Zach's 08 Hunting Rig Build

I know. Like to follow his adventures.

 

Got my first buck this weekend, and put the truck through some sandhill pasture driving in the process. One of these days I’m gonna get on board air so I can air down in these situations, had to kick it to 4WD just to get going. With the sandhills being the best place to hunt muleys out here, sure would be a nice addition.

Also, finally added a 6.5 Creedmoor to the gun collection this weekend! Can’t wait to get it sighted in, this cartridge is a freakin nail driver.

Will be getting a spray in bedliner added this week, found a paint shop that does it here for a good price. Still need to get in touch with RA Fab about sliders.

 

I appreciate it bud!

 

So the truck's getting bedliner sprayed today, called the shop this morning just to make sure they blocked off the holes for the bedrail. Hate being a pain in the ass, but it'd downright piss me off if they sprayed over the open holes. Guess I've read to many stories of shops spraying over bed bolts and such...

 

Bedliner is in! The shop did a good job, they plugged the holes for the unistrut the way I asked, and pulled the bed bolts like they said they would. My only gripe is that they sprayed over the hooks on the corners, but that’s a relatively small issue since I didn’t ask them to pull em. Not bad at all for what I paid.

 

Ordered a matching FN BFD for my spare from @Wheeler's Off-Road Inc yesterday, can't say enough good things about those guys. Will be ordering a matching 295/70 Ridge Grappler next month or so, trying to figure out a way to secure it in the bed. Don't want to ruin a nice wheel sticking it under the bed.

 

Looks like my truck’s gonna be in the shop for awhile, topped a hill and wound up hitting a deer on the way home tonight. Luckily I was close to town, and one my coworkers was able to come help me pull the bumper away from the tire enough so I could drive er home.

 

That sucks Zach. At least you are okay. Aftermarket bumper time?

 

That stinks Zach. Glad you are ok and hope it is a quick easy fix.

 

If my insurance will let me do that, that’s the route I’d like to go. I’m thinking Demello or Addicted Offroad if it’s an option, or maybe even an ICI if I had to. With how this year’s gone (second deer collision), I’d much prefer to have better protection than the wimpy stock bumper will give.

Thanks guys.

 

Just checked this out. Shit..

 

No kidding. Just talked to the body shop, and their estimate is $8500 worth of damage thank God for full coverage I guess. If I can swing it financially, wouldn't complain about one of these bumpers for a replacement:

Aluminess $2150 (ouch!)




ARB $1710


May just have to settle for one of these though
Boondock $950


Or ICI Magnum PR $1360


The Aluminess bumper is the most appealing, as it gives full coverage for the grill and headlights while only weighing an advertised 85 lbs. The ARB gives that same full coverage, but weighs in around 200 lbs if I remember correctly.

 

I like all of those. Yeah...two deer hits already......=new bad ass bumper.

 

Yeah, and thankfully only one of those was on my personal truck this year (the other one was in my Chevy work truck). Though I did love tap one in the Tundra a year or two ago, just lucky that wasn't a full blown collision like this one.

 

Now you can get an idea how a moose can wipe out a truck...totally. Although you might have the occasional loose cow/horse which could ruin your day..

 

Oh yeah! Hell, even an elk would’ve destroyed my truck in similar circumstances.

 

The Aluminess bumper is very appealing. Nice to keep the weight down if possible. The ARB bumper is heavy and built like a cow catcher on a locomotive. It'll be stronger but the weight is annoying

 

Damn, Zach! Sorry to hear about the Tundra. Back in my day, we just shot the deer!

Glad to see you're GTG.

 

Yeah, I'm trying to balance protection with weight here as much as possible. But I do kind of lean more on the protection aspect due to recent events. These deer are plain idiotic down here during the rut.

Appreciate it Pat! Though your year was a lot more trying than mine in regards to Tundra damage. My dad's been joking that due to not drawing a deer tag for 8 years, I'm trying to make up for it (which is both saddening and kind of amusing haha).

 

There is a little ironic humor to that! Hopefully you get your Tundra back soon.

 

Looks like she'll be parked until the first week of February, unless something opens up sooner at the body shop. Now I just need to figure out what my bumper budget is. The estimator gal told me that regardless of whether they cut the check to the shop or to me, we can do that instead of replacing it with stock parts. I'd just have to pay the difference if it comes to that.

 

That shouldn't sting too much. I know that 1 Tundra door is $730 before prep, paint and install. So if your lucky a factory bumper is $900-$1100. So that's almost half for some of the ones you are looking at, give or take. Like you said, need to figure out your budget.

 

Finally dropped off my baby at the body shop the other day, but glad its finally getting done. Unfortunately the gal that does their estimates/scheduling told me they likely won't have it all done until the 26th . She said they try to juggle all of their jobs and get a few hours work on each every few days rather than just focus on one at a time . It'd make more sense to me to order parts ahead of time, get them all prepped and painted, then just do all the work at once, but I suppose it is what it is.

Unfortunately between the recent vacay to Phoenix and the cash I put out for the deductible, there won't be an aftermarket bumper being put on at this point. Hopefully I can save up some this summer and get one on sooner rather than later.

 

ZACH, do you have pictures of the damage? if i missed them im sorry i just joined this thread

 

That sucks, man! I think them putting hours against everything is the norm. I can tell you that when they did my Tundra there was a nation wide shortage of parts. It took 2 or 3 months for some of my panels to come in. That's both OEM and aftermarket panels. There was only one bed and it was 5 months out.

 

At least it's in the shop. I know in my case all the parts were preordered prior to me dropping off truck. Not sure if my side panel was prepainted prior to me dropping it off. They said 2 weeks and ended up being 13 days. Not bad considering Xmas and New Years happened while in the shop. They did a great job too.

 

You're all good man, I don't think I ever posted them. Here they are:

Well damn it. Seems kinda inefficient to do it that way, but I can also understand why they don't just concentrate on one or only a few vehicles at a time.

 

Yeah I'd assume at least some of the parts hadn't come in yet in my case. Was just hoping they'd have everything in hand and it'd be like a one week job. I think the shop mines at is also still fairly backed up from last summer's hail storms, in FM I know some shops will be repairing hail damage from 2018 until June of this year.