Big Tuna's "Building the Dub!"

[BigTuna117 33]

Ha! Good idea, never thought about that section of the tail light. I might have to steal that idea.

 

I'm surprised it never struck me to investigate those 3 wires. they were always there, I just figured they were part of the trailer harness, I never realized that they threw a whole 'nother set of bulbs in there! All I had to do luckily is splice those into the tail circuit. Looks good!

 

[BigTuna117 33]

So, today I popped the headlight assemblies off for the fifth time this year, to finish the LED swap. Everyone interested in swapping to LEDS, I reccomend checking out superbrightleds.com , their quality is excellent, and usually their prices (although they charge per bulb) are generally much cheaper than buying LEDs in pairs from big box stores. The only exterior bulbs that aren't LED yet are the original headlight illuminator bulbs, but they aren't really a functional asset anymore, so I'm not too worried about it. I mean, they will get replaced eventually, but all of the "functional" bulbs are now LED.

 

 

 

What functional purpose does it serve? Well, I'm hoping that they'll last longer than conventional bulbs, given the fact that the rattling of OHV use tends to diminish their overall life. We'll see!

[BigTuna117 33]

I said I wasn't going to buy any more parts until after this year's trip to Moab, but I couldn't resist.

 

 

I bought this little bugger to better illuminate the trail on trips that end up becoming night runs.

It complements the other LEDs pretty well.

 

 

I bought a set of rocker switches from MICTUNING on Amazon. Excellent quality switches which come with a pre-made wiring piggyback so that you just have 3 wires to run. Nifty.

 

 

While I was at it, I went ahead and replaced the rock light "bomber" style switch so that these two match. They look good, they are very good quality switches with a satisfying *click* when you push them back and forth.

 

 

 

I also bought a "fridge" switch for the back. Although I don't have a 12v fridge, per se, I do have a 12v Igloo cooler wired into a relay back there. It's ancient, but apparently one of the few models made by anyone ever that actually hit refrigerating temperatures, and can actually cool itself down to operating temperature without help. It's nice to see the rear battery finally gettin' some love after this last year of mostly nothingness.

 

*Oh!*

 

And I completed the MK I Prototype of my camp shower setup. Should be really nice for those long hot dusty trips where all you want is a shower!

 

[BigTuna117 33]

Not much been happening lately, since I am currently prepping for my trip to Moab next week. I did happen to get a few issues resolved and some experimenting with the 12v cooler.

 

After watching it for a few weeks, I noticed that the filter housing was having issues staying attached to the connector on the lower side. Since this connector will likely stay here, I epoxied the two together:

 

 

Hopefully this makes it watertight here. it certainly is stronger and should not come off without some serious force now.

 

Another thing I have been messing with is the 12 volt cooler I have dropped into the back of the Jeep. It uses the standard thermoelectric Peltier type cooling solution that most cheap coolers use, and has the same downfalls as they do. In particular, poor cooling. The cooler's ability to cool depends entirely on how efficiently you can remove the heat from the hot side, so I epoxied this 80mm fan in front of the exhaust heatsink to pull hot air away from the unit. This actually has increased the rate of cooling for the interior, where it could drop the temperature from 80F to 40F in about an hour and 15 minutes, It can drop from 80F to 40F in about 20 minutes flat. I tested the drop using a fridge thermometer, while the Jeep was shut off and sitting without any windows open in the midday sun. If I add a faster fan to the inside transfer, I may even make it more efficient, now that the Peltier thermoelectric transfer isn't hitting it's maximum temperature. Not too shabby for drinks and snacks on the trail!

 

(I know, I know. It's dirty on the outside. I need to take a damp paper towel and clean the outside off. Still, not bad for years in the garage!)

 

So that's it for now. I'll report in later!

 

[MattsHO 0]

Nothing beats the LED lightbars. It makes the headlights almost useless.

[BigTuna117 33]

Nothing beats the LED lightbars. It makes the headlights almost useless.

 

In my case, my High and Low beam bulbs are also LED. I believe that just turning on the primary lights should be sufficient for most trips. However, there comes a time where the extra lumens do come in handy. I ended up picking this lil' guy up to compliment the bulbs I already have. The 5000K LED (3900 Lumens, I'm not sure if this is total or "per bulb") low beams throw mainly towards the road, the 6000K LED bulb I have in the hi- beam socket (1100 Lumens per bulb) fills in the space that the low doesn't throw to, and the light bar augments both. Total with all three on should be around 14K lumens, depending on how you add them all up.

[BigTuna117 33]

MOOOOOAAAABBB!

 

Had another excellent time, and the Jeep performed much better this year. No major damage to report, but I still have a tendency to drop coils.

 

Gettin' flexxxy

 

Also, the LED array was super bright, and somewhat flexible since you can just turn off one of the bulb sets to change the brightness.

 

Also, towed for the first time, too!

 

 

 

I'll probably add more in later. another post perhaps.

[MattsHO 0]

So jealous, What happened to the Wrangler? I like how you had the hazards on while towing him.

[blaze 0]

How are you liking the tire carrier so far? I'm trying to figure out what I am going to do with my spare still. My biggest dilemma is that I think I'm going to end up needing the receiver to tow a trailer, so going this route could make things a little more difficult, but, you could always throw the whole setup in the trailer.....

[BigTuna117 33]

So jealous, What happened to the Wrangler? I like how you had the hazards on while towing him.

 

He burnt up his clutch! I felt like the hazards were a good idea since people were blasting by us the entire trip back, even with part of the group up front, warning people of the tow going on.

 

How are you liking the tire carrier so far? I'm trying to figure out what I am going to do with my spare still. My biggest dilemma is that I think I'm going to end up needing the receiver to tow a trailer, so going this route could make things a little more difficult, but, you could always throw the whole setup in the trailer.....

 

So far I really enjoy it. It only had to be removed once, and that's to tow the TJ. It holds the big heavy Trail Hogs without much complaint, but with a slight wobble, which we've come to call "Hitch wobble" from being held in by the hitch pin. However, it has pretty good clearance, and didn't get dragged around as much as the hitch d-shackle did last year.