Why not switch it?
Why not switch it?
java230 said:Have a link for the jumper set?
I have never fused my winches.... Gone back and fourth about it too.... Make sure the wiring is well protected. (which it looks like you already did)
Here's a link, but it's back to regular price. Apparently Amazon does some strange "snap sale" thing where they direct you to an Amazon-owned clearance site called "Woot" that things pop up on. So I got it there, but now it doesn't pop up any more, so whatever that sale was must be over. First time I had seen it....
Even at regular price, it's still a pretty decent deal for the amount of wire you get, though.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GU4O3GG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
chandler said:Why not switch it?
Yeah, that's a likely option. I may actually have a main power spare switch from the rally car sitting around. Need to do some digging.
No huge updates, but chipping away on some little things. Took a day off to get some new tires on my Sequoia (Falken Wildtrek load range E).
Then picked up an engine with it lol...
Anyhow....back to the Raider. Still goofing around with the antenna mount setup. One of my issues has been how to get the wiring into the truck. With this being mounted on the door, there are basically three options: 1. run the cables outside to the rear corner panel (above the taillight) and in that way, letting them flex outisde when the door opens. 2. try to use the factory cable guide into the side of the door, or 3. run them inside the door. Decided the first option wouldn't look good, and the second one was out because not enough free space in the cable loom, especially since the rear washer tubing also runs through there. So decided I'd run it into the door and out the backside panel and into the interior trim next to the hinge.
To pass through, I got a "cable clam" that are often used in boats to pass wires through bulkheads (at the recommendation of someone on ExPo). Figure this should be very weatherproof.
I installed it on the door back behind the spare tire out of sight and somewhat sheltered. Figure that'll hide the wires well also.
Anyhow, haven't gotten all the antenna stuff yet so will get that stuff taken care of and run when it comes. In the meantime, I didn't really like how the original mount looked. Tottally functional but looked kind of hack. While cleaning out the Sequoia I came across a couple tapered/drilled steel plates/brackets (no idea what they were from). But that gave me an idea...
A bit of welding and grinding later...
And repainted and reinstalled. It isn't an kind of functional improvement, but I think it looks a bit better and also will hide all the antenna wires, so I'm happy with how that turned out.
Finishing up all the antenna stuff today. All three are installed. So for those of you who know radio stuff, you'll probably cringe a bit at the relatively close proximity (about 8" spacing). Keep in mind that i won't generally want/need to use more than one of the systems at the same time - so the plan will be to unscrew the antennas that aren't being used (i.e. if on a trail run with people using GMRS, the AM/FM and CB whips will probably come off). In any case, I'll give them a try and see how it works out - if there is too much interference, will make adjustments/reposition as necessary.
For the wiring, as noted I ran them through a clam seal behind the spare, which you can see here.
then through the inner door to the hinge side and out through a grommet
and back in through the side covers through another grommet
with the door closed it basically curves fairly flush and out of the way. Not all that pretty, but should be functional
Then ran through the side panels tucked away, down the b-pillar, and under the door sill to the dash. The CB antenna is a bit shorter than I thought, so may re-route it down the transmission tunnel closer to the junction box.
Swung by the local metal place on the way home today to pick up some steel....ended up with a 4x8 sheet of 12 gauge. A tad thinner than the 1/8" a lot of guys use, but this isn't for rock-crawling or anything so I prefer to keep it as light as possible. In addition I need something I can bend at home without a press brake.
ok, well I guess you can't see that the entire 8' sheet fit in the back of the Sequoia lol..
Anyhow.....once I got home I got some big cardboard out and started making skidplate mockups. The rear plate (from the front subframe to the transmission crossmember) is essentially a flat sheet, so don't have to do much there other than cut the sheet to the right size. I also will add some vertical stiffeners to give it some extra strength.
For the front, decided to go with a triple-bend setup that I think will work the best. So did some cardboard cutting and bending and "installed" the mockup:
The swaybar bushings are exposed by design - first so I can unbolt the bar easily if I want to without dropping the skidplate, and second because I know mud and stuff will get behind the skidplate ridge and wedge itself against the bar itself (which will have about 1" of clearance from the plate) and I don't want it getting into the bushing if the bushing is acting as an "end cap" - so it will have a big of a gap there to allow for drainage.
Marked up some plate to match, and in the next few days I'll get to cutting and bending.
Tires on Seq looks great. Y no center caps?
Did you give some of your extra stickers to your neighbor's 
chevy?
mr2s2000elise said:Tires on Seq looks great. Y no center caps?
Did you give some of your extra stickers to your neighbor's
Yeah, I like the tires and they do look a bit tougher than the old ones. The center caps I long ago took off because every 6 months or so I'd lose one on the road. They don't actually protect anything (unlike on some cars), so why bother....
You may notice the Raider's big center caps are off as well (I do have them, but I think they look stupid).
My neighbor's chevy? What, that Cobalt across the street?
Love your carefully calibrated setup block under the mockup 
I like your logic re the ARB mounts but do you think something to cover the inner ends of the track arms might be a good idea? They look to be hanging down vertical and liable to digging in which tends to stop forward motion abruptly, maybe something from the bottom of the first angle to the bottom of the second?
Re your antennae - I wouldn't get stressed about taking them off if you are only using one at a time. I doubt the "sticks" themselves will have much effect on radiation pattern and you probably haven't got enough power to take out the front end of the other receivers. Potentially some interesting harmonic effects if you transmit on two at once but only the FCC will care.
RichardNZ said:Love your carefully calibrated setup block under the mockup
I like your logic re the ARB mounts but do you think something to cover the inner ends of the track arms might be a good idea? They look to be hanging down vertical and liable to digging in which tends to stop forward motion abruptly, maybe something from the bottom of the first angle to the bottom of the second?
Re your antennae - I wouldn't get stressed about taking them off if you are only using one at a time. I doubt the "sticks" themselves will have much effect on radiation pattern and you probably haven't got enough power to take out the front end of the other receivers. Potentially some interesting harmonic effects if you transmit on two at once but only the FCC will care.
Hah, man I figured someone would notice that! Yes - I absolutely am thinking of something to protect the inner end of the arm mounts in the way you're thinking. Once I get the full plate bent and fitted/bolted up correctly, then I'll see what the best method to do that is and just weld some additional plate there. I need to put it up in the air at fool droop (which isn't all that much, honestly) and see how much clearance I need to leave for the inner end of the LCAs.
Good thought on the antennas. I'm not terribly concerned about it, but with not much else going on I tend to overthink things!
Got going on the real skidplate today! First made my cuts and holes
So the trick here is that I don't have a press brake or any other particularly good equipment for bending metal, so basically I took the angle grinder and thinned out the metal at all three of my bend points. Then with some clamping and creative counterweight I basically bent it by either a) sitting on it or b) deadlifting it. The trailer also served as a lever/wedge as well to bend one further than I could do it on the bench....
So after about a dozen test-fits, and drilling holes for the mounts (I will use the factory mount locations, plus a couple new ones), it looks like this:
Once I got the bends right, I got out the welder and filled the cut-out areas with some weld to stiffen it back up. Not beautiful, but nobody will see it so who cares.
I also cut out larger holes for the front mount bolts and welded on some backing steel so the bolt heads would be inset a bit and not get ground down or caught on stuff (not that I really think that will be a major issue, but might as well do it while I'm here)
Final test-fit, though I don't have the bar for the front bolts at the top installed yet. It will also serve as a further brace for the front hitch setup by triangulating things.
I will still, at some point, make some little "wings" to better protect the front of the LCA mount arms, but haven't figured out what I want to do yet so will come back to that at a later time.
As usual, I made a huge mess...
After some cleaning, I cleaned and scotchbrited and then primed both sides of the plate
And this evening did the first of two coats of paint. If it looks familiar, it's the same stuff I used on the roof of the truck. I still have 3/4 of a gallon of it left, so might as well use it. This stuff is pretty tough anyhow, and rolling it on keeps it thick. I know it'll get scraped up but I think this will be better rust prevention than rattle-can and I'm too cheap to powdercoat stuff lol
So that's where I am now (after cleaning up the garage) . Tomorrow I'll work on the rear skidplate (which should be easy since it's just flat) and do the rest of the painting on this one.
Looks good with the holes in the front
I admire how quickly you move from idea to finished product. I have an almost finished skid plate in the shed that's been sitting for weeks because I haven't found time to finish it up.
Anyway, looks great!
Skid plate turned out fantastic! I may copy that idea for our Gen 1.
How big of a sheet metal brake would you need to bend steel that thick? Would something like this suffice?
In reply to engiekev :
I do not think it would take a very large brake. I probably could have just used a shop press but mine just isn't wide enough to fit a 24 inch sheet. I mean I basically cut the lines halfway in with a grinder and then I was able to bend it using my own weight.
In reply to spandak :
The joys of living in the boring suburbs lol. but yeah once I start on a project I get kind of obsessive about it and I just want to run through it as fast as possible for some reason!
Today I mounted up the front bar for the upper skid mount, which also ties into the front hitch tabs and triangulates them. NOthing fancy, just some 1/4" steel bar with weld nuts for the front skid bolts. I also added weld nuts to the front subframe for the rear mounts, and another set on the transmission crossmember for the transmission/rear skidplate that I'll make this weekend.
So here's the front bar setup
And the plate fully mounted
So, I'm pretty happy with how that turned out overall. A few little issues with bolt alignment, but nothing worth writing about.
Also saw this today, totally off topic but too cool not to post...
Built the transmission skidplate today. A lot easier since it's just flat. I cut out a front profile that allows me to basically slide it up above the back of the front skid (between it and the subframe) and be held in place that way at the front, so all I have to do is loosen the rear bolts of the front skid to slide the rear out. The rear skid has two additional bolts at the back end actually holding it in place.
I also added some small steel ribs longitudinally to give it some additional support
Painted it up and installed. Fits well, nice and easy. Ends just before the stock transfer case skid, which I may upgrade a bit as well. I may also bend up the trailing edge of the plate so it doesn't get caught on anything if I'm reversing.
Had a bit of time today so installed the CB I got a while back. Initially I figured I'd just move the one in the Sequioa back and forth as needed, but CBs are so cheap why bother. Also wanted a compact set that would fit well alongside the GMRS set. Installed the same way as the GMRS with a grommet through the dash for wiring. Will get the SWR meter out and tune it tomorrow. Also probably will get a small speaker to run off of it since these compact sets have pretty weak speakers. Anyhow, a few pics...
I was pretty pleased that the President CB actually uses the same mounting base as the Midland GMRS, so they cosmetically look good together.
One of the things that has always annoyed me a bit is the shifter height. The WRX seat seatup sits a bit taller than the stock seats and I like to sit fairly far back (I'm about 6'0) so to shift I always have had to lean forward and reach down to the shifter, which gets old fast unless I'm on the trail where I'm already leaning forward more often.
So, decided to take care of that and grabbed some 1/2" steel tube and one longish M10 1.25 bolt and got to work. The 1/2" tube is exactly the right size for this application. One one end of it I tapped it to M10 1.25 thread.
Then cut it down to the length I wanted (about 3") and also cut the head off the bolt and milled down about 1/4" of the non-threaded end so it would slip inside the tube. I use the word "milled" loosely....I really just held it in some pliers and ran it on the bench grinder. Then stuck it in, made it vertical, and welded it in place.
Then basically just put it right between the stock shifter rod and the stock knob. Looks pretty stock and gets things to the right height now, even more trucker-shifter :)
Skid plates look good, keep up the steady work! How many more projects do you have planned for this thing?
In reply to 95maxrider :
Knowing Irish's penchant for boredom-fueled builds?
All of them.
95maxrider said:Skid plates look good, keep up the steady work! How many more projects do you have planned for this thing?
Not a whole lot at this point. Eventually I'm going to have to turn to working on putting some real rally suspension on the front end of the e30, but I've been putting that off since there are no stage rallies on the horizon this year, I figured I'd make it a winter project.
As to this thing it is pretty darn capable as it is and now I have pretty much the appropriate gear aboard for any off-roading here on the East Coast at least. I'm sure I will continue to tinker with little things but I can't really think of anything off hand that I would consider a big project coming up on this.
Recon1342 said:In reply to 95maxrider :
Knowing Irish's penchant for boredom-fueled builds?
All of them.
Oh I know clear well Nick is only asking because as long as I'm working on this I'm not making the rally car faster ;)
Unfortunately like most builds this one is getting to a point where any other big improvements are not copacetic with my budget at the moment. next boredom fuel project will probably be to redeck the trailer and paint all the frame and crap like that which I'm totally not looking forward to so I haven't done it yet
Just finishing up the comms...got a small speaker that I can plug into either GMRS or CB depending on what I'm using (mounted over on the left)
And tuned the CB antenna. Got an SWR of around 1.5 on the high and low channels (this photo taken before I got it tuned better)
And around 1.1 in the middle. So, that seems pretty good
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
While searching for something for my own Montero I came across this Cl listing in Baltimore for a suspension seat frame, $150. I was not sure if you needed a second or got it out of your parts car but it was too close to you to not bother to point it out.
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