Wombat and The Wanderer builds/BS/my insane ramblings.

Mine too...

I can’t complain to much welding keeps the lights on at my house so I bring it on myself.

 

Got some more done yesterday. Pulled the bumper off to finish it out. Decided to reuse the factory fog lights and I had some 4” exhaust tube left over from a diesel exhaust I built for a 12 valve swap I did a while back. Made some measurements and it made a nice bezel for them.





More later.

 

Watching paint dry...


I think the fog light pockets came out really nice.


I’ll let the paint dry overnight and install it back on the truck tomorrow....

 

@RebelliousOne


Sorry didn’t see your question in the quote. I have some things in the works. We will see in the next few months how it turns out on production of some of these parts.

 

you my man have talent!

 

had a few spare hours a couple of days to dedicate to getting my skids built. Decided on a solid IFS and transmission skid. Steel used is 3/16” mild steel. I’ll get to the transfer skid after I get my exhaust rerouted. Here are some progress pics. All fasteners on the bottom are either guarded or flush.

 

Thank you Sir. I just try to keep things clean and simple. Plus material is cheaper than parts and I have lots of tools and 14 days a month off work.

 

That works!!

 

So I built an aluminum platform for my camping gear trunks. Goals were to get them out of the cab, be as light as possible, fit under the bed cage and not take up bed floor space. I had an old server tower laying in the scrap material pile and 4 bed cleats I never use so those were both repurposed today. $Free.99 aluminum 1/2 bed platform not bad IMHO. Plus side is it is stout enough for me to stand on. The platform itself is not much to look at just some 3” aluminum channel and 2” aluminum angle bolted together. I used 5/16” eye bolts to secure it to the bed cleats and they double as tie down points for the trunks. Think I am going to mount my hi-lift to the back of it. May add a sheet of aluminum to the top of it later on but for now it is just rails for the ends of the trunks to set on. It does have provisions to keep the trunks from sliding around other than the straps. The lower layer of trunks will stay in place even without the straps on them.

 

that puppy looks very sturdy. i like those side plates. never seen that before. can see that making that front section rigid. how much does that weigh? I'm always trying something new under my truck so them multi piece skids keep me from breaking my ass.

 

It is just under 12 sq ft of 3/16” plate. So according to standard plate weight it should weigh 90-95 lbs. that is what jacks are for my man. I’d rather have a seamless skid when it come down to sliding over something or being hung up.

As for the side plates. I have had a downed limb ruin a perfectly good wheeling trip. Nothing like smelling coolant and hearing it pouring on the ground on the trail when a limb rips a coolant hose off.

 

Spent today prepping the truck for our trip to Colorado this coming Friday. Got the relocated the awning to the rear of the bed rack. Put the RTT back on the bed cage. Got my solar panel mounted on the roof rack, positioned for double duty as a air foil for the tent. Installed my new scene lights on the roof rack. Built my auxiliary battery mount and installed it. Wired in the batteries and solar charging controller. Rewired the roof rack and added Deutz connectors to everything up there. Put together my tool bag for the trip. It was a full day. Tomorrow I’ll do service work on the truck. Also I’ll check over the suspension and under carriage with a fine tooth comb.







I’ll get some more pics tomorrow while I am servicing the truck but after that I’ll be off tomorrow the grid for a couple of weeks in Colorado.

 

Update for pics.

Roof rack electrical junction box.

New scene lights.
Renogy solar control mounted to passenger kick panel.

 

Back from Colorado now and unloading the truck. Figured I’d post y’all some pics.


Our first road side camp in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was in the high 30s when we woke up this morning.


One of the lakes along the Highway of Legends.


We camped the second night at Hooper Pool hot springs. After all the driving the first day the hot spring was great. I got to catch up with some old friends there and we had a great time. Although my bald head did get a little sun burned.



Got up early on the third day and made our way to the GSDNP. The wife and I hiked the dunes for a while and then we headed for Medano Pass. Even though there was still remnants of the fire that devastated the area a few years back it was still absolutely beautiful.

More trip details later.

 

Ok more on the third day we did a lot of traveling up and over Medano pass then over to Westcliffe, CO.

Jim’s cool old IH200

Then took a few county and forest service roads through the Grape Creek wilderness area down into Florence, CO with a detour to the Bishop Castle to see how Jim Bishop was doing. 50 plus years of steady progress. What an achievement!






Made our way to the Phantom Canyon Road into Colorado Springs. Camera was charging so no pics along this route. All the camping areas were full in this area This kind of changed our plans along with several areas being closed to dispersed camping due to the fire bans. Pikes Peak was closed for the races so we hiked the Manitou Incline, went to the Cliff Dwellings and wondered around the Garden of the Gods.

 

Day four we head out on Rampart Range road to Estes Park even though they had the dispersed camping shut down along the road it was worth it. We wound up camped on Pole Hill road above Estes Park. There is a power line that runs over the range there may be why they call it pole hill???





We rolled down hill into Estes Park and then on to RMNP to drive the trail ridge road on day five. The wife loved this part of the trip even though it was in the 40s up at the top. The Park was as beautiful as I remember it with the exception of all the mini van “campers” and there total disrespect for nature in general. The sound of the wind through the Pondarosa pines made up for the annoyance.















Day six we found our way down into Grand Lake and I had a surprise for the wife there. This was the only night we didn’t camp on the trip. I had booked the “Ford” cabin at the Grand Lake Lodge. She was happy to not have to help set up camp and we had a great evening Touristing down town Grand Lake.


This turned out to be a great trip out. It was really good to have my little wife with me this time she generally sits out the long trips like this but I think I made a believer out of her with this one.

Day 7 we got up and had our coffee, I aired the tires up for highway travel the last time and we head Southeast for home. Stopped off at Hiker trailer in Denver to take a look at their products. Ran up on a storm in Pueblo, CO so we stopped for a bite to eat to give it time to calm down. Glad that we did because they got an inch or so of hail in Trinidad,CO just before we got there. That storm followed us as far as Amarillo,TX. Then I lost track of it in my rear view to the darkness. After that is was fuel and coffee stops till morning when We rolled into our drive way. Great time, greater memories.

 

Seen a taco looked just like your this weekend. You been hanging out at surfside ?

 

I wish.... I was soaking wet all weekend but it was sweat not the Gulf waves.

Dragline repair is hot nasty work. Pretty sure the type of work I do is the reason I love the wide open spaces so much. Spend most of my working days cooped up in a shop welding on 88 or 112 yard Esco/VR Steel dragline buckets. Hot, loud and dirty. The rest of the time we are working on the machines themselves. Ringing and rope work is back breaking. Gear boxes are greasy, filthy and tedious.
The best part of the job is the time off. Only working 14 days out of 28 is great. Of course there is a lot of overtime that keeps me tied down but it still gives us time to wander about.

 

Man, this thing has come a long way!!! Very well done. Hope to see it live one day!