Robinhood150

I've been busy this past week.

1. Ever since installing my sliders and rear bumper I've been wanting to add mud flaps to keep my paint and keep from being pulled over. Being the cheap guy I am (you'll notice a theme here) I went out and got the $7 mud flaps from pepboys and mounted them on the truck...but with a catch. I used velcro! "Industrial strength" velcro to be exact. The reason I used velcro is because I wanted to be able to take them off quickly when I go off roading. As you all know, mud flaps have a tendancy to get ripped off. We'll see how well they stay attached at highway speeds.



2. I've had my auto tranny light come on a couple times in the past 10 years so I thought I needed a auxilliary tranny cooler. I picked up this hayden plate style at kragen for about $50. I got the smallest one they had because at the time I hadn't figured out where I would mount it. It's a good thing I did because a bigger one wouldn't have fit where I ended up mounting it.

I didn't want to mount it in front of the radiator because I tend to have overheating problems when I head to AZ for dove hunting. So I cut some 1"x1/8" bar stock and mounted it above the front skid plate. It's pretty far out of the way of rocks, I hope, and I don't have any dents on the skid plate in that area. Speaking of the skid plate, I still have to cut some holes in it to clear the mounting bolts and provide more air flow.

Here's a picture of the mounting bracket I made:


Here's a pic of it mounted:


It was a really easy install and I hardly lost any tranny fluid.

3. Those stick tire pressure gauges you get at the parts shop are terribly inaccurate and very much inadequate for low pressure off road use. Even for street pressure they suck. However, the good gauges run about $40. Again, being the cheap guy I am, I built my own gauges for my 4runner and my wifes corolla (or Rolla, as the ricers call it).

From www.mcmastercarr.com I ordered:
(1) 0-15psi gauge $7.24....PN 3846 K61
(2) 0-60psi gauges $14.48 (for 2)...PN 3846 K63
(2) air chucks $5.92 (for 2)....PN 6146 A21
Shipping...$8 (include items not mentioned here)

From OSH I got misc quick disconnects and barb fittings...about $8. I had air compressor hose laying around so I use about 1.5' of that.

One 0-60 gauge goes to the corolla because it will always be at street pressure. The other gauge uses a quick disconnect so that I can switch from 0-15 and 0-60. Typically, gauges are only accurate at the middle ranges so that's why I went with 2 pressure ranges. These gauges are accurate to 2% at the mid range and 3% at the low and hi range.

Basically, I made 2 pressure gauges for about the same price as the normal low pressure gauges, plus they are accurate at the higher pressures too.

Here's a pic of both the guages:


Here's a pic of the hi and low pressure guages for the 4runner:


Time for a rest...

Salue

Steve,
looks like you had a very productive weekend. I was thinking of installing a tranny cooler in that spot as well but didn't know how to mount it, now I do . Are you going to have a little write-up of that install?

Salue

TDiddy

Very nice work Steve! If only I could be that productive.

Robinhood150

yeah, sooner or later, if I get off of my lazy butt. Or is that get on my lazy butt to type?