NightMares 01 Sport Build

[Pull Ya]

While I am in amazement of all your hard work and the continuing updates you give us regarding what you are doing and how you are doing it and what your expectations are, I have to admit that in the last few posts the thing that I am the most impressed with is your new FLAG!!!! I would like to THANK YOU for public display of your support for Law Enforcement!!!!!
Jay

 

[NightMares]

While I am in amazement of all your hard work and the continuing updates you give us regarding what you are doing and how you are doing it and what your expectations are, I have to admit that in the last few posts the thing that I am the most impressed with is your new FLAG!!!! I would like to THANK YOU for public display of your support for Law Enforcement!!!!!
Jay

Thanks man! I got some close friends in law enforcement and although it's not the career path I would have ever chose, I still want to show my support for everyone, particularly during this time.






Update from yesterday, and some for today.

Got the truck back last night, drives a million times better. No slop in the steering, 80 on the interstate one finger on the wheel. No wandering, no bump steer, nothing. It’s tight. Diff covers are on and it looks pretty badass now. Very happy with the turnout on them.





Update for the day. Console got delivered to my work today, it’s in fairly decent shape but I’ll have to change some things up. The front section where the console meets the extension is fairly small, so nothing will fit inside there the way I thought it would. So I’m probably just going to use some more lexan to fill the opening and make it appear somewhat decent. Thinking I’m going to wrap everything with vinyl when it’s all done. Wrap the console in vinyl that matches the gray of the dash, then wrap the lexan in black. I’m going to swing by the stereo shop probably tomorrow to see if they have a double din bezel that will fit around the stereo, I’ll attach that to the lexan so the stereo doesn’t look out of place. I’m thinking instead of putting the cell phone dock where the cigarette lighter goes, I’ll mount it to the lower lexan so it sits right below the stereo. Should turn out pretty cool.

 

[NightMares]

Didn't get a single thing done this weekend. Had to skip the night run and the truck pretty much sat around the house all weekend due to family in the hospital.

But today I'm bringing home the console and stereo, gonna swing by the stereo shop for that double din bezel, grab some lexan or plexiglass from the hardware store, and find some vinyl from the fabric store on my way home. Then going to get the dremel out and start cutting to fit. Not sure yet how I'll mount the stereo in the console, but I'm sure it won't be too difficult.

Truck is still running good at the moment, although it's acquired some smaller issues. Got a slight pull to the left, not sure if something came loose or what's going on, but when we get free time in the shop I'm sending it over to get it back on the alignment rack. From there I'm going to have it left there until I'm off work, and before leaving to go pick up all the stuff for the stereo I gotta replace my lower radiator hose. Getting really tired of these constant coolant leaks every time I turn around, so since I'm draining the coolant again I'm going to go ahead and replace all the hoses at this time. Once this is done, short of the radiator, everything cooling wise has been replaced over the past 6 months or so. Hopefully this is the last time I'm messing with the the coolant on this damn thing.

 

[NightMares]

Also, I need to get the ball rolling on the slider build asap. Exactly one month away from the Rubicon trip and I just dragged my pinchweld on a rock outside my work. Guess that's my hint haha

 

[NightMares]

Alright, switching things up a bit. I called and talked to my distributor yesterday regarding my order for the Smittybilt Defender rack, the 9’ long one. Apparently it’s still being built, and lead time is 3-4 weeks out. That won’t work, as I’m leaving for the Rubicon on the 18th next month. So I did some research, and some more research, and I’ve finally figured out a new route to go with everything.

I started browsing around a ton for camping and overland gear, and the more I read into it, the more I’ve convinced myself I just want an expedition trailer. I’m thinking 2nd gen short bed, DECKED storage on the bed floor, a 40 gallon water tank between the frame rails, battery, my camper shell with dual awnings, rooftop tent, TAG rear bumper/tire carrier combo, matching wheels and tires paint and graphics as the truck, and more. With my shell now officially being planned to transfer to a trailer, I can’t do a 9’ long roof rack on it, and a rack that large would be hard to resell as it’s not exactly desired. So, I cancelled.

Finding a 60” rack I figured would be easy, but I spent hours last night browsing trying to find what I want. Then I saw it, kind of like when you see your soul mate for the first time and you just know….there she is. That’s the one. So I stopped looking. I officially, 110 percent know which rack I want.

And here it is.

Go Rhino SRM100 series rack. It’s 60x48 inches, so it’s the perfect dimension for the top of the shell. It looks great, and it has all the functionality of the FabFours I was considering, without the extended cost, and the style matches my truck better. Did I mention it looks good?

Added accessories I'll be doing is the 40" front light bar mount, and the side plates for 3" lights.

Lighting wise, going to steer away from Rigid for the time being. I don't want another Radiance up top, but I don't want to pay $1300 for a light bar. I do NOT want cheap though, so I'm optioning for a CSI 40" low profile series in a spot pattern. Side lighting I'm just going to go with the Rigid Dually Diffused lights

So that takes care of that. I still haven't made it out to find the material for my stereo, maybe this weekend I'll find the time.

This Friday night at 8:00pm I'll be doing my first real run finally. It's NOT the trail I wanted to start off with, but it's a huge night run with my club and I'll have nobody to run Lost Trail with me. So, needless to say, I'm running Carnage Canyon and Meat Grinder, which the names pretty much represent the trails. There's only one spot on Carnage I'm worried about, and I wish I had built my sliders already, but might as well break the truck in right and start rolling with the battle scars.


Moving onto the sliders and fabricating, I've decided I'm going to "half ass" my sliders and rear bumper builds. Not taking short cuts or jeopardizing quality, just getting them functional for protection for now.

Sliders will be simple for now. Starting with 3 steel plates, I'll line them up on the frame rails where I can put some bolts through, drill and temporarily bolt them on. From there, 2x2 square stock welded to them to make the arms, then cut off just below the pinchweld. To finish it up, 2x2 square stock from wheel well to wheel well welded to the arms, then rattle can it all black for the time being.

Red is steel plates
Green are arms
Blue is the slider itself



In the future, I'll add some 2" DOM tubing, and attach some bolt on steps that can be removed when wheeling.

Orange is the DOM tubing
Black are the bolt on steps




Now, rear bumper. I've been browsing around for a long time, and have finally decided to just pull the trigger for a big deal. Going to comp cut the back, lose the stock bumper, and take some 2" DOM tubing from wheel well to wheel well. I'll use some 1/4" steel to build the bumper brackets, then build some brackets to attach the tubes near the wheel wells to the frame just in case I ever come down on it. The tube will run near the bottom of the tailgate, leaving a large gap between the "bumper" and the receiver hitch. So, to fill that void, I'm going to weld tabs onto the DOM to remount the N-Fab rear runner that's already on the truck, then I'll build some more brackets to attach the bottom of the rear runner to the hitch for extra reinforcement.

Here's a shotty photochop, but even with my poor design it still looks pretty wicked.



Once I get it built, I'll rattle can it black like the sliders for the time being. In the future, I want to add some tail light guards that will wrap around from the bedside back to the TireGate.



Once the sliders and bumper is 100% done, I'm going to send the sliders off to be powder coated to match the TireGate, and I'll spray the bumper itself with Raptor Liner tinted PR4 to match the front, keeping the rear runner black as is and bolt on.

Hopefully next week I can start on that project.

Last update is shock related. The small amount of wheeling I've gotten done has done more damage to the shocks. My passenger side stabilizer has been nailed hard again, along with the front shocks now being completely blown. BDS just released their new NX2 Nitro shocks, so after discussing with my rep there, I've got 4 new shocks and a single stock replacement stabilizer on their way. This should get me by until I'm ready to do the 7" lift and Fox remote resi's.

 

[Lil_Ram]

Have you seen the SRM200 I did the same thing but well above my price range.


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[NightMares]

Yeah I saw it, just not my style. I like the traditional looking racks. I'd love a Wildnerness Track Rack on my shell, but the Go Rhino I'm getting plus accessories (minus lights) is cheaper than just the rack itself from Garvin. Not to mention Garvin's stuff is popular in the Jeep world, I've never ordered a SRM100 series through my work, nor seen one running around town here. Not saying I'll be the only one, just one of few rather than one of many.

 

[Lil_Ram]

Yeah that's where I found them too but at $500 before discount it was to much for me to get but yeah I agree great looking racks


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[NightMares]

I'm fine with spending $500 for the rack, then $100 for the 40" light bar mount and $80 for the dually mounts. For $680 I'm getting everything, vs the Garvin rack itself is $679, plus they don't have free shipping so there's another hundred or more. Plus light mounts and more, it's easily a $900 rack by the time I get everything I want for it.

Had a few people ask me what the purpose of the comp cut is. Here's the easiest way to explain it.



This is a pretty intermediate sized rock that my truck's flexed on. It's also got 3 tires on the pavement. Now imagine actually out on the trails, there's a rock behind my driver's tire. There goes my bedside, or catch the bumper on the rock when progressing forward and twisting the bumper. Or both. The comp cut will give me better approach angles going either forward or backwards. The bottom of the new bumper will be where the small space between the top of my bumper and below the tail light. Below that will be all open.

 

[NightMares]

Got the truck detailed yesterday and my decals finally finished up last night, finally feels better to have my own name on the truck. Looks pretty good, although I can't wait until this fall when I strip it and start completely over. Still working on the design for the new wrap, but I'm going BIG with it.

Cancelling with the run going on tonight, the trails they're going to run are a little more extreme than what I want to break the truck in with. Also, got a different offer for a nightly exploration. Really good customer came in today to buy straps and borrow my boss's winch remote. His teenage daughter took her Jeep out and got it stuck on a trail. He had to rescue her at 2 in the morning, all while driving 2 hours out to her.

So rather than head out just alone with his Jeep and his daughter with him, I offered to go out and help with the recovery. Apparently where she is is pretty sketchy to get to, so I'll get to both test the truck out and help out a good friend.

 

[NightMares]

Alright, so update. Roof rack should be here tomorrow, hopefully I can spend tomorrow night after work assembling everything, then Wednesday after work throw it on. Just doing the rack for now, not worrying about the lights for the time being.

Starting to feel the pressure, it's now become a Rubicon or bust moment.

I need to get the following done before this trip:

Main priority:
Roof rack installed
Sliders built and installed
Dual e-fans and trans cooler installed

Minimal priority:
Stereo installed
Axles trussed
Shell raptor lined

I can get by without the minimal stuff, but the other 3 I'd prefer to have before this trip, just in case.

Rear bumper wise took another turn for now. I've decided rather than building a bumper, I'm just going to do the comp cut, remove the bumper, and bolt the rear runner to the bed to fill the gap between the hitch. I've come to terms that I'm not going to have the time to build a rear bumper. The comp cut I hope will be enough to prevent it hitting the bedsides on rocks, but if it doesn't, then it's better than leaving it as is. I got to looking at the rear runner and with some spacers I could space it out and make it look good.

So there's another to add to the honey do list before this trip, good news is that shouldn't take more than maybe 2 hours to do.

Also added some goodies Saturday while we were slow. Two 4 gallon Rotopax on each side. I don't plan on keeping them there at all times, so I think I'm going to order in 2 more extensions and do the black storage containers there as a full time deal, and when I'm going on a long trip I'll throw the 4 gallons on and extensions and mount the storage cans over the top of the 4 gallons.

Also went out to help recover that jeep Saturday instead of Friday. Forgot to grab pics of the Jeep, but it really wasn't that bad. She went off a small trail and got it off on some loose ground. Her dad's Super Duty was too big to get back on the trail close enough, but mine squeezed back pretty easily. Snatch block to a tree and winch hooked to her bumper got it pulled back up on the trail and got us both out. The first pic I posted shows the clearing she went through, then back through there about a hundred yards or so is where she got the Jeep stuck.

 

[NightMares]

Another update for the day. Got my shocks and new sway bar end links in today. So Wednesday it's roof rack and suspension work time.

Sway bar endlinks are the new JKS flex ends. They have internal springs that allow for more sway bar play, which means for more intermediate trails I shouldn't have to disconnect anymore. More challenging and extreme trails, it's just like my current setup. Disconnect and swing up. I can also swap the internal springs out to make them softer or stiffen them up, so if it becomes an issue on the interstate I can go that route to make it more daily driver friendly.







I also came across some pictures on the facebook of someone who did a comp cut just like what I'm planning. Gets me more excited to get this done.

 

[blackbeautyhemi]

Comp cut? You mean hack the bed behind the rear fender?

 

[NightMares]

Yeah, up to that first body line like that 2wd pictured

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[blackbeautyhemi]

What's the purpose of that? Your truck looks too nice to do that to. Can't see that helping approach angles much cause it's usually the bumper that hits first.

 

[NightMares]

It's for clearance, and I'll clean it all up later on. I'm removing the rear bumper, and technically no the bumper is not the only location that can be hit when out on trails. If I come down off a rock, when the truck drops off the first location to hit will be the bedsides. Temporarily I'm going to mount the rear runner on the back of the bed to fill the gap between the hitch, this fall I will go through and build a rear bumper that has a slider going all the way down where the bed would have been. I was thinking tube style but just because it was simple and quick to build, but I'm already stretched for time right now so I'm just going through with the cutting for the time being.

Here's something similar to what I'm going to build, only with no tail pipe. I'm going to cut the exhaust above the axle rather than run it all the way back, that way it's not in the way of getting smashed. The center that's shown on this bumper I'll have come down further, as I'm not removing my hitch off my truck, so I'll have it fit accordingly. Also, during this time and build of this bumper, I'm going to install the rear winch on the truck. Where the license plate is shown on this bumper is where my fairlead will be, as I already have my license plate relocated to my spare tire carrier. Mounting wise I'm just going to take a sheet of 1/4" metal and weld it between the frame rails of the truck, then relocate the winch control box between the winch and the bumper itself, and mount the plug for the controller flush into the back of the bumper.

And I'm going to add tail light guards that will tie back into my TireGate similar to this




So for a little bit here, yeah my truck's appearance might drop in some eyes, but the way I see it, it's either cut it now to prevent damage, or at least as much damage as possible. Or leave it as is and have the potential for more extreme damage.

This fall I'm starting the build back up hard on this truck, including the DOR parts, interior, rear bumper, potentially some motor work and more. I'm tearing hard into the safari shell, thinking of converting the windows to some hinged windows, like the back glass, and having a sliding deck that slides out each window on the side of the shell. From there I'll order in two sets of the 3 wall kits from ARB for the awnings, and have space for 4 people to sleep in a semi enclosed area off the ground. Inside the shell, I'm going to build an overhead shelf that's hinged towards the front of the truck that can swing down and allow access to goods, installing all the lights on the Go Rhino basket, and doing some interior lighting. Then the previous stated add on's, like the passenger side awning and roof top tent. I'm also thinking of ordering in a second touring room, with that done my truck will be capable of sleeping more people than it's actually capable of carrying haha. The touring room and mosquito room won't be compatible at the same time as the slide out's, but I'll have the option for people to sleep on the decks, or inside the touring room. This would be good for times when we end up camping in swampy or muddy situations, it will allow me to keep the bottoms of the touring rooms dry and not have to deal with mud for the remaining times of trips.

I want all this attached and tied into just the camper shell, that way when I start on the truck bed trailer build I can alternate between the truck and trailer when needed. Once I get this expedition trailer built, I'm going to start building some kind of a bed rack system that can again alternate between the truck and trailer. With this, I'll mount two more of the awnings on it, that will allow the shell on the trailer to have the slide out decks, awnings with 3 walls, and the rooftop tent. Then off the truck, I can do the touring rooms off each side, giving me the potential to sleep 6 people off the trailer, and another 4 off the truck alone.

Something like this, only without the spare tire. When I get this done, my swing case and adventure box currently in the bed of the truck will probably be thrown up for sale, as I'll build some boxes similar to what's pictured. I'm also just going to order in a second Go Rhino rack, my build will only be the tube frame and storage boxes, etc. That way I can leave the frame on the truck all the time, and install the rack itself when I'm heading out on trips. I still need to clear parking garages around here, at least until I have another daily driver truck, and storing both a LARGE trailer AND the bed rack would make things pretty difficult.

 

[blackbeautyhemi]

Yea true I guess if ya would come off a rock you'd def ***** that area up. And you're right once it's cleaned up like that black one you posted it will look good and be functional. I got ya now, just never saw it before.

 

[NightMares]

It's more common to see done on Toyota trucks, that white one I posted is the first time I ever saw it done on a Ram, short of that black one.

This is what the taco's are supposed to look like



Here's something people probably see all the time, but never really pay attention to it.

 

[NightMares]

Roof rack showed up today. Unfortunately due to family events this evening I will probably not find the time to assemble it until tomorrow. Which means Thursday it'll probably be getting installed, along with the shocks and JKS flex connects.



I also think I've come up with a decent solution for sliders. Talked to my rep with 4 wheel parts about some universal DIY sliders, and he brought up doing the N-Fab adjuststeps. The mounts for the steps are tucked up above the tube, meaning they won't get hung up on anything. On the 2nd gen rams they mount to the body mount bolts, so right off the bat they're already stronger than their counterparts that are rocker panel mounted. They're wheel to wheel already, so they'll cover the entire rocker section below the cab and bed. They're .083 wall 3" tube, so they're not the strongest for a slider, but they'll offer more protection than nothing. All I think I'd have to do is build the plates and arms from the frame out to the tube for extra strength, and that should take care of it. If they fail, then they fail. But this takes some weight off my shoulders as to building and starting from scratch, particularly because the wife throws a fit about climbing in and out without any steps on it at all.

Unfortunately, none of my work's distributors have them in stock, so my rep is going to call N-Fab first thing in the morning for an ETA on them and I'll go from there on whether or not I want to get them coming.

Here's some photo's of them for those who haven't seen them before.

 

[NightMares]

Forgot I followed a truck on Instagram that has a comp cut done. Now I kinda wanna find another set of front and rear doors and do the half doors for the whole cab haha