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   Just some quick pics before I head out. The bumper looks amazing, and is a good approximation of StormDrain's inspirational gif.  I'm not 100% satisfied with the aluminum plate. I think it could have both better coverage and better ventilation. But it's very easy to modify that part, so I might change it later if I think of something better.
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Oct 20, 2021 15:58
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| # ? May 24, 2024 20:46 |
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That is hilarious. Great job. And yeah easy to make a bigger plate or fill the gaps with little ones but overall I think they nailed it.
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Oct 20, 2021 16:02
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it is *super* cool, but i can't shake the feeling those bits of radiator sticking out the sides hunger for branches
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Oct 20, 2021 16:04
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Ya that's dope AF and the professionals did a much better job than my fingat. So much lights!
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Oct 20, 2021 16:17
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StormDrain posted:Ya that's dope AF 100%. I'm surprised how much it transforms the look. Agree with some added plates on the side to better shroud the rad but even as is, it looks like it should provide some good protection.
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Oct 20, 2021 16:28
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ryanrs posted:
Fear shopping carts no more!
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Oct 21, 2021 07:17
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you've kinda made a version of the cybertruck that isn't stupid and useless lol
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Oct 21, 2021 07:26
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Absolutely perfect 
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Oct 21, 2021 18:25
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ryanrs posted:
I like how they made the lines follow the continuation of the upper grill's/headlights' lines, generally. That's some attention to detail.
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Oct 21, 2021 21:10
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 Nice four day trip south of Big Sur with typical winter weather for the California central coast.      I didn't go out of my way to get stuck, and so it didn't happen. This area of the forest has fairly nicely graded roads. I did drive down this rough section, and then back up. It was steep and loose, but with a fair amount of exposed solid rock. Critically, it had a nice approach at the bottom which let me attack it with momentum.    On this trip I was more interested in camping and hunting than getting stuck, so the handbrakes didn't get much of a test. I also didn't want to put myself in a situation where I might get stuck or break the van the day before a big storm.
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Oct 24, 2021 10:16
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A major rain storm hitting the bay area, so I took the van on 101 for a car wash. I pulled in between two semis and got a 360 degree power wash. The van exterior and undercarriage are cleaner than they've been all year, ha ha.
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Oct 25, 2021 00:19
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Cup Holder Chat! The OEM cup holders don't work now because the handbrake master cylinders are in the way. So I guess I need to 3D print some new cup holders?    Major mechanical constraints: - Existing cup holder needs an inch or so more height to clear the handbrake master cylinder. - Non-folding replacement cup holder will restrict seat adjustment for short drivers. Minor things to keep in mind: - Bottom should be watertight for spills (lots of 3D printing isn't) - Car interior extreme temps I think if I replace the driver's cup holder, it's pretty much guaranteed it will get smashed against the brake handle every now and then. Passenger side is less of a concern. p.s. what is the diameter of a nalgene bottle? are they tapered at all?
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Oct 25, 2021 23:09
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Get a piece of sheet metal ( I suppose it would have to be fairly thick for super mega-gulps or whatever) for a bracket, and then a short length of Exhaust pipe for the holder itself. Another flat piece to cover the bottom so its water tight. Bolt the bracket to the master cylinder hold down bolts. Good excuse for you to buy a welder.
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Oct 25, 2021 23:26
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The bumper looks fantastic! RE: cupholder chat - they make attachable + collapsible cupholders in all sorts of shapes and sizes for boats. You could potentially remove the existing cupholder and attach another cupholder higher up in the same spot, or move it laterally into the pockets. Alternatively, you can get a generic MOLLE panel and screw it over the existing mesh pockets. Obviously they wouldn't expand but they would still function as pockets and it would follow the aesthetic. They make MOLLE nalgene bottle holders as well.
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Oct 25, 2021 23:42
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Just want to say as a fellow van appreciator this is a sick-rear end van.
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Oct 25, 2021 23:45
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The legit 1L narrow neck nalgene I'm holding measures a hair over 3-7/8". No taper. I'd probably make the holder about 4.25" so it's a loose fit and maybe 3 or 4 inches deep. I'm not sure about the 2L tallboy nalgene size wise, can't find mine right now.
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Oct 26, 2021 00:34
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Passenger side only, double cup holder with 85 and 105mm rings?
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Oct 26, 2021 00:46
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ryanrs posted:Passenger side only, double cup holder with 85 and 105mm rings? great for camera lenses and howitzer shells!
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Oct 26, 2021 07:04
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It's 81mm!  His mortar rounds will be wobbling all over the place.Would it be reasonable to attach the cup holders where the saggy netting is currently?
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Oct 26, 2021 09:59
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ryanrs posted:Cup Holder Chat! Do you like your seating position? Can you lift the seat with spacers and longer bolts and keep the cupholders as they are now?
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Oct 26, 2021 15:22
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Vampire Panties posted:The bumper looks fantastic! Bonus to a boat cupholder is you can get one of the self-leveling ones for all your off-camber needs. Alternately - I'd build a console over the master cylinders, with cupholders.
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Oct 26, 2021 16:28
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Have you considered block?
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Oct 26, 2021 23:18
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Nope, can't see any downside to that plan.  It seems like there's at least one, possibly two really good mount points to build something - either 3D print or some pretty simple metal work to create cupholders behind the handles. On the exhaust pipe tip shared above, the real trick is to grab a terrible exhaust tip at the junkyard. Hell, if you find the right one, it's basically custom fit for those 64oz mega drinks from 7-11.
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Oct 26, 2021 23:35
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3d print a block that has hidden fasteners inside. Paint like a block. Amuse people when the van is on its side and your Yeti cup is solidly held inside. Edit: this thread is where I exercise my chaotic good car energy. StormDrain fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 23:59
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Krakkles posted:Nope, can't see any downside to that plan. Exhaust tip is good if its chrome. Hell, just get a hole saw of the correct diameter for the inlet pipe itself, drill through the floor of the van and epoxy the tip sticking out of the floor. Then if you have a spill, it will just drip through the inlet, and out the bottom. Bonus points because it'll work as a piss funnel.
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Oct 27, 2021 00:11
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Ever since I went up that steep, loose, rocky bit of road at Los Padres, there have been some weird noises. A little creak/clunk going on/off throttle. Some weird clunk when turning into parking lots with ramps. I should probably jack it up and make sure everything important is still in place. Ugh.
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Oct 28, 2021 04:25
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ryanrs posted:Ever since I went up that steep, loose, rocky bit of road at Los Padres, there have been some weird noises. A little creak/clunk going on/off throttle. Some weird clunk when turning into parking lots with ramps. See if you lost a CV boot.
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Oct 28, 2021 04:57
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Sounds like suspension related. Control arm bushing, sway bar links, or ball joint.
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Oct 28, 2021 14:45
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Here's the news I've been waiting for: Sequoia NF has dropped all fire restrictions. This means next weekend I'll probably head to Indian Wells Valley, on the western edge of the Mojave. I'm going to play fire restriction arbitrage along the Sequoia National Forest / BLM Ridgecrest border, camping just inside the NF at 5,000 ft. It'll be cold, and very dark (new moon). But I will have a fire to keep me warm. If the weather is good, and the trail is dry, and there is no snow, then I might reattempt my trip to McIver's Cabin. This will be quite a test for the van. I need to hunt down that new noise before I try this. If conditions are less than perfect up in the mountains, then I will spend my weekend on the bajadas hunting rabbits. e: here's why having a fire is so important to me. My Indian Wells Valley camping spots are along the eastern edge of the Sierras, between Sequoia NF and Highway 14. At this time of year, the sun sets really early, before 6 PM. Then the temperature starts to drop and there's not a lot to do besides sit around camp and read. Which is good! I like sitting around camp reading. But no matter how much I bundle up, when sitting out there in the dark desert, my core temp drops, my toes get cold, and I get sleepy. Before I know it, I'm in my sleeping bad and asleep and it's only 8 PM. Then I wake up at 5 AM and it's even colder, and there's still nothing to do until the sun comes up. But if I have a good fire going, the radiant heat is enough to keep me toasty down into the 40s. I can stay up late reading my books and sipping scotch, listening to the coyotes, and generally being comfortable and alert enough to enjoy being out in the desert. Then I go to sleep at midnight and wake up at 8 AM with sunlight streaming into the van. ryanrs fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Oct 31, 2021 |
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Oct 31, 2021 01:41
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ryanrs posted:Here's the news I've been waiting for: Sequoia NF has dropped all fire restrictions. That sounds great. Have you tried any of the battery powered heated gear? I have the m12 hoodie and it keeps me pretty toasty down to 50 just sitting in the wind (or much lower moving at all) by itself.
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Oct 31, 2021 02:32
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Suburban Dad posted:Sounds like suspension related. Control arm bushing, sway bar links, or ball joint. Correct! Sway bar link lost a nut. (Or did I forget to put it back on?) So do I put a new locknut on it, or pull the link and leave it off for the McIver's Cabin attempt?  builds character posted:That sounds great. Have you tried any of the battery powered heated gear? I have the m12 hoodie and it keeps me pretty toasty down to 50 just sitting in the wind (or much lower moving at all) by itself. I have a Milwaukee jacket, but it's kind of overstuffed and doesn't play well with layers. I should give it another try though.
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Oct 31, 2021 21:54
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builds character posted:That sounds great. Have you tried any of the battery powered heated gear? I have the m12 hoodie and it keeps me pretty toasty down to 50 just sitting in the wind (or much lower moving at all) by itself. I’m pretty sure you just helped me with the perfect Christmas present for my gf
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Oct 31, 2021 22:24
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ryanrs posted:Correct! Sway bar link lost a nut. (Or did I forget to put it back on?) So do I put a new locknut on it, or pull the link and leave it off for the McIver's Cabin attempt? I don’t know if it’s the same, but for heated gear for motorcycles you really want the heated layer to be the bottom so I would guess the base layer stuff is better and warmer.
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Oct 31, 2021 23:12
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Finally found a good video of the road to McIver's Cabin. I think I have a 50/50 chance of reaching the cabin. But much depends on the weather, because I'm not going to attempt it if there's any chance of precipitation (6,700 ft on the southern tip of the Sierras in November). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Uhkmvif8U
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Nov 2, 2021 04:08
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Cargo refactoring! I pulled the passenger front seat and bolted some bits of chain to the seat mounting points. Recovery gear and heavy tools are now up front. Remaining heavy items are the water and my cooler, which I'll try to put behind the seats, so they're still somewhat forward. This will be more convenient in camp because I don't have to unload it to sleep in the back. And it might increase traction by putting more weight on the front wheels. Only real downside is no accommodation for hitchhikers.   
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Nov 5, 2021 00:06
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Practical and cheap! I'm a fan. I've been looking at some rails like these: Tie down rails For my truck bed. I'd be tempted to put a couple down on the floors to make it easier and more convenient when you swap. Meaning you don't have to put four bolts in and you can put the tie down loops where you want.
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Nov 5, 2021 01:07
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 Offroad Sienna Visits McIver's Cabin It was an excellent trip! The weather was perfect, and I did make it to the cabin, but just barely. I got to try out my manual torque vectoring system and sway bar disconnect. There was some damage to the van at the end, but nothing catastrophic or too expensive. I headed out Friday morning. It's a six hour drive from the bay area, so it was mostly a travel day. I camped at the base of the mountains, in the Joshua trees in Sage Canyon at 4,500 ft. It was surprisingly warm, I think it stayed n the 50s all night.  Saturday I set out for McIver's Cabin. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures! It's kinda weird how this happens, but I don't think to stop and take pics of the easy parts of the trail. Then on the hard parts, I need my momentum and can't stop. Here's a couple pics on the way back, though.    I had to use the winch twice on the way up. First was backing up / repositioning on a ridiculous bank (like driving into a giant ditch). That was easy enough since I only had to move the van a foot or so. After the winching I stopped and had lunch. The road was quite difficult, and I was debating turning around. I was about 1/3rd of the way up the road by miles, but I knew the road evens out and the second half is easy. I decided to keep going. I made it several hundred feet before getting stuck-ish, again. I was not immobile, but it was clear I wouldn't be able to get the van up the last couple feet of soft dirt on a steep section. The dirt bikers I saw on the trail said it was the last big obstacle, so I decided to winch the van 4 ft to get over the crest. The winching was not hard. As in, the muscle effort to pull the handle wasn't too high. But I was getting tired very quickly. Even if I stopped for a few minutes, that wasn't enough. When I stood, I almost fell over. I almost threw up. I was not sure what was happening, and I was definitely no longer thinking clearly. So I decided it felt like maybe heat stroke, even though it wasn't that hot out. So I did my heatstroke protocol, which is to sit in the van with the A/C on and read a book for 20 minutes. It was nice. Once I started thinking more clearly I realized it was probably because of the 6,500 ft altitude. After my extended rest, I realized that the van was already far enough along to get traction, and it did. The rest of the road to the cabin was uneventful. I arrived around 3 PM, and met all the dirt bikes and side by sides that had passed me on the trail. Showed off the handbrakes, etc. Because the trip up was so difficult, I decided to spend the night at the cabin.     Sunday morning I jacked up the van and pulled off one of the sway bar links. The way back looked somewhat more difficult than the way in, and I really did not want to do any winching if I could avoid it. I'm not sure if it's because of the sway bar disconnect, but the handbrakes definitely seemed more useful on the way back. At first I tried to use the handbrakes to crawl over obstacles or get traction while starting in soft dirt. That really doesn't do much. Where the handbrakes really shine is clawing up gnarly, rutted, rocky, tree root-y slopes. It used to be that these trails were a no-win situation: if I kept on the gas, it would just light up the slipping wheel and it's never hook up. But if I let of the throttle to let the wheel grab, then I lost my momentum. But with the handbrakes, it was really easy to lightly feather the brakes so that the slipping tire could hook up WITHOUT letting off the gas. There was even one long section where I almost lost all momentum, but managed to keep up a couple mph by alternately grabbing each lever as quickly as I could. The van managed to claw up to the top of that hill, burning rubber and kicking stones the whole way. It was hilarious. I didn't need to winch at all for the return trip. I was just about finished with the trail when I took the biggest hit I've ever had in the van. It was absolutely bone-jarring. I'm glad I was belted in. It sounded catastrophic, but it wasn't, unless you happened to be my FL wheel. The damage and the rock that did it:     The thing is, that rock is pretty drat benign. Like six inches high. Not even in the top 50 nastiest rocks on this trail. It's nothing! And I know exactly how I took this curve, and how it should have gone. I took it at speed, 10-15 mph, on the right side, and put my left front tire right on the rock. Running 20 psi, it should have neatly bounced up that corner, and carried the rocker panels over the obstacle with no drama. Not even a hit, just a bump in the road. But what I think happened, is that I had put a small dent in my rim a minute earlier, didn't know it, and had running 0 psi when I hit the rock. When that wheel hit the rock, it smashed a huge dent in the rim and the lack of ground clearance let the rock savaged the quarter panel. Full size spare FTW. The damage: - steel wheel $100 ebay / $185 dealer - probably a new tire, too $170 - rocker panel crushed more than usual, $0 because won't fix - driver door latch offset from OEM position by ~3mm, still closes fine, so also $0 Amazingly, the alignment seems unaffected, though I will still get it checked out when I get the new wheel. Are rocker panels important? There are other, bigger beams further inboard. Structurally, should I care? I kinda like the idea of putting 2x4s on my rocker panels as ablative armor. They take a lot of damage on my van. This will be my 2nd destroyed KO2, so clearly I don't need to worry about tread life. I take more sidewall damage than I like. How much does it cost to retrofit a modern TPMS system? I want a display with digital psi readouts for all 5 tires, plus configurable alarm (e.g. beep if < 5 psi). What's the reaction time on these? Is it fast, or does it only poll the sensor every five minutes? p.s. I did pick up a hitchhiker even with no passenger seats. He rode on top of my cooler for a couple miles. Can't not stop for a guy walking down the highway carrying a gas can.
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Nov 8, 2021 23:00
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Also went to a truck stop and got the van weighed. Van + me + gear = 4720 lbs. Half-tank gas, 5 gal water, no firewood.
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Nov 8, 2021 23:19
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That's a heck of a hit, but looks like it weathered it reasonably well. The rocker panel isn't super important, any more that any other exterior body panel, I'd say. A lot of dedicated off roaders install what are called "rock sliders", basically steel armor for the rockers, on their rigs, for exactly this reason. Some go as far as to repace the rockers with, say, a chunk of 2" x 4" rectangular tubing to server the same purpose, if the rockers are already mangled or rusted out. I can't really comment on an aftermarket TPMS from experience, but they can't be terribly difficult to install. The old school ones required strapping a sensor on the the barrel of the wheel inside the tire, but modern systems, including OEM, just use a sensor that incorporated the valve stem. The tire has to have the bead broken, but it doesn't have to be dismounted entirely to install them.
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Nov 9, 2021 00:32
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Hell yeah sounds like a good time even with the damage, based on your attitude. I'm excited that you got to do some lever pulling and that it helped.
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Nov 9, 2021 00:56
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