AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

It's most definitely the welds. Mine came from a heavy impact to the transmission skid in Moab too. Never ripped them out till then surprisingly enough. I never even seen it being an issue for anyone till it happened to me, then I saw everyone has the issue.

 

hmm I feel like I should address this before it breaks. lol

 

I feel the same way. Now I'm wondering why they have never broken before.

Maybe I'm not wheeling hard enough.

 

OR, hear me out, we just pick better lines

 

If you believed that wholeheartedly you wouldn't have bought skids haha

 

I like this idea!

I'm still going to do a close inspection the next time the skids are off.

 

Aren't they off for the winter still?

 

The belly pan is off but the front one is on ATM. Will be coming off soon tho.

 

Sir you are right lol

As will I, probably followed up with driving to my buddies to use the welder and throw a bead on it.

 

Remember, aired down, I had about 4" of clearance on the De-Tour.

Hahahaha!

In general, depending on how many attachment points your skids have, I think you can live without these points, so I'd only fix them if they break. These were definitely the "least important" points for my skid.

 

External Speaker for Ham Radio
January 15, 2018.

The Kenwood D710GA has been working well since it was installed. Transmission and reception seem good, the APRS has worked as expected, the display is nice (but not quite as nice as the Icom 5100A), and it's great having it securely mounted under the passenger seat.

But the built-in speaker - that leaves something to be desired. With the Icom, I had no trouble hearing what contacts were saying, but even with the volume turned all the way up on the Kenwood, it's just slightly too quiet for me to parse what's being said.

Luckily (and of course), there is an external speaker jack, so I figured I'd get a speaker and the problem would be solved. However, as I looked into speakers, I wasn't happy with any of them - they were all too big and bulky, and none of them had great "attachment mechanisms" (by which I mean they all wanted you to drill a couple holes in some part of your interior to install their mounting bracket).

So I decided, why not build one myself? I could make the case out of some scrap maple, find a low profile speaker, and attach the whole thing to the driver side lower trim panel with some Velcro.

So, that became the plan.

I started with a 2" speaker that was only ¾" deep - an 8 Ohm HiWave BMR12. I hoped that its promise of full-range, would turn out to be close enough to true, and that it would be loud enough for my use.

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Next it was time to create a small box. Trying to keep weight and bulk down, the corners were the only real "interesting" part of this box - I needed something that would be strong despite the size, and so a box joint was the answer - lots of surface area for glue, and the joint itself would help keep the box square. I added a few corner blocks as well to accept screws that would hold the speaker in.

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The box made, it was time to drill for a grommet that would allow the speaker wire to pass through. This was done with a 3/8" forstner bit to recess the grommet, and then a 3/16" bit for the through-hole. Several minutes of pushing and prying later, and the grommet was installed.

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Next, I glued the back on. You can never have too many clamps when woodworking.

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Finally, it was time to finish the box with a couple coats of polyurethane and wire and install the speaker.

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As for installation - as I was looking around for a place to install, I realized that my seat covers provided the perfect answer. These covers also came with head rest covers that I didn't particually like when I installed them, but have since become invisible to me. Now, they'd provide the perfect location to stash the speaker!

So, I pushed the speaker up into the back of the driver-side head rest and ran the wire down under the seat cover, under the center console, and directly to the Kenwood radio.

I gave it a test, and it's loud. Perfect.

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Dig the little box for the speaker man, never been much good with the tree carcasses myself, metal let's me fuckup in a less destructive way haha. If you ever need a good source for little speaker odds and ends partsexpress.com is the best. I'm still trying to find a spot to mount my CB speaker, the usual places are too bothersome like above the head or a pillar. I refuse to put anything in front of the windshield and that makes it hard haha.

 

Pffff..what is this? All the work and you didn't stain it??

Im disappointed...

 

That's a lot of clamps

That looks great though, and good idea mounting it behind the headrest!

 

So strange - I think metal vs. wood are just what you're used to (or learned first?) For me, all my fuckups in metal feel so destructive. Wood, now that's more forgiving! hahahaha

Stain is for projects where something got messed up and don't want to see the wood and joinery. A clear coat, and then natural patina over time is the only stain for me...

hahahaha, I may have added a few extra for the picture . I was pretty jazzed to notice the head rest myself. After using it for a few days, I think I may put it in the "side" of the passenger head rest, pointed towards driver.

 

No way. You can save your ass in many ways with metal that you can't with wood.


And fine then...wtf no clear coat!

 

Maybe one day I'll be as comfortable with metal as I am with wood, but for now at least, there's no way I could do some of the fine stuff with metal. Maybe I just need more tools! hahahaha!

Oh, and I think you must have missed the part that said, "Finally, it was time to finish the box with a couple coats of polyurethane and wire and install the speaker."

 

Tools always help. And practice haha


Whoops...yes I did

 

I just installed a speaker for my v71a. I stuffed it up next to the overhead console. So far just sitting there with friction and the permanent magnet. I plan to find a better way to secure it, but damn it's cold outside.

 

Totally. 30 years of practice woodworking. Got a way to go with metal fab.

Sometimes I wish I had that overhead console for a bunch of things...seems so convenient. But I like the simplicity of a first gen too.