Well, there wasn't a plan to begin with anyways, but I'm just rolling with it. I guess it's been a second since my last update, but here's where I stand. I haven't done a damn thing in terms of the storage and sleeping platform. I think in all seriousness now, I'd like to have it finished by mid September in preparation for Gauley Fest in West Virginia. Gotta love some whitewater and cold beer!


In other news, I've been building a roof rack, and I should be fixing to mount it to the 4Runner tomorrow morning/afternoon. I'll definitely be posting some pictures and a little writeup on the whole build process. My first piece of fabrication, and I sure am proud of it!

 

So, ever since I purchased my truck a few months back, I've really missed use of a roof rack. I finally said enough was enough and decided to go ahead a build one, but instead of just simple crossbars, I went ahead and made a full size safari rack. Let my first bit of fabrication begin!

I had looked at buying racks for awhile and what it would cost, how well it would function, etc. etc. but after some careful consideration I figured it would be much cheaper to just buy raw material and build the damn thing myself. I used about 6, 10ft sticks of 3/4 inch EMT, one 10 ft piece of unistrut, 8 rattle cans of primer/flat black, an 8ft x 4ft piece of expanded metal and various pieces of other hardware.





The dimensions measured to be 6 feet by 40 inches, and 4 inches tall. pretty damn big.





This was our tube notching setup. Pretty cheap and efficient. Used a router to cut a groove in a 2x4, clamped it to my fathers drill press, used a 1 inch bi-metal hole saw...bam tube notcher.





closer look...





It worked pretty decent, especially for what I needed out of it.





After the upper and lower hoops were welded together, the notched pieces were tacked in.





and looked something like this.





Not the best welds, but it'll do





After all the supporting structure was welded together it was time for the expanded metal to be placed into the rack.





lots of snipping to size here.





And now it's seen here all welded together.





Size comparison. I'm 6'2"





mounting the unistrut to the roof was probably the most difficult task. Placement was crucial and done well.





Here's a closer look.





and a fancy perspective shot.





This is the bolt/washer assembly.





So from the cab to the outside it goes nut, small washer, big washer, cab, rubber washer, unistrut, small washer, lock washer, 3/4 nut.





And these are the clamps used to mount the EMT to the unistrut. I wish I would have used nuts instead of clamps, but live and learn.





And finally here she is mounted on the roof.





Boom.

 

Nice job on the roof rack man! I need to get a welder and start playing around.

 

It's been a hot minute since I've done anything to the truck lately. Nothing more than routine maintenance for the most part, this is mostly due to school taking time monday through friday during the morning and afternoon, the UPS taking the rest of my evening directly after school, but on the place side I'm in trade school for welding and fabrication which means access to tools for building a lightweight platform from aluminum are readily available. I'm thinking sometime this coming spring I'll start my work on the rear storage and sleeping platform, and hopefully this winter I'll start work on a rear bumper. Stay posted and patient!

 

Well, never got started on the bumpers but I did but a full plate of 3/16 hot rolled from drop pile at my local steel yard to build them. Maybe next week I'll actually start on some of the build, maybe not. I'm also changing my mind on the build material for the rear platform. While aluminum is a great idea because of the weight factor, it wouldn't be all too strong and the over time work abuse of something like that could fail which would suck, so i'm instead deciding to use something like 16ga steel sheet instead to save on weight but still get good strength overall. Still planing on doing this build this coming spring.

 

Aluminum is the framing metal of choice for million pound plus window wall and skylight arrays across the world, not to mention several varieties of auto bodies. Not as strong as steel but more than enough for anything you'd throw at it I would bet, and never rusts. Cost is more the issue than strength for most applications. 16ga steel seems like waaaay overkill in any case.

 

I reckon it may be overkill with 16ga and it truly is the cost that I'm worried about with aluminum. I'm trying to source it from somewhere's that isn't my local yard since their prices for aluminum are a bit high. Also, since I do have long term goals to drive this down the Pan American Highway I'm a bit curious as to how sturdy the aluminum would be with my life belongings living inside the vehicle with me. It's a road I'm gonna have to cross here within the next few months. I think budget will be a big factor.

 

I'm not dead, just busy as all get out. Between finishing school, getting back to work, getting surgery, and a few other mishaps along the way, I still have the 4Runner. She's chooching, and strong for the most part, but I have some issues that need to be dealt with. From time to time, typically going uphill and making a harder turn, my truck does this wonky thing where it's like the gas just stops and goes in a fast cycle and the entire truck jerks. It's like losing power, then power is back, over and over in a few seconds, then when I plane out or get off the curve, it stops and life goes on. Not sure what it is, but now that I have a second vehicle as a backup, I'm going to look into tearing out the 22re and doing a quick rebuild and TLC on her if possible.

The rear platform is still on my mind, but I've been too lazy to jump on the actual thing. I'd like to have at least a cheapo version in the truck this summer to do a few test runs and see how I like it, what I need to add or take away, and get a feel for what I can do to maximize space available. The thought has crossed my mind more than a few times to trade out for a 1st gen pickup, or partial trade + cash for a 12v dodge. I'm a sucker for that 12v, and it'd pair nicely with my 82' VW caddy pickup. Anyways, if somebody has input or thought on the jerking action, give me feedback!