GT's Ultimate PepBoys chrome isle collection with considerable BS

Right, so yesterday a local body shop helped me repair some damage that had been done to our FlipPac camper. I had been parking the truck in the garage and we had some ice and snow so I let my wife take the truck to work one day and I forgot to check the driveway before she pulled out of the garage. When the back tires climbed up onto the ice and snow the rear of the camper was forced up into the bottom of the garage door. Destroyed the lower weather strip on the garage door and ripped the right hand support bracket off of the lid. I replaced the damaged support bracket hinge but from that moment on I wanted to change how those brackets attached so I wouldn't have to deal with that issue again.

Finally my search brought me to this little stainless steel beauty.




Now I can simply leave the support bracket bars in the truck while traveling and snap them in place upon arrival. This is a much better solution for me than the original arrangement and much less expensive than some of the other options that are being marketed directly to FlipPac owners.

I've been digging around in the garage and found a long ago purchased Off Road Only trail lights kit that I had forgotten about. Kit looks like this...



Was thinking of how to wire them up. I'd use them as trail lights of course, but I'd also like to sort out how to get them wired into the dome light circuit so that they would act as puddle lights when getting in and out of the truck. As I was mulling it all over I got to thinking that it would be perfect if I could switch them on and off using the "open trunk" button on my alarm fob. But since that is a momentary circuit I thought that maybe I could find a latching relay that was timed at thirty minutes or so. This would make those always occurring middle of the night climbs out of the camper for bathroom breaks a little easier.

Any suggestions?

 

Pretty stoked as UPS has informed me that they will be delivering my tires tomorrow and I went ahead and ordered my and the Still waiting for a PayPal invoice from @YotaDan from Wheeler's to finalize that deal.

The plan is to tear apart the stock suspension this week to do the swap and while it's apart I need to spend some time inspecting the LCA bushings as sometimes I get an odd clunk from the front and I'm afraid that it might be them. Might explain why I'm starting to gradually get a heavier than normal steering wheel as well. My plan was to ruin the factory LCA's and then go nuts and replace them with . If I have to replace them sooner than planned that is going to cut into some other plans so fingers crossed that I don't need to spend LCA money right away.

 

It's a big hit to the wallet but a good investment

 

I agree, and I see the value in the investment, I was just hoping to push it back till after the new year. I threw out my terrible timber FlipPac interior and was wanting to put some loot into a new one to keep Household 6 happy. She doesn't think climbing up and down using a pile of plastic cases is very entertaining.

 

UPS man was laughing at me, says "Dude, those are never gonna' fit."





Next to factory sport tires with over 77,000 miles on them.

 

Love the ST Maxx.. I just wish they made them in 34.

 

I hear you. I took the plunge as their website claims something like 34.65". I'll measure them once I get them mounted and report back.

 

For a 315x75 or 35x1250 sounds about right. It's all about rounding up. My Toyos are 33.9 but the sidewall says 34x1150

 

I've contacted the people at Diesel Toys in San Antonio about doing the conversion. I asked about using the 1VD-FTV engine in lieu of the 1KD-FTV engine but am thinking that it simply might be too large for the engine compartment. Time will certainly tell but since I always carry allot of weight and intend to tow a trailer of some type on long camping outings I think it would be worth consideration. Their waiting list is about a year long so I figured I might as well put my hand up now if I want to get in line to get it done.

I've been planning on using a larger capacity replacement fuel cell and just missed out on a deal for a second hand CES tank so I'll be getting ahold of them to see what options they offer for a new tank and how long their waiting list is. I'm told they offer stainless and lower drain points and I'm definitely interested in that. Have a place near me that currently sells ethanol free premium gas at less than $2.25 and thinking about being able to fill up over 40 gallons has me looking pretty much like this.



In the past I've used Ford F-350 trucks as tow vehicles and I've enjoyed the benefits of using Transferflow large capacity replacement tanks as well as their bed mounted add-on tanks. Going back through their catalog I'm looking at their toolbox-tank combination units. I have windoors on the FlipPac so access to the fill port would be pretty easy to accomplish, albeit probably an interesting and entertaining procedure to watch if we have allot of gear loaded in the bed.

 

Diesel Toys update.

I have my invoice for the 1KD-FTV engine. I secretly wanted the V-8 but in my mind I reckon I knew that it would be too wide for the engine bay. Todd made me a little sad when he confirmed that for me. I won't be able to be "that nutter with the turbo V-8" but I think I'll be able to live with myself.

Instead of a FJ Cruiser transfer case swap as I had planned, Todd recommends using the Hilux transfer case as it is mechanically activated instead of the current electronically activated case that my truck came with. I'm going to do a little research before I call Wyatt - @awsumdc - from Rock Solid Toys but I intend to figure out how to add his "Taco Supreme" crawl box into the mix as well. In fact, adding the 1" body lift was only done so I could accommodate the crawl box. I hope I remember correctly when I say that I "think" Wyatt has some experience with the Hilux gear already from some work he did for a fellow in Australia.

The gang at Wheeler's were out of stock on the spindle and coil bucket gussets so they had them drop shipped directly from Total Chaos. Good lookin' out @YotaDan and crew. You will always have my business and my recommendations to others.
Ignore my dirty garage floor please.



Around here all of the good welders are staying busy with farm business as it's harvest time and farmers are willing to pay pretty good for emergency work on broken equipment. With that said I'm going to try one other guy that a fellow TW member just recommended but if that doesn't work out it looks like I'll just wait a bit longer for schedules to free up.

Still need to get under the truck again and do a serious inspection of the LCA bushings. I've driven it a few times lately and it really does sound like the clunk I'm hearing is coming from that area. I cringe every time I hear it because I know I should just upgrade the whole LCA and bushings soon.

As some of you know I'm back in the market for some sort of sealed fuse/relay box for my add-on electronics so please throw suggestions at me.

PS: @YotaDan, sell me some of these for the front please.

 

I would love some of those myself, but Dang!! Spendy!!

 

What do you need your switch panel to do? In other words, what accessories do you want to control with it?

 

I think I'm good on the switch panel, I just wanted a sealed fuse/relay box.

For switches I'm going to try the Switch-Pros unit as I think it will fit perfectly on the back left of my center console.

 

Just got off the phone with Micah @Downsouth Motorsports and placed my order for some of the new Fox 2.0 factory series bump stop IFP with the weld-on cans.



Putting some more loot together to grab the lower control arms, and a few other goodies soon. Looks like I'm going to have a huge pile of parts waiting here for one massive transformation. Stay tuned.

 

Which lowers you going with?

 

TC stock length R models.

 

Sexy..


That's what I have

 

Did you make that CB antenna bracket, or purchase? How does it attach?

 

I purchased the pair of them from Eric @RelentlessFab. You can find them here on his website.



This is what they look like out of the box. I just hit them a couple times with some self etching primer and then a few top coats of semi gloss.

 

Are you running a bypass on the second mount or a limiting strap? I'm thinking about just running the strap since I'm too much of a coward to start hucking stuff.