C0d3M0nk3y's Whitewater build

Mob Armor mount fail:

There are certain places one should not place a Mob Armor mounting plate. Here is one of them:

Turns out the weight of the mount pulls the plastic piece away.

and you are left with this

 

Rock Sliders have arrived




Ordered in November (Black Friday Sale) from Mobtown Offroad.

I am cleaning up my frame and going to fluid film it before install (and wait for the weather to become more amenable).

 

where did you get that black matt on top of your drawers?

 

Amazon. It is the Bulldog Rubber Mat, Black, 60-Inch x 96-Inch x .2362-Inch. I tried Tractor Supply, but they didn't have any in a size or thickness that would have worked for me.

It is a tad expensive, but it is thick and durable.

Bulldog Rubber Mat, Black, 60" x 96" x .2362"

Bulldog Rubber Mat, Black, 60-Inch x 96-Inch x .2362-Inch

 

Rock Sliders

The Mobtown no drill bolt-on sliders were purchased over Thanksgiving, but were not installed for quite some time. I had a hell of a time getting the cross member bolt removed. I eventually went over to a friend's place and he was able to remove it in seconds.

The initial install had the boxed in frame part installed backwards (I have pictures). When I contacted Mobtown off-road they set me straight. I have a 2008 DCSB and the frame does not have a flair in the back for the sliders to pinch to. I have been informed that there are other parts to resolve that issue with these sliders. I need to contact the vendor again to get the updated parts.

If there are any questions on the install, I am happy to answer them. I didn't get many pictures during the install, but I do have a good memory of it right now (won't last).

Here are what the sliders look like today.

 

Rock Slider install 'fail'

I installed the boxed in part of the Mobtown No Bolt rock-sliders backwards. Here is what it looks like when installed backwards. I will try to get some pictures of the correct install when I can.





It has since been fixed. The fault was all user error.

 

Bed Mat L-Track update

I cut wider holes in my bed mat to provide more access to my L-Track. I also picked up a 2nd bed mat (for ~$10) to use when I don't want to damage the L-Track, so I can pull out the carved up bed mat when I need to.

Here is what the carved up bed mat looks like.

 

Yakima Factory Rack Replacement Bolt 'fail'

When I installed the Yakima bolt on rack to the front cab factory mounting location, I went to Home Depot and got the first set of bolts I could get my hands on that would fit. As I was working on various things the past couple of weeks, I looked at the bolts on the roof of my truck and noticed they were rusting pretty bad. I decided to order some new bolts that would be less likely to rust and decided to go with some M6x50mm titanium bolts. They aren't as strong as stainless steel, but they should be more than sufficient for my needs (and they shouldn't rust).

Here is the rusted bolt (notice the threads not exposed to the elements look fine).


The bolts I ordered from Amazon are:
Wanyifa M6 x 50mm DIN912 Titanium Ti Screw Bolt

The bolts came from China and took a couple of weeks to arrive. I almost forgot about them, then they showed up. Time will tell if they are as strong as they need to be. Considering the towers I have them attached to are plastic, I expect that would be the weaker component than the bolts, but I am no materials engineer.

 

did u manage to do the Truck Pi mod in your media section?

 

how did the fluid filming go?

 

I have the Pi, and I have the screen. I have the arduino with the sensors, but I have not been able to get the data from the arduino to display on the screen in a way I want. I haven't been able to get the GUI to work (but to be fair, I haven't really worked on it either).

I was able to get kismet working on the Pi, but it turns out Wigle on an extra phone works just as well for my purposes, and it is easier to wire up than a Pi with kismet.

I have a 3d printer now, and I may work on designing a mount for the pi/screen in the dash area. That might motivate me to work on the project some more.

If you do anything with a Pi in the Tacoma...let me know. I have LOTS of ideas...but turning ideas into reality sometimes takes more work than I think.

It took WAY longer than expected to get the rock sliders on. I ended up making a mistake or two, but in the end it all worked out. I have been happy with the results since.

 

Interesting. Yes, I have a Pi for learning coding. But as you mentioned, using an old samsung would be easier to interface obd2 scanner or torque app type info to the screen right? Ive seen some rPi hooked up to a 12v cig lighter which are supposedly at 5 amp for power. Not sure how well it works. I suppose one could get a decent size screen for viewing data vs the smaller samsung?

 

did you undercoat your frame with fluid film?

 

I have a PiTFT Plus from adafruit. The screen is actually smaller than what I get on a cell phone, but I have more control over the Pi. I had lots of visions on things I could do with the Pi, and I actually got some stuff working, but I never took the project to completion. I really want a lot of sensors and the ability to display them. I have 3 temp sensors, 2 pressure sensors, 1 humidity (or maybe it was 2) sensors, magnetometer (tell me which way north is), 1 accelerometer (pitch and yaw of the truck, so what angle is it). I was thinking about adding a Geiger counter, but never got around to it. All of the sensors would talk to a microcontroller (arduino) that would then talk to the Pi for display. I also added a GPS to the Pi, and with kismet I could track WiFi hot spots and log them. I had open street view working for a time, but I couldn't get it to talk to kismet, and I couldn't map the WiFi on the map...so...I stopped and decided to use Wigle instead on a cell phone.

I have coated my frame in Fluid Film a couple of times. It does okay. I wish I didn't have to do it though.

 

ok. makes sense.
spray can or get the gallon and a sprayer?

 

I did mine with a couple rattle cans from Lowes.

 

Spray can. I just found out you can buy them at Lowes. I had been ordering on Amazon before. Takes about a can or can and a half for me, but I really layer it on a times.

 

Do you have any photos of how you mounted the latches? The holes you cut? I'm just having a really hard time with mine. These are the ones I picked up...

 

I will try to get a few pictures at some point. I used a jig saw and a dremel for the majority of the work. For the actual mounting I used rivets. I wish I had a router at the time, but I didn't. Me and my dremel were really good friends on this project. When in doubt, practice on a scrap piece of wood. Might take longer, but less worry.

 

Prinsu rack clone

There is a thread on a DIY prinsu style shell rack that gave me an idea on how I can finally put a 'rack' between my 2 Thule cross bars. I have been wanting something I can tie down a rolled up raft that will sit lower than the Thule cross bars, and I knew I was going to have to do a custom build for it.

@Barnburner and @BeachBoy have been making similar side plates, but my needs are slightly different than what they are doing. You can see their work here.

I did contact them, and they were kind enough to send me an stl file so I could print up a template that I would then use to make my own rack. I ended up having to carve up their model, and from that I was able to make my own template from some plastic stock I had laying around.

My template looked like:

From there I was able to take some 29"x3"x1/4" aluminum stock and make my side plates. I picked up my aluminum stock from here.

I used a router and router table to do the shaping, and some parts worked out okay, and others still need some work. I still need to clean up my edges, but it is functional right now.

The discoloration you will see on some of the pictures is the incomplete brushing I have done. I need to smooth all the edges, and work on cleaning up some of my shaping. I am also going to probably paint it, but that is for later.

Here are a few pictures.




Parts used:

• $10 Yakima Anchor Plate A - Set of 8
  Yakima Anchor Plate A
  
• Smittybilt Adjust-A-Mount Brackets Q Qty: 6
  Smittybuilt AM-6 mounts
  
• T-Slotted Aluminum Extrusion 47"
  
• Aluminum Stock
  
• $14 Fastenere Button Head Socket Cap Screws - M6-1.00 x 16MM (50-Pack) Stainless Steel 18-8, Full Thread, Plain Finish, Flat Point, ISO 7380 Metric Screw Set, Easy to Install w/Allen Hex Socket Drive
  M6-100 x 16mm
  
  • Used to attach the Smittybuilt AM-6 mount to the Yakima Anchor Plate A with washer and locking washer
• $31 8020, 3393, 10 Series Bolt Combo, 1/4-20 x 0.5" Button Head Socket Cap Screw with Slide in Economy T-Nut Steel Hardware 80/20 Nuts and Bolts Set (25 Pack)
  88/20 Bolt Assembly
  
  • Used to attach the T-Slotted Aluminum Extrusion to the SmittyBuilt AM-6 Mount