Flatbed,35’s and Mainly Parked For Repairs

yeah full send. Got the Tmr one. Came with a extra housing if I did need to get this one retubed. Can just retube the one I got from them since it’s already shaved.

 

Battery relocation
Okay this took a long time to accumulate parts and figure it all out.

First needed a spot for the batteries. Decided to switch the old tool box that I had and go with something with a side open.
Used a full sized tool box that I cut in half and rewelded.

All welded up and ready for paint


and mounted.


For the wire, I ran 2/0 from the box into the engine bay. I already had a 1/0 cable running back there for the second battery I had. The 2/0 is fused at 400amps for winching. The 1/0 for the auxiliary is on a 140 amp breaker. This is all in the box with the fuses as close to the battery as possible.


in the box I also have my compressor and will have a inverter as well. Working on that still.

For the engine bay I made a bracket to mount the relay for the dual battery charging, all of my relays for lights, a breaker for the aux panel and terminal posts. It’s made out of aluminum as well.

you can see the rats nest I had in the back. Years of adding and running new wires. All consolidated and redid pretty much everything so it was organized and easy to diagnose if need be.


I used 1/4” aluminum so I was able to tap all the holes instead of using nuts which would be hard to access.



I also made a bracket for the winch fuse as well. Opened up a bunch of room in the corner for the eventual tundra brake booster swap.

that’s it for now. Still have a few things to button up but it’s driving again.

 

I did not know you weld aluminum. Nice...

 

Just learning to. It’s annoying and super finicky compared to steel. This project wasn’t anything structural so it was a great learning experience.

 

Aluminum skid plates when

 

Yep I wanted to learn but don't want to spend the money on the equipment. But now I see the way you cut that box in half and made a smaller one...... Tempting..

 

I don’t know. Steel or go home.

yeah for the price of getting a new box and then modifying it to open the way I wanted it made sense to invest and learn. Especially with the aluminum flatbed which may need repairs or mods.

 

Story time

Today I was planning on changing my wheel bearing. Purchased a assembled hub and figured it would be an hour start to finish.

All going well until I found some cracked gussets on the spindle gussets. Okay not ideal but we are here so let’s fox it.


Grund out the welds and crack with a die grinder till the two base materials were separate and the crack appeared to be gone. Little pre heat and some weld and good to go.


Painted and waiting for paint to dry.



Reinstalling it all with the new wheel bearing. Torqueing everything and I hear something…..


At first I thought, it cracked because I over tightened….but it cracked when torquing with the wrench. Great.

Thought it was the welding but it had cooled down and supposedly the spindles on our trucks are cast steel not iron so should be good.

After looking at the knuckle I realized that hammering to get the tierod off all these years peened the knuckle and it finally cracked. Fortunately I have a second set of spindles so the trucks running. Interesting lesson (I’ll be buying a bj separator tool) that I’m happy happened in the driveway.

So….my one hour wheel bearing replacement led me to reweld a spindle and then completely swap the spindle. Total time…. 5 hours (with waiting for paint to dry) and one trashed spindle. I’m sure I could wed the crack but I think the cost of buying a reamer I could have a second set of spindles for spares.

 

Mall Crawls will do that to you....


so about that 3rd gen....

 

You stop. Trucks going to Ardbeg. I swear the world doesn’t want me there….

 

I BELIEVE IN YOU!

i have CAA so worst case....

 

I don’t need that negativity in my life.

I’ll be rolling on a stock spindle so I’ll just take it easy. Should be fine just not speed stuff lol.

 

And I thought I was having a bad day...wow what a stroke of co incedanses. Well better it happens in the drive way than on the trail. Tie rod separator is also in my future after I seen this.

 

i'm not being negative, i'm offering support incase things go wrong... bad... worse... sideways... bent out of shape... or fucked.

Just please take it easy and no crazy rock climbs. we need that rig at the Overland expo meet

 

It’s going to be a smooth trail run. Nothing will go bad…..

 

Knock on wood once we get to Ardbeg!

 

Just ordered this Amazon 27 bucks. I don't have spare spindles.

 

Yeah. Going to go and get one too Everywhere I looked said “hit it with a hammer and it will pop out”. But I guess they haven’t had to repair the front end as many times as I have.

 

That's how I've always done it but not after seeing that. Thanks... I guess.

 

It's also 12 years old, and the number of times you "improved it" is far beyond of number of times engineers designed it to last.