I had a productive day on the truck yesterday. I also got the software update last week -- it's funny how quickly one forgets one ever had to deal with the speed click as I'm only just realizing I haven't had to disable it every time. I usually didn't think about it until it clicked at me.
Mounting MaxTrax to a Roam 128L Rolling Rugged Case
I wanted to mount my MaxTrax to a Roam case so I could have a consolidated recovery gear and camp accessories box. The lid of the Roam box is hollow plastic with a lot of shaping making the mount not entirely straight forward. I considered just using some aluminum bars to make a flat surface for the MaxTrax mounting pins, but to add stiffness and to make things easier on myself I ended up getting a mounting plate from Overland Kitted. I also wanted to minimize bolt protrusion into the case so that I could attach the Roam organizer to the lid, so I was careful to position the bolts in a lower portion of the interior shaping and was, of course, careful to not over-tighten and pull the fasteners through. Lastly, I wanted to minimize water intrusion, so I found some nitrile rubber bonded dome washers and stuck them to the case lid with silicone. I did not seal the interior bolt hole because I would rather that any water that does get in continues through rather than build up in the lid.
If you get one of these boxes check and consider replacing some of the fasteners on the wheels. The first time I rolled it to the truck all the hardware fell out. I recovered two of the dome nuts, attached them with Locktite, and attached the interior side of the bolt with a washer and nylock nut.
Mounting Roam box to the roof rack
I bought the Roam Rugged Mounts to provide a removable option on the roof rack. A downside of the Benchmark Vehicles Safari Rack is that it is difficult to access the underside for attaching fasteners. To overcome this I removed 5 fasteners from one side of the rack and wedged it up. Once I did that the job was straightforward. I positioned the mounts to keep the L-track mounting points unobstructed.
GP Factor propane cylinder mount
I didn't want to mount my propane to the roof so I found an option to mount it to the ladder, I just had to do a bit of cross-bar fabrication. I swear some day I will have a shop to make this easier. In addition to GP Factor's propane cylinder mount I picked up some roll bar clamps from Amazon and a length of steel bar. I would have preferred aluminum to make it a bit easier to work with and corrosion resistant, but I was also worried about strength. I cut some cross bars out of the steel, drilled holes, cleaned it up on a belt sander, and painted them. Like any redneck parking lot fabrication, it involved a lot of test fits and imprecise solutions, but in the end the thing will hold my fat ass so I think it will be strong enough.
Tougher Dash Cover
I was tired of cleaning dust off of the dashboard and figured I could use a bit more small storage, so I added Tougher's Dash Cover. Besides, it gave me another excuse to buy something from the forum store. It's easy to mount, just clean the dash, remove the VHB backing tape on the velcro and stick it on. Here are a couple better pictures of the seat covers as well. The seat covers seem to look more wrinkled in the pictures than in person.
Suma Performance side mirrors
The side mirror replacements were easy to mount, just pull the OEM mirrors off with your fingers, unplug, plug in the new ones, route the wire out of the way, and stick the mirror on so that it clips over the center circular bit in the housing. They included some pig tails for the heating elements to make installation easier. I tried to capture the difference in visibility from the driving position.
OEM left, Suma right:
OEM:
Suma:
Blue Ridge Overland Gear Attic
This is a net with some elastic that is supposed to provide some storage for softer, lighter things above the passenger seat. The straps have holes meant for the screws used for the OEM cargo barrier system. The first time I used it to store some pillows one of the cheap plastic g-hooks broke dumping them all over. I ordered some (also cheap) aluminum g-hooks to replace them.
Octodyne Steering Wheel Guards
Every once in a while when steering hard on a trail I'd hit the voice command button which really kills the mood. Hopefully these will help. I do think they would look better in black, but this'll do for now.
Octodyne Keyhole Light
Installation of the this light wasn't too bad. Just remove two screws from the lowest plastic panel below the steering wheel so you can pull the right side forward to access the foot well light. Then fish the keyhole light cable harness through next to the steering wheel and down to the foot well light and plug it in in-line with light. The instructions say you "can" use a stiff wire to feed the harness down but I found that one "must" use some kind of assistance. I don't have a cable fishing tool, so I just bent a coat hangar.
Agile Offroad Power Steering Reservoir Gasket
I picked up this gasket when ordering some other stuff from Agile. It's not much thicker than the OEM one (right side of picture) that I removed from the reservoir cap, but maybe that's all it takes.
Lastly I thought I'd show what my air up/down setup looks like in use now.
