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Check out my Mountaineer!

WitchCityMounty

Active Member
Joined
January 31, 2007
Messages
53
Reaction score
2
City, State
Salem, MA
Year, Model & Trim Level
'00 Monterey Mountaineer
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Meet my 00 Mountaineer. I have done a ton of work to it. Keep in mind its all done on a college budget so, no making fun of the Street Glo gauge.
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TT Shackles 31" BFG all terrains, in my opinion the best tire I have every owned.

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The IBM thinkpad is mounted on a modified Jotto desk with IBM dockstation.

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The desk is awesome. Great articulation, doesn't get in the passenger's way and can be moved all over the place.

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Very slick kit uses the passenger seat bolts to mount

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This is the front end software I was running. I had it all customized. Now I just run IGuidance V4.0 and Winamp 5.X I have the entire country and canada in the guidance software in addition to 3 million points of interest, like restaurants gas stations and atms. I have about 100 Gig of music on the laptop as well in addition to audio books.

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On the dash you can see the remote tire pressure system up top, the Kenwood DPX 701, Cobra CB, and WiFinder. The three buttons on above the trip computer are the hard wired radar detector, the Laptop power and an interupter for the inverter in the back.
The radio is great. 6 outs, 2 dedicated to the sub, steering wheel controls work, USB, Aux in, CD/MP3, and Sirius. (between the Sirius and the 160g of music I dont get board much driving)

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Trans temp and voltage, I know there is one on the dash but I like this one with actual numbers, its great for tailgating to know how quickly how much im draining the battery with 2 amps running. The paint I got from and auto body supply place to match. If you do this make sure you use plastic adhesion promoter first. Oh the gauges are blackouts btw, very cool. Although they are a little bright at night anyone have an good solution to this besides limo tint?

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Close up of CB

Give me a min to do reply so I dont make this post to big before you respond
 



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On to the antennas:
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Notice the exterior color match on the tip and bracket

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Before painting the tips

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PIAA 80Xt Pros on the roof, AKA daylight on a switch.

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I made the brackets myself, they are great because I can fold the lights flat to the roof for carrying the Kayak or lots of Skis. They also just clear the traffic garages

Speaking of the switch
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Safety First, no seriously

I switched the headlights over to 90/100 Watt bulbs and wires:
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Remember I'm on a budget so no making fun of the ricer wire kit, the back makes up for it.
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"For those who love motor sports"

1 more post on the way...
 












Amps and Such...
I should also mention I took out most of the interior and ran all my own speaker wiring, I forget what gauge exactly but bigger than stock. The door speakers are Infinity Kappas.
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here is the 1600W amp for the doors and the 300w power inverter.

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The amp and inverter are "hanging" from rails below the seat. It gives them about 3" between them and the seat so there is little heat build up.

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Thats a bag of balsam fur, not grass. (balsam is better than any air freshener)

Now the rear amp:
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Rockford Fosgate Punch Stage 2, and gothica acousitca 300w amp, again I'm on a budget. That amp is high on the list of things needing replacement.

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i forgot to grab a picture of it but I wired up 3 CPU fans to cool that amp. Two blow air in from near the lower seat belt connection in the back seat and one blows air out from just under the window on the flat part. havn't had an overheating problem yet so I guess its working.

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All buttoned up, this was before the fans went in, and before the 200lbs of gear.

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OK what do you think? Im very proud of it!:thumbsup::D

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You have obviously spent a lot of time on your Mounty. Good work, keep it up! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 












Looks great! A lot of really cool, and unique mods. Whats in store for the future? :usa:
 












Well Im adding a solar panel next week, pictures will follow. other than that its pretty much keep up with whats on there. When I get out of school in the spring and get a job I will start on more, maybe a body lift, 33s, headers back exhaust, intake, chip? Those are on the agenda. I may throw a web cam on as a back up cam at some point as well.
 






The stand itself comes from Jotto Desk.
http://www.jottodesk.com/Comersus/store/comersus_dynamicIndex.asp
I took their desk off it and mounted that think pad docking station made by IBM. It makes it really easy to take the laptop on and off with the press of one button. The stand has the GPS receiver connected, the sound into the head unit, power for the laptop run through a DC to DC connector and a security cable. I can lock the computer to the docking station as well. Oh also, sometimes docking stations are referred to as port replicators if your goggling them.

I should also say, the stand is not cheap but in my opinion well worth the money. It is very well built and I dont think I could home make anything nearly that nice. Mine ran about $300. The desk that comes on it is ok but uses cables to hold the computer down. Not very easy to take the computer on and off and all the connection have to be made each time.
 






wowww, now i know what i want to do to my explorer, with upgrades like those, i think i might do interior work before any performance mods
 












Well, the laptop comes out when im not in the truck, I dont take it for around town errands more for long trips. Other than that the only other thing is the stereo. Everything else is stealth or hopefully not worth someone's time to lift.
Nice laptop mount. I might have considered one of those if I knew about it at the time.
 






looks good so far keep up the good work
 






what are the dimensions on that sub? I would love to do something like that as opposed to having the huge box I have right now.
 






I like the way you install. Very clean and tidy. Nice job!
 






Agreed with the guys above, that's a very clean Explorer, especially with everything that's installed. Looks like you took the time and planned it out, and now it's great!

I was thinking about you asking is there anyway to bring down the brightness of the gauges. Are the lights in the gauges run off of their own wires? Meaning are they lighted all the time, or only when you pull the headlight switch? Because if they're connected to the headlight switch, you should also be able to use the dimmer function just as some aftermarket radios do now. If they do indeed have their own wiring for lights, you could also install your own dimmer switch on the pillar to control just the brightness of the gauges. Just have to find a switch that would blend in and not stick out so much.
 



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what are the dimensions on that sub? I would love to do something like that as opposed to having the huge box I have right now.

That's the stock sub box with an 8" Rockford Fosgate Punch. I screwed the amp right into the plastic of the box.
 






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