BlackSheep’s Notebook: Customizing My Daily Driver

Thanks! It works quite well. I don't drive around town with it, it's just for long trips where I need to take the spare but need the bed space for other stuff.

 

This post is kind of a PSA for anyone who has wiring connections in the undercarriage of their car.

So, the fuse block and air compressor I mounted in my bed when I had the air locker installed has been inoperative more than it has worked, in the 15 months since I had that work done. Most recently, it hasn’t worked for several months because the wiring got disconnected while loading some stuff in the bed. I have fiddled with it several times to no avail, until today. I did some actual troubleshooting, and isolated the 4 gauge ground wire as the culprit. I wasn’t sure how something could be wrong with that, but I soon figured it out. The guy who installed my locker ran the air compressor ground wire under the bed to the front leaf spring hanger on the driver’s side of the truck. He used heat shrink insulation at the terminal, but water still found a way inside that and up the wire itself. I had to cut nearly 6” off the end, to get to wire that wasn’t totally disintegrated. To prevent this from happening again, I pulled the wire up into the bed and grounded it to my side rails. Now, everything works like it’s supposed to.

 

I’m glad you got it sorted.

 

So am I! It really chapped my hide to have a $1,600 part that I couldn't use because of something so simple. I feel much better now haha.

 

I've seen that same thing happen to wiring on semi trucks always exposed to the elements, and only after a few years. I was very suprised when I saw it.

 

Passed a milestone today…here’s to many more!

 

Just read through your build thread. Badass RW. I almost bought a black one just like yours before I found my 14. Love the fab work, especially that rear bumper swingout. Nice job man!

 

Thanks guys! It has been a fun hobby to develop. I'm pretty sure my wife regrets insisting I find a new hobby though lol

 

I’ve been curious about how much my truck weighs for some time now. But, there never seems to be money lying around to go to the scales. So, I went about it another way, by weighing all my mods, and subtracting (in some cases, adding) it from the payload shown on my door sticker. Here is the result…


Doesn’t really leave much left to play with without being overweight.

 

Awesome mods!

 

Great idea putting the D-rings on them too. Probably will be handy at some point.

 

Glad you got it figured it out!

 

I’m also in the KC area. Do you have any recommendations for local shops to do the rust repair? Thanks.

 

I don’t have any firsthand experience with any shops regarding this. You could try Venus Body Shop on Truman near downtown. They do body work and I have seen some of their work on others’ cars and it is pretty good.

Adventure Motors in Lee’s Summit does pretty much exclusively Lexus/Toyota work, and I think they do body work, but I’m not certain.

Grey Industries Cruisers way down on 179th also does pretty much only Toyota work, and I know he does rust repair, but it might only be frame rust. Not sure if he does body work. He is the guy who installed my 5.29s and locker. Stand up guy, but has a really long waiting list.