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'90 K5 - The Nevada Blazer [Post 1437: School me on alternators)

Thanks for all the compliments, everyone. I'm happy with it, and it should expand the "multi-purpose" capabilities of the truck. After making my green truck so useless for anything but wheeling, it is REALLY important to me to be conscious of how my modifications will impact multipurpose function. Frankly, I like having that tool chest in the bed, a lot, but it frustrates me that I had to bolt it down because it adds another step to making the bed area switch configurations for loads.

It's technically not "finished" yet, but it's functional. I would like to put some kind of expanded steel on the bottom of it, and I think I'm going to add shovel and hi-lift mounts to the outside of it. I am going to look at the possibility of adding side-lights to it as well. :)

We'll see how it does today. I'm headed out shortly to drive 100 miles to go pick up my wife's painting and bring it home. It better stay attached, or my wife is gonna kill me! :D

This is the version of her painting that we're picking up, and it weighs 400 LBS. There's 4 more 50 lb panels that were not used for this exhibtion.

426343_712366445191_42004425_33951904_228150014_n.jpg
 
colbystephens said:
Small update. Got my lumber rack installed today. Pretty pleased with how it turned out. Have to use it tomorrow to bring back my wife's 600 lb painting from Sacramento.


Photo0416 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

In smaller news, I also got my tool box bolted down in the bed of the truck. Think I'm going to use some JB Weld on the nuts to lock them to the bottom of the truck. That'll make it easy to remove the box, and challenging for a thief to do the same.
Click to expand...
what size tires are you running and have you trimmed at all? doesnt look like it from this pic
 
K5 Jess said:
what size tires are you running and have you trimmed at all? doesnt look like it from this pic
Click to expand...

They're 38" Super Swamper SS radials. I forget the width, but they're fairly wide. I have trimmed my fenders. I moved the rear axle back 1.5" and the front axle forward 1.5". I only had to trim a couple inches on the rear of the rear fender - back to the support that goes down the inside of the fender. I had to trim the front of the front fender quite a lot - 4 or 5" or so. At full stuff, with the tires turned the right direction, I get a bit of fender rubbing on the rear of the front fenders. No rub at all on the rear fenders. This is w/ 5" suspension lift - all spring. I don't think with a shackle flip that the rear would be the same story.
 
that's pretty much what my K5's stance will be... same tires, etc, + 1" BL for me tho...
 
colbystephens said:
They're 38" Super Swamper SS radials. I forget the width, but they're fairly wide. I have trimmed my fenders. I moved the rear axle back 1.5" and the front axle forward 1.5". I only had to trim a couple inches on the rear of the rear fender - back to the support that goes down the inside of the fender. I had to trim the front of the front fender quite a lot - 4 or 5" or so. At full stuff, with the tires turned the right direction, I get a bit of fender rubbing on the rear of the front fenders. No rub at all on the rear fenders. This is w/ 5" suspension lift - all spring. I don't think with a shackle flip that the rear would be the same story.
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I think they're the same I have which would be I think 15.5" wide
 
Rack looks good!

Just a thought though, if it were me, i'd cut the lower half of the brackets with painters tape, and shoot them to match the top (white).

The bracket design is good, but i don't necessarily like how the color creeps down the side.

Besides that, awesome job!
 
dhcomp said:
Rack looks good!

Just a thought though, if it were me, i'd cut the lower half of the brackets with painters tape, and shoot them to match the top (white).

The bracket design is good, but i don't necessarily like how the color creeps down the side.

Besides that, awesome job!
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I considered that, but don't generally like the look of things that are made to look "hidden." Plus, I like accenting the curves of the brackets. :) But, I do understand your point/idea.

Today went off without a hitch. Only took 3 hours to take down and load this painting up, as compared to the 8 hours to install. :doah: Lumber rack worked great and held the 450ish pounds no problem.


Lumber Rack and Roseville-1 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Stopped in Auburn, CA for a coffee date with the wife... her treat for my help. :wink1:


Lumber Rack and Roseville-2 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Lumber Rack and Roseville-3 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Lumber Rack and Roseville-4 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The weather over the pass wasn't too bad, but we did have a bit of precipitation. We went way overkill on covering her paintings, which turned out to be a good thing. :)


Lumber Rack and Roseville-5 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here's what it looks like on the inside, at least for now.


Lumber Rack and Roseville-6 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


Lumber Rack and Roseville-7 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

The orange things are water faucet cone grommets squished down. Because the surface on the outside of the hard top is at a different angle than on the inside, I needed something to distribute the load evenly across that interior surface. These seem to work well. In the future, I'd like to build some plates for the inside so that it further distributes the load over the surface.
 
Thats funny I looked at your pics of the inside and thought, looks good maybe some plates to distribute the load would be a good idea.

Then I read you thought of that already. :D

Looks good man. :thumb:
 
Yeah, I'd like to do it, but frankly, there's not much load there. The clamping force isn't actually doing much. The only situation in which I see it making much of a difference is in the case of extreme wind loading, where the wind force, or some such thing, tries to lift up on the rack. Otherwise, as long as they're snug enough to not allow rattling, it shouldn't matter. I think those rubber cone bushing/washer things will effectively act as an anti-vibration damper anyway.
 
I might steal your idea one day.
Have you had it in the rain or have you run a hose where the bolts go through the top to see if they're going to leak?
 
85 Jimmy said:
I might steal your idea one day.
Have you had it in the rain or have you run a hose where the bolts go through the top to see if they're going to leak?
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I haven't yet, at least not a real rain. We don't get much of that in NV, and the snow season is basically over. I need to take it to a wash really bad though, as I need to powerwash the mud out of the fenders. I've had a few ideas rolling around my head to make sure it seals well, but haven't 100% decided on one idea. I'm leaning towards getting some rubber gasket material and putting it under each foot of the rack.

Right know, I'm fairly convinced that if it were to rain hard, it would not leak into the cab, but surely water would get into the hard top. Those rubber things I'm using on the inside seal it pretty well, but only on the inner surface. So I think over time you'd end up with some sloshing in your hard top if you didn't seal it with a gasket.

I've also thought about sealing it with some black silicone around the feet. I still may do this one day, but I plan to do more work to the rack still, and need it to be removable for now.
 
colbystephens said:
You've never been to San Francisco, apparently. ;) I'm sure you COULD say it there, plenty, not sure if you WOULD say it, though. :D
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We do have province town... :screwy:

stumpjump said:
He does live in Massachusetts though :sign9: :D
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Touche,
I will say though that with this nice weather all the "racks" are now out and about :bow:


Ok now back to our regularly scheduled program :doah:
 
Had a nice productive day on the Blazer. I finally took it to wash today and pressure washed all the nooks and crannies to make sure there isn't any lingering mud under there. First time I've washed it since I bought it last August. :doah: I should treat it a bit better in that regard.... Looks real nice now. :) Going wheeling next weekend, so I'll fix that.

With the help of a new friend I changed the engine, transmission, transfercase, and rear axle oil today. Also, a new filter in the transmission. Really excited about the new oil in the trans. With the exception of the coolant, this means that I now have new fluids throughout the entire truck. Makes me much more confident in the transmission, since I'm not entirely aware of it's current maintenance history.

Changing the gear oil in the rear end really made the noisy US Standard gears quiet down a lot. They're still not as quiet as a more expensive or factory gear, but they're much quieter than they were on the original 500 mile gear break in period. Glad for that.

Tomorrow after I attend church I'm going down to "alexsdad's" place and I'm going to see if I can't find the damn short circuit in my wiring that's preventing me from having interior lights, a horn, and CB. I also want to change out my passenger side hard top window to get a slider back in there, since I had put in the solid window that I had on hand when my truck was broken into.

Weather's getting awful nice, so next weekend the wheeling should be topless, which will be fun (and dusty.)

Nice to have some time to day to work on the truck. Been so damn busy with school, it's nice to have a distraction from the drama that is my graduate school experience. :D
 
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