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Build Nonsense and tomfoolery...the fast build of a slow truck
- Thread starter msapers
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- Thread starter
- #22
Sorry, I feel like I'm about to make even worse on you...
Cool!
Ya had me at asshat! Subscribbled!
And your bumper and winch are pushing close to 400lbs, and the stock springs are mush anyway. My 6" slee kit, after settling in was 8" from my starting height measurement. Still a stinkbug, just received some poly spacers from maf today, hopefully the cure. And agree fully, sometimes online ordering is a cross your fingers and dream, with a ridiculous outcome. "Yeah, if I ever own a 1993 Mazda, I now have a part for it" happened once. Seller said "oops, wrong item." Thanks fxxxstick!
sub'd......
Dude, I love this thread! Your 80 looks beautiful and I can't wait to see it transform with all of your planned mods. Those vintage photos are so cool.
Best intro yet, are you a writer by trade, possibly? Anyway, I've got the popcorn ready, throwing the cat outta my chair and settling in with a fine Cali Cabernet.
And... that is one cool drop-in cup holder. I. Must. Have. It.
And... that is one cool drop-in cup holder. I. Must. Have. It.
- Thread starter
- #28
Progress!....of a sort.
I managed to break my ankle and foot last week (3 fractures total, what do I win?). The doc told me that I'll be in a cast/boot for the next 6-8 weeks. I can get around on crutches but I need to be able to drive to work. Hmm. What to do? The motorcycle is sadly out of the question. Maybe if I sit sideways, I can drive the 80 with my left foot? Left foot works fine for the brakes but the gas is a no-go. DAMN!
Right about the time that my wife started talking about Dial-A-Ride, I hobbled my ass out the door and down to church (aka my garage). I sat amongst my tools and raised my head to call upon the gods of hoarded parts for a solution. Directly above me sat my old mountain bike. Hmm... I'm either constipated or...I HAVE AN IDEA!!!
Utilizing the front brake lever and cable from the bike, some small square tubing that In had laying around, a few odds and ends and my welder, I made this:
Ran the cable through here and attached it where the factory hand throttle cable goes.
Hose clamped the tube to the bottom of the shift lever.
It works! Smooth as silk but not too comfortable.
Time to clean up the design. I cut the tube and welded it back on at an angle to allow for enough travel in the lever, then added a T at the top ton rest my hand on.
Wrapped the T in some rubber that I had. I'm all about luxury.
Finished! Swanky, no?
I drove it around for about an hour and it works great. I'm back on the road!
I managed to break my ankle and foot last week (3 fractures total, what do I win?). The doc told me that I'll be in a cast/boot for the next 6-8 weeks. I can get around on crutches but I need to be able to drive to work. Hmm. What to do? The motorcycle is sadly out of the question. Maybe if I sit sideways, I can drive the 80 with my left foot? Left foot works fine for the brakes but the gas is a no-go. DAMN!
Right about the time that my wife started talking about Dial-A-Ride, I hobbled my ass out the door and down to church (aka my garage). I sat amongst my tools and raised my head to call upon the gods of hoarded parts for a solution. Directly above me sat my old mountain bike. Hmm... I'm either constipated or...I HAVE AN IDEA!!!
Utilizing the front brake lever and cable from the bike, some small square tubing that In had laying around, a few odds and ends and my welder, I made this:
Ran the cable through here and attached it where the factory hand throttle cable goes.
Hose clamped the tube to the bottom of the shift lever.
It works! Smooth as silk but not too comfortable.
Time to clean up the design. I cut the tube and welded it back on at an angle to allow for enough travel in the lever, then added a T at the top ton rest my hand on.
Wrapped the T in some rubber that I had. I'm all about luxury.
Finished! Swanky, no?
I drove it around for about an hour and it works great. I'm back on the road!
Kinda creepy, instead of putting your foot in it, you're putting your fingers in it! Great idea though, props on not letting it slow you down!
Scott,
Just catching up on your build after your tomfoolery with hand throttles and defense of white spokers caught my eye. I was also entertained...except for the part about the broken ankle. I hope whoever you kicked is in worse shape than you.
I like the idea of growing up in a LandCruiser. No such luck here, had to buy my own since my parents weren't into such extravagances as 4x4, even though the old Bel Air wagon made it down many a back road. You saw my ride with spokers on in the other thread. Bought new for $6200, my '76 55 lasted 8 years before I decided to sell before the salt cancer caught up with the latest repair. Was in Isuzus about 20 years but came back to the one true faith in 2010 when we bought the Cow.
You definitely made the right choice after your research, I had also looked at Discos and no way did I want that much wrench time.
Just catching up on your build after your tomfoolery with hand throttles and defense of white spokers caught my eye. I was also entertained...except for the part about the broken ankle. I hope whoever you kicked is in worse shape than you.
I like the idea of growing up in a LandCruiser. No such luck here, had to buy my own since my parents weren't into such extravagances as 4x4, even though the old Bel Air wagon made it down many a back road. You saw my ride with spokers on in the other thread. Bought new for $6200, my '76 55 lasted 8 years before I decided to sell before the salt cancer caught up with the latest repair. Was in Isuzus about 20 years but came back to the one true faith in 2010 when we bought the Cow.
You definitely made the right choice after your research, I had also looked at Discos and no way did I want that much wrench time.
!
- Thread starter
- #32
Below is the installation and review of my roof rack from PrinSu Design Studios. I initially saw this rack on BoxRocket's build thread and liked it because it was light, had a full "foot" design for even weight distribution, was flat on top and was (relatively) affordable. I got into a group buy with Qball back in May and finally received my rack early last week. I'm not too annoyed at the time it took to ship as I know that this is a new product and these things take time.
A few notes on the installation and one major complaint:
1. There are no instructions included with the rack. This is no big deal for most of us but if you happen to be one of those folks that needs the FSM to change your floor mats, you're going to need therapy when you see all the hardware that comes with this rack.
2. When installing the wind deflector to the front crossbar, the easiest way is to place all the screws in the wind deflector and start a T-nut on each one NO MORE THAN TWO TURNS (they are short little buggers. Once you have all 10 screws and T-nuts started in the wind deflector, begin sliding the deflector in place while feeding the T-nuts into the slot in the end of the cross bar. If you try to install the T-nuts into the crossbar first and then line up all the holes on the wind deflector, you will quite simply drive yourself insane. Beer to celebrate a job easily done or shock treatments and a Thorazine drip when the neighbors find you curled in a ball in your driveway incoherently crying over a piece of aluminum and some little screws...the choice is yours. Hey, maybe you need the vacation. I'm not here to judge.
3. When setting the rack into place, make sure that it is in the right place on the roof for the "feet" to follow the contour of the drip rail for maximum contact.
The rack is very well engineered and feels strong and solid. However, there is one problem with the design that you might want to consider attending to in your own installation...which brings me to my...
MAJOR COMPLAINT - The brackets that go from the gutter to the rack are not up to the standard of the rest of the assembly. They are, to put it bluntly, garbage. When they were installed, they deformed long before they ever tightened. I never used more than one finger's force on a standard 1/2 box wrench, so don't blame my gorilla hands.
The bracket as delivered
The same bracket after minor snugging
As I said above, the rack is awesome. I'll just make some new gutter brackets out of real metal and it'll be good to go. All in all, I would not hesitate to recommend this rack to anyone.
A few more pics:
A few notes on the installation and one major complaint:
1. There are no instructions included with the rack. This is no big deal for most of us but if you happen to be one of those folks that needs the FSM to change your floor mats, you're going to need therapy when you see all the hardware that comes with this rack.
2. When installing the wind deflector to the front crossbar, the easiest way is to place all the screws in the wind deflector and start a T-nut on each one NO MORE THAN TWO TURNS (they are short little buggers. Once you have all 10 screws and T-nuts started in the wind deflector, begin sliding the deflector in place while feeding the T-nuts into the slot in the end of the cross bar. If you try to install the T-nuts into the crossbar first and then line up all the holes on the wind deflector, you will quite simply drive yourself insane. Beer to celebrate a job easily done or shock treatments and a Thorazine drip when the neighbors find you curled in a ball in your driveway incoherently crying over a piece of aluminum and some little screws...the choice is yours. Hey, maybe you need the vacation. I'm not here to judge.
3. When setting the rack into place, make sure that it is in the right place on the roof for the "feet" to follow the contour of the drip rail for maximum contact.
The rack is very well engineered and feels strong and solid. However, there is one problem with the design that you might want to consider attending to in your own installation...which brings me to my...
MAJOR COMPLAINT - The brackets that go from the gutter to the rack are not up to the standard of the rest of the assembly. They are, to put it bluntly, garbage. When they were installed, they deformed long before they ever tightened. I never used more than one finger's force on a standard 1/2 box wrench, so don't blame my gorilla hands.
The bracket as delivered
The same bracket after minor snugging
As I said above, the rack is awesome. I'll just make some new gutter brackets out of real metal and it'll be good to go. All in all, I would not hesitate to recommend this rack to anyone.
A few more pics:
- Thread starter
- #33
Since my idea of a month on the road is this:
and my wife's idea of two days at a KOA is this:
a compromise had to be reached. After muchbegging rational discussion, we decided that a rooftop tent would be the way to go.
Got the Tepui rooftop tent installed today! I'll do a real review once we go camping but here's what I can say now:
Installation: Easy as pie. Bolt on the rails and the ladder, set it on the rack, slide in the retaining bolts, add plates and nuts and you're done.
Initial deployment thoughts: This is a high quality tent! I'm really happy with the construction, fabric and hardware. I think the color looks great with the 80's blue paint too.
Ordering/shipping etc: I got this tent through Boxrocket. He's a great guy to deal with and it was a simple phone call to put things in motion. Couldn't be happier with the buying experience.
Pics:
and my wife's idea of two days at a KOA is this:
a compromise had to be reached. After much
Got the Tepui rooftop tent installed today! I'll do a real review once we go camping but here's what I can say now:
Installation: Easy as pie. Bolt on the rails and the ladder, set it on the rack, slide in the retaining bolts, add plates and nuts and you're done.
Initial deployment thoughts: This is a high quality tent! I'm really happy with the construction, fabric and hardware. I think the color looks great with the 80's blue paint too.
Ordering/shipping etc: I got this tent through Boxrocket. He's a great guy to deal with and it was a simple phone call to put things in motion. Couldn't be happier with the buying experience.
Pics:
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- Thread starter
- #34
I forgot to take pictures, but this tent comes with an annex room that covers the ladder area. 4 walls and a full floor. Nice!
Great thread! I'll be following along. That rack looks awesome!
- Thread starter
- #36
Lots of progress this weekend! First I installed the OME 2.5" lift. Christo at Slee recommended 850's in the front and 864's in the rear for the weight that I'll be carrying. It's sitting a little tail-high right now but I'm not going to do anything about it until the suspension has had a chance to settle and I finish adding weight. Once all that is done, I'll add a small spacer to the front to level it if need be. The install was simple, but time consuming. It took me about 4 hours start to finish. I'm really happy with the ride and handling. The truck doesn't wallow at all and feels much more stable in turns. I haven't done any caster correction yet, as I plan to wait until I decide whether or not to add a spacer to the front. At that time , I'll use Slee's caster plates. To me, the caster bushings seem a little hokey. 
Me in the middle of 2am impact wrench practice. My neighbors love me.
Before:
After:
I also got my ARB awnings installed today (8 foot on the driver's side for hanging out, 4 foot in the rear which will provide shade for the slide out kitchen that I'm about to build). I'm not sure if anyone else has done this with the PrinSu rack, so here's a couple of tips:
Rear (4 foot) awning: You'll need to do some notching on one side of the crossbar and use longer bolts if you plan to mount an ARB awning to the crossbar of this rack. Not a big deal and the awning is the same width as the crossbar, so it fits between the side rails of the rack without issue.
Notched the crossbar for bolt clearance, used a plate on the back side of the crossbar.
Rear crossbar installed vertically and at an angle to provide clearance between the awning and the roof.
Side (8 foot) awning: The awning needs to be spaced away from the rack in order to clear the screws that hold the rack together and the roof brackets. I used some scrap 1/4 aluminum bar , cut, drilled and painted black (which was not necessary because it can't be seen). I also used longer bolts to make up for the spacer bars.
1/4 inch aluminum spacers. You need three of these:
I used the top slotted hole in the side rail of the rack for the awning's top bolt and drilled a hole in the side rail under it for the bottom bolt. This was done at the front, middle and rear of the side rail. NOTE: This is not an ideal way to mount the awning if you like to reconfigure your rack a lot for different loads. However, my rack will always have the same load on it (awnings and tent), so it was the perfect solution for me.
Front:
Middle:
Rear:
Installation Tip: A ratcheting 10mm box wrench is your friend here. All told In was able to install both awnings in about 2 hours. (Including a bolt run).
I love how simple and easy the awnings function. Setup of both awnings, alone, takes me about 90 seconds each.
Awning porn:
The next step will be the fabrication of my spare tire/water can swingouts and the design and build of my slide out kitchen and fridge mount/slide. Stay tuned...
Me in the middle of 2am impact wrench practice. My neighbors love me.
Before:
After:
I also got my ARB awnings installed today (8 foot on the driver's side for hanging out, 4 foot in the rear which will provide shade for the slide out kitchen that I'm about to build). I'm not sure if anyone else has done this with the PrinSu rack, so here's a couple of tips:
Rear (4 foot) awning: You'll need to do some notching on one side of the crossbar and use longer bolts if you plan to mount an ARB awning to the crossbar of this rack. Not a big deal and the awning is the same width as the crossbar, so it fits between the side rails of the rack without issue.
Notched the crossbar for bolt clearance, used a plate on the back side of the crossbar.
Rear crossbar installed vertically and at an angle to provide clearance between the awning and the roof.
Side (8 foot) awning: The awning needs to be spaced away from the rack in order to clear the screws that hold the rack together and the roof brackets. I used some scrap 1/4 aluminum bar , cut, drilled and painted black (which was not necessary because it can't be seen). I also used longer bolts to make up for the spacer bars.
1/4 inch aluminum spacers. You need three of these:
I used the top slotted hole in the side rail of the rack for the awning's top bolt and drilled a hole in the side rail under it for the bottom bolt. This was done at the front, middle and rear of the side rail. NOTE: This is not an ideal way to mount the awning if you like to reconfigure your rack a lot for different loads. However, my rack will always have the same load on it (awnings and tent), so it was the perfect solution for me.
Front:
Middle:
Rear:
Installation Tip: A ratcheting 10mm box wrench is your friend here. All told In was able to install both awnings in about 2 hours. (Including a bolt run).
I love how simple and easy the awnings function. Setup of both awnings, alone, takes me about 90 seconds each.
Awning porn:
The next step will be the fabrication of my spare tire/water can swingouts and the design and build of my slide out kitchen and fridge mount/slide. Stay tuned...
Noticed you changed your tires but no note of them on the thread. What are you running? I like the way they look!
- Thread starter
- #38
Thanks, they're 285/75/15 Definity Dakota M/Ts made by Cooper and sold at Pep Boys. I got them on sale for $79 a piece. I've had good luck with them on a few other trucks and I thought I'd give them a try on the 80. They do look a little small with the lift though.
You mean 285/75/16? I think they look good. I'm going to go for 285's as well with my 2.5 OME lift. I think it looks good... Bigger than stock but not overkill.
- Thread starter
- #40
Yes, 285/75/16. Good catch!