Media GX460 / Prado150 pic thread

[r2m]

Nice to have the space and equipment for DIY projects like that.
I have a plasma cutter, TIG, MIG and stick welders and tube bender (JD Squared), but not the juice (220 VAC) to do it nor do I have the space.
I designed built the entire rack that's over the shell and cab, designing it in CAD then scratching it out in full scale on the garage floor in our last house. BTY, my first overland build...
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Note the top photo was before I added a snorkel that you see on drivers side in the lower photo. I had to measure all the angles to find one that fit and it turned out the be an early Defender had all the right angles AND was on the correct side of the engine bay.

 

[Rednexus]

Nice to have the space and equipment for DIY projects like that.
I have a plasma cutter, TIG, MIG and stick welders and tube bender (JD Squared), but not the juice (220 VAC) to do it nor do I have the space.
I designed built the entire rack that's over the shell and cab, designing it in CAD then scratching it out in full scale on the garage floor in our last house. BTY, my first overland build...

Just when I'm feeling great about my CAD and fabrication skills, I see something like this . Killer rack. I do a lot of small stuff in 2D AutoCAD and with fabricate square tubing and laser-cut flat stock but have not yet set aside time to pick up 3D CAD and move onto the next level!

 

[r2m]

Just when I'm feeling great about my CAD and fabrication skills, I see something like this . Killer rack. I do a lot of small stuff in 2D AutoCAD and with fabricate square tubing and laser-cut flat stock but have not yet set aside time to pick up 3D CAD and move onto the next level!

Just so my head doesn't get too big, I did everything from the bed up, the hoops over the shell, plates for mounting the hoops on the bed and rack. The bumpers and rock sliders were purchased.
AND... to help keep me more humble, I cut, bent and tacked the entire rack together, but my tube welding skills are not great and I was using a splatter (MIG) welder (very messy) at the time. I took it to a shop for them to do all the really nice beads around the tube welding so it looked good and there wasn't slag all over the place.

 

[Rednexus]

Just so my head doesn't get too big, I did everything from the bed up, the hoops over the shell, plates for mounting the hoops on the bed and rack. The bumpers and rock sliders were purchased.
AND... to help keep me more humble, I cut, bent and tacked the entire rack together, but my tube welding skills are not great and I was using a splatter (MIG) welder (very messy) at the time. I took it to a shop for them to do all the really nice beads around the tube welding so it looked good and there wasn't slag all over the place.

It's been process for me as well, I learned welding over 25 years ago in a high school agricultural course. Then I didn't weld again for 20 more years until I picked up a cheap flux core welder from Harbor Freight in desperation to weld a nut onto a broken exhaust stud on my GX so I could remove it to install headers. Since then it's grown a lot - my initial beads were crap, I eventually upgraded to a nice Hobart MIG welder, and this past weekend I built another 24' of deck railings on a 2D-cad designed rotating rotisserie jig with many laser-cut custom pieces from Send Cut Send.

All of this would have been MUCH harder without CAD and online laser cutting services. It would take many times longer and some pieces (like the sliding rod holders on the jig below) would not really be possible to build by hand. Perhaps my next investment will be a tubing bender and notcher .

 

[K Dub]

The trailer harness is pretty small gage wire, maybe 16 ga or so, and it is a long run of wire between the alternator/battery and the trailer plug. Wire that small won't move enough current for inflating tires very fast, or you may get the wire quite hot and possibly blow fuses.

If you want a quick-plug 12V compressor as opposed to using alligator clips on the battery, you'd need to wire a dedicated circuit directly off of the battery (ideally with a circuit breaker sized for the compressor). I use something similar for powering the fridge in our camper when towing - 10 ga wire behind a circuit breaker, then a Anderson connector with weatherproof boots for quick connect/disconnect at the back of the rig. It's not hard to wire something like this up, including cutting the leads off of the compressor and replacing them with an Anderson connector. 10 ga should handle 30-40 amps over a short run (i.e., compressor at the front of the rig), which should be fine for most smaller 12V compressors. I do run my ARB twin off of 6 gauge though, as I had my Smittybilt on 10 ga and it would get the wiring a bit warm when running.
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That was exactly my concern. Looks like that trailer harness option is 20amp limited, and I'm not sure how much is feeding that plug but it can't be any more than that. The alligator clamps claim 35amp max draw, so probably a better solution. My first impression was that my cig lighter outlet in the interior probably isn't any higher amps than the trailer plug, but that's sort of the problem with all these dinky little compressors either way. Moving the issue to the back bumper wouldn't really be an improvement.

 

[r2m]

It's been process for me as well, I learned welding over 25 years ago in a high school agricultural course. Then I didn't weld again for 20 more years until I picked up a cheap flux core welder from Harbor Freight in desperation to weld a nut onto a broken exhaust stud on my GX so I could remove it to install headers. Since then it's grown a lot - my initial beads were crap, I eventually upgraded to a nice Hobart MIG welder, and this past weekend I built another 24' of deck railings on a 2D-cad designed rotating rotisserie jig with many laser-cut custom pieces from Send Cut Send.

All of this would have been MUCH harder without CAD and online laser cutting services. It would take many times longer and some pieces (like the sliding rod holders on the jig below) would not really be possible to build by hand. Perhaps my next investment will be a tubing bender and notcher .
View attachment 4163746
View attachment 4163747

Sounds a little like my story. I learned how to gas and stick weld in "metal shop" in high school. We even had spot welding! There was non of this fancy MIG/TIG/Plasma back then, or at least to the general consumer. I can weld okay, but with my MIG, it just splatters everywhere. I've used it for jigs and things I don't care how they look.

 

[Rednexus]

Sounds a little like my story. I learned how to gas and stick weld in "metal shop" in high school. We even had spot welding! There was non of this fancy MIG/TIG/Plasma back then, or at least to the general consumer. I can weld okay, but with my MIG, it just splatters everywhere. I've used it for jigs and things I don't care how they look.

It is probably a setting issue or problem with your welder, as a MIG should not be splattery. I had crappy welds with lots splatter for awhile with my $1K Hobart MIG, turned out there was a gas leak due to a loose fitting, and I had never set the polarity back right after using it with flux core at first! After that and tweaking voltage and wire feed slightly, it will lay down some very nice beads with virtually no splatter (just as good as my buddy's $2K Miller, although his auto-adjusts settings while you weld so it's more foolproof).

Skid plate I built for the hydraulic filter on my tractor. This had zero grinding on it.

 

[r2m]

It is probably a setting issue or problem with your welder, as a MIG should not be splattery. I had crappy welds with lots splatter for awhile with my $1K Hobart MIG, turned out there was a gas leak due to a loose fitting, and I had never set the polarity back right after using it with flux core at first! After that and tweaking voltage and wire feed slightly, it will lay down some very nice beads with virtually no splatter (just as good as my buddy's $2K Miller, although his auto-adjusts settings while you weld so it's more foolproof).

Skid plate I built for the hydraulic filter on my tractor. This had zero grinding on it.
View attachment 4163902

That may be part of my problem, I never use gas. Probably should. I know I have to for TIG.

 

[MeefZah]

Final product! Unfortunately I have to wait a few days to pick'er up.

View attachment 4163388

 

[TXGX]

Got an upgraded suspension installed. I went with the Eibach Pro Truck 1. Feels a bit more planted and rides well on the freeway and city streets. Also got the alignment straightened out. It had the typical ‘toe n go’.

 

[Hiluxforever]

Now that I have most of the bugs worked out I am the fastest compressor based tire inflator in my group.

while quite a few folks have larger tires, if I am airing down I go Spinal Tap/11 psi and am usually running 4-6 psi lower than the folks on all terrains.

11 psi on every trail it just rides like a dream offroad. Had zero tires issues from doing this over the last year. With my tires the difference between 13-14 and 11 is quite large.

 

[5space]

Aaahhh so much room. Speaking of room, man so much space inside the bumper, there's a 12k winch in that grill

 

[Hiluxforever]

Aaahhh so much room. Speaking of room, man so much space inside the bumper, there's a 12k winch in that grill
View attachment 4166663

Yea, thats why I got a cheap nose job up in Fairplay. A little "Tom's Rhinoplasty" action.

Space to mount my controller where any jeep dude can find it and enough space behind the retro grill to fit a windshield washer fluid reservoir if I choose that solution or opt for a transmission cooler.

There is almost as much space at the front of a GX as a 70s domestic full size sedan.

I do not have fond memories of my dad's 77 Eldorado. Even if the remnants of my original bumper almost resemble the big ass bumper guards. I was going more for a warthog look.