BKF Slowsand Build and Shenanigans Thread

Hi TW,

I've been building this truck for the past few years but I figured it's finally time to organize all my various modifications and trips into a single thread. I'll back post all my previous pictures and see if I can get an itemized list of what I've done so far, as well as what I'm planning on doing to it.

Hopefully this thread is a help to others along the way.


Mod List


Exterior

Wheels and Tires
SCS F5 matte black 16x4.5" x5
Falken Wildpeak AT3W 315/75R16 x5

Suspension
Front
JDFabrication 2.25 LT with sealed uniball uppers
CVJ 2" LT Axles
JDFabrication Lower Arm Pivots/Skidplate
Locked Offroad 2.5x8 Coilovers with adjusters and 650# springs


Rear
BAMF rear shock relocation
BAMF hangers + shackles
Deaver U402Ex2 springs with custom AAL
King 2.5x12 with adjusters
Wheelers bumpstops and U-bolt flip
BORA 2" wheel spacers

Armor
Mobtown rear bumper, modified to be high clearance, dual swingaway
JDFabrication front lower bumper/skidplate
Eli's Offroad custom front bumper
Eli's Offroad custom RTT carrier/bedrack

Drivetrain/Engine
Nitro 5.29 gears
OVTuned 2.0 for 5.29s and AGM batteries
Prado 150 Snork with 3D printed gasket

Camping
CVT Mt. Shasta Summit Standard
Proforce onboard water pump
Prinsu Cabrac

Recovery
Smittybilt X2O 10K synthetic winch
IAS 20# air tank

Lighting
20" CaliRaisedLED - white, flood beam (bumper)
Diode Dynamics SS3 Sports - amber, SAE fog beam (bumper)
Baja Designs Squadron Sports - white, driving combo beam (a-pillar)
42" Diode Dynamics Stage Series - white, driving beam (roof)
40" OZ-USA rear chase light
4x Prinsu mounted flood lights (2 per side)

Electronics
Off-Grid Engineering dual battery system with ML-ACR
Dual group 35 X2Power AGM batteries
Powertray for BlueSea and Switch-Pro 9100
Switch-Pro 9100 for lighting and compressor
Bed-mounted switch for RTT power, bed lighting, camp lighting, and water pump
100w solar panel mounted on Prinsu

A E T H E S T I C
Bedliner on lower tailgate, door sills, and pinch weld
Meso Ultimate Turn Signals, Stage 1 Taillights

Interior
Viofo A119 Dashcam
BirdDawg Mirror riser + ram mount
Hypertech speedometer recalibration
Ultragauge OBD monitor
Meso left dash switch unit for

$659 SP9100 Switch Pros SP-9100 8-Switch Panel Power System With Concealed Mounting Hardware

SP9100 and manual switches
Joying Android 9" Headunit
DMM + ram mount
Kicker audio upgrade: Tweeters, 6x9s, 6.75s
DDI Front Seat Jackers and MMP (Fire Extinguisher mounted)

Comms
BaoFeng UV-82HF UHF/VHF portable radio
Luiton LT-298 CB radio mounted in center console
Midland MTX275 GMRS radio stealth mount
Kenwood TM-D710GA UHF/VHF mobile radio mounted on center dash (upcoming)

Upcoming/Planned
Katskinz leather seat + heater upgrade
Custom behind-seat subwoofer and electronics mounting rack
OVTune Twin Turbo System
Coastal Offroad Front and Rear Bumpers Aluminum -- Adding Lightness
Homemade poptop/side-folding bed camper
Slideout bed drawer system
Dana 60/F9 Rear axle
Modified 3-link short-course style rear suspension swap? yes? yes.

 

I purchased the truck in July of 2016 from Smart Toyota in Madison, WI. Surprisingly good service and no hassle during the purchasing process. I think I had the first mod done by the time I got home and mounted the Rago Fabrications ditch light brackets right away, and mounted some cheap Amazon ditch lights/spot lights on them. Those will eventually be swapped for some Baja Designs S2 Sports in the Wide Cornering pattern.

The next upgrade was suspension -- I had initially planned on going with a Toytec Boss kit but ended up getting a killer deal on an Icon Stage 4 kit with Total Chaos UCAs. I ordered some Dick Cepek Extreme Country wheels in 255/85r16 to fit on the stock wheels. I had everything installed at TGK Automotive in MN.

 

Nice truck! Any more pics of the front bumper?

 

For sure man, I'll get some more uploaded here in a bit!

 

Sweet! Looks really good from that angle

 

Next up with an RTT -- I wasn't really in the market for one but there was a group buy on CVT tents, so I figured I might as well jump in on it. Turn around time was expected to take a while, but it wasn't an issue as I had no way to mount it to the truck anyway. I also ordered sliders and a rear bumper from Mobtown Offroad. Awesome construction and decent shipping time. I met with a shop close to my house that does a lot of custom work with Jeeps, and got to talking to them about a RTT carrier that would work with my tonneau cover. They agreed to build a custom adjustable RTT carrier that would allow me to keep the stock tonneau cover, which folds up into 3 parts. This allows me to keep the bed sealed [well, as sealed as a cover is] for Wisconsin winters, keep stuff secure and out of the way, and still have the RTT stable and easy to remove. We designed it to have 3 parts -- a 'headache'-style hoop rack section against the back of the bed, as well as another hoop over the tailgate, and a section mounted to the RTT. We attached all 3 sections together with trailer lock pins, which allows the whole tent section to hinge up and away for the tonneau cover to fold up. We designed the rear hoop to be removeable so everything but the headache section can be taken off for winter or when it's not needed. Both the headache hoop and rear hoop mount to bed stablilizers to keep the weight off the bedsides and transfer the force directly onto the frame. AS the rack covered my 3rd tail-light we mounted a 40" OZ-USA rear chase light for my brake, turn, and reverse lights.

While the shop was installing everything, we noticed that my front drivers side shock was leaking, so that was mailed back off to Icon for servicing. Since the truck was out of commission for a while, we got to work on building a front bumper. I was initially going to go with a C4Fab front bumper, but we decided to make one in house instead. The way the shop designed it has a winch carrier section as well as a 'shell' of protection that can be removed for easy access to the front end stuff. I think we're going to go back and reshape the front end a little bit and fill it in over the summer -- I want to upgrade my lighting to a 20" Baja Designs S8 and potentially mount some XL80s on it as well. We'll also install the winch [Smittybilt X2O 10K Synthetic] at that time.

To break the truck in, I drove it from Madison, WI to Vegas with a buddy of mine to do some climbing at Red Rocks. Everything was awesome -- truck worked exceptionally, and the climbing was top-notch.

 

Red Rocks climbing is most excellent:

 

Looks great! You’ve done a lot of work for sure!

 

Thanks man, I'm trying to get it all updated. The next plan is to regear and get the OVTune running as I'm thinking of going to 315/75r16s.

 

The next thing I ordered and installed was a dual-battery system as well as Switch-Pro system -- the dual battery is the Off-Grid Engineering system common here, and the Switch-Pro is mounted along with a BlueSea on a Powertray under my hood. I'm running dual Group 35 X2Power batteries -- similar to the Odyssey 35-PC1400T. The batteries are wired in such a way that everything draws off the house battery, leaving the auxiliary battery isolated in case the house battery runs too low. The Switch-Pro is wired to run lighting, camera, and compressor, the BlueSea under the hood is wired to run the CB radio and rear bed power.

I'm considering adding another BlueSea in the cab for all my interior wiring -- switching the CB over, wiring in the mobile UHF/VHF, wiring the seat heaters, and any audio components that need it....we'll see how it goes.

The rear bed has a switch plate for RTT power, bed lighting, scene lighting, and the water pump. It also has a Voltmeter and 2 USB chargers [1A and 2.1A]. Eventually I'd like to rebuild the rear bumper to have a swingaway tire carrier on it, and I'll probably run a camp light off that.

 

Great Build.

 

Man I really like that bumper! Do they have a website or anything? I couldn’t find any info.

 

They do not, but I can get you in touch with the shop if you'd like. They're starting to get active on facebook and instagram though, should be the same name -- Eli's Offroad.

I'm pretty happy with it -- they worked with me with the design and everything.

 

Thanks man! I'm trying to keep it all updated -- this is all previous stuff that I've done. Once I'm off shift I'll try to update the rest of it!

 

I’m not ready to buy yet but will definitely keep them in mind when I am!

 

Sounds good man, keep me posted. They're located in WI so I'm not sure how shipping would be, but I am headed down that way soonish. Otherwise we could figure something out.

 

Curious why you decided to wire everything to your starter battery? I'm about install the same setup and just planned to wire everything to Aux battery, but I'm still learning and was curious about rationale here. Thanks! Everything looks great!

 

Hey man! I wired everything to the house battery because I wanted to keep the aux as a back up. I know most people with aux stuff to the aux battery but I don't have a ton of high-draw stuff so I figured I was safe. If I get a fridge or something with more draw, I'll probably wired that off the aux battery. I'm working on a solar charger system for the aux battery as well, which should help with power draw.

 

Can you show pictures of juts the RTT rack at a couple of angles if possible? I am looking for fab ideas as well and this looks similar to what is in my head.

 

Sure, I'm actually just about to updated the thread with some pictures of it all.