Homemade Axe and Shovel Mount

I bought a couple of extra race weights when I made the Hi-Lift mount and decided to make an axe and shovel mount using these. First I made the roof mounts as shown in the roof rack mounts posting. Then I walked Home Depot to see what I could use to make something to fit them. After I came across the shelves where the Stimpson brackets were, I tried bending the metal it it looked like it would work. So I bent and drilled and came up with a mount. Here is the result:

One large Stimpson bracket with two smaller ones. Drilled a 1/2" hole in the middle of the large one and two smaller 1/4" holes on the end. The smaller bracket is bent and the same size holes are drilled with the smaller hole being on the shorter end. These brackets were painted flat black and the edges rounded since the corners were very sharp.

Side view of brackets bent into an S shape.

Put in the 1/4" bolts and wingnuts. The 1/2" holes should overlap on the two small brackets and line up with the 1/2" hole on the large bracket.

Side view.

The middle bolt is tightened with a wingnut. There is one 1/2" bolt missing. It should be placed on top of the large Stimpson bracket and below the two smaller ones. Tighten it and it should hold the bracket assembly nicely. Two of these mount systems are used and spaced about a foot apart. The shovel and axe can then be removed by taking the small bolts off and pulling on the axe or shovel. The curved end will not dig into the axe or shovel and is easy to take off. I will post a pic of them mounted later. The axe required using something around the handle to make it clamp better and not be so loose.

All this was done for about $13 for the roof clamp and 1/2" bolt and about $5 for the remaining hardware. So $36 for both.

Cheap Off-Road Wheelset

Well, after going to Green Ridge I decided to see if I could get a cheap set of off-road rims/tires that I can beat up without having to deal with scratched aluminum rims. I also wanted to keep my stocks for daily driving so they would have to be cheap. So after much research, pricing rims/tires, and some luck, I came across someone who was selling a set of 4 2003 Toyota Tundra steelies 16x7. They were painted black already, which saved me some time as well. Then I bought a locking gorilla lug set from Wheeler's off-road. Nice people to deal with. And then came the hard part - finding cheap tires. After looking at all the used tire places I finally came across one that had some tires with decent tread on them. Two were Cooper Discoverer STT's and the other two were BFG AT's - 265/75/R16. I was trying to get 4 mud tires but every place I went didn't have ones with decent tread left. Since they're for off-road use only I didn't really care that they were different. Once mounted everything fit in place without any caliper clearance or rubbing issues.

So the final result:

The wheels actually look shinier than what they really are. The rims are rough and flat black.
The front wheel with Cooper STT. The hub perfectly matched the color of the rims. The tire was used off-road, as you can see, from the mud stains on the sidewall. The tires and rims do not look this drastic in difference. It's due to the flash on the camera. I'll have to take some daytime shots to show how they actually look.

The rear wheel with BFG's AT's. The hub was a dull brown(probably from the dirt from GRSF) which I wiped clean and then sprayed black. I also sprayed all the balancing weights black.

The rims and tires cleaned up and armor-all'ed.

Overall, a set of 4 off-road wheels for $335. Not too shabby and just what I wanted - something that can take a beating off-road.

First Off-Road Excursion - Green Ridge State Forest

Larry, Chris and I decided to go out to Green Ridge State Forest out in Flintstone, MD. We had a great time and it was really muddy out there due to all the rain we've been having. It made everything more fun. I was worried that I only had my stock Dunlops, but keeping it in H4 all the time did the trick without any issues or slipping. It could have been that the tires only had 15k miles and had deep treads.

Here is some info. I collected using the GPS:



We lost our way a little on the bottom and top of the loop. The views were spectacular but the gnats weren't. :)

Some pics of the run taken by Larry and Chris:














FEAR THE TURTLE!





FJ at home: