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Old 04-18-2017, 09:02 PM #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Inv4drZm View Post
We must think alike (as engineers), I drew mine up in Solidworks with very similar plans as you to create a modular sleeping platform on the right side above the larger of the two folded down rear seats, and above the wheel wheels for extra room. I've only made the baseplate though, and will put off the drawers and sleeping platform for this summer. I'm thinking with an air-nailer and a tablesaw it should be pretty easy to put the rest together.

I will be following this build closely! Nice work!
Built the one I want to build in Inventor Fusion... lol
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Old 04-18-2017, 11:56 PM #32
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Originally Posted by TheFauxFox View Post
Built the one I want to build in Inventor Fusion... lol
Got a screenshot you can share?
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Old 04-21-2017, 12:00 PM #33
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Originally Posted by mccand View Post
Got a screenshot you can share?
At school rn so I cant, Ill try to remember when I get home later! It's only the rectangular prism that fits between the wheel wells, I planned on building the "wings" on the sides separately and without CAD as I didn't want to properly measure them...
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Old 05-02-2017, 02:25 AM #34
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One problem solved - thanks to TheFauxFox

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Originally Posted by TheFauxFox View Post
That whine is called a "ground loop." That means the ground on the aux really isn't that good. It should be worse if you're charging your phone (that was the case with me). Go on eBay or Amazon and type in "Ground Loop Interceptor" and you'll find a ton. I hid mine under the center console trim and rewired the aux cord (I'll upload some pics if you want) so its permanent. Otherwise its a super easy plug and play solution.
So I got one of these, and it made all the difference!

It does seem to attenuate the audio a bit, but the alternater noise is almost completely gone (only noticeable when the volume is WAY up). I think we're good! Thanks for the tip!

(It's amazing how much better the audio from my phone sounds now. $9 well spent!)

Last edited by mccand; 05-02-2017 at 02:29 AM.
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Old 05-03-2017, 10:09 PM #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mccand View Post
So I got one of these, and it made all the difference!

It does seem to attenuate the audio a bit, but the alternater noise is almost completely gone (only noticeable when the volume is WAY up). I think we're good! Thanks for the tip!

(It's amazing how much better the audio from my phone sounds now. $9 well spent!)
Glad to hear! I just hardwired mine with my bluetooth adapter and it solved my prob. Happy listening!
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Old 05-29-2017, 12:49 AM #36
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3D Printed UCA covers

I got a bit tired of cleaning crap out of the UCA ball joints, so I printed some covers:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20170528_143054-800-jpg


Want to print your own UCA covers? Here's the file for use with Icon's tubular uppers (may work with other products, but no guarantees).
UCA Ball Joint Cover.zip

If you build your own, I always appreciate people posting "makes" on my thingiverse page!

Last edited by mccand; 05-29-2017 at 12:54 AM.
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Old 05-31-2017, 01:49 AM #37
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wow very nice.
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Old 02-27-2018, 06:54 PM #38
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great build!
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Old 04-30-2018, 03:40 PM #39
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New Tires!

Well, It was finally time for the old tires to go. They were pretty worn down, getting to where they'd slip in the rain, and were sporting a surprising number of plugs and patches. (The local tire shops were giving me dire warnings every time I brought one in for a flat repair.)

The lava rock around here can be pretty tough on everything. My shoes wear out quick too!

I spent a while falling down the rabbit hole of "which tire is better", then decided to make it easy and see what was available on the island, since shipping anything in is a royal PITA.

So I went down to one of the local stores that focuses on tires and got quotes for a couple of different tires. However, when I went over to Costco, I found I could get some BFG KO2s for 30% less than the first place. It's a deal!

The old tires size was 265/65R17, and I decided to go up a step to 265/70/R17. I've got a 2 inch suspension lift, but I don't want to buy new rims and I don't want to regear, so I'm not going to do anything too extreme.

My spare was an ancient Dunlop - It probably came with the car from the dealer, and had never seen any significant use. So that's getting replaced, and we're going to start regular tire rotation! For your entertainment, the staff at Costco couldn't simply order in a set of 5 tires easily. They had to order a set of 4, then add another tire to it.

Anyhow, here's the car before:
McCand's Build Thread-old-tires-800-jpg

And here's the after:
McCand's Build Thread-new-tires-800-jpg

I've run through a tank of gas since they've been installed, and my gas mileage has definitely taken a bit of a hit. The new KO2s are also substantially heavier than the old tires, so there's a noticeable change in the handling (acceleration in particular) of the car. It's not a problem, just noticeably different.

Anyhow, we'll see how things go: I've got a off-road camping trip this weekend...
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Old 04-30-2018, 03:49 PM #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Inv4drZm View Post
I've thought about making the whole drawer system out of sheet metal, but I thought it might be a little heavier than wood and more susceptible to bending on any unsupported edges for the top sleeping platform. In the end I think I'll just do all wood; less rattly, and more sound deadening properties than metal. But it would be cool to design it to bolt together, CNC plasma cut all of the panels, and sell and ship them un-assembled.

But making just the vertical supports out of sheet metal could be a pretty cool idea. I could get mine all plasma cut with a rad design, and bend the edges 90 degrees to bolt or screw into the top and bottom wood panels. Could almost have the drawer's sides out of sheet metal too as long as you lined the sides with something soft or didn't put anything in that rolled around too much. I may have to draw this up in Solidworks now!

In the end, if you make the supports and the drawers out of sheet metal, you save what, 2" of width for each drawer? May not be worth it but it would be unique.
Hey Inv4drZm, it's been a while, but I finally made some progress on this. Here's a picture to whet your appetite.
McCand's Build Thread-rear-storage-teaser-800-jpg
I'll be posting the whole writeup in the next week or two . . .

Last edited by mccand; 04-30-2018 at 05:20 PM.
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Old 04-30-2018, 04:36 PM #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mccand View Post
I've run through a tank of gas since they've been installed, and my gas mileage has definitely taken a bit of a hit. The new KO2s are also substantially heavier than the old tires, so there's a noticeable change in the handling (acceleration in particular) of the car. It's not a problem, just noticeably different.

Anyhow, we'll see how things go: I've got a off-road camping trip this weekend...
Fwiw, when I switched to my new tires I saw quite a hit too. Then someone asked if I was still running them at 35 psi, which I was. He suggested increasing the psi to 40 and my mileage is now almost the same as it was before. Apparently, you have to run higher psi for e rated tires.
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Old 04-30-2018, 05:11 PM #42
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Mine were all set to 45 psi when they were installed, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I guess this is why we say "Your Mileage May Vary"...
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Old 05-09-2018, 04:47 PM #43
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Rear Storage System - Part 3 - Drawer Build

Well, I've been delaying work on this project for one reason or another for too long, but I had a 4x4 camping trip come up that finally spurred me to get things done.

As I've said earlier, I want to impose some level of organization on the huge pile of stuff that winds up in the rear of my 4Runner.

I also want a sleeping platform. Since that will help get the wife out on camping adventures. The Centipedes here are really amazing.

Oh, I also want it to look good.

So in a previous post, I had worked up a design for a system that I though met my requirements.

After letting things turn over in my mind for a while. I've made a plan, which includes some changes to the design shown previously.
  1. I'm changing the cabinet sites to be sheet metal
  2. I'm revising the sleeping platform design from hinged panels to lift-away panels.
  3. I've adjusted some material thicknesses.

Changing cabinet sides from wood sides (1/2" thick) to metal (1/16" thick) actually increases the storage volume significantly. (It allows each drawer to be 7/8" wider inside. The dimensions of the drawer side are 10.25 x 35.5. There are 2 drawers. Multiply all these number together, and you get 637 cubic inches of space back. That's about 2.75 gallons of space.)

The hinged panels were not really a great solution. In theory, they would have been able to be folded into place directly, but in practice it would be difficult to make them move nicely around the roof, C pillars, and various hardware while still making a nice wide platform. Moving away from the hinged panels reduces complexity, and reduces the need for additional structure to prevent the joint from failing when loaded. It also reduces hardware cost!

So, Here's a general list of parts and quantities:
  • Starboard-side (large)
    • Large Cabinet
      • 1 x Left side (metal)
      • 1 x Right side (metal)
      • 2 x 36" drawer sliders
      • 1 x Back panel (1/2" wood)
      • 1 x Top panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Starboard platform wing panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Starboard wheel well panel (3/4" wood)
      • 3 x "Sewing machine" hinges
      • 1 x Long mounting flange
    • Starboard side drawer
      • 1 x Drawer Face panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Bottom panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Rear panel (1/2" wood)
      • 2 x Side panel (1/2" wood)
      • 2 x Drawer Face mounting blocks (3/4" wood)
    • 1 x Starboard Extension panel
  • Port-side (small)
    • Small Cabinet
      • 1 x Left side (metal)
      • 1 x Right side (metal)
      • 2 x 36" drawer sliders
      • 1 x Back panel (1/2" wood)
      • 1 x Top panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Port platform wing panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Port wheel well panel (3/4" wood)
      • 3 x "Sewing machine" hinges
      • 1 x Short mounting flange
    • Small drawer
      • 1 x Drawer Face panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Bottom panel (3/4" wood)
      • 1 x Rear panel (1/2" wood)
      • 2 x Side panel (1/2" wood)
      • 2 x Drawer Face mounting blocks (3/4" wood)
    • 1 x Port Extension panel

So the first decision was how HIGH to make the the drawers. I found that if I made the bottom side of the sleeping platform 12 inches up from the baseplate, it cleared the wheel wells with a bit to spare and the forward panels (sleeping platform extensions) would rest nicely on the folded up second-row seats, creating a level platform from front to back. This let me start cutting panels for the sleeping platform.

I started with the Starboard cabinet top pieces and bed extension panel:
McCand's Build Thread-2457992929559541300-800-jpg

Being picky really makes life complicated. I had decided that I wanted the platform to extend neatly to the edges of the available space (so that things can't drop down into crevices). This meant that some parts, like the extension and wing panels are highly contoured. Of course, there's no pattern available for these, so I needed to do quite a few cycles of "Test fit, mark, sand" to get parts to fit right.

After getting these pieces cut, sanded, varnished, and hinges installed...
McCand's Build Thread-img_20171106_134815-800-jpg
...I really couldn't do more (useful) work until I had the cabinet sides. As I mentioned before, I had decided to go with metal sides. So I went to a local shop that specializes in HVAC and architectural metal parts, and had them whip up four pieces out of 16 gauge galvanized steel. A few days and $250 later, I brought the parts home:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180402_190314-800-jpg

Marked them:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180402_190333-800-jpg

Drilled them:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180402_190340-800-jpg

And then did some test assembly:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180405_173609-800-jpg
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180406_153334-800-jpg

The next step was to get the drawer slides installed. This turned out to be more complicated than I thought. The drawer slides are designed to be attached to a wood or wood-like material, using wood screws. Since I was using a 1/16" thick steel panel, there wasn't room for much thread engagement, and I didn't want nuts or washers sticking out on the outside anyways. Plus, there wasn't much space on the inside either!

The solution: Solid rivets!

I'll be honest, I hadn't done much work with solid rivets before (I'm more used to pop rivets). I knew that you had to hammer them down some how, but how hard could that be. Combining this lack of practical experience with no restraint in material selection resulted in me having a box of Stainless Steel Rivets. It turns out that these are EXTREMELY hard to hammer down - most folks use a hydraulic press. So I want and talked to a guy at a local machine shop, who was willing to give this a try. There was the added complication that the tail end of the rivet was on the INSIDE, where the drawer slide is, so I was going to have to access this through the access holes in the drawer slide. So I made a little punch out of mild steel, which could be used to press down the rivets.

It didn't go well.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180419_094538-800-jpg

The rivets were significantly harder than my punch, and quickly destroyed it. The solution was to use a more suitable material, so I ordered a pack of ALUMINUM rivets.
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Old 05-09-2018, 05:21 PM #44
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Rear Storage System - Part 4 - Cabinet Build (Continued) and Baseplate Modifications

So the new aluminum rivets were much easier to work with. They are certainly not as strong, but until proven otherwise, they seem strong enough.

The drawer sides had already been drilled and countersunk for the rivets, so the slides were set in place, then hammered over with a new punch.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180418_140437-800-jpg

This worked much better, and I didn't need a hydraulic press! Here's what the rivets look like from the outside:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180408_172157-800-jpg

Not too shabby!

The next step was to make some modifications to the baseplate. I needed to add a way to mount the cabinets to the baseplate, so I marked out some desired screw locations, pulled it out, drilled the holes and installed some M8 hammer-in T-nuts.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180425_101527-800-jpg
(I actually ended up using two sizes. most of the baseplate is 3/4" thick, but the aft edge was thinned out to rest on the existing trim. Refer to my baseplate build post for further information.)

Once those were in place, I put a chamfer on the aft edge of the baseplate since that corner had been taking a lot of abuse, cut away some of the forward edge that had been catching on the second row seat, put a new coat of paint on, installed screws, and reinstalled it in the truck.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180425_171646-800-jpg
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Old 05-09-2018, 05:50 PM #45
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Rear Storage System - Part 5 - Drawers and Finishing Touches

With the cabinets and baseplate all in their final forms, the next step was to put some drawers together, after measuring once and cutting twice (embarrassing, I know), I had the drawer frames ready to go. With some careful shimming, they were attached to the drawer slides:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180419_135417-800-jpg
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180420_161559-800-jpg

The skeleton of the Port Cabinet was added in:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180419_183101-800-jpg

In order to avoid screws visible on the drawer faces, I used mounting blocks to attach them to the rest of the drawer:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180421_180220-800-jpg

With the drawers built, I finished cutting and sanding the remaining parts for the sleeping platform.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180428_105406-800-jpg

Then a started varnishing things! Everything got at least two coats of varnish, and then the top surfaces of all the sleeping platform parts got an additional coat with some "Seal-krete(TM) Non-Slip Grit Additive". This adds a little bit of roughness to the parts and should make it so that things don't slide around too much.

Once the varnish was dried, I installed the battalion latches, and we were good to go!

Here's the whole thing, in Bed configuration:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180504_145907-800-jpg

This shows the extension panels stowed in the back so that the rear seats can be up. I put some felt sliders on the bottom of these panels. Combined with the grit in the varnish, they stay right were I put them, which is pretty glorious.
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180504_153630-800-jpg

And the Final Test:
McCand's Build Thread-img_20180506_073513-800-jpg

It was awesome! They worked great over a two day trip. I'll keep 'em!

For day-to-day use though, I'm probably just going to leave the port (driver) side cabinet in place. That gives me plenty of space to store regular equipment and such. If I want to have the whole shebang, I can bolt the other cabinet in place in about 10 minutes - less with another set of hands to help.
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