Stu’s UTE

It was weird, in our parking lot we have 10 Ford company pickups (2014-2018) and five misc cars/trucks and 2 new 4runners. Over a 6 week period this fall those two got chewed on 5 times, all other vehicles were ignored. It drove the owners crazy, they tried all sorts of sprays, etc to no avail. I ended up trapping 6 of them. It’s never happened there in 35 years

 

Installed

$30 Loraffe Under Hood Animal Repeller Rodent Repellent Ultrasonic Rat Deterrent LED Strobe Lights Keep Mice Away from Car Pest Control for 12V 24V Automobile Truck RV, Rodent Defense Vehicle Protection

this mouse rat deterrent in the truck and in my wife’s Focus. Luckily so far our mice have no taste for wiring, but the piss and poop! Easy install except for the hour or two of cleaning the engine bays.



These do draw a little power from the battery and automatically shut down when voltage gets to 10.5v. In the instructions it says run the car every two or three days. It would be nice to have an Auxiliary battery to protect from any starting problems. But where to put it?

I also hot glued some water bottle lids filled with Peppermint oil around each bay as it is said to be a good deterrent as well.

 

Remade the wiring harness to the ditch lights two foot longer.



Installed the relay panel and started hooking it up.


No switches yet , but I could trigger the relay and send power to the lights.

 

I took this

$60 Niking Auto 12" Single Row LED Light Bar 96W Off Road LED Driving Fog Lights Super Slim Spot Flood Combo Small Work Light for Trucks Jeep UTV ATV SUV Boat

12” led bar and mounted it in the hood scoop. A little worried about the heat I drilled some holes behind the light to allow the air to flow through. Also used some sound mat as insulation above the light.





A fresh coat of derp on the scoop as it was staring to look a little beat up.

 

I bought

MICTUNING 2Pcs 60" White LED Cargo Truck Bed Light Strip Lamp Waterproof Lighting Kit with On-Off Switch Fuse 2-Way Splitter Cable Compatible with Pickup RV SUV and More

these bed lights when the truck still had a regular bed. I cut them shorter and turned them into under hood lights. They are triggered using the soft button that came with the kit, but I also used a cabinet switch so that when the hood is down the lights won’t remain on. The problem has been positioning this switch so it is triggered when the hood is closed.

 

Ran the switch wires up the passenger A-pillar into the overhead center console. I hope my Meso-customs panel ships soon. Also found a ground screw here, so I ran another ground. If I understand the switches right I believe you need two separate grounds.





I polished up the plastic before installation with some Pedros Bike Lust silicone polish. Which seems to have helped a rather annoying squeak that came from over in that corner.

 

Changed some stuff this week. It turns out that using backlit switches wasn’t going to work having the relays wired off the negative side. So I had to pull the panel again and switch the relay wiring so the switch is on the positive side. Unfortunately this means that I need return wires from the switches to the relays so I have to find away to get six more wires through the firewall!

Also, I was having second thoughts on having the Cali Raised pods upside down. There is what looks like a Gore vent on the underside and having it facing up seemed like asking for trouble with water pooling over it. The reason I mounted them like this, was so that they didn’t sit above the head board. I sometimes stack wood on there or haul a 30 foot ladder. Unfortunately I had to make bigger brackets to flip the pods, which took an hour or so and $20 in 1/8 aluminum. Fortunately, I had just enough slack in the harness to accommodate having the lights a little higher.

 

Five more wires through the fire wall and up the A-pillar to the overhead switch panel.

I cut out the panel to make room for five new switches thanks to Meso Customs .





First attempt with hot glue didn’t work. So, I used epoxy.

 

Pretty much finished wiring today. Three relays don’t have lights to connect to yet. The hood scoop light and ditch lights now work off the switches.






Ran out of time today. The last piece to the panel is to tap into a backlight circuit.

 

Looks to me like a bunch of colorful spaghetti. Glad you have that all under control

 

Found the switch backlight circuit on the traction button and tapped into it. Now everything works!

 

Started work on the rack for the back of the camper. First couple of welds were really terrible and I think I’m going to have to cut them apart and redo. But finally dialed it in and excited to get it done. The rack will be modular. With space for water, fuel, snowboards and more.

 

Coming from someone who isnt a welder but has built and welded a 6*12’ trailer. My welds were no better looking and they’ve held together for 8 years with some very heavy 4000lb loads. That all being said I think they’ll hold.

always fun learning new skills

 

Bought the cutest little shovel. It was smaller than I imagined, but on the plus side it stashes nicely out of sight under the bed.

 

Got the rack back from the powder-coaters.



I’m very happy with the finish and color. You can see where I ran out of argon around the lid area.

 

You built that? That’s totally professional

 

I was wondering if you would ever find this thread. We’ve been eye-omg his taco and yours for some time now

 

Even more coincidence than that. I looked at buying his camper from the dealer in Issaquah, Washington. The only reason why we didn't buy it is that it did not have the inside shower option. Not sure when's Stuart's leaving but we're heading out on the road in 4 months. Hopefully we'll meet up somewhere

 

Still hope I can retro fit the indoor shower. It would make Sheila happy.

 

It’s been a busy week in the garage, as I deftly procrastinate on mudding the Sheetrock in our apartment!



The slimline bumper that I ordered in the group buy from Southern Style Offroad arrived well packed, but due to a slight snafu with the order, no Stage 2. Southern have been great, so far, in dealing with the mistake. A day earlier I had pulled the truck into the shop and marked out the cut.



I used the oscillating saw to make the cut and it worked great. With a brand new trade-a-blade I got a nice controlled cut.









The winch is kind of a pain in the arse to install. My hands aren’t that big and I still farted around for fifteen minutes or more trying to bolt it down. I borrowed a motorcycle jack stand to lift the bumper in, and it worked really well.









The controller needs to be mounted separate from the winch due to space. A simple aluminum bracket leaves it close enough to wire up and allows access from above or through the grill.