Rad Rally (Dodge) Raider (akaMonteroakaPajero) Build

I haven't checked in here in quite a while. Love that shelving unit and great work on the bumper!

Back to work. Today's main order of business was to figure out how to set up the latch mechanism. I picked up a De-Sta-Co direct-pull latch and a beefy L-shaped urethane bumper thing for a few bucks. But since I don't have a flat-faced aftermarket bumper, but instead have a curved, offset factory bumper, had to do some creative fabricating to make a setup that is both secure, easy to use, and doesn't look too stupid. 

First order of business was to build a bracket on the bumper for the latch hook. I basically just angle-cut a piece of scrap square tube - the idea being to angle the whole latch mechanism so it pulls the carrier both inward and downward to "lock it in" on two planes and minimize movement.

So here's the bumper-side mount. The latch plate is angled outward at the top, if you can't tell. The vertical piece on the left is the stop for the urethane bumper attached to the carrier. Note that the factory bumper on this thing is pretty beefy - so I have no qualms about mounting directly to it. Plus, the frame mount is about 2" to the left of this behind the bumper anyhow.

Here's the urethane bumper piece. Worth 8 bucks to save the trouble of digging around to find something in my garage lol.

I didn't take many "progress" pics, so here's basically the "finished' setup on the carrier side, with the Destaco latch. Basically I welded a 1/4" piece off of the carrier at a similar angle to the bumper-mounted piece, except about 1/8" further out to get a better pull angle for the latch. Welded it up, and lined up the latches and drilled holes (right now just hand-tight while I fit stuff). The vertical steel piece is some old 3/16" bracket I had sitting around and chopped it up to be the mount for the urethane bumper piece.

And here's the backside. I put a triangular gusset between the two brackets (and welded to both) to eliminate any possibility of flex/bending. I will add one more small piece of steel above the bumper there so it won't flex upward when its resting on the bumper.

Once I had everything loosely bolted, I latched it up and with all my weight/strength I could only make it move a tiny bit. I even levered against the bumper with my feet, and pulled backwards away from teh truck and it didn't budge. So pretty satisfied that it's not going to pop open on its own. The latch also has a safety catch, and the spring pin on the pivot end will have a "closed" position to give a little bit of extra security just in case.

Oh, I also chopped of the too-long tops of the upper swing-out tube and capped them off, but that's boring and I forgot to take a pic. Maybe next time. 

More bumpers and making a mess with metal dust all over my garage...

I did finish up some of the little details of the latch and got that all painted. Also added another plate under the pivot , which has holes in it for the spring pin latch in three positions (closed, as a secondary, out about 100* from closed, and basically wide open 180*).

Then got going on the other side. The passenger side was a lot easier, since I don't need to reinforce the frame mounts or integrate a pivot. So I basically built the bumper cap the same way as the other one, minus all the pivot stuff, and with backside brackets so I can just bolt it to the five factory bolts (though I did slightly reinforce the mounts).

So after a bunch of grinding/sanding/painting it came out good I think....

compared to the stupid old plastic/rubber caps

My other little project was the beginning of a small fold-down table off the back of the swing-out. Not really for making full meals or anything, but a place to put my jetboil, or a beer, or a sandwich while standing around on the trail with friends, or whatever).  In any case, it's the only thing that can fit behind the swing-out, and you know I hate to waste useable space lol.  Anyhow, my first plan was to use some small hinges from the hardware store to mount the arms for the "table," but they turned out to be too flimsy so I went back to the scrap-metal bin and found some 1/4" tabs and some steel tube that came with a terrarium set (you may recognize it as the leftover from the interior rack I built last month). Anyhow, basically I welded the tabs on and used the tube as the pivot/hinge. The tube passed through the small square bar for the "legs" and then sloppily welded it all together. 

There are little "heels" on them so when the table is open it holds itself up. At least that's the plan.  

here's the frame

I had some old street signs a buddy gave to me, so figured hey, free aluminum. Not sure whether I'll use it or not, but for now the stopsign bolted to the frame seems to work fine. As you can see, it self-supports the weight of my drill (and more). I may add a support cable or two later, we'll see. 

You may notice there's a gap of about 6" at the back, between the "tabletop" and the pivot. That's because the table has to fold up above the tailgate latch/license plate, but having the pivot up there would make it more like a barstool height, lol, So to have it fold down at a lower/more useful height, made the "legs". 

here it is folded closed with the swing-out latched. The pivot is basically out of sight just below the "RAIDER" thing.

It's held closed by an old Thule bike rack threaded handle and a welded-on threaded rod. I need to add some rubber bumpers or something so it doesn't rattle around. 

Anyhow, still a work in progress but moving along...

Ok, let's get moving on some of the related aspects of the winter project mode....

So, first off - I've used these Monoprice cases for several applications. I think this company mostly sells tech stuff, so the cases are kind of an afterthought for transporting tech stuff. But they're really good prices compared to Pelicans, and better quality than the HF ones. I've had one on the roof of the Raider for 2-3 years now (holding my traction boards)  and it's held up well. In any case, they were on sale over Christmas for even less than the normal price, so I grabbed one in a size I thought would work for this swing-out. 

At one point I was thinking about doing a full-length case on the back and relocating the license plate, but changed my mind and decided to go with a smaller one so I wouldn't have to do that. After much measuring and test-fitting, we have this now:

The spatial placement somewhat annoys me but this truck isn't about being pretty, it's about function. In any case, I chose this case size both for fit and because I knew it would fit two of these nifty snowboard binding cases (which I've gotten a bunch of from the ski shop I work at part-time, over the past few years. They'll be good both for separating gear, and for keeping it from rattling around (I think I'm going to use this as a recovery gear case, by the way)..

Meanwhile, on the backside there's a cavity of sorts between the box and the fold-down table, and I"m thinking of putting some kind of small storage in there. Haven't found quite the right case to put there, but something like this:

--break--

it's cold this week, which makes garage work less fun. Here's some cold Sequoia pics.

ok, where was I?  Ok, so as another part of the the rack, I want to put a propane tank on it so I can stop buying the little 1lb cans.  So I got a 5lb tank. I was going to build a mount for it myself, but found a guy on etsy that builds them for a very reasonable price (less than most of the other "overland" brands I've found out there). Though I prefer to build my own stuff, sometimes I like to just buy something decent that looks good if the price is less than my time is worth lol. So I picked up this:

I'll probably mount it up above the gear box, but not sure exactly how I'm going to position it yet, we'll see.

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oh, the original rear wiper snapped off a while back. I ordered a new one off ebay and it came in, from Korea of course, with Hyundai badging (for the Galloper, which is the same truck)

Also was watching Jack Ryan on Amazon and got a chuckle when someone driving this Gen1 Pajero broke down haha...

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So the other project is the new sleeping/gear platform inside. YOu may recall I had one made of wood that I kind of did as a prototype. I didn't really like the setup for sleeping, or for gear, so decided to do something a bit bigger and in metal. So after a bit of welding and 15 feet of angle iron, this is where I'm at.

It's pretty stout. It's set up so one large foot locker case can go under it, and another next to it, and will have a wood top to it for a platform

You may also notice that the passenger seat is flipped around backwards. More on that later :)

I guess I never posted about finishing that project, so I'll take some interior pics tomorrow. Today though, I did another little project I've been meaning to do. I posted earlier a little fold-down table on the back side of the rear swingout. That's a place to but my stove, with the propane tank nearby. But I wanted a bigger "table" to actually put food on, sit at, etc. 

So I found an old hardwood tabletop piece I had saved for something like this, and some door hinges, and some 1/16" coated cable and swaging stuff, and put this together. Sorry, no "in progress" pics, but it's nothing special.

The square cutout is for the rear door handle, since I need to be able to open it from inside when I'm car-camping, plus I cut out a cupholder :)

And with the other table...my "kitchen"

Folded up

I may think up a better latch, but for now a strap around the OEM rear door pull works fine. I'll also varnish the whole thing once it stops raining...

ok, so here's the "finished" inside area. The sleeping platform top is wood, wrapped in some tough fabric. It has room for one of my two gear footlockers underneath (which has spare parts, jack , tools, etc) as well as sleeping bags and related stuff. There are two plastic watertight cases in the slot under the window for toiletries and other small stuff. The orange Pelican case doesn't go there, just had it there for the moment.

The other footlocker slides in next to it. That's where all my kitchen gear and food is.

I also installed a new (working) FM radio antenna, since I like to have radio when I'm off the 5G grid. Just an old marine boat antenna I had sitting around. White looks kinda silly but whatever...

And got my 5lb propane tank mounted (and painted). It also has a small safety cable on the backside that doubles as an anti-theft device (unless the thief has cable cutters and/or certain tools)

In my never-ending search for whatever is making the irregular BANG / POP sound when flexing, time to take some other stuff apart. I've replaced about half of the front end components to no avail so far. I know it's not swaybars/endlinks since it's made the noise with them disconnected. So on to the only things I haven't replaced/changed during this search: The upper balljoints and the lower control arm bushings. I managed to reproduce the noise a cople times using a jack, but cannot pinpoint WHERE its coming from, other than the front right vicinity. 

So took everything apart on the right side, where I'm 95% sure the noise is coming from (5% somewhere else on the right side). 

Also gave me a chance to make sure the front CV isn't binding or anything. I have a new spare, but the one on there felt great/smooth so not going to replace it. But the upper balljoint was super-sloppy and really gritty, so replaced it with a new one. I'll definitely have to do the other side as well when I have time. 

The lower bushings look perfect, so didn't replace them for the time being since it's a hassle to press them out. 

Its hard to test stuff like this, but I tried out some curbs and other suburban obstacles and no noise so far, so fingers crossed

You need a sticker on the glass that says "Microverlander"

Probably one of the coolest compact SUV builds I've ever seen.

I am interested in the stock passenger side bumper cap. My montero was backed into or backed into something before I got it and bent the rear bumper on the passenger side and it is missing that cap.

Mrfurzzy said:

I am interested in the stock passenger side bumper cap. My montero was backed into or backed into something before I got it and bent the rear bumper on the passenger side and it is missing that cap.

The rear ones? I think I just tossed them, since a couple of the tabs were broken anyhow and they were pretty beat up and I didn't want to store them. But I'll look around just to be sure. 

You can get new ones from here, I think: https://monterogen1man.com

Or you can find them on ebay for cheaper I think. Alan has a lot of handy parts but definitely adds on some profit margin for his legwork. He does have some cool things in that site that are reasonably hard to find unless you're really good at searching foreign ebay / pajero sites. 

Recon1342 said:

You need a sticker on the glass that says "Microverlander"

Probably one of the coolest compact SUV builds I've ever seen.

Thanks! trying to keep it interesting without breaking the bank ordering a bunch of stuff ordered from overseas (there is a huge aftermarket for these things in other places of the world)

Oh a couple other little things:

1. some airtight little cases to put things like bug spray, sunblock, wipes, and other little things that I want handy at camp. These fit snugly between the platform and the inner trim. I may add a third one for general toiletries for camp.

2. a little watertight Husky box hidden behind the fold-down table on the swing-out, just bolted to the backside of the gear box. Just someplace to stash some gloves for quick access and also my tire patch/plug kit. May be useful to put cooking utensils in here, IDK. Just something to fill the space for now (I had to break off the side latches since they wouldn't fit, but the two left close it tight just fine).

Hey guess what? Still didn't fix the pop/bang sound during max flex. Guess it wasn't the balljoints. Still sounded like it was coming from the front suspension, but figured I'd do another test. It's hard to recreate by jacking, but it'll make the noise 1 out of every dozen times. I've been jacking the front suspension to make the noise happen but decided to try jacking off the frame about midway between the front and back wheels., while lying down next to the jack to better pinpoint the sound. After a few tries, finally made the loud sound.....clearly from the REAR right suspension.................

So, that's interesting. There are only four possible things back there that could make the noise (since I already ruled out the swaybar endlinks binding by detaching them entirely): First, the lower shock bolt. Not that there would be any reason for it to make noise since it doesn't significantly rotate on the bushing. That's not it. Second, the lateral link. And third, one of the two bolts/bushings at the rear end of the trailing arm, which bolt to the axle. #1/2 below. 

There's nothing visible that would indicate....well, anything. And I can't pinpoint which of them is making the noise. But the torque range for these is "130-220" ft/lb., so got out the torque wrench and cranked them to the upper end of that range. My thought is maybe they're a bit loose and able to rotate one groove on the serrated bushing end (against the frame member), though taking enough force to make a loud noise (and a noise upon return at opposite flex). So, cranked them down and we'll see. I also ordered some new ones since I never did these bushings in the orignal build (they looked fine), so will swap them out regardless. 

Irish, the last sentence in your post cut off...

Suspension noises are annoying and I hate them. Hopefully, this fixes your noise gremlin.

Recon1342 said:

Irish, the last sentence in your post cut off...

Suspension noises are annoying and I hate them. Hopefully, this fixes your noise gremlin.

lol, ok fixed the last sentence :)

Finishing up the updated interior sleeping arrangement. For those who have been following this a while, the old setup required removal of the front passenger seat, and then I had a 3-foot board with legs that bolted to the seat base to make a flat surface. While that worked fine, it required leaving the passenger seat outside the car - not really ideal for bad weather.....and bad weather is the only reason I'd be sleeping inside the rig rather than in a tent in the first place, really. 

So after thinking about it, here's the solution:

1. The seat unbolts from the base and has the same mounting points front and rear....so you can literally unbolt the seat, rotate it to face backwards, and then bolt it back on. With the headrest off, it can go right up against the dash, facing rear:

2. Added a "lip" at the front end of the rear platform to support the forward platform

3. took the old board I used, stripped thr carpet, and cut it to a "custom fit" and then put the carpet back on. The rear end sits on that lip, and the front end is supported by the seat itself with something in between to the right height. The headrest is pretty much the right height, actually, so that's convenient (plus a jacket I bundled up in there). Or my first aid box is about right as well. Either way, the forward platform is held in place side to side by the seat wings and the lip n the rear. In any case, it's pretty solid in there.

Put together

It gives me about 6'3" from the seatback to the rear door. Luckily, I"m only 6'0" lol

And when not in use it just stacks on the rear platform, under whatever other gear I have strapped down there.

So all in all, that was pretty easy and should work pretty well. Honestly, the passenger seat backwards is kinda convenient in general - if I'm not planning to carry any passengers on the road I may just travel with it like that lol. In any case, it takes about 30 seconds to unbolt it with a small impact (or any 14mm wrench) and turn it around so it's a pretty easy process overall.

--

Next up: design some curtains or window coverings since the Raider has a lot of glass and I like a bit of privacy. 

Grabbed some reflective window cover material (used mostly for RVs) off Amazon and did some cutting velcro application this morning. Should work just fine. This stuff is kinda cheapo and some of the black backing came off, but it's good enough for my purposes since I don't really sleep during daylight anyhow...

And found an old car grocery net that works well to store them when not in use

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noticed a while back that my crank fan was cracking badly, like between every blade.

Not something I want to break on a trip or on trail. so spent a few bucks and got a new one from Luso. Easy install, no pics because you can't really see it much with the shroud on lol 

 --

So one of my main complaints in rocky terrain is that the front mounts for the rear trailing arms, which originally had a round profile, get caught on rocks and basically bashed....

Figured I'd make some "sliders" with some DOM tube scraps I had sitting around. First thing was to cut/flatten out the bottom of the original shroud piece there using a big crowbar. Then got some 3/16" plate and plated it

Then some sloppy notching and cutting and welded the DOM from the mount to the frame forward of it. It's not all that pretty, but should do a good job keeping that piece from getting hung up on rocks while still allowing access to the large forward bolt. IDK, we'll see how it works out....worst case I get the angle cutter out and cut it off. Gotta do the other side at some point.

Small projects this evening, some stuff I've been meaning to get around to. 

First off, with the new rear bumper caps I got rid of the janky mudflaps I had, but of course the result of that is that mud and crap will basically just come off the rear tires right into the underneath of the bumpers. Don't really want flaps back there that drag on rocks and stuff, so instead grabbed some cardboard, made a template, and cut out some old HDPE sheet to match, and a couple small bolts and now there's some protection there. Not pretty, but nobody will see them anyhow...

Second, I've wanted to do a roof net inside the truck. This thing has a pretty high overhead so there's space for one without blocking rearview or getting in the way of stuff.  I wanted to find one that doesn't sag, so no stretchy ones, and one with decent support. After searching Amazon found one for cheap that looked promising, so let's see. These have a clip at the four mount straps and a compound loop of sorts to allow you to tighten it taut (or that's the idea) It's a bit big spread for the rear grab handles to the rear seatbelt mount bolts, which was my initial plan. So used the grab handle front bolts

At the rear I just used a couple self-tappers into the internal steel shell area in the rear corners

All in all, pretty good. It tightens up nice and doesn't sag with lightweight stuff on it. The other nice part is that it's dual-layer, so you can unzip at one end and put everything INSIDE of it rather than on top where it could fall off off-road, etc. So mostly just put some lightweight stuff (rain and mud clothing, paper towels, wipes, etc) up in there. Still room on top of it for towels and stuff I bring when camping. All in all, pretty pleased with how this turned out - may have to get one for the sequoia as well

Third. I've been meaning to do a shovel mount. Most guys just do it on the roof rack, but I like as little stuff up there as possible in general. But the new swing-out has the requisite space on the left-hand vertical frame. Picked up a couple of the rubber mounts, which are a bit wider than the frame...plus too close to the rear door when it's closed. So made some little extensions out of some scrap pieces

And mounted the mounts...

This isn't the shovel I'm gonna use, which is a bit smaller, so just stuck this one on for test-fit until I get the other shovel I want, which is about a foot shorter overall and should fit more closely.

I'm totally borrowing a bunch of these Ideas(tm) for my Power Wagon build... 

Looks great!

Recon1342 said:

I'm totally borrowing a bunch of these Ideas(tm) for my Power Wagon build... 

Looks great!

Do it....I stole a lot of the ideas from others (or at least inspiration) so I make these threads so others can do the same!

Also, got the actual shovel. Happy to see my measurements were correct, as it's pretty much a perfect fit for the place I put the mounts, and the bill tucks in nicely about 1" from the propane tank mount, and wraps around. So, mission accomplished there

Finally got around to doing the rear trailing arm bushings, something I didn't do when I originally updated all the suspension because at the time they "looked fine." Well, they don't look fine now:

Luckily, this is actually a pretty easy job - literally just undo three big bolts and drop the arm right out from under the axle, though the bolts are a bit of a hassle to get to with an impact. Then the usual drill/cut out the rubber, and then cut the sleeve with a sawzall to get the old (probably original) bushings out...

Then pressed the new ones in, easy peasy

Torquing the big bolts to spec (105 and 170lb) under the truck is a bit of a struggle with leverage (I don't have a lift), but got it done. Oddly the FSM (and Haynes) says to tighten it all up to spec with the vehicle off the ground (e.g. at droop), which is pretty much the opposite of ever other car I've ever worked on that required bushings to be tightened with the car on the ground. Not sure what the rationale for this is, since it seems to load up the bushings when the truck is driving on the road, but that's what the FSM says, so that's what I did

Test drive didn't really show any change in feel since it's just smooth roads, but hopefully this will once and for all eliminate the noises in rough terrain. 

With no trips planned for a few weeks, still goofing around with little convenience items and other minor projects, as there's no end to trying to "find places to make things fit" in a truck this small. As with most 80s vehicles, there's very little OEM storage in them. The center console box on this is about big enough to fit a soda can, so not very useful, and the little under-radio pocket can fit a wallet (maybe). I like to have various things handy when I'm road-tripping....pack up gum, some handi-wipes, etc. At first I was just gonna put a pouch on the door, but not much space for that without blocking the window roll handle or stereo speaker (which is weak-sounding enough as it is). I picked up this two-zipper pouch thing at walmart (it was in the sporting goods section, with all the weights, and had a single shoulder strap so not sure what it's purpose it). In any case, it was a good size so I got it for 12 bucks, cut off the shoulder strap, and used some screws to mount it to the side of my armrest (which you may recall is actually hardwood under the upholstery). So that's a little convenience just for me. 

Another issue I always have (in all my vehicles) on road trips is trash. Not big "campsite" trash loads, just the crap that ends up sitting on the passenger seat, or tossed behind the seat when traveling a lot....soda can, or fast food bag, or gum wrappers or whatever.  Usually I just tie up a small plastic bag someplace and use that, but that's annoying and janky. Back to Amazon searching, and found this one for 25 bucks or something, figured it looked pretty neat and has the "Lusso" brand on it (not far off from Luso Overland, which builds Mitsubishi 4x4 stuff). I like that it has a little frame inside it to hold its shape, the canvas material feels surprisingly tough and looks good, and it has a separate waterproof linter that velcros out, so you can just rinse it in the sink or whatever. On a big SUV wuld just hang this from the back of a seat or something. On this little thing, found a different place for it (with the strap holding it in position nicely using the seat frame bar). Plus a passenger can sit there fine without it being in the way (not that I usually have passengers in this truck). Anyhow, it's a fancy trash bin lol...

Too bad you couldn't get them in plaid to match...

Recon1342 said:

Too bad you couldn't get them in plaid to match...

guess I won't be winning the cars n' coffee 4x4 showdown lol...

Not specific to a particular vehicle, but I'll probably use it on both the Raider and the Sequoia depending on the trip. Anyhow, tonight I picked up a secondhand Hardigg Case off marketplace for a couple of Jacksons. Not bad, since it's probably military surplus and I'm sure DoD paid like $800 for it based on prices I've seen, lol. Anyhow, these cases are basically indestructible and totally weatherproof. I found this one after a lot of searching for a specific size that would fit: my ARB/Ironman awning room (bulky), my car-camping roll-up mattress (bulky), as well as my camping cot, sleeping bag, and tent. Right now I just pile all this stuff inside the truck but it takes up a lot of space (especially in the little Raider). I have a couple Thule roof boxes, but while they have high volume they're not really tall enough to easily (or at all) get the Room and mattress inside (and neither of them fit the Raider roof anyhow). So I knew my measurements needed and searched around until I came upon this box.

The twist-lock latches are pretty trick and really cinch the lid down to seal it from any water intrusion

And it fits all the required stuff with ease and closes without having to smush any of it down

I'm probably going to try to paint it, though I know HPDE is pretty tough to paint, so I'll do some research on what might work. I'd prefer it to be a lighter color to keep heat down (and for looks). Unsure if I'll do drill-through rack mounts or just use straps so I can switch it between the trucks more easily.

I may also keep an eye open for a second one. They could be useful for rally-related gear and a couple can fit on the Sequoia's roof. If another cheap deal comes up :)