Living in the same town as Delta and Long Range America makes it too easy to spend money on a Land Cruiser. New front bumper arrived on Friday. Took off the OEM bumper and drove down to pick up the new.
I mounted up a Badland 12k winch I've had sitting on the shelf for quite a while and took some measurements to see how things were going to fit. I had to remove the winch control box as it would interfere with the valence and moved this thermistor up to the higher mounting location to clear the winch wires as they exit the housing.
The new front bumper fits so tight to the flares there wasn't room for the OEM rubber spacers so they got removed.
I wrapped the winch cables with some plastic corrugated wrap and wrapped over that with Tesa tape meant for engine bays to protect them from abrasion.
Spent a lot of time trying to plan out wire routing and where to mount the solenoid box to keep things as OEM looking as possible. Got the ground cable hidden away between the coolant bottle and then routed under the battery box to where it's barely visible. I decided to rip the solenoid box apart to save space/weight and hopefully a cleaner install.
Out of all this only the black box on the upper right is required to run the winch. I will also be using the smaller black box dangling next to it as it is the wireless receiver. I am currently writing this after spending hours trying to figure out where the best location would be to mount these. Between the short winch motor cables, leaving room for a likely intercooler in the future, and trying to stick to factory threaded mounts I don't have many options.
If you've come up with a clean way to mount one of these I'd greatly appreciate seeing what you came up with.
Took a break from pulling cables to run to the hardware store pick up a bunch of bolts I needed. Stoked on the new Cruiser Company bar. Need some spot lights mounted on there to complete the look. Hard to decide between Stedi, Baja Designs, and Nacho.
Taking a break from winch wiring was the right call. I finally realized this solenoid/relay box for the winch does not have to be in the engine bay and that I could just mount it to the inside of the bumper next to the winch using the lisence plate and/or spot light mounting locations in the bumper.
Since I was going to be busting out the welder to fabricate a custom mount for the winch controller I decided it would also be a good time to fabricate a custom mount for this bluetooth switch panel. The area in front of the passenger side battery looked like an ideal candidate for the switch panel and making a new battery tie down bar that would also mount the switch panel seemed like it could be a great way to keep things looking reasonably OEM.
I started with the switch panel/ battery tie down bar as I had the clearest idea for what I wanted this part to look like. I picked up some angle iron from the hardware store. The legs on this were shorter than I was hoping for but it was the only piece I could find that had a sharp corner on the internal corner. Most angle iron has a radiused inside corner but to sit all the way down on the edge of the battery this needs to be a sharp angle. I used my oxy/acetylene torch to heat and then flatten the ends of the angle iron much like the OEM tie down.
I stripped the paint/powder coat off the mounting braket that came with the Auxbeam switch panel. I don't know exactly what method they use to coat their brackets but it's seriously impresive how much work it took to remove the black coating. My dedicated paint stripping wheel for my drill would not remove this stuff. Only an 80 grit flapper disk on an angle grinder was able to remove it. Quite impressed.
I then notched my angle iron to alow the Auxbeam mounting bracket to sit flush on the top of the battery and even with the top of the angle iron once welded and ground down. If you want to copy this set up the Auxbeam mount is 1/8" steel plate so the angle iron should also be 1/8" to match.
Checking fitment before welding and I'm liking the way this is turning out.
Used a squirt gun and some angry pixies to stick this together and then ground the bulk of my welds down before taking a photo.
A grinder and some paint makes a welder what he ain't.
I'll finish the finer fabrication like drilling the threaded rod holes and rounding off all the edges before paint but for now its time to move on to the winch controller mount. For this I used a 1/4" steel flat bar to make the actual mounting surface and then a small 1/8" flat bar to reach the other license plate mount hole to keep the mounting plate from rotating.
With a bit more .030 and ampers these got stuck together. I used a 1/4" drill bit to drill holes for some 1/4" threaded rod to get welded into the mounting plate.
Used the nuts to hold the threaded rod at the right depth and welded then ground the back side of the plate.
I'll drill the mounting holes for this and put on the fine finishing touches before paint for this part as well. I'll be sticking to my tried and true Rust-O-leum paint process for these parts as well.
I gave the mounting surface of the winch control bracket my now trademark Gorilla tape treatment, this time to prevent the paint from adhering to the inside of the bumper as it isn't 100% cured yet.
Here is my custom battery tie down bar with integrated auxiliary power controller. Not too shabby!
Moving on to the winch controller, I got it mounted to my bracket with red Loctite and several ugga duggas to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. Shorting these terminals out would be... unfortunate. I mounted the wireless remote receiver to the bottom of the controller with some 3m moulding/trim tape. The signal wires got shortened to just fit without slack and I extended the power wire to be able to reach my new Aux power box. The green wire is the antenna and the black goes to the winch ground.
I ditched the wired remote plug that came with the winch. If the wireless remote dies and I need to use the winch, it can still be operated by jumping the pins I just wired.
Got the three winch wires and the main power lead connected to the control box and took one last photo before it got dropped down into its (hopefully) forever home.
Whilethe winch controller and switch panel mounting bracket paint was curing I moved on to pulling more wire. I went back to my trailer harness and tapped into the brake lamp singal wire and extended my Aux and brake control wires. I also split a second cable off my red 12awg Aux cable to supply Batt+ into the rear quarter panel to power a subwoofer and to have a Batt+ 12v plug in the rear for running my fridge.
Since originally making this trailer harness I have discovered Tesa tape and used it liberally here since I have no plans on ever opening this harness up again. Wire wrap went over the top of that and structural zip ties were used to tidy things up.
You don't like surprise fireworks and losing tools on the side of the road that you accidentally left on top of your battery the night before??? These are the things I live for.
In all seriousness you'd think I'd have learned from the number of times I've done both of those things but here I am...
Like everyone's OEM sub, mine was in rough shape so it's getting replaced.
I used the design I Lean came up with from this thread for a subwoofer mount. I then drilled my own mounting holes for this 10" subwoofer. This might be a dumb idea but I added some Gorilla tape to the mounting surface to reduce vibrations.
Used some blue locktite on the screws holding this on to keep them from backing out but hopefully be able to take this off again in the future should the need arise.
Here I've crimped grounds together for the backup camera from before, the subwoofer being added now, and a 12awg ground for the Blue Sea Systems 12v outlet I'm about to install.
All the subwoofer wires, trailer plug wires, and Batt+ wires got the Tesa tape treatment. For these wires inside the cabin, I am using the sound deadening Tesa tape to help keep rattles under control.
With wire harnesses wrapped up past the sub I plugged it in and got it mounted up. The scratches next to the upper mount locations tell the tale of the rassling required to get this in place. If you decide to go this route bolt your subwoofer further to the left (front) than I did. The right side of this bracket really needs to be bent slightly beyond 90 degrees, and I mounted my sub so close to that side that the mount is now touching the edge of the sub. I gave this the Gorilla tape treatment to prevent this from rattling while the sub is doing its thing but if I were to do it again moving the sub to the left would be much better
The ground wires from before just got bolted to the bottom right mounting bolt location.
I got the rest of my wires wrapped in Tesa tape and plastic wire wrap and tapped my 12awg Batt+ wire to run my 12v outlet. I made this lead extra long so taking the panel on and off won't be miserable.
Drilled and deburred a hole inside the storage cubby for a concealed Blue Sea Systems 12v socket since my JDM truck does not have the ashtray in the back. Trying to maintain the interior appearing as unmodified as possible while still having useful mods tucked away.
Got the rear buttoned back up and my stealth mods were a success. No visual indicators of what I've done here.
I pulled the center console to route wiring for my radio and found some JDM $$$! These will be staying in the rig for good luck. I routed 12awg power wires from my switch panel controller, an antenna wire, and a hand mic extension cable under the center console and out underneath the passenger seat.
I got this 50w mobile amatuer radio set up under the passenger seat. I selected this specific radio because it has three unique features:
Unrestricted ability to transmit and receive on GMRS/FRS frequencies along with standard UHF/VHF bands.
Not require access to the radio in order to control it so it can be installed out of sight.
Be controlled via app on head unit.
I connected the hand mic extension cable to this Solvefunction switch insert and installed that in the lower left blank position. I store the hand mic in the center consol and only connect it when needed to keep things as OEM looking as possible. Here is a photo of the app connected to the radio.
You can save several channel groups to the radio. Here I have the group with FRS/GMRS frequencies pulled up. For the FCC agent and/or sad HAM's reading this... transmitting on FRS/GMRS frequencies with an amateur radio is ultra illegal, punishible by death, and planes will fall out of the sky if you do it. So don't. And of course I never would either...
If you do get this radio getting your HAM license is stupid cheap and easy. I spent an evening memorizing the answers to the question bank and now have a sick callsign.
With my electrical/wiring projects wrapped up I made a beeline for Moab to meet up with some friends there. The truck handled the 600 mile roadtrip beautifully. The 35's and suspension setup maintains wonderful road manners and with the stock gearing I'm sitting at a comfortable 2400 rpm cruising at 75 mph. I doubt I will regear this at any point in the future as it seems like I have a good balance between street driving and crawling ability here.
I'm quite impressed by how comfortable this thing is for long trips like this. I got the best milage I've ever gotten in this thing during this trip at about 17.5 mpg. On just the stock fuel tank I ended up driving 430 miles straight without any stops and only one stop total. I don't see any need for additional fuel capacity, especially considering with a full rack of Jerry cans on the back I can push out the range to beyond 600 miles...
Top of the world was unreal. We only had two hours of daylight when we started the trail after having already run Dome Plateau. We weren't sure we'd make it before dark (or at all) but ended up getting to the top right at sunset. Probably my best wheeling memory to date. We were a bit nervous about coming back down after dark but that ended up being no biggie.
I chickened out from doing any of major features on Hell's Revenge. I tell myself that with lockers and a spotter experienced with 80's I'd run Hell's Gate/Escalator/Staircase but time will tell if that's true.
We weren't planning on running Fins'n'things but with only a couple hours left with my buddies Jeep rental we decided to run it instead of attempting Poison Spider which was further away and longer. A couple of the optional features on that trail proved to be good challenges for where the rig's currently at.
Discovered a few areas for improvement on the trip. The White Knuckle slider bent from a hard drop onto the square tube that drops bellow the exhaust. The slider bent up and hit the pinch weld and knocked some paint off. Going to need to bend this back down and add some reinforcement here.
The OEM rear sway bar links lived a long and fulfilling life but here they be laid to rest. LCP links inbound.
Taco'd the spare tire mounting plate on the 4x4labs swing out. This is after being persuaded back into serviceability. Will replace this as the lugs are no longer press fit and plan on removing the spare for the steepest of departure angles in the future.
