Casper's Broken Down old Grumpy Assed Build

Does mounting the Hi Lift in this position get in the way of the cubby, socket, or anything else (putting things in the truck bed)?

 

No Sir it did initially as I originally built them for a long bed. I just drilled new holes and mounted the jack higher and it's fine

 

The cold finally broke, thank the Lord! I've been able to get out and clean up the garage it wasn't bad but it was just too cold for me to be bothered to clean it. Found the electric power washer is broken so I need a replacement handle for that, so fired up the gas powered power washer and gave the truck a deep clean and the 4 wlr. Deer season is over for me so took the basket off the 4wlr and put the snow blade on. Gave them both a good hand wash and finished cleaning the garage. Maybe tomorrow I'll work on one of the projects for the truck and put something build related in here.

 

Nice toys buddy!

Them wheels are still classy AF.

 

CB:

Finally a "mod"! It's been a while. I have a couple in the garage waiting but gonna take my time with it.
So it was warm enough today to get back out in the garage and tackle the CB. Christie got me the set up for my birthday. It's the Cobra 75 WX ST along with a 4' Firefly, spring, and 18' cable.
I popped the sill plates on the driver's side and unbolted the seat so I had a little more room to work. I pulled the carpet back and ran the antenna cable through the grommet under the driver seat. I added a considerable amount of length to the positive and negative wire, put them in loom, ran them through the sill with the factory harness and up and out of the firewall grommet. The negative is grounded to the body ground on the fender and I installed an inline blade minifuse to the hot wire. Much more and I'm going to have to look at a Blue sea panel or something comparable.
The antenna cable was run back through the frame, up and out through the tail light, and attached to the antenna base munted to the C&C Fab ( That's a joke it's me) antenna / light combo bracket and the 4' Firefly was installed.
I haven't powered anything yet as I'm waiting until I get access to an SWR meter.

Remote box under the seat


CB handheld control unit


Antenna / light mounting on the rear




Ha now I can at least listen to weather reports and trucks on the highway at least as I never seem to travel with anybody. I do also have a hand held CB so if we're camping and Christie stays back with the camper we can communicate.

 

Looks good, Chris. What base is that under the spring? That's the part I'm having a hard time figuring out. The antenna and spring are easy.

 

It's the base off an old Wilson antenna I had in the garage. I was trying to find the regular base for the firefly and spring and remembered I had that

 

How did you get the antenna cable through the cab and down to the frame?

 

I unbolted the seat and popped the sill plates, moved the seat back out of the way, and when you lift the carpet and look under the seat there is a large rubber grommet where the wiring harness goes through. In fact if you look up from the bottom you'll see the grommet right along th frame. I ran the wires and antenna cble through the vent holes in the carpet under the seat and then down through the grommet. After that I just fished the antenna cable down through the frame then up and out through the tail light

 

OK. Now will unsealing that grommet present a problem when you go 4-wheeling through water?

 

Im sure it wont be a "perfect" seal, but many of us have our CBs routed through there with minimal issue.

 

I would caulk the hell out of it once I did the install.

 

I know I have considered it, but I have used that grommet quite a bit in regards to routing other electrical lines.

 

I wouldn't think so but I plan on putting some scillicone around it for added security I'm just waiting for when I need to make a run to town and pick some up

 

I heard you were back

 

Yea man, I was looking forward to trying to dodge some of the cold...but it is what it is. That being said, looking forward to getting some more projects done on the ride, looks like the CB was a solid mod.

 

It went ok running wires is just a pain in the ass. I'm thinking about installing the Ultragauge today which should be easy but I get intimidated by the set up part pushing all the buttons (there's only 3) and trying to get it organized. IDK much about that stuff and it gives me a headache just reading about it

 

Yea I hear ya on that...If you get it done I will look forward to seeing what you come up with. Im considering getting a ultragauge, but I don't know how vital it is for the truck or not. I try to keep my interior to a minimum, but I would likely have it wedged just above the left corner of my dash if I had to guess.

What model did you go with?

 

EM Plus, it's pretty compact but easy to read and as my eyesight isn't what it used to be I need easy to read

 

Nice/Clean install! My antenna is also back there and I am able to get a really good swr! Is the tip of your antenna tunable with the screw or you have to cut?