Jonnys_Tundra Build Thread - 2017 Tundra

[JNewton99]

The next project on the list I was hesitant about! I loved the idea of a built in water tank within the cabinets but the question was how to fill it up. After much thought I decided the right way was the scary way which involved a big hole saw and lots of aluminum shavings!!!!!

No turning back now!



With the first hole drilled through the pristine aluminum shell, I figured why not another! So a second hole was drilled! LOL
What I opted to do was install a lockable water fill port and 110V shore power plug into the shell. Which I feel, came out looking pretty nice!



The inside doesn't look too bad either! l would eventually come back and build a chase to enclose these connections and my wiring that will be in the same area.

 

[JNewton99]

Once 3 days had passed since the bedliner being sprayed on, the most I could allow due to time, I decided it was time to gently install the cabinets into the truck bed. A vision finally coming together!



Next thing I did was install the drawer tops, drawer faces and the Oregon AT bug screen in the rear hatch. At this point I was dead tired, our leave date was just 2 days away but I was ecstatic! I love it when a plan comes together! I was so excited, or maybe delusional, that I started throwing gear in before even getting a picture of everything installed!

 

[JNewton99]

Closer shot of the interior.
The wiring will have to be addressed at a later date, for this trip that's it's home for now. I have it where I can plug the distribution block into my Goal Zero Yeti 500X to power the camper and have 200W of Renogy Solar Panels (2 - 100W) on the roof to charge the power station.

The void in the front passenger corner was originally intended to be covered but after packing and discovering it perfectly held my Devos Light Rangers (jonny_10 saves you 10% ) fishing net and daughters chair I think it will be used for just that!




My DFG Offroad fridge slide didn't arrive on time, which will hold my fridge on the drivers side short cabinet, so instead I used it as more storage space for this trip.
My front cross box, which holds my water tank, also held spare parts for this trip as well as an axe, shovel, machete and other odds and ends.
At the top of the picture, you can see my water tank plumbed in as well as the top of my water pump which is turned on by a switch at the rear of the Atlas as well as a QD water connector which is loosely mounted behind the driver side box at the rear of the truck for this trip.



The passenger side box has storage up top via lift up and off lids as well as a drawer below.



As mentioned above, the passenger side has a lower drawer as well as a drawer on the driver side. Both drawers are on lockable 500lb 44" extension drawer slides. For this trip I just threw items into the drawers, but I do plan to make dividers or lift out organizers in the future to better organize the drawer contents.

 

[JNewton99]

August 2024:

After 9 days in Colorado, living out of the Atlas, I was super pleased with everything! I still had a few finishing touches but are you ever really done anyways???
As always, I took way too many pictures, to be exact I took: 3,792 on my camera, 11 on drone, 16 drone videos, 992 cell pictures, 35 cell videos and 13 GoPro videos.
Obviously, all won't make the final cut but, in a few weeks, or months, or years, when I'm finally done sorting, editing, and saving them I will be sure to share!

In the meantime here's a couple of teasers!





Fun facts!
On this trip we spent 9 days total, not long by any stretch but the longest my daughter has ever been out camping and she did great! (8yo BTW)
We drove a total of 2,597 miles. Longest day on the road was our last at 17 hours.
This trip was a little more laid back than my normal, but we did manage to do Engineer Pass, Mineral Creek, lower 2/3 of Governor Basin and Yankee Boy Basin.
We hiked a ton (the kiddos favorite!) and saw the sights of the towns of Ouray and Silverton.
I discovered I have to relearn my truck with the little extra weight and new center of gravity!
Mineral Basin was, uh... lets say FUN, in a couple of spots with the new weight! LOL
The truck now weighs in at 9260 lbs, which I weighed on CAT scales after we were home and still packed from the trip!
Most importantly the kiddo and myself had a blast!

 

[JNewton99]

August 2024:
Day 1 of our trip to Colorado we made it outside of Capitan, New Mexico. We had been in the area, just a couple of weeks before, over at SOB Fabrications shop for an install. We explored the area some more then decided to make camp for the night. It had been a long 12 hr drive that day so we were wore out!



We decided to head up in elevation to find some cooler weather to sleep in as it was still pretty warm down below.



This is where we called camp for the night! We had some pretty spectacular views before calling it a night!

 

[JNewton99]

Sunrise from camp was pretty spectacular the next morning.



We quickly got on the road as we had a lot of miles to cover to make it to Gunnison, CO.



Once we made it to Gunnison, we decided to set camp up in the Hartman Rocks area. Luckily we made it early enough that me and the kiddo got in plenty of hiking and just taking in the beautiful scenery!

 

[JNewton99]

We left Gunnison the next morning, only after being sure to get plenty of hiking and scrambling up the rock faces in! We hit the road to Silverton, only to be met with road closures and hour long waits for the detour! No problem though, a route to Lake City was open and Engineer Pass would get us to where we wanted to go!

Sunrise at Hartman Rocks



Aired down and ready for Engineer Pass!



Of course you have to get a pic on top of the pass!



Once we came off of Engineer we took Mineral Creek into Ouray, here I realized how much differently the added weight and center of gravity shift effected my truck. Time to relearn the truck again! LOL
We walked around Ouray for a while before heading to Silverton to camp near South Mineral Creek where we would be waiting on a buddy and his family to arrive later that night.

Camp for the night!

 

[JNewton99]

The remainder of the trip we met up with a buddy and just slowly explored and enjoyed the sights of the San Juans before heading back home to Texas.

 

[JNewton99]

Well I got some more hardware in from @STravis . This is going to be perfect for my propane tank. Before the tank was mounted to a PowerTanks bracket in the bed but with the new layout I didn't want the tank inside. So Travis whipped this up for me and I'm hanging the GP Factor universal propane mount on it. Waiting on paint to dry then it will be permanent!

 

[JNewton99]

I also decided to cut yet another hole in the side of the camper this weekend! I found this really nice looking magnetic hub on Etsy from DY3DStudio which is designed to use for diesel heater piping. I decided to install the bulkhead fitting to the front wall of the topper which will be the perfect way to plumb the hot air into my topper and still keep the diesel heater a safe distance away from the truck.

 

[JNewton99]

While having @STravis install my front bumper I managed to twist his arm enough to make me a mini roof rack to fit the cab with the AT Atlas.

I had previously sanded the pieces of the rack with 400 grit, 600 grit, 600 grit wet then a fine rubbing compound before coating everything with Sharkhide for a finish almost identical to the AT Atlas.









These pictures were taken during mock up. Since then they have been mounted up with the appropriate weatherstripping applied to the fairing.

 

[JNewton99]

December 2024
Well, it's been a minute but me and the kiddo managed to get out Thanksgiving weekend. We headed up to the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas, about 6 hours north of us, for a 3-day 2-night outing. We had a blast, finally found some cooler temps and just kind of hung out and relaxed.

 

[JNewton99]

January 2025
We got out on a trip to the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana for a quick trip with a small group of friends.







As you can see I got the DFG fridge slide in and fridge mounted in the topper.

 

[JNewton99]

February 2025
Well, being from Texas we don't see a lot of snow. Back in January, Arkansas was hit with 8-12 inches of snow and due to work, me and the kiddo weren't able to get out. The next weekend though we decided to get out and snow was at the top of our list! Arkansas had warmed up during the week and all the snow had melted so that was ruled out. I figured we could find snow in New Mexico, so we loaded up and made a trip out to Cloudcroft for a 4 day weekend.



We packed the diesel heater and it's a good thing, since temps dropped to 8 degrees F at night in Cloudcroft!

 

[JNewton99]

Since we were in Cloudcroft we also decided to drive down to Alamogordo and check out White Sands National Park!