The Some Day Build... And Trip Log

Some peppery stuff... but a good shake of the bag holding it all knocks most of it off. One reason there is so much pepper in the marinade.

 

Catching up on emails while I am sitting here chilling and drinking.......

DAMN CHRIS!

This is one serious write-up Brother! Holy shit! Excellent job. I wish they were all like this.

 

I try to be thorough. The less of a rush I am in the more pictures I can take. There are some things I have done that have really good write ups, so I tend to document those a little less.

 

Well,

Well, these kinds of write-ups are priceless and genuinely help a lot of people. You're definitely a credit to the forum Brother!

 

Thank you for the kind words

 

So with this mod, can you use diff loc in 2wd lo

 

Yes as I understand it.. 2 low with locked rear

Per @BigWhiteTRD who did the orginal research and development of the 2 low mod.... that led to the PnP version.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2lo-plug-play-harness-discussion.592035/page-3#post-19809020

 

A couple parts showed up today...




Working the way to a cleaner electrical system before it gets to far out of hand.



So Shiny.... yea, about that.



Brought in for a quick wet sand with some 1000 grit, and it knocked the paint off the edges a bit. but there will be more coats coming up. but wanted to get an idea first hand how it will look.

 

Been working on the second half of the rock light modules.. These will be called version 2b of the rock lights... Version 2 worked out very well, only issue was I used aluminum for the bracket, and that meant having to use epoxy to hold the neodymium Magnets in place. Not sure how long that will hold up long term. So version 2b was born. same design just used steel for the bracket instead.

I have attached a PDF file with the bracket design for those who want to recreate this for there own use.

The holes in the bracket drilled and countersunk for the mounting hardware.




The brackets where first painted with Self etching primer




then they where coated with 3 coats of flat black.





the hole where the leads for the rock lights passed through is a bit over sized, and to give it some protection and a bit of strain relief. I used some Permatex Ultra Black to fill in the hole and help prevent the wire from being cut trough over time.




The Finished light and mounting bracket. I covered the lead coming from the light with the same braided sleeve used on the rest of the harness for some extra protection. and then added the Female side of the weather pack connector.

Terminal A is the Positive or Red
Terminal B is the Negative or Black



Here is the Custom splitter harness(1 of 4) that I made to tap into the existing rock light harness.



Here is how I make the T splices.

First you need to make a "window Cut" in the insulation.



I try to fan both the inline and T wire a bit so i can kinda weave it togather before twisting it tightly



Once the wires are twisted tightly together it is time to solder them.




once both wires have been soldered, it time to cover with heat shrink.



Now you can cover the rest of the harness with your braided sleeve, heat shrink cover the ends and add your connector.





The light and mounting bracket, with the long tail of the splitter harness plugged in.




Below the connection we will splitting from one rock light to two.



An with the splitter harness plugged in.



One end goes to the original location and the one end to the main harness, and the other end to the rock light placed about half between the existing front and rear rock lights

 

Another piece of the puzzle arrived today...



Time to order the rest of the parts and the wire to get this finished up and installed

 

Before with original 4 rock lights





with 2 more for a total of 6 rock lights

 

Today a package arrived for an item that I have been wanting since the guys @upTOPoverland first starting talking about it. The original rack the Alpha and the AlphaXL where pricey but they look so good... When the Bravo was announce as a more budget friendly version, well.... I started to make plans.

Today, the brown Santa dropped off this little package. this is the INNER package. the outer was packed just as good.




The parts all laid out, and color coded dots to help ID the matching hardware.



All the hardware is in labeled and color coded bags, only way they could make this easier would be to pre-place the lock washers on the bolts.



I forgot to order a 3/4" punch and I did not want to cut the trim with a knife. So I made my own punch. I took a 3/4" pipe nipple and ground an edge onto it. crude, but semi-effective



I pulled the trim, and then placed a strip of painters tape along the edge. to create a marking guide



The factory roof rack holes are covered in tape seal, it was easy to take a knife and cut the the bolt holes out.



I then threaded in the bolt and spacer to use as a guide for the layout lines



I used a straight edge to transfer a line from each side of the spacer on to the tape



Once all 4 lines where marked, I then reinstalled the trim strip.



Then using a straight edge transfer the marks to the trim, and marked the center as well to help line the punch up



The Punch worked fairly well, the first 2 holes cut all the way through nice and smooth the 3rd and 4th took a bit more work. as the metal strip starting to roll the edge the cutting edge of the homemade punch. I reground the edge before attempting the other side. and even then the last 3 holes I ended up using tin snips to remove the metal strip . for the price I think i would make several of these homemade punches, and use them on no more than 2 holes.



The Brackets installed, they go from

Left Right
A C
B D



I then covered the roof in an old blanket, an added the drivers side panel, snugging the bolts up.



The front fairing was then attached along with the passengers side panel.



Next added the load bars working my way from the rear to the front. the rear most I placed vertical, to give me the option of adding some lights or something... facing the rear.

 

Tonight I was messing around in Inventor, and did a rough model of of some awning brackets.



Depending on how I am feeling with this busted tooth tomorrow.. I may try to fabricate a sample

 

Spent part of today working on getting the Power Distribution Center (PDC) closer to being finished. mounted the major components on the Powertray from @Mr.PowerTrays.

 

Updated the model a bit. I found the brackets that came with the awning, so I adjusted the length to the same as the ones from the factory, and rounded off the corners a bit

 

Now that I have I roof rack, I am able to get the 270° "bat wing" awning installed.



It is a no name clone from China, I picked it up as a sample item earlier in the year. I was playing around with the idea of importing a few. but first I wanted to see the quality and how durable it was.



Would be much better on a bed rack, but this would make it nice for sleeping in the bed of the truck. Mounted this way not a lot of room past the tail gate. The tail gate opens but just barely...



I am not sure how long this will stay on the truck, If I go the Roof Top Tent route this will loose it ability to be useful, as it sits. I may try to see if I can rework it bit to make it more suited for my needs. however, it will meet a need, and provide much needed shade for the beach trips.

 

Thank you for this, gonna order the Bravo tonight. How do you like it so far? Any regrets on not getting a Prinsu?

 

It has been a great addition, and have gotten a lot of compliments from people who see it, even had someone flag me down on the highway to ask about it.

No regrets at all, Once I saw the design the guys at upTOP came out with there was never any further thought on the Prinsu

 

Awesome, I liked the Prinsu but everybody and their mom has one, this seems like a great way to stand out. Also wound up being about $100 cheaper with the keepit100 coupon code. Do you have any plans on putting a lightbar on? I ordered mine without the cutout but was wondering if it's still possible to mount one later.