40 Guy builds a 100 Series

[Rezarf <><]

So I have finally found the time to get started on my rear storage setup in the 100.

I have wanted a rear drawer setup for about as long as I have had the 100, I just wasn't 100% sure what I wanted... well, I take that back. I wanted a set of two full length drawers that gobbled up all the gear I could think of and have my fridge (an ARB/Engel MT45) on a slide above the drawers... and I wanted to be able to have a sleeping platform as well. However, with my lift and tires the top of the fridge would be too high to access without a stool or drop slide both are more than I am willing to endure for a Coke. So I landed on the following...

REZARF Drawers:

• One main large drawer as wide as the fitment allows.
• Fridge on drawer slide taking as little room as possible.
• Short drawer below the fridge.
• Integrated 20 gallon water tank.
• A slide out prep surface under the fridge.
• Side wings to fill the gaps and give a level "Floor" again.

I also wanted to account for and include in the design:

• Water faucet and pump.
• Discrete long gun storage.
• Integrate a charging/outlet station of some sort for USB charged and 12v outlet gear.
• Rattle free/squeak free design.
• Cargo management and tie downs.
• OEM-ish looking in fit and finish.
• Extended "bed" panel that can be used on top of the folded middle row seats.

So I have started amassing parts for the build.

I plan on using these for the small drawer pulls and for the side wing panels that will lift up for more storage. Southco makes them and they are very high quality, I have used their stuff before and it's top notch.

The main drawer will use this spring loaded latch as the main pull. No rattles

I am going to hard-wire my fridge to the dual battery setup so I picked up this CNC cable run. This way the cord won't get kinked or cut by the constant sliding of the drawers and it should keep the wires from slapping around too.

I picked up a Shurflo mini pump and marine faucet a LONG time ago, it is going into this build. I will likely run the faucet in front of the fridge where it is easiest to access or I will access it near the side wings.

 

[Rezarf <><]

For the hardware I decided to bite the bullet and spend the $$$ for the good stuff. I picked up a full set of Accuride Slides for this build. I picked up a pair of the 500# locking slides and a pair of their non locking counterparts (they have yet to arrive). I also picked up a set of 100# slides from Accuride for the prep surface and the short narrow drawer for under the fridge.

I also stopped by my local aluminum store to buy some dimensional "L" aluminum. I bought various sizes and thicknesses to get the job done. I picked up some 3 x 2 x .375" some 2 x 2 x .25" and some 1.5 x 1.5 x .188" all of it is 6061.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I scored a great deal off the "scratch and dent" rack at my local lumber yard. I nabbed two sheets 3/4 sheets and two sheets of 1/2 birch and one sheet of 1/4 birch for $60 out the door. It was my lucky day

Time to start chopping. I made some quick measurements in the back of the 100 and started cutting...

Main box is roughly 42.5" wide by about 40" deep.

My sides are just 13.5" tall, a little shorter would be perfect to make a platform over the rear seats but I needed to clear my water tank which wasn't perfectly 12" high... no biggie.

I had to clearance the side of the box for the fittings for the water tank. Thanks @hoser for the perfect 100 series water tank. He sold it to me a while back and it is really quite perfect for the 100. It eats up a lot of room for the drawers but with my family of 5 (kids at that) we are always going through water fast for cooking, drinking, cleanup etc. I figured I filled my 7 gallon jug 2-3 times a weekend with no rationing so 20 gallons is about perfect for us.

Another shot of the water tank, I will leave this side open and secure it with a strap of some sort to keep it in place but easily removed for cleaning should the need arise.

Before I closed down to be with the family tonight I mocked up the last two L-track pieces I had laying around. I LOVE THIS STUFF! I will break out my router tomorrow and set them nearly flush to the surface for a clean look and to not have them poking me in the back when in sleeping platform mode.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Snuck in a few more hours on the drawers today. First order on the list was to fit up the fridge compartment and cut the top to the correct size. all in all it went well. It was a balancing act of how tight to make the walls for the fridge enclosure but in the end I think I will have plenty of ventilation and enough room to mess with the final fitment (even with a transit cover).

Figuring out side to side fitment before screwing everything in place.

Next up was setting the final height of the fridge and by default setting the height of the small door below the fridge. I had my lovely wife come out and try to access the fridge (unextended) to see if she could still grab something out of the fridge... we decided 6" off the floor of the drawers was all I could feasibly raise it and not be a pain to access for her. As a bonus, 6" of lift allows nearly 100% of the factory vents in the rear to be in the open air. I will likely add a cage around this down the road for when we really are piling on the gear.

In this shot you can see the big payoff... maximizing the 60/40 split bench rear seat for a sleeping platform. This design allows almost the entire width of the rear 60% seat to become available for creating a platform to stretch out and sleep on. I picked up an ExPed Megamat 10 about a year ago and it is absolutely the most comfortable mattress I have slept on outside of my own home mattress. It's amazing, nothing else compares. This platform will allow me to sleep in the truck for when I am solo wheeling without the family.

And here's my view when the tailgate is up but the hatch is open. It will be almost level (within an inch or two below top of the tailgate. Should make loading gear (or groceries) easy.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Next I had to cut the top, easy enough. I just ran it through the table saw up without going all the way through to the other end. This kept the strength of the one piece top and will help with keeping the drawers square.

I left the front edge of the top 1" longer for an overhang. With 3/4" drawer faces it should look nice.

I cut the overall front to back just a hair too long... so I ended up needing to angle the back edge to match the seats when they are upright. Prototype issues...

And lastly I decided I would flush mount my L-Track so that when I lay on it or put gear in the back it isn't always getting in the way. However, I really love this stuff for lashing things down so I am stoked to have it on the top of the platform for strapping down gear and cargo. Man, I haven't used my router in years... what a loud tool, I had to bust out the ear muffs for these two grooves.

That was it for today. Up next I need to:

• Located and drill the mounting holes, gonna use the seat bolts.
• Create and attach the side wings and front corner panels.
• Create the "extension" and french cleat to hold in it place.
• Create the drawer for the big side.

 

[Rezarf <><]

I got a few hours to work on the drawers (I am pushing for a long trip this weekend/next week with some friends from Rising Sun 4x4.

Today I wanted to get to mounting the box, building the side wing for the sleeping platform and the platform extension. I finished 2/3 so not too bad.

First up was mounting the drawers. I saw 2 real options, I could bolt them to floor using the factory seat bolts and captive nuts or tie into the tie downs with turn buckles. I chose the turnbuckles for a few reasons. First, with the bolts, I am anchoring in the center of the box about a foot away from any edge... not ideal, but the through mounting of the bolts would provide the strongest solution. Also, with the seat bolt method I would need to recess the bolt, effectively thinning the material of the base plywood considerably. Turn buckles are easy to mount and strong. I use them on my 40 for my rear cargo box.

Thank you Mr. Toyota for the handy tie downs. Gotta' love a Cruiser.

Simple rope loop makes a good anchor.

And the forward mounts. I was impressed how locked down the box is with this method.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Next up was tackling the drivers side wing. Getting the fit right took me a while, but I am pretty picky. I want the sleeping platform functional for an off road trip I am doing this up coming week.

I made a profile out of cardboard to tweak the fit. Then adjusted it and transferred it to a sheet of prefinished 3/4 maple plywood.

Gotta' figure out how to not loose the 12v outlet. It is in a bad spot to access it now considering how far the plugs stick out. Thoughts?

Then some careful measuring and pass with the saw and it dropped right in.

Good enough fit for me... especially since it'll be covered with carpet. I did leave some tolerance for the carpet thickness.

I went with L brackets for shelves I found at the local home store, they were inexpensive and super strong given the stamped steel design. Super light weight and when they are bolted in they become absolutely rock solid. I will likely attach the wing to the brackets with Velcro so I can pop them off when I want to use the space. I'll see how it goes on this trip and see if I need to make a dedicated door/hatch. LOTS of room back there so I am stoked to make use of the space.

 

[Rezarf <><]

A little update on the drawers... before a 5 day trip to NE Montana for the Outlaws Run, I finished up a sleeping platform. It worked so well on the trip. One night we had a storm roll through with lots of lightning and rain... I slept like a baby in the 100, watching the lightning and grabbing an ice cold water from the fridge as the rain poured down.

I started out by creating a modified french cleat to have the sleeping platform nest into.

Here you can see how the two pieces of wood nest together. It is simple but effective and strong. This gives me a lot of strength and no hassle when taking it in and out. It simply lifts in and out.

Once I got it all leveled out, I could trim the height to make sure the top piece of wood laid flush with the top of the drawers.

Here is the sleeping platform extension upside down getting mounted to the cleat in the rear and I added a spacer to rest on the middle row seats when folded down.

Two slices of 1/2" plywood created the exact 1" spacer I needed to rest on the back of the seats and support the platform.

 

[Rezarf <><]

You can see here how the spacer fills the gap to allow the platform to rest on the back of the seat. This will eventually get carpet to keep any chaffing of the leather to a minimum. The platform was surprisingly solid... no movement at ALL. I was stoked.

Here's the view from the back, I made the platform exactly as long as my ExPed MegaMat 10 LXW... It fits like a glove. I do need to move the front seat forward about 2" to make it fit when inflated but the platform fits while the drivers seat is in my position.

I beveled the rear edge to match the seat back angle, so it looks like there is a BIG gap in this shot between the drawers and platform but it is dead nuts level across them both. The fit came out perfect.

And a final shot showing the ExPed MegaMat in place. My second favorite piece of kit after my ARB Engle Freezer/Fridge

 

[Rezarf <><]

The drawers aren't done yet. Maybe 60% or so, but man the space is already so handy...

 

[Rezarf <><]

The CV let go after slinging too much grease without me addressing it. It did let go in amazing death wobble fashion! Scared the poo out of me.

This was the last straw in terms of me keeping the 35's... back to the 305 x 65- 18's for me. Anyone want a good set of 35x12.5-18 BFG K02 with 5k miles on them?

While I was in the front replacing the axle, I went ahead and wised up and did some other PM and mods.

Picked up a set of the Japan made 555 Lower Ball Joints to pop in.

Just gotta use a big "C-Clamp" to pop them free and back in again. What a beefy tool!

We are moving this week to Montana so I dropped by @sleeoffroad to say goodbye to a few friends and picked up a diff drop that was hot off the press. This should help with some of my driveline angles. I didn't figure the 3/4" would make as big of a difference as it did. It really takes the angle off the CV and levels it out. If everything was built to Slee's standards, life would be grand. Perfect fit, welds, hardware, instructions and powder coat. What's not to like!?

Lesson learned, is the diff drop optional? Yes...

Is it beneficial? YES!

Last little mod since I was in there was to replace my badly worn out sway bar end links up front. They were nearly metal on metal. Trail Tailor for the win... @reevesci only complaint was the powder coat was dinged up during shipment but otherwise these links are really rad and I can feel the difference while driving in the loading of the front suspension. I highly recommend the extended links. I hit them with a spot of rattle can black and popped them in.

 

[Rezarf <><]

After playing last weekend I got a slight vibration in the driveline at 60mph and above when I came off the throttle. Putting the truck up on stands revealed the rear u-joint had some play in it... maybe 1/16" but only when it was unloaded. With the wheels on the ground it didn't budge. Anyhow, I called Toyota who wanted $90 for the u-joint and I needed to wait 3-4 days for it to arrive. I dug around mud and found this thread...

Drive Shaft U Joints

... and realized there was a Spicer replacement that is of nice quality. My local NAPA had it on the shelf right down the road so for $29 bucks I was back in business. Then I tried to get the old one out. I have replaced a handful of u-joints in the past but this one wasn't coming out without a BIG fight. A few hours later, I gave up. I took it to a driveline shop today who had it done in 15 minutes tops. Impressive to watch the right tools for a specific job. The factory manual calls for a SST that pulls the caps off the spider... I tried to drive the caps down and through freeing the spider but I couldn't get the last 1-2mm to drop.

Here it was when I popped it out. It had quite a bit of old grease caked on, but at least they were serviced! 325k miles on a set of U-joints ain't bad.

I thought I'd toss in this pic showing where I marked the driveshaft so I could reinstall it in phase. This is important and often forgotten by yours truly. The only thing I would do different is using a punch to mark it since after I cleaned it up it was harder to tell where my marks were.

Nice new fresh u-joint and seals. In this pic you can see the C - clip that holds the u joint to the yoke and flange. The clips on my 100 were internal, not sure of this is true for every year.

This is where the cups sat once installed to the correct depth. The Spicer kit had two different thickness C-clips to match your tolerances. Nice touch.

Smooth as glass now. More trails this weekend!

 

[Rezarf <><]

Ripped off my HAM antenna my trusty Comet SBB5 again... I think I am going to go to a hood mount. I am also exploring new antenna options for trail work for the dual band HAM. I have a SBB-1 that I use for trail work, but each time I have forgotten to swap it out when on the trail I have yanked it off. This time it was donated to the forest... the SBB-1 is a great trail antenna but it sure doesn't reach out like the SBB-5.

So what is the best overall HAM dual band antenna for a trail truck. Montana's trails are WAY tighter with brush compared to Colorado. I am adding pin-stripes by the dozen each weekend.

Thoughts on mounts? Gamiviti? Bumper mount up front?

Pic from the other night on another barely there trail...

 

[Rezarf <><]

After a late night trip home from a trail the other day I realized my lights up front needed addressing. I hadn’t plugged the Hella 4000’s into the new auxiliary battery system and they needed some adjusting. I made up a new wiring harness to tie into the auxiliary power system and bumped up the wire to 10 gauge as I am waiting on 130w bulbs coming in the mail soon. I found a long straight dark farm road to light up the night. Here are a few beam shots for those that care...

First is of my factory headlights on low beam...

Then once I punch on my PIA fog lights...

Here is the beam pattern with the high beams on fog lights come off...

And here is the reach with Hellas switched on with the high beams... adding the 130w bulbs will really push the light out there.

I’d like to figure out how to override the fog light shut off so I can always turn them off or on at will.

 

[Rezarf <><]

It's official, LED's have taken over the world. I just got these 130w Halogen upgraded bulbs for my Hella 4000's (the on
ce undisputed KING of off road lights) for about $1.50/bulb... shipped. The amount of light these produce over their 55w originals is insane. I have a set on my FJ40 but didn't want to spend any more on "old tech" as these used to be $15-20 per bulb. I simply hadn't checked prices in years. Man, I am sounding old.

For $4.50 I got three to my door with one as a back-up in my spares kit. Would you believe they came in a box big enough for a microwave. I don't get it. Anyhow, here's to BIG lumens in an all metal light that can handle the power and heat.

These three little bulbs came in a HUGE box.

Hella couldn't make it easier. 4 bolts holding the lens in place with a metal ring, then unclip the wire clamp and the bulb comes out the back. I have heard that you should never touch a halogen bulb with bare fingers as it can impart oils to the glass causing premature burnout, however, I am not sure if this is true but I still don't handle the bulbs. I only grab them by the metal mounting bracket, no glass.

What I can only assume is the original 55w Made in Germany bulbs. Still working fine. They get tossed into the spares bag as well.

Now made in Korea...

I thought the filament size difference was cool to see, the 130w on top, and the 55w on the bottom. Otherwise, they are identical to the uninformed eye.

I'm going to do my best to get out to the same stretch of road and add one more beam shot of the 130w bulbs. Since I have gone from 110w to 260w... I expect to see a real world difference. I think my 40 series has some of the best forward lighting I have ever seen with the same beam pattern and bulb mounted to the bumper. However, it could be that the 40 only goes like 55mph and I never seem to catch up to the light... I have no chance of out running my hi beams in the 40.