3 Tons of Fun! Littles' Build, Travel, and B.S. Thread

Bring a small folding stool to compensate for your height disadvantage

 

Something like this doesn't look too difficult to DIY

https://youtu.be/49GMfFXksoQ

Personally, I wouldn't want to give up fridge space but that's just me. I get snacky and I hate running out of beer.

 

I considered that. I have about a 12 inch tall pelican case that I have been using for a camp kitchen that I could drag in and out of the truck to use as a step stool, but that's not going to be practical for grabbing road sodas on the trail.

 

https://youtu.be/yoBpl5C17lI

That dude gets at it in his subie

https://youtu.be/yZZ7GsBPc3Q

 

It would be mostly beer space I'm giving up and I could honestly rotate to beers if need be. My current fridge I can drop a 15 pack of breckenridge in one side while still in the box and still have half the fridge available for food. I could very easily keep it to just a sixer in the fridge.

This is another tilting option that uses a standard slide and a hinge. Would be much cheaper to build.



One other benefit of the drawer fridge is that I can keep the tailgate space clear for prep space.

 

Got the temp gauge done today. It went about as smooth as I could have imagined but I will tell you this: IT WAS NOT FUN.

Anyway

I went for a 30 minute stop and go/some highway and temps got up to 160F. It rises very slowly and I don't know if that was the peak or not. I'll keep an eye on it and find an average for the street and the trail. Infrared temp gun is a cheap, simple method but I do like having an inside source.

 

Good stuff. That's a pretty comfortable temp. I will be sticking with my method of feeling the sticks and using the temp gun

 

Agreed.

 

Quick little after work project....

Its expensive at $30 a bottle, but this stuff is the tits for removing plasti-dip. Spray on a dry plasti dipped surface, wait 90 seconds, wipe or pressure wash. Repeat if needed.


Before:




After:

 

For future reference I’ve had good luck using WD-40 to remove plastidip

 

Was there a lot of elbow grease involved? That's what Aaron suggested as well.

With this stuff it honestly just wiped away after sitting for 90 seconds.

 

It’s been a few years since I’ve done it, but I don’t remember it being difficult or laborious.

 

Decided to resurrect the old camp kitchen with the new sink add-on. It ain't pretty, and its bulky, but it should be functional for this season.

 

Got some motivation from @hoverlover to work on finalizing my triple sticks. As usual, I was over complicating things in my head, and also a little gun shy with the welder. But I'm never gonna learn how to weld if I don't try. My original plan was to cut and weld an extension in, but then @hoverlover suggested I just weld a bolt on with the correct thread pitch for my knobs. Duh. Much easier.

I'm not sure I'd call what i did welding...but I managed to stick metal together. I welded, ground it down to look for gaps, then filled in crappy spots, and ground again. The second and third shifters went much smoother than the first. The key seems to be keep the wire moving ever so slightly to fill the space. I think it'll hold together. I also filled in the scores I made to bend the shifters back when originally did the install.

Edit...here is where I started. Marlin knob was touching the trim and only half of it was above the trim. The low range on the tcase would also contact the side of the trim.



First try:



Second shifter was a little better:




And the crawlbox shifter got a longer bolt. Decided to keep the fatty part of the shifter since it was already bent where I need it.



Had to add some extra bends to the Toyota tcase shifter to pull it inward and up away from the trim and crawl box shifter. Pain in the ass to take this thing on and off 3 times to get it right with the linkages and small fitting my hands in a tight space. But it was all worth. After fine tuning the linkages, I nailed it and everything landed where i wanted.





Trimmed out, high range, 2wd.. we will see about that front cup holder clearance by the beer slot, but I can turn the linkages forward slightly if needed:




Low low, 4wd:




I am really happy with how this turned out for my first real welding project on my own. All that's left is to have a boot made up and make up my mind on some shift knobs, and I can finally call this a finished product.

 

Camped at rampart range Friday and was advised by the forest service on Saturday that campsites were closed. He was cool about it.

Drove to the gulches Saturday and finally hiked Turkey rocks by the gulches. Awesome spot to scramble and some legit climbing if that's your thing.

 

Came out pretty good!

 

Any idea how thick the steel is on that C-channel? In about to start working on the support for mine. I ordered some 1/4" plate already but now I'm wondering if that'll be up to the task.

 

Thanks! I am not sure if I am more excited that i got this one step closer to final or that I successfully stuck metal together. Do you have any measurements for the actual fabric of your boot? Specifically, I'm trying to get a rough idea of how wide each of the three boots in back should be. My opening is about 7" wide, so I was thinking if each was 3" it would give me at least 9" across and then some extra material around the edges that wouldn't pull like you said yours was.

I think it's 3/8" but not sure.

@YamaDirtrider do you recall the thickness of that c-channel you welded up for me?

I purchased and eventually plan to install the front range off road crossmember on the tcase to help reduce movement in the whole thing. Unfortunately, I think I'll need to re-route the exhaust again and weld some plates to the frame which is why I haven't done it yet.

https://frontrangeoffroadfab.com/2005-current-tacoma/

 

I don't have any measurements for the boot but I think the openings at the base of the triple sticks are around 4-4.5" in diameter. I almost wish they were a bit bigger, removing and installing the boot is a pita and the threads from the shifts has cut the boot in a few places. All on the inside but it's showing in a few places on the outside. I think they're 6-7" tall, the crawl box shifter is a bit shorter, maybe 5-6". The base is huge though, I couldn't begin to estimate.



I thought it was a bit much and I'd trim it, glad I didn't. I have yet to get it to stick to the inside of the trim as I would like and ask that extra material covers everything under the plastic trim in every gear combination.

You can see around the boots the dimensions of the factory boot. I'd say that's an extra 2" of material maybe?

 

Thanks, that's super helpful. Are you saying 4-4.5" in total for the triples or each one is 4-4.5"? From the pics it looks like the former and that def strikes me as too narrow. I think I want the base of those boots to take up the full width of the opening, and then the extra material to tack it in place.

I'm think 9" high on the boots. Trans shifter boot I can actually measure.