Corey's FJ with a few mods!

[Hardluck]

Corey previously said:

Thanks Mike.
I think it is the Chaser model.
Off Road Tent Trailers by Adventure Trailers

The other one they carry is much more equipped with water, a stove, and much more.
Since I have a lot of that stuff already, the Chaser one would be better for me.

You can see how it is hinged, and how the tent would flip up with the lid.



Yep, that is the one I am going to be dreaming about for awhile

I've been dreaming about a Chaser trailer as well. I ordered a Partner Steel stove from AT last week, they seem like good guys to do business with. I think I ended up talking to Mario for about 15 minutes. I also found out that they're doing a monthly open house where you can come by and see the trailers and enjoy a hotdog and an expedition movie.

[volhoo]

Your rig is awesome Corey - great write up -

[Corey]

volhoo previously said:

Your rig is awesome Corey - great write up -

Thank you very much Vince.

I will have an update to this thread hopefully Tuesday on another "camping" addition for the rig.

[Ripsnort]

Wow Corey! You've done a crapload of upgrades to this rig since I last looked! Nice!

[Corey]

Thanks Rip. it keeps me busy

Took a break during the winter from modding, now I am back into it again.

Trying to get it ready here to camp up at Greenwater over the upcoming holiday.

[Corey]

I had two different type of awnings on my last tent trailer I had, and they are nice for shade to sit under, or to get out of the rain.

Saw this brand mentioned in a few threads on a few Toyota forums, so I decided to give it a try.

It also came with two nice camping chairs, but I am not enclosing pictures of those since those are not a mod to the rig.
You can view the chairs at the website.
They are very nice

Owner Fernando was a great guy to work with, and also made me some custom mounts to attach to the awning so it would attach to my Yakima crossbars.
You can see how the mount attaches to the two channels on the rear of the awning, and also how it attaches to the crossbars in the first two pictures below.

Setup is a little easier than take down, same as with my tent.
But one person can do this easily.
It is also free standing since it has two supporting horizontal tubes, but you will want to use the enclosed stakes to stake down the white rope loops you see at the bottoms of the vertical tubes, and also

attach the two rope guy lines to the white rope loops at the top of the vertical tubes and stake them out.
This will be better for any wind that will kick up.
But I had it setup with a light hot breeze outside for around 20 minutes a bit ago, and it was very stable.





I am also enclosing a video that shows just how fast you can deploy the Maggiolina AirLand roof top tent.
It is easy, in fact too easy.

YouTube - Setting up the Maggiolina roof top tent

Links:
Camping Lab

[Corey]

Tomorrow is detailing day.
It has been since last September when I last Porter Cabled the rig.
Doing the three step tomorrow with the Porter Cable:
Griots clay
Griots Machine Polish #3
Best Of Show wax.
My rig needs a detail bad.

But Sunday is where the new mod comes in.
It will take a good amount of time Sunday morning.

I have not been happy with my ARB fridge mounted to the top of my cargobox.
I can not see in the fridge for one thing, as the lid hits the ceiling when opening it.
If the fridge sat lower on the deck it would be OK.

Member kcfunke told me how to get the rear seat bottoms out.
Reading the manual and some info from him on how to pry off the plastic covers on the back of the bottom seat cushion, I should be able to mount my Engel Slide Lock that holds the fridge stationary to it.

If all goes well, I will have some pictures of the new location for the fridge.
This will make it so much easier to stock/raid the fridge.

Oh, and as I was taking my rear seats out, a cute girl next door said see liked my Hummer.
I had to explain to her it was a Toyota FJ Cruiser, and not a Hummer.
She drives a Ford Explorer.

She thought it was cool on the heritage of it (explained how the FJC pays homage to the the FJ 40), as she actually has seen the old FJ 40s once I explained to her they had the same type of body style as the Jeeps.

[Corey]

OK, some of you may have read that I have mentioned my neighbor here before who is a weatherman for the FAA.
Most of the time he is right about the weather.

He told me it was going to rain today, the day I wanted to spend about five to six hours detailing my rig.
The local news stations said no rain today, it is coming tonight.
Well, it started raining here about 9 am just after I finished up my ARB fridge relocation project.

I was just finishing up with the mandatory snapshots and was going to vacuum out the rig and wipe the interior down of dust when it started in raining.

Anyways, below are some pictures of the fridge move.
I like it a lot better where it is now.
I can access the lid to load/unload grub, and actually see what is in there.
I still can not raise the lid all the way up to the ceiling, but I can raise it far enough to see very well inside.
There is a guy on IH8MUDs forum who has put together all the hardware for the hinge relocation kit to make the lid lift up from either side instead of from the end, and after I order that from him, I will be able to raise the lid all the way up and let it stay open.

Here is a comparison when it was mounted in the rear.



The first two pics show the seat back cover in place and then removed.
Picture three shows the Engel Slide Loc screwed down to the plastic cover.
I had to move the plate around some so it would avoid the D ring and raised hump it resides in so the plate would sit flush.
Pictures four five and six show the fridge mounted to the Slide Loc.

I drilled small pilot holes into the plastic, and after tightening the screws down, they do not contact the metal underneath.
If I was worried about needing more strength, I can get longer screws and drill the holes deeper and into the sheet metal underneath.
I also used two extra screws this time instead of four like I did when it was mounted on top of the cargo box.

This will give me more room to load my camping gear now.
For the long stuff like the Cabela's picnic table and Camp Kitchen, I will load them in from the rear door and shove it towards the passenger seat.
This should speed up the loading process quite a bit.

The best part though is being able to access my fridge much easier and see what is inside of it.

If you do not mind giving up your rear drivers side seat, this is a good way to mount your fridge.
I can still put up the passenger side rear seat with the fridge in place.
I may even put the bottom seat cushion back in too for the rear passenger side, as it is currently out right now.
But the drivers side will stay this way indefinitely.

[Corey]

Just an FYI to all ARB and Engel fridge owners.
There is a kit designed by a guy over on IH8MUD to rehinge the lid on these fridges.

Fridge Lid Flip Kit

The thread of how it came to be.
ARB Fridge would be cooler if it opened like this. - IH8MUD™ Forums

Even with my fridge moved to its new location, the lid still hits the ceiling.
My kit was shipped today, I should have it early this coming week.
I will try my darndest to get the hinge kit installed and report back here in my buildup thread on how it works and some pics of it.

So what it does it relocate the hinge so you can open the lid from the side, thus able to lift it all the way up if it was hitting the ceiling like mine was before.

[Corey]

First I had the fridge on top of the cargobox, then I moved it to behind the drivers seat as seen above in a previous update.

It is much easier to get to the contents of the fridge now, but I still could not lift the lid up all the way, and I had to hold it open with one hand.

On my trip to Mt. Rainier in August, it was a PITA to have to hold the lid open with one hand, and move the contents with the other hand.

Awhile back I came upon a thread on IH8MUDs forum about relocating the hinges so the lid will open from the side.
The creator of the thread ended up putting together a kit so one does not have to hunt around for the parts.

The kit arrived today, and I could not wait to dig in on another project.
Total time was around a half hour or so.

While the instructions do not call for drilling a pilot hole for the self tapping screws supplied, I did drill a small 7/64th pilot hole.
I was careful to not drill into far.

I first put the hinge in place, and I went back in 1.5" from each end of the fridge to center the hinges.
I marked one hole with a felt pen, then drilled it.
I then put the hinge in place and used the 18v drill to put in the new screw.
Once it was in and tight, I then drilled one hole at a time and repeated with the self tapping screws.
So in other words, I did not drill all four pilot holes at once.

Once the hinges were in place, I then took out the top screws I had just put in and took the lid all the way off.

You then have to remove the stock hardware from the lid and the fridge for the stock hinges.
Once you have done that, you reuse the stock bolts (these are not screws) to fill in the holes.

I put the lid back on again and put back in the upper screws for the new hinges.
I then snapped close the stock latch, and all is very tight.
I did not opt to install the new clasp/lock supplied in Kevin's kit, as the stock hinge worked out fine in its original position.
Plus I will not have to modify the thermal bag by cutting a hole in it for a new clasp/lock.

Picture one below shows me holding the lid open with the fridge in the rig.
The lid hits the ceiling and will not raise up all the way.

Picture two shows the hinge on with three screws in place and a pilot hole ready for the fourth screw.

Picture three shows the new hinges in place and the lid open.
Note that the lid stays open too.
It has an adjustment screw you tighten to cause friction in the hinge, thus allowing the lid to stay open in any position.
Way cool man

Picture four shows the new hinges in place and the lid off ready for me to take off its hardware and the fridges hardware for the stock hinges.

Picture five shows the fridge back in its native environment, and the lid open as if I was going to access it for grub.
The lid clears the ceiling just fine too.

This retrofit will make an ARB or Engel fridge that more enjoyable to access the interior of it.

This kit gets the two thumbs award





Click here for the instructions and to order the kit.

The thread on IH8MUD that started it all.