Ironraven's random upgrade/mod/repair thread

Oh, it's also noteworthy that this arrived at my house 3 days after me ordering it and the shipping was $40.00... so it's not like I paid for it to be overnighted or anything.

http://www.eagleplows.com/
1-800-328-4631

This push tube is slightly longer than their standard UTV setup specifically designed for mini trucks

 

I paid $425 for it. I still had to buy a front receiver which isn't here yet though. I mean I suppose I didn't have to buy the receiver hitch but I was having trouble engineering one on my own so I didn't have much of a choice since I need it this winter for plowing :/

 

Yeah, I'm pretty amazed at how the truck zooms through the snow and over the ice without hesitation in 4x4. It's completely useless in 2wd though lol. I suppose it doesn't help that I don't have any weight in the back yet though... which I'm gonna need for sure when I start plowing.

This ice storm thing that's been pissing on us for the last few days has slowed all the delivery guys down so I don't have my front receiver yet damn it... but hopefully it'll be here today or tomorrow because otherwise I'm not going to be able to work on it until this weekend :/

 

I didn't take pics because it was after dark but on Saturday night I drove 2 miles back into the woods to help a buddy of mine haul his deer out. I love this truck it was awesome, sneaking between trees, powering through snow drifts, slamming through boggy areas that hadn't quite frozen over yet... he couldn't believe I made it all the way back to where he was and it was so nice to have a heated cab to ride back in after freezing our hands off gutting and cleaning his deer. I think I need to get a video camera.

 

get some of these
http://www.minitrucktalk.com/showthread.php?t=8727

 

Lol, nice. For $30.00 though you could get an actual video camera with 1728 x 2320 resolution though. Since I already wear glasses those video glasses would kinda be a pain :/ I have a gorilla pod somewhere that I could use to hold it on to the truck too. Hmmm.... now I have to think if I want to give myself an early Christmas present or not

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6147807&CatId=4450

 

Got my winch mounted... now if only I had my front receiver :/ Here's a few pics:





This is my power connector, it's a quick connect so that I can move it from the front to the back if I need to

 

Nice! Is there such a thing as a receiver-less winch? Something designed to hook onto your towing loops instead of being frame-mounted?

 

Hmmm... I don't think so. You mean like a come-along right? Only motorized?

 

A motorized come-along, that's it exactly. Something for weekend warriors that aren't quite ready to go for an aftermarket receiver.

Now that you mention it, maybe a big come-along strap would be enough to drag a 2000lb microvan...

 

Like this?



http://www.amazon.com/Warn-Industries-685005-PullzAll-Cordless/dp/B000UF969G

Thought about getting one of these, might be handy....

 

Yeah, I like that it's cordless... that's pretty nifty! And WARN is one helluva reputable company too.

 

they had some no namers similar to that warn portable winch in Princess Auto a few years ago......my buddy's dad uses it to pull the boat from the lake into the boathouse...seems to work fine....I asked what they paid and he seems to think it was around $50...it's not top quality at all ......Lol decided to search quickly and heres the exact same one
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200381758_200381758

 

After thinking about this some more, I don't think I'd want to be standing right next to the winch when pulling a van out of the mud. If the anchor you're hooked onto gives way, or something snaps, you might get a steel wire whipped in the teeth, no?

 

if you lay a floormat or blanket or something over the winch cable it will keep it from snapping back (most of the time)

 

Well I'm tired, cold and frustrated... and gonna have to re-design how I do things. My estimates for the length of the receiver vs the length of the push tube was off, the dimensions of the receiver hitch itself weren't what I thought they would be (it's much lower to the ground than I had anticipated) and that means all the geometry for my plow setup is completely off :/ And this is probably the last chance I'm going to have to work on it for at least 3-4 days. It sure would have been nice to get my hitch a couple weeks ago so I could have sorted this out when it was warmer out. *sigh* Oh well, when I get it all set up I'll have a good template to post up for others to use and then there will be an alternative to blackline out there that costs WAY less.

Honestly I think I would have worked harder on the receiver hitch idea I had before if I'd known the kits they sell attach mainly with self tapping screws instead of bolting on to stock bolt locations. I'm not surprised that this fact isn't advertised by the sellers though, it really doesn't look very sturdy and sounds even less so. It's interesting too, the arms that go back to support against the lower control arm mounts or whatever are actually bolted on, not solid pieces. This gives a bit of adjustability but also seems to be a little... half assed.

Oh, also if you buy one of these things, make sure you have a powerful drill and a good bit to clean out the holes as they appear to have been plasma cut or something and are VERY irregular, the mounting hardware I got wouldn't fit at all. And you need to make sure you have some washers as you'd have to be stupid not to use them on a hole as irregular and oblong as they have to be to allow you to adjust the length of the arms to ensure proper fit. Can you tell I'm less than impressed?

 

So I have my on road / off road DOT certified ATV tires picked out. Finally someone makes a 6 ply radial atv tire that's DOT rated and actually small enough to fit on our trucks they're 23x10 R14's so they might be a little wide but I'm determined to make them work.



It might take a bit of work... but obviously I'm not opposed to doing a bit of work, after all I'm still working on a half dozen other things. Yeah, that's me easily distracted

 

damn that'a a sweet tire...

 

Yeah, and even better I'll be able to legally drive my truck on the shoulder of any county or state road in Minnesota, as well as any ATV trail certified for type II ATV's AND legally be able to drive it on any roadway I want in my home county as a vehicle Now I've just gotta get this dude with a set of 14" 4x100 ATV wheels to tell me what the hell the offset of them is and I'll be good to go.

 

So... unless anyone has advice to the contrary I'm going to pull the trigger on a set of EFX Blades today I am getting them from Summitracing for $89/ea shipped along with a set of springs for that extra inch of clearance. Going to buy a set of 14" wheels from a local dude with tires for $300 but I don't need the tires so I'll post pics of them if anyone wants some beefy ATV tires. Not sure what ply they are though, so not sure if they'd be rated for a mini truck... but I'd sell 'em cheap! Thankfully they haven't been mounted yet so at least I wouldn't have to worry about pulling them off.

Ordered my spacer lift over the weekend and that shipped out today... and hoping to borrow a buddy's MIG welder so I can button my plow mount system up this week. I need the wheels, lift and springs so I can make sure to get the geometry of the plow system correct when I'm welding up the plow mount. I've got a good idea of how I want it to go though.

Damn, this truck is gonna be SWEET when he's all buttoned up!

 

can't wait to see pics of those tires mountedop:

 

Yeah... I hope it's not too ridiculous... they're pretty low profile; 14" wheels with 23" tires... hopefully it doesn't look like he's rollin' on dubs I'd have gone with the 12" wheels and 23" tires but they are only 4 ply and not a radial so I don't think they'd stand up to the abuse I'm putting them through... and from what I've read only the 14" radials are DOT which is a requirement for me. I ought to have about 4.5" of sidewall though, that's not bad all things considered. Also they are 10" wide so I'm pretty sure a good amount of trimming will be needed in front even though I'm squeezing them on to a narrower wheel to get a little thinner profile out of the deal. They'll be 6.5" in the front and 8" in the back. I'm super excited, things should come together for me on Sunday with any luck

 

I figured I'd throw these pics up here too...

This is one of the front wheels, oooooh shiny! They look like they are about a 5+2 offset which should be pretty good... although I may need to space them out a tad when I put the 10" wide tires on there



Yeah, so these suckers are NOT for road use lol. Nice big lug on them though,



Anyone want some brand new low profile 14" mudslingers? I'll sell 'em cheap!