What Did You Do With Your Rig Today?

Well sold off the Xterra in December for a 23 JL Rubicon. Added an under seat air system shortly after I got it and this weekend finally started the slow process of setting it up for some camping. Spent a ton of time trying to find some diy builds for a goose gear type system for the 2 doors and well ... not much out there. So I went ahead and figured it out myself.

Started with a 2'x4'x.5" piece of plywood and cut it to 40" wide to fit between all the humps and stop at the cover for the sub. Then measured where the holes for the brackets to sit around the rear seat anchors. After that time to cover in carpet, we found a nice match for the carpet at Home Depot, its a touch darker but the feel of it is spot on. Used some spray carpet adhesive to hopefully keep it from coming loose across the top.

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Ran to the hardware store at this point to get some button head bolts in black so it was smoother to push things over and to give the glue some time to dry. Once we got back we stapled it down and poked through the carpet for the bolts. The pick did a good job of opening a hole to allow the bolts through and not tearing up the carpet.

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Now for the piece Ive been losing sleep trying to figure out and find lol. I had an idea of a curved bracket that was threaded to bolt through the platform to hold it down. Took me forever but I ended up finding Tube Clamps that you use to add a ground to a metal pipe. Just took the bottom off so I had a threaded bracket to bolt through the base plate and around the tie down to secure the whole thing. Even with just the back to its not going anywhere and Im not sure how I would connect the front anyway.

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Once bolted down we used the rear tie downs for the tethers for the dogs and took them out for a quick ride. Fred in the back loved it Wilma in the front not so much but hopefully with time she will come around. Also need to find a new harness for Wilma, with her narrow chest and being just a general escape artist this one just isn't right.


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Was able to get my slide out put together and installed today. I used 3" angled aluminum with 60" full extension HD locking slides (500 lb capacity). I had the aluminum tray fabricated by a guy I know. Will be easy for wife and I to get to items now without crawling into the back of the truck.
 

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Got a set of 205/70R15 Yokohama Geolandar A/T tires for the VW. They were the smallest 15" A/T's I could find. Definitely mild as far as all terrains go, but I wasn't looking for anything super aggressive anyway. I've been back and forth about getting a set off these for a couple of years because I'm not sure how the VW's 40hp will handle them. They are a touch under an inch taller than the stock size and are quite a bit wider and heavier. I'm going out to Kansas in a little over a month and am planning to cross the state on mostly dirt roads, so I wanted something better than the bargain basement all seasons I normally run on it. Fortunately, the trip will be mostly on fairly flat terrain, so it'll be a good test to see how the car does with them.

Nice bug! I had one back in the 1980's and cut it down into "Baja bug". I can't remember the size but back then we just called them snow tires. They were big and the car would go anywhere regardless of the weather.

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Nice bug! I had one back in the 1980's and cut it down into "Baja bug". I can't remember the size but back then we just called them snow tires. They were big and the car would go anywhere regardless of the weather.
Yeah these cars can get through quite a lot. Mud has always been a real issue though with the all-seasons. I would have liked the all-terrains a bit smaller personally. I did find some smaller 15" A/T's online, but they were from Europe and I didn't want to deal with something that had to be special ordered weeks out if one gets wrecked.
 
Fixed the front trim on the driver's side step bar from rattling, couldn't find a replacement bolt in my spare bolt container so just took the next one down the line and put it in the front. Also fixed the rear wiper washer by reconnecting the line in both the front at the front fender and the rear under the rear bumper.
 
Yeah these cars can get through quite a lot. Mud has always been a real issue though with the all-seasons. I would have liked the all-terrains a bit smaller personally. I did find some smaller 15" A/T's online, but they were from Europe and I didn't want to deal with something that had to be special ordered weeks out if one gets wrecked.
Yeah I cut and twisted the front axle to lift the front and turned the rears 1 notch forward to lift the rear and put limiter straps on the back to keep from pulling the pistons out of the shocks. Had no idea about angles and suspension geometry Young and innocent ;; Was a reader on Buggies and hot VW's. Now we have Youtube to get us in trouble this time with a little education.
 
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Now in these days Toyotas and Chevys get a little pricey to mess with. I have one of each. Boo Hoo! and I am now a little more educated to the fact that if it ain't broke don't fix it! The factory spent a lot of time testing stuff to make sure it runs for a long time and it seems to work! Lights and do dads work for me.
 
Heavy day Sunday. Track bar and drag link replacement on the F250, all 4 shocks. Truck rides out better now and hope to get the alignment done tomorrow.
Also finished the passenger side drawer and cubby hole. LOL
Zim
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I got some wire to take car of too.
Z

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I traded in my 2022 power wagon for a 2022 jeep gladiator. All the same bells and whistles minus the diff lockers and smart bar, and the thirsty engine. Went from 28.9 litres per 100kms to 9.7 courtesy of the turbo diesel 6 cylinder.
Another new build starts yet again.
 

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I traded in my 2022 power wagon for a 2022 jeep gladiator. All the same bells and whistles minus the diff lockers and smart bar, and the thirsty engine. Went from 28.9 litres per 100kms to 9.7 courtesy of the turbo diesel 6 cylinder.
Another new build starts yet again.
WOW...that's a huge reduction in fuel
 
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I traded in my 2022 power wagon for a 2022 jeep gladiator. All the same bells and whistles minus the diff lockers and smart bar, and the thirsty engine. Went from 28.9 litres per 100kms to 9.7 courtesy of the turbo diesel 6 cylinder.
Another new build starts yet again.
WOW...that's a huge reduction in fuel

Ya lived that truck and always wanted a PW but can’t justify the cost to run it lol
 
Just did a bunch of work to my OBS 1999 Chevy K1500 which has been in my family since before the turn of the century. Finished all this up and the same time a couple weeks ago. Finally dropped in a brand spanking new crate motor (GM L31, 350, 5.7L). Been talking about doing this since 2010 when I swapped in my NV4500 5 speed manual. Also installed a big 3/dual battery cable kit and upgraded to dual Odyssey Extremes at the same time. While I was at it, I installed a Rough Country hidden winch mount and a Smittybilt 12K X20 Gen3 winch. I had a Warn Zeon 12s, but it was .25" too wide for my mount, so I had to return it. :disrelieved:

Next is a trip to a good rear end shop to service both front and rear diffs which are both leaking and need new seals. Also going to order a set of Falken Wildpeak AT3W's replace my 10 year old Cooper Discoverer STT's which of course just started to show signs of cracking.

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The VW is out of its winter hibernation! March turned out to be a real bummer weather-wise. It snowed at least once a week with a couple of 8-9 inch accumulations. Naturally they spread tons of salt. Friday it rained really hard for a quite a while, then snowed a little bit Saturday morning, but it didn't stick. Roads looked good after it dried, so I swapped the Grand Marquis for the VW, hopefully for the rest of the season. We usually get some freak snowstorm in April though. Today I took the car on a 100-mile round trip down to Illinois to hike at Glacial Park. The drive down was a little chilly since it was just below freezing and the VW has no heater, but by the time I left for home it had warmed up nicely. I walked down around the marshes at the park and saw tons of different birds and a few deer. Spring is finally here.

The VW at Glacial Park.
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