Builds The Guzzler - 2009 LX570 (1 Viewer)

[grinchy]

For permanent in vehicle power that sounds like a great value! I’m using a portable battery for the moment for the fridge, so just the starting battery as a LFP would be ok. Someday a supercapacitor will be attached to an LFP pack, maybe that’s what they’re already doing.

 

[grinchy]

Ran into some dead ends, snow dead ends, and spring break busy over west of Hoodsport. Ended up dry camping in a clear cut. At least the weather was amazing. The likely campsite Imhad picked out based on trail features on Rock creek didn’t exist, the road to it didn’t exist either. We found several of these throughout the day. Several were clearly once a road, but now had 20 ft tall trees in them.
didn’t even unfold the en-suite, not an encouraging sign For that . . .
we created the campsite. so the kids learned how to dig a pit, clear ground and build a fire ring, and that yes, you do want even the Little Rocks out from under the tent.
steaks and pasta went down without complain.
Ran the tires at 18, seems like a good pressure, as usual not many of the other vehicles were aired down, so we were the fast traffic.
Only 4 lo was to see how far I could plow in mid afternoon snow. Ended up finding a bank bigger than we wanted to take on, had to backup for 1/4 mile to turn around.

 

[grinchy]

Assembled the 2” 1/8” aluminum tray for my fridge slide.

 

[1world1love]

Assembled the 2” 1/8” aluminum tray for my fridge slide.

View attachment 2652425

What are you using for fasteners? And where do you source your stock?

 

[grinchy]

Local metal supply has a will call. 4 ft of the 1/8” by 2 channel is like $10. The 2” 1/8” flat bar is $5 or something for 4 ft.
I also used another four feet of 1/4” 2” angle for the mounting points to the rig. That was $20 or so. I actually bought 8 ft pieces as I am also working on the en-suite brackets.
Used a hand operated pop rivet tool for the joints. 3/16” aluminum rivets.
Other tools are a hacksaw sawzall or angle grinder to cut the aluminum, a metal scribe, one of the spring punch things to mark where to drill, a drill, and drill set.
Since you use the aluminum angle to make the corners, it isn’t too critical to cut square.
the long parts are angle, but the short parts are flat bar.
I’ll be under $100 including the slides and rivets. Also got to make it custom size for my small fridge.

 

[1world1love]

Local metal supply has a will call. 4 ft of the 1/8” by 2 channel is like $10. The 2” 1/8” flat bar is $5 or something for 4 ft.
I also used another four feet of 1/4” 2” angle for the mounting points to the rig. That was $20 or so. I actually bought 8 ft pieces as I am also working on the en-suite brackets.
Used a hand operated pop rivet tool for the joints. 3/16” aluminum rivets.
Other tools are a hacksaw sawzall or angle grinder to cut the aluminum, a metal scribe, one of the spring punch things to mark where to drill, a drill, and drill set.
Since you use the aluminum angle to make the corners, it isn’t too critical to cut square.
the long parts are angle, but the short parts are flat bar.
I’ll be under $100 including the slides and rivets. Also got to make it custom size for my small fridge.

Very nicely done. I have a dometic slide out, and while it is nice and well made, it is all steel and I think it weighs 36 lbs. I’ve thought about doing something similar because although my fridge is pretty hefty, most of the time it is just sitting on the drawers. It has to be possible to build something in aluminum that could support the weight fully extended. It would be great to reclaim half that 36 pounds.

I am trying to think of ways to minimize weight and have realized that I should start looking at ways to replace existing components with much lighter weight versions.

I think I could refactor my entire drawer system Using the same basic design but using aluminum as much as possible and minimizing the wood. I am trying to figure out the best fasteners. I think screws are fine for the al to wood, but for the major joinery, I am not sure.

I am also thinking about rebuilding my drawers with an aluminum skeleton and something like lightweight poplar plywood or maybe some kind of polyurethane panels.

 

[1world1love]

Very nicely done. I have a dometic slide out, and while it is nice and well made, it is all steel and I think it weighs 36 lbs. I’ve thought about doing something similar because although my fridge is pretty hefty, most of the time it is just sitting on the drawers. It has to be possible to build something in aluminum that could support the weight fully extended. It would be great to reclaim half that 36 pounds.

I am trying to think of ways to minimize weight and have realized that I should start looking at ways to replace existing components with much lighter weight versions.

I think I could refactor my entire drawer system Using the same basic design but using aluminum as much as possible and minimizing the wood. I am trying to figure out the best fasteners. I think screws are fine for the al to wood, but for the major joinery, I am not sure.

I am also thinking about rebuilding my drawers with an aluminum skeleton and something like lightweight poplar plywood or maybe some kind of polyurethane panels.

Just to add that I like the systems that use 8020, but it uses up so much space.

 

[tbisaacs]

Very nicely done. I have a dometic slide out, and while it is nice and well made, it is all steel and I think it weighs 36 lbs. I’ve thought about doing something similar because although my fridge is pretty hefty, most of the time it is just sitting on the drawers. It has to be possible to build something in aluminum that could support the weight fully extended. It would be great to reclaim half that 36 pounds.

I am trying to think of ways to minimize weight and have realized that I should start looking at ways to replace existing components with much lighter weight versions.

I think I could refactor my entire drawer system Using the same basic design but using aluminum as much as possible and minimizing the wood. I am trying to figure out the best fasteners. I think screws are fine for the al to wood, but for the major joinery, I am not sure.

I am also thinking about rebuilding my drawers with an aluminum skeleton and something like lightweight poplar plywood or maybe some kind of polyurethane panels.

I have that same slide and it’s a boat anchor. Been looking at one by DG Off-road that is significantly lighter.

 

[1world1love]

I have that same slide and it’s a boat anchor. Been looking at one by DG Off-road that is significantly lighter.

I’ll have to check it out. If I could find an option that was significantly lighter, that would be great. I don’t have complete confidence in my fab skills for a job like that yet.

 

[grinchy]

I’ll have to check it out. If I could find an option that was significantly lighter, that would be great. I don’t have complete confidence in my fab skills for a job like that yet.

I bet based on your drawers it'll be a bunch better than my attempt. I cut it all with a sawzall . . .

I'll stick it on a scale when I'm done, but I hazard it'll be in the 10-15lb range.

 

[grinchy]

just tried the three pieces (two supports with slider, one tray) on my 1000g scale. they all show overload. I think by not much though - so in the 8lb range for all three. Then there will be anchors and bolts. Probably end up 10lb.

 

[CharlieS]

A friend who does aluminum dock fabrication told me that aluminum cuts well with woodworking tools. I haven’t tried a circular saw, and would do some more research before doing it, but that might be a great way to get good clean straight cuts, assuming it is true. I’ve had good luck with a jigsaw though.

 

[lx200inAR]

I've only done it a few times, but I believe aluminum is soft enough to cut pretty easily with a garden variety miter saw. Might want to verify your blade is up to the task, but i've cut a few pieces with one before and it was fairly uneventful. But looking at your pictures, your sawzall looks like it did fine.

 

[1world1love]

A friend who does aluminum dock fabrication told me that aluminum cuts well with woodworking tools. I haven’t tried a circular saw, and would do some more research before doing it, but that might be a great way to get good clean straight cuts, assuming it is true. I’ve had good luck with a jigsaw though.

Its true. You can use all kinds of router bits and wood blades, so you can work it pretty easily.

 

[grinchy]

too lazy to dig out my chop saw, and didn't want to screw up the blade anyhow. Didn't have any metal blades for the jigsaw. I almost never use the sawzall, which I bought at a pawn shop 15 years ago for a specific house demo project, so it got drafted.
Slide will pass the 10 ft test, same as my truck.

 

[CharlieS]

It looks great!

ps. I use wood blades in my jigsaw for aluminum.

 

[TeCKis300]

Agreed that vice and jigsaw with high TPI blade will do the trick. There's some good metal/aluminum specific blades that can help. Sometimes they can load up with aluminum and require switching blades so have a few on hand if you're doing a larger project.

Rivets are awesome. The HF rivet guns are totally respectable work nicely, even compared to quality guns I've had. They have a larger rivet gun too for cheap.

My latest toy, a portaband, is epic cutting aluminum stock. Or any metal. Like literal butter with a nice clean cut.

 

[1world1love]

I've been using a Dremel with a cutting wheel for a couple of fab projects lately and it actually does a decent job as long as the cuts aren't too long. I made mounting plates out of 16 ga sheet metal stock for some 6" Rigids that I just installed and I used the Dremel for the whole project. I used a scrap piece as a "guide" to keep the cuts straight and it worked pretty damn well. Much better than I expected. I cleaned the edges and corners up with an aluminum oxide sanding drum bit and then a handheld sheet sander.

I can't say that I would use the Dremel for a bigger job than this, but it really wasn't that bad. I did go through 3 cutting discs for these two pieces though, so it was not exactly cost effective.

 

[1world1love]

Sorry, it was actually 12 gauge.

 

[grinchy]

those look sweet. i doubt aluminum would present much challenge to you.