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

Picked up another chainsaw, a Makita 64cc 20" from homdepot rental counter. Was being sold for $320 & the manager let me have it for $280-10% for a military discount. Not a bad buy!

 

All 4 professional ones I've bought over the years only come with bar covers, and that's if I bought them with a bar!

 

I have a few molle pouches that sit behind my rear seat. I really like the tool roll idea. I may end up going that route.

 

I made the drawers. 3/4" ply painted with hammered paint. The drawers have the slide home made with 3/4 square tube steel on the drawers with roller bearings in the cabinet. I carpeted the top. I then placed L track on the right side to strap storage boxes down. The fridge rides on a MSA drop fridge slide.

 

Did you build those yourself?

 

I have a dual gas can carrier on the rear bumper and I often carry one 5 gallon can of gas and then this trail can full of tools. I can fit a lot of tools in this thing.

$113 RAMPAGE PRODUCTS Universal Trail Can Utility/Tool Box | Red |86619

https://www.amazon.com/Rampage-Jeep...qid=1488562389&sr=8-1&keywords=trail+can+-cam

 

Does it rattle a bunch?

 

I don't know, I can't hear it from the cab.

On longer trips I put two gas cans on the bumper and move that tool can to the bed. Have never heard it rattle.

When i move it to the bed I usually have an action packer box between tail gate and the bed extender leaving the perfect amount of room to put the tool can on one side of the box and a WaterBrick on other side of the box. It's all snug and doesn't shift around at all.

 

I think I need a couple of these in my life. Thanks for posting!

 

I also just use some heavy duty canvas bags and throw them behind the back seat. The best thing about bags is that they conform and take up the least amount of space.

 

Thanks for all the info @tacomgee

Really stoked that it all will fit with 1/4 inch to spare!

 

I have been using the wrench rolls and bags from atlas 46 and love them, very very robustly built with quality parts, do not see them falling apart any time soon. I also decided that my 5 seperate socket sets and all that had to go, so i used a pelican 1550 case i had and made a super tool box out of it with kizain foam



Impact sockets and sockets are on the flexable socket holders in the botom layer open space

 

If anybody is in the southeast.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/roof-top-tent-56x96-green.478690/

 

Oh man that's amazing. I might have to do that sometime as my tool set if growing larger and I need multiple combos of tools since the kit travels between my truck and my track car. Thankfully they're all at least metric...

 

Mine if anyone is interested.

https://monterey.craigslist.org/pts/5989710240.html

 

Sorry for never getting the measurement but sounds like you worked around that.

@thinkingburrito and I spent the weekend out exploring the Orocopia Mountains and got some good seat time with the SUA setup through varying terrain. There is a substantial difference in the way the rear suspension now handles all the obstacles you'd come across in the desert. Fully loaded down would be the most noticeable change since that's where ride quality suffered the most. Before, any dip or small whoops/bumps would blow through the travel hitting the hydraulic bumps and the rear end never felt stiff enough unless the CDC on the rear shocks was set to the firmer settings, killing the ride quality.

It always felt like you had to drive the truck around the rear suspension. When driving at speed and picking lines, having to slow down was always because of the rear bottoming out and hardly ever because the front suspension.

Now everything is in balance and compliments each other. Fully loaded doesn't feel much different then when the bed is empty for daily driving. The speed able to be maintained through bumps and dips is night and day and no more constantly hitting bump stops. You can feel the rear shocks work and they're able to do so on lower CDC settings. Ripples, washboard etc are smoother. Truck feels like it's not working as hard and not getting beat up.

It's truly a huge difference.

Didn't hit the u-bolts/spring plates on anything but we didn't do any technical crawling or navigate through boulder fields. I can see there being a disadvantage in that type of environment but it's one that we're not in very often. Rather tune and build around the terrain where we spend the most time. The typical rock the in road wasn't a problem but I did clinch my butt-cheeks a few times waiting for a bang noise.

We don't run sway bars and body roll has significantly reduced. With this, the rear end does feel a bit looser when transitioning weight on windy roads. I would say this along side of lost ground clearance are the only downsides that have come up at this point.

Quite a bit of travel is lost due to stock shock mounting points. Rear hoops and rear bypass will be sometime in the future.

All in all, Ryan and I couldn't stop talking about how amazed we were and both had grins ear to ear. Very happy.

 

Thanks for the update on the SUA. I've been looking at that kit for a long while, now. I'm still on the fence, though. I'm not sure I want to give up road manners for better offroad performance. As so many of us do, we often lay down A LOT of road miles to get to the back country. Its all a balance in the end, I guess...

 

XO went to South America?

 

Just got back from a trip to Virginia. Was lucky enough to stop in Blue Ridge Overland Gear and have them help me with a mod I've been thinking about for over a year now. Here's a quick look at my fridge magnet lid. BROG helped sew the magnets into the soft cover lid and I glued a set to the inside of my cap window.

https://youtu.be/5TfYe-2n9f0

 

Haha! Siiccccck!