ImNoSaint's Gen III Build
- Thread starter Imnosaint
- Start date
off-roader
Expedition Leader
I wonder how much of that had to do with the parts manufacturer/supplier not having the item in stock? I know with ARB, it can take months to get a part to the US because they ship via freight container on an actual ship which means it can take a couple of months or more to get parts if they aren't in stock in the US.
Imnosaint
Gone Microcamping
For my ordering with RR, ARB was part of the issue. RR shipped the sliders in a timely way, two weeks, and the product is stout and crafted. Then ordered the bull bar and OME HD which got caught up in shipping and a billing fiasco, so I cancelled the bull bar and re-ordered the OME, waited three months more, ran out of patience and cancelled the order.
Through the process they were pretty straight forward and apologetic. It appears they're at the mercy of ARB. I'm opting for Ironman's HD suspension this Spring.
I put the sliders through a pounding this weekend and would give them my highest recommendation.
off-roader
Expedition Leader
Yeah thats what I figured as far as the ARB stuff is concerned.
As for their sliders, they do look pretty stout but I got what I wanted for a lot less (<$200) with Trail Gear's sliders. If I went with the RR sliders, I would have needed them to build me a custom version pushing the outer hoop further out by 2-4" to offer better protection. I've had a similar design to their stock setup in the past and still got rock damage due to the kind of wheeling I do.
Never the less, they do look pretty stout.
MonteroLTD
Adventurer
I love the set-up! Everything is put together very well. Did you remove the rear bench completely? I'm planning to do this on my Monty along with a few other mods I'd like to have done before the spring. The suspension is also a problem for me. No one has the OME in stock so I've been trying to order the Ironman kit. Still waiting on availability...,...
Can't wait to see more of this rig! Good luck!
Edit: Where do you keep your Hi-Lift?
Can't wait to see more of this rig! Good luck!
Edit: Where do you keep your Hi-Lift?
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Imnosaint
Gone Microcamping
Michael Brown
You followed me, so now we're both lost
I read this and although I have not driven along a river, I felt the same sense of durability and traction when using completely washed out logging roads in the southeast. I had a trailer carrying a bushhog and other tractor implements while traversing calf deep mud with deep ruts because the logging company had not yet planed the road. I never felt like I was going to be stuck or that the engine was having any trouble. I even had decent traction with cheap HTS tires.
I would definately be interested to see how it looks with the Ironman kit. I like OME, but if I can get Ironman cheaper.........
Imnosaint
Gone Microcamping
Roof Rack Mod
As promised in the Gen III Hour Tour Thread, I tore into the Monty's interior, removing the headliner to access the mounting points for the roof rack and see what I could do to repair the sunroof mechanism.
I've considered alternate roof racks but for the time being want to put the serious money into suspension and recovery. The stock rack has served its purpose fine with a Thule system that holds the RTT and awning, but I want a tray in between the stanchions to hold other recovery and camping gear.
To this end I removed the headliner.
It's pretty straightforward, removing all the hardware of grab handles, interior lighting modules, sun visors, etc. The only hang up is in removing the sun visor clips with tabs that tend to break easily.
Remove the weather stripping on all doors. The A-pillar covers snap out being careful to keep retention clips in place, and second row seatbelt mounts on the B-pillars need to come off to remove the covers. The rear covers that surround the wing windows between the C and D-pillars snap out, again being careful to keep the retainers in place.
View attachment 150027
With the headliner free, the last step is to remove the electrical connection from the sunroof junction in the A-pillar,
...and then the main connector that attaches behind the driver's side footwell panel. The dead pedal needs to be removed to access this.
There are a number of attachment points along the route of this cable, the first of which is just above the main connector, the rest of which on the A-pillar are taped into place. Carefully remove the attachment points and feed the cable up behind the dash to the A-pillar junction being carful to route the cable so the connector egresses without snagging. Sounds harder than it is to remove.
With the cable free, remove the headliner.
Next out is the rear AC/Heating ducts, eight screws total holding it in place. It's U-shaped around the cargo area with a air-feed tube that goes up the passenger D-pillar.
With the ceiling cleared, the five nuts per side can be located, two at the rear and front and one in the middle.
Remove the nuts and the racks pop right out.
I considered a number of materials to use for the cross-members and settled on 1/2"X3"X4' oak planks from Lowe's connected to 2.5"X1 and 3/8" Stanley zinc plated mending braces attached with Arrow 3/16" aluminum rivets with 1/4" grip.
I wanted to allow varied placement of the Thule Crossroad Railing Feet while keeping the cross-members close enough to create parallel support to prevent sagging. I came up with 3" spaces between the 3" planks giving me 6" centers to mount the mending brace, resulting in room for five cross-members.
With the braces attached, I remounted the roof rails and reassembled the interior.
With these back in place I measured the width and cut down the oak planks to 41 and 5/8" in length, and mitered at the ends to fit the 22.5 degree angle of the stock rack.
I test fit the planks, fitting them underneath the mending braces to mark the holes, a pair on each end, to attach them. I number each plank to correspond to their position on the rack and drilled the holes at 3/8".
I stained and varnished the planks with a marine-grade product.
As promised in the Gen III Hour Tour Thread, I tore into the Monty's interior, removing the headliner to access the mounting points for the roof rack and see what I could do to repair the sunroof mechanism.
I've considered alternate roof racks but for the time being want to put the serious money into suspension and recovery. The stock rack has served its purpose fine with a Thule system that holds the RTT and awning, but I want a tray in between the stanchions to hold other recovery and camping gear.
To this end I removed the headliner.
It's pretty straightforward, removing all the hardware of grab handles, interior lighting modules, sun visors, etc. The only hang up is in removing the sun visor clips with tabs that tend to break easily.
Remove the weather stripping on all doors. The A-pillar covers snap out being careful to keep retention clips in place, and second row seatbelt mounts on the B-pillars need to come off to remove the covers. The rear covers that surround the wing windows between the C and D-pillars snap out, again being careful to keep the retainers in place.
View attachment 150027
With the headliner free, the last step is to remove the electrical connection from the sunroof junction in the A-pillar,
...and then the main connector that attaches behind the driver's side footwell panel. The dead pedal needs to be removed to access this.
There are a number of attachment points along the route of this cable, the first of which is just above the main connector, the rest of which on the A-pillar are taped into place. Carefully remove the attachment points and feed the cable up behind the dash to the A-pillar junction being carful to route the cable so the connector egresses without snagging. Sounds harder than it is to remove.
With the cable free, remove the headliner.
Next out is the rear AC/Heating ducts, eight screws total holding it in place. It's U-shaped around the cargo area with a air-feed tube that goes up the passenger D-pillar.
With the ceiling cleared, the five nuts per side can be located, two at the rear and front and one in the middle.
Remove the nuts and the racks pop right out.
I considered a number of materials to use for the cross-members and settled on 1/2"X3"X4' oak planks from Lowe's connected to 2.5"X1 and 3/8" Stanley zinc plated mending braces attached with Arrow 3/16" aluminum rivets with 1/4" grip.
I wanted to allow varied placement of the Thule Crossroad Railing Feet while keeping the cross-members close enough to create parallel support to prevent sagging. I came up with 3" spaces between the 3" planks giving me 6" centers to mount the mending brace, resulting in room for five cross-members.
With the braces attached, I remounted the roof rails and reassembled the interior.
With these back in place I measured the width and cut down the oak planks to 41 and 5/8" in length, and mitered at the ends to fit the 22.5 degree angle of the stock rack.
I test fit the planks, fitting them underneath the mending braces to mark the holes, a pair on each end, to attach them. I number each plank to correspond to their position on the rack and drilled the holes at 3/8".
I stained and varnished the planks with a marine-grade product.
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Imnosaint
Gone Microcamping
Roof Rack Mod Continued
With the varnish set on the planks, I finished the rack install this morning. For the most part everything lined up well to the brackets. I secured them with 8-32x1" stainless steel flat phillips machine screws and nylon-insert stainless lock nuts.
I wanted the top to be relatively weather protected and nicely finished using stainless finish washers.
The oak allows me to mount stuff like RotoPax and MaxTrax mounts. A set of desert tan ones might look pretty good up there.
I noticed after I had installed the brackets and replaced the rails that I could've done another two slats bringing the edge to the sun roof. Not sure what I was thinking when I initially thought-out and measured the project. If I can't live without them, I'll add two more. Some day.
This gave cargo area 26" X 41" within the footprint of the rack.
The clearance at the arc of the top is 6/16 with a 1/4" from the elevated rail. The slats will sag with a heavy load so I may wedge large rubber grommets between the slat and the rooftop when so loaded.
My concern was that this would come off "Clampett-ish" after the Beverly Hillbillies, but I'm more pleased that it's a bit cross-culturally reminiscent of a Woody or surf culture and I'm fine with that.
Cost for the project was just under $70 with about six hours total time.
The thumbnail below is in answer to how the Hi-Lift jack is mounted.
With the varnish set on the planks, I finished the rack install this morning. For the most part everything lined up well to the brackets. I secured them with 8-32x1" stainless steel flat phillips machine screws and nylon-insert stainless lock nuts.
I wanted the top to be relatively weather protected and nicely finished using stainless finish washers.
The oak allows me to mount stuff like RotoPax and MaxTrax mounts. A set of desert tan ones might look pretty good up there.
I noticed after I had installed the brackets and replaced the rails that I could've done another two slats bringing the edge to the sun roof. Not sure what I was thinking when I initially thought-out and measured the project. If I can't live without them, I'll add two more. Some day.
This gave cargo area 26" X 41" within the footprint of the rack.
The clearance at the arc of the top is 6/16 with a 1/4" from the elevated rail. The slats will sag with a heavy load so I may wedge large rubber grommets between the slat and the rooftop when so loaded.
My concern was that this would come off "Clampett-ish" after the Beverly Hillbillies, but I'm more pleased that it's a bit cross-culturally reminiscent of a Woody or surf culture and I'm fine with that.
Cost for the project was just under $70 with about six hours total time.
The thumbnail below is in answer to how the Hi-Lift jack is mounted.
Attachments
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Yes, that's gonna be my next tire option, looking forward to see pics....
Great rig, keep it up....
Imnosaint
Gone Microcamping
Body Trim Removal
I've been kicking around the idea of removing the body trim, painting it with a bedliner product and then reinstalling. If you're a Gen III owner you may have wondered what it looks like without the plastic. I've seen a couple of posts here addressing the mod, so I thought I'd add to the fray.
Now that I've seen it without, I may keep it off, patch the holes and paint within the lines left by the cladding. Interested to know what you think.
My main concern was the transition the line makes from the bumpers to the sheet metal. There's enough of a radius slope on the bumpers, both front and rear to make it look less objectionable than I thought.
I've been kicking around the idea of removing the body trim, painting it with a bedliner product and then reinstalling. If you're a Gen III owner you may have wondered what it looks like without the plastic. I've seen a couple of posts here addressing the mod, so I thought I'd add to the fray.
Now that I've seen it without, I may keep it off, patch the holes and paint within the lines left by the cladding. Interested to know what you think.
My main concern was the transition the line makes from the bumpers to the sheet metal. There's enough of a radius slope on the bumpers, both front and rear to make it look less objectionable than I thought.
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Sabre
Overlanding Nurse
I hate the cladding on my Gen III. I think it makes a great truck look cheap. Further, the slightest trail rash and it looks hideous, starts pulling away, cracking, crazing, etc. Paint and sheet metal are much easier to heal!
I'd play around with a photo program and see what different color schemes look like. You can add that missing depth by adding a contrasting color.
I'd play around with a photo program and see what different color schemes look like. You can add that missing depth by adding a contrasting color.
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