2006 Mazda B2300 Build Thread

[UltraHDGames]

Looks like you're running wheel spacers up front, any concern about the extra strain on the suspension and steering components?

Actually no wheel spacers up front, the lift spindles pushed the front an extra 1.5" per side so combined with my rims its plenty wide enough, for the rear i did add 1.5" spidertrax spacers to match the front

 

[4x4junkie]

I'm not good with power numbers though so if someone could direct me to what kinda solar panel I should get to prolong the truck battery so I could camp for a few days without the truck running that would be great!

This really depends on how much sun you get, the outside temperature, and how willing you are to reposition the panel to follow the sun with it.

I have a 170W bi-fold (suitcase) panel that's more than enough for my fridge (43 qt) though I'm also usually the one who provides the tunes and lights up the campsite at night too. You're much farther north than I am, which means less sunlight per day, but at the same time also means cooler temperatures (meaning the fridge won't run as much).

You may want to check out the 12V power sub-section here if you haven't already, lots of good info about solar there. I would think that a 100W panel would be enough to keep just a fridge going.

Bumper looks good. You might add another tube to it or something that could better hide where the fenders are attached to the core support (maybe trim that part back a little too if possible)

 

[UltraHDGames]

This really depends on how much sun you get, the outside temperature, and how willing you are to reposition the panel to follow the sun with it.

I have a 170W bi-fold (suitcase) panel that's more than enough for my fridge (43 qt) though I'm also usually the one who provides the tunes and lights up the campsite at night too. You're much farther north than I am, which means less sunlight per day, but at the same time also means cooler temperatures (meaning the fridge won't run as much).

You may want to check out the 12V power sub-section here if you haven't already, lots of good info about solar there. I would think that a 100W panel would be enough to keep just a fridge going.

Bumper looks good. You might add another tube to it or something that could better hide where the fenders are attached to the core support (maybe trim that part back a little too if possible)

Thanks for the tips! I'll defiantly look into that all to get a basic understanding etc
I agree about doing something with the fender, might trim it or something I'm not sure yet

 

[UltraHDGames]

Last night we drilled a few holes through the skid and painted it black, the bright silver wasn't something I liked but I'm not sure about the black either. Guess we'll see as time goes on

Also added led reverse and brake lights, its about back to how it was before the nightshade and the white reverse lights looks much cleaner

 

[UltraHDGames]

Another picture of the black skid plate, its growing on me and I think once I get my zinc coated D rings on each side of the skid and the chrome winch fairlead in the skid breaking it up I'll be much happier. Not a fan of the front license plate though but its law here

The plans of right now
-Install 4.56 Gears(Happening Feb.4th)
-Smittybuilt 9500 Synthetic winch
-Build rear bumper with dual swing outs, one for tire and the other for a jerry can and water jug
-Build rock sliders
-Make mounts on the roof basket to attach my rear facing led pods, shovel,axe and traction aids etc
-Led strip inside camper shell and seperate led strip on the cap rear window to light up tailgate area when camping at night
-Sound dampen entire cab
-Powerdome
-New Explorer Leafs(Remove Oem 4x4 Blocks)
-250 Amp alternator
-Dual battery setup

Gather parts for a D30 Sas, This won't happen for awhile but my friend that built me the tube bumper has 2 Xj's with dana 30's so I'm going to be picking one up then slowing gathering parts/building it up for the swap
-Matching 4.56 Gears
-Detroit Tru trac
-All new brakes, u joints etc
Basically have it a whole new axle before it even goes into the truck, then find figure out what to do with the steering box and t case etc. Long term planning but it will happen

 

[UltraHDGames]

Last weekend I got the 4.56 gears installed, so far I'm extremely happy. The truck feels pretty much back to how it was with stock tires, it can actually hold 5th down the highway and doesn't downshift the second a breeze goes against me and it doesn't feel like such a slouch getting moving off the line


However in the process of doing the gears and being under the truck we did find some issues, rear u joint is on the way out, rear transmission seal is leaking, both brake calipers are starting to seize and causing pads/rotors to wear super weird and both upper ball joint boots are gone so they're now a ticking time bomb. This thing is cursed

 

[UltraHDGames]

Wired some led strips under the dash, way to bright right now and really make me want to replace my burnt out hvac and clustor lights but the ladies still love it

And horsing around, jeep dug his hitch into the cement and I had yank him down


Needless to say I'm more then amped for the Seddons Corner mega run this weekend too!

 

[UltraHDGames]

Went to the Mega Run this weekend, was an absolute blast and a miracle the truck survived and the only thing I broke was my hi lift mount

Taken in the morning long before everyone showed up









Had the fancy camera in my truck hence the no fancy rolling shots of myself

 

[UltraHDGames]

Needs paint(soon don't worry) but I got my sport trac center console installed, looks much better then the normal second gen console in my opinion. While the console was out I mounted/wired my new cb and properly grounded the antenna this time so I don't fry this cb, also mounted my rocker switches into the console


In the box we also wired up the 5 meter rgb led strip, thing is crazy bright and going to prove very useful for camping. Also mounted a power outlet so I can charge phones etc back there. Right now I'm in the process of mounting/wiring some old 6x9 speakers back there and another led for on the cap window aiming down onto the tailgate for late night cooking etc. More pics will come asap

What happens when your friends think it would cool to vape into the cap, it did kinda look crazy on strobe mode

 

[CowFish]

^^^^ "vaping"... is that what you canadians call it?
Cool truck build. It seems like 2wd isn't necessarily keeping you from going most places your buddy's 4x4s are going?

 

[UltraHDGames]

^^^^ "vaping"... is that what you canadians call it?
Cool truck build. It seems like 2wd isn't necessarily keeping you from going most places your buddy's 4x4s are going?

I generally think its dumb but it did look cool for some pics. Most of the time the 2wd doesn't stop me until winter rolls around, then I don't even try

 

[UltraHDGames]

Busy weekend
-Changed the engine oil/filter
-Drained diff oil and put on new cover, painted axle
-Bed lined tailgate
-Painted center console, the arm rest as a rip in it so the plan is to replace that at some point
Still need to mount the speakers in the box and rig up some curtains but its really nice finally finishing things up



Muddy driveway did not end so well, my quad got the worst of it



Half *** clean enough

 

[UltraHDGames]

Did a little bit of gravel pit exploring this weekend, brought the friend with the great camera again so no crappy cell pics






Then after I got a friend to use his SWR meter on my cb and after messing around with the screw on my firestik we got the meter showing 1.0 which apparently is good so yay!

 

[UltraHDGames]

Nothing new to the truck as we speak just been driving it quite a bit

New rotors, calipers and pads showed up this weekend and now I'm just waiting on new upper balljoints, wheel bearings and seals to arrive then get an alignment

Also been doing a lot of planning with a friend to build a swingout rear bumper so we're aiming for a weekend in July to build it then the following month build rock sliders and new cross bars for the roof basket to get it much lower to the cap roof

For the bumper the plan as of now is to the do the main part of the bumper identical to this

But with a single swingout tire, hi lift and water/gas can holder similar to this. Btw that's a 33x10.50 on there so it gives a good idea what it'll look like for me when I upgrade tires




Only different we want to do is have the gas/water can holder lower to the main face of the bumper and the license plate in front of the cans, the hitch will be built into the bumper face and might possible add some flush mount leds pods into the bumper

 

[UltraHDGames]

Had some fun with my friends forklift yesterday, went a lot higher then I was expecting, of course I forget to bring out a tape measure to actually see how high it went
Any bigger of a tire defiantly is going to rub so the plan is to pull the box sides a bit(I know it'll only do so much but oh well) and up front I'm not sure, putting the sway bar back on would probably be enough but I don't want to unless I really have to



And for ****s and giggles my friends impreza! It's actually getting a lift and bigger tires etc this summer. The plan is 1" King coils and a 2" ADF Strut spacer lift with 215/70r16's(Oem is 205/55r16) then a tube bumper/skid plate etc