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Yazza's Yellow X's Build thread

12K views 63 replies 18 participants last post by  yazzagaffix 
#1 · (Edited)
I have lots of plans, but little time as I am self employed, and low on budget! So far I find I prefer mud and trails more than rock crawling.

So far:
- 2" PML - added an additional leaf spring (after I snapped one of the stock ones)
- IAB and a recovery hook
- upgraded TRAs
- resonators removed, dropped in K&N air filter
- removed mud flaps
- roof rack crossbar - light bar - 2 hellas and two 8" ipf 900's
- removed rear sway bar
- painted plastics
- 2" BL
- Sliders
- Bilstein shocks
- New tires! 33-12.5-15 Goodyear Wrangler Kevlar MT/R

Future:
- 3" suspension lift
- in-fender snorkel
 
#3 ·
That looks really sharp! Great job. Yea, I agree. It's why I like my side rails. I'm not doing some of the daring things guys here do with their Xterras, and I constantly seem to need to have easy access to the roof. Plus, the wife wouldn't like jumping in the truck. She's short, haha.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Roof Rack Light Bar

I've been searching for almost a year for reasonably priced roof-rack cross bars. I finally got them! The photo below shows the fruit of this effort. I used one of the cross bars to build a of roof mounted light set. A pair of Hellas and two 8" IPF 900's are bolted to the cross bar which is mounted behind the wind deflector. Total cost $85.

If anyone is interested I can take some photos and show/explain how it was built.

 
#7 ·
whatd u build the roof light rack with?
 
#8 ·
whatd u build the roof light rack with?
I used a roof rack cross bar that I got for $40 for the support bar. I had to shorten it by 1/2" to fit inside the basket, then drilled holes in it for the lights.

I'm hoping to get the wiring finished this weekend, and will also take some detail photos.

I ended up having to use two relays because the IPF lights suck up so much power.
 
#9 ·
Looks sharp!

:D

I noticed your trepidation on removal of the rear sway bar.

I can suggest that you drive around some ramps or corners that are convenient to you, then, as the bar is only connected at 4 spots, remove it (Takes 10 minutes or so), and repeat your drive.

If it seems ok, leave it off, if you feel like you preferred it with the bar, put it back on.

Since the bar is easily removed/reinstalled in a matter of minutes, its an easy enough experiment, and, there's no guessing, its YOUR seat, of YOUR pants....you'll KNOW.


As for the steps, if you don't off road, you can leave them on...they're fine on the street.

If you are going off road, just take them off, and put them to the side/garage, etc...and put them back on when you get back.

If you off road, or want to, with any regularity, you can buy a set of sliders, and sell the stock steps to off set the cost....

..that way, you can leave them on all the time, have a step, and rocker protection, a place to hi-lift jack from, and side protection for the family in the event of getting T-Boned, etc.

:wink-big:
 
#11 ·
Looks sharp!

:D

I noticed your trepidation on removal of the rear sway bar.

I can suggest that you drive around some ramps or corners that are convenient to you, then, as the bar is only connected at 4 spots, remove it (Takes 10 minutes or so), and repeat your drive.

If it seems ok, leave it off, if you feel like you preferred it with the bar, put it back on.

Since the bar is easily removed/reinstalled in a matter of minutes, its an easy enough experiment, and, there's no guessing, its YOUR seat, of YOUR pants....you'll KNOW.


As for the steps, if you don't off road, you can leave them on...they're fine on the street.

If you are going off road, just take them off, and put them to the side/garage, etc...and put them back on when you get back.

If you off road, or want to, with any regularity, you can buy a set of sliders, and sell the stock steps to off set the cost....

..that way, you can leave them on all the time, have a step, and rocker protection, a place to hi-lift jack from, and side protection for the family in the event of getting T-Boned, etc.

:wink-big:
Excellent advice - I'll try the sway bar idea this weekend - and I am saving up for some sliders.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Cross Bar Light Rack

I had this idea a while ago, to build a light bar using a roof rack cross bar, probably not too original. My friend Steve gave me a couple 55w hellas, and I picked up a pair of 100w IPFs on EBay for $20 (+20 shipping).

Step 1: Shorten cross bar by 1/2" so it can mount inside the front roof rack-basket.
Then drill holes for light mounts. Drill second set of smaller holes to feed wires through.

Top of cross bar




Bottom of bars - over sized holes to fit socket wrench




Step 2:
I modified the bar-end claps. Drilled holes to match location of the screws that hold the basket and front air deflector in place. Then cut most of the bottom clamp off, the bit that is left fits into the diagonal slots in the sides of the roof basket. With the cross bar in-place with the two screws and altered clamp the cross bar feels very secure.



Step 4: Bolt lights in position using over-sized washers. I discovered one of the reasons the IPF lights were so cheap - their mounting hardware is a mess, I had to re-thread one of the bolts, but eventually they clamped in nicely. In the photo you can see the wires, complete with extra plastic shield, fed through the additional top holes.





Step 5: I replaced all the lights wires with new 12 gauge wire. Here you can see all four lights in place with wiring pulled through.



Rather then crimp connectors I decided to solder all the wire-to-wire connections than seal them with heat-shrink plastic covers.




Front View - As I was building these I kept a 12V car battery charger on my work bench so that I could test everything as I worked. I am running the two big IPF lights on separate wires, the two-hellas are run on a single 12 gauge wire, and everything runs to a common 12 gauge (green) ground (later I added an additional ground wire).



Step 6 - all wiring done, hooked it directly to my battery with the truck running, and left the lights on for about 1/2 hour to see if the wiring would heat up - all went well, they are noticeable brighter then my headlights (which isn't obvious from this photo)



Step 7 - I brought all the wires together in a weather proof sleeve, then added quick release connector to the end. The idea is that these will be easy to put-on, take-off of the truck. They make wind noise at about 30 so I may not want them on if I am going for a long highway drive, and when I want to carry a canoe they will need to come off.



Close-up of connector. I plan to mount the other end of this into my roof rack on the passenger side, inside the roof basket.




NEXT STEP
I have to install two relays, switch, fuses, etc. in the truck to get power up to the roof - maybe next weekend, or I'll take a day off work to get this done!
 
#13 · (Edited)
Mud

I want to see the pictures of that mud. But it looks nice
This is a result of almost getting stuck in about 6 - 8" of slick clay in a gravel pit. It looked much better when the mud on the sides was still wet, unfortunately it dried to a color similar to yellow. I should have taken a photo of the ruts I left behind.



close up - nothing special - I have had more mud on her - just didn't get any photos of it.

 
#14 ·
Maybe it's me but it looks like you have a huge boulder on your roof rack in that first picture...lol
 
#15 ·
Maybe it's me but it looks like you have a huge boulder on your roof rack in that first picture...lol
Its an archery target back-stop made out of a couple potato sacks stitched together. The 8' tube has some of my long bows in it. I was just coming back from a retreat weekend where we do (amongst other things) archery. We also stopped to do some skeet shooting in a gravel pit - that was where I got the truck muddy.
 
#16 ·
Busy night - finished PML and removed rear sway bar - Finally!
 
#17 ·
Light Test

Testing the un-aimed roof lights. All wired up, just need to install switch.

 
#19 ·
you should black out those rims
 
#20 ·
you should black out those rims
Once I remove the step rails and undercoat the rockers (black up to the door bottoms) I was thinking of painting the rims. Is there a way of doing it that doesn't involve having to sand blast them?
 
#21 ·
#22 ·
Once I remove the step rails and undercoat the rockers (black up to the door bottoms) I was thinking of painting the rims. Is there a way of doing it that doesn't involve having to sand blast them?
O hell yea.. I just scuffed mine up with a green scotch-brite, cleaned em off and then sprayed away!

I used krylon fusion gloss black. The pics are crappy cell phone pics



 
#23 · (Edited)
Pml

I like the yellow! Can we see the pics of the PML?
New rear shackles - already a little dirty. I rust-proof paint everything!


After and before PML - top photo is after - hope it's obvious!
 
#24 ·
Once I remove the step rails and undercoat the rockers (black up to the door bottoms) I was thinking of painting the rims. Is there a way of doing it that doesn't involve having to sand blast them?
theres a DIY thread on it
just be sure to prep the rims right, ive seen many people paint their rims and it chips off if you do it wrong
clean them really good sand with very fine sandpaper like 800 grain, clean again, prime em and paint em.
they have wheel paint at automotive stores
 
#25 · (Edited)
The continuing saga of my roof-rack-cross bar lights

I think I've been working on these for almost a month now.

ALMOST done!

This chapter - wiring them to the truck.
I ran two relays off the battery. From them I fed three 12 gauge wires up to the roof through the passenger side pillar. At the top of the pillar I drilled a hole through the roof under the roof-rack's front-right foot. Painted the hole, grommeted it, then after running the wires through it, glopped on lots of electrical grease.

The wires run to an electrical socket that I installed in the roof rack (see photos below). I had run a single 12 gauge ground wire from the socket to the passenger side "Oh S**T" handle. Several people thought that would not be enough as I have about 310watts of lights (about 26 amps) so I added another ground wire from one of the roof-rack mounting screws to the roof-rack cross bar.

Additional ground wire


Additional ground wire attached to cross bar


Trailer wiring hook-up thingy


Lights plugged in


Wiring harnesses hooked up


Lights in place, wired up, even found me some light covers.


To my amazement they actually work and don't blow off the truck!
 
#26 ·
Looks good! I would change the ground to a different spot. You have one grounded to the aluminum crossbar which is mounted with plastic to the roof. The other is hooked to a painted screw in plastic. There is very little metal to metal contact from what I'm seeing. You would do better to run the ground wire back down the same route the power wires took and groud it to bare metal somewhere on the actual body of the truck.
 
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