Build: "Moxie" 2007 LX470 Limited
- Thread starter cryptyk
- Start date
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Thank you. I will definitely reach out when I do the install. Did you find a solution to the antenna?
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- #63
I have a hardware solution but haven't had a chance to work on the software solution yet. The climate stuff was annoying me more than the antenna
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- #64
Finished up an easy install of the Waterport Weekender. Very straight forward installation. Took about an hour. It holds about 8 gallons at 40PSI. What's really interesting is that before the install, I would carry 4 gallons of water on camping trips in my MSR Dromedaries (which are AWESOME, by the way). Now with 8 gallons it seems like I have... less water somehow. I think that the tank LOOKS really big and we use water more excessively than before. I also got the touchless water faucet attachment which makes doing dishes SO easy.
I’ve been eyeing the weekender size because the dimensions work well in different mounting positions.
Mind sharing how many campers, nights and activities so I could gauge if 8 gallons will cut it?
And did you even notice the extra weight on top? I guess with the RTT you probably didn’t even notice it.
I’ve been lugging five gallon containers around and it just isn’t practical to pack especially with one 3rd row seat and moving it from dishes to shower duty is a back breaker
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- #66
The first time I took it out, I ran out of water the second day with me, the wife, and two kiddos. I was surprised, but I definitely had the attitude of "8 gallons is WAY more than I can use". It's not. If you ration appropriately, it should last 4 people for a weekend (2.5 days). It could also last 2 people a weekend, but that's if you take a 3 minute shower each.
As long as you ration appropriately, it lives up to it's name as a "weekender".
The faucet is REALLY cool. Suction cup it to the window and the motion sensor turns on water whenever you need it. SUPER convenient and I left it attached the whole time we were setup.
I barely felt the weight, but it turns out this was the straw that broke the camels back for the AHC. It won't go into high mode when the truck is fully loaded with 4 of us and a full tank of water. Time for new springs and some torsion bar adjustments. I think water weighs a little over 8lbs per gallon.
I have a compressor onboard so was ready to repressurize when the initial load ran out of pressure, but didn't need to. I can fill it to 8 gallons, then use the air compressor to bring it to 40PSI and it lasts the full tank. Or, you can use the pressure from your hose to fill and pressurize. I got almost 7 gallons that way and again the pressure lasted the full tank, but I suspect YMMV based on your local water source.
As long as you ration appropriately, it lives up to it's name as a "weekender".
The faucet is REALLY cool. Suction cup it to the window and the motion sensor turns on water whenever you need it. SUPER convenient and I left it attached the whole time we were setup.
I barely felt the weight, but it turns out this was the straw that broke the camels back for the AHC. It won't go into high mode when the truck is fully loaded with 4 of us and a full tank of water. Time for new springs and some torsion bar adjustments. I think water weighs a little over 8lbs per gallon.
I have a compressor onboard so was ready to repressurize when the initial load ran out of pressure, but didn't need to. I can fill it to 8 gallons, then use the air compressor to bring it to 40PSI and it lasts the full tank. Or, you can use the pressure from your hose to fill and pressurize. I got almost 7 gallons that way and again the pressure lasted the full tank, but I suspect YMMV based on your local water source.
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- #67
Interesting trip to the desert this weekend!
We were about an hour from home when the truck lost power and a horrendous noise came from underneath. I pulled to the side and saw that one of the CV axels finally gave out. I was expecting it because the CV boots were torn to hell when I bought the truck. Thankfully it was early Saturday morning and a quick tow to Firestone (closest shop - ewwww). They had us back on the road in a couple of hours even though they massively overcharged me.
Once we got out there, we had a great time. Got a chance to use the new Snow Peak firepit. Fires out there need to be off the ground and the firepit was awesome. And it packs flat so takes up almost no space. Also in the picture, randomly, is a snow peak coffee cup. I swear I'm not sponsored by them and those are literally the only two snow peak items I own.
Also gave both boys a chance to drive for the first time in their lives! Out in the washes they had a great time bouncing down the road.
Also got a cool polaroid to commemorate the day
We were about an hour from home when the truck lost power and a horrendous noise came from underneath. I pulled to the side and saw that one of the CV axels finally gave out. I was expecting it because the CV boots were torn to hell when I bought the truck. Thankfully it was early Saturday morning and a quick tow to Firestone (closest shop - ewwww). They had us back on the road in a couple of hours even though they massively overcharged me.
Once we got out there, we had a great time. Got a chance to use the new Snow Peak firepit. Fires out there need to be off the ground and the firepit was awesome. And it packs flat so takes up almost no space. Also in the picture, randomly, is a snow peak coffee cup. I swear I'm not sponsored by them and those are literally the only two snow peak items I own.
Also gave both boys a chance to drive for the first time in their lives! Out in the washes they had a great time bouncing down the road.
Also got a cool polaroid to commemorate the day
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- #69
I finally got down to business to fix all the quality issues with the CVT Mt Washington. This might be a couple of posts because of the 5 picture limit. Note that CVT gave me a rebate for part of my puchase price after I let them know the issues. They also offered to take the tent back and refund me. I decided to keep it and fix it because I like projects and like the base design of the tent.
First, I went through and handled everything that was rusted. Note this was after about 2 weeks of rain in San Diego. When I called CVT, they let me know that this batch of tents had known quality issues and the hardware was not stainless steel. Here's the hardware after a couple of weeks on the truck:
I sanded all the rust off and hit everything with some rustoleum. This won't protect it forever because of the friction points, but it will work for a while I'm hoping:
MUCH better!
First, I went through and handled everything that was rusted. Note this was after about 2 weeks of rain in San Diego. When I called CVT, they let me know that this batch of tents had known quality issues and the hardware was not stainless steel. Here's the hardware after a couple of weeks on the truck:
I sanded all the rust off and hit everything with some rustoleum. This won't protect it forever because of the friction points, but it will work for a while I'm hoping:
MUCH better!
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- #70
Next, I masked off the channels that didn't get painted and hit them with the same paint. These are aluminum, so I could have skipped it, but I have a thing about bad quality and wanted to get it fixed:
Here you can see a comparison to the original channel and after I painted it:
I also filed down some of the rivets inside that were sharp and poking up. They could easily cause a knee injury if you're crawling around in there or could pop an air mattress.
Here you can see a comparison to the original channel and after I painted it:
I also filed down some of the rivets inside that were sharp and poking up. They could easily cause a knee injury if you're crawling around in there or could pop an air mattress.
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- #71
Finally, the hardest of the fixes: Replacing the top window. From the factory, you can barely see through the window. It looks cloudy or foggy or scratched up:
It's hard to capture just how terrible it is.
I decided to replace it with a sheet of Strataglass. It's a thicker, stiffer vinyl that's crystal clear and has a scratch-resistant coating. The hard part is that I couldn't take the old window and and stitch the new one in. Instead, I cut the old one out except for about 2 inches all the way around. I then glued the strataglass to the "rim" of the old window.
Cut to fit:
HH-66 is NASTY stuff. The fumes will knock you out. Be careful. When it cures, it's incredibly strong and waterproof. In fact, you can even use this stuff to glue pieces of vinyl together while they're underwater!
Here's what it looked like after one coat of HH-66 with the strataglass glued in place. It's not super pretty from the outside, but you can't see the glued area from the inside. It looks perfect when you're inside the tent.
I also went around after this and did a second layer of glue to make sure it's totally sealed. I then went and cut away all the excess vinyl in a nice straight line to make it look a little cleaner.
That's it! All of the tent issues are now resolved. Way more work than I expected but I'm happy with the finished product.
It's hard to capture just how terrible it is.
I decided to replace it with a sheet of Strataglass. It's a thicker, stiffer vinyl that's crystal clear and has a scratch-resistant coating. The hard part is that I couldn't take the old window and and stitch the new one in. Instead, I cut the old one out except for about 2 inches all the way around. I then glued the strataglass to the "rim" of the old window.
Cut to fit:
HH-66 is NASTY stuff. The fumes will knock you out. Be careful. When it cures, it's incredibly strong and waterproof. In fact, you can even use this stuff to glue pieces of vinyl together while they're underwater!
Here's what it looked like after one coat of HH-66 with the strataglass glued in place. It's not super pretty from the outside, but you can't see the glued area from the inside. It looks perfect when you're inside the tent.
I also went around after this and did a second layer of glue to make sure it's totally sealed. I then went and cut away all the excess vinyl in a nice straight line to make it look a little cleaner.
That's it! All of the tent issues are now resolved. Way more work than I expected but I'm happy with the finished product.
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- #72
Yet another upgrade! Huge thanks to @Luke111 for providing the bracket, instructions, and some support as I updgraded the headlights to HID.
I bought some brand new glass headlights from PartSouq because the plastic had yellowed a bit.
From there, it's a pretty simple job but there's a lot of steps! Basically, you bake the headlight in the oven to get the glass off, remove the guts of the headlight, install the new bracket and retrofit hardware, adjust everything, then re-install the glass. This took me about 2 days working part-time. I think I could do it in one day the first time and could probably do it in 3-4 hours now that I've done it once.
Here's a picture of the passenger headlight opened up with the bracket and new hardware installed. For those who haven't researched this, the black plastic headlight buckets and the glass are called the "headlight assembly". The eyeball thing is the "projector" (from the retrofit source). The bracket the projector is mounted to is what came from @Luke111 . The bulb mounts into the back of the projector.
When looking down into the projector you can see a little bar that blocks part of the light output when it's in low beam mode. Then a magnet moves that bar when the high beams come on to let all of the light shine.
The result is the following switch positions:
Auto: Inner LED DLRs are on
Low Beam: Inner LEDs turn off and the outer HIDs come on with the beam pattern in low mode (with that metal bar blocking part of the light)
High Beam: Inner LEDs turn onto high beam mode (brighter than DRL mode) and the bars in the outer HIDs flip out of the way. The result is BRIGHT!
The only watchout on this installation is that the front trim around the headlights is VERY brittle. One of the mounts fell apart in my hand as I was removing it. A little epoxy and it's back in good shape. Thankfully this part isn't visible.
I bought some brand new glass headlights from PartSouq because the plastic had yellowed a bit.
From there, it's a pretty simple job but there's a lot of steps! Basically, you bake the headlight in the oven to get the glass off, remove the guts of the headlight, install the new bracket and retrofit hardware, adjust everything, then re-install the glass. This took me about 2 days working part-time. I think I could do it in one day the first time and could probably do it in 3-4 hours now that I've done it once.
Here's a picture of the passenger headlight opened up with the bracket and new hardware installed. For those who haven't researched this, the black plastic headlight buckets and the glass are called the "headlight assembly". The eyeball thing is the "projector" (from the retrofit source). The bracket the projector is mounted to is what came from @Luke111 . The bulb mounts into the back of the projector.
When looking down into the projector you can see a little bar that blocks part of the light output when it's in low beam mode. Then a magnet moves that bar when the high beams come on to let all of the light shine.
The result is the following switch positions:
Auto: Inner LED DLRs are on
Low Beam: Inner LEDs turn off and the outer HIDs come on with the beam pattern in low mode (with that metal bar blocking part of the light)
High Beam: Inner LEDs turn onto high beam mode (brighter than DRL mode) and the bars in the outer HIDs flip out of the way. The result is BRIGHT!
The only watchout on this installation is that the front trim around the headlights is VERY brittle. One of the mounts fell apart in my hand as I was removing it. A little epoxy and it's back in good shape. Thankfully this part isn't visible.
Very cool - considering this upgrade myself with the brackets. What's the performance difference like? Did you go with LED bulbs or HID?
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- #74
Performance is fantastic. Hard to quantify, but it's MUCH better.
I went with HID bulbs in the low beam housing. LEDs for the DRL/High beam housing.
When it's in high-beam mode, it lifts the shield on the HIDs AND turns the LEDs to full. It's bright.
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- #75
Added some rock lights today. These are the Baja Designs red LEDs. I ordered some of the OEM running board connectors from Owl Expeditions ( Thanks @Ramathorn15 ). Very simple job. I put the lights about where I wanted them, then measured out the wire. Went back inside and created the harness and wrapped it with some braided loom.
You can see both lights in this shot attached to the frame rail
Here's a shot of the OEM connector
The only problem I ran into is that I initially ran a third light to below the tailgate. When I had all 5 lights hooked up, the leds would turn on (instead of fade on) and then wouldn't turn back off! I could drive away and they would stay on the whole time. The only way I could turn them off was to set the alarm. Very odd. On a hunch, I disconnected the tailgate light, leaving just 4 LEDs. Then everything worked perfectly. I'm assuming it's because of the extra draw, but it's weird that could cause them to stay stuck on!
You can see both lights in this shot attached to the frame rail
Here's a shot of the OEM connector
The only problem I ran into is that I initially ran a third light to below the tailgate. When I had all 5 lights hooked up, the leds would turn on (instead of fade on) and then wouldn't turn back off! I could drive away and they would stay on the whole time. The only way I could turn them off was to set the alarm. Very odd. On a hunch, I disconnected the tailgate light, leaving just 4 LEDs. Then everything worked perfectly. I'm assuming it's because of the extra draw, but it's weird that could cause them to stay stuck on!
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did you install a switch for the LED lights or how do they turn on? I have been wanting to get rid of the factory stepping board but kept it because I like the factory puddle lights that are integrated into the running board, but this could be a solution
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- #77
I hooked the LEDs up to the stock running board light connectors. This means they light up whenever the running board lights would have lit up (e.g. unlocking the car, opening a door, etc)
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- #78
Just installed some Molle Panels frmo @Victory 4x4 ! I ordered the attic and rear window panels. Everything is SUPER high quality and was packaged really well. Extra mounts, bolts, etc. were included. The youtube videos are good for instructions.
A couple of tips for anyone who installs this:
1) When mounting the side panels AND the attic, it's easiest to just get the two brackets up first WITHOUT the side panel attached. It's too heavy and awkward otherwise. The official instructions for the side panels say to keep the side panels loosely connected, but I wasn't able to make it work that way and just attached them after I had the third row handles re-installed.
2) The drill bit size in the side panel video says 5/32". That's too small and the bolts won't fit. You can use 7/32" and the bolts will thread through the metal panel or you can use 1/4" and they will push through. I went with 7/32" for a little more stability.
3) Take this opportunity to replace the crappy Mark Levinson subwoofer:
4) Take this opportunity to tie off the straps on the passenger side cubbies to tighten them up a bit and make them functional again. Even better, replace them. I just tied a knot in each to tighten it:
Finished product!
A couple of tips for anyone who installs this:
1) When mounting the side panels AND the attic, it's easiest to just get the two brackets up first WITHOUT the side panel attached. It's too heavy and awkward otherwise. The official instructions for the side panels say to keep the side panels loosely connected, but I wasn't able to make it work that way and just attached them after I had the third row handles re-installed.
2) The drill bit size in the side panel video says 5/32". That's too small and the bolts won't fit. You can use 7/32" and the bolts will thread through the metal panel or you can use 1/4" and they will push through. I went with 7/32" for a little more stability.
3) Take this opportunity to replace the crappy Mark Levinson subwoofer:
4) Take this opportunity to tie off the straps on the passenger side cubbies to tighten them up a bit and make them functional again. Even better, replace them. I just tied a knot in each to tighten it:
Finished product!
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- #80
I've destroyed a lot of expensive electronics along the wayThat CV powered sub
Wish I had your electronics skills!
