Corey's FJ with a few mods!

[Corey]

I had one of these for the ARB bumper on my '91 4Runner.
To be honest with you, I never ran it.

The mount uses Maglites flash light mount clips used to hold their flash lights to things.
The clips bolt to the black metal plate, and your license plate does the same.
Then you push the clips over your roller fairleads to hold it in place.

I did keep it behind the passenger seat just in case I was asked by the law to put it on.
But in the four years I ran the bumper on the 4Runner, not once was I ever looked at for not having a front plate installed.

The new ARB bumper for the FJ Cruiser has two holes that you insert plastic screw hole mounts into so you can mount your stock plate to.
This will clear your fairleads for your winch.
You can see the white plastic inserts in my first photo below above the roller fairleads.

In the next two pics you can see the roller fairlead license plate holder.
The company that makes it is Kilby Enterprises.
However back then when I was inquiring about them, I found it cheaper to buy from a vendor that sold them for Kilby.
They are 4Wheeler Supply.

The plate will no doubt just reside in the FJ Cruiser until I get pulled over.
The asked where my plate is, I will let he/she know I have one and install it then.
I think they are pretty laxed around my area about having a front plate on an aftermarket bumper.

[dark matter]

How do you do it? I mean living across the street from the money pit.. "All on black, come on 21"...

[Corey]

Oh the Casino?
I went there for Thanksgiving dinner, and spent a total of $10 on two $5 tickets for the machines, and lost it all after going up and down.
The dinner was good though

No I am not a gambler, so I do not spend my time over there except for Thanksgiving.

Boeing pays me well though, so I enjoy doing mods to the rig.
I have a few more coming up soon, but it is to cold to work outside.
Putting my old Ramsey Wireless Remote control on soon to control my winch.
I may try installing that tomorrow if I find time.

Got another update coming soon to this thread in less than one hour.

[Corey]

I wanted to have protection on my Elocker motor as I have heard they can be quite vulnerable to getting smacked by rocks/logs that you may navigate over while out on the trail.

I contacted owner Jim to see if he had one, and he said indeed he did for the Tacoma, and it also fits the FJ Cruiser to a T.
Here it is on his site.

I do not have an installed picture of it on my rig, so I am using one of Jim's from his website.
The first picture though is mine taken on my PC desk.

It goes on with three bolts that you already have that hold the motor cover in place.
If you pull the bolts out gently and do not break the gasket seal to the motor, there is no need to replace the gasket.
Simply insert the guard in place, and bolt back up.

[abophx]

Deja vu! Cool idea thanks for the pic.....................

[tnegiet]

Outstanding...another potential gift from Santa!

[Corey]

Pretty darn cold today to be doing mods, but Santa brought me an early Christmas gift today.
Got a brand new Hitachi cordless drill, so I decided to go out and install my Ramsey Wireless Remote for the winch that I use to have installed on the '91 4Runner.

Piece of cake to install, did not even need the directions, I remembered from the last time.

Basically you mount the receiver box where you want, it needs no power of its own.
You plug in the antenna cable and mount your antenna where you want it, it has a magnetic base.

Then you plug in your winch line that goes to the control box, and the other end goes to the black receiver box.

In the pictures below you will see the parts all laid out in the first picture, the second picture shows the receiver box screwed to the firewall.
The third picture shows the antenna mounted to the ARB bumper via its magnetic base, the fourth picture shows the cable stored by the winch line, and lastly picture five shows the cable plugged into the solenoid.

I am also including a video I shot of me pulling a stuck FJ Cruiser.
Yes, it does happen sometimes, even FJs are bound to get stuck once in awhile.







Click here to view the 1.89 MB WMV format video.
Might be best to right click and save it first, then view it.

Here are some good links to some installs I had linked on my 4Runner section.
Ramsey has a nice video of it in action, and there is some real good reading on this in the other links.
The remote will work up to about 100' away.

Ramseys site with video

More info from Ramsey

Installation and testing from RockCrawler.com

I have used the remote before in the past with the 4Runner, and it sure beats holding the bigger remote that came with the winch.

[bandi]

I like the Remote setup... Very Nice... Another thing
to purchase now...

[Corey]

Drove into work this morning with the Garmin in the new mount.
Useless, it can barely get a lock on the network up in the sky.
It picked up a bit, but not good enough.

I like having the iPod up there though, it is easier to reach the wheel on it to select playlists than reaching below in the other mount.

The Garmin worked great laying it on the dash in the grove of the drivers side glovebox.
I need to find a way to mount it so it points up to read it.
Kind of hard to read it this morning there with it on its side.

Found out my speedo it dead on though, it tracked with the GPS beautifully.

[Corey]

Good news for those wanting to carry a small GPS like the Garmin eTrex line.

I put the Garmin in my lower mount where the iPod use to be.



For some reason even though that mount is lower than my new dash mount, the Garmin on the way home did not skip a lock on the satellites.

Works great there.
From now on the lower mount will be for the GPS, and new upper dash mount will be for the iPod.

Although this does not hold a full size GPS like you would use to find a store or directions, it will hold the smaller GPS units that you take 4wheeling so you can capture your waypoints to put on your PC.