Tundy, house and beetle build thread...and exploring.

I'm pretty sure that guy in the pic is stuck. A lot of undisturbed sand around those wheels.

 

Heavy *cough*

Not that the one I posted isn't...

I'll just ditch the passenger seat, less weight, much easier and less attention/expo points. Perfect for me.

 

They're like a thousand pounds, dry weight.
I bet you've surpassed that already.

 

Fok that! I don't drive an f450!

 

the shell is only 850lbs.
Then you could add your 20lb stove to it. You're already ahead of the game at that point.

I know for a fact when I head off for elk season for two weeks, I'm well over a thousand pounds extra. Seems to handle it just fine. It really goes up when I haul the animal out at the end.
The cooler alone is so heavy that is has to be loaded while in the truck and never comes out of the truck until I get home. Then it still has to be unloaded somewhat before it can be set on the ground.

You could get the basic shell, then mod the hell out of it. I'm kind of leaning that direction myself. A shower might be nice and the furnace of course, but i have no use for a permanent stove, tables, or chairs. I'd try to keep the floor plan as open as possible to keep it easy to clean and less cluttered.
I'd do the portable stove unit like you, Coleman of course. You already have a solar setup, just plug it in.
You're basically becoming homeless. Why not have a decent place to kick back and chill.
Being able to stand up and get dressed, or other things for that matter, when it's dumping buckets of rain, is priceless.

Not that I'm trying to sway you away from your current plans. I know I won't be able to anyway.

 

Fify.

Yeah the space would be nice, but i have the awning and walls (well one, but I'll probably snag another one or two).

I plan on doing a good amount of trail exploring, 1k extra pounds would suck.

And the price of them is way too much imo. I'd much rather have a habitat type setup.

 

No physical address=homeless. PO boxes don't count, cause they are too small to live in.
I'll stop now, just here to observe.

 

You could have had that Nest...

 

Could've had that flippac, but losing ALL the roof rack storage doesn't go well.

And i was thinking about that 1st gen nest but he never got back to me on it.

 

Just build one, whats the big issue here...

 

That would mean continue working for as long as it takes to build it.

Nahhh!

 

Yesterday I got all the undercarriage bolts/fluids checked. Opened up the drums and got them cleaned out, and found out my side light wires are pinched somewhere where they go from under the truck to the roof between the cab and bed. I'll have to run some new ones. I think they must've gotten kinked when I was running the new Ham antenna and then pinched.

Touched up the hidden mount that had a bit of paint chipping off. Need to do the same for a few spots on the sliders.

 

Wanted to put all this info in one place so its easy to reference. Borrowed from @Crom and edited/customized with stuff that I need

Metric sockets

• 5.5 mm, blower motor resistor screws.
• 8 mm, Running boards if you have them.
• 10 mm, Center console bolts, Stereo, engine cover, tail lights, interior
• 11 mm, Battery terminal
• 12 mm, Skid plate bolts, e-brake mounting bracket
• 13 mm, Tube steps if you have them.
• 14 mm, Transmission drain plug, Oil drain plug and Drive shaft bolts, exhaust system, center support bearing, Radiator bolts, and many, many more!
• 16 mm, Deep socket for spark plugs (16mm is virtually same as 5/8"; If you carry a 5/8 dedicated spark plug socket you don't need the 16mm)
• 17 mm, Power steering, Sway Bar, Cab mount nuts, leaf spring bolts, nuts.
• 19 mm, Lower Control Arm bolts and nuts., Deep socket for PCV valve
• 21 mm, Wheel Lug nuts
• 22 mm, Crank pulley bolt, Alternator
• 24 mm, Transfer case & Rear diff, drain and fill plugs
• 27 mm, shallow socket for reverse switch on manual transmissions
• 30 mm,
• 35 mm, front Axle nut

SAE sockets

• 7/32 socket for Blower Motor Resistor screws, 5.5mm works too.

Metric Hex Sockets (Same as Allen Keys)

• 5 mm, , transmission overflow plug
• 6 mm, Suspension, Front Axle
• 8 mm,
• 10 mm, Front Diff fill and drain plug,
• 12 mm, Front Diff Removal

Torx Sockets

• T20,
• T25, mirrors
• T30, , , , , tailgate bolts
• T40, Bed D-Rings
• T55, Bed bolts

External / Interior / Female Torx Sockets

• E7 Torx socket to remove the 2 studs from the intake manifold

• E14 Torx (diff removal)

OTHER

• Drive shaft bolts are M11 x 1.0 x 30mm
• Toyota uses 7/16-20 SAE fine thread for seat belt bolt hardware if your shopping for replacements.

• 10 mm flare nut wrench (brake lines)
• (2) M8 x 1.25 bolts (Needed to remove the rear brake drums, need to be at least an inch and a half long) YOU CAN USE THE BOLTS THAT HOLD THE FACTORY SKID PLATE ON TO DO THIS. THEY WORK GREAT.
• 5/8" Spark Plug Socket or 16mm deep socket will also work for spark plugs.

Fluids

• Front Diff - 1.6 qts 75w90
• Rear Diff - 3 qts 75w90
• Xfer Case - 1.1 qts 75w90
• Motor oil - 5.5 qts 5w30

Torque

• Rear Diff - 36 ft/lbs (fill and drain) 24mm
• Front Diff - Fill - 29ft/lbs, Drain - 48 ft/lbs, 10mm Hex
• Xfer Case - 27ft/lbs (fill and drain) 24mm
• Lug nuts - 85 ft/lbs
• U-Bolts - 85-100 ft/lbs, 22mm
• Axle nut - 173 ft/lbs
• Motor oil drain - 30 ft/lbs, 14mm
• LCA bolts - 100 ft/lbs, 19mm

I need to get sizes for RCI skids and sliders to add them to the list as well as the Prinsu bolts.

 

Got sick and lost some time on the build...

last night I fixed a little roof rack issue which took a good amount of time, and then built a second mount panel for the water pump/pressure tank for the water heater. I picked up some hoses and was planning on at least setting it up just so I can see how much heat comes out the top of the water heater. If its a ton and I'm worried about the topper catching on fire, I'll have to go to plan B of having to set it up outside the truck when I need it, which just means more quick connects and lines.

Was going to do that tonight, but lots of other stuff to do, and I still need to work on dinner. So it'll be a tomorrow project!

Ordered a combo ax/shovel mount that looks pretty promising. Going to make some maxtrax mounts for the roof rack to get them out of the topper. Then put some netting or something on the top for storage of lightweight items.

This weekend its going to be freezing, which is fantastic since I plan to work on the truck all weekend! Have a 4 day, many mile camping trip planned from central CO to Utah, to wyoming and back starting next Thursday morning so I want to test out the front seat sleeping platform. I haven't started that either.

 

Let's see the platform

 

Nevermind. Slacker

 

I want to get a list going so I know what to plan for. I still need to work on a way to organize this all and not kill a ton of space. May end up with a large toolbox at the front of the bed with a small common secondary toolkit in the truck.

I know I'll be somewhat close to civilization most of the times, but, theres always the chance that I get a wild hair and decide to drive up to Alaska. So I'd like to be able to plan for that and not have to worry about beefing up the kit for that.

Tools to bring:

Basic

• Box wrenches
• Sockets/ratchet 1/4, 3/8, 1/2
• tie rod end puller
• breaker bar
• socket swivels
• screwdrivers
• star bits
• hex bits
• Hammer
• Pliers (adjustable, snap ring, needle)
• Side cutters
• cotter pins, washers, typical size bolts
• 35mm socket and the sizes for the diffs/xfer case
• scissors
• magnet
• mirror
• USB bore camera
• Bottle jack
• LED road flare thing
• zip ties
• gorilla tape
• plastic bags
• electric impact
• drill/bits, maybe 1/4" impact

Electrical

• Strippers
• Multi Meter
• fuses
• extra wire
• tape
• connectors
• Jumper box
• soldering iron

Spare Parts

• Spark plugs
• Tire patch kit
• Emergency valve stems
• Valve cores
• serp belt
• 
  
• fluids
• Drain/fill plugs for diffs/oil/xfer
• U-joint
• CV axle
• lug nuts
• Tie rods
• Wheel studs

What am I missing, or anything I probably wont need?

 

Sooo, Colorado got a nice dumping of snow over the last 24 hours... about a foot at my place. Coming up the driveway, I wasn't exactly sure where it was it was so deep.

Realized this morning that my new LG G5 phone has a wide angle button on the camera, and I love it!



After I got home, I went walking around to take some pictures with my new wide angle lens for my camera. This was another taken with the phone. Still have not went through the camera pics.


Then went for a blast down the driveway on the ATV, then to work...

Testing the water heater. I wanted to make sure that if I mounted the heater in the bed, I would not be melting the ceiling and starting the topper on fire. No worries, its not hot at all coming out the top but I'll probably put some heat wrap on the headliner above it just to be safe. I may even recess it below the divider to give it more room above.



Water in the bucket was 49 degrees, pushing it through the heater at nearly the lowest heat setting brought it up to 100 degrees. I turned it up to max heat and that was 140+

That size bucket should last 2-3 minutes. Plenty enough for a shower. Now the fun part of trying to find the appropriate fittings to make it work. Biggest thing is I plan to use a bucket either from a river, or an extra 6 gallon jug for the shower, it'll be placed outside, connect the hose to the panel on the side of the truck and drop it in the bucket. Connect the shower hose to the panel, turn it on and you're good to go.

It'll be one of the projects I have to finish this weekend. The other is removing the passenger front seat and building a platform for sleeping. The memory foam mattress topper for that arrives on Tuesday, and I've got a nice camping trip scheduled Thursday-Sunday.