SOcalTrail's 2011 Trail Edition Beast Build Thread

[SOcalTRAIL]

Don't forget a USB port or two. Looks like you'll have room.

Already there! To the right of the fuel gauge. It is a dual USB power port made by Blue Sea. To the right of that is a standard 12v receptacle.

Here is the USB port...

Amazon.com: Blue Sea Systems Dual USB Charger Socket: Sports & Outdoors

 

[Ducmonsta]

Nice! I'm using the ones from isimple.

 

[snzscooter]

Already there! To the right of the fuel gauge. It is a dual USB power port made by Blue Sea. To the right of that is a standard 12v receptacle.

Here is the USB port...

Amazon.com: Blue Sea Systems Dual USB Charger Socket: Sports & Outdoors

Nice! I'm using the ones from isimple.

Alright, all of the amazing things I've read on this forum (and I've read this entire thread, which has some of the best), and these are amazing. My 4Runner needs to come in ...

 

[joneseyyy]

Making that call tomorrow, you read my mind!



Are you running #700's on your rig???

Yeah I switched last spring. Brought the ride back to where I liked it.

 

[KVA]

You guys think you're sooooo hilarious with your "group buy" :biggrin2: hahahah

Admit it, you really want to do this :madgrin:. If you weren't so freak'n talented at coming up with this stuff, we wouldn't ask and ALL WANT IT!

Did you think about the placement of the switches vs. the plug-in's? I would think that having the plug-in items like the USB and lighter you would want the cords to be lower/closer to the bottom so they aren't in the way of the switches, no?

Or grouping them left vs. right instead of top vs. bottom? I guess it depends on what you are using these for...

So when do we get the group buy going? Instead of the fuel gauge can I get the cutout for PSI off the compressor? Just asking...:cheers:

 

[jrandom]

[MENTION=68685]Ducmonsta[/MENTION] nice! already existing wasted space made useful :thumb:

 

[Adverb]

I have a question, and it seems there are some pros on this thread. Everyone speaks extremely highly of Icon and their parts/service, but I have come across almost no one with a full "stage " kit from them. It's usually just a part here or there. Would you guys not suggest for instance, a full icon stage 2 kit for someone who wants to retain the KDSS?

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

I have a question, and it seems there are some pros on this thread. Everyone speaks extremely highly of Icon and their parts/service, but I have come across almost no one with a full "stage " kit from them. It's usually just a part here or there. Would you guys not suggest for instance, a full icon stage 2 kit for someone who wants to retain the KDSS?

Do a quick search, I think you will find a number of folks on here who are running various stages of Icon suspension, but yeah, some just run little bitds and pieces of it.

To answer your question, any of the 6 offered Icon suspension kits would work with a KDSS equipped vehicle. After stage 2, the only think that changes in stages 3-6 with the FRONT suspension is they add a remote reservoir for stages 5 and 6. Other than that, each state progressively upgrades the rear suspension a bit too. Buy either what you can afford or if you can afford it all, buy what you need to suite your adventure / driving / life.

Hope that helps!

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Fresh out the desert with the new bumper.

Spent the weekend training with the Sheriff's SAR team out in the local desert and got to test out the new bumper, I like it.... A LOT!!!!!

A couple of observations:

1. Like all Shrockworks stuff, this bumper is extremely well made. The welds are perfect and clean, the fit up is spot on, the styling is great (opinion) and the overall package offers great protection while improving the approach angle significantly.

2. The headlight trim pieces are... uhh... well... a good attempt. They fit up kinda funky and don't match up to the fender / headlight lines all that well. I'm pretty picky about this sort of thing so I'm going to cut up the OEM bumper and make my own filler pieces. My bumper has some pretty good dents and scrapes in it so no stress in scrapping it. After building my rear bumper and spending all the time that I did to make the trim pieces for that, I can completely understand the headache that this presents for a production item. All in all, Shrockworks did a pretty good job, my only advise for them (if they are reading this...) is they should bump the material thickness for the headlight filler pieces waaaaay down. The use friggen 10 gauge (.140") steel for these pieces and they weigh about 5 lbs a piece!!!!! Bumping the material thickness down to something like 16 or 18 gauge even would be more than fine seeing as how these are not structural or armor pieces, just aesthetic fillers.

3. The weight.... I'm not exactly sure how much my iteration of this bumper weighs ( maybe 120#???) but after taking the factory crap off, it really doesn't add THAT much weight to the front of the truck which I was a little afraid of. The truck feels exactly the same on and off road as it did before. I lost maybe .25" of ride height in the front, nothing to speak of.

No action shots from this weekend, I was a bit too busy with the training to stop and take pics of the truck :mmph:

 

[Okki]

How did you do the fender liners? did you cut them, or tuck them?

Looking nice!

Okki

 

[ColoradoFrosty]

How did you do the fender liners? did you cut them, or tuck them?

+1 on this.

I am also wondering if you were able to retain your behind the grill light bar. I have to fab something else on mine after installing the Shrockworks bumper.

More pics please.

 

[Bay33saw]

Nice! I'm using the ones from isimple.

Duc, can you post a picture of the inside of your armrest please?

 

[joneseyyy]

Nice! But I'm surprised more folks don't get the full headlight hoops. Guess there's less stuff to hit out west. Just yesterday on the trail I hit a rutty icy section at ab 15 mph that promptly shot me off at a 45-degree angle into a 5" tree...glancing blow on the headlight hoop and and no damage as I slid by and the truck finally caught traction. Without the hoop I'd be looking at a new headlamp and maybe fender.

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Nice! But I'm surprised more folks don't get the full headlight hoops. Guess there's less stuff to hit out west. Just yesterday on the trail I hit a rutty icy section at ab 15 mph that promptly shot me off at a 45-degree angle into a 5" tree...glancing blow on the headlight hoop and and no damage as I slid by and the truck finally caught traction. Without the hoop I'd be looking at a new headlamp and maybe fender.

Ya, I can see the headlight hoops coming in handy back where you guys wheel, but out here I don't do any wheeling at all really around trees or anything that could contact the headlight and fender. Figured I could save the weight too. Also.... what is this "ice" think you speak of????? HAHAH I'm pretty well convinced that San Diego / So. Cal. has completely forgotten what winter is, last weekend was in the 80's and my fiancée was out on the beach! :thumb:

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

A couple pics of the fender liner cutting job below. I cut the majority of it with my pocket knife and used a die grinder with a new 2" disk to smooth out all the cuts.... I was really happy with how it turned out, no flapping or noise, very solid. Ignore the zip ties, they are there until I find something better.

v

 

[Keemonrunnin]

I was thinking of the samething about cutting up my oem bumper to fit in the headlight spacer. I don't like how the gap is where it meets up with the front grill. Since I put the bumper up high and out of the way in the garage. Never had time to go up and get it down to mess with it. Maybe I'll wait to see what you come up with before I start hacking away at it.

 

[extrmsob293]

freaking love your build:ybrick:

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

New shininess to install this weekend, along with finishing the upgraded LED turn signal / DRL's in the Shrock front bumper, re-locating my 30" light bar to the front bumper and working on the switch panel more. fun stuff!

Here is the new air tank that is going up inside the Shrock bumper where a winch would normally go. It is one helluva nice tank, 4 gallons, made by Air Lift, 200P psi rated, aluminum, and LIGHT!!!!!!!

This is a great upgrade from my old, heavy steel 2 gallon tank. 4 gallons of 160psi air is pretty decent!

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Lots of work done yesterday. Bumper final installed, got some work done on the headlight trim pieces, got the new aluminum 4 gal air tank installed in the bumper and plumbed up, got the upgraded LED turn signals for the shrockworks bumper installed.

First off... the turn signals.... For those who want to use these, here is what you have to do. If you already have your bumper and want to upgrade, you better get ready to get dirty. You need to remove the bumper from your truck and remove the brackets for the Hella signals that came with the bumper. This entails getting a die grinder and grinding off the welds of these brackets - this is what i did and with a good cut off disk on my die grinder it took about 10 minutes and another 10 minutes with a sanding disk to smooth everything out. If you are ordering your bumper or have a bumper in production and want these, you need to instruct Shrockworks to not weld on any brackets for the turn signals and cut the ID of the turn signal hole to 2.75" I purchased the components from Trailer hitch, hitches and bike rack (800)298-8924 they consist of:

2 Lights ( Sealed, 2-1/2" Round LED Trailer Clearance and Side Marker Light, 7 Diode - Amber Optronics Trailer Lights MCL58AB )
2 Grommets ( 2-1/2" Round Grommet - Recessed Mount - Open Back Optronics Accessories and Parts A57GB )
2 Wiring Pigtails ( Plug - Two Wire Pigtail for Sealed Trailer Clearance, Side Marker Lights - 6" Long Optronics Accessories and Parts A46PB )
2 25 watt REsistors ( 10 Ohm/25w Load Resistor for Fix of LED Hyper Blinking / Warning Signal Light : Amazon.com : Automotive )

I purchased 8 different LED lights and tried them all. The ones that I landed on (listed above) are the brightest and most visible during the day. I also tried 2 different grommets - the flush mount and the recessed mount. I preferred the recessed mount - it took a smaller hole to install and looked better in my opinion.

I took the wiring pigtails and wired the 25 watt resistors directly into these and wired a Deutsch Connector to the end, cut the OEM truck-side tun signal wires and added the opposite side Deutsch connector here for easy on / off connectivity.

They look great, they are waterproof, shock proof, sealed, dust proof, and CHEAP! I have 2 extras here sitting in my desk just in case one ever breaks.... if it does it is as easy a popping the old one out and the new one in.

Pics:




Notice the brackets gone.... just a hole.

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Part 2 of my Saturday truck progress...

Air Tank - I was using a Viair 2.5 Gal tank and it was "ok" but honestly not enough air. I needed more. I found this AWESOME Air Lift Aluminum 4 Gal. tank and it fits absolutely perfectly in the spot meant for a winch on the Shrockworks bumper.

Air tank here : Air Lift 11955 Aluminum Air Tank : Amazon.com : Automotive

I fabricated a couple of simple brackets and welded them directly to the inside of the bumper, and made a tab hanging off the rearmost bracket to hold a air fitting quick disconnect. It is accessible from the front of the bumper and sealed up from the mud, dirt and dust with a nice plug. After I got the bumper back in there, I found I had enough room to throw the steel 2.5 gal air tank underneath the 4 gallon tank I had just installed. For now 4 gallons is plenty for filling tires - a full tank of air gets me about a tire and a half filled from 18 psi to 36 psi for the drive home after wheeling. Not bad at all. I also snapped on a regulator set at 80 psi and ran a die grinder for a few minutes with no problems. Good for a fix in the field if it came down to it.

Pics:











Cheers all! Happy Sunday!