Jhalko's 2011 Limited build/travel thread

[Jhalko]

Got the RTT back on, working on buttoning things up for the trek to Overland West, gonna try a quick overnight tomorrow with my son.

 

[Antman]

Got the RTT back on, working on buttoning things up for the trek to Overland West, gonna try a quick overnight tomorrow with my son.

LOOKS AWESOME. Only thing in the way now is that front bumper. gotta trim it or match the back!

 

[Jhalko]

LOOKS AWESOME. Only thing in the way now is that front bumper. gotta trim it or match the back!

Focused on finishing the new fridge mount and shelf, then I'll probably get new tires. After removing that lower air dam just not sure I need or want the weight of a front bumper, more likely hidden winch mount.

Hope to at least have the base and fridge slide in later this morning. Pics to come!

 

[Antman]

Focused on finishing the new fridge mount and shelf, then I'll probably get new tires. After removing that lower air dam just not sure I need or want the weight of a front bumper, more likely hidden winch mount.

Hope to at least have the base and fridge slide in later this morning. Pics to come!

Cut that beast then. I LOVE my cut front bumper. Last O/R trip was the first one where I didn't scrape/rip off the front bumper.

Miss ya man!

 

[Jhalko]

Finished stage 1 of the fridge slide... I think this will work great for my needs, while still being removable for the occasional 3rd row use and in winter when I don't keep the fridge in. Enough room on the side for me to sleep if I wanted as well.

This is carpeted mount with fridge slide attached before going into truck, not light but easy to move myself.
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Placed into truck with tie down through the slots I cut.
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With fridge empty, I can pull slide out and have no issues just given the weight and tie down pressure
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Perfect to open lid all the way...
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Enough room and height works so that if I roll back window down I can access top stuff towards back, room to spare!
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[Jhalko]

Sorry the pics weren't better ( [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] quality pics!), it fits perfect and though my initial temporary mounting idea isn't going to work I have a couple back up ideas.

Stage 2 will be a shelf above the fridge with tie downs for more space... not until after Expo. Now I'm going to put some food and beer in the fridge and camp to test it out tonight!

 

[Jhalko]

Fridge mount and slide are perfect and it doesn't move and fits my stuff just as I wanted. Don't seem to get any movement with the new slide and velcro straps holding the fridge...

Started the evening with this... cooking dinner with great views.
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Then some weather rolled by, fortunately we got a lot of wind and very little rain.
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Rock lighting next?
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It was a good test of the fridge mount and practice run before heading out on the road for 5 days. Realized what was missing really quick of course! It got down to about 35 but my son and I were fine in our sleeping backs up in the RTT. Came back right after breakfast so it really was a quick test run.

 

[Jhalko]

I don't think the snorkel is ostentatious as my wife says... now all that LED lighting... that might be.
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Prepping to hit the road Weds continues... :lookout:

 

[FlightMedic303]

I don't think the snorkel is ostentatious as my wife says... now all that LED lighting... that might be.
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Prepping to hit the road Weds continues... :lookout:

You really stepped your game up with all these mods out of nowhere!! Looks good my friend! Remember when you gave me s*** for moving from Denver to Phoenix? Well, looks like you'll be in my neck of the woods here soon, maybe I'll see ya in Flagg!

 

[Jhalko]

You really stepped your game up with all these mods out of nowhere!! Looks good my friend! Remember when you gave me s*** for moving from Denver to Phoenix? Well, looks like you'll be in my neck of the woods here soon, maybe I'll see ya in Flagg!

Flagstaff is way better than Phoenix, but as misery loves company I have to spend the first two weeks of June in Phoenix for business!

I get a lot of modding done when the kids aren't around, or in the case of the snorkel, when I skip sleeping at night.

I'm looking forward to overland expo, honestly the expo is just an excuse to get in my truck, hit the road and camp so that'll be fun, everything else is gravy.

 

[FlightMedic303]

Flagstaff is way better than Phoenix, but as misery loves company I have to spend the first two weeks of June in Phoenix for business!

I get a lot of modding done when the kids aren't around, or in the case of the snorkel, when I skip sleeping at night.

I'm looking forward to overland expo, honestly the expo is just an excuse to get in my truck, hit the road and camp so that'll be fun, everything else is gravy.

Yeah.. I generally spend most of my free time out of Phoenix in the Ntl Forests. Sedona is great, haven't made it up to Flagstaff yet. I'm just counting down the time until we move back to Colorado! If you're not too busy while you're in Phoenix for business, let me know and we can grab a brew.

 

[Jhalko]

Well I haven't posted anything about my trip to overland west yet. Before I left my dog was sick and my wife scheduled to take her to the vet, she called me as I was driving from Moab to flagstaff with bad news, it wasn't a surprise given her condition and the massive lump on her back that showed as she started losing weight, but you know you always try to be optimistic. We put her down mid week... ugh.

She was 14 and lived a very good live, my wife kept her comfortable so I could get back and spend some time with her but it put a dent in my mood for the trip. I'll post the other stuff from my trip later, it was still good as I made the best of it and at least got to meet a ton of folks.

 

[FrenchToasty]

Well I haven't posted anything about my trip to overland west yet. Before I left my dog was sick and my wife scheduled to take her to the vet, she called me as I was driving from Moab to flagstaff with bad news, it wasn't a surprise given her condition and the massive lump on her back that showed as she started losing weight, but you know you always try to be optimistic. We put her down mid week... ugh.

She was 14 and lived a very good live, my wife kept her comfortable so I could get back and spend some time with her but it put a dent in my mood for the trip. I'll post the other stuff from my trip later, it was still good as I made the best of it and at least got to meet a ton of folks.

She's a beauty! Sorry for your loss, it's never easy when your away. At least you were able to say good bye when you came home it's the worst when you can't be there

 

[Cymon]

Well I haven't posted anything about my trip to overland west yet. Before I left my dog was sick and my wife scheduled to take her to the vet, she called me as I was driving from Moab to flagstaff with bad news, it wasn't a surprise given her condition and the massive lump on her back that showed as she started losing weight, but you know you always try to be optimistic. We put her down mid week... ugh.

She was 14 and lived a very good live, my wife kept her comfortable so I could get back and spend some time with her but it put a dent in my mood for the trip. I'll post the other stuff from my trip later, it was still good as I made the best of it and at least got to meet a ton of folks.

So sorry for the loss. It's tough to loose a family member, but I'm glad you hear you got to spend a little extra time with her before you had to let her go to a better place. We have a 13 year old Baltimore Mutt that my wife and I rescued they day we got back from our honeymoon 10 years ago. She is starting to noticeably slow down. Still trying to keep the inevitable out of my mind for a while longer.

Best wishes to you and your family!

 

[joeysav]

The lower Rigid grill I have with the SAE fogs is helpful any time, the SR 20 in the upper grill basically makes even the high beams worthless. At that point I didn't think I could need more light, but there have been several times where I was off road at night and wished I had more, go figure. I didn't want to spend a ton on a large light bar since I only occasionally off road at night, but happened to catch a 40" Rigid Radiance bar off amazon at like 30% off. No idea how it got that cheap but figured it was a great deal and didn't pass it up. It sat in my garage for nearly the last year before I finally decided I needed to mount it or sell it. Sadly this install took about 30 minutes... doh. :brick:

Initial fit, using a Rigid 40" bracket the fit was perfect on the existing holes in my rack, I did drill a new center hole for the fairing bolt.
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Tight fit with the Radiance bar but it is currently not touching the bar
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I need to work on hiding the wiring better, but a quick drive last night to test. This light bar does put out a ton of light, once again making everything else I have somewhat worthless. If I were to start over, I'd skip the Rigid grills and lights and just put the 40" bar up top, maybe I'd mount some HID fogs in the lower grill and come up with my own mounts. Lesson learned... but hey I have who knows how many extra lumens to light the way now!
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Great thread! Did you use the Air on Board switch to control the Light bar? If so, do you mind explaining how you wired them? Which fuse box did you have to get? Thanks!!

 

[Jhalko]

Great thread! Did you use the Air on Board switch to control the Light bar? If so, do you mind explaining how you wired them? Which fuse box did you have to get? Thanks!!

I have an Spod that almost everything goes through (fridge goes direct to battery), the power and ground for all lights connects to that. The main harness for the Spod goes through the firewall then is connected to three AOB switches and three toggle switches, I cut out the left side below other switches for the new panel. Personally if I was doing it again I'd probably just mount them all in the lower center console to have them together. This all works great and I haven't had any issues, there are pics below of the new switch panel as well as wiring for AOB to Spod wiring.

Post #30
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/220563-jhalkos-2011-limited-build-travel-thread-2.html

 

[joeysav]

I have an Spod that almost everything goes through (fridge goes direct to battery), the power and ground for all lights connects to that. The main harness for the Spod goes through the firewall then is connected to three AOB switches and three toggle switches, I cut out the left side below other switches for the new panel. Personally if I was doing it again I'd probably just mount them all in the lower center console to have them together. This all works great and I haven't had any issues, there are pics below of the new switch panel as well as wiring for AOB to Spod wiring.

Post #30
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/220563-jhalkos-2011-limited-build-travel-thread-2.html

Thank you very much for further details and directing me to post #30. If you dont mind, can you share the link of the exact sPOD you purchased? Thank you again!

 

[Jhalko]

Thank you very much for further details and directing me to post #30. If you dont mind, can you share the link of the exact sPOD you purchased? Thank you again!

I bought the Tacoma version, I was having trouble using the Spod website tonight but it looks like they may use a mount to the factory fuse box now. Based on a note on their site if you wanted that bracket I used you can call and ask as it references another bracket for older tacomas which sounds like the one I have.

Universal with Modular 6 Switch Panel

I also have seen folks use the FJ kit on here as well, though that might have a longer harness as I think it mounts on the other side of the engine bay. Unless that has also been changed to mount above fuse box.

 

[Jhalko]

Finally getting a chance to post my pics for some travels over the last few months, starting with the drive from Denver down to Overland West. On the way out I went through Moab, the way back I came through Durango.

On the way to Moab I did stop in Fruita to meet [MENTION=78273]Jeremy556[/MENTION] and bought his old hidden winch plate, it's in the garage, maybe I'll get around to getting a winch and installing before winter... (aspirational goal)

Hit moab that night and had one of my best nights of camping ever, temps were awesome, great sunset and full moon. The camp pizza and cold beer didn't hurt, it was outstanding.

Camp spot
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Dinner
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Sunset
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Not sure if this pano will work, sunset on the left, full moon up on the right.
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Breakfast, bagel toaster idea was courtesy of [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] as seen my Cove trip two years ago.
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Packed to head to Flagstaff!
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[Jhalko]

Trip to Flagstaff was rather boring, I've done that drive before and about halfway was when my wife called with the bad news about the dog. Weren't sure if she'd make it to my return so it put a major damper on the trip.

Made the best of it, but took three pics while down there... one nice moment when I took a nap...
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I also at least got to shake hands with a ton of folks on here, I wasn't really feeling overly social but I was there so I at least wanted to put faces with names. Maybe I'll come back and update a list of members I met, it was a ton. Also got to sit and drink beers with [MENTION=139970]greatape[/MENTION] one night, it was a good time.

I left early to get back to spend any time I could with my dog... left pretty early to get to Durango sat night, have a friend there so grabbed dinner then went a found a camp spot for the night. I did explore a bit, another nice night temp wise.
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