Its been a little while since I posted, but Ive gotten a few things done to my truck. Those that follow me on Instagram will have already seen most of these pics, but for those of you who don't, here they are.
First up, I finally added some real backup lights to the truck. With the addition of the camper shell, and the blackout curtains on the side windows of it, it became difficult to backup at night. These lights made it much easier. They are not however, wired to the backup light circuit. I wired them up to an independent switch on the dash. I also like to have them on when I drive off road at night. (along with the side lights, pics of those to follow.)
I also added some side lights to the truck. I mounted them on my rack, toward the back of the cab. I have them pointing to the side and slightly forward, so they point just about 90* from the front door windows. They work great at lighting up the sides, like alley lights. I also have these switched independently of each other, so i can use one or the other, which is handy.
I also added some more lights inside the camper shell. I had the rear RV style light by the tail gate, but I added the "tap" lights up by the tool box. The wires run from the RV style light, and are held in place with black velcro against the carpeted camper shell. The power feed for these lights is constant hot, and each light has the ability to be operated independently, but I also put a switch in the main power feed coming into the bed, so I leave all the lights in the "on" position, and use the switch by the rear hatch to operate them, so I can turn them on without climbing into the bed of the truck. This is very handy for getting in and out of the back at night and being able to see what you're doing, before climbing in.
A while back I mounted a bed liner coated piece of plywood to my rack, for carrying various loads. I also mounted a flagpole mount to it. I don't figure flags would hold up to driving at speed, but I figured this would be nice for camp, especially for camping in congested areas (think, pismo), to help find our camp from a distance.
Terrible picture of my new CB antenna. Its a Wilson 3000, though Im no longer using this mount, Im using a normal clamp mount (seen in the picture of my side lights). Also gone are my way too low mounted fiberglass antenna. I ground the paint off the rack for the mount, and ground the rack to a factory truck ground point with 4ga cable on the frame. Since doing this I've gotten much better range and much lower SWRs than before.
Also a bad picture, finally got a double DIN stereo for the truck. Of course, my truck is an '04, so it took a little trimming to make it fit, but you can't see any of that once its installed. Parking brake ground is just grounded to the chassis, so it'll play movies regardless. Legalities be damned. Tho I have yet to play a movie in it. I do still need to get a backup camera too. (my #1 reason for wanting a double DIN). I did not get a stereo with navigation however, as I use my iPad or iPhone, and my Ram Mounts for them, for navigation, which is much better than any stereo based system, especially when off road.
Here is a picture of my iPad/Ram Mount navigation set up. Its a 128GB cellular iPad (so it has a built in GPS antenna). Though I rarely use cellular data with it. I use MotionX and have downloaded pretty detailed maps of the areas I travel. Also seen is how I mounted my CB and airbag controls. This is obviously an older pic, since it shows my old stereo.
Also, my camper shell had a 3rd brake light in it, with 3 light bulbs behind a red lens. Problem was, one of the bulbs burned out and I noticed that the brake light unit was not "serviceable." It was riveted into the camper shell and sealed together. So, I got creative. I drilled out the rivets, and cut the brake light housing apart to get the red lens out. I happened to have some carbon fiber panels laying around (I have quite a bit of carbon fiber panels from a now defunct aerospace facility in Glendale, one of the perks of my last job), so I used the lens as a pattern, ,and cut the carbon fiber to size. I then drilled a few holes into it, to mount 3 LED truck clearance lights, like I used for the clearance lights I installed on my rack. I siliconed them all in to make sure they were waterproof, made a gasket, and used screws, in lieu of rivets, to reinstall the assembly into the camper shell, and wired it up to the existing brake light wiring. (which is connected to my factory 3rd brake light feed by the trailer light connectors, so it does not flash with one of the turn signals. I hate when people just splice into the major wire on a tail light of a vehicle that doesn't have separate turn signals, like my Ford.. anyway, Here are a few pics of this project....
And lastly, here are a couple pictures of the truck, while we were out on a random drive to Nevada. We went from the LA area, up to Beatty, NV and such. Saw the wild horses, wild burros, caves, and other historic and natural things. Sorry, don't have pics of everything uploaded, and really don't want to say where the wild animals and caves and such are on a public forum anyway.
Saw this Toy' at our lunch stop. Didn't get to talk to the guy for long, but his truck was really nice. Basically a mini version of what I hope to turn my truck into.
Also, I did get some new BFG KO2s for the F150.. and have yet to take them into the dirt. Hell, Ive had this truck for over a year now, and have yet to take it off road at all. Its sad really.
And, Just one last picture, just because. This was from a while back, when I brought my old work truck home. Obviously, I live in an apartment complex. This was summer time, and had to have been around 5am or something. I also got home with it around 10 or 11pm. Im sure no one liked me that day. lol I don't even commute in my diesel F350 (notice the 150 is gone, as it was at work, since I brought the Peterbilt home)
