19 Feb 2012

Rear Storage System

Well, last weekend at the Queanbeyan 4x4 show, I picked up my rear storage core system from Offroad Systems (ORS). I had ordered them a little while ago, but rather than having them shipped, I decided to just grab them from the guys and meet them directly at the show.

First impressions was a good quality, well made product. Being made from aluminium, they were very light weight and the ORS lads had thrown in some drawer dividers and a table-top plate. I had ordered them with the drawer front plates, lock and handle kits as well as the removable drawer liners. ORS DIY systems information available here and pricelist here.

Components:
  • 2 x 455x780x280 Aluminum Drawer Frames
  • 2 x Lock and Handle kits
  • 2 x Drawer Fronts
  • 2 x Marine Carpet Drawer Liners
  • 1200x2400x12mm Structural Ply
  • 2m x 2m Grey Marine Carpet
  • 1L Carpet Adhesive
  • Incidentals; nuts / bolts / staples, etc
Installation:
  1. First off; I had to mount the two cores on top of each other. Fortunately they were built with this in mind and had some captive nuts already installed ready for the task; shown in picture 2. Rather than have metal on metal, I decided to add some rubber matting as spacers between the two units as shown in picture 1.
  2. Once bolted together, I took measurements of the top, sides and back of the unit. Then cut pieces of the 12mm structural ply to match. I purposely made the sides and top longer to captivate the drawer fronts when closed. The rear panel was sized to cover off the edges of the top and side plates with the view of protecting them from chipping and other damage.
  3. Next I dry assembled everything to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes (fortunately everything was spot on for a change!). I then laid the panels down on the marine carpet and cut out the pieces needed, extending all edges by 150mm to allow for fold over and securing on the back of the panel.
  4. Using the carpet adhesive, I applied it to the top of each panel using a "V" shaped applicator, waited the 10mins or so for it to go tacky, then applied the carpet by placing the panel down onto the carpet. Weight was then placed on each panel to make sure the carpet was secured.
  5. The longest part of the process came next; securing the carpet on the back of each panel. I found the easiest way to do this was to cut the carpet diagonally with a razor to the corner of the panel, fold it over 'dry' (no adhesive) and trim away any overlap. Once this had been done to all panels, apply adhesive, wait for it to go tacky, then secure with staples using a staple gun.
  6. Once all the panels had been completed and the adhesive had set (generally > 24hrs), it was time to secure them to the frame. To do this, I used M6 x 12mm stainless self tapping screws. Each side I secured with 6 of these screws, with the exception of the top panel; which I secured using countersunk M6 bolts going into captive nuts (see picture 2).
  7. The final panels were the drawer fronts, which were secured with the same self tapping screws, but also 2 bolts that secure the handles, as well as 2 more bolts that secure the locking mechs. This was a fairly simple process, as the supplied front panels were pre-drilled with the locations for the locking mechs and handles.
  8. As a side project, I had decided to mount my MaxAx on an outer panel of the storage unit. Being that the axe was to long to actually fit in the box, it seemed like the logical choice; as knowing my luck if I mounted it to a roof rack, the rack wouldn't be on the car when I needed it!
    To do this, I bought a couple of QuickFist clamps, which would have been more than adequate, but I also decided to engineer an axe head holder from 30x30x3mm angle iron. Once welded, and tidied up with a grinder, the steel was primed and then painted gloss black. I mounted the bracket to the drivers side panel with 4 x M5 stainless bolts. The QuickFists were mounted with M5 bolts also.
  9. Finally it was time to mount the entire unit to the base board. I reused the 2 pre-existing securing locations that were holding the base board down on the drivers side. For the passenger side, I used 2 "T" nuts that pull up into the base board ply from underneath.


1. Rubber matting spacers

2. Captive nut installed; these locations are in each corner, top and bottom.

3. Frames bolted together

4. Carpet adhesive spread on panel

5. Panels finished; trial knock up.

6. Side panel fixed in place

7. Quickfists and axe head holder bracket bolted down

8. Max Ax fitted in place.

9. Storage unit installed

10. Locking mech and axe head holder

11. Bottom drawer; note the 4 spacers, these aren't fixed and can be put anywhere.
The green thing under the Woodmans Pal is the table top, just mount it sideways across the drawer.

12. Axe in place; 60mm gap running down the side, allows access to side compartments and 12v plugs.

13. Rear of storage unit in relation to the fridge base.

10 Feb 2012

Woodmans Pal

Good way to end the working week today with the receipt of my new Woodman's Pal machete. Ordered from ProTool Industries in the US back on the 1st Feb, I was pretty impressed that it arrived so soon, especially being a blade going through customs!

Not much to say about it really, quality bit of kit, solid as a rock and well balanced. I went for the Military Model 284-LTS; Treated Leather Sheath and Sharpening Stone. Grip is really comfortable, being leather with the steel knuckle guard and the sheath is made of a decent slab of leather with chunky button studs. I had it engraved with my name, a free offer from ProTool at the time of order.

Should be a good addition to the FJ, especially when clearing trails that have grown over or tidying up a camp site.

1. Woodman's Pal Sheathed
2. Woodman's Pal Unsheathed

3. Custom engraving on the reverse of the blade.

8 Feb 2012

Fridge Base

I decided on removing my double rear seats and keep the single one in place a while ago after seeing a fellow FJer from America doing a similar thing. The intent was to use this spare space for my fridge and to increase the length for my rear drawers.

So with that in mind and the double rear seats out, I set to work fabricating a base from 30 x 30 x 5 angle iron and 30 x 5 flat bar.

1. Steel frame primed and painted

I used the four pre-existing mounting points the removed seat used to secure the frame, along with a rubber caster in the back right hand corner which presses against a raised section. For the bolt that runs down from the bracket on the single seat frame, I used a 70mm M10 titanium bolt from ProBolt.

2. Secured using pre-existing mounting points.

To secure the carpeted marine ply base, I used 35mm M6 alloy countersunk bolts going into weld on chimney nuts. Both of these items were procured from ProBolt as well. The 70mm titanium bolt attached to the seat bracket I spaced out using 2 x 25mm nulon suspension bushes.

3. Nulon suspension bush as spacer.

Finally as a tie down point for the fridge I used Ancra spring loaded quick disconnect fittings. With a load rating of 4000lbs each, its clear that the marine ply will break and the steel frame will bend long before these let go!

4. Bolted down with Ancra points in place.

5. Finished job.

7 Feb 2012

ARB Round II

Well I got my car back from ARB today after going in for its second round of major mods.

Firstly, my Long Ranger 120L Heavy Duty auxiliary tank was installed. This has been engineered to fit perfectly in the massive amount of empty space in the rear. Even though its the larger of the options supplied by Long Ranger, you couldn't tell its there unless you crawl underneath the vehicle. LR has managed to keep the same departure angles with this bigger tank, so hats off to them.

The aux tank has a slow rate transfer pump, which at the touch of a button, transfers fuel to the main tank. Its somewhat bizarre to be driving along and watching your main fuel gauge rising! This tank is the "heavy duty" version, which is basically the standard version with extra steel plate welded on the base, you can see the seam in the photo.

Next on the list was ARB rock rails; I've been hanging out for these since I got the car to help with the trail litter (sticks, branches, etc) that kick up as well as keeping the sills protected when serious wheeling. I personally like the way the colours match the bar and I think it sets the car off pretty well now.

I had a set of Adventure Offroad recovery points to go on as well. They came in bright orange, but I wasn't really impressed with that, so I had them sandblasted and re-powder coated in red. I had the same thing done with the Inch Worm E-Locker guard, which was blue and since I was getting the recovery points re-coated, I figured this could be done as well.

Against the black the red hooks look pretty sweet and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Shouldn't have any dramas finding the hooks when buried in mud!

1. Adventure Off Road Recovery Hooks

2. ARB Rock Rails

3. Long Ranger 120L heavy duty tank

4. Long Ranger heavy duty tank - steel plating

5. Inch Worm E-Locker Guard

1 Feb 2012

MPAC Storage

Well my MPAC storage system from SpringTail Solutions finally arrived today. Its been a long time coming, but Doc from Springtail has been an absolute champion getting everything sorted and now does shipping through UPS for his Aussie customers to avoid the earlier issues experienced.

From Springtail I ordered:

Installation

Installation couldn't be easier, Doc supplies all the details with the product, and has installation videos available on his website. But I'll do a quick run down of how its done.

  1. First, remove the pre-existing hangers on the passenger side. These are just 10mm socket head bolts and come out pretty easily since its just a plastic hanger.
  2. Bolt in the new billet blocks provided in the kit. The longer one goes to the rear. Use the provided 45mm allen key head bolts, no washers are required for this bit.
  3. Install the rack onto the billet blocks using the short allen key bolts and small washers. Don't tighten these up to far as you'll need to remove them. Position everything so its even, then mark the plastic wheel arch through the holes in the bottom of the rack.
  4. Remove the rack from the billet blocks and drill through the plastic using drill size specified in the instructions (think its 5mm).
  5. Re-install the rack, leaving the bolts that terminate into the billet block reasonably loose. Drop the remaining long bolts through the holes you just drilled and tighten up using the provided nyloc nuts and washers.
  6. Once the base bolts are tight; finish off the install by tightening the bolts into the billet block.
1. MPAC Side Rack Combo and BackPack Hook (top right)

2. Removed plastic hangers and replaced with billet blocks

3. Drilled holes for the base mounting bolts

4. Rack installed and bolted in.

5. Large Stat Pack installed on the rack

6. Kitted out with ARB LED Adventure Light &
Fire Extinguisher using QuickFist clamps