Ripcord's Spruce Mica Build

Another mellow camping weekend in the books, but do not fret! MOAB trip in 1 week!





Water was RAGIN'!








Deert


kr





Big beaver pond

 

What dates are you in MOAB? I’m camping out there the 7-9th I believe

 

the weekend of the 22nd

 

holey moley what badass write-up...

Even cooler of a build!

 

Thank you!

 

Was she even able to catch anything? I'm contemplating whether or not I should bother taking my fishing stuff up to Creede this weekend.

 

Not in those wild creeks. But we went to a larger river (the arkansas) which had more mellow spots and had better luck.

 

I’m about to buy the BAMF kit and some 12” Kings. I have a couple questions before I tackle the installation. Skimmed through the actual BAMF post to see if they were answered by someone else.
1. Are the towers angled slightly so they only fit in a specific spot? I know one of your pictures mentions that but I can’t quite tell. What I’ve seen posted says 8* of rake. Is that what you have?
2. How much gap does the 24.585” give you from bottoming out? I do realize that every truck is different but our setup is pretty much the same except I have Archive Garage Hammer hangers vs your BAMF ones.
3. I guess this is a more general question but how do you test for full compression? Keep the truck on jackstands and jack one side up?

 

Went to Moab last weekend! always a good time there. Short trip unfortunately, only got to run Kane Creek.

@literallynothing




@Flemster

















This guy brought a chevy 1500 on the trail, needless to say that thing was F'd up by the end lol

 

Also went camping for father's day weekend a few weeks back.

 

1. Look at the driver's side of the frame like that post said and you will see what I meant. There's only one spot the towers can go, with like 1" margin on each side.
2. 5" of uptravel, 7" downtravel like that post said.
3. Some people will use a forklift to lift a tire, but that also shifts a lot of the weight to the front of the truck, so the rear axle will have much less load meaning the tire you lifted will never get close to bottoming out. All that test really does is show droop travel for the opposite side, same goes for using a floor jack to do that. Best way is to find something to flex on that will keep the truck fairly level like a descending loading ramp.

 

Glad you made it out! We have to go for a longer trip one of these times!

 

WOW, what an awesome build!! Just started following you on Instagram. I saw LLOD's video with you in it, OUTSTANDING!

 

Oh nice! glad you like it, was a fun trip. Speaking of which I guess I should post some of the photos from it.


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Photos from a recent wheeling trip on the China Wall trail in CO.

Video from Mike at LastLineOfDefense.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pt48O2AvLzA?controls=0
























And some fishing on the way home.



Ended up busting my driveshaft on the trail, but had it rebuilt at Driveline Specialist in Commerce City for under 200 bucks. They replaced the bent tube section with a thicker walled piece.

 

|July 13, 2019|

Big kid radio, with a damn fine install.


What/Why:

HAM radios are the new standard for trail communication, CB is a dying breed. However, operating a HAM radio requires a license. While you can sorta get away with not having a license with a handheld radio, due to the limited range, you really should have a license when using a radio that transmits as far as a vehicle mounted unit can. The test is easy to study for and only costs $5 to take. I got my license in December of 2017.

Handheld HAM radios have VERY limited range and transmitting power at 5 watts. Vehicle mounted units are necessary if you plan to really go out there. The transmitting power is significantly higher at up to 50 watts, they also have a vastly superior antenna which improves received transmissions as well.

For the antenna, I was hoping to use the camper frame as a ground plane, but I would have had to mount the antenna in the middle of the camper’s roof for that to work, and I wouldn't be able to fit in the garage. So instead I had to go with a no-ground plate (aka: Radialless) antenna.

Lastly, in order to fit into my garage I needed a way of lowering the antenna, due to how high I wanted to mount it. I had a motorized antenna mount on my old 4Runners, and I will be doing the same here. Motorized mounts are amazing because they allow you the reception of a roof mounted antenna while still being able to lower the antenna to get into garages. All without having to get out of the vehicle like you would for a manual pivoting mount.


Parts / Retail Cost:
$270 - ICOM 2730 50W Dual-band transceiver
$120 - Diamond K9000 motorized antenna mount
$55 - Diamond NR770HA Radialless Dual Band Antenna
$19 - Comet UHV mount Coax cable
$15 - OTRATTW switch: DPDT momentary (body-only, V-series)
$5 - OTRATTW Custom switch faceplate “Antenna Up/Down”
$2 - OTRATTW Single switch holder
$7 - 2x Faceplate handles (McMasterCarr 7568A41)

Resource Threads:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/center-console-switch-panels.434200/#post-12542752
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clean-vhf-cb-radio-installs.415584/


Tools:
10mm socket
14mm socket
Trim removal tool
Wiring tools

Time:
Setting up the motorized mount wiring takes the most amount of time. All in, the whole install took about 4 hours.


Here is the pile of goodies.




The antenna mount is a Diamond K9000 Motorized mount. Used a Comet UHF mount coax.




I also modified the simple black bracket that came with the antenna mount to work with this extrusion bracket.







Antenna & Mount in position




I used this grommet under the driver’s seat (nearly in the rear footwell) to pass the wires in to the interior.




Transceiver mounted under the seat.




For the wires that go to the dash, I ran them under the door sill.




This is the best diagram I have for how I did the DPDT-momentary Switch controlling the motorized mount. Poles 2 & 5 would be incoming power/ground while 1 & 6 and 3 & 4 would be power and ground (respectively) to the antenna mount. They are mixed so that the switch in one position provides +12v and in the opposite position provides -12v, this is what controls the up/down function of the mount.
(Disregard this all if you have a normal mount)




Here is the switch all wired up.




This is the panel that will hole the antenna up/down switch and the radio faceplate.






Here is where it will go, with mounting location inspiration from @iK0NiK , I shamelessly copied @Iggy ‘s console switch faceplate idea and adapted it to work with a single switch and a radio faceplate.






Removable-faceplate units can usually be divided into 2 categories: Units where the mic plugs into the main transceiver and units where the mic plugs into the remote faceplate (and a small selection that can do both). The ICOM 2730 I have is one of the rare types than can do both, I have the mic going to the transceiver under the seat which helps keep the mic cord routing simple.




Something drawing 50 watts like this Radio should be wired directly to the battery. Since the age of my current battery was unknown, and it was a cheap auto parts store battery, I got a new Northstar AGM 27F Deep Cycle battery from a recent group buy, should be overkill for all I have!




Stats are considerable better!





All done!

(THIS IS A VIDEO)

Tacoma Ham Radio by Jim Reynolds, on Flickr





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I also got some bed cubby seals from @micwillia from his for sale thread here.




Cubby holes before







Some gasket for the door.




And finally some plugs for the holes in the cubbies.






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And lastly, I swapped out the panels on the camper for 3mm composite so I had to do something with the old ABS plastic...




So I made a DIY panel for the tailgate, similar to a mountain hatch.

 

What are you planning on putting in the cubby you’d need it to be sealed?

 

Its mostly to prevent dust intrusion into the bed of the truck (which is basically my bedroom now lol)

 

Your dash is starting to look more and more like the Millennium Falcon haha

 

Hah! At least none of it blocks the windshield view!

 

Looks great, very clean install! I bet that camper/tent makes for a great ground plane for the antenna.