Jonnys_Tundra Build Thread

As mentioned earlier, I went out to @STravis this past week to get my front bumper installed. I was so happy to finally get it on! The bumper has been ready for a few months but due to work I just hadn't been able to take off!
Anyway, I arrived at Travis' shop and within a couple of hours the bumper was on and ready to go!



Trimming for the high clearance front bumper.


Getting the bumper set in place.


Man it looks so good on there!


I asked Travis to make the bumper fit 4 LP9s then forgot to order the 2nd set in time. So here we were checking clearance and seeing how they would look.



Travis' rig is pretty sweet!

 

After the install and grabbing lunch with Travis, me and the kiddo loaded up and went exploring in the area where we got some pretty cool pictures with the Capitan Mountain range in the background.

 

Man, your rig is looking absolutely killer! The way Travis has the front trimmed up makes the truck look like it has way more lift with how might of the tire is exposed

 

Thank you! It does exactly that! Travis' bumper really changes the whole dynamic of the front of the truck for the better!

 

Great looking bumper you got there. Was the antenna mount a custom request you made. I assume it’s just a flat plate welded onto the hoop? Love the idea; Aussie style! Definitely would go that route as well if I ever am lucky enough to score one of his bumpers

 

Yes, that's another option I asked Travis to throw on there. It's a tab, with bent ears on it for added strength and rigidity.

 

Well boy oh boy were the last few weeks BUSY!!!
Once I got back from Travis' it was crunch time!
With a Colorado trip planned, which I am now back from, and no cabinetry in the bed I was working my day job then coming home and wrenching on the truck all through the night! The Colorado trip, which was planned just 2 short weeks after coming back from New Mexico, was done so that my daughter and I could go out on a trip before she started back to school. What I hadn't completely thought through is just how much work was needed to have the build out camping ready.

For the Trip to New Mexico all of the cabinets had been removed for final coats of urethane and bedliner. I just packed up totes and an old WaterPort (which is for sale ) for the short 3 day turnaround trip to Travis' shop. The Colorado trip however was different, we planned on being out for 9 days and would need water for showers, better organization, etc, etc......

So off I went, trying to get to everything!

The temporary setup to Travis', it worked but wasn't ideal for long outings!



First things first! I knew the Raptor Liner I had planned on coating the outside of the cabinets with would need to cure before install. So I drug everything out and went to spraying! I opted for tintable liner since I wanted a gray'ish color to go with the interior carpet of the AT Atlas. I ended up going with "Dove Gray" or as I call it, Primer Gray. I went with this lighter shade over the charcoal, which I really liked, because I wanted to "lighten" up the interior as I felt a darker color would soak up the light inside the camper.

 

While waiting on the bed liner to cure I went on to installing the Wolfbox G900 dash camera I have had sitting for months! (Shameless plug: Jonny18 saves you 18% but you can often find them on sale for 25% off)
This is a mod I have been looking forward to! As I began to hang more off of my rear swing out, my factory camera field of view became narrower and narrower. Then I threw the Atlas on and my rearview mirror became useless! With the Wolfbox though I now have a useable rear camera, with better picture quality, as well as the added benefit of a forward facing dash camera.

For the rear camera, I mounted it by one of the hinge screws on the Atlas, Dremeled a notch in the bottom of the Atlas 3rd brake light and ran the cord down through the Atlas channel to the front of the truck. For a reverse signal I made and plug in pigtail that plugs into my Baja Design S2 reverse bumper lights and connects to the signal wire in the camera harness.



I then moved on to mounting the front camera. Originally, I had planned on strapping the front camera/mirror unit to the factory mirror in the Tundra but once installed it was apparent the Tundra mirror was way too bulky and just didn't look good to me, as seen in the picture. I went on to order the model 118 bracket from Wolfbox which I would later replace my factory mirror with. As far as wiring, I purchased the Wolfbox Add-A-Fuse kit and plugged into 12V constant, Acc and ground in the fuse box below the hood release latch. I then stuck my GPS module on the dash and it was ready to use!

 

The next project on the list I was hesitant about! I loved the idea of a built in water tank within the cabinets but the question was how to fill it up. After much thought I decided the right way was the scary way which involved a big hole saw and lots of aluminum shavings!!!!!

No turning back now!



With the first hole drilled through the pristine aluminum shell, I figured why not another! So a second hole was drilled! LOL
What I opted to do was install a lockable water fill port and 110V shore power plug into the shell. Which I feel, came out looking pretty nice!



The inside doesn't look too bad either!



I will eventually build some type of channel or chase to enclose these connections and my wiring that will be in the same area.

 

Once 3 days had passed since the bedliner being sprayed on, the most I could allow due to time, I decided it was time to gently install the cabinets into the truck bed. A vision finally coming together!



Next thing I did was install the drawer tops, drawer faces and the Oregon AT bug screen in the rear hatch. At this point I'm dead tired, our leave date is just 2 days away but I'm ecstatic! I love it when a plan comes together! I was so excited, or maybe delusional, that I started throwing gear in before even getting a picture of everything installed!

 

Closer shot of the interior.
The wiring will have to be addressed at a later date, for this trip that's it's home for now. I have it where I can plug the distribution block into my Goal Zero Yeti 500X to power the camper and have 200W of Renogy Solar Panels (2 - 100W) on the roof to charge the power station.

The void in the front passenger corner was originally intended to be covered but after packing and discovering it perfectly held my Devos Light Rangers (jonny10 saves you 10% ) fishing net and daughters chair I think it will be used for just that!



My DFG Offroad fridge slide didn't arrive on time, which will hold my fridge on the drivers side short cabinet, so instead I used it as more storage space for this trip.
My front cross box, which holds my water tank, also held spare parts for this trip as well as an axe, shovel, machete and other odds and ends.
At the top of the picture, you can see my water tank plumbed in as well as the top of my water pump which is turned on by a switch at the rear of the Atlas as well as a QD water connector which is loosely mounted behind the driver side box at the rear of the truck for this trip.



The passenger side box has storage up top via lift up and off lids as well as a drawer below.



As mentioned above, the passenger side has a lower drawer as well as a drawer on the driver side. Both drawers are on lockable 500lb 44" extension drawer slides. For this trip I just threw items into the drawers, but I do plan to make dividers or lift out organizers in the future to better organize the drawer contents.

 

After 9 days in Colorado, living out of the Atlas, I am super pleased with everything! I still have a few finishing touches but are you ever really done anyways???
As always, I took way too many pictures, to be exact I took: 3,792 on my camera, 11 on drone, 16 drone videos, 992 cell pictures, 35 cell videos and 13 GoPro videos.
Obviously, all won't make the final cut but, in a few weeks, or months, or years, when I'm finally done sorting, editing, and saving them I will be sure to share!

In the meantime here's a couple of teasers!





Fun facts!
On this trip we spent 9 days total, not long by any stretch but the longest my daughter has ever been out camping and she did great! (8yo BTW)
We drove a total of 2,597 miles. Longest day on the road was our last at 17 hours.
This trip was a little more laid back than my normal, but we did manage to do Engineer Pass, Mineral Creek, lower 2/3 of Governor Basin and Yankee Boy Basin.
We hiked a ton (the kiddos favorite!) and saw the sights of the towns of Ouray and Silverton.
I discovered I have to relearn my truck with the little extra weight and new center of gravity!
Mineral Basin was, uh... lets say FUN, in a couple of spots with the new weight! LOL
The truck now weighs in at 9260 lbs, which I weighed on CAT scales after we were home and still packed from the trip!
Most importantly the kiddo and myself had a blast!

 

Day 1 of our trip to Colorado we made it outside of Capitan, New Mexico. We had been in the area, just a couple of weeks before, over at SOB Fabrications shop for an install. We explored the area some more then decided to make camp for the night. It had been a long 12 hr drive that day so we were wore out!



We decided to head up in elevation to find some cooler weather to sleep in as it was still pretty warm down below.



This is where we called camp for the night! We had some pretty spectacular views before calling it a night!

 

Padilla Point?

 

Thats it, or at least very close to the area best I can tell.

 

Sunrise from camp was pretty spectacular the next morning.



We quickly got on the road as we had a lot of miles to cover to make it to Gunnison, CO.



Once we made it to Gunnison, we decided to set camp up in the Hartman Rocks area. Luckily we made it early enough that me and the kiddo got in plenty of hiking and just taking in the beautiful scenery!

 

Honestly- nothing better than a 12 hour drive followed by finding a camp site and just relaxing in the woods. I can't get enough of it!

 

Gotta love it! And luckily the kiddo handled it awesome also!

 

We left Gunnison the next morning, only after being sure to get plenty of hiking and scrambling up the rock faces in! We hit the road to Silverton, only to be met with road closures and hour long waits for the detour! No problem though, a route to Lake City was open and Engineer Pass would get us to where we wanted to go!

Sunrise at Hartman Rocks



Aired down and ready for Engineer Pass!



Of course you have to get a pic on top of the pass!



Once we came off of Engineer we took Mineral Creek into Ouray, here I realized how much differently the added weight and center of gravity shift effected my truck. Time to relearn the truck again! LOL

We walked around Ouray for a while before heading to Silverton to camp near South Mineral Creek where we would be waiting on a buddy and his family to arrive later that night.

Camp for the night!

 

I'm just gonna drop this in here for you.

 

Yesss!!!

 

Well I got some more hardware in from @STravis. This is going to be perfect for my propane tank. Before the tank was mounted to a PowerTanks bracket in the bed but with the new layout I didn't want the tank inside. So Travis whipped this up for me and I'm hanging the GP Factor universal propane mount on it. Waiting on paint to dry then it will be permanent!

 

Got the propane tank all mounted up this past weekend and I'm really liking how it turned out!

 

I also decided to cut yet another hole in the side of the camper this weekend! I found this really nice looking magnetic hub on Etsy from DY3DStudio which is designed to use for diesel heater piping. I decided to install the bulkhead fitting to the front wall of the topper which will be the perfect way to plumb the hot air into my topper and still keep the diesel heater a safe distance away from the truck.

 

I had been feeling under the weather here lately but managed to get out this weekend and mock this up!

I had previously sanded the pieces with 400 grit, 600 grit, 600 grit wet then a fine rubbing compound before coating everything with Sharkhide for a finish almost identical to the AT Atlas.

Now I just have to take time to measure it out, hit up @STravis about any tips and drill some holes in my roof!

 

That looks awesome. I like that you made it match the AT camper. That should tie it all in really well.

 

Well, it's been a minute but me and the kiddo managed to get out Thanksgiving weekend. We headed up to the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas, about 6 hours north of us, for a 3-day 2-night outing. We had a blast, finally found some cooler temps and just kind of hung out and relaxed.

 

Got out a couple of weeks ago to the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana for a quick trip. I figured I'd share some pictures from the trip.

 

Well, being from Texas we don't see a lot of snow. Back in January, Arkansas was hit with 8-12 inches of snow and due to work me and the kiddo weren't able to get out. The next weekend though we decided to get out and snow was at the top of our list! Arkansas had warmed up during the week and all the snow had melted so that was ruled out. I figured we could find snow in New Mexico, so we loaded up and made a trip out to Cloudcroft for a 4 day weekend.


We packed the diesel heater and it's a good thing, since temps dropped to 8 degrees F at night in Cloudcroft!

 

Since we were in Cloudcroft we also decided to drive down to Alamogordo and check out White Sands National Park!