Builds Built for Family Adventure (1 Viewer)

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Boy, am I all wanked up! I think it's because I haven't had my second cup of coffee this morning! Yes, your steering wheel is on the correct side for us Yank's. My mind was focusing on the antenna mount.
My MetalTech rear bumper had a mount already located just behind the spare so that my HAM antenna is still low enough for parking garages, car washes, etc.

:cheers:
 
I was never a fan of the halogen fog lights that come with the Ironman bullbar, so I decided to add some Baja Designs Squadron Sport-R amber lights. I've always been a fan of amber light for fogs. I'm interested to see how these do with the dual beam patterns. The mounting holes do not line up with the bullbar mounts, so I created some brackets out of some spare Al bar-stock I had in the garage. Did some quick measurements, bent it up in the bench vise, drilled my holes and that was it. I originally had socket head cap screws holding the mount to the bullbar, but changed them to normal hex bolts (not shown) for ease of adjusting the beam level when mounted.

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Let us know how you like the amber color. Myself, I usually always prefer white although I know amber is supposed to be better in fowl weather, e.g. fog, snow, etc.
 
I'm looking to move up slightly in tire size to 285/70r17 and knew I'd need a way to carry a full size spare. The Kaymar is #1 on my list, but I had this Wilco Offset in my garage from another truck. According to Wilco's fit requirements, it should not work due to the short distance between the hitch and door bottom. However, it fits just fine and the door has plenty of clearance to swing open. I need to mount the license plate on the carrier and if I do keep it long long term, I'll relocate the camera. For now, this is just a temporary solution, but I can say confidently that the Wilco Offset does work on the 460 if you have the full size hitch that hangs below the bumper.

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Nothing super exciting, but I finally got a power disconnect installed inline for the winch. I just didn't want someone to be able to walk up to my vehicle and hook a remote (or clips) to my winch control box and tamper with it. Based on the specs, it should be fine for steady winch runs up to ~30 sec. I did leave the power lead long enough to by-pass the disconnect and hook straight to the battery if something goes wrong in the switch. The battery tie-down bracket is from Amazon and I fabbed the mount from some 1x3 aluminum angle stock. I did need to get longer battery j-bolts as well.

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How do you think the Ironman front bumper compares to the ARB? Love the rig btw, it's coming along nicely.
 
Nothing super exciting, but I finally got a power disconnect installed inline for the winch. I just didn't want someone to be able to walk up to my vehicle and hook a remote (or clips) to my winch control box and tamper with it. Based on the specs, it should be fine for steady winch runs up to ~30 sec. I did leave the power lead long enough to by-pass the disconnect and hook straight to the battery if something goes wrong in the switch. The battery tie-down bracket is from Amazon and I fabbed the mount from some 1x3 aluminum angle stock. I did need to get longer battery j-bolts as well.

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I guess you have your winch controller on your winch instead of under the hood?
If you can, if you want another project, you may want to look into to see if you can remotely position your winch to under the hood. I have mine on the passenger side, fire wall.
Also, are you going to go with dual batteries sometime in the future?
 
How do you think the Ironman front bumper compares to the ARB? Love the rig btw, it's coming along nicely.

I've had an ARB on another rig and IMHO, the Ironman is comparable in quality. I only paid $1250 for the Ironman, so couldn't justify the extra $1000 for the ARB. The ARB does fit a bit tighter to the grille, but I'm happy with the Ironman fitment. I do like the 2 piece winch cradle as well for ease of installation.
 
Sweet build - Do you ever have problems wheeling with the tint? Looks pretty dark but perhaps you wheel with the windows down all the time.
 
Sweet build - Do you ever have problems wheeling with the tint? Looks pretty dark but perhaps you wheel with the windows down all the time.

No issues yet...it is only 18% in the front, 35% over factory in the back and 55% on the windshield. I usually run this combo on all my vehicles, so am very used to it. The ditch lights definitely do help out the sides, but it is no big deal to roll down a window either. However, I don't typically do too much night wheeling.
 
sub'd (OP, do you have plans for your 650# front springs if/wen you swap to 700#s? I may be interested.... ;)
 
Funny thing about wheels and tires. I would have just gone with a M/T on my factory wheels (I kind of liked my factory wheels), but the cost of going to an 18" M/T tires over time in relation to the cost of 17" M/T tires was just too much. Yes it cost me more to purchase new 17" rims and tires rather than just the getting 18" M/T's and mounting them on the factory wheels. But I considered the long term effect of purchasing new tires every time my 17" tires wear down or (heaven forbid) blowout. I found the cost over the long haul going with 17" wheels and tires is cheaper than 18" tires on factory wheels. Also, 17" is the most common rim size for trying to find a tire. I considered this, should I ever be in the middle of nowhere and need a replacement tire my chances of finding my size increases.
 
Funny thing about wheels and tires. I would have just gone with a M/T on my factory wheels (I kind of liked my factory wheels), but the cost of going to an 18" M/T tires over time in relation to the cost of 17" M/T tires was just too much. Yes it cost me more to purchase new 17" rims and tires rather than just the getting 18" M/T's and mounting them on the factory wheels. But I considered the long term effect of purchasing new tires every time my 17" tires wear down or (heaven forbid) blowout. I found the cost over the long haul going with 17" wheels and tires is cheaper than 18" tires on factory wheels. Also, 17" is the most common rim size for trying to find a tire. I considered this, should I ever be in the middle of nowhere and need a replacement tire my chances of finding my size increases.

Fair points, but I personally feel the "price of tires" thing is overblown. Let's be real...any 32-33" quality tire in a 17 or 18" wheel size is $300ish give or take $25 or so, even cheaper if you wait for sales/rebates and do price matching. Over the life of a vehicle, that isn't a whole lot of money differential. Also, quite a few pickups come with 32-33" tires standard on an 18 these days. In some super rare case that I ever have 2 unrepairable flats and need a 2nd spare, I'm sure I could find my size street tire in a pinch.
 
@r2m I’m not sure what brands you are shopping but as an example, KO2s in 285/70/17 and 275/70/18 are within $15-$20 of each other in price. You’ll likely not own the vehicle long enough to get that savings back when you factor in the cost of purchasing wheels.

Depending on your use, there are lots of benefits in going to a 17”, but long term cost is likely not one of them.
 

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