There I go not keeping up on this again. Let's see where were we at? Having completed the last trail ride over Hayden pass with the wife a couple of things became clear that needed attention. First, the CB radio I've used for years stopped working. I had to borrow my buddy's handheld CB to keep in contact on the trail. So out it had to come.
That means, the Console and all it's gadgetry has to come out as the CB was a very tight fit.
I had tried many things to avoid this, but even with my old cable it didn't work. I even broke out my Grandpa's old GE radio and it worked with my current cable and antenna.
I had been having a discussion over on CK5 about the problem and he offered a Radio he was going to list on craigs since he didn't need an extra. I jumped on it. Uniden Bearcat 980SSB (sideband too!). It's a bad-ass radio for sure and I got it at a great price.
It needed some massaging to fit too. But it works great. Side band is fun for listening to anti-gov't whackadoodles late at night. Not sure how much I'll use that, but the normal CB bands has great range.
Next thing noticed from the last trail ride was the need for some secure grab handles. My wife is short and besides needing the step seen in the pics, didn't have much to grab to aid in getting in. Plus on the trail, she found herself reaching to grab something to steady herself on the rough stuff. After some mental brainstorming and surfing Amazon I came up with an idea. Jeeps having a huge aftermarket parts following leads to multiple options for handles. I found these on Amazon.
These things are for the current JK Wranglers and bolt in place of the stock plastic parts on them. I have none so I figured a way to use them. The passenger side already has threaded holes on the roof for a stock handle so one of these just bolts in place.
I've put my wieght on this one and it holds steady. Did I mention I'm a big boy? I think it will hold. I'll make it a point not to swing from it, but as an entry point it will work.
I wanted some up on the a-pillars too. Similar to what the 2015 and up GM HD trucks have and Dodge has been doing for a long time. I punched a couple of holes from the outside to the inside. I added a support plate of 1/8th inch steel on the backside to avoid stressing the sheetmetal. The slick part is the weatherstrip hides this completely.
Hidden from view..
A shot of the holes on the drivers side pillar. Note that the two sections of sheetmetal are not on the same plane. They angle away from each other, which was another reason for the backing plate.
My steering wheel and column thanked me for adding one on this side. I use it whenever I get in.
Moving forward a couple of weeks, Larry and I finally hooked up to sort out the rear brakes. Nothing really ground breaking here as it turned out the prop valve must have centered itself and the rears were working good. Still we pressure bled them just to be sure. Having knocked that out really quick and we both had open time on our garage passes from the wives we moved on to another needed item. The front bumper. Here's the gem out of Larry's stockpile.
We wern't sure on the ID of this despite the obvious sticker on the front, but after further sufing on the web I've confirmed it is indeed a Warn Classic bumper. It's beefy unit built out of 1/4" plate all the way through.
Now this is where it gets comedic. As well setup shop as the Bigassgas Garage is, we are lacking on the fab tools. So cutting the 1/4" plate for the brackets is relegated to a die grinder with a cutoff wheel. We did end up frying a $9.00 harbor freight angle grinder and wearing down a hacksaw blade in the process. Still we got stuff done.
We had called in some reinforcements to grab the steel we needed and one drives this killer GMC burb. Full tube exo with rack and rock sliders. 6.2 oil burner with a Banks sidewinder turbo, 3/4 ton axles and 37's. Fun rig.
With our help bailing out on us after some tacos from the local Mexican take out joint Larry and I finished up on the install.
Moving forward to Last weekend I pulled the Warn XD9000i winch from the garage and after punching a couple of added holes to the bumper mounted it up.
I did hook it up the winch to the main battery to test it out and it's working like it should. I free spooled out most of the 100ft of cable to line it up on the drum better. I can say this, the cable is darn near like new. No issues at all.
Fits pretty good in there. Plus there is room behind the winch for some type of an air tank for an onboard air system I'm planning to put in.
That pretty much brings this up current. I've borrowed a couple of tools from Larry to build the cables for the aux battery setup. Then I'll wire in the winch to the aux battery and be ready for our annual new years day snow run. That might be just a trail ride if we don't start getting some snow up there. It's been unseasonably warm around here this winter so far. I'm not complaining, as I've got more done outside this time of year than usual. But we need snow!!