[Jason Houle]

I love it and I found some add on parts that I've been looking four.Keep up the good work.

[Corey]

Thanks Jason, here is my patest from today.

I have been wanting a fridge for quite some time.
I hate taking coolers camping and having the ice melt.

I have a nice 3 way fridge (12v, 110v, and propane) that I have sued when camping, but it would suck the battery dry in a few hours.

The ARB fridge (Norcold and Engel brands are the exact same thing) use a swing arm motor design and are very energy efficient.

More info on the ARB can be seen on their website.

I ordered an Engel Slide Loc which screws to a surface with 4 to 6 screws, depending on how many you want to use.
I went for 4 this time, but may add the other 2 for extra insurance.

Here is the Engel Slide Loc.

It called for drilling 1/8" holes, piece of cake in the wood top of my cargobox.
Once the first hole was drilled, I put a screw in to keep the Slide Loc was shifting on me.

The Slide Loc is all the way to the right side of the cargobox, which leaves me plenty of room to slide the fridge in around the Powertank, no problems at all.

There is only 1 lock button on the Slide Loc to worry about when you want to disengage the 4 feet on the fridge.
The package comes with 4 new feet.
You simply unbolt the 4 stock feet and put on the 4 new ones that are made to slide into the Slide Loc unit.

I can not lift up the lid all the way, this is a big fridge, 43 qt, but I did not want anything smaller.
I plan on using this for a long time, and want it to be able to hold a weeks worth of food for camping.

This is also a freezer, so when we go on runs this summer, the crowd is going to get treated to some ice cream bars

Here are some pics of the installation.
The first 2 show the Engel Slide Loc, the last 2 show the fridge mounted to the Slide Loc.
The release button is at the back left side, very easy to reach with the fridge mounted.





I still need full time 12vpower to run the fridge.
This will come with my next mod, a Blue Sea aux fusebox, and two 12v outlets that will be mounted above the 110v outlet like KD7NAC_07FJ did in his rig.

Hopefully next weekend that project can get underway.
Member KD7NAC_07FJ will be lending me his expertise on that project, he is a wizard at wiring projects, and his rig shows it.
_____________________
Forgot to mention, I bought this through www.trdparts4u.com and since I work about 2 blocks from ARB, I just stopped by after work a few weeks back and will called it there.

[rfjtoy]

Isn't the slide designed to extend out the back of the truck so the lid can be fully opened? yours looks to be mounted sideways? what is gained by this direction?

[Corey]

That is not the sliding model.
This one is $60, the sliding one is around $240.

I could not turn this the other way if I wanted to, the cargobox is not deep enough.

[rfjtoy]

Got it. Thanks. I'll be getting the slide for mine, just after the Demello rear bumper.

[Corey]

Yeah, if my cargobox was only about 4" deeper, I could have turned it the other way, and I would have bought the slide in a heartbeat.

But this cargobox was designed back in the summer of 2001 for my '91 4Runner.

[Corey]

rfj, you talked me into getting a new cargobox designed before to long.

Coming up this weekend Wayne and I will be working on adding the Blue Sea fusebox and 2x12v outlets in the back to power the fridge.

Also after much thinking, I am going to have a carpenter here at work who is on my crew build me a new cargobox.
I really dig mine, but I want to turn the fridge 90 degrees, and the present Engel tray will not work with the cargobox as it is not deep enough, that is why it is mounted sideways.

He runs a cabinet shop on the side, so it will be killer.
It will not be any taller, just deeper and a little wider to take advantage of the FJs layout since it was built for my '91 4Runner.
I will then mount the other type of Engel tray, the one that lets you slide the fridge out.
This way I will be able to open up the lid all the way.
http://www.engel4u.com/tray_for_the_mt45.html

[rfjtoy]

Nice, post up the new box design,

I currently use pelican cases next to the fridge. I have a dual battery with extra two 12v plugs next to the shifter and the other two in the rear just above the stock plug.

[Corey]

That is where we are putting the two in the rear, where the yellow sticker is on the stock 110v plate.

It will be awhile before I get the new cargobox though, but in the long run it will make accessing the fridge a lot better.

[Corey]

Thanks to member KD7NAC_07FJ (Wayne) for coming down to my home today to help on this project.

Take one Blue Sea 6 gang fusebox
http://www.northeastmarineelectronic...OD&ProdID=2750



Tie it in with 6 gauge wire from the battery to it, and run 18-Gauge Red & Black 2-Conductor back to twin 12v outlets
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...tId=2062272&cp



and you have a recipe for adding several circuits easily from inside the right front kick panel.

I will utilize one of the 12v outlets in the back to power my new ARB fridge.

All connections are soldered and have shrink tubing added to them.
Wayne used a small butane torch to solder the connections with.
A lot of perfection went into this.
I would have crimped the ends and called it a day, but Wayne is very experienced at this and went all the way with the solder and shrink tubing, very professional.

The first 2 pictures show a few things torn apart.
You have to remove the floors threshold by grasping it and pulling straight up.
Once removed you can easily take off the passenger side kick panel with a plastic thumbscrew which is all the way forward.



Wayne ended up taking the battery out to gain better access to the wires presently on the battery.
We moved the CB power wire off of the battery and it is wired inside the cabin now with the new fusebox.
You can see in picture 4 a slit inside the read circle which was already there from running the CB wire to the battery.



Pictures 5 and 6 show the panel you remove by inserting a small flat tipped screw driver and prying it outwards.
Picture 5 still has the yellow sticker on it with info on the 10v converter outlet.
You remove the yellow tape and use a hole saw sized at 1 3/32" and drill 2 holes.
You can also use a knife and make a small incision since the 12v plug has a "key" on it to hold it tight so it will not spin on you.

Picture 6 shows the twin 12v outlets in place.



Picture 7 shows the new Blue Sea box mounted in place with white zipties (no need to screw this unit down) and the 18-Gauge Red & Black 2-Conductor wire attached to it.
This fusebox also utilizes a ground, so you can attach the black ground wire to one of the three screws on top, and attach the red power wire to one of the three screws below.
This box is much nicer than the cheap one I used on the 4Runner long ago.
It did not have a grounding circuit.

Picture 8 shows the 6 gauge wire inside of the black wire loom going down to the slit in the firewall.
It is all tired in with zipties to the factory harnesses running along the firewall.



And finally picture 9 shows the twin 12v outlets in place.



After the battery was put back in place and all the wires were reattached, I carried out the ARB fridge and set it on the ground and plugged it into one of the 12v outlets.

I reached down and rotated the switch and the green light came on the fridge and the sweet sound of a fridge coming to life was like music to my ears

From what I have read, the fridge only draws a maximum of 2.7 amps when set to the highest setting to freeze.
When set to just keep food at the safe temperature to prevent spoilage, it draws much less and can go for 3 days without wearing your battery down.

This project turned out great.
I am pretty decent at wiring projects, and Wayne is much more experienced at what we tackled today.

It turned out really good.
I think I will have to hit him up again when it comes time to do the dual battery setup.
He has that setup and it looks fantastic.

Frozen ice cream bars will be on the menu for this summers runs!
I look forward to getting lots of use from the new ARB fridge and the newly added fusebox and twin 12v outlets back there.

[hammer1]

Corey, you constanty amaze me with your detail and perfection!. i am impressed, to say the least. i too will be adding outlets in the rear soon, after I decide on what 120v converter to use.
BTW...you selling the old box?

[Corey]

Thanks Hammer, it was Wayne's perfection to detail this time.
He is a wiring wizard, and it turned out much better than if I tried to do it alone.

Selling the old box, but a friend has offered to buy it for his 2nd gen 4Runner already.

The vehicle should have came with 12v outlets in the rear from the factory.

Not sure when my new one will get built.

[rfjtoy]

Nice work documenting the mod. Keep them coming.

[mbisson]

Corey, I bought the Blue Sea 12 gang fuseblock. Will it fit in that spot? Or should I look for the smaller one. I already have the 2 12volt powerpoints in the back and 3 next to the AT shifter. That's why I went for the bigger fuseblock. The 6 gang would have only left me one fuse left.

[Corey]

Yes, the 12 will fit.
Sol (Sbechtold) sent me his write-up on the dual battery installation (another future mod for me) and he has the 12 gang one in the same spot.

Wayne who helped me with mine Saturday said that he asked Sol about the bigger one, and Sol replied that he turned it at an angle in there and it fits.

By looking at Sol's write-up, it looks like it is straight up and down like mine.
http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=98031

[Corey]

I really dig the stock 17" factory alloys, so much I wanted to buy a 2nd set and move up to a 285x70x17" tires, about the same as a 33" tire.

My current Dick Cepek Mountaincat muds are 265x70x17", and they look great, but a little out of place with the OME 3" lift.

With all of my past vehicles I have owned I have always ran two sets of tires.
One set for fall through spring (winter setup) and the best setup for spring through fall.

I have been wanting to get the same tires in the 285 size, but did not want to pay Toyota $340 a piece for the factory alloys.
Great wheel, only factory wheel I have every truly liked that much on any rig.
A little to steep at that price, although I have a few sources to get some used ones.

At the Greenwater run earlier in July I saw an FJ Cruiser (owned by member noworries) with some nice black wheels that made me again want to think about getting an aftermarket wheel.
With some research and getting a hold of the owner gain, I found out they are the Pro Comp 7089s.

He is running a RevTek 3" lift and 295 size tires with no rubbing, so this tells me that Pro Comp did their math and is overing these with zero offset and able to clear the large calipers of the FJ Cruiser.

I was able to score these wheels for $129 a piece from 4WD Parts who owns Pro Comp wheels/tires.
Les Schwab would have had to buy them for $209 a piece since they are a direct competitor of 4WD Parts Warehouse.

Here is the part # of the wheels I got.
http://www.4wheelparts.com/PDT64838.aspx

Les Schwab Tires recently added the Dick Cepek Mountaincats to their website.
http://lesschwab.com/tires/light_tru...ntaincatet.asp

You will not find these on the Dick Cepek website, as they are exclusively made for Les Schwab Tires.
Made in the same molds as other Dick Cepek tires with the familiar staggered DC impression on the sidewall.

These tires are also made by Cooper, and are pretty similair in design to the Cooper Discoverer STT tire.

They showed me out in the bay when we turned the wheels/tires lock to lock that they cleared the body mounts and also the calipers.
In getting new wheels for your FJ Cruiser, the important thing to pay attention to is the off set.
Mine are zero.

He asked me if I wanted to step up to a 295 since that is what noworries is running, but I stayed with the 285s.
They look great and 33" is big enough for me.

I did not notice any loss of power at all coming into work on the backway, and also going home on the freeway where I was able to put the throttle down some.

Went with black Gorilla small diameter Tuner lugnuts that take a special adapter/key to take them off with.

The new tires fill the wheel wells much better than the smaller ones.
Here are some pictures for comparison.

265x70x17 Dick Cepek Mountaincats with factory alloys:



285x70x17 Dick Cepek Mountaincats with Pro Comp 17x8 7089 series wheels:

[Corey]

Attention if you have black aftermarket wheels:

When I had the new wheels and tires installed yesterweek, they did not have any black Gorilla locks.
They had to special order these for me in a set of 5 so I could do the spare tire too.

These are acorn lugnuts like the others on there now.
If you have aftermarket wheels that use the acorn style of lugnut, here is the part number for a set of 5 black locks.
71631NBC
http://www.gorilla-auto.com/products...image=5713.jpg

Same size as the lugs, 12mm x 1.50.
They do not list the part number on their website since these were a special order.

I am also going to start keeping my torque wrench in the rig to keep these torqued all the lugs torqued properly.
They torqued them to 100 lb which I believe is correct for Toyota wheels.
I would have to look it up in my manual, but that is what they do Toyotas to.

[BladeRunner80]

I have a question about the iPod Dice link. Is the factory aux input still used when the DICE link is installed? I have a sirius radio that I plug in their too and I was wondering if I will still be able to use it.

[Corey]

Yes you can.

When I had the DICE unit (sold it to a Tacoma owner) when pushing the button on the FJammer headunit, the aux option was still there to use that port.

[BladeRunner80]

Why did you sell the unit? Were you unsatisfied with it?

[Corey]

No longer needed it, I have a deck now that has the iPod interface built in via its touch screen.

http://www.yotatech.com/f96/pioneer-...2007-a-113238/

[BladeRunner80]

Thanks Corey! I like the deck you added. I have a Street pilot III, but I want built in navigation. I may have to follow your lead on this. Oh BTW, nice looking Cruiser, you've done some nice mods to it. I use to wiring and tweaking things on my 40, but the FJC is a bit more intimidating! Keep the posts coming!

[Corey]

Thanks Blade, it has been a lot of fun modding the new rig.

[Corey]

Several months back I bought Luke's mounts to secure the Hi-Lift to the factory rack.
Info can be found on that in this thread.

I wanted to see how the rig will handle on mountain roads by taking the Hi-Lift off of the roof and putting it up front on the ARB bumper.

I thought I needed 2" rings, but when I got those they were to big.
Luke sent me out a smaller 1 7/8" set of rings before I even got the 2" one in the mail to ship back to him.
Luke is a stand up guy.

Member CactusJK from the fjcruiserforums had the same problem, and he confirmed last week with me the 1 7/8" would work.

This morning I pulled the mounts off the 1 3/4" rings on my rack, and put the new rings on the ARB bumper.
Good fit!
A little gap, but it tightens down great.

I had to angle the mounts up a tad to clear part of the ARB bumper, and I also have to run it with the foot in the upper position.
If down like I ran it before, there are bolts on it that hits the bumper.
I got a nice scratch on the bumper when test fitting it

Below are a few pics of the install.



A shot from inside the cab.
The Hi-Lift will not interfere with my line of sight.



A shot showing just the mounts.
I may end up taking those shiny knobs off before they end up in some kid's collection.
Kind of like when kid's steal chrome valve stems.
Been there before...
Now I just run black rubber caps all the time.



I am anxious to see how it rides now on the mountain road I drive when I go up to Greenwater where I wheel.

[Corey]

I moved the Fourtrek rings out to within about 1/8" of the vertical bars on the bumper.
If you do this, you will not even have to measure first, the Hi-Lift should fit right onto it.

This also lets the foot hang in the down position now, and if your Hi-Lift is sportin' a WabFab Sliderz Adaptor like mine, it will not stick up in the air like in my previous post.

It looks a lot better this way.

[BRICKTOP]

Corey,
Great thread man. I wish I didn't need all my room in the back so I could get that fridge!
Anyways, I just wanted to ask you if you were still happy with the Mountain Cats and if you're fairly sure the 295s will fit. I am running 285-75-16 10 ply BFGs on the stock TRD wheels, but I have a set of stock steel wheels (17") that I want to get shoed up for more aggressive off road driving so I don't mess up the TRD wheels. I have the OME HD lift front and rear.
Since you've been through a few different ones, what is your recommendation?

[Corey]

Thanks Brick.
I am very happy with the Cepeks, hence why I now own two sets of them.

The guy who had the Pro Comp wheels that caught my eye says he is not rubbing at all with the 295s.

Since you have the black steelies too, your 295s might tuck in close enough.
If not, you may have to get the body mount shaved.

I am still going to have that done one of these days for if I step up to a taller tire later.

[Corey]

Saw this mentioned on fjcruiserforums.com website in a search for fire extinguishers.

The nice thing about the HalGuard system is it is a "premium clean agent" which means it will not corrode like a dry chemical fire extinguisher can.

You can spray this stuff under your hood, under your dash, even your home computer and it is not suppose to short circuit or corrode anything.

Here is some info from their website:

HalGuard? is no ordinary fire extinguisher.
It contains an electrically non-conductive"clean" extinguishing agent that rapidly turns into a gas.

The clean agent used in HalGuard? has passed extensive testing by Underwriters Laboratories, and meets FAA requirements.
It can be found on commercial aircraft, and is used by airport fire fighters and on the flight line.

Hand held HalGuard? extinguishers are available in either compact 1.4 lb. and 2.5 lb. sizes, or larger 5 lb., 11 lb., and 15.5 lb. units.

The larger sizes are USCG approved, and meet DOT requirements for the heavy duty truck market.
65 lb., and 150 lb. wheeled HalGuard? extinguishers offer maximum clean agent protection for the pit lane or large facilities.

Their website

The HR250R (chrome available if ya wanna shine )

* No thermal shock to electronics
* No mess or damage to vehicle or surfaces
* Liquefied gas extinguishes hard-to-reach fires
* Does not impair operator's vision
* EPA approved
* Listed and rated 2B:C by Underwriters Laboratories
* Rechargeable
* Made in U.S.A.
* 2-strap mounting bracket
* 6' - 10' discharge range
* High quality steel cylinders
* All metal valve construction
* Compact, lightweight, easy to use
* One year limited warranty

I drilled 4 holes into my Powertank bracket and bolted the HalGuard mount to it.
I may raise it up to the next higher position, have not decided yet.

I also have to test fit the ARB fridge tomorrow to make sure it clears the bottle.
I am pretty sure it will.

I have a few other areas where I could remount it, one would be the face of the middle drawer of my cargobox.
Already had it positioned there, and the drawers will all open fine.

I bought this from a reseller, they have many listed on their site.
More than likely you will also get charged a $20 hazardous shipping fee, and it has to come ground.
They do not ship these on aircraft.

[Corey]

I added the Kidde dry chemical one a few minutes ago to the plastic lift off tray in the back.

Used a few stainless bolts and nuts, the same ones that held it onto my Husky floormats when they were in the 4Runner.

The Kidde will be used for outside fires not rig related since it is a dry chemical unit.

[Corey]

Upon having the FJ Cruiser lifted late last year, I noticed a bit of wandering at highway speeds.

This happens to 2005 + Tacoma users too, not just FJ Cruisers.
Upon researching the Internet (wonderful thing that thing be) I learned problem can often be traced to the caster being to high for the alignment.

The stock upper control arms often do not give enough adjustment when dialing in the caster.
I checked on Total Chaos Fab's website, and saw that is what they say.

When aftermarket lifts are installed on these model vehicles the OEM suspension design looses caster.
By altering the factory caster, the vehicle will lose on road handling & performance and has a tendency to wander when driving down the road.

TC developed the UCAs to add caster to the suspension when aftermarket coil over shocks and other lifts are installed.
This will increases overall handling and aids in the alignment of the vehicle.

These new arms also eliminate the ball joints as they utilize what is known as uniball technology.

You can see in my alignment chart from the other day that the caster was to high, not within specs.
With the addition of the new control arms, the alignment is now within specs.

I had my local Toyota dealer install these while I was at work.
They were happy to do it, as they realize they may be getting more requests from lifted FJ Cruiser owners.

I really wanted to see how they improved the ride on the freeway coming home from work today, but alas I was bucking high winds, and the FJ was getting tossed around a bit.
I will have to wait for a much calmer day to get a feel how much the ride has improved with the addition of these.

They sure do look nice though