Rad Rally (Dodge) Raider (akaMonteroakaPajero) Build

Continuing on with my "master plan" for making this little truck more convenient for camping and fitting stuff correctly. For the last year I've been using two footlockers for various gear, and a mix-match of different storage bins, toolboxes, etc. that never quite fit. FItting stuff in a truck this small is basically Tetris, so things need to fit better to maximize space. 

So usually I have a box with some small spare suspension parts, my big bottle jack (I hate hi-lifts), spare belts, and some other stuff. This box is about 3-4" wider than it needs to be to fit well, and just too tall to stack my nuts+bolts+small parts bin on it and get it under the sleepign platform. So after measuring and scouring Amazon, I got this pretty cheap DeWalt box that was the right dimensions for both factors. It came in today, and I'm a bit annoyed that it has a different stacking/lockdown tabs than my other DeWalt bins and stuff - WTF Dewalt, why do you need two different systems when the old one worked great?? Well, improv'ing a bit, I just stacked it and used a ratchet strap to hold the other one on top, fk it.  More importantly, together they're a perfect fit in the space i want them to go, at the forward end of the sleeping platform, since I don't need to regularly access this stuff (hopefully)

So that leaves all this space under the other platform (uncarpeted). 

I've been stuffing various things in here over the last year, but as I've refined my roof/side storage it's not as useful any more. So I think it's finally time to invest in something that fits that space better:

:)

Most of the guys I camp/wheel with have gotten fridges this year, and while I generally don't have the budget for them I've gotten more and more annoyed to have to get ice, lose a lot of space filling the cooler with ice, and ending up with cold food and drinks sloshing around by day 2 or 3. This is also the case on long road/towing trips in the Sequoia and family trips. So figured I'd pick up a small fridge (this one is 20L) that can do triple-duty. I'm going to run it off car power and also use  a Jackery 500 for overnights, etc. The Jackery is expected as a Christmas present, so fingers crossed my wife gets the right one , though if she gets the 600 or 1000 that would be ok too lol. 

Obviously with my limited space, I had to do a lot of measuring. So this thing + the Jackery should perfectly fit just behind the tool bin earlier in this post, with about 3" overhead to spare. But dragging this pretty thing in and out seems barbaric, so I ordered a Setpower slider off Amazon. It's slightly larger than this cooler, so I can mount the Jackery on it and slide them in/out together, hopefully. That won't be here until next week, and I'm going to have to figure out the mounting sine the floor of this truck is "ribbed" like a pickup bed, but shouldn't be too hard.  So, hopefully this all works out as imagined, and in the space required. I *may* have to chop off the left-side rear leg of my platform for clearance for the slider tray (I can move it outward about 2" by my measurements), but I'll have to wait until I get it to know for sure if my measurements are precise. Unfortuantely the wheel-well side of the rear floor isn't totally straight, so it's hard to tell exactly what the best orientation will be. To be continued......
 

How does the build on the fridge seem? I am eyeing one now.

Sean

Nice! I have an older small Dometic 12v fridge in my van. It's a toss up between that and the vent fan being my favorite accessory. 

smokeysevin said:

How does the build on the fridge seem? I am eyeing one now.

 

Sean

Seems fine. Iceco lists it as "light duty" so probably would get dented up a bit if it's handled too roughly, but it doesn't feel "cheap" or anything... I'm not all that concerned if it happens to pick up a dent here or there (not that I'm saying it will). I expect the ones with plastic/urethane/ABS exteriors are probably more "heavy duty" in terms of fending off damage. In any case, this one should be pretty well-protected where it's going, and the way it's built certainly keeps it lightweight (22lb empty, I think). 

Otherwise, I ran it through a full cycle on home power and it went from 77 degrees to 0 degrees (freezer setting) in about 25 minutes, and it has a phone app to control it which doesn't seem all that necessary, but it's nice to have anyhow. For trips I may pre-cool it on a home plug before putting it in the truck with food/drinks just to save battery power. TBD if that's actually necessary though (somehow I doubt it). 

Motojunky said:

Nice! I have an older small Dometic 12v fridge in my van. It's a toss up between that and the vent fan being my favorite accessory. 

Yeah, I think it'll come in useful for various things (rallycross too).

{OT} So today I got the opportunity to get aboard the NS Savannah, which was the first (and only) nuclear-powered commercial ship ever built in the US. It's been sitting at the old coal piers in the Baltimore port alongside an old Liberty Ship from WW2 for many years, and it's almost never open to get aboard, but today it was so I shot up to B-More to take a look. I had a model of this ship when I was a kid in the 80s :)

Anyhow, the ship's nuclear reactor isn't there any more, but otherwise it's literally a time capsule from 1960, with basically nothing remodeled or upgraded since it was decommissioned by 1971 or so. It's a cool picture of what people in 1960 thought "the future" would look like, and in truth it looks a lot like original Star Trek. So, before I get on with truck-building, figured I'd share a few pics

Here's the bar in the lounge, which served "Atomic Cocktails" back in the day

Old-school radio room. There were some HAM guys aboard using the ship's giant antennas for some long-range stuff, so that was interesting as well. 

I don't think it was on the "self-guided tour" route, but I snuck into the forward cargo hold, which was pretty cool

The dining room was straight retro, with every overhead light set up with an "Atomic" symbol. Little touches.

The reactor is gone, but still some low-level radiation around, so can't go in

Yeah, so that was cool

--- break ---

Now back to the regularly-scheduled stuff: When I got home, my fridge slider had arrived. And as usual when FedEx delivers things, it looked like it went through WW2 to get here....SMH.

It turns out my measurements were good, and the tray fit under the sleeping platform....well, almost. I had to cut out a notch in the leg to make it fit. Also because the gas tank is right under the floor back here in the truck, I had to get a bit creative to mount a couple of the bolts for the slider. This one I just put a weld-nut in since I couldn't access the bottom to put a nut on. The rest I drilled through and got big washers/nuts under the floor, working around the exahust/suspension, etc. So in this pic you can see the notch in the platform leg on the left, and the shoddy weldnut in the floor.

To clear a couple bolts that mount other stuff in the floor, and to better level it on the "ribbed" pickup-truck-like floor, I used some leftover pieces of hardwood from a table I disassembled a while ago (I always keep good wood!), so the whole thing is about 1" off the actual floor:

The other reason for this is that the slider overlaps the fuel tank/pump access cover and I want to be able to get that off without taking the whole slider out. So this gives enough clearance to get to the two middle bolts and slide the cover out to the other side. There's one of the rusty-looking bolts...

So with that done, everything got bolted down (3 per side plus a sideways bolt through the wheel arch) and it's in, with the perfect clearance to the gearbox just forward of it.

And mounted up the fridge

So, that worked out great and fit just as envisioned. It would be cool to have a bigger fridge, but this is a small truck, so gotta work with the space I have. I have to do two things as follow-up to this:
I don't love using the power outlet on the other side of the cargo area (right below the new "door" from the previous project) since the wire would have to go across things. So I'll definitely put in a separate, dedicated power outlet on the right side behind the fridge (also to plug the Jackery into). And speaking of that, 2. I want to figure out a good place to mount the Jackery. I don't think there will be space on the slider (but maybe....), so I may fab something up so it fits in between the fridge and that black footlocker in the photo above. Will have to see how much space it takes up, once I actually get it. 

Forgot, another small project.  I put some light tint on the truck during the original build, but for the sake of security and of sleeping inside the rig, figured I'd do some real dark stuff.  I really, really suck at tint. So I did a pretty half-assed job, but it looks fine I guess. I also put some vinyl trim tape on the edges of the sliding windows (since I can't slide the tint under there so its discolored) and I actually like the look - almost makes it look like it's framed now. Anyhow, nice and dark now (5%). I also did a 4-5" strip at the top of the windshield since these sun visors suck bad and don't pivot down easily, and this huge windshield always seems to face into the sun, exacerbated by 280,000 miles of rock chips and a bit of welding spatter :/

Nothing really new, but finally got the trailer back from the racetrack (we were using it to stash our rallycross gear) and did a little run through the countryside. Thing pulls great, even at 70+ mph. :)

So my birthday is in a few weeks. And as 40-something couples tend to do, my wife and I basically just get presents for each other of "whatever we ask for"." In any case, my gift arrived the other day and my wife was like "I'm not using a whole roll of wrapping paper on this, and I don't have anyplace to hide it, so just have it now. And so early birthday....

This is the same as the other one on the roof, except in tan (which is the color I wanted for the other one, and they sent me black and I just kept it because who really cares?). But hey, black and tan is pretty much the theme with this rig, and I like a bit of asymmetry.  But before putting it on the truck, need to add a lid restraint. Because the other one always flops back against my roof antenna if I don't hold it, and that's annoying. So a bit of light chain and a couple small bolts and that's not an issue any more..

(I also did it on the black one already on the roof). Anyhow, found a few U-bolts and put it on. Very exciting :) But this was the final roof storage setup - this will let me put almost all my camping gear up top (except the big sleeping pad), which is always a plus in a truck this small. 

I feel like I did something else interesting on the truck recently, but it's slipping my mind and clearly I didn't document it, so moving on to the next project. I haven't started yet but it's time for brake upgrades. Now, there are two notable/easy-ish brake upgrades for these things. The first one is to get the Gen2 Montero SR rear axle, which not only has a factory locker, but also has disc brakes rather than the drums on mine. The junkyards around here rarely have a Montero that old, and shipping an axle from the places where all the parted-out Montys are isn't really in the budget at the moment. Plus the LSD on this thing is pretty great. Combine that with the fact that this truck is pretty light out back and the drums are well-adjusted and in great shape, so I can lock the rears up about the same time as the fronts, if not before. Anyhow, I'm going to do the front upgrade. It's not that the stock brakes are bad (they're bigger than the early Montys already), but when we're out and about, there tend to be a lot of high-speed runs down fire roads, sometimes with miles-long downhillls. I got some fade last time we did this, which was  a bit sketch. Plus the stock brakes have pretty "meh" feel to them,honestly. So figured I'd give a try to the 2-piston calipers from the Gen2 4-door Montero. I've had this idea on the shelf for a while with other prioirties, but happend to see the calipers on a Wholesaler Closeout on RockAuto (one set only!) for $19 each, so how do I turn that down.  They're A-1 Cardone rebuilds, so those are hit-or-miss on occasion, in my experience, but we'll see. 

Anyhow, they arrived today and at least visually look good (though the two calipers are actually different castings so aren't totally identical, but who cares....can't see them under my wheels anyhow). And got some pads that seemed worth trying out and were also on closeout. I guess RA isn't selling much 1980s Montero stuff these days and wanted to get rid of some stuff. The advantages of old 80s cars (I find these deals for my e30 and Porsche on occasion too).

It's cold and dark, so this will be a weekend project. It should be pretty easy - the "word" is that they're direct bolt-on fit with the factory rotors, though that seems oft-repeated and I haven't actually found any videos or pics of anyone having done it already - though I've seen people SAY they have, so I guess that's good enough. Apparently you have to trim the gravel shields from behind the rotor, and that's it. TBD.
 

sticking this here just to remind myself. Almost nothing I do is truly original, most of it is just "my version" of whatever someone else already did. So I was reading someone else's build and saw this little parcel shelf he put up over the sunvisors, and it looks like I have about 4-5" height available in that area of mine. The Raider is REALLY short of places to put small stuff and/or stuff you want when driving, so usually my passenger seat is littered with wallet, glasses, and other random stuff. So I'm saving this pic to remind myself to build something like this when I get a chance. I also like the idea of a switch panel up there - my lighting switches and comms switches are stuck in like 4 different places, wherever I could fit them. Probably a project for when it's warmer though, since wiring stuff in the cold is no fun at all.

Cred to Grit City Paul on Overland Bound forum.

Pretty chilly this morning, but figured I'd do these brakes.  Here's a comparison of the Gen1 and Gen2 pads - a lot more surface area for sure

As has been noted in other forums, the caliper assembly and mount bracket are direct bolt-on with the correct rotor offset, so no issues at all there. You do have to trim the dust shield (top and bottom) to make the extra space, and the bracket on the caliper where the brake soft line and hard line connect doesn't fit correctly on the new caliper (I guess if you get a junkyard Gen2 caliper, it might have one that's more correct). I just chopped off part of it and rotated it 90 degrees to the appropriate orientation and it fits (not perfectly, but good enough).

Bled it with some help from my daughter and went out for a test drive. I can't say that pedal feel is any better, but it definitely clamps down well and it's not too tough to screech the tires on braking (though it might be the rears, since there wasn't any gear in the back of the truck). The extra braking force defintely exacerbates the "nose-dive" of the front of the truck when braking, but not much I can do about that short of some really stiff torsion bars. All in all, seems like a good upgrade, especially for $60 total cost, give or take.

So let's get going on the little front parcel shelf, stealing the idea from Grit City Paul here on Overland Bound. He used a semi-off-the-shelf piece and linked me to one similar on Amazon, but didn't really love it, and didn't want to drop $120 or whatever, because making something myself is more fun. So started out with some cardboard template action, and then built some mount brackets:

So those go right here:

There are two more smaller ones in the middle, mounted to the sun visor inner "clamp" thing, since I'll go a different direction on sun visors (eventually).

Then I went to home depot and browsed around the wood. I wanted something about 5.5"-6" depth, and fairly thin. It doesn't have to be terribly strong, since not much weight will be on it, so I got some profiled wall baseboard, which isn't all that exciting but is about the right thickness/weight/price (cheap). I can always get something nicer if it doesn't hold up but I think it'll be fine. Then a bit of cutting and a test-fit:

I want a lip on the front so stuff doesn't slide off it into my face when the Raider's high-G acceleration kicks in (hah), so attached some quarter round to the front edge up top

I got one of the cheapo switch gangs off Amazon -similar to the one I have in the back for the aux lighting. I don't love these, and the look definitely doesn't go with the old Raider, but they'll be fine for the moment, maybe I'll upgrade them someday (or not, if they work fine).

I like having the USB plugs up there too, since I plan to stash things like my LED head light there, and it can charge without wires hanging all over the place like I currently have to deal with lol. Anyhow, spent the rest of the evening making a wiring loom. Because this gang box only has like a 20-30 amp max on the single power input, I cut that and put a second power input wire, so one for each of three switches. Most of these are just to relays anyhow, and few will be on at the same time so probably not an issue, but I like some backup.

Fast forward to today, with the glue dry I sanded the shelf and painted it (some beige rattle can that kinda-matches the headliner), notched the quarter-round to fit the nice aluminum surround that comes with this switch gang (actually, quite nice), and put a couple bolts through to secure it. Fit-wise it's almost perfect, like 2-3mm from the angled part of the forward inner roof, so exactly as planned (and a bit lucky)

I also put some outdoor carpet on the top with gorilla glue, to keep things from sliding/rattling as much as possible.

And installed. I have to get some better hardware, but used what I had sitting around for the moment. Those black bolts in particular are going to annoy me for sure if I leave them!

For the wiring, broke it down into two looms, one for each set of three switches and also so it's small enough to fit through the holes I drilled in the right-side support bracket

I underestimated the gap, though, and couldn't get the wires around the end/back of the shelf, so got the hole saw out and put a hole there. I'll get some kind of grommet to make it look better, eventually, but it works as needed.

And then combined the looms into one to run down the A-pillar. Still need to figure out routing to get behind the dash, and then spend a lot of time re-routing all the other wires I ran all over the place to the current switches, and move them to meet these, but it's supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow, so maybe I can get some of that done.

Overall, a fun little project that wasn't too hard or expensive (maybe $60-70 into it all told). 

So spent this late afternoon (65 degrees!!) doing all the wiring, which cleaned things up since all these accessories were a rat's nest of random wiring. So now they're all nicely run and organized. Everything works, so pretty pleased with the setup!

Next order of business is to find some sun visors that fit. The Raider visors are too long (since I have the larger video rearview) and are crap anyhow, but I think my measurements (on my DD GTI) show that the GTI visors are pretty much perfect fit if I can figure out how to mount them (they don't screw in, they use some kind of clip, so I'll have to improv somehow if I go that route. Or I'll just hit the junkyard and see what I can find with an "old school" attachment. 

Switch box looks great! I hate that everything is blue these days though, kills my eyes at night.

In reply to java230 :

They sell it in red, I just ordered the wrong one. I mostly darked out the lights anyhow with stickers over them, so they're not very bright at night now. Just looks that way in the photos because my camera takes good low-light shots lol.