Builds "Rednexus" - 2007 GX470 Build and Fabrication Thread (10 Viewers)

[Rednexus]

Haven't done much with the GX lately, but I have been up to other things. I made some add-ons for a cheap Titan Attachments 3 point ballast box for a family member. My fabrication list included a top rack for a tool box plus side baskets for a 2.5 gallon fuel can and jug of chainsaw bar oil. I also bolted a ROPS chainsaw mount to the front of the box. Everything was built out of flat strap (3/16" and 1/8") bent in my press brake. I've been come quite fond of fabricating with the bent flat strap as it's quick, flat strap is cheap, and the resulting parts are strong.

Here it is on my tractor (a John Deere 3025D). It will be going on a 3043D which is the same as mine except having a turbo engine with nearly 2X the horsepower (they have over 100 acres of woods, I have <5!).

^In hindsight I should have dropped the rear bar for the toolbox rack so it could be opened on the tractor.

^Everything is bolted to the box using M8x1.25 hardware.

^The saw position is less than optimal, but should work. It could probably be tilted down to the saw is more horizontal.

^Using the tractor itself as a drying rack for painted items. It's amazing how many one-off things like this a compact tractor with pallet forks can be used to do.

 

[Cold Iron]

Outstanding job and extra points for the finish in JD Green!

 

[Rednexus]

Have some more non-Lexus content for today.

^This is a 2011 Outback owned by a family member. It recently had a bunch of work done by an independent mechanic, including a mostly-new cooling system. Yet, it started to chronically overheat. So it went to a different independent shop, who diagnosed it as a radiator cap. And, it kept overheating. It went back to the second shop this week, who diagnosed it as a thermostat (despite Shop 1 putting a new Aisin T-stat in it this spring), and charged $900 for the diagnostics, a new T-stat, and a coolant flush. My family member picked up the Subie and it puked coolant within a couple miles of Shop 2. It goes back to Shop 2, who then drops the "head gasket" possibility.

At this point Shop 2 had zero credibility and Shop 1 was also questionable. So, I intervened, and had the Subie towed to my place late last night.

^Subies are notorious for head gaskets (I know as I owned at least one Subaru for over a decade!). So I pulled it in for a compression and leakdown test (this was an excuse to buy a leakdown tester).

^Compression numbers came back stellar for an EJ253 with 180K on it. I'll attribute that to this being a one-owner car that was regularly serviced.

^Leakdown numbers also came back pretty darn good. There was no evidence of air bubbles coming out of the radiator during the tests. So, this completely ruled out the possibility of a head gasket leak (and saves me from having to procure a JDM engine and swap it, which is about a day of work on one of these).

 

[Rednexus]

At this point it obvisouly had some kind of a cooling problem, despite every component in the cooling system being brand new.

^I first tried a bleed using a elevated funnel, which works great on my GX. A TON of air came out during this. I'm suspecting that both Shop 1 and Shop 2 didn't properly bleed the air. But, I took it for a spin, and coolant temps shot up and it overheated within a few miles .

^Thinking the funnel wasn't good enough, I had Mrs. Rednexus grab me a vacuum bleeder at HF. I pulled a vacuum on the cooling system for 20 minutes before air stopped coming out. This was after my funnel bleed, but the car had overheated. I then took it on another spin....it quickly got up to 210F, but would stay around ~200F it the engine was spinning fast. I parked it when it was reading ~230F and found the radiator cool to the touch, indicating I either had no water pump flow or a blockage somewhere. Since air bubbles had been ruled out as a source of blockage (via the vacuum bleed), the only remaining parts were the thermostat and water pump.

To rule out the T-stat, I removed it, re-filled the cooling system (using the vacuum bleeder again which is an awesome tool), and took it for a spin. Diagnosed! It was running around 165-175F, so the T-stat installed on Thursday had been blocking flow.

^I also put the Shop 2 T-stat in a pot of water. It barely opened at 207F despite being a 190F thermostat. A new Subaru-branded T-stat is on order.

It's certainly frustrating to have to spent my Saturday fixing what 2 shops could not. I'm thinking that Shop 1 didn't bleed the system well, Shop 2 first mis-diagnosed it was a radiator cap, and then a new thermostat that was bad out of the box (and may have also mis-bled it, in addition to failing to test drive it). I have zero confidence that Shop 1 or 2 could have figured this out. It would have had to go to the local Subaru dealer who is notoriously crooked, so my Saturday probably saved my family member $1K or more.

 

[aztoytec]

I’ve been turning wrenches for 30 plus years. Couple independents, a Toyota dealer for 15 years and currently at a Chevrolet dealer ( doing used car reconditioning, not main shop!). It’s seems to be a lost art. Nobody wants to properly diagnose vehicles. They throw parts at it and then if that doesn’t work they scare the customer out it. If it’s not maintenance nobody wants it. Absolutely horrible. It’s almost embarrassing to tell people what I do for a living. I’m about done doing this, may try parts now that life is slowing down.
(kids grown, booted the wife!)
Nice job diagnosing that, if you ever want a career change let me know, you are better than 80 percent of the techs I have now!

 

[aztoytec]

Actually more like 99%!

 

[Rednexus]

Actually more like 99%!

Thanks! I'm more or less self-taught, but have been nearly all of my own wrenching for 25 years now. Having a background in engineering honestly helps a lot as I can go back to classes in physics, chemistry, and hydraulics I took 20+ years ago and use that knowledge to understand how the vehicle works at the theoretical level, even though I lack formal training. I've certainly screwed up a number of things since I started wrenching, but learned a lot in the process.

Ever think about opening your own shop, even as a single-shingle? The one honest shop we have around here (who does all of my tires and alignments) is always super-busy. We had a one-man import shop who specialized in Toyotas/Hondas/Nissans/etc, but he retired and no one bought the business. It's domestic car country here and a lot of folks don't care to try to work on Japanese vehicles. There seems to be a market for honest, capable mechanics.

I sometimes toss around the idea of making a LLC and working on Toyota 4x4s and Subies on the side (since I know both so well), but it might be tough with the demands of my day job, and would take away from other hobbies.

 

[aztoytec]

Thought about opening a shop years ago. I just don’t have it in me anymore. Me and my son got a couple Miata’s and been doing time attacks and a couple small tracks/courses around here. We really want to do more. Working on cars for income and a hobby has been getting hard. I hoping a career change will get me back to enjoying again. My son and I build one Miata basically from the ground up and he really learned a lot. Just basic tool management goes really far.

 

[Rednexus]

Fixed up another ballast box, and also made an improved toolbox mount for my personal one. Next weekend my GX will be in agricultural mode - towing my tractor about 2+ hours away to do some brush hogging.

^All cut up and bent.

^Ready to tack together. This one is a few inches shorter so the toolbox can be opened on the trailer without having to remove it.

^Chainsaw mount.

^Drying rack in this hot and low-humidity weather.

 

[Rednexus]

Finally finished up the front-end diet on the camper.

^Results were good! Around 100# removed from the front (~630 to ~530 lbs). It's still heavy, but we do have the table and Blackstone on the front of it. I'll now use WDH for anything more than ~45 minutes from home.

^Diet included going down to 1 propane tank and remote-mounting the battery. Other changes included moving the propane regulator using a custom bracket and re-installing a set of WDH bar mounts. These are Curt mounts that I cut down so that they could be fastened to the frame using 4 M8 bolts and rivnuts (instead of the standard bar mounts that use a set bolt, as those would not work with my custom jack crossmember).

^Also made a basket for the jack pads. These are usually stored in the back of the Lexus, so I didn't include them in the weigh (as they are rear axle weight regardless).

^The battery relocation was quite a pain. It was tricky to find a solution that would allow all of the connections to be made while remaining waterproof. I ended up using a $13 dry box from HF, and bolting it to the frame using yet more M8 rivnuts. Inside the box, we have 2 ga wires going back to the battery, a battery disconnect switch, the 10-ga wires that power the inverter inside the camper, another set of 10 ga wires I added that go straight to the fridge, and the 10-ga wires coming in from the back of the Lexus. I also added a shunt and digital current meter to monitor draw (FYI the fridge draws 15 amps DC when kicked on at room temperature). This worked perfectly on the first try, but is not quite as clean internally as I would like. I'm sure a real electrician would have made it look better .

^The battery is in a NOCO box in the rear-most storage cubby (just in front of the rear bumper). I also added a 50 amp fusible link, just in case there is every a short between the battery and connection box up on the tongue (though both cables were of course protected in some split wire loom to avoid that from happening).

 

[Rednexus]

Probably the most heads my GX has turned to date! All-in was towing at least 5,800# - for 3 hours each way. Twisty 2-lane roads with big hills and some 4-lane highway. I definitely felt the weight behind me, but the rig still had plenty of pulling power, and I was still able to set the cruise on 65 mph on the 4-lane. Also the rig leveled perfectly with 30 psi in the Firestone bags and the new Dobinsons springs.

However this rental trailer setup was not ideal - single axle, no WDH, no sway bar. So I went pretty slow on the 2-lane roads as getting a trailer tire off in the ditch could prove catastrophic when the trailer + cargo weighs more than the GX. I'd really like to get a 16' tandem axle aluminum trailer with WDH and a sway bar. I think it would be quite a bit more stable and would be closer to 5,000# loaded. But, I'd definitely use this trailer again, especially considering an aluminum trailer is around $7K, while the rental was $120 for a weekend.

 

[aztoytec]

That’s a heavy duty rental trailer! 8 lug axle and tilt..

 

[Rednexus]

That’s a heavy duty rental trailer! 8 lug axle and tilt..

Yes it was! Frame was all square tubing. About 2,000# empty. It was also so well balanced that I could activate the tilt by standing on the back of it, even when the tractor was loaded.

But, it was a bit too short to use with pallet forks on the tractor. I ended up puling the fork tines off and attaching them to the quick hitch with a bunch of HD zip ties.

 

[Longmark999]

I'm going through the process of trying to figure out which seat covers to buy for my LX470 and I was wondering if you could post an update on your Leatherseats.com covers? Are they still holding up after a couple of years? Any thoughts on going with the full leather vs. leather/vinyl option?

Thanks in advance

 

[Rednexus]

I'm going through the process of trying to figure out which seat covers to buy for my LX470 and I was wondering if you could post an update on your Leatherseats.com covers? Are they still holding up after a couple of years? Any thoughts on going with the full leather vs. leather/vinyl option?

Thanks in advance

They are still doing quite well and are holding up about the same as OEM leather seats have on other new vehicles I've owned at Year ~2. I also use them quite hard as my GX does double-duty as weekend warrior work truck. So, I'd definitely recommend them. I got them for a discount on Black Friday. I also went with the leather/vinyl option, which is the same as the OEM seats.

My only real gripe with them is how the hog rings attach to the seat. The OEM Lexus covers have a metal rail that slides into hoops on the cover. So, you can more or less put the hog rig where and it can slide along the rail, and it ends up at the right depth. On the Leatherseats covers, it's a piece of plastic sewn into a short piece of fabric. So you have to be very careful to put the hog ring in at the right depth and location, or it will distort how the cover looks. My PS seat does not look quite OEM-quality as I got a couple for the hog rings in too shallow (meaning the leather is pulled in too far against the foam). I did the PS seat first so the DS doesn't quite have that problem.

And, the other piece of feedback I'd give is that the seat back foam on my DS seat was kind of compressed/shrunken, so the cover looks a bit baggy (I replaced the DS seat bottom foam with aftermarket). In hindsight, I would have added 1/2" or so of foam on the DS seatback to restore it and make the DS cover look more "full". The PS cover does not have that problem as the foam was still full/poofy.

 

[Longmark999]

Thanks very much for the update and the additional tips on the foam and the hog rings.

 

[Rednexus]

I feel bad for missing a major anniversary - but it's been just over 5 years since I bought the rig (late September 2020). The world sure was a lot different then - as was the rig. Not gonna lie, it looked pretty lame stock, but the paint was definitely a lot nicer 5 years ago (zero pinstripes, and 5 fewer years of UV exposure).

When I picked up the rig - for all of $10,700 - all I planed to do was throw on a cheap lift and some 33s, then use it to haul bikes, hit the trailhead, and take the kids to the river. Instead, I realized how awesome the GXs are and caught the bug. To be honest the rig represented a major change in our family lifestyle, specifically for vacations. It's visited over 20 states, has been driven about 65,000 miles, taken our camper on trips our kids will remember for the rest of their lives, wheeled on some gorgeous off-road trails, and was used extensively as a tow vehicle and work truck when we built out new house. None of this would have been possible if we had kept driving Subarus. And, I'm still not done building the rig!

 

[Rednexus]

On our big camper trip this year, we drove 100+ miles of super broken pavement through the Nebraska Sand Hills (which, other than the crappy roads, were actually a pretty cool part of the Great Plains). One of our camper tires developed a significant vibration after that. Since we were close-ish to home, we decided to just deal with the vibration and limped the camper back to the Ozarks.

Yesterday I finally got around to replacing the old tires on our with a set of Goodyear Endurance trailer tires. I've never been a big Goodyear fan, BUT these are the only M-USA trailer tires out there. The tire shop inspected the old China bombs and found that the plies were starting to separate internally - and assumed we had driven them flat (which we most definitely did not). I noticed that tires were actually date coded as 3/2019, despite us buying the camper in 12/2021.

Lessons learned - 1) always check the actual date code on the tires (I assumed they were ~3.5 years old like the camper when in reality they were 6+ years old), 2) China bomb trailer tires really do suck (they had <10,000 miles on them), and 3) stop immediately at a tire shop if you get a vibration in a trailer tire. We were pretty darn lucky to not have a blowout, which could have been catastrophic with a single-axle trailer towed by a short/tall SUV, especially if on a busy interstate.

We'll see how these (and other post-trip) camper upgrades do this weekend on our final trip of the year.

 

[Cold Iron]

On our big camper trip this year, we drove 100+ miles of super broken pavement through the Nebraska Sand Hills (which, other than the crappy roads, were actually a pretty cool part of the Great Plains). One of our camper tires developed a significant vibration after that. Since we were close-ish to home, we decided to just deal with the vibration and limped the camper back to the Ozarks.

Yesterday I finally got around to replacing the old tires on our with a set of Goodyear Endurance trailer tires. I've never been a big Goodyear fan, BUT these are the only M-USA trailer tires out there. The tire shop inspected the old China bombs and found that the plies were starting to separate internally - and assumed we had driven them flat (which we most definitely did not). I noticed that tires were actually date coded as 3/2019, despite us buying the camper in 12/2021.

Lessons learned - 1) always check the actual date code on the tires (I assumed they were ~3.5 years old like the camper when in reality they were 6+ years old), 2) China bomb trailer tires really do suck (they had <10,000 miles on them), and 3) stop immediately at a tire shop if you get a vibration in a trailer tire. We were pretty darn lucky to not have a blowout, which could have been catastrophic with a single-axle trailer towed by a short/tall SUV, especially if on a busy interstate.

We'll see how these (and other post-trip) camper upgrades do this weekend on our final trip of the year.
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The Sandhills are one of the main bird hunters destinations in the US, for some species.

Great choice in trailer tire! My Ranger and Trailer are both made in Minnesota. The trailer tires in Wi. not as bad as the made in China May Pops but not high speed rated either. At 4 years I replace trailer tires no matter what condition they appear to be in. When I replaced mine last year did a lot of research and there was only one that stood out as the best. Not a fan of Goodyear either but in this case...

 

[xcmountain]

The Sandhills are one of the main bird hunters destinations in the US, for some species.

Great choice in trailer tire! My Ranger and Trailer are both made in Minnesota. The trailer tires in Wi. not as bad as the made in China May Pops but not high speed rated either. At 4 years I replace trailer tires no matter what condition they appear to be in. When I replaced mine last year did a lot of research and there was only one that stood out as the best. Not a fan of Goodyear either but in this case...

Those look similar to what Uhaul runs on their entire trailer fleet. Which are prone to ABUSE. Good choice. We like you replace tires every few years, no questions ask on our boar trailer. I think we ended up with an E or F rated Carlisle this year.