"Lola" - WreckDiver1321's 2005 Frontier CC/SB Nismo Build and Adventure Thread

wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Not a truck mod, but I did stop by Cabela's and pick up a new sleeping bag today. Previously I've been using some blankets and pillows, but I'm trying to move toward a more compact and easier to pack system. Beret and I were checking out the "Bargain Cave" and I came across the bag I've had my eye on forever. There were a bunch of them on sale, and I ended up finding the right one for $70. Regular price on them is $140: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Mountain-Trapper-20degF-Sleeping-Bag/1942311.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dmountain%2Btrapper%26x%3D10%26y%3D6%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=mountain+trapper&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

I love this sleeping bag. I don't like mummy bags since I like to move my legs a lot, and the nylon inner material a lot of bags use makes me sweat. So I wanted a rectangular bag with the old style flannel lining. That one is just the perfect fit for me. I'm super happy with it, especially for the price.

In other news, I wasn't able to get my topper today. I called the paint shop and asked the guy about it, and he told me that he had accidentally put a metallic clear coat on it! My truck is regular black, not metallic. So he had to respray it. He was upfront and cool about it, so I'm not worried. Set up a time tomorrow morning to pick it up, so you guys should be seeing some pics of it tomorrow!
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Right. The canopy is back on the truck, nicely matching now. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Looks like a real tourer now! As you can see, I wasted no time getting it dirty.





My fiancee and I both had the day off, so we decided to go on a little fishing trip and do some exploring! We started out in Red Lodge, but unfortunately the first fishing spot was impossible to get to thanks to snow, and the second was frozen over. So we stopped at a nearby campsite for lunch and made personal pizzas over the fire. We then hopped back in the truck and made the hour drive to the unbelievably picturesque East Rosebud Lake. East Rosebud has a small summer home community that has been in the area since the late 1800s, and it's pretty easy to see why.



Everything was still boarded up though, and we were the only people for miles around.



Even after seeing it several times throughout my life, it never gets old. I had recently looked through a photo book from Ansel Adams, and I was trying to channel him a bit today.



The lake itself is home to many, many rainbow trout. Or so I've been told. They didn't want anything to do with our lures today. I didn't mind too much though, since I got to watch the sun paint the mountains on it's way down.







Despite not catching anything, it was still a pretty good day. We meandered back to the tiny town of Roscoe, MT, where we had dinner at the Grizzly Bar. The Grizzly has some seriously awesome food, but they are famous around here for selling T-shirts that have "Where the hell is Roscoe?" scrawled on the back. Where indeed. This part of Montana is small townsville USA. Roscoe is surrounded by the world famous towns of Nye, Fishtail, Columbus, and Absarokee (Pronounced ab-zore-kee. Seriously.) Anyway, I got myself a shirt after a delicious salmon fillet sandwich and a locally brewed Bent Nail IPA and headed for home. Not a bad way to spend a Monday I think.
 
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skibum315

Explorer
Awesome ... your Monday sounds far preferable to mine; I was speeding the day in front of a computer, fighting with I-Deas (CAD) ... and being taunted by a gorgeous Colorado spring day peeking through the window.
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
mortonm said:
Looking good! Nice little trip
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Hey thanks Mike!

marty1977 said:
Amazing pictures! We still have snow everywhere up here so no travels yet for my family.
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Thanks Marty. Yeah the weather has been a bit weird this year. We're getting strangely warm temps for this time of year.

skibum315 said:
Awesome ... your Monday sounds far preferable to mine; I was speeding the day in front of a computer, fighting with I-Deas (CAD) ... and being taunted by a gorgeous Colorado spring day peeking through the window.
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Haha yeah. Sometimes there are advantages to being a college student working part time in retail.

Allof75 said:
Looking great, glad you had a good trip.
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Thanks man. It was a good time. Now if only I could catch some fish...
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Did some measurements yesterday and found out I've sagged around 7/16" in the front. The extra weight from the sliders must have made them settle a bit. Need to adjust it up again.
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Went ahead and ordered an eBay snorkel from the same place E.J. bought his. I checked over a couple of pics he sent me and I'm thinking it will do just fine. Besides, I can always buy a new one if it breaks or fades badly, and my last eBay snorkel was great!
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Finished off this beauty yesterday.



The net was only around $11 from Amazon. May need to make a few more adjustments, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It's a great way to store our bedding, since all that gear is nice and light but kind of bulky. Keeps it up and out of the way so it doesn't take up any real amount of space.



Needs a couple more tweaks to be perfect. To hang it up there, I utilized four of the eight bolts that mount the roof racks to the canopy. I got bolts that were an inch longer than the regular mounting hardware, a regular bolt, and a fender washer. When I assembled everything again, I put the long bolts through the shell, then the flat plate, a regular washer, and secured it all with a regular nut. I then put the fender washer on the bolt and secured that with a nylon lock nut. Seems to be a pretty effective mount.



I wrapped zip ties around the separate strands of shock cord and that seemed to help keep everything clean and tight.



Here's a look at what the truck would look like completely loaded up for camping, minus our cot, a water can, and a couple of pillows that would be up in the net anyway. As you can see, I still have tons of space to store pretty much whatever I want.



If you look close, you can probably see the custom tie-downs I made for my utilitrack. They are simply made of eye bolts, fender washers, a nut, and a small piece of square aluminum. To lock it all in place I used a wing nut on the tie-downs on the floor. I figured having a way to remove these without needing tools was a good idea in case I have to move something that takes up the whole bed.



On the ones along the front wall, I just used normal hex nuts.



These are less likely to be moved. Right now I have one set of mounts for a jerry can, with a ratchet strap I cut to length to keep everything tidy, and a set for the kitchen box, dry food box, and cooler/fridge. That mount lets me use just one ratchet strap to secure everything, which keeps the cargo area nice and neat.

Gotta say I'm pretty happy with this cargo area setup. It needs a few little improvements, but I'm pretty happy with it all things considered.
 
mortonm

mortonm

Expedition Leader
Well played.

Interested to see how you like staying overnight in this setup compared to the RTT
 
wreckdiver1321

wreckdiver1321

Overlander
mortonm said:
Well played.

Interested to see how you like staying overnight in this setup compared to the RTT
Click to expand...

Granted I'll still have the Oztent to set up (can't sleep in the back. I'm 6'1" and the bed is 5'. No bueno.) but this approach gives me way more usable space and should keep me much more organized. I have a feeling just the added bonuses of a) not needing to tear the tent down to go exploring, and b) having way more storage space than I can use will go a long way towards improving my traveling and camping experience. The great thing is if I've got more people, I can just put the dog crate in the back and stack other people's gear on the kitchen boxes and on/behind the dog crate. I could fill that entire space. And if it gets insane, I could even strap some stuff to the roof. I think this is way more versatile.
 
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