Overlanding and Fiddlebacks. I’d like your opinion!

[hasco]

Wow!! That drawer system and fridge slide is epic! Nice work!

 

[MajorD]

Wow!! That drawer system and fridge slide is epic! Nice work!

Exactly!!

 

[M4Super90]

Thanks all. A lot of planning has gone into it. I'm hoping to get it finished up t his weekend.

 

[schmittie]

One question: can I come too??

 

[moogles]

Your attention to detail on that drawer unit inspires me to build the drawer system I have been planning in my mind for my 4Runner. Is there any particular reason you chose plywood over MDO?

Your insight is appreciated.

 

[M4Super90]

Your attention to detail on that drawer unit inspires me to build the drawer system I have been planning in my mind for my 4Runner. Is there any particular reason you chose plywood over MDO?

Your insight is appreciated.

No. Just what I had around. Plus the MDO is a little heavier and way more expensive.

 

[Redbird777]

That is just Awesome work! I Love this thread! And a good old Dillon! Just a great Presses!

 

[dcycleman]

Mdo gets beat up easier too

 

[Adam Eklofe]

That's some great mods and one truly spectacular rig, M4! Team blue is definitely the best presses for consistent high volume reloading. No binding along with the best warranty business, you can't beat Dillon. Oh, and a lot of terrific knives as well. You have some great gear, buddy!

 

[moogles]

Mdo gets beat up easier too

I would have guessed plywood with a bonded resin overlay would be more durable than regular plywood. However, I've never used the stuff.

 

[dcycleman]

My bad, I was thinking of mdf. Mdf edges get beat up real quick. Mdo is pretty tough stuff, essentially the same as plywood

 

[M4Super90]

Update 2 on the drawer system. It's almost there! The fridge is not fully installed because I need to finish up the electrical and will have to remove the entire unit to do so, but I have it fully test fitted everything and it is ready to go. I changed my mind a little on the cutting board design. The electrical setup includes a dual intelligent battery system (IBS) with LED readout that is mounted in the dash. It show status for both the primary and secondary battery systems, auto switches to the secondary to run the fridge when the truck's ignition is turned off, and then auto switches to join them for charging while driving. Also has inputs for solar panels that will trickle charge when parked (don't have the panel yet). It has a manual override to join the battery systems for additional cranking power when winching and in case you need to jump the primary battery from the secondary. We can get far enough out there in this vehicle that becoming a pedestrian would be quite the challenge. It's nice to use as base camp when backpacking and not need to go back to a store to resupply. I thought the fridge was hokey to start with, but not needing ice and keeping stuff refrigerated for a week at a time really extends your range and alleviates the necessity to go back to civilization.

One of the main reasons I wanted to build this is that when in bear country we normally do not camp where we eat. I was so tired of setting up, cooking, cleaning up and then moving to repeat the whole process to sleep. Whatever you need is always on the bottom and then everything has to come out to get to it. The recovery gear bag, which is very heavy, is always in the way. The table needs to be the first thing out and the last thing in, and it is always on the bottom for load stability. Now all that is fixed!

Here's some pics for you:

Joining the upper section and lower section together.

Drawer build

Drawer build with front and handle installed with the first version of a cutting board to use to set stuff on and with food prep when all the gear is not deployed.

Painted and upholstered

Drawer out with new cutting board. I was able to cut some bamboo cutting boards to size that I found at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Now I don't have to move the whole thing if I need stuff in the drawer and both my wife and I have our own cutting boards for food prep to speed things up.

The recovery gear fits nicely with room to spare. I'm going to reorg all the gear in the back ASAP.

So does the fridge

and the snowpeak IG3 table

With some Fiddlebacks that will be making the trip

And a final pic for my reloading friends, since there were some many comments. The only bad thing about Dillon is now that I'm local I get to pay sales tax. Although, being able to drive over for a part is nice.

 

[necrolicious]

Awesome setup in that FJ. Sure beats the heck out of an old cab-over camper hehe.

 

[Uncle_P]

Great progress. Really like that setup.

 

[Redbird777]

Wow that FJ is just Awesome Phillip! Looks like every bit of space had a purpose! Just awesome!

Wow Fiddlebacks, Tricked out FJs, and two Dillon 550b, man what a awesome thread!

 

[M4Super90]

I was planning to add to this post prior to leaving. I tried to start this from my phone somewhere along HWY 89 in Utah, but it never would work. And I had intermittent data along the way.

Here’s the set of knives I took with me. Don’t really need but a few, but I wanted to try out the various models on different tasks.

Not only did the trip encompass our anniversary, but also my wife’s birthday. What better way to kick your 40th off than with a Fortypoint knife? This Jack was carried by my wife the entire time. She loves it. I can’t say enough about the fit and finish of the “Jack”, the packaging, etc. Totally impressed!

I also want to give a shout out to Schmitty at USA Made Blade for the excellent service to get a production Camp to me the day before we left. My wife has been eyeing my Camp, and so she got this too. It also gave me an opportunity to have a production HB/Camp set to play with.

Here’s the knives that Meredith wanted to go with her:

Shown below are the associated sheaths I chose. On the recommendation of Mistwalker, I put together a Kydex rig combo for my Camp and a BC Karda. It also holds an Exotac firesteel and my TAD Life Capsule. It's heavy, but when mounted to my daypack isn’t that bad. The great thing about this setup is it’s mix and match. With a screwdriver and a few seconds it can be separated with any combo I wish. I’m going to put my matching BC Jr. and custom handled production Camp in this exact setup next. The others sheaths consisted of various JouFuu models and an RLO crossdraw for the production HB.

 

[M4Super90]

To give you an idea of the standard setup for camping, we normally camp in a nearby national forest to any park to avoid crowds. As an example, our first night out was in the Dixie National Forest just west of Bryce. The GPS indicated we were just under 20 miles from pavement. There are some established dispersed camping, and when appropriate, we use them. Over the trip we stayed in the following National Forests: Dixie (UT), Uinta (UT), Bridger-Teton (WY), Gros Ventre Wilderness (WY), and the Gallatin (MT).

The back of the FJ sets up in about 10-15 minutes. Table slides out and makes kind of wrap around kitchen, drawer slides out for the kitchen box to rest on, the drygood bag fills the void where the kitchen box was. The tarp takes another few minutes to stake out. Pop up the chairs and dinner and cocktails soon ensue.

Tent flips over with a pull of the ladder and goes up like a pop-up book.

Here’s a picture in the Gallatin NF of our favorite “chair” config for the tarp. We had the only hard rain (and hail!) of the trip this day. It didn’t phase the champagne or charcuterie one bit. A nice double rainbow afterwards was provide for us to contemplate what it all means.

I know you're expecting a lot of pictures of knives here, but honestly we were having such a good time a lot of photos didn’t get taken. The fire danger was high in most areas so we rarely started a fire, and thus, very little bushcraft was performed with the vast array of knives we were carrying. The pack holding them all usually rested behind my seat on top of the other daypacks and duffels. After the first really steep and rough downhill, it became know as the “flying bag of knives” throughout the rest of the trip…D)

The Gaucho did most of the kitchen work. I really like this knife but it was hard to get it away from Meredith.

Although, she soon became a fan of the Fortypoint Jack. I didn’t notice here Arete out much after its first use. I preferred the BC Jr. myself. Those two made appearances at all camp meals. No need to rough it just because we’re outdoors

Here’s some Production Camp shots…I used it and my custom Camp to clear a path from the FJ to the Gros Ventre River where we spent a lot of our time that evening. Both performed admirably. I preferred the additional weight of the custom for this specific task.

 

[M4Super90]

Here’s something that really astonished me. About the second day into the trip, I switched my standard EDC folder for the Patch in a JouFuu clip-on sheath and used it the rest of the trip. The Patch and I finally bonded. I used it twice in a nice restaurant to eat my steak. Meredith proclaimed that all steakhouses should provide better knives “to make their steak seem like better cuts meat instead of having to eat it with the grapefruit spoon of a knife they normally provide”. She ate her steak in Bozeman, MT with the Patch (actually we shared the knife). I think I’ll get another if I ever see a 3/32 CMP version. The Patch is a great little knife and is going into my non-work EDC rotation. Actually, it won’t be a rotation for a while, it will just be the Patch.

I’ve posted many of the initial nature shots in the “Wilderness Photography” thread. The great thing about digital is the ability to take so many shots. The bad thing about digital is having to look through all those shots to find the good one. I got to spend some time on a Lake Yellowstone dock with a gentleman that was doing long exposure astrophotography. He had some really, really, cool stuff on his camera’s card. I did some long exposures just holding the camera a still as I could. Here’s one that was about 20 seconds of the rising moon over Lake Yellowstone. It turned out OK, but I think I will spend a little more time investigating this technique.

Coming out of the Wasatch Range of the Uinta Forest, I noticed this little ski area. Some really, really nice homes off the beaten path tucked back in the quaint little valley. Turns out others feel the same. I was looking at Robert Redford's house in Sundance...

In the Tetons, parasailers were taking off from Mt. Rendevous above 10K ft. Looked like fun!

Beaver, UT. What can you say....

And finally some of the classic, must-see, Bryce, Teton and Yellowstone sites

 

[TxSportsman]

Phillip... Awesome pictures man. I really dig your FJ with the camping setup! That's killer how you have the tent off the ground. Looks like your "camping" is pretty similar to ours. Thanks for sharing

 

[Uncle_P]

What an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing this adventure, from start to finish, very cool.

Preston