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PathyGig12’s Build Thread


PathyGig12
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12 hours ago, R50JR said:


Definitely plenty of space. I’d just watch the vertical clearance for when you close the the hood.

Something that just came to mind is that having an open intake area like that usually does more harm than good because now your engine is receiving completely hot air rather than pulling from quarter panel. Try maybe building a shield. Could be why k&n unit is so expensive...


Sent from my Pathfinder

It’s possible, but my hood is not super perfect anymore so there’s a sizable gap around that area and I think during the winter the outside air gets in there enough to make it nice and cold. But overall I haven’t noticed much different either way. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/2/2020 at 8:23 PM, RainGoat said:

Those upstream O2 sensors are a PITA. The downstream are a cake walk.

 

Oops I can't figure out how to delete this post

Edited by Carl_99QX4_yeww
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Update time. 
 

In the past month I got the upstream O2s swapped out finally (what an absolute pain in the ass), and changed the EGR valve as part of preventative maintenance and partially in an attempt to address my excessive fuel usage. Didn’t help much, but it  does idle a bit lower now for some reason.

 

I also got a cat code recently that popped up for a few hours but it hasn’t come back since I cleared it. I’m wondering if they could benefit from some cleaning? That could help improve mileage a bit. Other than that, I’m going to just have to chalk it up to the crap load of gear and poor aerodynamics lol. 

 

I removed the original chamber thingy for the air intake so now it’s a straight path between the filter and the outside air through the hole in the body. Not ideal for water intrusion but I have plans for some mods to address that.

 

Currently Im in the process of fabricating a new roof basket out of some steel tubing. I’m going radical this time and making it full length and width. It’ll stretch 48” between the tops of the doors and run from slightly over the windshield to the furthest back point that still allows hatch access. The reason I’m overhanging the windshield is so that I can then mount the main light bar under the rack so that it almost becomes a windshield mount but without needing to drill any holes in the body. The extra real estate of a full rack will be seriously helpful for long road trips with the pets so that I don’t have to crowd them with a bunch of suitcases/camping gear in the back seat. I’ll also have room for the second spare and some additional gas cans if necessary 

 

Oh yeah and I just discovered aluminum extrusions on Expedition Portal, which is bad for my wallet but good for my creative mind. I’m considering building a simple set of drawers for the cargo area. It’ll take a while to put together all of the materials and figure out my favorite layout but I’m hoping to have it done by summer. Mostly I just want a place to put tools and spare parts without using tool boxes like I’m doing right now. It’ll free up a lot of room and declutter the back so I can make it usable for the pets. Only question is wood vs hdpe for the main panels. I think I want plastic for weight savings but it’s more expensive so I’m not totally sold yet

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The basket frame is taking shape. Needs vertical bars and cross bars now. Can’t decide on how many I want or how to best lay them out. Then I’ll go back and smooth out my welds and paint the sucker. I’m going to use the factory rail channels to mount it the crossbars will sit over them and I’ll be able to use modified U bolts to sinch it all down

 

 

ZFN6LUQ.jpg

 

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The basket frame is taking shape. Needs vertical bars and cross bars now. Can’t decide on how many I want or how to best lay them out. Then I’ll go back and smooth out my welds and paint the sucker. I’m going to use the factory rail channels to mount it the crossbars will sit over them and I’ll be able to use modified U bolts to sinch it all down
 
 
ZFN6LUQ.jpg
 

Cool idea. I have a custom full length aluminum extrusion roof rack that needs to be assembled and installed. I’m a bit confused on your plan. You’re going to use the factory cross bars to mount it? Or you’re going to remove the crossbars and mount it directly to the channels? Also, don’t forget about glare from the light bar on your hood.


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6 hours ago, R50JR said:


Cool idea. I have a custom full length aluminum extrusion roof rack that needs to be assembled and installed. I’m a bit confused on your plan. You’re going to use the factory cross bars to mount it? Or you’re going to remove the crossbars and mount it directly to the channels? Also, don’t forget about glare from the light bar on your hood.


Sent from my Pathfinder

Sorry when I said “cross bars” I just meant the new crossbars that will be part of the basket. The factory rails will provide the mounting points with captured nuts/bolts and hold down the bars with some sort of pre drilled brackets that screw into them

 

As for the hood glare. I’ve been considering this for some time now, and I think I want to make some sort of thin shelf below the light bar to keep the light from aiming directly at the hood. I’ll see what I can come up with, but a basic way to do it would be to mount the bar right side up with L brackets coming down from the basket to support it underneath instead of from above, and then put the thin sheet of material over the studs between the bar itself and the brackets, then tighten it all down. If positioned closely enough to the bar, it wouldn’t have to be too long to keep glare off the hood. Then again the easier (and cleaner) way would be to sink it back into the basket frame and let the basket corner take care of the glare. If I end up going this route I’ll chop the basket a few inches shorter so there’s no overhang since I wouldn’t be using it anyway. I’m also looking in to using amber film for the light bar like I’ve seen others doing on this site. That alone should cut down a lot of glare

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One other aspect of this rack is going to be accounting for the curve of the roof rails. I’m thinking I’ll have to use some sort of wedge shims towards the front and rear to act as spacers between the basket and the rails. My current basket is much shorter and even it was starting to bend slightly as I tightened it down flush with the rails.

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5 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said:

One other aspect of this rack is going to be accounting for the curve of the roof rails. I’m thinking I’ll have to use some sort of wedge shims towards the front and rear to act as spacers between the basket and the rails. My current basket is much shorter and even it was starting to bend slightly as I tightened it down flush with the rails.

The roof is curves, but don't forget the angle of the channels themselves. Bolting something without the same angle of the channels won't work i.e. your rack side rails. You will not be able to bolt the rack securely.

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27 minutes ago, R50JR said:

The roof is curves, but don't forget the angle of the channels themselves. Bolting something without the same angle of the channels won't work i.e. your rack side rails. You will not be able to bolt the rack securely.

I’m not sure I follow what you mean? The cross bars of the basket will be perpendicular to the frame rails of the truck and sit directly on top of them. With the wedge spacers for the ends the basket will sit flat along the roof and the bolting will be the same for all of the crossbars. The idea is to use a modified bracket that works like a U-bolt for each crossbar and bolts into two captured nuts in the rail

 

The adjustability in the brackets shapes will allow for the slight angle change that the wedge spacers will make relative to the rails 

Edited by PathyGig12
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10 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said:

I’m not sure I follow what you mean? The cross bars of the basket will be perpendicular to the frame rails of the truck and sit directly on top of them. With the wedge spacers for the ends the basket will sit flat along the roof and the bolting will be the same for all of the crossbars. The idea is to use a modified bracket that works like a U-bolt for each crossbar and bolts into two captured nuts in the rail

Now I understand. The rack itself is wider than the roof channels so you'll only secure the crossbars. I guess what your idea is to clamp them to the roof channels.

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51 minutes ago, R50JR said:

Now I understand. The rack itself is wider than the roof channels so you'll only secure the crossbars. I guess what your idea is to clamp them to the roof channels.

Bingo, I think it’s the best way to be able to get that full width

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Using only 4 connection points should help accomodate the rocker in the roof/rails. If you use more, you’ll have to have different heights. I have 8 attachment points, which is arguably too many as you want the roof to be able to flex & you probably want your attachment points to give before the rails or your roof. I want to elevate my rack about 1.5cm using some small aluminum towers but each pair of towers needs to be a different height as the curvature is asymmetric.

 

Another FYI, you might want a sloped front to decrease wind resistance to mitigate the effect on your mpg. Also, that box front is likely going to create alot of wind noise.

 

Finally, consider an amber light bar.[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention] windshield LED bar was essentially only usable at low speed due to all the hood light reflection. He then redid it with an amber lens and it’s a world different. It still casts tons of light but isn’t bothersome to the driver & even okay to have in your rear view mirror. All the while, bright enough that I was essentially using it to see myself when he was ahead of me. Totally convinced me to go amber in the future.

 

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2 hours ago, RainGoat said:

Using only 4 connection points should help accomodate the rocker in the roof/rails. If you use more, you’ll have to have different heights. I have 8 attachment points, which is arguably too many as you want the roof to be able to flex & you probably want your attachment points to give before the rails or your roof. I want to elevate my rack about 1.5cm using some small aluminum towers but each pair of towers needs to be a different height as the curvature is asymmetric.

 

Another FYI, you might want a sloped front to decrease wind resistance to mitigate the effect on your mpg. Also, that box front is likely going to create alot of wind noise.

 

Finally, consider an amber light bar.[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention] windshield LED bar was essentially only usable at low speed due to all the hood light reflection. He then redid it with an amber lens and it’s a world different. It still casts tons of light but isn’t bothersome to the driver & even okay to have in your rear view mirror. All the while, bright enough that I was essentially using it to see myself when he was ahead of me. Totally convinced me to go amber in the future.

 

Thanks goat. I think you might be on to something with the 4 mounts thing, I just wasn’t sure it would be strong enough. 
 

Like I mentioned earlier, an amber bar is definitely on my short list. At the very least adding amber lens film to the front of mine

 

I hear you on the wind noise but I don’t really mind it that much. My current set up has LOTS of wind noise but I’ve gotten used to it by now

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VaoMcXG.jpg

 

It’s coming along nicely. Only have a little bit of free time here and there so I’ve been tackling it in stages. I’ve welded the verticals and crossbars on now, as well as the mounting tabs for the lights and tools, plus a few extra for tie down points. It got its first coat of paint day before yesterday and last night I bed lined it to give it some better resistance to chipping and scratching. It was -6 degrees when I sprayed it, so that was fun. I’m just determined to get this damn thing done. I left the truck idling next to the garage so I could hop in and warm up every few minutes

 

Anyway, I also managed to mount the lights and tools once it was dry to the touch, now it’s just a matter of mounting the rack to the rails and soldering the wires up. You’ll notice I gave up on the idea of mounting the bar under the rack, and that’s mostly because the angle of the brackets that come with the bar don’t allow enough adjustability to aim the bar correctly when mounted upside down, so I could either bend my mounting tabs or put it right side up and I went with the latter for now. Looks pretty small with a full width rack though! I think I’ll have to upgrade to a 50” pretty soon lol


Gotta love the makeshift painting set up/ repurposed heavy bag chain. The biggest challenge was keeping overspray off of the riding gear

 

 

Edited by PathyGig12
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  • 2 weeks later...

Rack is done and mounted, need to wire up the lights still. I really have to be in the right mindset to do anything electrical so I’ve been putting it off. I’m still trying to source a different light bar for the front so that’s my main excuse. I won’t post pics until it’s fully set up but the rack itself is very sturdy and the wind noise seems to be less than with the previous set up. The only issue I had was a bit of whistling because two of the mounting tabs in the front were catching the air JUST right, but Im using hooks to plug them so it’s all good now. 
 

Im also pretty much done building the drawer system. It’s mounted using the 4 cargo tie downs in the back and I used 1/2 inch plywood with drawers slides. I just put on the carpeting yesterday and now I need to finish the last few things like adding handles and organizing the tools and spare parts inside of them, but they are 100% functional as of right now. Instead of regular carpeting, I went with the stuff that they use for oil spill pads because it’s heavy duty and has a rubber backing that won’t let oil, grease, and solvents seep into the wood. I’ve learned from my previous spills back there that it’s bound to happen, either from tipping something over or from the dirty tools 
 

I think in total, the drawers only add around 30lbs and I don’t notice any effect on the ride height. The rear still feels roughly the same as well. The drawers are only 24 inches so I have some space behind the seats for longer tools, recovery stuff, and water storage. Again, no pics until they’re finalized and the interiors are organized. I’ve got big plans for the layout, gonna be awesome

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Bit of a set back yesterday. Was putting the finishing touches on the drawers and unmounted them out to do the last bit of painting for the parts that didn’t need carpet, but when I put them back in they no longer rode smoothly on the slides. Well @!*%
 

I reused the same screw holes and everything stayed structurally the same, so I can’t think of anything that could be messing them up. Super bummed right now. Need to leave them for a few days and plan a new approach. After a couple hours of fiddling I was quite close to grabbing the sledge hammer

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Bit of a set back yesterday. Was putting the finishing touches on the drawers and unmounted them out to do the last bit of painting for the parts that didn’t need carpet, but when I put them back in they no longer rode smoothly on the slides. Well @!*%
 
I reused the same screw holes and everything stayed structurally the same, so I can’t think of anything that could be messing them up. Super bummed right now. Need to leave them for a few days and plan a new approach. After a couple hours of fiddling I was quite close to grabbing the sledge hammer

Upload a pic


Sent from my Pathfinder
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19 hours ago, R50JR said:


Upload a pic


Sent from my Pathfinder

Too late now, already disassembled it further. On Tuesday Im gonna redo the boxes and remount them, they were a little wonky anyway so it’s probably best. 
 

At least this forces me to slow down and make sure it’s all perfect

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1 hour ago, PathyGig12 said:

Too late now, already disassembled it further. On Tuesday Im gonna redo the boxes and remount them, they were a little wonky anyway so it’s probably best. 
 

At least this forces me to slow down and make sure it’s all perfect

Man, that's too bad. For my setup, I worked on it for about 2-3 weeks so I knew it was done right. Hopefully you only have to make minor adjustments and not redo everything. You should post a pic of that roof rack...looks real "safari" so far.

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