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March EF Lottery

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reapereviltwin

Keep on wheelin John Rock
Elite Explorer
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Year, Model & Trim Level
'92 Explorer
Going to keep the working theme going, this month the EF Lottery theme will be "Tools". For the month of March, submit media or a story related to the tools you use to work on the rig. This can be anything related to any type of tool or tool storage.

Ending and drawing date will be on or about April 1st, 2018.


Goal: To encourage members of the Explorer Forum to submit a photo and/or vid, or written story in accordance with the theme and award two members with an one year elite membership.

Only one submission to be entered into the drawing per member. Submission can contain multiable pics and or video(s) and/or links to pics/vids.
Members are encouraged to post positive feedback
 



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If you have ever done gears on an IFS front diff, you'll want one of these to get the carrier preload back right without smashing the carrier into the housing..........

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I built this deck in the topper of my Sport Trac so I can access the tools that always got buried under everything else. Nobody else drives this truck, so I keep most of my tools in it for easy access, and if I'm going any distance, I will be in this truck and I want my tools with me. Once had to change the fuel pump in my '77 (or maybe the '79?) Ranchero 150 miles from home in the dark. It was easy to access, but I didn't have a socket set with me. It is possible to change with an open end wrench, but it's a very slow, painful, frustrating job. Since then, I don't travel far without tools.

101_2433 (1).JPG


The platform is built in 2 pieces and the rear support can fold to the sides by removing 1 wing nut and bolt. I can remove the plywood or move the rear section forward on top of the front section, and fold the rear support out of the way to haul taller items. I had never tested it until a few weeks ago when I needed to haul a tall printer for work. It worked perfectly - aside from all the unnecessary stuff I had back there.
 






This Lottery theme is a month or so too early! Will layout my plan and if I manage to get it going before April 1st, I'll post pics.

I swap the tire myself at home and the wife one's and the mother-in-law.
I have a full size car jack that works just fine. I lift the front to do both tires in one lift. Same for the back.
But that makes me go side to side. And some support points are quite far under.

I saw a bar that you put on the side of the car and "hooks" in the car jacks support to lift the car from one point on the side. And under which you can easily put jack stands once raised. Liftbars
Does not seems to be available for any of "my" cars. So planning on building one.
The fun part will be to have it compatible with a Jeep Patriot, an Explorer and a ML350.
A variant could be a bolt on version, dedicated for my car.

Started the planning last tire swap but cold weather caught me short...
 






My favorite tools have to be my ratcheting wrenches, sledge, and vintage browne depth micrometer.
I'll have to post a pic of the micrometer later

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Does a car lift count as a tool? I bought a wrecked 99 Limited years ago to reconstruct for a work vehicle. I planned the project to include the car lift, which I had to have to lift the body off. The rolled 99 was a mess, with only one fender usable, one head light, and most of the exterior trim. I used my old 93 Limited body to rebuild the back end, and kept the 93 dark green, so only the new front end had to be painted, plus trim pieces, door handles.

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Car lift 01.JPG


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Needing Storage in my rig, I added these old Ammo boxes witch are impossible to find I hear now. There on 100# drawer slides. One box is for all my trail tools and some spare parts, the other is for fluids, water, oil, PS, brake, trans etc.

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build for them: Stic-o Cargo Storage Re-do.
 






Well, if storage boxes are included with this contest, I can contribute.

I only use the Black Hole for camping and wheeling trips. Over time, I keep finding things I wish I had with me, while away. I just don't like loose items flopping around, in case "**** happens", and the noise they make. I seem to be packed high enough that the rear view is blocked all the time, and got used to it. I hated the full size 100# spare on the roof, but had to deal with it for the time being. So my solution was to do this. Make some storage in the cargo area that will hold my gear, and the spare tire. I eventually made a swingout tire carrier, and got it out of the back, to open up my rear view, or make room for more storage.

First storage box made, before bumper tire carrier.
11 box full monty.jpg


After bumper tire carrier. Larger box, held by E-tracks to floor.

Lower box installed.jpg


For those long hauls into the wilderness, and extra secure storage needed.


Full front view box.jpg


Folding table stored between them. Both use 100# roller bearing slides, but the lower box has 2 slides per side. Both spare drive shafts are mounted on the backside of the lower box. Rear seats still fold up. Top of both boxes have been covered with thick rubber cargo floor liners, since these pics.

Currently working on a all new storage setup for the upcoming long haul trips. :)
 






Real good entries! Drawing will be late Sunday since I will be gone from the house most of the weekend. Still time for more! BTW, a lift is one heck of tool!
 






I'll post up with a story. It's not a compelling or thrilling story, but it's a story about how a helper can be the most important tool in your arsenal.

I"m a pretty good sized guy. 6'3" and 250, with a 54" chest measurement. I'm not body-builder strong, but more what I refer to as "country strong" - I don't look like much, but I can pick up heavy things when I need to. Usually this is a help when working on cars, but not in this story.

My dad is significantly smaller than me. Importantly, his forearms are significantly smaller than mine.

I was having a horrible time starting the bolts from the trans into the engine block. No matter what tools I used, I simply could not get to them. I couldn't get my arms in the gap to start them by hand, a swivel socket was letting the bolt fall out before it got to the hole, and my usual go-to 24" extension for engine-trans bolts on RWD platforms was too straight to line up on the hole.

Enter my scrawny dad with his scrawny forearms, and he's able to get into the gap and start the bolts without any issues, then put the swivel socket on the head, while I cranked the ratchet handle.
 






I like that story, friends are often the best tools you can have. My best friend and I are of similar size but we've helped each other many times on lots of projects. It's really nice to have a second view point and opinion too, besides the extra hands. I've had to borrow my neighbor's help a few times for jobs that need three hands etc.
 






Well, my brother and I were out in my brother's old 2nd Gen Explorer, which was his first wheeler, he got it for free and we did a SOA in the back and welded the rear end. Also put giant bolts in the front torsion bars to lift it up. We bolted 33's on it and tried to destroy it every chance we got (unsuccessfully I might ad as when we sent it to scrap it was both running and driving). Now he has an XJ which is a whole other story. The first time we took it out, it was just the two of us in that old explorer and we told ourselves we wouldn't do anything too crazy as we didn't have a buddy to pull us out. Of course, that never actually happens. So, we got it high centered. No problem, we will just grab the comealong from the back and pull it out, it's not too bad and just needs to be moved a few inches and will be good to go. Simple... Except the comealong wasn't long enough to reach anything solid enough to pull to. Well, after trying some different things to get it unstuck, we ended up improvising out own tool. We cut the back seatbelts out, tied them together and used them to lengthen the comealong so we could hook to a tree. It wasn't pretty, but hey it got us out. And it's a wheeler, who needs seatbelts anyways?

stuck.jpg
 






Bought this tool a few weeks ago so I could adjust my new headlights. Sadly the tool does not fit in the small adjuster area that second gen headlights have, so now I have a useless tool that actually ended up breaking my new vertical headlight adjuster. Now I have to take the headlight out and replace the new adjuster with stock and buy another tool to adjust them. :banghead:
(Not for consideration)
 






Bought this tool a few weeks ago so I could adjust my new headlights. Sadly the tool does not fit in the small adjuster area that second gen headlights have, so now I have a useless tool that actually ended up breaking my new vertical headlight adjuster. Now I have to take the headlight out and replace the new adjuster with stock and buy another tool to adjust them. :banghead:
(Not for consideration)

I hate it when I break stuff trying to fix something :(
 












Just realized I don't have a good pic of my tool boxes. I mostly take care of other peoples rigs.
Here's a late model Explorer that needed an aux heater core

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Not sure if the trans flush machine counts, but I'm going with it. :D
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Nice, a shop with lots of big tools, and tall ceilings.
 






Here's a late model Explorer that needed an aux heater coreLOL

KRG3P6c.jpg



^^^^^ Why the new Explorers get 19 mpg even though they are made of "light weight materials. Not really interested in a lighter vehicle interested in cramming more stuff in"^^^^
 



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Congrats to @Stic-o and @gmanpaint for their entries being drawn as the winners for the March's EF Lottery!!
 






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