- Thread starter
- #221
Thanks for the tip. So far so good on the replacement unit from Samlex.
Builds Owyhee J.A. BJ75 Troopy Journal (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Owyhee Jackass
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #222
Been a while since I've done nothing to it, except drive it.
I started building some step bars/light-duty sliders a few months ago. Not sure how many hours I've got into them, not months worth, just takes me that long as its not been a priority.
I started building some step bars/light-duty sliders a few months ago. Not sure how many hours I've got into them, not months worth, just takes me that long as its not been a priority.
- Thread starter
- #223
Main bar is 1-1/4” square, .120 wall (I think) it was some stuff I had laying around. Supports 3/16” flat-bar, 3” wide, welded to some formed u-channel I picked up at the recycle yard. Added some small gussets. Driver’s side went easily. I laid under the truck looking at the exhaust on the passenger’s side for a while, then called up the exhaust shop and talked to them. They suggested I just cut the exhaust off, build the slider, then bring it to them and they worked around my frame brackets, that solution worked well and only cost me $100.
- Thread starter
- #224
So I knocked that portion of them out in a few weeks, but wanted to add some step-bar extensions to them as well. I got some 1” square tubing, was going to use a friends bender, but he’s moved out of town and had some flooding issues with his place here, his shop ended up full of his household items, so I just bagged that idea and decided to just notch the tubing and bend it. I like the angularity of the bends, matches the sharp angles of the vehicle, and wasn’t too time consuming. Welded up the cuts, and ground the welds down. I also tried to match the OEM step profile, just extended the length to the end of the bar, so I have a step to stand on when I’m getting stuff off the roof rack.
- Thread starter
- #225
Other end, spaced out the bend to match the rear of the factory step.
- Thread starter
- #226
Next I decided to paint rather than powder coat. Bought some fancy 2k epoxy in a bomb-can, stuff has a limited shelf-life once activated, so I figured I needed to get my front bumper built too, so I could paint them all at once. Friend gave me this 2x4 tube, with 45’s on the end already, not sure what his plans for it were, but thought it would make a good start to a bumper on the Troopy. Got a light bar a few years ago, decided to add holes to mount it up. Copied my ‘tubing bender’ bends and built a hoop to protect the light bar a bit.
- Thread starter
- #227
Finally ready for paint. What a mess, hung plastic, taped off as much in the garage as I could as it was raining this past weekend and I couldn’t paint outside…ugh, I made a mess in the garage. Paint dust on everything. Glad I moved all my bikes outside. Ran out of the fancy primer, had to go buy more, ran out of the top-coat. Think next time I’ll just stick with powder coating, we’ll see how this paint job holds up.
Just need to put one more coat of paint on everything, then I can bolt them all up. Have to get some wiring for the light bar as well. Found some pre-made kits with a switch and a 12V relay, just need to find a 24v relay to swap in and I think they’ll work in my truck.
Just need to put one more coat of paint on everything, then I can bolt them all up. Have to get some wiring for the light bar as well. Found some pre-made kits with a switch and a 12V relay, just need to find a 24v relay to swap in and I think they’ll work in my truck.
NM Frontier
SILVER Star
Looks good!
- Thread starter
- #229
Thanks.
Got them painted and on today.
Need to order that wiring and switch kit and install the light bar next.
Got them painted and on today.
Need to order that wiring and switch kit and install the light bar next.
- Thread starter
- #230
Update on my latest project that has snow-balled out of control.
Stumbled onto a group-by for a fridge a few weeks back. Impulse bought an IceCo VL60 with slide. Didn’t really do much research on it and when it arrived, it was way bigger than I had anticipated.
I have been meaning to build a platform in the left rear of the Troopy for some time, as the cooler we take camping won’t fit lengthwise because of the wheel-well. Also acquired some L-track that I wanted to bolt down, but didn’t want to bolt through the floor…again.
So, as Sublime says “That’s when things got out of control!” Pulled the rear seats, seatbelts, carpet and soundmat, some footman loops I’d installed for my CO2 tank. Bought some ½” plywood and 1/8” rubber matting at Home Depot. Figured this would be done in one Saturday, but of course it’s going on 3 Saturdays now. I discovered a bunch of little surface rust spots, so I wire-brushed and scuffed them up and POR15’d them, removed some mystery non-OEM hardware added at some point prior to my ownership. Taped over all the extra holes with some HVAC aluminum foil tape.
Before:
Stumbled onto a group-by for a fridge a few weeks back. Impulse bought an IceCo VL60 with slide. Didn’t really do much research on it and when it arrived, it was way bigger than I had anticipated.
I have been meaning to build a platform in the left rear of the Troopy for some time, as the cooler we take camping won’t fit lengthwise because of the wheel-well. Also acquired some L-track that I wanted to bolt down, but didn’t want to bolt through the floor…again.
So, as Sublime says “That’s when things got out of control!” Pulled the rear seats, seatbelts, carpet and soundmat, some footman loops I’d installed for my CO2 tank. Bought some ½” plywood and 1/8” rubber matting at Home Depot. Figured this would be done in one Saturday, but of course it’s going on 3 Saturdays now. I discovered a bunch of little surface rust spots, so I wire-brushed and scuffed them up and POR15’d them, removed some mystery non-OEM hardware added at some point prior to my ownership. Taped over all the extra holes with some HVAC aluminum foil tape.
Before:
- Thread starter
- #231
I was initially going to through-bolt the plywood down, but after having to ask my wife for a hand (the third time) to remove bolts/nuts that were going through the floor, I decided to borrow rivnut tool and install rivnuts instead.
Used the carpet I pulled out as a template and cut two separate halves for the plywood floor. Put it in and out half a dozen times tweaking the fitment, used some existing PO holes for about half the rivnuts an drilled a few more of my own.
Once I had the plywood floor in where I liked it, I pulled it out and used some spray-adhesive to stick the rubber mat down, then flipped it over and trimmed it to match the plywood shape. The matting I used is actually cut to size, not a big roll, so I had to buy 3 mats and then piece in smaller pieces, not ideal, but it’s what I found and I liked that the pattern matches the aluminum plate pattern already on the rear panels of the Troopy.
So two Saturday’s later, I’ve got the floor ‘mostly done’. Ended up ordering new L-track as the stuff I had was remnants and didn’t match. I figured I’m going to this much trouble, I want the track to be symmetric and match side-to-side. The track showed up yesterday, but I’ve not had time to install it. I’ll pull the floor out, hopefully the track placement will lineup well with a floor-rib valley and I’ll bolt through the plywood/rubber floor assembly with fender washers on the backside for added pull-through strength.
Used the carpet I pulled out as a template and cut two separate halves for the plywood floor. Put it in and out half a dozen times tweaking the fitment, used some existing PO holes for about half the rivnuts an drilled a few more of my own.
Once I had the plywood floor in where I liked it, I pulled it out and used some spray-adhesive to stick the rubber mat down, then flipped it over and trimmed it to match the plywood shape. The matting I used is actually cut to size, not a big roll, so I had to buy 3 mats and then piece in smaller pieces, not ideal, but it’s what I found and I liked that the pattern matches the aluminum plate pattern already on the rear panels of the Troopy.
So two Saturday’s later, I’ve got the floor ‘mostly done’. Ended up ordering new L-track as the stuff I had was remnants and didn’t match. I figured I’m going to this much trouble, I want the track to be symmetric and match side-to-side. The track showed up yesterday, but I’ve not had time to install it. I’ll pull the floor out, hopefully the track placement will lineup well with a floor-rib valley and I’ll bolt through the plywood/rubber floor assembly with fender washers on the backside for added pull-through strength.
- Thread starter
- #232
I did get most of my platform built the other night. I made a McMaster-Carr order a few weeks ago, didn’t pay attention to the shipping times or cost (good thing) I got robbed on shipping charges and they’ve sent me three different shipments for one order and I’m still waiting on the feet for my cooler stand/shelf. I had some Ipe’ (Brazilian iron wood) that a friend gave me laying around and decided to re-purpose it for the slats on the shelf. This is the same stuff I have on my roof-rack. It’s bomb-proof, bug proof, sun proof and rot proof. I love this stuff, just wish it wasn’t so expensive. I’m going to add some dedicated d-rings to the floor, under the shelf, for lashing the cooler and water jug down, keeping the L-track free for lashing of temporary cargo items.
Made some ‘CAD’ (Cardboard Aided Design) templates, test-fit the slide and nixed that idea as to be functional, it puts the cooler too far out into the middle of the cargo area and I’d need to open both doors to operate it. Trying to see if I can return the slide, but IceCo is not too responsive.
Won't bore you with details, but I'll share my photos, as I like to see other peoples design-build processes:
Slide test-position
Frame positioning, and making sure the kitchen box fits, elevation matches the seats too:
Back bracket, no pic of the CAD template, think I'll weld a D-ring to the backside of this when I pull it out to add the L-track.
And the front CAD design, scratched my head over this one forever it seemed like and ended up with a slightly different bracket in the end, may change it up, but it works for now:
Made some ‘CAD’ (Cardboard Aided Design) templates, test-fit the slide and nixed that idea as to be functional, it puts the cooler too far out into the middle of the cargo area and I’d need to open both doors to operate it. Trying to see if I can return the slide, but IceCo is not too responsive.
Won't bore you with details, but I'll share my photos, as I like to see other peoples design-build processes:
Slide test-position
Frame positioning, and making sure the kitchen box fits, elevation matches the seats too:
Back bracket, no pic of the CAD template, think I'll weld a D-ring to the backside of this when I pull it out to add the L-track.
And the front CAD design, scratched my head over this one forever it seemed like and ended up with a slightly different bracket in the end, may change it up, but it works for now:
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #233
Re-purposed wood slat fitment, checking spacing and whether I had enough to make it work:
And cut, sanded, drilled, spaced, stainless flat head screws (I’ve probably spent $75 on hardware on this project so far)
And cut, sanded, drilled, spaced, stainless flat head screws (I’ve probably spent $75 on hardware on this project so far)
- Thread starter
- #234
Punch-list is huge (just like the cooler)
- L-track
- D-rings
- Finish wall brackets and paint
- Modify hinged panel access doors as they no longer fully open, bought some magnets and will add some steel plates to the wall side, magnets on the doors, see if they stay put off-road.
- Pull power back to it, I think I’ll ditch the Samlex DC-DC converter in the engine bay and add a solar controller and DC-DC converter and a third ‘house’ battery, then move my current 12v panel back to battery and converter location and add outlet panel for fridge (bought a Blue Sea outlet panel already).
- build an electrical panel and battery tray and fit it under the shelf, outboard of the wheel well.
NM Frontier
SILVER Star
Looking really good, gonna be a nice setup when done.
DoubleNickels
SILVER Star
Awesome work, Dan. And nice D-box.
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2004
- Threads
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This is what I have used for cable through the roof.
Cheers
Cheers
Check marine sources, there are some nice anodized aluminum, and stainless cable clams on offer as well as the blue sea systems Ian shows. All work well, and are water tight. defender.com is a good place to look for a variety.
Another vote for the BlueSea cable clam. Mine is working out great. If you place it in the right spot the roof crossmembers can hide the entry of the cables into the roof.
I used the largest one they make without the chromed lid. I've got enough space to run a few more cables through for any lights or antennas I may mount up there in the future.
