I decided to build my own air tank so I could fit it much easier than a pre-made one.




This is my second attempt at making one, thankfully it worked holding 100psi.




I removed all the fittings, cleaned all the sharp edges, painted and then installed the tank right behind the bumper.




After installing I fought with popping the air line and loosing pressure. I ended up installing a check valve on the feed line to the tank.




The compressor fit perfectly off to the left mounted to the AT boxes. I added the brass fittings to help dissipate the heat, keeping the plastic line from popping.
I'll be creating a small shield for the compressor to keep anything from touching it and so I have a place to mount a switch in easy reach.
After fighting with everything for over a day I managed to get everything working properly. If I had to do it again, I would of bought an air tank and saved myself time.

 

first time ive looked at this build, and your ranger is awsome!!! you do some great work! keep it up!

 

love all the new adds. very nice

 

Are the airbags only bolted on the top?
I have been pondering running airbags with only the top mounted to allow the suspension to droop offroad, but I haven't seen anyone else do it yet.

 

Wow, great work once again!

 

There is one bolt on the bottom. I believe the bottom bolt is only to keep the air bag centered on the lower mount. I did think of creating a sleeve for the bottom bolt allowing an extra inch of down travel.

There are also some larger air bags with 3 chambers that might allow enough travel. You should look around at other air bag kits and see what might work for you. There's a few other guys in the expedition world that have done this. Check out xxxpedition.com

 

Just started poking around and found this.
Air Lift Company - Products - AirCell

 

Nice! This has still been my favourite build so far!

Make sure you still have air flow when you build the shield for the compressor!

Also just wondering, are you going to be adding a cage?

 

Thanks!

Yeah I'll create some sort of air flow for the shield. I thought about adding a small fan to help.

No cage. I already weigh way to much and I don't think I'll need a cage. That and its one more thing to do, especially since I'm running out of time to finish the built before I leave.

 

The coming updates will seem a bit out of order. Departure is near and there are a million things to do.



After the bed liner was rolled on I moved the Adventure Trailers composite drawers forward to accommodate three fuel cans.




The boxes are mounted with four flush mount bolts and jack nuts.




Top boxes are set in place, then holes are drilled between the two for mounting.




I used the same flush bolts and t-nuts to anchor the top boxes to the bottom.

 

Once bolted back in place, I load the drawers onto the sliders. Gear is loaded into some of the boxes.






Another view of the fuel cans. They are easily accessible with the camper closed. I opted to use fuel cans instead of an axillary fuel cell for two reasons.
First, too much work and too little time. Second, much easier to unload the weight if I become stuck.

 

While at the SEMA Show I met Doug Hackney. Mr. Hackney gave me tons of great advice from his experience in South America. Thanks again Doug!
One of the things he told me to do was bring along a small tent, mostly due to gale force winds further south. So I've pulled my old tent out of storage to fill that need.
It fails in the small category, however it will be nice to have extra room to setup tables out of the rain, snow and bugs. The biggest highlight of the tent is it sets up within a couple minutes.




The tent does pack away fairly small considering its size.




The tent pack fits nicely on all sides of the AT boxes. So I can adjust loads evenly on the trip.

 

so when are you plans of going on your first trip with this thing?

 

incredible build man.

By the way what happened to the MX1 camper shell?

 

I've taken a few day and overnight trips to test things out. I'll be taking a short few day trip coming up shortly once all the major pieces are in place.

Thanks! I sold the shell shortly after I cut the truck in half. That was a no turning back point. :D

 

looks very good travis, i hope to get my truck to a status of a "home away from home" one day, but probably not to the amount of work you've put into your truck!

looks amazing.

 

Onto the kitchen gear! I'll start with the most important piece of equipment. The stainless steel National Luna 40 liter fridge/freezer from Equipt Expedition Outfitters. Needless to say the fridge is absolutely awesome! Now I'll be able to store food for much longer periods, especially in other countries were food is fresh and has no preservatives. Then there's the handy always cool beverage while camping. :D While bench testing I set the thermostat to -30 Celsius then hit the turbo button. The fridge cooled down very quickly.




Inside are three baskets making the lower portion easily accessible.




The fridge's home will be behind the passenger seat. This will give me easy access while sitting in the driver seat. The fridge comes with a 120 volt and 12 volt plugs. The 12v cord has a Hella style connector on one end. This plugs strait into the National Luna power pack




The National Luna 40L is a perfect fit even with the passenger seat slid back and the fridge's lid open. Since I'm unable to use the slide tray that normally secures the fridge, I'll have to make a custom mount.

 

Thanks! Its only a mater of time till you start going overboard. I started with the MX1, which was nothing more than a camper shell and a bunch of bags and gear floating around the back.

 

With me not being a battery expert and having problems with my recent Optima batteries, I asked Mario at AT what he recommended.
His answer was Deka AGM batteries. So for my power needs I've gone with two Deka AGM batteries from Adventure Trailers.
One starting battery (Intimidator) and one marine battery for the camper.




The marine battery fits perfectly in the power pack. Now I'll have the power to run the fridge when the engine isn't running.




The starting battery gets installed in the engine bay. A tight fit as I modified my battery tray to use a group 34 battery size. I may need to trim some metal a bit.

 

With having a fridge comes carrying bottles, so I picked up a classic style bottle opener and mounted to the trucks bed.




The stove I'll be using, like many, runs on propane. Since I don't want to jungle tons of small canisters I picked this 5lb tank with aluminum bracket from Adventure Trailers.




I then mounted the propane tank on the inside of AT Flippac near the cooking area I made on the bumper.




I found a propane line that connects to the standard US propane bottle fitting and the stoves fitting. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a long enough line to use my stove mount.

 

so sick i love this truck

 

hell yeah! this truck is my favorite ranger!

 

That is sweet.

 

nice travis, this thing has everything now! cold beer and hot food is all you need for camping haha

 

Thanks everyone!

Yep and I can't wait to take the truck out on the first test run.