🙋‍♂️ What Did You Do To Your Lightning Today?

[RLXXI]

Not today, hadn't seen this thread until now but, I did this with the tailgate, and unseen inside, Alpine speakers in the front doors, Rubber whip antenna for the carwash to slap around, dual channel dash cams with dvr built in (SD card), and updated every module that needed it.

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[Grease Lightning]

How far does it overhang with the tailgate closed?

Sorry for the delay. 10” from the camera to the back handle of the tent. Very doable and doesn’t impact much.

 

[LUXMAN]

Not much on this tread in a while. So here is my latest project.

When @TexasGardeningGirl and I go on a road trip to the mountains, we find we lose cell service. Duh.
So to keep my copilot happy (and I couldn't help myself anyway), I added a Starlink Mini to the truck. I searched all the products on Amazon and even tried out a bed crossbar attachment system. But what I settled on is pictured.

I found a company in Mesa, AZ ( https://www.highspeedmounts.com ) that makes Starlink mounts for off road trucks (think Baja 1000). They have several different options. I liked the one that goes under the bed cover and attaches to the Boxlink. That would have been awesome but my cover is aluminum so that didn't work.

Instead, I attached their plate to my bed cover and bought their powder-coated mount for the Mini. This one has four 65 pound magnets. You can't reach over and just pull it off. It has to be rotated off that plate (and that ain't easy hanging over the bed standing on the tire).
I routed the wire under the bed cover top side weatherstripping.
I then designed and printed a (100% infill PETG) bracket/mount for the USB-C power adapter that attaches to the Boxlink bolts.

 

[TexasGardeningGirl]

It is rock solid! Also I like supporting a good honest American company. Super cool that we have internet thats crazy we can do that. Amazing job with the install.

 

[CD4TNF]

Minor mod that I can share with everyone. I have a pop-up camper top. The truck bed is quite leaky and let's the cold in. Hope these pictures help anyone else wanting to make their truck bed a little more air tight for camping purposes.

Got this truck tailgate seal. Finally got around to installing it.

Not shown is prepping the surface. Cleaned with Invisible Glass cleaner and a few microfiber towels. I did use alcohol wipes to wipe down the metal surface and allowed to dry before sticking the seal.

The seal has a sticky backing once the red tape is torn off. On the edge of the truck bed. There's a choice to put the sticky side on the lip or below the lip. I'm choosing to put it on the lip to get a better seal that's more raised.

What it looks like peeling the tape off. It helps lining it up before peeling. Rotate to stick. If it doesn't line up, it is possible to unstick to adjust.

Note on the left the seal is slightly raised above the truck bed. That's intentional.

The corner has a slight gap. Starting to look good.

Measure twice. Cut once.

There's a decision to put the seal on the curved edge or farther in on the flat portion. I chose to place it on the curve to get a seal that looks similar to the floor. I had a concern that the flat portion wouldn't create a good seal.

Note: the top portion by the black latch bolt curves. The rubber does not form a seal with the truck tailgate. The gap is too big.

Passenger Side seal in full. Top goes up to the plastic bumper. Bottom reaches the bottom seal.

The other spot is to shift it to the right by 0.25" inch, towards the outside. May be able to get away with still forming a seal.


Note: A third spot to place the seal is just along the tailgate light. Unfortunately the support wire doesn't have enough gap to allow. The truck auto tailgate lift complains if the seal is there. Also, the top along the truck bed rail will have a gap that will need a 2nd strip

Driver side vertical seal. I cut it a little too long.

See the gap by the curve by the tailgate latch. It's tough to place something on the latch opening because the latch bolt will need to pass through the seal. I tried some weather stripping with a pass thru slot, wasn't sticky enough and fell off.


Note the large gap above the rubber bumper at the top. It's too wide for a single strip of seal. I didn't have enough left over to double strip both driver and passenger sides. I've left that for a future attempt.

I did consider putting a strip on the plastic bed rail. I have to consider there is some water that drips down from the camper door on that corner.

Corner here has a slight gap where the pine leaf is due to the riveting.

Only picture I have of the truck bed closed showing the horizontal bottom truck bed seal forms a really good seal.

That's the end of what I completed. I'll finish with what needs to happen in the future in this last picture.

Coming back to that top large gap mentioned previously. I considered placing the seal on the tailgate edge. This is what a test looks like from the outside. The strip goes down past the light bar and ends around the zonal light. It can barely touch. I'll be thinking about how to complete this section.

Last thing I'll mention is the truck will occasionally display the warning "Truck bed is open" when I close it. Giving a little pressure to close the tailgate completely helps. I'm hoping with time the rubber will form a memory and not trigger the sensors.

That's all I got. Thanks for reading.

 

[3rdgenfan]

Bought a set of VR601s in Carbon Graphite on Black Friday, and then bought some of those new Hankook ION HTs.

Posted a pic in the thread related to the Hankook tires, but managed to order 275/65s so didn't quite go as planned so we shall see how the efficiency goes over time.

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