Red Hot Sloths Sensible-ish Build

[Factoid]

What could be better than a thread where a red hot sloth, desert fox and psycho squirrel are all posting up?!

Love the build, JT, keep the pics coming!

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[Red Hot Sloth]

What do you think of that bumper so far? Been circling the drain on this one but no reviews on Amazon. Fit/finish? Build quality? Fog light mounting?

Fit is spot on, it took longer to remove stock bumper than to install winch and mount this. It came with the brackets to mount my Oem halogen fogs, was quick easy and a great fit. It’s built very well, quite solid. The finish isn’t the best, it looks good but there’s a couple spots on the corner edges where it’s thin. I would purchase again, as far as the finish, a rattle can is in the garage for when I bring it home with scrapes anyhow.

 

[Red Hot Sloth]

Funny thing, I realized I forgot to post these up during my progress. A couple I dont really consider “build” but for posterity sake I should have included them. I installed Alien grabs, a Tazer Mini, Mopar slush mats and the minimalistic mopar door sill guards. I honestly like the complete coverage the rugged ridge sill guards offer but I preferred the look of the Mopar. I guess I do have a degree or two of vanity. I’ll likely change them some day in the future...or not.

 

[Red Hot Sloth]

I took a trip down to my local big box store today. I picked up a couple Super Struts B Channel for $19 each, some M6 1.0x35mm bolts, lock washers and flat washers, oh, some end caps for the super struts. All told, Im into it for about $50. I need to rattle-can the struts or even take them to a powder coater. and maybe my tie-downs, which actually came with my Titan and its utility rail’s.

The only downside to using these tiedown is they need to be set into the rails prior to attaching the rails to the bed due to how friggin bulky they are.

I have the spray in bed-liner so the threads where the stock rails would have been are coated but not completely covered over.
I sacrificed one of the M6 bolts the pre-run it in and out of them all before installing the rails. This helped clean-up the threads. The sides I cut to 52”, the front I cut to 48” but could have done 48.75”.

On each of the side rails 1 hole needs to be drilled through the struts to match-up with the manufactures thread on the bed. 2 Holes fir the front strut need drilled. I used a 3/8” bit, it allows for a little wiggle room.

The bolt heads are a little taller than I like but dont pose any significant problems and the washers are a little softer or pliable than I like. But the selection at the big orange store wasnt that great, I’ll make my way over to a hardware store Im sure will have more of what I’d prefer to use and swap them out when it comes time to paint.

 

[BajaDrifter]

Thanks for sharing, especially on the tie-down rail system, sure cheaper than what Mopar wants for them. My son's Tacoma tied down system uses similar tie-down mounts, think I will give them a look-see, might be a little smaller.

 

[Red Hot Sloth]

Im interested to find out if the Tacoma tie downs would fit in this track as the ones I have from the Titan are giant and total overkill. If the tie downs from the Tacoma fit I would use them for sure.

 

[Red Hot Sloth]

Mounted a whip to my rails today...with cheap, I mean frugal, wait, inexpensive...errr...reasonable, no wait.....at a sensible cost, thats it.
I used some more unistrut hardware for the mount and a 3/8”x1” bolt with washer and lock washer. Total cost for the mount isless than $6 and is very solid.
My unistrut is the shallow version so the spring from the spring nut needs removing, took about a second to do it and its not needed.

 

[Red Hot Sloth]

Well, I wasnt ready for this next part if the build, but the universe forced my hand. Our last trip to the desert involved quite a few miles wheeling high speed through washes with plenty of deep wash-board surface. I guess the stock stabilizer couldnt handle it and began leaking earlier this week, developed a shimmy and wobble.
I had intended to upgrade steering components at a later time.
Install was quick, easy, direct replacement from stock.
So far so good, have about 15 miles of light driving, seems stable.

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