Anywhere, really. But no sir, not in the Mille Lacs vicinity. Were you to draw a line between Rice Lake and Shell lake WI we'd be hunting somewhere's on that line.

Tailgate and canoe racks been done for about 2 months now. No sense posting crap pics 'til the rust deterrent is in place I figured. Tailgate latches are De-Sta-Co 323-R's.

My scantily clad model is not for hire (sleeps too much on the job).

Happy 4th y'all who celebrate it.

 

Nicely done! How does the beast handle with the canoe up top?

 

Thank you.

I'll put it this way - a scanoe up top does a marvelous job of highlighting the 6X6's worst attribute. I wasn't there when it came out of the chute, but I'm pretty sure the Big Boss was born a little top heavy. Running it through the bush with a scanoe atop, feels a bit like giving a fat chick a piggyback ride.

Other than magnifying the inherent top-heaviness, the rig handles the same. The sound waves from the engine bounce around a lot inside the hull, which is where your head goes when driving. Interesting experience initially.

Sure does make for a nice way to sneak back to some of those little, unknown, unfished lakes that nobody else can get to. A boat up there makes a nice roof too if you have to camp overnight. Not that this will actually happen, but I was thinking, a fold out mattress that when doubled up was the size of the dump box...some telescoping "support legs" that fold out like the legs of a card table...got yourself a little off-road RV.

 

Sounds like your next project is already taking form. You did the rack exactly how I thought it could be done. Looking good.

 

This went together end of last summer sometime, well the first version anyhow. Pretty self explanatory again, so I'll just let pictures do the talking. Concentric makes the linear actuator, 6" stroke (5.32" actual), 1,012 lb dynamic push/pull, static load rating of I believe 3,500 lb, IP rating of 65 (more like IP100 after covering it in 100% silicone). Northern Tool sells it, but I'd recommend going directly through Surplus Center seeing as it is cheaper through them, and it ships directly from Surplus Center in NE even if you buy it from Northern.

Initially, we kept the box's subframe angle/channel steel, just relocated the cross members to make room for the linear actuator's shaft. Well, the canoe rack got caught on a couple trees and proved that those little pieces of angle/channel needed to go.

The linear actuator runs off a winch contactor and is controlled by a handlebar toggle, as well as a Warn wireless controller given to me by a good friend (duhibrokeit).

I think the heaviest thing we've had in the back would probably be a full 55 gallon steel drum which was ratchet strapped to the headache rack. The actuator pushed the box up without even sounding like it was struggling. Granted, that's only 500 lbs or so.


This one below is a clickable video.
















This is what the first version looked like, with the relocated original pieces.




My album should be perusable, so feel free to click around.

 

Very nice!

 

Cool idea and it's faster than I expected it would be.

 

To combat the tendency of the rig wanting to lean/tip when sidehilling (without a scanoe), we filled all 6 tires with beet juice (well, no more than 75% full, that is). It's a product called RimGuard. It's a superior alternative to CaCl2, still weighs ~11lb/gallon, and doesn't freeze until I believe -50F.

Anyhow, we started out with 5 gallons in each of the tires, ended up with maybe 3-4 gallons leftover and stuck that remainder in the rear rear tires. Holy smokes does that make a difference. Traction is unbelievable also. After juicing up the tires, I parked on about the steepest sidehill I was comfortable being on and got off the rig and tried to push it over. I could only manage to get the uphill 3 tires an inch or two off the ground, and I'm 6'4" and not exactly wimpy.

We did shatter one prop shaft over winter, but I don't think it was from too much traction. The shaft itself appeared to have been partially broken/cracked prior to shattering, after further examination.

One interesting phenomenon you might experience at speed with liquid ballast in your tires is called a "lope". Kinda like a washing machine out of balance. We've only achieved 1 or 2 of those though since adding the beet juice end of last summer. Nothing scary, but you know what it was right away!

 

By the way, Pete, how do you like the Mud Bugs. I'm considering them for my Outlander. I like that I can get a 27" tire that's only 8" across. Don't want to be rubbing against my tie rod ends when the time comes.

 

They are still great! Prior to having them, you'd have to evaluate what you were about to be crossing. With them on now, we just go without a second thought. This spring I will again pull a trailered boat filled with stuff (weighing ~16-1700 lbs) through a low area 40' long that typically has 23-24" of standing water on top of who knows how much mud. That's not really much weight, but I'll put it this way, the rig doesn't really even spin much pulling through there with those tires.

That said, I officially got the rig stuck for its first time just a couple days ago. Mind you I was testing it to see how many passes through muskeg-like muck it took before it got high centered. It's always the frame bottoming out that stops you first on these. I made about 4 passes through and on the next the tires lost grip of the bottom. Winched forward 8" and we were back into some traction. Up until that last time, I just kept thinking as I was making my passes "Jeebus, I just can't believe I'm still moving!"

Edit - I should say, there are far better tires out there I'm sure. But for what we were willing to spend, I think these are damn hard to beat. The MudLite XL's on the front were super cheap somewhere online, and the Mud Bugs were I believe ~$90 a tire on sale at Dennis Kirk last year.