[Martinjmpr]

Besides my Cup Holder Hack, I've had a busy weekend. Had to, because the wife and I are taking off on our first long trip this Thursday (going camping in the San Juans with our little teardrop trailer.)

First to go on was the receiver. After looking all over town I found one at a U-haul less than a mile from my house:



Installation was pretty straightforward except for 2 things: 1. removing the tow hook on the driver's side required a lot of WD-40 and a big 1/2" drive breaker bar. That thing was on TIGHT! 2. Putting the two small bolts (forward most) on the right side was a PITA because the exhaust pipe prevented us from using a socket wrench. So it was put on with a flat wrench that could only turn about 1/3 turn at a time. Not hard, but time consuming.

After that I attached an adapter to adapt the 6-pin round connector to a 4 pin flat (which is what both of my trailers have) and zip-tied it into place. Incidentally, the tow hitch blocks the factory plug so I had to unbolt it from the bracket and zip tie it into place too.



Next requirement was the Scangauge II. Nothing fancy here, it mounts perfectly with a strip of velcro onto the top of the steering column:



The SG is a towing aid because it includes a trans temp gauge (TFT on the display.) The SG lets you pick your own background color so I chose red to match the dash lights:



Final mod was to attach my Yakima Basket Case rack to the factory crossbars using a set of "mighty mounts." The Yakima basket carries the trailer's spare since we don't have a way (yet) to mount it on the trailer itself:



And with that, plus my cheap wal-mart seat covers (better ones are on order), I'm ready for my first long trip!

[zstampe]

Coming along nicely, why don't you make a build thread with all your mods in one spot as opposed to a new thread everytime. It would be easier to follow in one thread.

👍

[97BlackAckCL]

Nice work, enjoy the trip

[Martinjmpr]

There won't be too much of a "build" on this one. Hell, I might even leave the running boards on!

Well, no, they'll probably come off eventually but I'm guessing not until next year.

Floor mats (Husky liners) are on order and based on how quickly they've gotten to me in the past I should have them by next week. After that it's seat covers, would love a nice set of Marathon covers but their 8 - 10 week lead time is a little off-putting (I ordered a set for my 99 in early March. By late May I decided to sell my 4runner and was able to cancel the order because they hadn't been made yet.)

The tires are near-new 265/70/16's, which is kind of a shame, as I would have liked to have replaced them with a size larger (265/75/16.) I suppose I could get new tires and either sell the old ones on CL or keep them for winter (they're Cooper Discoverer M+S and have the "snowflake" symbol on the sidewalls.) Most likely I'll just hang onto them through Winter and then make a decision before I leave for my big desert camping trip in April.

A lift is an option but I'm not going to spend the $$ until I determine how much of a lift I need. IMO when it comes to lifting a vehicle, less is more.

Over on ExPo there are some nice sleeping platform builds, I may look into doing something like that over the winter.

[MikeInNH]

First to go on was the receiver. After looking all over town I found one at a U-haul less than a mile from my house:

UHaul hitches are made by Drawtite/Reese (or at least they were the last time I bought one - 1998). They are the best in the business.