The Sciencemobile

[thenightman]

Nice job man ! Fabricating is fun stuff, especially when it comes out looking good like yours did. With your welding skillz are you going to do a weld it yourself bumper like the bandit runner kit ?
I'm eventually going to do a rear but time and injury is putting it off for a while.

Thanks! It ended up taking about 6 months to do, working about 5 hours a month, but it was worth it! If I had a lick of sense I would buy weld together kits for the bumpers, and put them together quickly. One of the things I like about having a project vehicle is designing (often poorly) and building (very slowly) my own stuff. I'm not hating on those who buy the weld together kits for anything, I think that that is a much more rational way putting something like this together. Also not hating on those who put all the time in to design the kits, that's a ton of work. I just like the process, and so will take way too long to come up with what will likely be a sub-standard product.
I hope your injury clears up soon so you can get working on it!

Dang Keith! You got some fab skills! Btw, once summer comes around again we gotta make a caravan down to pismo with the Bay Area kids. Sicmods dude!

Thanks man! Yeah I am down for a Pismo trip for sure! But it's winter now, and a snow run could be cool too...

I need to update this thread, I have preformed some maintenance with the help of a certain youtube channel, and successfully added about 50lbs front and rear! :tape2:

 

[MrBob]

Somewhere in Utah an exaust bolt started to loosen, then at Mesa Verde it decided it's part in our journey was at an end. I packed a small selection of metric bolts and nuts in common sizes, and an m8 x45 or so was the closest thing I had so it's on there for now. I bought some m10x40s in Durango. If they fit, I'll put one in instead of the m8, and have one as a spare. The other bolt of the two that hold the flanges between the cats together, was also loose, and two of the three nuts at the Y pipe were also loose.

Cracked weld on that cat?

 

[Ryance39]

I read a couple pages back about your tires. I also really like the way they look.
Now that you have put some more miles on them, still happy?
Thoughts? concerns?

I used to run the Wrangler Kevlar MTs on my Tundra and they were absolutely the best mud tire I have ever ran, but at 100lbs+ a piece I don't think the 3.4 would like that...

What is the weight on the BigHorns like?

 

[thenightman]

Cracked weld on that cat?

Thankfully, no. Just one missing fastener, and four loose ones. Tightening them all back up, with the new bolt, fixed it. No discernable leaks either! I did recently have one of the four tacks that hold a heat shield on the cat break, that made for an annoying rattle.

I read a couple pages back about your tires. I also really like the way they look.
Now that you have put some more miles on them, still happy?
Thoughts? concerns?

I used to run the Wrangler Kevlar MTs on my Tundra and they were absolutely the best mud tire I have ever ran, but at 100lbs+ a piece I don't think the 3.4 would like that...

What is the weight on the BigHorns like?

I have about 7,000 miles on these tires now, and I have to say I am pleased. I have rotated them once, and they have no odd wear. Really, there is almost no discernable wear on them at all, these tires will probably last a long time. Another factor is these tires are actually pretty cheap compared to some.
No real concerns, some might not like how loud they are, as they are a true mud terrain, not an all-terrain. At low speeds they are pretty loud, but quiet down a bit at faster speeds. They are definitely quieter than the Cooper SSTs or the Bridgestone Dueler MTs that I have run in the past. My buddy had the old school Wrangler MTRs on his rig, and I think those were a little louder too. Badass tires, though.
I had a chance to weigh the tire/rim combo today.
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73lbs is not terrible, but I don’t know the weight of the stock aluminum rim. Keep in mind that these are only 32”s, not the 33”s that most run, so they are bound to be lighter.

Somehow I managed to unsubscribe myself from my own thread. And now I can’t figure out how to “like” posts either. If ignorance truly was bliss, I would be living in a constant state of euphoria,

 

[calnhob]

Those are some good welding skills. How did you pick up the skill?

I'm trying to get better but only have a cheapo HF welder for now.

Btw, your neighbors got some nice LCs.

 

[thenightman]

Those are some good welding skills. How did you pick up the skill?

I'm trying to get better but only have a cheapo HF welder for now.

Btw, your neighbors got some nice LCs.

Practice, practice, practice. Even though the harbour freight welder is remarkably good for only being a hundred bucks, it's still pretty crappy. I would look for a used Miller, Lincoln, or Hobart model, and if you haven't gotten a bottle yet, get one. If you were just fixing a gate, or making a sculpture, I would say the HF unit is fine, but I assume you will be doing more than that.

With gas shielding, and a nicer machine, you will notice an immediate difference. Your welds will look better, which will boost your confidence, and honestly it's just easier to learn with gas shielded. Flux core is not a bad system, and will do all the same stuff, and more, then gas shielded, but it's just way easier to get a nice weld with gas. Go 72/25.

Yeah my parent's neighbors have a 100 series, an 80 series, and a desert dune 3rd gen! The 80s series has not moved in probably four years now. I just want to walk up with $1000 in hundreds, and see if they will part with it.

I saw you on lake Chabot road (i think) in your rig about a week ago. Your cool grill arraignment is unmistakable.

 

[calnhob]

Practice, practice, practice. Even though the harbour freight welder is remarkably good for only being a hundred bucks, it's still pretty crappy. I would look for a used Miller, Lincoln, or Hobart model, and if you haven't gotten a bottle yet, get one. If you were just fixing a gate, or making a sculpture, I would say the HF unit is fine, but I assume you will be doing more than that.

With gas shielding, and a nicer machine, you will notice an immediate difference. Your welds will look better, which will boost your confidence, and honestly it's just easier to learn with gas shielded. Flux core is not a bad system, and will do all the same stuff, and more, then gas shielded, but it's just way easier to get a nice weld with gas. Go 72/25.

Yeah my parent's neighbors have a 100 series, an 80 series, and a desert dune 3rd gen! The 80s series has not moved in probably four years now. I just want to walk up with $1000 in hundreds, and see if they will part with it.

I saw you on lake Chabot road (i think) in your rig about a week ago. Your cool grill arraignment is unmistakable.

Yeah, I was driving up redwood road to clean out my emissions after using Emissions cleaner and Seafoam (failed smog the first time but passed on Sat).

I would like to weld on some sliders I just got and build a front bumper from available online kits. You saw how empty my front looked. Been trying to find a class to learn more but none yet and a good used welder seems to be around ~$800 so it's definitely an investment.

So did you just buy the welder and started learning on your own?

You should totally walk over with $1k and make an offer. I would do it if I had parking space...and my wife wouldn't see it.

 

[thenightman]

Yeah, I was driving up redwood road to clean out my emissions after using Emissions cleaner and Seafoam (failed smog the first time but passed on Sat).

I would like to weld on some sliders I just got and build a front bumper from available online kits. You saw how empty my front looked. Been trying to find a class to learn more but none yet and a good used welder seems to be around ~$800 so it's definitely an investment.

So did you just buy the welder and started learning on your own?

You should totally walk over with $1k and make an offer. I would do it if I had parking space...and my wife wouldn't see it.

Glad to hear it passed! Actually I think your front end looks really cool, with your hood, grill, winch, and partial front bumper.

I got the welder, and got started. I had read a bunch about how to do it online, and that was a huge help. This was before the University of Youtube. I would recommend finding a night class at a local community college, the amount of gas, electricity, and grinder wheels you will use up there will more then make up for the cost for the semester. They will also have cool other tools like a plasma or drill press for you to use.

A 120v welder is enough for bumpers and sliders, most with gas are rated up to 3/16.

If I had the space I would have tried to buy the 80 series years ago. Maybe fix it up a bit, play with it then sell it. 80 series are cool trucks.

 

[thenightman]

I have no idea how much money I have spent over the course of my life on bags of ice. Definitely hundreds of dollars, about $2.00 to $3.00 at a time. So logically, I bought a fridge.
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In the past we used a 28 Qt cooler. The cooler was always at least one third ice space, so typically it was only 20 Qts of useful capacity. So this 40 Qt fridge actually doubled our useable space.
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I ran some 12 gauge wire from the fuse block, and hooked the fridge up in back. I put in four eye bolts into some T-nuts, and strapped it down by the handles in a way that it could not budge. It felt good to break free from the bonds of ice servitude.
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Realistically, most will never save any money by running a fridge over an ice chest. It is really about the convenience of never worrying about needing ice, or having food ruined by water intrusion. It is massive, and takes up a ton of room. I think it is worth it though.

 

[thenightman]

We went out for a long weekend camping with some family at Lake Huntington, in the southern Sierras. It was a great time, It is a beautiful lake, in a beautiful area.
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This was not a four wheeling trip, but how can you be up in the sierras and not go wheeling? Before leaving Sunday we spent a few hours exploring the network of trails in the area. Unfortunately, we didn’t think we would have time to hit up one of my favorite hot springs, Mono hot springs, which is sort of in the area.
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We went about 20 miles. It was a lot of fun. Our single, stock sized battery worked out fine. Thinking of the future though, being in the desert, or being in one place for a few days, made me think that more reserve capacity could be a good thing.

 

[thenightman]

We went camping at lake with some friends and family. This time it was fairly hot, and we didn’t drive the car for about two days. However, we had added some reserve capacity to the system, and did not have any issues. The fridge worked out well, for a stress free, ice free weekend. We were not there long before a boat person came by and said he needed some help. In a parking mishap, he had forgotten to put his truck in gear or park, and it coasted down a hill and was stuck in a ditch.
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So I got to pull him out! Always fun to pull something out. I also used the 4runner to launch a jet ski, also fun.
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My cousin has a flip-pac on his second gen taco. That thing is so roomy when open, a bad ass set up for sure.
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This was a fun little lake trip. The fridge was wonderful to have.

 

[thenightman]

The fridge draws some power, though actually not a ton. Even though we have the battery jump start capacitor thingamabob, I still want to make sure I can kill a battery with the fridge and have no trouble starting. The best way to do this is dual battery! The easiest way to fit a second battery in the 4runner would be to put it in the back somewhere. However, I use the back to haul lots of crap around, and I don’t want to lose any of my valuable crap hauling space, so under the hood it goes. This was the original concept.
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Lots of problems with this, moving the airbox, modifying the air tube and air flow sensor, and I would have to string wires across the core support. So I thought it would be a bit easier to put two where the stock one sat. Easy? I’m an idiot. So I put my two batteries together and measured. Looks like it is possible. I sat it on some 1/8” angle I had to help envision a battery tray.
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Hey look at that, a battery tray! Made from bed frame, naturally, what else? It bolts down to the level area where the stock battery sat. It also has a bolt through the wheel well, for added stiffness.
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I cut off the eye that the stock battery tie down J-bolt hooks on, as it was in the way. I later in this area added the additional mounting bolt for the new battery tray. I beat this area a lot with a hammer to get it where I wanted.
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Turns out the stock sized battery is too tall to fit sideways here.
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So I bought another optima, luckily it fit in the new tray, and in that front right corner.
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The strap across the top is just flat bar. It looks really cool gloss black and shiny. The bolt to the left in the picture is the stock J-bolt, reused.
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I didn’t like having that big ground across the top so I slipped a piece of bike inner tube over it. Now it is ugly, but insulated.
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The coolant reservoir was in the way. I wanted to put it against the air box, but that was a real tight fit. It didn’t touch the power steering reservoir, but it was real close, I didn’t like it being so close. So I went to AutoZone and had them bring me the smallest one they had.
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Naturally, I wanted to mount it with hot glue or zip ties, but I couldn’t figure that out. I like how coolant reservoirs mount when stock, by sliding down on a bracket. So I did that.
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It just bolts to the airbox.
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Of course, the fan shroud had to be in the way as well. So I cut a bit off of that too.
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[thenightman]

The wiring is semi complicated. The grounds, however, are easy. Both batteries have their own ground to chassis, and connect to each other. Positive is where it gets interesting. The starting battery functions, and is wired, just as it is when stock. The added positive wire from the starting battery goes to a circuit breaker, to the solenoid, to another circuit breaker, then to the house battery. So the first thing that the battery goes to is the circuit breaker. The solenoid is normally open, or no continuity. When the solenoid gets power, it closes, so it has continuity. The solenoid is powered by a relay, because it draws a decent amount of amps when it closes. The relay is triggered by the parking lights, which turn on when the key is on. So when the key is off, there is no continuity between the starting battery and the house battery. This way, any accessory powered off the fuse box, like the power inverter for charging things, the fridge, or leds, can drain the house battery dead and not affect the starting battery. When the key is on, and the vehicle running, the batteries are joined together and both batteries charge off of the alternator.
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I am really liking this setup. The only issue so far is a solenoid crapped out. I carry a 4 gauge jumper wire now to bypass it if needed. I am happy with it.

 

[thenightman]

One Saturday I was scheduled to work in Hollister, so I too the 4runner and went to Hollister Hills SVRA after for a few hours to play around. I went up the stair step obstacle, which I hadn’t tried since I got the 32” mud terrains. I had so much fun the first time I did it again. I cruised around, went through the 4x4 training course (or whatever it is called) a few times trying most of the lines, and mashed my front bumper up a little more. It was a great evening.
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I got to bang my sliders into some stuff. They didn’t move, I am happy.

 

[Wedgy]

The wiring is semi complicated.

Nice, clean looking job on the wiring !

 

[thenightman]

Nice, clean looking job on the wiring !

Thanks! I actually find wiring and electrical stuff enjoyable, and I enjoy a clean end result.

 

[thenightman]

We went on a nice little weekend camping trip, to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. A big group of extended family used to go to Yosemite every year, but blocks of sites there are almost impossible to get. When that fell through I went online and bought four sites here for the same weekend, hoping everyone would agree on here instead. It worked out and we had a great time.
On the way up we tried to hit this trail that more or less parallels Highway 4 for maybe 10 or 12 miles, selected cause it was rated “Moderate”. We found the correct route, but it was blocked. We eventually found out way to ‘point B’ though, through the maze of logging roads and trails.
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At one point we got into a mile of thick mud on the trail, about 10” deep, and uphill. Luckily I had aired down, and had switched the locker on. I just mashed the pedal down and let her rip, it worked out in the end. Lots of the roads, however, were pristine, the ones that were being used for logging. The 4runner made friends with one of implements used for that.
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For some reason the park we stayed at is called Calaveras Big Trees, but nobody is sure why.
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We had a visitor in our campsite the first night.
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He left us alone, because we keep a clean site. I heard an ice chest get dumped over across the campground though. They need to not leave scented stuff out!

 

[thenightman]

After 2 nights we had to go home. We mapped out a route that would supposedly go between Highway 4 and Highway 88. It looked like about 30 miles. The first few ended up freshly paved, but the along the rest we had a great time. The road was almost all the way washed out at one point.
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Through many miles of thick forest.
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Then we finally got down to the river at the bottom.
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Well hello there.
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We paralleled the river for a few miles, crossing a creek.
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After crossing over a bridge, we climbed up to Highway 88.
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It was a great, but fairly cold trip. Highs in the low 60s, lows in the 20s at night. The hatch struts can’t handle the temps in the low 50s and down. I’m going to have to replace them before next winter.

 

[thenightman]

My cousin was having a bachelors party in Big Bear in November. It officially started on Friday night, so I took Friday off. I had the idea to leave on Thursday night, camp somewhere, then go to big bear on Friday. I chose to camp at Pismo.
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An observant person might say that Pismo and Big Bear are not actually near each other, that hey are actually several hours apart. I would tell that person to shut up, and nobody asked them.
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I drove around for maybe two hours in the morning, having a blast. I was careful though, as there was not another soul out there in the dune area. While camping the night before the nearest other person was a good half mile away. The difference between a late fall weekday night, and a summer weekend night is astounding. It is also cool how much the sand can change in a few months.
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Dune time means I get to fly both flags. I need fog lights before I come back here, it gets very foggy at night.
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On my way out I ran across a stuck suburban, so I got to pull him out!
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It took a long time to get to big bear. I had planned on hitting some of John Bull on the way, but I didn’t have time. I was supposed to get there by dinner, but I missed it. Nice drive though.
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I downloaded the Backcountry Navigator app (free version) before I left, and marked out a bunch of trails around the area to hit. Turns out they were almost all hiking trails. I was able to find a little fun wheeling around the area, just enough short steep connectors to have some fun. The app is frustrating, I was never able to figure out how to make it only show 4x4 trails, and not show other types of trails.
On Sunday I headed home, but needing to do a little wheeling, I turned down a dirt road to an area called “Cactus Flats” It was pretty rough, but after a while I had to turn back, I had to get going home. After I was almost back to the road I remembered I had the gopro! So I threw it on for the remainder of the road.
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As always, I couldn’t resist getting a picture of the 4runner next to another cool vehicle.
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When leaving big bear the starter clicked a few times before actually starting. I was concerned, because it had a full battery. Other then that it was a fine trip.

 

[Mark_BC]

That guy ran over the strap. I've always wondered what happens if they do that. I guess if it's a hook it falls off like yours did. If it's a shackle... not good.