Builds THE LESS MAD - MAD MAX BUILD (1 Viewer)

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BUMPER BUILDING


So I started digging into building a front bumper. I have this issue where I pick up used Warn winches off of Craigslist whenever they come up. I typically just use them for ballast, so my shed doesn’t blow away. But I decided it might be time to put one of these to use. I had and 8274 that I tried to fit up front, but I couldn’t find a way to get it mounted as tight as I wanted without cutting up the grill and sheet metal, which I did contemplate. But in the end I decided to go with an M10000. Warn no longer make this winch. They call it the M12000. I know that there are a lot of companies out there now that make winches. I always stick to Warn, simply because you can still order parts for every winch they have ever made. Which I think is pretty cool, its also why I am not afraid to buy them used.


So I started with positioning the winch. I wanted it nice in low and tucked up as close to the body as I could get it.





I started with a cardboard template to create the base plate the winch would mount to. I then transferred that to some 3/16” plate and off we go.





It did take me a while to get started. This was the first front plate that I started with, but I hated the look of it, just more for the scrap bin.



With a little (or a lot) of back and forth it started to take shape. The first side is always the most time consuming, but once I had that done it started to come together.


 
HEATER BYPASS

Well this just happened.



I am in the process of building sliders and I got a little carried away. Note to self take it easy with the plasma cutter. So it looks like I will be deleting the rear heater. I am going to figure out how to bypass the thing so I can drive it tomorrow. I am hoping I have enough spare hose lying around. I will post up more photos on the bumper as soon as I get this dealt with.
 
ENOUGH HEAT???
So I was able to come up with some 5/8" heater hose for the rear heater bypass. I went even further and removed all the piping that goes from the engine compartment back to the heater. Not sure why I really thought this was a good idea at the time. But once I go into it it became obvious that those hard lines are put in first. Before the engine, transmission and exhaust go in. There is really no way to get them out unless of course you take them out in little pieces with a sawzall. Which is what I did. Even after all that though I am left with a small chunk on top of the cats. I think the only way to get these unbolted without removing the cat and the heat shield might be to just go through the floor. We'll save that for some other time.

My question is though does anyone really use the rear heater? I am in Colorado, and granted I haven't driven this thing a ton in the winter, but the truck seem plenty warm without it. Just curious if anyone has removed it an regretted in later.
 
With a recently flushed and mostly new coolant system, mine gets stupid hot up front to where I don't think it's too bad in back. I need to run some thermometers back there when it gets below zero just to see what it's like. I don't miss it, but I basically bypassed it before I got to drive it in the winter lol.
 
Rainen said:
FU-MF-PHH


So the PHH. Just when I thought Mr Toyota and I were friends I go to replace this thing. I bought the PHH kit and went to do some reading prior to digging into it.

If you haven’t noticed yet I usually have more time to read about working on my truck than I do to actually have time to work on the truck.

As luck would have it I had found a flex-head 1/4” ratchet on ebay. Turns out this was the tool (or part of the tool) needed to make this happen. The PO had done some work on the PHH. There were hardward-store-special hose clamps on there, which are easier to get off than the stock Toyota clamps. Now that I got the stock PHH off. I unhooked the other hose from them top of the hard pipe. Then I went about unbolting the hard pipe from the engine. There are two 12MM bolts holding this in place. The first at the top of the intake is pretty easy to get. The second is on the back side of the engine which is pretty difficult to get to. I came up with this approach

View attachment 1399911

With my custom handle extension on the ratchet I was able to get to the second bolt.

View attachment 1399912

From there I pulled the hard pipe out above the starter, installed the new hose (spray silicone makes this go real smoothly), and slid the whole thing back in. I reinstalled the top bolt on the hard pipe and threw the other bolt in spares pile. I can’t imagine having to do this on the trail . I think the quick route would be to bypass the hard pipe for a field repair. Preventative maintenance for the win. The PHH brings the suck


View attachment 1399913
Click to expand...
I used all HPS hoses on my rig except on the PHH i used gates green stripe from Joey. I hear there are silicone hose issues. Ill keep all posted .
 
This is funny, I actually went through McMaster and made a parts list to make a better awning. Glad to see I am not the only one with the sickness. lol.

Rainen said:
THE AWNING ABORTION


Now this is in no way a bash on the build quality of the awning. Everything can always be built better, especially the things that I build. So, like I said previously I purchased a 270 degree awning from a member here on Mud. We talked before I bought it, and I knew exactly what I was getting. In all fairness, I actually bought 2 of these at the same time, my buddy is running his without any modifications, and he likes it just fine. Understood?

So when I unzipped the awning, my thought was “We can turn this into a project in the name of improvement now can’t we?” So I did.

This is how the hinge assemble looked when I received it.

View attachment 1521288

I dug a little further and it looks like electrical conduit was used as a spacers.

View attachment 1521287

So after some digging on McMaster, this is where I landed. The main hinge bolt was extended so it could go through all 3 fins on the aluminum extrusion. Real spacers were added (1/4” wall) to help take some flex out of the assembly. The red washers were added so everything could line up and be tightened down. Theses washer actually have ball bearings in them. The end result??? I feel better. Which makes we want to believe in functions better. But who really knows?

View attachment 1521285
Click to expand...
 
JUST A LITTLE OF THE BOTTOM


Ok so I prior to building the sliders I wanted to do some trimming on the body to keep things nice and tight. This wasn’t without incident, see previous picture. Trimming the body is a pain ended up using like every cutting tool I could find, plasma cutter, airsaw, Sawzall, grinders, tin snips you name it. So after getting it all cut, I started on capping the giant mud collecting hole I had made in the body.

I started with 1/2” square tubing and some 14 gauge.



And then some more trimming/scribing to get to match the body






Then clamped up and welded to the body




After getting these welded up I slathered it all with undercoating and started on the sliders


 
SLIDING 1


For the sliders I decided to go with 2x6 rectangular tubing and 2” round tubing for the outside. I want to use at least one of these as a tank for compressed air.

I started with the driver side, the easy side.





I tied the round and rectangular tubing together with 1/8” plate with dimple dies. I Placed these along the length





I added a threaded bung to be able to pressurize the rectangular tubing.





And pressure test


 
SLIDING 2


After completing the driver side it was off the passenger side which was made more difficult by the cat on the outside of the frame. The rear two mounts were identical to the driver side. The front mount needed to incorporate at skidplate for the CAT that was removable in case I ever needed to replace it.

After a couple intterations, I came up with two mounting points on the slider and one mounting point on the frame. The whole skid plate is cut from 3/8” plate and the mounting points are braced pretty well.


I started with something like this





Its difficult to get good photos of the mounting points under the truck, this is it sitting in place.





In the end I didn’t like how exposed it left the side of the cat so I modified to have a more solid side. So the final ended up looking like this





And the pair of sliders complete and ready to go to powdercoat!!!


 
REAR BUMPER 1


So at long last it was time to move on to the rear bumper. And as always. We start with a little destruction. Pulling off the stock bumper and cutter the rear frame crossmember out of the way, as well as trimming the body.





After that I struggled with it a bit on how to get started, but in the end came up with this as a replacement for the cross member, this will also function as the hitch and the base of the bumper that will get skinned.



This will be a dual swing out bumper, so the top is skinned and the hinge points placed and tacked to check fit.





I then added tubing extended forward from the bumper to act as sliders. It also really tied the room together


 
REAR BUMPER 2


“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should” – Someone a lot smarter than me.

I have tendency to get carried away on project like this and make them more complicated than I should, or need to. While it is fun to stretch the limits of what I can build in a small shop, or to assemble things in a way I never have before, it becomes very time consuming. But the little details also make it fun








In addition to selecting the hinges I did in order to have removable swings arms, I also wanted a single latch to hold it all together. Time, and some bumpy ass roads, will tell if this is a good idea or not.




In addition to the spare tire I wanted to carry a single ammo can on the back for recovery gear. I did this on the last rig as well. I found being able to get to this gear quickly without have to dig or open anything made using it a lot easier. And here it is, 6 weeks of work condensed in a few photos.








All I have to say is, I will never again question why rear, swing out bumpers cost so much money. And in the future I would will likely just pay the damn money!!!
 
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