HomerTaco's big old bucket o’ bolts build

Graduated from fender wells

 

Glad was able to make it. Glad you liked the food. Let Bonne the buff chicken really good as usual.

 

Got the bed cubby & door set up now. Just need to run all the lines & im good.

 

One trip to the farm yesterday and my new compressors home was full of crap.

Took it all apart & in the process of sealing it up.


For the time being the vent will be opening the cubby door. I spent over $750 on this fucking setup and I refuse to allow it to get wrecked by debris.

Sat down this evening and actually figured out the wiring myself. I’m NOT a fan of automotive electrical at all but I am able to do it myself when I set my mind to it.

I discovered the extended loom from EE does not include the 4 wires needed to activate the locker solenoids so I’ll need to extend them and piggyback on the power lines to the new mount in the bedside.
Other than that one detail I’m very impressed with the quality of the product. Installation was pretty straightforward.
Need to get a few things at work tomorrow to make that wiring happen.

Fortunately Ant (@6 gearT444E) wired all of the dash switches and all I have to do is just plug the new harness into the current one behind the dash.

Hopefully tomorrow evening I’ll be 100% functional with OBA & lockers again.

 

Box sealed. Solenoids installed.



Next comes wiring. Time to wrap this up.

 

Any chance you can cardboard up a box profile and get a shop to make you something out of metal?

 

I’ll make a top myself out of aluminum for a cover. It doesn’t have to be really thick - I’ll bend it on the brake out of trim coil.

 

Craig the cubby mount came out clean as fuck. Seriously nice work dude.

 

Just have to connect it all now... -_-

 

Exactly why mine is behind the back seat.

 

We built a bracket that slides into the slots in the plastic and uses longer bolts to hold it all in place where the factory bolts are to hold it all in place. It is a pretty slick bracket actually. Holds the compressor, the mainfold, Kurt on a box (LOL) and now the solenoid for the locker.

 

I will take some more pics and send them to you so I don't muddy up Craig's thread any more.

 

That’s a sweet setup too. Unfortunately I already have too much shit hiding behind the seats.

 

Not quite done yet but further along in the process.

Had to get a connection that sat a bit closer to the compressor to allow the cubby door to close. Got a T fitting and that did the trick.


I ended up buying a bunch of shit I didn’t need but I did use a lot of it. One of my purchases was a new soldering iron.

I am not very adept at automotive wiring but as long as I am on interrupted and completely concentrating on it I can do it successfully.

Here’s the solenoid wires getting extended:



Cleaned up the connections and protected all with wire loom:


I also got the rest of the power leads ready to connect:


Here’s the final product, a complete extended wire setup to run the length of the truck from the battery to the bed cubby:


Took me about two hours to put the whole thing together. I added about 15’ of the gray wire loom and a couple smaller sections of black loom.
Not professional by any means but hopefully this gets me back in business.

 

Thank you bud. I’m capable, just not super proficient.

 

I'm sure you have your reasons, but why did you install in the orientation that you did versus the orientation that Expedition Essentials advertises? Trying to learn as much as I can so I know what to expect if/when I get this system.

 

The “stock” setup from them seemed to me an inefficient use of the space. I wanted to fit everything in and enclose the box to prevent crap from getting in there...

 

Oh, so setting everything up in the cubby the way they have pictured would not allow you to close the lid? Or does it leave the top open for debris to fall in from the wheel well?

 

Leaves the top open. I could not close the lid because I needed a different fitting to connect the manifold to the compressor.

 

I hooked up the power and switch lines to test before running the extended harness to the bed.


Everything worked!

Ran the line to the back & now just need to put a lid on the box and connect everything.


Almost there!