Toyotie Modfest

Having accumulated several parts kits for the Land Cruiser, I was planning to install them on an upcoming weekend. Lumping the related kits together, there were three basic groups:

1. An IBS dual battery kit. This would be installed along with a second factory battery tray, and Slee’s washer bottle relocation kit. Of course, there would also be a second battery to complete this installation.
2. A Safari Snorkel kit.
3. An ARB high-output compressor. I didn’t need it for running lockers, but it would be very useful for airing up tires. Unlike my PowerTank, the compressor wouldn’t surprise me by suddenly running out of CO2. I also had a mad idea that if I got a compact enough Odyssey battery, the compressor might also fit inside the second battery tray alongside it.

I’d not installed anything like these three items before. None of them looked too intimidating, but they were all fairly involved and would surely take a lot of time, perhaps a full weekend or two.

When the snorkel, battery tray and washer bottle relocation kits arrived from Slee, I started thinking about when I could do the install. Just as I was about to schedule things, something came up to completely disrupt my plans. Of course.

I happened to drop in and take a look at the Classifieds on the IH8MUD site, and saw a fresh post offering an INTI roof rack for sale. These were pretty rare things, and in high demand. I’d only seen one come up for sale in the previous few months and it sold immediately, with a long queue of would-be buyers left out of luck… I checked and this listing had just been posted, and it turned out the seller was even nearby, only about a half hour drive from me.

I checked everything out quickly, twice. Everything checked out. I knew that this was a rare opportunity, so I pounced. I contacted the seller and told him I’d take it, along with the HID lights mounted on it. I knew this would torpedo my build budget for the next month or two, but sometimes you need to strike while the iron is hot, or you miss your opportunity.

I was a little crestfallen when the seller got back to me to let me know I was actually second in line. Someone else had gotten to him first. He said he’d be in touch if the deal fell through for some reason… I thanked him and wished him luck with the sale, and asked that he definitely let me know if it didn’t work out… Damn.

To my surprise, a day or two later came word that the rack and lights were mine if I wanted them. Woohoo! I made arrangements to come check them out on the weekend. I pulled off my old rack, made the drive up to Fremont early that Sunday afternoon, and after a couple of hours was home in my driveway with a new – to me, anyway – INTI rack on Toyotie.

I’d considered a couple of other racks – mainly ARB and Baja Rack offerings – as well as keeping the INTI-inspired homemade rack that had come with the Land Cruiser when I bought it, but the Venezuelan-made INTI was my favorite rack option. I just couldn’t be sure I was ever going to get my hands on one. It complicated my build plan because getting the rack finalized was a prerequisite to getting some other things (like the various rack lights) done.

Now that I actually had my dream rack, I was free to proceed with those other items. These were simplified somewhat because there were already four 7″ HID lights in place on the rack. Now I didn’t need to go buy a set of lights myself. Also, the previous owner had put in place some other touches in the form of amber LED sidemarker lights, red LED rear lights, and an amber flashing light on the center-rear of the rack. These were all nice touches, although it meant that I’d need to get a lot of proper wiring done. Also I was going to move the Land Rover work light over from the Jeep, so there was some more wiring to be done.

So now I had a list of rack-related items, in addition to the other list I’d started with, and probably more than double the amount of work. Some of that work, like the ARB compressor and the snorkel, was going to be totally new to me… So after dwelling on it for a while, I decided that in order to get everything done (and done right) I’d break down and take Toyotie into the shop and have them do it. I’d pay for that option – literally – but it would be done in a day or two instead of a month of weekends, and it would be done by experienced pros, and not an enthusiastic hack like me.

There was an additional complication, which was that my original battery didn’t seem to want to hold a charge anymore. I suspected a bad parasitic drain, which seemed to be getting worse over time. I absolutely needed to identify and put a stake through the heart of that problem. Again, this was something I wanted an expert opinion on.

And so it was done. The photo gallery has pictures of everything and captions with all the gory details.