Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

Yep!!! I’ve got the Cam tab kit and spindle gusset. They will get welded on in the new few months. I don’t plan to do any hard wheeling for a few months

 

I’ve got an offset smoker build planned with my oldest sons starting next week. So this will help me freshen up my welding skills.

 

Wiring up the rear winch with some fresh US made 4/0 cable.
You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about......

 

Got the three main filler panels made up and fit with their initial cutouts and mounted items. I'll make panels for the smaller triangles on both sides of the winch tray after I build the fenders that will tie into that general area.



-Trailer hitch plug in the lower panel.
-winch kinch kill switch in the middle panel, that will cut power to both rear winches. There will be 600 amp ANL fuse under the hood as well.
-Access hole cut in the panel over the fuel cell for access to the filler cap.

 

Looking sick!

 

Wow, I am really impressed. This is turning out just fantastic.

 

Thank you both for coming along for the ride!

 

Got my temporary exhaust done up today. Not actually installing it until I get a few more things done under the truck that the exhaust would be in the way of.

Intention is to rout it up through the tube work and to a side or top exit, but I need the fenders don't before that. The little turn-down will have to do for now. I put v-bands at each section so it is easily modular when the time comes. However I clearly didn't look at the muffler overall size when I ordered it. Trucks going to be quite loud for a bit.

Haven't welded stainless since the college machine shop. Definitely rusty at it, but it should be leak free....I think.

 

Completely forgot that I still had to weld on brackets for the drop hitch braces.
I pity the Nissan Altima that rear-ends me.
The braces also double as an anti-rattle, taking out all slip in the hitch/receiver combo.

https://youtube.com/shorts/wZsyZMypk9E?si=rxYwc3Pi2stCtjF9

 

Down to the little but Important stuff before the rear is done.

Axle is all plumbed. Not screwing around with corrosion this time. Anything that can be stainless is stainless. Hard brake lines are in, as well as the braided stainless ones that run up the drivers side upper link. Diff breather is plumbed. Small filter mounted between the spares and the cab, just under the rear window. Axle mounted ABS wires are on, just have to extend the factory harness.

 

The last photo is like an optical illusion, making the hitch look miles away. Lol.

 

Only a little progress the past week.

Alexis found an old piano in need of some repairs and restoration that she wanted for her office, so "of course honey" took a couple of days away from the truck.
It was a fun project and I've learned my first song, but it doesn't go vroom through the whoops...

Before:


After:




Back to the normally scheduled programming.

Fuel cell is almost connected. Need to trim the factory hard lines a hair to make the final connection under the cab. Got the vent plumbed as well. Idea for the loop in the line goes to @Dayman Karate great solution to prevent fuel from splashing out the vent while bouncing around.





Almost done with the wiring. Abs wires are on the upper link now. Next is to extend the factory fuel pump/sender wires, which is the plug in the photo. The rest is just lights.

 

Well, this kind of came out of nowhere....maybe I'll build the long travel CVs indoors with a tarp on the kitchen table.

 

Man that piano turned out great! You use a spray gun on that?!

 

Thank you, and yes. Airless sprayer. Used a cabinet paint vs a standard interior paint, so it's Intended to be touched a lot.

 

Weather cleared up this afternoon so I made the harness extension for the fuel pump/sender. Hoping the additional 8 feet of wire doesn't drop the signal voltage enough to mess with the fuel gauge.

I'm sure there's a name for it, but spiral harnesses are the only way to go. They remain flexible, bend in every direction, and when you go around curves, it doesn't shorten and lengthen the wires at the other end.



Thank you @Torspd for the recommendation on the split loom and heat shrink brand. They're fantastic. The loom sprigs back tight and is easy to work with, and the heat shrink stays flexible after shrinking. And the 4 times shrink ratio is great for sliding over the loom and working around plug ends. Not that it matters with this type of loom, but the shrink is also the watertight stuff should the application ever require it. Adheres nicely to what it shrinks around

 

How do you braid the spiral?

 

On a more complex harness, or one with very thin wires, you'd want to do it by hand. For this, it was four 16ga wires. Not particularly large, but durable enough to do it the cheater way. Cut all to the same length. Put one end in a vise and the other in your drill. Put a little bit of tension on them, and let the drill spin. It'll vary by wire size, but you lose length when you do this. I used 10 feet of wire for the 8 foot harness, but also trimmed about a foot off after test fitting (better safe than sorry). So plan for about 10% shrink.

HP Academy has a ton of great videos on wiring, but the intro alone on this one will do a good job of explaining the how's and whys. "Concentric twisting" was the name I was drawing a blank on...
The bulk of my harness is still in tact since it's only a few things at the rear that need extending. I have between 2 and 7 wires at a time to extend, so nothing nearly as detailed as the video, but the concepts are the same.

https://youtu.be/dsgUhNH7F7k?si=eqiXvy4XxTUgusMt

 

Straight professional looming job. That knowledge came in at just the right time in your build. Glad it could help.

 

busy work week, so a couple hours this afternoon was all the more i got in for the week.

chopped off the absolute rats nest that toyota worked up. removed 4 plugs and a ton of redundancy. it took some tracing and figuring, but everything on the tail lights and trailer harness can be combined except the trailer harness turn signals. the tail lights get separate turn and brake wires since they have separate bulbs, but for the trailer it just fires both turn signals at once for the brakes. the control for that us up under the dash or hood somewhere, so there are two sets of turn signal wires running all of the way to the back that cannot be combined. Best i could come up with is an 8 port plug for the bulk of everything, and a separate two wire plug for the trailer specific turn signals.


all of this is gone.


and this is what we should have had from the factory.