NightMares 01 Sport Build

[NightMares]

I feel like I always come to this thread and just like posts on this fantastic truck while you write novels and share all your thoughts and plans. This, to me, is the most active and thought out truck build on this forum. Everything you do to it has a purpose and plan and it gets used like it should.

The tent looks like an awesome idea. I love those type of tents and I like the "porch" and "room" that go along with it. The pictures you posted look perfect especially if you will be carrying quite a few things and will have the family with you. Do they come with a foam pad or something already to sleep on?

The bumper looks great and the winch will be useful to have especially since you use your truck quite often as a recovery vehicle. I love the red pro link hook you put on there. Do you have a night picture with all your lights on? That would be cool to see.

Can the coil buckets be fixed with a little grinding or will it have to be something a bit more involved? Big flex problems.

Lastly, are you getting your new brake lines in stainless or just regular lines. Stainless would be awesome!

Thanks for the kick ass thread man and keep the updates coming!

Well thanks for the compliment man. I’m trying to keep the truck for the most part simple and functional, with some slight style to attract attention. There’s some “mall crawler” or “street queen” features on it, but at any rate those select items are still fully functional. The red rock lights, white would ultimately be more functional, but the red gives it some flare and they’re still functional so there’s not much to argue with there. The LEDConcepts halo's on the Dually's in the bumper look cool for pictures, but when set on amber how I usually run them, they work great for daytime running lights (which gets me a discount on insurance too haha).

The tent and awning with the room will be nice for camping trips. I now don’t have to have a camper, or pack a giant tent. It’ll be a while before we’re taking my youngest daughter with us who’s currently 3 months old, but my 4 year old and 3 year old can either sleep in the annex or in the pop up tent with us. The tent pops up in a matter of a few minutes, the awning sets up in under a minute, and the separate room attaches to the legs of the awning, then step inside it and set up the poles and it’s done. The mosquito net just clips onto the poles as well, so I can have the entire “camp” setup within a half hour and torn down almost just as fast.

I don’t actually have a night shot with ALL the lights on, but I have a few pics with some of the lights on. I’ll try to grab some here in the near future with everything lit up at night, problem is it’s daylight at 6am here and isn’t dark until almost 10, and by then I’m usually getting ready for bed. I’ll post what I have at the bottom of this.

The coil buckets I’m at a stand still with. I’ve changed the shocks for this several times, and now I’m kinda leaning towards not touching anything. I don’t want to put a factory location shock back in, as it’ll limit my travel more than it’s current setup as the secondary shocks have almost 12 inches of travel while the others are only around 9 inches. When I first noticed the drivers shock leaking, I immediately did a warranty request and put those shocks in the back room at work awaiting install. Shortly after, I decided if I was going to swap them I was going to do the Fox, so the warranty shocks got stocked and I paid the difference for the Fox 2.0 shocks. Then we came across another set of Fox 2.0 with remote reservoir shocks in the back room, all 4 of them had no pressure but are able to be rebuilt, they’re also a lot nicer shocks. So I traded my boss the 4 Fox 2.0’s for the resi’s and went to the shop and had a coworker try to charge them with nitrogen, and 3 of them are fine but one leaked out within minutes of being charged. So I’ve been waiting to rebuild them, they’ll work with 7” of lift on my truck, so I need to get my priorities straight on this before further pursuing anything. If I decide to keep the resi’s, while rebuilding them I want to send the parts that are currently anodized blue to get redone in red, paint the shock bodies black, and have new Fox stickers replicated in red to finish off the look of the truck. The springs were going to be DOR 7” progressive rate springs that I would get powder coated red, which will look good next to the shocks. Here’s my problem. My boss was happy to get rid of the resi’s so he won’t want to trade back, but I really think instead of grinding the coil bucket or modifying the shock mount, I’d rather just do the Fox 2.5 coilovers and call the front end done. I can set it wherever I want, ranging in height from 5” to 8” of lift, it’s also been my main goal all along to do. So, at this time, I’ve found a set of 2” round shock body BDS shocks that I purchased to swap into the front in order to get this issue resolved for right now while I wait to figure out which route I’m going next.

Brake lines is actually a new update. The company that was going to build them called over and to do them in braided steel it was another 80 bucks in material, which he was already pretty high in price at first compared to just ordering in some Skyjacker lines. What I wound up doing last night was while at the shop putting the stickers on the truck, I started looking around at the lines and found a bracket that was on the frame rail right next to the coil bucket. I popped the bracket out and used a tube clamp and mounted it on the upper side of the upper control arm. From here, I shouldn’t need brake lines as of now. I will still need to do the posi-lok, but flexing it passenger up like posted previously it showed close to what full articulation is.

I’m shooting for 45” of clearance when flexed out, the 2” round shocks should give me another 2” or so there. The bump stops in the front are about 3” away, but the shock will actually bottom before those so I shouldn’t have an issue there. All I really need to do to gain the additional 5” will be in the rear, which I’m thinking temporarily I might throw the 5” rear block kit I have on it, then remove another leaf out of the pack. It’ll hurt my load capacity, but this summer I don’t plan on towing with it so I should be fine for a little bit. If I can get the rear springs just to flex a little more I think it’ll work out.

Currently the truck has more articulation than a competing local off road shop and their built TJ on 37’s, which on their RTI ramp got up to 34” before it picked up the back tire. Of course wheelbase wise it still has a better advantage over mine, but I’d say for a full size Dodge I’m doing pretty damn good.

 

[PassivAggressor]

Pretty crazy how much travel it has. I like all the red lights! That truck tent sounds so much easier than a regular tent if it is that fast. Keep the updates coming man. I like how much detail each of your posts have. Don't forget about the flex thread either!!

 

[NightMares]

Alright so I kinda jumped the gun and pulled the trigger on an awning. Reason being, I have the X Rocks event this weekend, and while prepping and packing yesterday I discovered we somehow lost our pop ups.

So rather than rush to the store to buy one, I decided to order in what was available to get overnight, which is the ARB 2000m awning. I also ordered the touring room with floor and roof, but that won't be here till next week, which I won't need this weekend anyways.

So last night I snatched up my camper shell, then today got the truck washed and detailed, then around 3:00 went to the shop and threw the awning on.

I'll still be doing the Tepui Tent on the top, but for now I'll skip out on their awning with the separate room and mosquito room. Not to mention this setup this whole setup cost me less than $500 for everything, so there's that.

No pics of it setup yet, just installed then rushed back to the store to get loaded up. Also, for one of the first times, I think the camper shell looks *******. Mostly due to the TireGate, but it looks a whole hell of a lot better than it did before.

 

[PassivAggressor]

Sick. I love that over landing look! I've been thinking of going camper top on mine but don't know how good it would look. Are you thinking of putting some type of storage setup in the bed of the truck?

 

[NightMares]

Sick. I love that over landing look! I've been thinking of going camper top on mine but don't know how good it would look. Are you thinking of putting some type of storage setup in the bed of the truck?

At this time no. With the TireGate open I can reach in and touch unlock the adventure box in the front of the bed, I do have to climb in to access it once it's opened but that's not a big deal. I also have the swing case that is mounted right behind the drivers wheel well that holds a lot of smaller stuff, so cargo wise I have plenty of storage for my needs in the bed of the truck.

Update for the awning. Wicked. First time setting up took me less than a couple minutes to do, and that's without instructions. Very sturdy for an awning, other people at the events were having to hold or tie their pop up's down with additional rope, mine I left unattended a couple times throughout each day and it never once had an issue with just the pair of ropes it came with. Can't wait to get the touring room, which should be here Thursday.

The show went well, truck got a ton of attention. Finally met quite a few of the people planning this Rubicon trip with me for the first time over the weekend from the clubs I posted in. Also enjoyed the show as well.

 

[Pull Ya]

There is a couple of those pictures that the participants seem to have a problem trying to figure out which way is up?????? Thank God for roll bars and 5 point harnesses. Looks like you had plenty of shade----
Thanks for the pic's
Jay

 

[NightMares]

There is a couple of those pictures that the participants seem to have a problem trying to figure out which way is up?????? Thank God for roll bars and 5 point harnesses. Looks like you had plenty of shade----
Thanks for the pic's
Jay

There were a ton of recoveries over the weekend. Being alone at my booth I had a hard time getting away to watch the event, let alone take pics or videos. I got one video of a dude I give mad credit for. Lost a cylinder on his crawler at an event a few weeks ago, couldn't finish the third course, so he goosed it hard up the tabletop and flipped it backwards just to put on a show for the spectators.

Last year he did the same thing, only it was not intentional and it was insane to see.

But yes, I enjoyed my awning a lot out there haha.


Couple updates.

1) Pretty big for this one. I called Dodge Off Road to get a quote, and I really think I'm going to do it. They can build custom arms, and I really want to stretch my wheelbase a slight amount, but I can't do that with the BDS as the arms are not adjustable. So, I called them to first see what it would cost to get just adjustable lower arms, and adjustable short upper arms. After talking to them for a little while yesterday, we came to the conclusion that I had to get exact measurements of the arms on my truck so they can custom build them, as their arms are wider than the BDS coming in at almost 3.5" wide where the arm slips into the brackets. So, I crawled around and grabbed my measurements, then called back and after talking to them a while and let them know what it's currently flexing at and how I'm looking to bump that up a little more as well, we decided that the traditional long arm for these trucks (long lower short upper) is not ideal for what I want. Unfortunately, the BDS frame brackets I had welded on which I first regretted, but instead we've decided to utilize what I have on there now and have them build me some custom Y links to go in instead.

For those who don't know what a Y link is, here's a photo.



Basically it utilizes a single lower arm, then the upper arm attaches to the lower arm of the vehicle rather than back to a frame bracket. Allows for something more like this while flexing



Or the Iron Rock Off Road setup for ZJ's



I gave them the dimensions for the arms and they're going to work up a hard number quote, but right now as a rough estimate I'm looking at around $600 for the arms which all in all is not bad. Between the BDS and the DOR parts, I'll still have spent less than what it would cost to do the DOR extreme bent kit would have ran me. So we'll see what they come back at me with and we'll go from there.

If the numbers look good, then I'm thinking I'm going to order in their bolt on steering kit as well, which will eliminate all the tie rods and replace it with DOM tubing and heim joints which would be easier to replace on the trails, along with being a lot stronger in general.



Update 2) I'm finally in the market for a new truck. Looking for something I can daily drive, tow with, hunt, camp, fish, etc. I know I'm looking for a 3/4 ton truck of some sort, either Ford or Dodge. After spending weeks browsing around I think I've finally narrowed it down to 3 different trucks, all 3rd gen Ram 2500's quad cab short beds.

1st truck: 2005 Ram 2500 Power Wagon - This is the main truck I'm looking at. I went and test drove it in Mountain Home this morning, and it's ideally what I'm looking for. With this truck, I can essentially do almost anything my current truck can do, and I can focus on building my 01 into something a little more. But the Power Wagon I'd be able to take anywhere, the 5.7 will be capable of pulling what I need it to, and it's already got some basics on it I would want to do, which would be gears and lockes. Also, the leather would make it easier to clean up after the kids with, as I’m finding out the hard way in my 01 that crayons and chocolate is a major pain in the ass to try to get out. If this is the truck I pick up, I’ll keep it somewhat basic. Leveling kit, 20’s and 35’s, and Fusion front and rear bumpers. With the new fab being 4th gen bumper swaps on 2nd and 3rd gen Rams, I’m thinking I’ll have Fusion incorporate in the 4th gen fog lights instead of doing the dually’s like my 01 has. I’ll also have them eliminate the winch plate, but put the fairlead hole and keep the winch in the factory location and run it out the front bumper. Maybe get into a custom headlight build, led tail lights, and then just call it good.













2nd truck: 2006 Ram 2500 – This is the 2nd truck in the running, and my 2nd favorite choice. The wheels will go quick, but it’s the 5.9 Cummins and it’ll be a truck that can pull whatever I want, so I’ll never be limited by what I need to haul. Plus the only thing right now I have I need to pull is my 01, which the diesel will be ideal for. The only downside is I won’t be hauling my 01 very often, and I don’t intend on getting anything large to pull in the nearish future, so a diesel truck really is overkill for my needs, plus the cloth will require seat covers to protect from the kidlets. Not to mention I’m a bigger fan of the earlier 3rd gen headlights and interior. But a diesel would be nice to have around, although I’m not a very power hungry guy so very basic upgrades would be done to it. Overall for this truck if it were to be the one, I’d leave it with the stock bumpers and just do leveling kit, 20’s and 35’s, and the custom headlights and led tail lights.













3rd truck: 2004 Ram 2500 – This is a truck that I keep getting drawn to for some reason. I really dislike Ranch Hand bumpers, but I was driving through Nampa the other day and saw it parked at the dealership and I really had to swing in to take a look to cure my curiosity. It’s seriously like brand new, and it’s got a lot of the basics done to it that I would already want to do performance wise, leaving that not needed in the future. I’m not a big fan of the color, but like I said, for some reason I like the truck, and it’s the cheapest out of the 3 I’m looking at, by 5 grand actually. The downside I have with this truck is as stated, the color, cloth interior, and again I really don’t need a diesel. But if I wind up with, I’ll start with trying to trade the Ranch Hand for a nice looking stock bumper, then do the same wheels, tires, and lighting as the other Cummins. If I can’t trade the bumper (which I don’t foresee being an issue to be honest) I’ll probably wind up going Fusion with the 4th gen fog lights and a matching rear bumper.

 

[NightMares]

I couldn't get financing I agreed with on any of the trucks, so instead I took my down payment I saved up and invested into making my current truck closer to what I want.

I finally said **** it to all of this suspension back and forth nonsense. Finally placed the order this morning. I've decided I'm going to forget about doing the 4 link in the rear and coilovers all the way around for the time being. That's a huge project that will render my truck difficult to daily drive, and right now I don't want to progress down that road. I just want capable and daily use friendly.

Here's what I ordered in this morning:

DOR 7" Progressive Rate Coil Springs
DOR Lower Adjustable Long Arms (cut 1" longer than my BDS)
DOR Upper Adjustable Short Arms (cut 1" longer than my BDS)
DOR Bolt In Steering Kit
Fox 2.0 Remote Reservoir Shocks w/DSC Adjusters

Front is going with my original plan of the DOR 7" progressive rate coil springs. Rear I'm going to keep my shackle flip and swap the 3" factory blocks for some 5" and throw the single leaf back in it to level the truck back out. DOR is starting the control arm project of extended arms that will bolt straight in to replace the BDS arms, and they're also going to do custom steering for the truck as well. The main tie rod that will run from knuckle to knuckle is going to have two bends in it to ensure it clears the track bar. Basically what I'm doing is stretching the axle forward about 2" to recenter the wheel in the wheel well, along with increase my approach angle. I might have to put my BD Diesel track bar in the tube bender to ensure clearance of the pumpkin, but I'll fight that battle when I get there. At 7" of lift I shouldn't have any issues, but there's a slight chance. All DOR parts are being shipped raw steel, from there I'll send it off to powder coat to have them done red.

I decided to part ways with my Fox remote resi shocks I already acquired due to cost of them. By the time I had them installed on truck, I'll be $1100 into them. For $1320 I can I have the DSC adjusters and have them brand new. With these shocks, I can stiffen or soften them by just turning a knob on the reservoir. For road trips and long distances, I can bump them up to make it more stable at higher speeds, and obviously soften them for off road use so I don't lose any teeth.

The only item I have yet to 100% decide on is stabilizer vs hydro assist steering. If I go stabilizer, I'll use the Fox ATS pass through that's designed to fit on the 3rd gen Rams or JK Jeeps. The ATS has the DSC adjuster like the shocks, so I can fine tune it to tighten the pressure against the steering, or soften it. The ATS will also match with the shocks, plus it will be more daily driver friendly.

On the other side I'm considering going with the AGR hydro assist steering. Main reason I'm considering it is for off road purposes...I do struggle with turning the wheel while on the rocks, hydro assist will help a ton with that. Also, it replaces the steering box with something a hell of a lot stronger than stock, and it also replaces the power steering pump, so I won't have to worry about replacing those down the road. The down side to doing this setup is both cost, as well as DD friendly. Hydro assist will be very touchy, on top of being very unstable at 75+ on the interstate, rendering me unable to take longer trips with the truck.

I'm about 90% sure I want to do the ATS on it, when I need to replace the steering box I'll do it with the AGR and cap off the ports to keep it how it is for now, but have the ability to do hydro assist in the future.

Once the suspension is complete, I'll save up again and order in the 17" TrailReady beadlocks, which will be black wheels with anodized red rock rings.

One small update I think I forgot to mention is I picked up a set of 37x12.50x17 Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires a few weeks back. Guy ordered them online on a massive sale of some kind, but once they got here he decided he wanted to go 35's instead. Whoever he ordered them from wanted $75 a piece to ship back, so he so took a $50 loss per tire and sold them to my boss for $1000 for all 4. I picked them up for $1100. So all I'll need is the 5th tire to go on the TireGate and then it's done.

Some smaller updates for the truck. Decided I'm going to do a small basket on top of the spare tire. Plan is to order one for a Jeep TJ that bolts to the factory tailgate, and instead drill the holes and bolt it to the TireGate. That will give me a small basket that can hold a cooler or something on top of the tire, rather than have one sliding around or taking up the bed space.

Also decided to switch up the lighting on the front of the truck. Currently I have some D2 hyperspots to accommodate the SAE's, but the problem is they're honestly useless to me. I have the Rigid Radiance that's a spot pattern, and it over powers the D2's. I can't run them on the street, the only time I can run them is the same time I can run the light bar, which washes it out. So, I've decided I'm going to remove the LEDConcept halo's out of the D2's, and build some amber Rigid Dually flood lights. From there, I can run the halo's as usual, but wire in the amber flood's with the SAE's. When I pull my switch for the fog lights, both the SAE's and the ambers come on. We just setup another truck like this a few weeks ago and he just swung in today to order more parts, to which he told me it's the best setup he's ever had. The amber lights will light up in the snow, fog, whatever, while the SAE's light up the road's just fine. The amber's are a bit dimmer than the SAE's, which means I won't be haggled by the cops, so this will give me two things. One, a cooler look at night if I decide to run the fog lights. Also, free's up the toggle on my CTS2.

I have a set of the flush mount faces for the Rigid Dually lights, so here's what I'm thinking. Replace the normal face of the D2's I'm taking out of the bumper with the flush mounts, then order in a set of flush mount diffused dually's. From there, I can mount the D2's in the camper shell towards the cab of the truck, then mount the diffused towards the tailgate of the truck. I can hook the 4 up to the single toggle on the CTS2, and from there be able to illuminate not only up close by the truck, but see in the distance to the side of the truck. I'll make a custom harness that runs a single plug on the bed of the truck, that way when I pull the shell off I just unhook one plug and call it good.



Pretty pleased with my plans for all this. It's a lot to think about and go over, but as I said before, I like to express my visions to the best of my ability.

 

[PassivAggressor]

Damn! I was too late to the new truck post! I was about to post about it and I kept scrolling haha. Glad you're just putting more money into the truck though. So you aren't going with the Y piece control arm setup anymore? It looked pretty promising from the pictures you posted. Thats a steal for those tires btw!!!

 

[NightMares]

No Y link for the front. DOR would physically need to have my truck with them in order to build them, that way then could ensure angles are correct, alignment is possible, axle is centered, and everything will be functioning properly. Someday I’m going to 4 link the rear, when I go down that road I’ll build my own custom Y Link arms for the front, and set the rear up in a similar sense of a 3 link, which will be two lower arms on the outside of the axle tubes, and the two upper arms coming in like an A to the top of the pumpkin. At that point I’ll be doing coilovers, more than likely eliminate the sway bar in the front, and do my hydro assist steering. When all this comes, the truck won’t be my daily driver, so long trips will only be done with it on a trailer.

For now, replacing the BDS arms with adjustable DOR’s that are 1” longer will center my axle in the wheel well, and maybe get a little more flex out of it with the combination of bumping it to the 7” of lift. Should also ride pretty good as well.


Another fun update inspired by Derek and his truck, I decided recently what roof rack I’m going to use now that I’ve dropped the frontrunner and Tepui tent stuff. Going with that classic overland look, doing the Smittybilt Defender series on the truck. The rack will be 5 feet wide and 9 feet long, spanning across both the cab and the shell. I’ll use 6 total mounts (3 down each side) on just the shell that will bolt through. Over the cab, I’m going to use 4 (2 down each side) hydraulic bump stops that I’ll bolt to the bottom of the rack, and have it rest on the roof of the truck. With doing this it gives me two things: 1) removal of the shell will be as easy as it is now due to the fact I’ll have nothing to unbolt off the truck. The rack will just rest on the cab; and 2) flexing the truck won’t rip the mounts out, crinkle the sheetmetal on the roof, or crack the fiberglass on the shell. The hydraulic bump stops will allow the rack to flex with the bed, so there will be nothing up there “tying them together” so to say.

The rack will still be a while, as I have other stuff I’d need to acquire and build before I’m ready for it. But accessories would include:

One 50” Rigid Midnight Series across the front
Two pairs of Rigid Dually Spots with 2 facing out of each side of the rack
Two pairs of Rigid Dually Diffused with one facing out of each side, and a pair facing out the back of the rack
One pair of Rigid Dually Floods with one facing out each side of the rack

The idea if you were to look at the truck from the side and scroll front to back would be Spot, Flood, Diffused, Spot. All of these combined would give me more than enough lighting for both distance and up close.

Before I could do any of this, I need to get the SPOD I’ve had lying around for a few months now setup, which requires me building my center console. The console will house my Android double din stereo, and where the factory stereo goes I’m going to relocate the Edge CTS2 and the SPOD side by side.

But yeah, should be cool when done.

 

[NightMares]

So I guess I should just shut my mouth when I say I have other priorities coming before something. I got to discussing on the event page for my Rubicon trip about who is bringing what, and being that I’m one of 2 trucks (potentially the only truck) going on this trip, and we’re going for a minimum of 3 days, potentially 4, all the gear that’s being brought will be a little heavy to haul for community supply between us all. In other words, one guy has two 7 gallon water containers that he wants to bring, along with a supply of firewood, etc. Plus all the food, cooking gear, etc. A lot of the vehicles coming are not built for camping like this, so they don’t have the room to haul all their own gear and such. I originally offered to assist with helping to haul some stuff, but I was already limited on space considering my camper shell, adventure box and swing case. I don’t have a ton of bed space available, and the trail rack will only have the space to haul a single cooler.

So, I wound up ordering in my roof rack. I got the Defender from Smittybilt, 9’ by 5’ with the light cage for the front. I ordered another pair of the eBay special 9” LED lights like what were on the MOVE bumper previously, and I’m trading my little brother a 20” light bar for the two that I already had. All 4 will be spot, as I don't want any floods above the roof to prevent glare on the windshield and hood. With my headlights, SAE's and amber Dually's, I'll have plenty of flood range up front. With the Radiance and four 9" spots, I'll have plenty of long distance light going forward.

To prevent damage to my roof of the truck considering the rack won’t be bolted down, just resting on the roof with some bump stops, I’ve decided at the same time I raptor line my camper shell to match, I’m also going to go ahead and raptor line the roof of the truck as well. This should prevent the rubber bump stops from wearing through the paint and causing rust issues up there. I’m also going to find or build some easy brackets to mount my hi lift jack, shovel and axe on the sides of the rack as well. Don’t feel like spending almost $200 when I can use some bolts on the jack, and some u-bolts for the axe and shovel. This will move those from the backside of my TireGate, which means I can build my prep table there for easy cooking and stuff while out camping. The table will be a very, very simple build. Just a sheet of thin metal, bolt on some hinges to connect it to the TireGate, some bolts through the gate and table with 2 wing nuts to hold it up, then have some small chain cut to length. I posted something down below of all this to give a better idea. I’ll be doing all this at the time of install of the roof rack, which should be here within the next 2 weeks. At this time, I’ll also be cutting the 4 square holes in the camper shell and installing the flush mount lights and building my wiring harness. For the time being, I'm freeing up that single toggle on my CTS2 by replacing the Hyperspots with amber's that will wire in with the factory fog light harness, so I'll be hooking up the 4 9" lights to that one toggle. For the lights going in the side of the camper shell, I'm thinking I'm going to run just two positive/negative leads into the bed of the truck direct from the battery, hook up each side on their own setup, then actually put toggle switches in the bed of the truck by the rear glass of the shell. It won't be ideal for driving with them, but for setting up and illuminating camp it will work out fine. When I do the SPOD I'll cut the leads and hook them up and bypass the switches, but for now it will work out.

On the subject of lights, but slightly changing the subject, I ordered in some different Rigid Dually’s to replace the hyperspots instead of the floods. Went with the Rigid D2 driving lights, which is a wide spread like the SAE’s that are already there. I can point them down to match the SAE’s and it should illuminate equally between the 4.

So looks like Safari Shell is coming quicker than expected.

Here's some photo's.

This is a similar idea to the prep table, only I won't need it to have a sliding piece. I'll have it around 40" long, so it'll work out. Thinking I'll paint the face of it red, so when it's folded up and driving it blocks the openings in the TireGate and shine through red.



Couple photo's of the Rack. Mine is for "motorhomes and vans" and will be full length, from the back of the shell to just before the windshield. But it gives you a good idea of what it looks like.







And for those who don't remember what the 9" LED's looked like before the bumper fiasco, here's a reminder.




So yeah. Should look like a pretty wicked overland rig when all said and done.

 

[NightMares]

Some fun, and some not so fun, updates.

I mentioned earlier on here that I was trying to open up my own little shop branched off of my buddy’s detail shop. Unfortunately, those plans have fallen through. After some hard thinking, weighing pros and cons, I have decided it’s time I start a career at 26 years old rather than continue to work a dead end job before it consumes me.

So I’ve spent weeks researching and thinking hard, and I finally got a job offer in a field I can potentially spend the rest of my life at. I’m might be starting July 18th as an Electrician’s apprentice, which I’m gaining $2.00 an hour with until I get promoted up to a general electrician. We’ll see what happens as my current boss at first didn’t seem to want to try to fight to keep me, but over the weekend and today he’s seemed to be going the extra mile pretty hard to get me stay. So, we’ll see what happens with everything over the course of the next week or so.

With change of careers, that obviously means the truck build would slow down…heavily. No longer getting discounts or easy access to the parts, along with the fact that majority of the rest of my build is pretty big upgrade items. So, with my 2 weeks in place a few days ago, I decided last Friday to get what’s needed for the truck to finish off what parts I already have or am expecting to get.

Currently on its way as of Friday is my Fox ATS steering stabilizer, a Smittybilt Overland Tent and Smittybilt Annex, ARB 2000 Awning and 2000 Mosquito Room, a Smittybilt hawse fairlead light bar mount, a Rigid 10” SR Series light bar, 4 SR-M2 diffused flush mounts, and a 5th Goodyear Wrangler MT/R 37x12.50x17 tire.

The ATS is to complete my DOR steering, I ordered the stabilizer that mounts on a 3rd gen 2500 Ram as I’ll have to do some custom fab work to get it fit anyways. The overland tent and annex will be mounted on the truck going off the rear, annex giving cover over the back of the truck giving space to have clothes or whatever in the bed of the truck, also allow a shower to happen if wanted, etc. The awning is the same one I already have, I’ll be mounting that off the passenger side of the camper shell. I ordered the same awning so I can alternate which side I want to mount the touring room or mosquito room depending on where I need to setup camp.

Lighting wise I ordered in the hawse fairlead mount and the 10” Rigid SR Series light bar. I did the flood series so I can try to illuminate that dead spot between my SAE’s and the Radiance spot pattern. The SR-M2 flush mounts are diffused and I’m going to put them in the side of the camper shell instead of the Dually lights. The diffused is designed to illuminate small area’s with a lot of light.

My plan for wiring all of these is pretty simple.

On my CTS2 I’m going to wire in the following:

LEDConcepts Halo’s (both headlights and dually’s)
Dually spots in bumper
ARB Compressor
ARB Locker

On my SPOD will be the following:

Radiance backlight
Radiance light bar
9” High Intensity lights on roof rack
Diffused lights in shell
Rock lights

Then little oddball stuff like heated seat warmers, etc. The off road lights I’m putting on the SPOD so I can control the brightness of them. Setting up camp would require the diffused on at 100% but while eating or playing cards or something, full power might be a little too much. Same thing if I’m following someone and needing just a little more light, I can turn the brightness down on the lights giving me the edge of seeing, but not overpowering the person in front of me.

The 5th tire is obviously for the spare to go with the four tires I bought about a month ago.

At this point I’ll have everything I need to do all the suspension, steering, and be ready by next summer for some real overlanding trips minus the wheels for the tires. Without having a job in this field any longer, I’m thinking I’ll just order in some plain black 17” steel wheels, something like a 17x10 with a 4” backspace, then do the DIY beadlocks on them and have the rings powder coated red. A DIY kit runs about $400 for a set of 5, and a 17x10 steel wheel usually sells for around $120 a piece. That’s about a $1000 in beadlocks compared to ordering in the TrailReady’s like I had planned at about $528 per wheel. The only thing TrailReady I will use are their RADS, or Rapid Air Down Valve system that replace the valve stems. Basically I can air down my tires to a set pressure by twisting the valve. It’ll air down to say 10 pounds, then stop when it hits that pressure. From there just turn the valve and hit the trails. Easiest system out there, although not DOT approved, however beadlocks really aren’t either so meh.

Until I get ready to do all this suspension upgrades and stuff, I’m just going to use the truck as is and finally sit back and enjoy it. The way it sits, it’s very capable and I should focus more on using it for what I built it for rather than the “what can I do next” mindset. The only stuff I’m going to worry about getting done it quickly is the roof rack and getting the sliders built. Everything else I have coming can stock pile in a corner of my garage until I’m ready to do all the suspension work.


As for an update as to what I’ve done with it, the only real thing that’s happened was another full front end build on the motor. I noticed a puddle of coolant under the motor the other day. Crawling around underneath it I figured it was a leak on the bottom of the water pump. So I went ahead and bought a new seal and decided to tear into it this past 4th of July weekend. After further tear down, I found that the timing cover I replaced months ago had cracked. So, further tear down to get the cover off, quick run to OhReally to get it warrantied out, finding out the location closest to me was out of stock, so a trip across town to get the cover and get home to get it all installed and running again at midnight. Always fun.

I also went ahead and bought two electric fans, a thermostat and an auxiliary transmission cooler while at the parts store. Plan was to replace the mechanical fan with an 18” electric fan ran off the thermostat, then do the auxiliary cooler and I have a 10” to go in front of that to push air through wired up to a switch. I had planned on doing all this while reassembly of the timing cover, but by about 10:30 when it was pitch black outside and working with just a flashlight I decided rather than getting into wiring and crap I’d just do it when I do my plenum in the next few weeks. Also pretty sure I need to do new plugs again as we took the truck to Council, Idaho yesterday and while climbing a 6% grade for 2 miles I had some pretty nasty spark knock.

So hopefully the weekend before I start my new job I can get the plenum gasket done, new plugs, and get into doing the e-fans and wiring. This weekend I’m dedicating my time to the slider build, and hopefully get a little river fishing in with the wife and kids.

 

[NightMares]

Not sure if I ever updated here about the Cranium Spider rear diff guard, but I finally told them to shove it and give me a refund. I ordered the part months ago, and every time I call for an update I was told a different story. So I’ve been trying to find something to put on the back that will be similar to the ARB, but didn’t have luck until I was talking to one of my gear reps today.

I was talking about rear covers, and somehow we got on the subject of c clip eliminators for the 9.25 and how Yukon used to have a kit, but no longer do. I was telling him that was my main concern for this truck was snapping a shaft and having my wheel walk out from under me. Then we circled back around to the diff covers, and cheap “insurance” to prevent the c-clips from breaking. Nitro Gear & Axle have what they call a Girdle cover which is aluminum like the ARB, but it’s something special as well. In the face of the cover it has two bolts that come through, both attach to some arms that line up with the bearing caps of the axle shafts coming through to the carrier. Basically you install the cover, then crank down on the bolts in the cover to apply some heavier pressure to these caps. One of the biggest causes for a c clip to snap is from the flexing of the shaft. Applying pressure to the bearings there will help prevent flexing inside the pumpkin which in theory should help keep the c-clips from snapping.

So, it’s on its way, should be here Friday. Hoping to have it painted red to match the ARB Friday night and install both covers sometime this weekend.

 

[NightMares]

So a console build is not a top priority at the moment, so I've figured out my SPOD and mounting location so I can get that ball rolling on wiring everything up.

I installed my Pumpkin double din android stereo in my suburban a while back, so I've been watching for another one to peak my interest. I came across one for bidding about 3 days ago, normally the identical stereo sold for more than $260 and I threw a bid on it for $189. I won the stereo tonight. Went ahead and bought a new dash bezel to go with it, gonna install it on the factory location, mimicking this guys build from YouTube.

Since the stereo has GPS, that means I can remove my Garmin from my a-pillar gauge mount and mount the SPOD there. I'll relocate the CTS2 & SPOD to the center console when i find the time and will to build one.


Also came across a deal on a trail rack for above the spare tire. Member of the local off road club sold his jeep and was selling all the accessories he had lying around. Picking this up tomorrow for 50 bucks, which means i can cancel my order for the warrior rack, save $375 bucks and not have to wait another week for it to get here.

 

[PassivAggressor]

Good luck with the job. Hopefully it doesn't slow you down too much. I usually don't care about audio or screens but will look slick in your truck and really make it feel more modern.

 

[NightMares]

I'm not a huge fan of stereo's, but I used to be. Before I got married and had kids I had no back seat in my last truck and built a custom box with 2 15” subs, each powered by their own 1500w amp, 6x9’s wired to an amp, all kinds of craziness. But I’ve outgrown that scene, all I have right now is two Kicker C10’s under the back seat with the remote bass knob turned down majority of the time, just enough to make everything sound good. I hardly ever listen to songs that “bump” anyways.

Main reason I want a stereo like this is for the features a stereo like this would hold. I can download custom maps and actually have trail maps instead of just street maps. I can get a dash cam that feeds directly to the stereo, and I can choose when to record and actually record and delete directly from the vehicle without having to find another place to mount a screen somewhere. I can download my music directly to the stereo for long trips, or search and download music off wifi hot spotted off my phone and never have to plug an SD or USB into a computer to do it. I can download movies purchased onto it for the kiddo’s to watch and not have to deal with switching DVD’s, or even keep DVD’s in the truck. Backup camera not only for general use, but for off road use. I plan on putting the camera exactly where my license plate is, and I have those CSI’s wired into my backup lights on my truck so I can see on the trails at night while backing up, which is particularly nice considering the shell and spare tire make seeing out the back difficult. I wanted a new stereo anyways as the Bluetooth feature on my soundstream stereo sucks major ass, every time I try to talk to someone on it I’m windows up and yelling in the truck, and usually taking it off Bluetooth anyways so they can hear me. I replaced the microphone with one from an Alpine the stereo shop had lying around, and it didn’t change a thing…meaning it’s the stereo itself. I no longer have to keep my phone plugged in charging, as I have a Rhapsody subscription through my cell phone. When on Bluetooth and playing music if I’m roaming, it kills my battery in a matter of hours. I can turn my data off and go into offline mode to play the music, but then I have no data on my phone which most people don’t realize that messaging, emails for work, and other stuff I wouldn’t get just for the sake of listening to music. I can keep the stereo in offline mode and listen to all the downloaded music I want and never have to have my phone roaming while playing music.

Then there’s random stuff I can do with it too. I have a Bluetooth wireless keyboard we used to use all the time for our tablets but hasn’t been touched in probably a year. I can keep that in my center console and keep journals physically on the truck while out on overland trips. I can keep records of maintenance stuff, or keep trip planners saved as notes type thing that can be pulled up on the stereo directly.

The ultra cool part I can do is download a roll/pitch inclinometer I had purchased off the app store when I still had my WJ. My CTS2 has an inclinometer on it, but I usually have that set to the toggle switch screen so I can control all my lights. The app I purchased allows you to do your own custom vehicles, which means I can use a head on view of my truck, and a full side view and actually have it showing on the screen of the stereo rather than just another cartoon vehicle or Jeep.

 

[NightMares]

Got the trail rack picked up last night and installed. Pretty simple, just drilled a couple holes in the TireGate and bolted it down. Looks a lot better than I was expecting, I was a little afraid of it looking out of place but it doesn't stick up higher than the camper shell so I'm calling it good. Should look a lot better once the roof rack is installed too.





Just for *****'n'giggles because it looks badass




Also, kinda upsetting. Got my first battle scar...and I didn't even inflict it. Not sure where it even came from. But meh, I'm gonna get some more on rubicon trail so not too crazy pissed.

 

[NightMares]

So some bigger news. To start off, I cancelled all the big ordering I just did the other day in anticipation of starting my new job. The only thing I left on order was the Fox ATS stabilizer as it completes my parts I already have stacking up. Reason being, I got offered a better job that suits my needs a little better. One of my current coworkers is relocating and got a new job in a boat shop, so a position opened up at our shop which my boss offered to me. He matched the pay that I was offered as the electrician position, so I'm starting that up late this month early next month. For the time being I convinced my boss to also give my little brother a job for the remaining part of this summer, and possibly part time when he goes back to school.



Updates on the truck are somewhat cool. Stereo is scheduled to be here Thursday, and my dash bezel should be here tomorrow. Disappointing news is after researching that app for the pitch/roll, I discovered that it doesn't work on android stereo's as they don't have a gyro or anything to sense rotation, only GPS which is done through a remote antenna. Good news is, the stereo I got has a screen mirror option which means I can plug my android phone in and mirror it on the stereo, which means I just have to find a secure spot for my phone to sit while driving off road so the pitch and roll stay accurate. Which will be easy once I have my center console done, as I'll have a slot for the phone to sit, and I'm thinking instead of a wireless charger, now that I have this stereo, I'm going to utilize a docking system. That will both secure the phone, and also allow me to mirror it on the screen whenever I need to use the phone instead of physically using the phone haha.

I received and painted that diff cover which looks pretty good, I'm excited to get them installed. Would have done them yesterday but got caught up with family functions, and Saturday the paint wasn't cured so I would have screwed it up during install. Not an exact match in color to the ARB, but once installed nobody will be looking at the both of them at the exact same time so meh.







Another fun update. I sold my five 37x12.50x17 MTR's to a local member of a club around here. In turn with the $1500 I got out of them, I bought a set of four used 37x13.50x17 Toyo MT's for $500 bucks. With the remaining thousand bucks I'm ordering in five 17x9 steel black wheels and a DIY beadlock kit. We have a half tread Mickey Thompson MTZ 37x12.50x17 that's in the junk pile at our shop due to a slashed sidewall, so I'm thinking I'll pull that tire from scrap and put a tube in it so I can at the very least have a trail spare in case something happens to the Toyo's. I am planning on installing the 37's before the Rubicon while still running my current suspension setup, but for the time being I'm going to keep my KO2's to use for daily driver duty and only throw these toyo's on for big trips like what I have upcoming. When I have another vehicle to daily drive, whether it's a new truck or the Suburban, that's when I'm going to install all the DOR suspension and at that time I will do a new set of 37's, undecided on what tires I will do at that time though.

 

[NightMares]

No major updates as of yet. Dash bezel showed yesterday, stereo should be here today or tomorrow. Still trying to decide between cutting the dash up to mount it there, or if I want to build or purchase a center console. We'll see what happens.

Trucks going into the shop tomorrow, the 35's are starting to take their toll on the steering. Ball joints are good still, which is a relief, but the tie rod ends and wheel hub assemblies have some play. Steering wheel is clocked about 15 degree's to the left, and it's starting to wander on some of the bumpier roads. Also going to have him install the diff covers finally and replace the fluid with some Amsoil synthetic. I've got a night run this Saturday night and the drive to get there is about 2 hours along some pretty curvy, bumpy, non maintained roads, and no time between now and then to get this work done by the weekend.

Luckily the tie rods are still under warranty, so no charge short of me paying my boss my coworker's labor rate to get the truck done during business hours. Wheel hub assemblies I've never replaced, so I got some Spicer hub assemblies to go on it.

But the night run I'm super stoked for. Finally getting her out to stretch her legs and see how she does on a more extreme trail. We'll see what happens haha

Also fun update. Got a new flag to fly on it in support of law enforcement.

 

[NightMares]

So fun update. Stereo showed up today, and reading through the instructions and everything, I’ve come across some pretty ******* awesome features. I can run up to 4 camera’s off it, I can flip the orientation on each one and set them all up on a single screen. So I’ve decided I’m going to order in 3 more camera’s. The stereo included a backup camera that I’m going to mount up as normal, then I’m thinking I’ll mount 2 in the front bumper somewhere around the SAE fog lights, and the last one behind the bumper in one of the openings between the winch and the face of the bumper. The 2 I’ll have angled down so I can see approaching objects coming towards the tires, the single camera in the center I’ll have angled slightly down so I can see if I’m going to hit the bumper on something, but not too far down so it’s still functional as to what’s directly in front of the truck.

With doing this, I can pull up all 4 camera’s while out on the trails and spot myself while coming up on rocks if I don’t have a spotter. Ideally a spotter would be wanted for these situations, and at that point I can visualize what they would be talking about rather than just watching their signals.

Also, with this stereo, there’s about 50 wires in the back of it that would need hooked up for everything. On that note, I will not be attempting to install it into the dash of the truck. I’d have to cut not only up below the vents, but also backwards to allow room for all the harness’s that come with it. So I did some measuring on our GMC shop truck, and have decided instead of building a console, I'll use the front section of a full length console out of a 99-02 GM truck/suv. I got a full console coming from a local junk yard on its way over now, not sure what I’ll do with the console itself but the yard only wanted 45 bucks for the whole thing and didn’t want to separate them. Picture posted below and circled in red what I'm talking about. But from here I can cut the hole for the double din, then use some lexan as a trim piece for what’s cut out. Cell phone dock can either go where I keep my remote for my current stereo, which is in the jump seat extension I currently have. My fear of that is it interfering with the use of the stereo, so if that’s the case then I’ll mount the dock next to the GM console where the cigarette lighter used to be. When I got the truck there was just a hole where the outlet should have been, so currently it’s just one of those magnet bases with my wireless winch controller stuck to it. I can move the controller into the glove box or jump seat console if this is where my cell phone dock winds up.

From there I’ll mount my CTS2 tuner and the SPOD where the factory stereo is and call it good. I’m thinking I’m going to do some trimming down below on the extension where it’s supposed to meet up with the full length console just so it looks like nothing's missing, and reinstate a trash can inside there so my truck can stay…cleaner. I can keep my gun safe under the jump seat and easily access it.

Currently the truck is at my work’s shop up on a lift. Coworker is doing all the tie rods and wheel hub assemblies, along with installing the new diff covers. Pretty stoked to get it back and see if that solves the wandering issue. If not, then maybe it’s time to look at an AGR steering box for it, that way in the future I can add hydro assist when I’m ready to turn this thing into a full crawler.

No more talk. Pictures.