So, 3000 miles on the green Trialmaster now, and I thought I'd report back on gear we've added.
We are planning to use ours as a moderate overlanding rig, towing a small teardrop trailer (inTech Luna) to off the grid spots in the west and Alaska. No plans to modify the vehicle at this point besides bolting stuff on.
First thing on tap was lighting-it was plain that the fiddly 'offroad' stock lights were both too fiddly, and also just not very bright. We added the leitner light bar and Baja designs lp4 lights. One note on some of these BD lights, some have 2 power inputs, sort of a low and high beam, so if you want to power these, you have a lot more complexity than just wiring straight into the under bonnet wires, a simple on/off won't do it. By a happy accident, the 4's are just on/off, so it was an easy install into the under bonnet power. IG is terribly stingy on the wire length, though! A few more inches would have been nice, hard to get in there to crimp on the wires. All done in about 90 minutes. Nice. These lights turn night to day.
Next up, the 3/4 Leitner rack with the gear pods-this is really an outstanding rack, The install took a few hours. I've seen some confusion about how these are attached to the vehicle-it doesn't just sit on the handles, it goes around them and bolts into the vehicle. It's as solid as can be done without major surgery, imo. Took me about 5 hours from unboxing to beer.
Finally, we found the back to be a bit tall to really utilize it well without a full Jenga puzzle to get it done, so we purchased the rear shelf that's available from CA tuned. I like the concept, but it's probably not something I'd do again having installed it. Probably would have just built something out of 50 bucks worth of wood, frankly. The shelf is fine, it's a shelf-hard not to mess up a shelf too much-, but it's a noisy thing back there on any kind of rough going. I've taken to bungeeing it down in a few spots to keep the rattling at bay, that helps a good bit, but it's a bit of a bummer. But, it's in there now, it'll stay. 30 minute install, though.
Backordered, but soon to be installed is the jerry can carrier from leitner that integrates into the rack over the back windows. We will just do one side for now, hopefully another 10 gallons gets us enough reserve fuel that we can get out into the bush without range anxiety.
Also have 2 KC mini floods for either side of the rack, and a starlink mini. My, how the world has changed.
I think this will do the job for us on additions. I'd contemplated changing tires/suspension/steering stabilizer, but it seems premature at this point. The bit of off road I've done to this point, I've found the rig to be quite good in stock format, and I'm not climbing rock walls anyway, so we'll give stock a go for at least a few trips and reevaluate.
We are planning to use ours as a moderate overlanding rig, towing a small teardrop trailer (inTech Luna) to off the grid spots in the west and Alaska. No plans to modify the vehicle at this point besides bolting stuff on.
First thing on tap was lighting-it was plain that the fiddly 'offroad' stock lights were both too fiddly, and also just not very bright. We added the leitner light bar and Baja designs lp4 lights. One note on some of these BD lights, some have 2 power inputs, sort of a low and high beam, so if you want to power these, you have a lot more complexity than just wiring straight into the under bonnet wires, a simple on/off won't do it. By a happy accident, the 4's are just on/off, so it was an easy install into the under bonnet power. IG is terribly stingy on the wire length, though! A few more inches would have been nice, hard to get in there to crimp on the wires. All done in about 90 minutes. Nice. These lights turn night to day.
Next up, the 3/4 Leitner rack with the gear pods-this is really an outstanding rack, The install took a few hours. I've seen some confusion about how these are attached to the vehicle-it doesn't just sit on the handles, it goes around them and bolts into the vehicle. It's as solid as can be done without major surgery, imo. Took me about 5 hours from unboxing to beer.
Finally, we found the back to be a bit tall to really utilize it well without a full Jenga puzzle to get it done, so we purchased the rear shelf that's available from CA tuned. I like the concept, but it's probably not something I'd do again having installed it. Probably would have just built something out of 50 bucks worth of wood, frankly. The shelf is fine, it's a shelf-hard not to mess up a shelf too much-, but it's a noisy thing back there on any kind of rough going. I've taken to bungeeing it down in a few spots to keep the rattling at bay, that helps a good bit, but it's a bit of a bummer. But, it's in there now, it'll stay. 30 minute install, though.
Backordered, but soon to be installed is the jerry can carrier from leitner that integrates into the rack over the back windows. We will just do one side for now, hopefully another 10 gallons gets us enough reserve fuel that we can get out into the bush without range anxiety.
Also have 2 KC mini floods for either side of the rack, and a starlink mini. My, how the world has changed.
I think this will do the job for us on additions. I'd contemplated changing tires/suspension/steering stabilizer, but it seems premature at this point. The bit of off road I've done to this point, I've found the rig to be quite good in stock format, and I'm not climbing rock walls anyway, so we'll give stock a go for at least a few trips and reevaluate.
