With those things taken care of it was time to make the tach work. Gibby had ordered the tach adapter for the rig (took a little digging to figure out #8910)



The adapter is quite simple to install. It basically taps into the tach signal wire and a voltage source.



And look at that, it actually works I think its off a hair so I will have to remove the cluster and adjust the trim potentiometer to make it right on the $$

 

Things that nightmares are made of

 

Here is the new coolant reservoir tank. I had to make a couple of brackets and just used zip ties. It actually worked out perfect



Another problem gibby said he had was the air comperssor blew a couple of fuses. So I went thru and totaly checked the circuit and found no faults. Due to the location of the control soloniod gibby had mentioned it might have been the buckle from the seatbelt causing it to blow (could see where the buckle could easily come into contact with the soloniod) by hitting the positive postand the body of the soloniod. SO I gave it a booty

 

Well since gibby got the rig stuck (ok, we can blame marcus,lol) and stalled out his winch (8000# i believe) and since I was going to re-do the supports on his all poop bumper he went and decided the winch needed a little upgrade.



Thats a 12,000 pound puppy, and OMG is that sucker HEAVY. I wanted to laugh when he asked for some help to unload it (I thought to myself its just a winch, how heavy could it be) from the rig, and I thought he was going to toss a ball when he decided to pick it up and carry it.. And I just about did picking it up!(going to rent a fork lift to install it )

Its a wee bigger than his old one



Here is something else he picked up for the winch, and I think its going greatly aid me in re-doing the bumper supports and mounting the winch.

 

Time to DESTROY! (I know many of you love to rip/cut/beat os stuff just as much as you love to build it)



So out came the plasma and heck I even drup out the sawzall (poor thing is a little dusty).



As you can see I basically cut everything out of the middle of it. I still have to remove the 2 tube/bolt platforms you can see pointing at you. The only mounts that I will be leaving are the side ones that bolt to the sides of the body mount extursions (sp). Since those 2 mounts are there to help support the bumper for bumping against stuff they look to be sufficiant plus I am going to try and make the portion that holds the winch be supported directly to the frame. Which in turn was the origional idea for re-doing the bumper.

OMG, look at that DIRT

 

Hey I will take the blame for getting stuck! But Gibby was the one who insisted and gave me the keys to his new rig!!!! So without a Tach, I did not want to over rev the motor or worse blow the motor. Since my truck is at Crash Fab waiting to be worked on! All that money would have been spend on a motor for Gibby and not on my truck. So stuck verses no truck for me!!! Let's really think about this, I WANT MY TRUCK!!!!! Plus there was an excuator on site! He did not stay stuck for long. But 40" tires under the mud was really kewl!

Hey Crash, wondering when the cooling fan is fixed, if you could hook if up to the ignition circuit. Gibby has killed the batteries, yes batteries. But I am not sure if it was the fan or the electric water pump! Sorry Gibby, just trying to help you out! So if you do go the property by yourself with the kids you dont get stuck, because I dont have my truck right now. I am the GREAT SUB!

 

Bad markus baaad

I prefer to wire the fan to a constant voltage and here is the reason. Whats the #1 killed of components---HEAT. Now, reguardless if the coolant is flowing or not, when the motor is shut off the heat spikes and having the fan run (if the rig is hot enough) will help cool everything else off. Most of your newer vehicles these days that run electric cooling fans run in the same fasion but they are usually computer controlled for the "off" time. But with the key off the fan should be the only voltage soure being used...

 

Sorry to jump in out of the blue. Great work by the way, I have really enjoyed following this build up. Anyway, I agree with what you just said about the fans, and that's how I have mine hooked up here in the desert. One thing I might add (both as a suggestion to all and literally to myself) is a voltage drop protector on the battery. Griot's Garage and some auto supply stores sell them as you probably know. Cheap insurance if you ask me. Even in 110 degree heat, my fans will only run for 30 seconds after shutting down, so the chances are slim.

OK, that's it. Later!

 

How much does Gibby's rig weigh nowadays? With D60's, dual transfer cases, etc, it must be 5000 lbs?

 

I like the theory behind those but all to often I see them fail here at work... With the duals and the alt that gibby is running I honestly cannot see any issues... The big one I see alot are the "battery buddy"..

 

You can see the exavator attachments on the bumper

 

OK after a little time of trying to figure out a couple things, I found I was going to need to put a slice in one of the 2 remaining mounts to get the bumper level. So I cut it and got it level, then I said the heck with it and cut the bumper off.



The more and more I looked at the remaining 2 mounts, the more I hated them



The 2 riser plates gibby had used to raise the bumper on the frame were pretty bent but fully welded along the bottom and side edges on the face of the front frame crossmember. So I used the plasma and cut it just below the edge of the crossmember and welded the top side.

 

After digging into removing the old mounts off the frame, I am really happy I made the call since there was about 1.5" worth of holding weld on each side. I was shocked how easily I was able to plasma them off...



So now the frame was prepped. I finished removing all the un-needed mounts from the bumper and then set the bumper in place and made new mounts. The old ones were a mixture of 3/16" and 1/4". I made the new ones out of 3/8" I also moved the bumper down 3/4" and forward 3/8". I found this would not hurt the aproach angle much at all but was going to greatly aid in mounting the needed parts for the winch.

Here are the new mounts.

 

And now the bumper is mounted perfectly straight once again. I didn't relize how badly it was twisted compared to where it belongs..





So now the mounts are fully welded into place, and now its time to start messing with heavy parts :O

 

Everything got a little crooked for a couple of reason. 1. I didn't get it on quite straight the first time and 2, bumpers are for bumping into things!

 

Large curb feelers

 

:cry: :cry: :cry:

That hurt man. I give up, anyone wanna buy a Toylet?

I need to get me a Subaru Outback instead "rainbow"!


HAHA

 

Hey Crash, can you do something for the poor turn signal. I mean it is probably feeling lonely being zip tied. Besides it would look better!

 

Is the mounting plate a Warn part? If so what is the application or part number?

 

Yes, it is a WARN part. I think Mike has the box with the part number. I don't see it on their web site so perhaps it's a discontinued product. I purchased this from Truck Toys in Edgewood when they went out of business.

40 bucks - not bad huh!