Cheap Tricks For 4x4s

[Brody]

I am going to restart this thread and post all of the 'cheap tricks' stuff I know here. I'll even credit the folks that I picked them up from if I remember. Feel free to contribute, please..

[Brody]

On bolts that have to be torqued and that are visible, such as steering knuckle bolts, paint a stripe of paint or nail polish on them to allow you to easily see if they are coming loose.
Credit to Willie Worthy

Paint a stripe of paint or nail polish on your locking hubs so that you have a very visible means to see if they are locked or unlocked. Use a light primer first so that the bright paint stays bright. Pictures show both positions.
Credit to Bear (4LoLo)

[Brody]

Locking hub tool:

Sometimes it is hard to turn your locking hubs due to mud, cold weather, small hands, etc. here is a simple solution:

Take a 1/2"x1/2" plastic 'T' fitting from the plumbing section at Home Depo or Lowe's and cut a notch in it to fit over the center part of your hub. Attach a small string to it so that you don't lose it.
Credit to Willie Worthy again.

[Brody]

Shock bump stops:

Poly Performance and another company came out with poly shock bump stops which act as mini bump stops for your shocks. Not a bad idea, in fact kinda practical, but not really worth the bucks. Well, I just replaced some POS Bilstein 5150s (that crapped out after 6k and 12k and that Bilstein wouldn't warranty...) with some 'last a lifetime 'Ranchos. I took the poly shock inserts out of the other shocks, split them with a knife, and zip tied them to my shocks. Cheapo shock bumps.

I also cut off the eyes of the shocks as I can use these as light weight mounting tabs for something down the line. Pictures show them on the front and rear shocks.

[Brody]

Bulk Head Fittings:

Use plastic electrical conduit fittings found at most hardware stores for bulk head fittings for running wiring bundles and hoses through body panels. They are cheap, come in a variety of sizes, and some are water tight (seal tite brand). They can easily be made water proof by using a silicon sealer to seal them. Pictures show them in a couple of places on my rig.

[Brody]

Engine bay clutter clean up:

Here is a great solution for straightening out the clutter in your engine compartment or anywhere else on your rig. It also works to keep abrasion down to a minimum, too.

Use plastic zip ties to separate wires and hoses as shown in the pictures. Loosely loop one tie around the wires or hoses and run another one around through the center, over the other tie. snug this tie down, but not too tight and tighten the first one. Then tighten the one through the middle. You can use this for organizing any number of wires, such as spark plug wires, and hoses.
It is an old hot rodders trick that works well.

[Brody]

Tow Strap Trick

Here is something that I first saw in a Sky Mall catelogue as we were flying to St.Lucia last November. It was advertised as the 'Cinch Bone'. You can go to their website and see the pretty version.The idea is simple and I thought that I would just make one or two and try them out. So I took some 1" scrap tubing from my garage and a couple of very large fender washers (the ones that Home Depo and Lowe's sell for concrete anchor bolts work well), cut the tube into 7" lengths and welded the washers to the ends. If you don't have access to a welder, you could easily run a bolt through the washers. Picture shows set up on a tow strap.

Everybody that has seen these in use or used them likes them a lot. They are very handy, and very quick to use.

[Brody]

Winch Line Safety:

Paint 15' on both ends of your winch line (assuming you are still using metal line) a bright color so that you know that you are getting near the ends of your lines whether you are paying it out or reeling it in. This gives you a visible reminder and helps a lot as you are usually preoccupied with other stuff. Save fingers and line...
Credit to Jimmy on this one.

[Brody]

Hi Lift Tube Rail:

This is a quick way to add security to your Hi Lift jack when you are using it on rock rails or any other tubing on your rig. It will keep the jack from skipping out from under your rig, not a good thing.

This idea is actually from a company called WabFab and they make a prettier version. Go to their website and check out their stuff. I didn't have the money to buy their product and decided that I would make one for myself. I used 2 1/2"x 2 1/2" x 1/4" stock for the top piece and 2"x2" x1/4' stock for the piece that sleeves over the plate on the Hi Lift. I cut notches to allow the 2x2 to fit snugly around the reinforcing bars on the plate. I then welded the 2 1/2 piece directly over the foot of the plate and cut the top off of it to allow for the tube. The 'X' shows where I still have to drill out for a 1/2" safety bolt that will tie everything together. Jamie mentioned using a large cotter pin in place of the bolt which would work fine. I like redundancy and wanted to use the same size bolt as my shock bolts.

[Brody]

Dirt Cheap Tabs:

If you go to the metal conduit isle in either Home Depo or Lowe's Electrical section, you will find a separate display of metal tabs and fittings for the large size conduit. Included in this section are these great tabs which are all made from 1/4" steel plate and have 1/2" and /or 3/8" holes pre-drilled in them. You can get a bag of the smaller ones for around $2 for 10 tabs. The double hole ones are around a buck and the ones with the 3/8" u bolt are about $2.50, cheaper than a 3/8" u bolt! I have used these for mounting auxillary lights, shocks and for just general purpose tie down mounts.

[Brody]

Spare Square Driveshaft:

Make yourself a cheap back up driveshaft out of square stock. I used a bent driveshaft from the wrecking yard that they essentially gave me, a piece of 2 1/2x2 1/2x 3/16" square stock and piece of 2x2" stock that sleeved into this. I cut off the ends of the bent driveshaft and modified them to fit the square stock. The fit is surprisingly tight and very little had to be done. I measured for length and found that I could use mine as a spare for both the front or the rear, which was nice. I then cut the metal to fit and triple welded the tube onto the u-joint ends. I am not worried about the balance as this is a 'get you home' driveshaft. I will add about 10 oz of silica sand to the inner shaft and cap it at some point, but haven't done it yet. Doing this is supposed to allow a speed of 50mph before vibration problems.
Here is a picture of mine and one of many links on the subject.

http://www.rocketcityrockcrawlers.com/memberstuff/al/85%20Toyota%204Runner%20Square%20Driveshaft%20Proj ect.pdf

[Brody]

Painting:

In cold weather when you need to paint something using a rattle can, fill a pail with hot water and let the cans sit in the water for awhile to warm up.

For those hard to reach areas, use the old top off of a WD40 can with the wand extension. Not pretty, but it will work just fine and hit those areas you would otherwise miss.

For areas that need touch up painting and are going to be very hard to mask off, use aluminum foil. It will conform to almost anything.

Don't forget a regular old paint brush. A small can of standard Rustoleum and a brush will go a long way to painting hard to reach areas without a lot of masking.

Use Denatured Alcohol for surface prep. It will remove almost all grease and leaves no residue.

[Brody]

Don't throw away any of the rubber hoses or tubing that you replace...or at least keep some of it around. Here is why:

A worn radiator hose will make a welcome trail spare as will a heater hose, providing they are simply worn and not trashed out. If they happen to be trashed, cut a couple of pieces of them off and include an inner sleeve that fits inside the hose for a trail fix. After all, it is the same size hose as what you have on the rig, right?

Pieces of hose can be uses to sleeve wires or other hoses that run through bulkheads or body panels. Just cut off a piece and zip tie or tape it to the wires or hoses that run through the panel.

Smaller hoses, like vacuum hoses and fuel lines can be split down the middle and slid over odd shaped holes that you will never find a grommet to fit. This protects any wires or hoses that go through the odd shaped holes. If you have trouble keeping them in place, simply put some silicon around the opening first.

Small pieces of hose, split down the middle can also be used to insulate and protect areas where hoses or lines rub together or hit body or mechanical parts. Again, just zip tie these in place.

If you are running a single wire and cannot find the hard to find 1/4" loom to sleeve it with, take a small ID piece of vacuum line, hose a little WD40 down it and carefully feed the single wire through the vacuum line. Note: it helps if you then label this as to all appearances it will now look like a vacuum line instead of something that has a wire in it....

Here are some shots where I used chunks of old hose split, cut to length and zip tied for anti abrasion sleeves and a couple more where I split small diameter hosing and used for the same reason on bulkheads where I needed to get wire or hoses through the bulkhead:

Attached Images

[Brody]

Plastic Wire Loom:

Here is yet another one, this one dealing with plastic wire loom:

If you have ever had to deal with reusing old plastic loom or if you have had to deal with putting the once flexible and easy to manage 'new' loom on wires in cold temperatures, and know how frustrating that can be, this is the trick for you.

Simply take the loom, new or old, and stick it in the dryer for about 5 minutes. If it is old, but still usable, then you had better stick it in an old pillow case or your SO won't freak. At any rate, after 'cooking' it for a little bit, the loom is now flexible and easy to use again.

This is all a moot point if you are trying to do this in 90 degree weather where you can simply stick it in the sun, but in cold weather, it works like a charm...

BTW, this also works for zip ties that tend to break when you don't want them to when it is cold. Into a sock, then into the dryer for 5-10 minutes, and they are good to go....

[Brody]

More Cheap Tricks Links:

Here is another link to a site with a bunch of Cheap Tricks:

http://www.4x4spot.com/cheap_tricks_and_trail_fixes.htm

And here is another. This link contains quite a few winter driving off road tips and articles, too:

http://www.automotive.com/auto-enthu...cks/index.html

[Java]

Dirt Cheap Tabs:

If you go to the metal conduit isle in either Home Depo or Lowe's, you will find a separate display of metal tabs and fittings for the large size conduit. Included in this section are these great tabs which are all made from 1/4" steel plate and have 1/2" holes pre-drilled in them. You can get a bag of the smaller ones for around $2 for 10 tabs. The double hole ones are around a buck and the ones with the 3/8" u bolt are about $2.50, cheaper than a 3/8" u bolt! I have used these for mounting auxillary lights, shocks and for just general purpose tie down mounts.

PS
Jon-these are the tabs I suggest for building your shock mounts. We used these on Bears when we did his.

I can use these!! Thanks!! :thumb:

[Brody]

Here are a couple more cheap tricks that I had forgotten to list:

If you paint the under carriage of your rig:

Paint the frame and drive shafts a dark color, like black. This will give you a quick visual if stuff is rubbing or if you scored the drive shaft as you will easily be able to see shiny or worn metal.

Paint the engine and transmission, including the front cover on the engine any kind of light color engine paint. Silver, white, or any one of a number of light engine paints or high heat paints work well and let you see exactly where any oil leaks are coming from.

Paint the exhaust system with a light colored high heat exhaust paint for the same reason. Any exhaust leaks show up really well against the light paint as they are black.

When painting any kind of cast metal: differentials, steering knuckles, etc, use multiple coats of paint to fill in the porous cast surface. This makes them very easy to keep clean.

[Jim]

A variant on the zip-tie process is to use a short section of tube to separate & constrain items...

[Brody]

You ever wonder where the piece of paper or notepad went that you were keeping track of differential/tranny/transfer case fluid changes on? here is a real cheap trick:

Use a metal marker to log the fluid change on the differential or transfer case with the miles and date. Using the metal marker lasts a long time, even through numerous car washings and provides a very quick visual every time you stick your head under the rig to tighten stuff.

[Minnesota]

Another abrasion/protection/bulk-head buffer I've had good luck with is cut up mountain bike tires, particularly the kevlar beaded ones due to increased flexibility. Not the best for long stretches due to curvature though. I used some when running my tranny cooler lines through the radiator support.

[4Runninfun]

I have found cheap lights mounted on the back of your rig help immensely when setting up camp, night wheeling, and even doing the day to day grabbing stuff out of the back. No need for high dollar lights basic $20 wal-mart lights do the trick. credit funrover.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/4runninfun/4runner/goodshot.jpg

[4Runninfun]

Don't have cup holders? grab a couple of these and instead of putting them in the window sill stick them in the gap of your glove box. I've had a few there for a while. Bounce a little bit but have held up pretty well.

http://i3.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/250/draft_lens18420332module152795888photo_1314610522l arge-cup-holder.jpg

you can also use these and mount them to your transmission tunnel or another convenient spot.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/3138nevC5iL._AA300_.jpg