MaineFarmer's Expo Camping Build

Dam, how did I miss this thread? It's pretty much what I plan to do, even a similar design to your roof rack. The main differences is that I'm making mine two pieces, can and camper rack separate. Just working on front and rear suspension to take the load of all the diy armor.

 

Thanks, and I got a good deal on them which makes them even better. And all 5 to boot which makes the spare look/ work great. Especially when I get around to making a rear swing out this winter

When you figure out how to mount a rack up let me know, I have tried and tried to sort out how to do so with out poking holes in my roof... So this was my solution. Glad there's some food for though here for ya.
It's always nice to see someone else gets some enjoyment from what I'm up to.
Cheers

 

Yah, on 1st gens, you pretty much have to, unless you get the door jamb clamping style. Pretty much just gonna find strategic places to drill for flush nuts right above one of the three roof supports, or maybe ill weld in a low profile support of my own.

 

Just a couple pictures of the tent mocked up on the rack.

 

This afternoon I drilled out some mounting points for the Mombassa RTT. I love this camping invention. This is one of the older models. It is missing it's rain fly (replaced with a blue tarp) and has a replacement cover. But the best part is the size of the sleeping area. It is 72"x88"! I'm 6'2" and have room everywhere.

 

Over this last weekend my fiancée and I took our baby on her first camping trip. We took her to the North Maine Woods just south west of Baxter State Park.
Now let me tell you, it's a challenge unlike anything I have done before packing a baby, (car seats are tricky critters) two adults, and a 100# lab and enough camping gear for a 4 day trip.
We both have a ton of experience camping, but this trip was something new.
Our plan was to head up through the Jo-Mary road to a previously traveled Reserved Public Land to camp by a lake we love.
None of the roads we traveled the first couple days were all that exciting, just rough gravel with washboard sections.

The first mistake was not to check that the road ran all the way to the camp sites. This particular set of camp sites is right on the AT and has no road access. But we had planned out most eventualities and this wasn't a huge deal. We went up to a few of the other camp sites to check them out and found a great replacement.




Before the camp was fully set up we decided to run down the few trails in the area. And found a couple of these.


And an impassable bridge.



Always a bummer but also a chance for everyone to stretch their legs.
We headed back and opened the tent and settled in for a couple days.


More to come later

 

The morning of the 3rd day we started exploring more.

We found a great lake, down a very rocky little road.




And up the path less traveled.

Through an alder thicket that got very close.

Later we turned around when the road petered out. But I enjoyed the ride none the less.
We stopped that evening at a new site which was awesome.
I will upload more later

 

And a little sneak peak of the new toy, which now has moved up more on the to do list.

Now a slide and tie down spots are necessary. Cause the 65 qt was bad enough to lug around.

 

After beating on my stock suspension all summer and blowing out both rear shocks I have had enough. Today I put in an order with All Pro Off-Road for a set of Apex springs, 12" shocks a flip kit and Timbren bump stops! Now just waiting for it to get all the way to the east coast!

 

If anyone has any experience with building a shock relocation setup I'd love their input. I would like to go with a /\ set up. But have heard that the on road manners can be a little rough. My question is will that also affect running down the dirt roads at higher speeds?

 

And today my new radiator landed from rockauto. I stove mine up bad last week and it emptied in about a minute. To stop this from happening again I purchased a new skid from all pro which will ship with my new rear suspension. I can't wait!

 

And they Christmas elves come by in the brown truck to deliver some cheer.
Expo springs are on flip kit is installed bumpstops are attached and it rides like butter. Though it rides a bit high in the back still I love it. I gained roughly 5" of lift but a ton of that was just bringing it back to stock hight I'm pretty sure.
Between baby games I'm working on building a relocation bar for the rear shocks and will have that wrapped by the end of the winter.


Now I can't wait for a little bit of snow to land. We are having a warm winter so far here in Maine, and looking at a 50 degree christmas.
Merry Christmas TW!

 

Well after a wonderful Christmas for my little girl we finally got some snow!


I went up onto my property no problem, and have to say the Fierce Attitude M/T are a great tire on snow, but the coming back down off the hill was a little more exciting. My fiancée was screaming your only on two tires!! Sliders FTW. Next time I'll slow down for some pictures.
Happy new year.

 

A question for anyone in the know...
I have installed the All-Pro Expo springs, and let me tell you they are great. They ride well on the road and once you hit the rough stuff they soak it all up.
The questions that I have come up with are will the shackle angle improve over time as the springs start to break in? Right now they are close to 85*.
As the springs move they allow the shackle to move just past vertical when the tire is just off the ground.



How do i fix both of these problems?
Do I have to cut the rear hangers off and weld on new ones?
And for anyone with these springs what are you running for shocks (length and mounting). I am working on a design for a shock mount behind the axle to run some 12" shocks as close to vertical as possible.



On the positive side I can now drop almost all of a 33" tire out from the wheel well and the bump stops soak up the worst I can find in total comfort.

 

There was a bit of weather that blew through my area last night. Winds gusted around 60mph and did a little damage.


This boat came from an island about 12 miles away. And it didn't appreciate the trip across the bay or the landing on the beach.

 

Turns out that $20 goes an awfully long way at my local machine shop. I got an hour on the equipment a quick lesson on the mill! Plus a little steel

 

Last night I finally got the last major part of my front bumper build fabricated.
I purchased an IFS skid plate from All-Pro when I got the expo springs then found out that because I haven't finished the bumper up I can't attach the skid plate. So off I went to Cox Machine Shop and had a blast. We cut a sheet of 3/16" to size then dropped it into the press brake and popped a 30* angle into the bottom edge. This lip will be the front mounting point for the skid. Anyone have a picture of how theirs looks on a NON All-Pro bumper? How did it end up mounting?
Then I got motivated to really finish this project up this winter, but before I go back to welding class, sobs hopped onto the mill and got a lesson on how to bore a 1" hole in a piece of 3/4" flat stock. They have a pattern there already for recovery points so it got a quick shaping on the auto cut machine.
I know that this may not look like a ton but boy wasn't it nice to do this myself (with a lot of direction). Sunday I will be pulling out the welder and going to town. My goals are to add the bash plate, weld on the recovery points, cut some tube for the return/ wings, and fab up a set of mounts for my light bar. Then if time allows I will hook my 21" bar to the rack facing backwards and a couple 4" round led lights up top facing forward for a little extra oomph.



The recovery points will actually be oriented 180* but close to where they are in this picture to keep the force as close to a straight line as possible with the frame mounts.

Here is the painted skid. I just used rustoleum gloss black. I've got piles of it around, and it's easy to spray more on when I get banged up!

I love working with steel, it seems so permanent and solid but with the right tools it cuts like butter and can be joined almost seamlessly.

 

I have finally found some time today to fire up the old Miller.

Ground off some mill scale.


And have started tacking it all together!

I'm not sure how I like the recovery points. They are strong as hell but the shape didn't look how I pictured. I'll weld them on and if they aren't good enough or bug me enough I'll cut them off.

Now it's time to get to burning it all together!

 

This is the coverage that would have saved my radiator from an untimely end.

I tried to hook the skid plate to the factory points but it looks like I have to aim for a different set of holes on the crossmember.

The rear set of holes are about 2" behind the ones I used.

I didn't crank the Allen screws down too hard. They seem to thread in a bit funny. I'll try to figure out what the correct thread pitch is.

 

I had to go back to work for a bit, but before that happened I wrapped up the bit I had started and took a stab at a grill guard.

It defiantly needs work, and j will keep tinkering on it but think I will finally invest in a tube roller and lop this try off and start again.
Today I took an hour to get to a bit of trail that I've run in about every truck I've owned, but never in the winter. What an experience. I can't get over how capable this truck is becoming.
First I checked how much I could stuff the front after I removed the sway bar.

The difference is noticeable but with nice springs and a light front end it still has great road manners.


I think I have freed up another 2" of front travel. And once on the trail I found out that I still need to clearance the front a bit.

Hills are always much steeper than a picture shows and this one is no exception.


While bounding up the hill I ran into a few of these little presents.



But after a few whacks with the trusty old axe the blow downs were all were cleared out. I didn't stop for every tree that was on the road, some were easily bypassed.
The wash outs on the road were not so avoidable and left almost no chance to take pictures. There was a lot of ice in amongst the rocks and this left little traction. I maintained a good bit of momentum throughly that section but did manage to catch a bit on the camera.







All in all this was a great little run to break the boredom of winter. The puppy agreed with me and liked to bounce about all the time.


Dropping into the tight sections had a bit of pucker factor but I had a blast.