cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

I want it as low as possible just so it's out of the wind. A local guy has the bed rack bars already cut and bent at 16", but I think there might be a straight portion of them at the base that I can trim. All I need to do is buy the bars for the top that run forward/back and angle iron for the base and he's giving me a fantastic deal the other bars. For that price I'll take 'em even though they will put the tent into the wind a little.

 

If you can cut a few inches out of the rack to lower it, definitely go for it. As for wind noise, I don't hear mine. I hear my tires more than anything, but that's MTs for ya. The tent is maybe a inch over the roof, while the ladder is definitely another two and a half inches on top of the tent so unless you're having the whole tent above the roof, I doubt you'll it, if not much.

 

Low light photography is so much fun. I've gotten a ton of my favorite shots so far messing with long exposures. I do need to get a better flexy tripod though. Mine doesn't hold up for shit.

 

I'm with you there! I've done a few long exposure shots in the past and they've always looked awesome. I've seen the flexy tripods. Joby makes one to support pro body DSLRs but if I'm spending $150 on a tripod, I might as well go buy a Manfroto carbon fiber tripod.

 

Yeah mine was like $15 at walmart I borrowed an xTi for my Moab trip and now my wife bought me a t5i for myself. Really been having fun with it.

IMG_0330 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0343 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Crazy knowing these photo's were taken at like 10:30 PM.

 

Nice shots! Yea, it's pretty weird to know that almost clear as day photos were taken in pitch black.

 

I just wish I had a clear night. The clouds can sometimes make photos look really cool but my favorites are where the stars get captured too. Do you have a remote for your camera? Or do you use just the timer?

 

2 seconds remote timer has worked fine for me. I might eventually get a remote if I want to get exposures longer than 30secs.

 

Yeah I got the remote because I wanted more flexibility. That last shot was like a 46 seconds IIRC, I try to keep the ISO low to reduce grainyness. Only time I jam the iso up is when I have no tripod. I'm just learning all this ha, such cool shit you can do with this stuff.

 

Do you have any pics of the Hi Lift Mounts without the jack on it? I'm curious as you how you have to bolts connected to the truck. Thanks

 

Oh yea! Eventually I want to try a get a shot of the star trails while I'm out camping. Heard it takes like 45mins to expose properly (100iso @ f/22) so for that I'll need a remote.

These are probably the best photos I have of them right now. I can go out an get some if you want.


IMG_2700 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

These two photos are of the original ones I made before I decided to move the hi lift to the passenger side of the bed. The ones in the truck now are stick out 1/2 as much as these would.


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


Untitled by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

 

Nice! Thanks for those pics. THey are very helpful. How did you fasten those brackets to the bed?

 

Grade 8 hardware (bolts, washers, crush washers and nylocks). There's also a piece of 1/8" steel on the backside to help keep it super rigid.

 

Is that like one of those spinny kinda ones? Where it's a motion blur spin of the stars?

 

Sweet. That was the main thing I guess I was wanting to know...how you reinforced the thin metal of the bed. Thanks again for the help.

 

Yep. Something like this

 

That's the reason for the 1/8" plate. That's hopefully going to prevent any sort of flexing of the bed to cause tearing or warping.

 

How big were the plates?

 

2" wide by something long. All 4 bolt holes are on the same piece of steel. It's really going to depend on how your brackets are bent up.

 

Ok. Sweet. Thanks again for your help!