ImNoSaint's Tahoe Build
- Thread starter Imnosaint
- Start date
Imnosaint
Iron, but Gel
Hi Tiki.
I installed ten 5/16ths rivet nuts into the factory rails. I cover the rails first with a tape to black them out.
With the rivet nuts installed, I bolted the rack to the factory rails, five attachment on each side.
Below is a close up of the bolt with washer from the top going through the Rhino Pioneer platform...
...and if you look between the platform and the factory rail in the image below, you can see the bolt where it enters the rivet nut.
Loctite is your friend. The Rigid 50 series LEDs in the factory fog positions have an excellent throw, great for on or off highway. The rest of the LEDs are illegal to use on highway. A big improvement over the OEM headlights was replacing them with Sealight hi/lo 6000K LEDs.
Imnosaint
Iron, but Gel
Thanks. Hope the post on the Rhino rack helps.
Imnosaint
Iron, but Gel
Space, the WRōV's Final Frontier
It’s a bit of a paradox that the largest vehicle build I’ve done is the one shortest on usable space. It’s all my fault for repurposing the cargo area and second row seating, but in doing so, I’ve been reduced to creating storage in areas where there previously wasn’t any. Enter seat backs, C-pillars, and ceiling space.
The front LH head rest and seat back real estate hold items I need to get to in a hurry or without having to move any farther into the WROV than the LH passenger door. The head rest is wrapped in a fuzzy loop panel from Blue Ridge Overland Gear that securely accepts the hook side of my trauma responder bag, with a Nebo headlamp wrapped around it at the ready. Below it is a hard-mounted small Pelican case that houses the wired and IR remotes for the winch. In the pocket is an ARB air gauge, and below that on the floor (not pictured) is a Viair portable air compressor. Think of it as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs were he an overlander.
On the RH side head rest is another BROG panel with a survival kit attached to it. You can see the contents of both the trauma and the survival kit here. These kits swap out between the WRōV and the Tiger Explorer. Hanging from the head rest is a garbage bin from The Overland Guy who makes quality custom overland gear right here in North Salt Lake. The seat pocket holds a portable solar array.
The LH C-pillar is adjacent to the insert’s power distribution panel, so it’s the home of two 10×7.5×2″ tactical molle pouches that hold a Goal Zero Sherpa 100 battery pack I use to charge devices, including my iPhone when in the tent away from the WRōV’s charging station.
The pouches also hold charging blocks for cameras and the drone, along with cables enough to charge multiple devices simultaneously.
A ProCase Tactical molle pouch is mounted on the RH C-pillar and is the home of A/V gear used to produce UTADV content.
Aft of the C-pillars is a recess in the WRōV’s ceiling where I’ve installed a kayak deck rigging shock cord kit that holds a bug-out bag in the event I have to leave the WRōV behind.
The rigging was installed with stout rivets holding eyelets to the rigid headliner. The shock cord was looped through the six eyelets to create a snug fit while still being able to quickly access the bag from the rear hatch.
It’s a bit of a paradox that the largest vehicle build I’ve done is the one shortest on usable space. It’s all my fault for repurposing the cargo area and second row seating, but in doing so, I’ve been reduced to creating storage in areas where there previously wasn’t any. Enter seat backs, C-pillars, and ceiling space.
The front LH head rest and seat back real estate hold items I need to get to in a hurry or without having to move any farther into the WROV than the LH passenger door. The head rest is wrapped in a fuzzy loop panel from Blue Ridge Overland Gear that securely accepts the hook side of my trauma responder bag, with a Nebo headlamp wrapped around it at the ready. Below it is a hard-mounted small Pelican case that houses the wired and IR remotes for the winch. In the pocket is an ARB air gauge, and below that on the floor (not pictured) is a Viair portable air compressor. Think of it as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs were he an overlander.
On the RH side head rest is another BROG panel with a survival kit attached to it. You can see the contents of both the trauma and the survival kit here. These kits swap out between the WRōV and the Tiger Explorer. Hanging from the head rest is a garbage bin from The Overland Guy who makes quality custom overland gear right here in North Salt Lake. The seat pocket holds a portable solar array.
The LH C-pillar is adjacent to the insert’s power distribution panel, so it’s the home of two 10×7.5×2″ tactical molle pouches that hold a Goal Zero Sherpa 100 battery pack I use to charge devices, including my iPhone when in the tent away from the WRōV’s charging station.
The pouches also hold charging blocks for cameras and the drone, along with cables enough to charge multiple devices simultaneously.
A ProCase Tactical molle pouch is mounted on the RH C-pillar and is the home of A/V gear used to produce UTADV content.
Aft of the C-pillars is a recess in the WRōV’s ceiling where I’ve installed a kayak deck rigging shock cord kit that holds a bug-out bag in the event I have to leave the WRōV behind.
The rigging was installed with stout rivets holding eyelets to the rigid headliner. The shock cord was looped through the six eyelets to create a snug fit while still being able to quickly access the bag from the rear hatch.
The Rhino Roof Rack
View attachment 646248
The plan for the cargo area displaces storage for recovery items and tools so I decided to add a modular roof rack upon which I can mount a Pelican Cargo Case to hold these items and more. After researching a number of applications (which isn’t much for the this generation of Tahoe), I went with a 76″ X 54″ Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform that I picked up from etrailer.com with the design intent to create a custom mount to the factory roof rack rails.
I removed the factor load bars and blacked out the aluminum factory rails with tape to give the install a seamless integration to the roofline.
The width and length of this platform fits the stock rails perfectly. It’s mounted with 5/16″ rivet nuts inserted in the rails, five per side that align with the Rhino Rack crossmembers. While the bolts disrupt the utility of the outer rack slats, there’s still enough platform for our anticipated loads. Factory rating is 150 lbs, and this rack weighs in at 65 lbs, allowing plenty of load for our intentions.
My concern with this hardware was its tension strength; that given the amount of torque I wanted, the rivets might pull from the aluminum rail, but each held fast and at ten points of attachment it’s a solid, very low-profile mount.
Before and after shots to this build point.
So did you mount the rack straight on the rails? I am looking at doing this for my Yukon XL but Rhino Rack suggested Backbone.
Nice looking truck!
Imnosaint
Iron, but Gel
Part One: Sleep Platform 2.0 and Onboard Air System
When One Thing Leads to Another
Twenty thousand miles, eighteen months, nine national parks and five states later, we got great use out of the WRōV’s original drawer system insert, cooking, cleaning, storing, it did it all for us. Along the way, though, I got into some wouldn’t-it-be-nice thinking, and then a couple of significant changes happened.
The first, more gradual change is the chemo’s impact on my declining strength and energy, making me consider more travel in the WRōV and less on the Triumph Tiger, which is a tough shift for me, both economically and emotionally. One of the more draining tasks in off-road driving is airing down and up for surface conditions and traction. Toting the Vaiair pump to all four corners to air-up was time consuming and arduous, so the first wouldn’t-it-be-nice box was an onboard air system that would cut down inflation times and work.
The second, more jolting change is the death of our beloved Ginger, from, ironically, blood cancer, and Maryann’s diagnosis of the same. If you’ve been following Cornering Consciousness, you know we’ve been traveling with these two sisters for over a decade and that every build I’ve created included a dog deck for them to comfortably ride on. Such was the case in the WRōV.
Ginger especially enjoyed her place on our rigs and like us, relished the journey a bit more than the destinations. She was always ready to go.
Her death came shortly after our recent outing to the San Rafael Swell, where she loved roaming Eagle Canyon, trotting along behind the WRŌV while I piloted the drone. Shortly after, her spleen ruptured from a large tumor and we lost her. We had Maryann examined only to find she has the same tumor, bigger and more vascularly inundated, so we’ve decided to take it more easy with her and keep her adventures to the ground. It’s just a matter of time. This has been devastating. I can’t help but think I jinxed it all when I joked with my kids about my own prognosis, that the girls (Ginger and Maryann) were sure to outlive me.
But, I was wrong. So, all things considered, I decided to make some changes to the way we travel.
To solve the airing issue, I crawled around the WRōV looking for a place where I could mount two ARB compressors. There’s no room under the hood without a radical redo of the cold air intake system, and while there were a couple of spots on the frame underneath, I just didn’t want the pumps to be vulnerable to the elements, especially to UDOT’s snow abatement practices. This new system would have to be mounted in the WRōV’s interior and plumbed to the chassis.
At the same time I considered using the space previously reserved for our canine companions for ourselves, a place to sleep like what I build in the Nomad, but with this new system incorporating the accoutrements from the previous insert, including the Dometic stove/sink combo, hot and cold running water and its drawer system.
See if maybe I couldn’t combine the best of both worlds. And give me something to do between my 20th and 21st rounds of chemo.
When One Thing Leads to Another
Twenty thousand miles, eighteen months, nine national parks and five states later, we got great use out of the WRōV’s original drawer system insert, cooking, cleaning, storing, it did it all for us. Along the way, though, I got into some wouldn’t-it-be-nice thinking, and then a couple of significant changes happened.
The first, more gradual change is the chemo’s impact on my declining strength and energy, making me consider more travel in the WRōV and less on the Triumph Tiger, which is a tough shift for me, both economically and emotionally. One of the more draining tasks in off-road driving is airing down and up for surface conditions and traction. Toting the Vaiair pump to all four corners to air-up was time consuming and arduous, so the first wouldn’t-it-be-nice box was an onboard air system that would cut down inflation times and work.
The second, more jolting change is the death of our beloved Ginger, from, ironically, blood cancer, and Maryann’s diagnosis of the same. If you’ve been following Cornering Consciousness, you know we’ve been traveling with these two sisters for over a decade and that every build I’ve created included a dog deck for them to comfortably ride on. Such was the case in the WRōV.
Ginger especially enjoyed her place on our rigs and like us, relished the journey a bit more than the destinations. She was always ready to go.
Her death came shortly after our recent outing to the San Rafael Swell, where she loved roaming Eagle Canyon, trotting along behind the WRŌV while I piloted the drone. Shortly after, her spleen ruptured from a large tumor and we lost her. We had Maryann examined only to find she has the same tumor, bigger and more vascularly inundated, so we’ve decided to take it more easy with her and keep her adventures to the ground. It’s just a matter of time. This has been devastating. I can’t help but think I jinxed it all when I joked with my kids about my own prognosis, that the girls (Ginger and Maryann) were sure to outlive me.
But, I was wrong. So, all things considered, I decided to make some changes to the way we travel.
To solve the airing issue, I crawled around the WRōV looking for a place where I could mount two ARB compressors. There’s no room under the hood without a radical redo of the cold air intake system, and while there were a couple of spots on the frame underneath, I just didn’t want the pumps to be vulnerable to the elements, especially to UDOT’s snow abatement practices. This new system would have to be mounted in the WRōV’s interior and plumbed to the chassis.
At the same time I considered using the space previously reserved for our canine companions for ourselves, a place to sleep like what I build in the Nomad, but with this new system incorporating the accoutrements from the previous insert, including the Dometic stove/sink combo, hot and cold running water and its drawer system.
See if maybe I couldn’t combine the best of both worlds. And give me something to do between my 20th and 21st rounds of chemo.
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