Hi-Lift Jack Mount
Here's a picture of where I have my Hi-Lift jack stored on my
Jeep. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the body pan, just above the
driveshaft (well, 12" above the driveshaft, actually, but you get
the idea...).
I stuck a 2" bolt up through from the bottom, and tightened on a nut (with flat & lock washer) on the top, holding the bolt vertical & solid.
The Hi-Lift jack sits on the floor, sideways, behind the front seats. The bolt sticks up through one of the holes in the jack frame, and I put a flat washer and a wing-nut on to anchor the jack to the floor. I also have a cable & lock looped around the rollbar to keep people from "borrowing" it.
The red grimy stuff on the floor isn't rust (being a
California vehicle and all), just dirt & sand &
general hasn't-been-cleaned-in-a-while.
The Battery Tray
The battery tray was a requirement -- the old
(original) battery tray was plenty solid by itself, but it
just didn't hold the battery down worth a damn. So I
decided to fabricate a new tray, using some
aluminum angle-iron and straight bar.
The angle-iron (which makes the tray itself) is 1/8" thick, 2" on the bottom (under the battery), and 1" up the sides. The bar (which makes the support arms, and the top & bottom strap) is 1/4" thick, and 1" wide.
All the bolts (and the pieces of threaded stock up the middle) holding the assembly together are 5/16" flat-heads, with flat & lock washers throughout. All the holes in the aluminum are counter-sunk for the beveled flat-head bolts.
The Wooden Box
The wooden box gives me somewhere moderately
secure to store my tools, spare parts, safety
equipment, and camping & survival gear. It is
constructed from 3/4" plywood, and glued &
screwed together. It measures 36" wide, 30" long,
and 14" high (all outside measurements).
There's about a 4" space immediately behind the box that I left open, so I can put my half-doors there when I'm wheeling.
The box has two massive hinges holding the lid on, and a huge
shackle to hold the equally huge lock. All hardware is
through-bolted, lock-tited, and generally over-built to keep
curious hands out of my stuff. I'm sure if someone really
wanted to they could pry the top off (with a 3 foot pry bar,
maybe), but then they could just use a chainsaw on the lid :-)
I'm planning on replacing this box with a "more secure" custom-built steel box next year.
The Hand Throttle
The hand throttle was built for a number of reasons. First off, with a four-cylinder and a carburator, getting the Jeep to stay running while it's pointed uphill is a major battle, especially if I have to hold the brake and the clutch at the same time. Also, it makes starting on steep slopes and off-camber situations much simpler. Finally, it's useful for setting a higher idle while using my on-board air or welder system.
I bought a shift-lever from a bike store, and a universal brake
cable at the local hardware store. I wrapped some electrical
tape & foam tape around my shift lever, a couple inches below
the know, until I had about a 1/8" thick layer. I then fastened
the bicycle shift lever to the stick-shift lever at this point.
I drilled a small hole through the firewall just beside where my throttle cable goes through, and fed the new cable through the hole. I ran it up to where I was going to mount it, and cut it to fit. I threaded a couple small nuts onto the cable, about an inch from the end, and wrapped them securely to the cable housing using electrical tape. This made a secure stop for the cable, which fit through a hole in the bracket I mounted it on.
The bracket was an empty one, already on my carburator,
with nothing on it. Just a small metal bracket, with a 3/8" hole
in the end. The cable hang out of the sleeve about four inches,
far enough to reach another "handy" bracket on the throttle
lever. This had a small pin sticking out, with a really small hole
in it. I soldered a small washer to the cable in the appropriate
place, and slid it onto the pin, and then put a small wire
through the tiny hole and twisted it off. In the picture to the left,
you can see the regular throttle cable on the left, and the new
one on the right.
Voila, instant hand throttle. The whole thing took about an
hour to do. The lever sticks to where you put it, so you can use it as a crude form of
cruise control, or, like I said before, to set the idle at 2500 rpms without having someone
sitting in the driver's seat.
The Rear Hook Experiment
For a while, I was trying to figure out what to do
about a rear attachment point for my Jeep, without
having to go out and buy a bumper with a 2" receiver
mount built in.
So, one night, I was sitting in the garage, looking at the rear cross-member where the old bumper had been welded to it (and actually ripped a gash in the metal). I had been thinking about mounting a tow hook sideways on the frame, but of course the rear cross-member was in the way. But, what the hell, my cross-member is already in pretty bad shape, so the worst that can happen is I have to replace it. So, I took my little 3" cut-off grinder, and starting hacking away at the cross-member, until I had a big enough chunk cut away to be able to mount the hook, and slip the recovery strap loop over the hook.
Now, I was pretty much expecting the cross-member (or what's left of it on that side) to buckle under the weight of the body, since the mount for the body is past where I cut a big chunk of the cross-member away. But, it's been a few months now, and I've gone wheeling at least three or four times, and the cross-member hasn't budged even a little bit...