Fafhrd the Tundra...Haggis' Work/Exploration Truck

[Haggis]

What follows are the details on how a 2006 Tundra DC, humble suburban commuter truck, was injected with a bit of Pennsylvania ridgerunner DNA to become a work/exploration hybrid rig.

His name….Fafhrd. His mission…to haul the gear and supplies to make old log homes purdy again, to cruise the forests, hollers, and hills of the East and to bring the bounty of the forests and fields to the larders of the homestead.

Current Set-up:​

Drivetrain:
*Stock - 4.7 V8, 5 spd auto, 4:10 gears, LSD

Suspension:
*Front…Bilstien 5100s set at top notch for 2.5” lift
*Rear…Deaver Custom 11 Leaf Spring pack; 2.5” lift, +600 lbs payload…Timbren Load assists...Bilstien 5100 Rear Shocks

Rolling Stock:
*285/75/16 Dick Cepek Fun Country IIs mounted on ProComp 7089 16x8 rims with 4” backspacing

Exterior Accessories:
*Agricover Rack and Cover System with cab height racks stanchions
*HaggisCo Industries Secondary Lower Rack System
*Linex-ed bed
*Hidden Hitch Front Reciever Hitch

Communication:
*Cheap Cobra CB, Driver with loud vocal amplitude, various cultural hand signals.

Camping Sundries:
*Autohome Magglionia Extreme RTT
*Edgestar 43 qt fridge
*Haggisco Industries 20 gal Onboard Water System

Fafhrd's Explorations to Date:

*Backwoods of the Pennyslvanian Northen Tier
.......*Allegheny National Forest, Elk State Forest, Clear Creek State Forest, Tioga State Forest, Sproul State Forest, Bald Eagle State Forest, Trough Creek Forest, Taidaghton State Forest, Ricketts Glen Natural Area, Poe Paddy State Forest, Rothrock State Forest, Oil Creek State Park, Michaux State Forest
*Michican UP; Drummond Island
*Cape Lookout, Outer Banks of North Carolina
*Rapidan Wilderness, Virginia
*Mountians of West "By God" Virginia
.......*Monongehela National Forest; Tea Creek Area, Thomas area, Cranberry Bogs, Dolly Sods, Blackwater Falls Area
*Pigash Nation Forest, North Carolina
*Wayne "I Ain't Goin' There Again" National Forest, Southern Ohio
*Adirondack National Forest
*Green Mountians of Vermont
*Uwharrie National Forest; Appalachian Rendezvous 2014; 2015; 2016

 

[Haggis]

Fafhrd Gets a New Home

It was the winter of 2009 and I needed a new truck. My old faithful Dodge Ram was suffering from a bad case of the "Dodge Rot" and was going to cost more to fix than it was worth. As a Log Home Restorer, I need a presentable truck as there are not to many owners of high end log homes that are going to trust the restoration of their prized home to a ridge runner in a clapped out truck. What to do, what to do? Add to that I had a couple of kids that were sprouting like weeds and fitting them in the back of that old Quadcab truck was getting a bit tight. So after a lot of thinkin', fact gatherin', and test drives we settled on getting a Double Cab 1st gen Tundra. After a bit of searching we found a nice example with just 21,000miles on the odometer for a great price just across the border in Ohio that would meet our needs. Soon this unassuming feller followed us home…

And we introduced him to his new stable mate…

Back at the clanhold it wasn't long till the modifications began to turn this truck from suburban commuter to a ridgerunnerfied work and exploration truck. First thing to go was the factory plastic bed liner…I yanked the factory bedliner out, and gave it a toss.

Well it obvious that this truck had hauled at least one load in its pre-clan life. Looked like it was a load of high end double ground mulch.

This is why I dislike plastic bedliners. Stuff builds up underneath them and even empty they rub the paint to no good end.
I then dropped it off at my buddy’s local Line-X shop and had him give it a spray. Turned out quite nicely.

One shot towards the rear.

Ahhhh…much better.

 

[Haggis]

Fafhrd gets Topped

I was over all happy with the Tundra. Even though it was just as long as the Ram, the cab is not as wide but it felt roomier inside the cabin. Gas mileage was great, I got a little over 17 mpg out of the second tank. The power dropping rear window was awesome in nicer weather. With the windows all down, it’s like running the bikini top on our Jeep LJ. The kids really appreciated the extra leg room in the rear seat and all the cup holders that they didn't have in the Dodge. My only complaint was not having room to slide the truck gun under the rear seats. Also with the design of the rear seats you can't stuff gear under them and the way they flip forward cuts down on available storage.

When we purchased the Tundra the dealership had a used cap wasting away out in the storage building and they asked if we were interested in it. It was shade or two darker than our truck but it was in excellent shape so we ended up buying it on the cheap. Once home I had a buddy of mine that has a hot rod shop shoot some color on it. I traded him two cases of log home caulk that had been sitting on my inventory shelves for the work. I love the barter system. Once home I installed new raingutter mounts and got my Yakima racks on. Good to go! Now it was time to for it to go earn a living.

As winter slipped into early spring the weather turned around nicely so once again I was hard at it again making peoples log homes purdy. The Tundra became a mobile tool chest and was hauling gear and towing my construction trailer all about the region. Gas mileage averaged 17 mpg, though we when got some snow and I had to put it in 4WD gas mileage for that dropped to 16 mpg. One question...can anybody tell me why there is a tape deck in a '06 vehicle? I sold my entire tape collection back in '98 or there about. Who still has tapes? I wish it had an I-pod interface instead.

 

[Haggis]

Communications or a facsimile there of...

The next item on the agenda was getting around to installing my old CB. This will be the third truck for it and it still works fine, I think I got it back in '97. I used a CB fender/hood mount for a T-100 to hold the 3' Firestick and then ran a Firering coaxial with the banjo ring fitting to the CB. I mounted it in the pocket of the lower dash just to the right of the steering column. To make it tuck up nicely and to sit flush with the edge of the dash. I drilled a 1" hole in the lower dash valance and brought the cable and the power feeds through it. This allowed me to push the connections, once attached to the CB, back through the hole and get a nice position for the CB. I also made a spacer narrower in width than the CB mount so that the CB mount would sit flat as it was too wide to go all the way up to the top of the recess and sit square against the dash. The power leads went through the speedometer grommet in the floor and power was connected directly to the battery while the ground was hooked to the factory location on the inner driver's side fender. When powered up it was as quiet as could be, with no interference. I hooked up my SWR meter and as luck would have it, it was reading as good as gold.

Here's a shot of the CB location...

It's easy to reach and see, it's out of the way of my long legs and Michelle's shorter ones and it's hard to see from the outside. The mike cord even reaches back to the rear passengers so the kids can gab with their cousins when we're riding a trail with a certain black Tundra AC.

About this time the factory battery crapped out so the Jeep, in a heroic quest to save it's partner, was sent to Sears to fetch a new power source and if your goin' to get one buy the biggest that fits...

Sears Diehard Platinum Marine series 31

It was tight and the factory cables just stretch enough to fit, but it fit in there. It even fits in the factory plastic tray, though I did have to modify the bend on the factory hold down to make it work. With the auxillary terminals I can make connections much easier for future mods...

 

[Haggis]

Goin' Up..

A month after we got the Tundra I had gathered all the parts needed to put a lift on the truck and raise its long rockers a little higher off the ground. It just so happened I had a small log home job down in Virginia for my sister’s boss and as James (my brother in law) had helped convinced me to get this truck he offered to give me a hand putting the lift on. We use to wrench on each other’s muscle cars back in the day before my sister Elizabeth and hubby James moved south. So it was nice to tear apart and re-assemble one of our rides once again. I finished the log home job on a Friday, so James and I got to work putting the lift on the Tundra one sunny Saturday.

Everything went along nicely once we found a shop open to compress the springs for us. My compressors were not heavy duty enough for the job so we started calling around. Seems like Virginianites don't like to work Saturdays, so the quest began to find someone open and willing to give us a hand. We finally found a Midas shop open and they were kind enough to compress the springs for us. They only charged $20 to do it and at that time I was desperate enough to pay 5 times that just so I could get back to PA faster. It was darn hot down here, in the 90s, and the work was hard and tedious....

The lift, at that time, consisted of Bilstiens 5100s set at the 2.5” notch and a set of Wheelers rear 1.5" AALs). 285/75/16 Dean Mud Terrain SXT tires on a set of Eagle Alloy wheels (16x8 with 4” backspacing) replaced the well worn 265/79/17s on the factory rims.

We thought the lift and tire combo looked great. The ride is just as good as stock and it motored down the road real nice. Here’s the before and after photos…

 

[Haggis]

Onboard Water System...

Here’s our solution for onboard water for showers and kitchen clean up

As usual it serves multiple purposes but it is mainly used to transport water to log home chinking/caulking jobs where there is no water supply and as camp water supply for washing/cleanup duties. It also works great for in-field butchery cleaning when out on the hunt for protien goodness. I got this 25 gal ATV sprayer from Tractor Supply for $119.00 complete with tank, 30# psi pump with auto shut-off, power leads (with switch, inline fuse, and battery terminal clips), 5" fill hole, out feed hose and sprayer. I took the sprayer head off, used a 3/8 barb x 1/2 MPT brass male adapter then a CPVC Union to attach a 6 position garden hose sprayer. On the Jet position it shots water a good 40'. I mounted it on some scrap 1/2 pressure treated plywood and added strengthening cleats and casters. Then I built a top shelf (with an 8" hole in the middle to access the water fill cap) so our travelling cooler can ride on top. I sprayed the "structure" with Duplicolor rattlecan bedliner and called it done.

We use this set-up for showering and clean up duties, but not for potable water. Our potable water is carried in seperate water cans, this allows us to fill the onboard system with found water sources when out wandering without having to worry about contamination of our potable water.

 

[Haggis]

Rack and Cover System

While the cap on the truck is great for camping and overlanding style trips, it can be a pain when you need to haul tall things or want to have full access to throw in firewood, dump in a load of gravel or the like. The Tundra did come with a cheesy snap-on cover but it was a pain to use. I also needed a set of racks to throw my ladders, scaffolding boards and canoes on. I had a universal truck rack, one of the contractor styles with the 2" tubes and cab overhang, but it was ungodly heavy and rusted to no end. Plus when I first had it on the old Dodge I almost tore it off on a low slung Hemlock branch while on one trail ride. I didn't want to mount it on the Toy.

So the search began for a cover and rack system that met a few criteria...

*It had to be flexible with removable racks and the ability to have a roll up cover that was always accessible.
*It had to be lightweight and easy to handle.
*It shouldn't rust.
*And it shouldn't cost an extra arm or leg to buy.

So after a lot of searching and digging around I settled on a Agri-Cover Access Cover and Rack System. This system has a bed-top mounted extruded rail which supports the two uprights and has provisions for the cover. The upright stanchions come in two heights, the shorter one for mounting a basket rack or ski and bike racks at bed rail height or the taller more tradition over cab height. I chose the taller ones. The stanchions are powder coated aluminum, like the rails, and mount on sliding hardware that travel in a channel. The stanchions bottoms rest on the rail and spread the load along the rails.

Though I wasn't sure of the racks rigidity because of their thinness I have found them to be surprising stiff with little to no flex. Once you strap some ladders or whatever up there everything is really rock solid. The crossrails are rated at 200 lbs. each which is more than enough for my needs. And, No, I have absolutely no desire for a RTT so that wasn't a concern. I've been using them pretty heavily the last month and am really happy with this set-up. The stanchions can be set anywhere along the support rails and really easy to move, adjust or take off entirely. Plans for the future call for me to make a couple of brackets for an additional low mount rack utilizing the Yakima bars on my cap and then building a wood and aluminum lower carrying rack for gear, sort of a marine/boat style rack.

Here's a shot of the system from the rear...

And an open shot...

The cover is totally watertight, even in driving rains the bed stays dry. Something I could not say about the Truxedo roll-up cover on my Ram. So far it's been a good investment and does its job well. Me likey.

 

[Haggis]

Modding the Rack...

So the rack and tonneau cover lives on the truck the vast majority of the time. For work its way more convenient than the cap and I don't have to deal with mucked up windows come winter. But sometimes we can't fit all of our gear under the tonneau and the cap has to go on for a short time. Switching between the two is a pain. What we needed was a secondary level rack . I could buy the lower height rack system off Agricover but I'm frugal and don't like to spend money if I don't have to. So the pondering began...

Well, I had an extra set of Thule artificial rain gutters laying in the garage and the Yakima load bars off from the cap....all I need is to fab some brackets to get the load bars high enough for the tonneau to roll up under. A quick run down to Warren Steel (our local metal depot) and I picked up some aluminum plate drops for cheap. They were a little thicker than the factory uprights...

But with some creative redneck milling techniques...

...I got them to fit in the rail's slot. I had to notch the brackets to allow the Yakima clamping system to work as the angle of the plates cause the clamps to hit the brackets when tighten. I mounted the Thule load plates on to the backside to hide the notches and so I had spare metal stock on hand if I need some for trail repairs. Here are some bracket shots...

And one of the finished racks mounted.

The tonneau rolls up right under the rails real sweet like. I was going to paint the brackets black but I kind of like the aluminum accents; it matches the Yakima hardware.

Now I just needed to decide on what kind of rack to mount to the rails. I was leaning towards fabbing up a flat rack as it's a bit of a lift to set gear to that height. Than, lo and behold, as I was driving home from the work site one day I passed through a bunch of community yard sales and I spotted a tri-fold aluminum ATV ramp leaning up against a tree at one sale. Sweet! A few minutes later and $40 less in my pocket I had the base for my secondary rack. A few clamps and a couple of braces for the Hi-Lift and we gave it a go test in Bald Eagle Forest here in Pennsylvania.

Unloaded…

Loaded up…

This set-up worked great, it was light weight and easy to load up. Bouncing along the drivable trails of Bald Eagle it was stable and quiet.

 

[Haggis]

Rear Lift Re-do...

Right around the year and a half mark after installing the lift on this Tundra I wasn’t real pleased with the results. The front Bilstiens were working great and even to this day with 60,000 miles on them they feel like new. But those rear Wheeler AALs were sagging badly. They went from 1.5” of lift to just 0.5”. The factory springs and the AALs were just not up to the task of the hauling my construction trailer as the factory Tundra springs are on the light side anyways. So I checked around, asked a few folks I trusted and came up with a plan. What I decided to do was get a set of Deaver springs, the set I ended up ordering was a 11 pack spring with 600 lbs. of extra weight capacity and 2.5” of initial lift with an expected settling to 2”. I also picked up a set Timbren load assits to help manage the load.

Once they were in and I found the time I swapped the factory springs with AALs for the new Deaver 11 spring pack units. Last time James and I messed with this truck’s suspension it was practically new (22,000 miles) and adding the AALs was easy-peasey. Throw in even one PA salt encrusted winter, numerous mud slogged excursions and 30,000 more miles and it becomes a little more work. Thank the gearhead gods for PB Blaster and air tools ‘cause those nuts were a bit stubborn. Once everything was broke lose the swap was pretty easy. Here’s a shot of the springs installed along with the new Timbren units…

With wheels mounted back up and the truck back on the ground the difference was very noticeable. Before the Deavers I measured the height from the garage floor to the bottom of the center part of the rear flare at 37 7/8”. After the swap the measurement was now at 40 3/8”, so a gain of 2.5”. Here are a couple of comparison pics.

Before…

After…

Impression so far…The ride is of course a little stiffer though the truth be told is way preferable. The Tundra now feels more like a truck and less like a suburban commuter. The ride is still great and it handles the twisting goat paths that pass as roads around here with more vigor and aplomb than before. Michelle stated she like the way the truck handles now much better than the stock setup. I’m very happy with this set up as the weak factory springs were my biggest complaint with this truck. Now it’s a Tundra Heavy Duty model, something Toyota should have offered from the factory.

 

[Haggis]

Front Hitch Mount Install...

One day while it was raining and I couldn't work, I took some time to install a front hitch mount on Fafhrd.

It's a Hidden Hitch brand that I bought of an ExPo member. It was barely used, with mounting hardware still sealed in the bag. The install didn't take that long though I did have to trim the flange off both sides of the radiator skid to allow it to fit cleanly within the mounts side plates. It will make getting the front bolts in and out on that skid a bit harder when it comes time to change the oil. Its main purpose is to give Fafhrd a good recovery point as the front factory hook is hard to access and is marginal in design. One of these days a winch and mounting plate will occupy the receiver. I just don't want to mess around with a custom bumper or have a winch mounted all the time. I like the stealth "work truck" look and don't want to add any extra weight other than when it's needed. In addition I want to be able to have the option of mounting a winch either fore or aft depending on what recovery situation I find myself in.

 

[Haggis]

Secondary Rack Re-do...

Well if you recall I fabbed up a secondary rack for Fafhrd utilizing stuff laying around my garage including some old Yakima towers and bars. It ended up looking like this...

I mounted up a used ATV ramp I bought cheap and had a pretty good rack for just a few twenty dollar bills. It's worked great but with the large span the round Yakima bars would flex some under loads when combined with rough driving conditions. While the flex was minimal and was never a problem I kept thinking of how to improve the set-up.

Then I got this rack for my Jeep from RockyRidge products and really loved the slotted, extruded rails that make the spreader bars of the rack. They are light but really strong and the slotted rails make mounting stuff easy. I determined they'd work great as cross rails for my low-rise rack. Here's the Jeep's rack....

I gave David over at RockyRidge a call and he set me up with a pair of rails to play around with....So here's the new and improved Secondary Rack...

Then I aligned the ATV ramp where I wanted it, drilled a few holes and using some capture nuts and stainless round button headed Allen bolts mounted that sucker to the rails. No Clamps, no dangling thread ends, just a solid mounted storage surface...

This is a way stronger set-up. With me and my wife standing on the rack there was no flex at all. I need to make up some 1/4" spacers, but for now I'm just stacking washers between the Yakima risers and the RockyRidge rails as the Yakima bolt is too long to not use spacers and is not really removable. I'll pick up some aluminum stock when I get a chance and fab a couple up. It would be a great rack for an RTT if one was interested in going that way...Now I need to make a headboard to protect the rear window. I'm thinking a nice piece of larch with some decorative cuts and routing and a couple of good coats of Spar Guard.
Here's the racks all loaded up for a weekends float trip. Worked awesome!

Boats on top: Paddling gear on lower rack; camping gear in the bed, fridge in the back seat storage shelf.

 

[Haggis]

New Meats...

After 49,000 miles of exploring, working and doing those daily living things the Dean Mud Terrain SXTs tires that had rolling under old Fafhrd were ready to be set aside for spare tire duty. As Cooper tires discontinued the Dean SXTs I had to do some researchin’ and head scratchin’ to determine what tire was going to replace them. What I settled on were a set of Cooper ST Maxxs still in 285/75/16 size....

These are some heavy tires, around 60 lbs. unmounted, but they are also some luggy ATs with a lot of tread meat available. I like the full depth siping, the stone kickers, the stepped lugs and the aggressive side biters. Why these tires? It all came down to price on return. I know I can get great tread life from Copper brand tires where other brands struggle to get past the 35,000 mile mark. These were $210 mounted, balanced, and on the truck and out the lot per tire, which is fairly good in today’s tire market. How many of you a short few years ago would think that $200 bucks a pop per tire was a decent deal? Anyway here they mounted up on Fafhrd...

 

[Haggis]

Fafhrd Gets a Condo...

Well, around this time period in Fafhrd’s story, my wife decided to go back to school and further her nursing career and because of this our travel time was severely curtailed. As we were not going to be using it we sold our E1 trailer. Ever since we have been pondering out next traveling set-up would be. And we were going to do it based on being a travelling couple instead of a roving family of four. Though we will always leave some wiggle room for extra gear if the kiddos tag along.

Well after looking at all the camping options for overlanding (or whatever you want to call it), Michelle said she’d like to try out a RTT. And since we have a trip at the end of April 2012 planned for a tour of the Mid-South she wanted me to procure one to use on that trip for us to try out. My plan was to pick up a used budget RTT like the Camping Lab, Tepiu or Mombosa, try it out for the week and if we didn’t like it we’d just sell it again. Even if we lost a little money it would be cheaper than motel rooms for a week. A fabric folding tent would work well on my secondary lower rack and be able to flip up between my tall stanchions so that was an advantage. But I’ve seen folks rip their covers, tear straps and I’ve listened to tents flap in the breeze as I was following others down the highway not to mention tent’s rustling in the wind once they’re set up. So I put an ad over on the ExPo Portal and lo and behold I got a quick response…but not the type that I was expecting.

Opening a PM from fellow ExPo member Endo I found that he had in his possession a practically new Autohome Maggiolina Extreme RTT. Here it turns out Endo (whose real name is Clint) is a principal at JPFreek magazine and JPF's gear editor (John) had a demo Maggiolina sitting in his garage after doing a magazine review on it. It had only been slept in twice, so it was for all intensive purposes brand new. Autohome really didn’t want to ship it back to their factory if they didn’t have to, so they asked Clint if he could find a buyer for it and if so they’d offer a good deal on the tent. Well along comes Haggis…

I never even considered one of these tents as they are a high end tent, but I was really attracted to its design. Mainly the hard cover construction. Here in the East I’ve seen tent covers ripped by hugging trees so having a hard sided tent offers some advantage. Also the big bonus for me was storage. We live right next to a trout stream and critters run amok everywhere. You can’t let anything sit for a couple of days without some critter getting into it. I had visions of opening a tent in the woods only to find it chewed to bits and the interior covered in pellets. So after discussing the advantages and disadvantages of hard side and soft sided tents Michelle and I decide to go for Maggiolina.

Clint had us contact Mike at Autohome US to arrange a deal. Mike was great to do business with. He answered our questions and our concerns with good info, did everything he said he was going to do and offered us a deal on the tent that was way too good to pass up. Next I had to make arrangements with Clint to pick up the tent. And as luck would have it, the Maggie was located just a little south of my sister Elizabeth’s and my brother in laws house in Virginia. Sweet…I had a base camp for my tent retrieval expedition. As my wife and kids had too much going on to make a run south I found myself hitting the highway all by my lonesome.

So over a couple of days I mooched of my brother-in-law and ate his food (crab cakes, potato pancakes, roasted chicken with all the works…good stuff); met Clint who took time out of his busy schedule to help me mount the tent (Thanks Clint!) and talk trucks and stuff; drove the backroads of Virginny thanks to some suggestions form Clint; and finally dodged rozzer speed traps on the trip home.

So here’s the end result…a virtually new “used” tent on the back of Fafhrd…

Here are some more photos with the tent deployed…

Impressions so far…

*Driving with the tent mounted on the lower racks you don’t even notice that’s it is back there other than the blocked view out the rear window. On my trip down my gas mileage averaged 16.8 mpg and on the way home I averaged 16.6. So no real discernible difference and some of that might be due to the crappy gas they have in Virginia. This is way better than the three or four mpg loss that would happen when we hauled our E1 trailer around.

*The materials used in the construction of the Maggiolina are top notch. The tent fabric feels hefty and d substantial and is of better quality than the fabric used in our old E1. The zippers are heavy duty and work fast and well with no snag ups. The roof has a headliner in it that has a nice feel and the mattress is really comfy.

* Set-up is fairly quick. It takes me 45 seconds to spool up the top and just a couple of minutes to set the ladder and zip up the doors. Ingress is fairly easy, though I have plans to make it easier. Take down is just a bit slower as you need to see that the fabric folds down nicely.

*Michelle likes all the interior storage pockets as there are two pockets to each side of the walls and a big gear storage loft at the low end of the hardtop. She also liked the rotating LED light.

*I won’t be able to deploy the tent with the tall stanchions on. But it only takes five minutes to put them on and off. If I’m bringing along the kayaks it shouldn’t be a real problem. The Extreme model of Maggiolina has provisions for a rack also and I did mount up my Thules mounts to see how they fit. But I don’t think I can mount the ‘yaks on that rail as I believe the Maggie rack is only rated for 20 kilos or 44 lbs.

 

[Haggis]

Fafhrd Gets some Porches...

With the way the Maggie RTT sits on the Tundra's lower rack the access ladder had to rest at a weird angle and rest against the plastic bed rail guards of the truck bed. I did some thinking and came up with a solution that not only repositioned the ladder but gave us some extra room and some protection for the RTT from wayward tree brushes. So here is my solution...Porches.

They're made from consumer grade aluminum scaffolding planks made by Werner mounted to thick walled 2” aluminum angle. Than attached to the rails using stainless fasteners with capture nuts that slide in the rails slot. Their pretty stout and don’t flex at all under my weight. Slots cut into each outboard side of the porches allow the access ladder to mount up to either side or to have a ladder on both sides at the same time. They are painted with Dupli-Color bedliner to give the porches some extra grip on the surface. These will allow us a little more room to remove our shoes before entering the tent and with spending most of our time in muddy/soggy PA cleanliness is important.

Hers's a shot of the porches in use though I did forgo setting any rocking chairs or flower boxes up on them...

 

[Haggis]

Not being able to easily access my truck gun because of how the rear seats function has always bothered me. I don't like having a gun rolling around open in the truck, but when its critter getting season I want to be able to access the protein getter in as fast a manner as possible when the opportunity arrives. Add to that I have no place to store my more archaic weaponry when its raiding season and the situation becomes unbearable. Well my dear old Mom came through here last Christmas and helped solve that problem....

Now I'll be ready for those bunnies, squirrels, geeses and orcs.

 

[Haggis]

New Rear Bumper

Those of you who don't live in a snow belt state should consider yourselves lucky, you don't have to deal with the consequences of salt and brine covered roads for half the year. Over winter the rear bumper on Fafhrd started to rust under the chrome plating and by this spring it was a mess...

Ticked me off every time I saw it. I checked into purchasing an "offroad" bumper but the pickens were thin, especially since I wanted to keep the factory hitch. Demello has a tube bumper, but at nearly $1000 shipped here for a couple of bent tubes and some aluminum plates, the price was ridiculous. I checked in with a couple of local fabricators and never heard back, obviously they weren't interested. Which is funny as the three I checked with were all complaining about how slow work was. So I decide just to replace the factory bumper with a stock one. I like Fafhrd's stealth work truck look, I've been bumping around with him for 4 years and the rear bumper has never been a problem and it was an economical solution. I dislike chrome so this time around a found a painted steel bumper. I painted it to match the Tundra's hue, coated the backside in bed liner, an swapped the plastics over. Turned out well...I like it...

 

[Haggis]

Just got Fafhrd back from the local dealership as I had them put a new timing belt on. Mileage for the truck was at 104,000 miles. I inspected the old belt and I got to say it appeared to be in darn good shape, but better to be safe than sorry. While they were at it I had them throw on a new serpentine belt and since the water pump was showing signs of weeping I had that R&Red too. Good to go for another 100,000 miles. And since I don't have a picture of the process here's one of the crack Toyota technicians working on my truck...

 

[Haggis]

A Shocking Development...

...there's new shocks on the Tundra!

See what I did there. Pretty funny huh. No ? OK, maybe I need to work on my comedic timing.

With 106,000 miles on old Fafhrd new shocks were way over due for replacement. The rears were the factory orginials and the front Biltsien 5100s had over 85,000 miles on 'em. They should have been changed about 5000 miles earlier at least, but it is what it was or something like that. With the new Bistiens mounted on the back I noticed an immediate rising of the rear as I think the factory shocks were limiting the lift of the Deaver spring pack. I'd say the arse end of the truck came up a good 1/2". The first set of Bilstiens up front were all but shot I would say that I got a good 80,000 miles put of them. I swapped the fronts out this week as with all the rain I couldn't work anyway. The bottom bolts were a huge pain in the arse but a can of JB Blaster later and some redneck force amplification won the day. The backs, well I cheated and had a friend switch 'em at his shop. I could not break the top nut loose and the way the top mounts are engineered accessing them with some heat or a a cut-off wheel is about impossible without lifting the bed. But a nut splitter works wonders.

 

[Haggis]

Water, Water everywhere..

Back in the day I converted this ATV sprayer to serve as camp water supply.

With 25 gallons of water it has served admirably for washing dishes and showers and other myrid duties. But it's bulky and eats up room in the back of the truck. I've been downsizing our equipment everytime we have had to replace worn out stuff and when James (jim65wagon) decided to part with his 20 gal water tank with all the accessories I grabbed it up. This set-up, while sacrificing just 5 gals would make for a more compact unit with a smaller footprint plus it is rated for potable water unlike the old one. Jim had made a shell to mount it to the back panel of his Tundra's bed...

It worked well but I wanted something more self contained so utilizing some plywood scraps laying around the workshop I threw this together...

The box has a top and side hatch to allow the marine battery to slide in and for access to the mechanicals. The Battery goes here..

The top plate with the Shurflo pump and fuse box..

Gave it a test run today while the rain came down outside again and it worked great. We'll give it a true test here in a little over a week when we head up to New England. I'll keep the big tank for work as it serves as a water supply when I'm chinking a log cabin without a water supply handy.

 

[Haggis]

Crikey...I haven't touched this thread in awhile. No worries, there's not more I want to do to the truck when it comes to major things but I do tinker with it from time to time. Let's see what have I missed since the last post. Ah, my exhaust decide to part ways with the rest of the truck. So with wanting to keep the truck quiet and stockish I put a stock exhaust back on...

Recently I've been going through the gear and getting things around for the upcoming Appalachian Rendezvous. We decided we need a better showering solution than our old Zodi system so we picked up a Triton instant heat unit to run with our on board water system. Needing something to hang the Triton unit from and not wanting to frack around with some longish hanger system My attention turned to the racks that are on Fafhrd. I came up with this set-up utilizing found pieces laying about the garage and it should work pretty well...

With the water tank in the truck bed and a propane bottle strapped in there too it's a easy solution for our boondocking showering needs.