Gary Lewis

Gee, watch a movie and go to bed early and lots of answers come in. Thanks guys! I could use the holes in the top edge that hold the filler panels on, but that would put the lights in a more vulnerable position than on the front or set back. Or I could use a piece of angle to create a bracket between the lower square holes or between the upper round holes. Lots of options. Shaun - What lights do you have? They don't show up very clearly in that pic. Bob - I'm a bit confused about the lights you use, shown below. The Delta website doesn't tell much about them, at all, other than the standard one is $87 and the LED version is $114. If I used the hole on top that Scott pointed out and drilled a matching one I could use either rectangular ones like Bob's or round ones like these KC Gravity LED Fog Lights on the left or the old-school KC Daylighters on the right.

How low can you go? No, being a bit low doesn't seem to hurt the tranny. But it can create problems - like yours. Hope refilling it and including the additive does the trick.

Jim - Yes, the inverter does have an RJ-11 jack for a remote. And I've thought about sticking a telephone line in and seeing if I could figure out what two wires to connect in order to shut it down. However that won't shut down the chargers. And it is easy enough to reach behind the seat and turn it off, although not while driving. But I'm thinking just turning off the relay, or not turning it on, will be enough. And if you didn't attach your lights to the bumper maybe I could do that. There's a brace back there and I could weld a bracket to that and just cut the hole and paint the edge w/o welding to it. Scott - Not sure where you are asking about, but here's the bumper w/o my overlay. However there is a capped hole to the right in the picture on top. Are you thinking of placing lights there? There isn't a matching one on the other side, but that would be easy.

Yep! A really good reason to move to a Bricknose battery tray.

I'm really glad I don't have to put up with all the salt and the rust. Having said that, the core support that Jonathan got me from Arizona still had some issues I had to deal with. It had a whole bunch of stress cracks that had started to rust, so I had to clean it up, weld it up, and then have it painted. Anyway, Cory I like what you are doing! Well done.

For fog light placement I like on top of the bumper. Personally I like the look (assuming the lights have the right old-school look). And while they could be lower, they're still pretty low and definitely well protected. I aim them so the top of the beam is horizontal and the same height off the ground as the top of the lights. So they don't shine up at all to blind other drivers. And I aim them out so there is just a little overlap between the two lights in the middle. It ends up looking a little odd with the lights pointing out so far. But it gets really good side-to-side coverage. http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n13104/DSC_7617_EngMtRd.jpg On the lighting, I agree about the light bars, and especially up high. Everything I've read says that's a bad place for them. However, down low they can be pretty effective. So, I've actually thought about placing one across that flat spot above the winch lead. It is 3 1/4" up/down and 25" left/right, so a 20" one would fit. And, the height of one of the Rigid ones is only 2", so it would fit. But, I'm not sure I like the look and they are EXPENSIVE! So, I'm also thinking about recessing lights like you did, Jim, and Dave did as well. And the concern there is do I want to cut the Warn bumper? And, if I have to weld to it that will ruin the chrome, which is already quite thin. And that would probably mean I should powder coat it as the chrome is flaking in some places. But the bumper angles 14 degrees on both sides. Bob - Do you know how much you angled your lights? As for what I did today, I got the power box "installed", although it needs to come back off to wire it up. Anyway, here 'tis. Note that I had to space it out to be able to get one of the plug-in chargers in. And with that I can now turn the caps back around.

Oh ya, be great in a Super or Crew cab...not so easy to open when driving. I have one in Blue. Haven't used it much, but it is there.

Yes, that is nifty. But that rear window isn't very far away on a regular cab truck, so it isn't very hard to reach it.

Bob - I agree about LED lighting on these trucks. I don't think it looks right. So what I'd really like to do is what others have done and cut into the bumper and put lights in there. But I'm afraid it would be sacrilege to cut into a Warn bumper. As for "fog" light, I always think they are yellow and I don't want that. But I do want a wide spread. Then there's all the other lights. I'll pass. I doubt I'll do a whole lot of this, so I can take lanterns, headlights, etc for the other things. Plus, my son got me the party light string that will help in a camp.

I like Aux Power. Thanks, Dane!

One of the reasons I like that Rigid graphic is the spread angles. I found essentially that graphic w/o the angles and didn't like it 'cause I, like you, don't agree with their terminology. But with the angles I might be able to nail down what I'm looking for with another vendor. And I agree that I want more off to the sides as well as up and down. So that's what I'll be looking for in front. So, maybe "Off Road" is the right legend on whatever lights I put on? That way whomever else drives the truck might not be expecting to use them on the road. And I think we are together on the rear lights.

No he didn't! But it's easy when "quoting" someone to edit what they said and make it look like they said something they never did say. Don't do that! I haven't seen it here, but on other boards I've (rarely) seen where someone changed what someone else said. If it's done for humor (and it's obvious that you did it) that's one thing. But if it's to make someone else look bad, or yourself look better? Don't do that. But, there are times where editing a quite can be a good idea. For instance, I almost always delete out pictures someone else posted, just so we don't all have to wait for that picture to load multiple times when opening a page (I might keep a picture in if I'm commenting on it). Or if I'm commenting on a specific part of a longer post I might delete all the rest of the post. But when I do that I'll put "...." in place of the text I deleted to make it more clear that the person said more (in case my editing takes something out of context). Not saying others need to do it the way I do. But I do think everyone needs to be a little careful in this area. It's so easy to miscommunicate on a bulletin board! Well said, Bob!

Had another thought. If I can get the SPDT center off switches like I hope to on the lights, I could also use one as the "inverter power" switch. I'd cut the W/P wire between the fuse panel & aux battery relay and extend both pieces to the switch. Put always-on power to one side of the switch and switched power to the other and be able to turn the behind-the-seat power completely off from Mission Control as Bob suggested. Which brings up the question of what lettering to put on that switch. I can change the lettering w/o no additional cost, but only get a max of 10 characters/spaces per line and two lines. It looks like this would work: But is Inverter Power better? Less accurate but..... Better ideas, please! I may order tomorrow.

Yes, that's the way it works.

With reference to what "lights" I might have I've done a lot of reading on the subject. On one hand I've found that folks that do serious overlanding on several continents with very specialized vehicles have lights absolutely everywhere. On the other, several folks that are into overlanding say they've tried lights everywhere but have gone back to wide-dispersion lights in front and some bright lights for the rear tied into the backup light circuit. And I've come to the conclusion that with the limited overlanding and off-road trails I'll do the latter will be the goal. That raises the question of what type "wide-dispersion" lights I'm looking for. And on Rigid's site I found the graphic shown below. Tthat seems to say what I want are indeed "driving lights" - at least in Rigid's opinion. But they also give beam angles, so that will help with finding lights that match my desires.

Yep. But to add a bit, you can put several quotes in one post. Here's your last statement that I put in by just pressing Quote: Here's your original question, which I got by playing like I was going to reply to that post, hitting Quote, copying the text it inserted, then coming here and pasting it in. So you could put everyone's responses in as quotes and respond to them individually if you wanted.

What it doesn't say is that the thickness of the dividers is usually 1/4". But, that would get busy in the drawing. And, the fabricator can use whatever thickness they want. For instance, if you used steel 1/4" would be waaaaaay too heavy, while in wood 1/4" might not be enough.

If you push the "Quote" button on the left end of the buttons the system will paste in whatever the person you are replying to said. And if that person had quoted another person then the other person's statement would be in as well. So, I quoted your post, as you can see above. I'll now post this and then reply to myself and you'll see that when I quote my post it includes your post. See, it includes your post because I quoted you.

If you push the "Quote" button on the left end of the buttons the system will paste in whatever the person you are replying to said. And if that person had quoted another person then the other person's statement would be in as well. So, I quoted your post, as you can see above. I'll now post this and then reply to myself and you'll see that when I quote my post it includes your post.

Yes, seeing them together does really point out the vertical stretch. I'm sure I could fix it as the width and height pixel counts are hard coded in the embedding HTML. But that's for the "view" I "printed". So if I change the pixel counts and then change the view it'll be wonky a different way. So, the best way appears to be to just insert the image the standard way.

Jim - Let's see if the normal way of inserting an image works better. And it sure looks better to me. Here's the normal way:And here's the embedded version:https://sn3302files.storage.live.com/y4mZDQKALAoesjoQ96NDk9PkaS7_teF_lrSWzy0QiTG240f4sEF91S7Y17ohaYOlvWkDRvrVYW8C8FRKnWSMvEt8r5U-1LiraZPstq7q3JWiyLvuqX6U3sziHLKSId-ulkDy4Z7ZitbnkOz-9isBIrcJ9F5bc0gKA96-THPJTdXNNlbFVrAHyJllm_26VXNB8qT?width=1650&height=1275&cropmode=none

Ron - See if that helps. And, I've embedded the jpg file here so if I change it this will change. Also, note that the height of the shelves shown doesn't include the "floor" of the unit or of the shelves. Just the outside dimensions. Does that make sense? https://sn3302files.storage.live.com/y4mZDQKALAoesjoQ96NDk9PkaS7_teF_lrSWzy0QiTG240f4sEF91S7Y17ohaYOlvWkDRvrVYW8C8FRKnWSMvEt8r5U-1LiraZPstq7q3JWiyLvuqX6U3sziHLKSId-ulkDy4Z7ZitbnkOz-9isBIrcJ9F5bc0gKA96-THPJTdXNNlbFVrAHyJllm_26VXNB8qT?width=1650&height=1275&cropmode=none

John - Do you have a format you want to use? What about a limit on the number of characters? I just looked at Big Blue's show entry and it is mainly bullet points. Are you wanting prose? I'm just trying to see what you are thinking we should do.

Ok, you are on. Tomorrow is to be a pretty day, so I'll get BB out and take some pics. Promise! As for the story, do you want more than what was in the virtual show entry?

Bob - That's good advice on the switch positioning, and I've updated the document to have the locker on the left and the backup lights on the right. Thanks. On the power for the "lights", I hope to get a DPST switch with center off. That way I can have the lights on w/o the headlights or even the marker lights on. We shall see. And speaking of lights, OTRATTW have this switch I've thought about. I don't really know what lights I'm going to have, but I don't think they'll truly be fog lights. So I'm torn with what legend to get. As for what I did today, I cut, drilled, and filed on a plastic box all day and it is now ready for wiring. Unfortunately my heat gun gave up the ghost and the new one won't be in until Tuesday, so there's not going to be much wiring done until then. Here are a few shots of it: And now a comparison to the CAD drawing: