am planning on running my spare/spares mounted vertically in the bed one on each side at the rear. My swing out will be for tool,fuel and propane storage.

 

An old school tire shop is a good ideal. I have watched some videos about it which i is why I think it looks pretty easy. I'll be at Overland Expo next month and attending a tire repair class they are having so I should be good after that. I thought about standing the spare(s) vertically in the bed but I'm getting ready to add a mid height bed rack and RTT which may not leave enough room for the wheels to stand vertically.

 

Very cool build