🛠️ Member Build Overtrail Updgrades

[Jrox]

about 15 miles south of Lake Havasu City, Arizona

View attachment 4166

How do you find the Matt black bonnet wrap helps with light reflection when driving?

 

[Bluegill]

It's definitely less reflective than the white paint....that was blinding me during the day.

 

[hanrahansessions]

View attachment 4158

View attachment 4159

Motivating!!!

 

[Bluegill]

I ordered this winch bumper last week:

GX550 LOW CUT FRONT WINCH BUMPER.



I'm planning on ordering this 12k winch. The price is great, it's waterproof, the solenoid is easy to relocate, it comes with a nice Hawse fairlead and hook, and it has some good online reviews. You can also "clock" the free spool switch which means you can rotate that side of the winch housing so the free spool switch is facing forward. The JW Offroad bumper has openings on the front between the aux lights and fairlead that look like it will be easy to reach the free spool switch if it's facing forward.

SCAR 12S - 12,000 lbs. Rated Synthetic Rope Winch

And of course I'll have to get some RIGID cube lights to drop in there too.

 

[Bluegill]

The owner and fabricator at JW Offroad emailed me. My bumper should be shipping out next week or shortly thereafter. He changed his design a bit in response to comments received by some of us interested parties. The bumper now has bolt-on wings to make shipping a lot less of a hassle and a lot cheaper, probably by at least a couple hundred bucks, if not more. Shipping to my door should now be $100 or less.

He has some nice CAD drawings up on his site with the new design:

GX550 LOW CUT FRONT WINCH BUMPER.

My last bumper was the bolt-on-wing design and it was plenty strong even though it wasn't nearly as beefy or reinforced as JW's design. I'm looking forward to getting this installed.

I ordered the OVS SCAR 12k winch and it should be here next week too. Thinking of trying some PIAA 3" cube lights to mount in the bumper. I've used Hellas, Baja Designs, and Rigids and they are all good. I actually have a pair of old incandescent Hella Rallye 4000 lights from my 2004 Land Rover that I'd love to mount for that old school vibe, but there's not a horizontal shelf surface on which to mount the Hellas.

 

[Mainelexus]

Looks great!

 

[Snooperstyle]

Seems like a logical solution to keeping shipping costs down and the connections seem pretty beefy. When you spoke to the JW folks, did you ask about a possible solution to cover up/protect the areas in front of the front tires, like Victory's bumper seems to do? This is the one thing that is giving me some pause on this bumper. For looks and for function. Wil be curious to see what you think about this aspect once yours is installed.

 

[Bluegill]

At this point I don't know what happens with the cut inner fender liner in the front fender area. I've dealt with this issue on other trucks and usually you can cut the liner to be out of the way and out of view but it still catches much and water flinging forward. I'll have to see how it all works out. If there's a big gap I'll just get a sheet of thin rubber or plastic and work out fastening a section between the inner fender liner and the bumper. A few little rivets should suffice.

 

[JP1997]

I picked up my Overtrail here in Arizona on June 7, 2024. I had Westcott Designs in Phoenix install their preload collar lift kit, their full length modular roof rack, 17" Method 703 wheels (titanium color, +35mm offset), and Toyo Open Country AT3 tires size 35X12.5R17LT (load range C). I think it turned our great, the ride is great, feels nearly the same as stock, feels a little more supple or softer than stock, and it seems like I can feel a little extra weight or inertia with the wheels & bigger tires. The stock Toyo AT3s are 265/70/18 and they weigh 44 lbs each. The 35s weigh 59 lbs each. Not sure how much the stock 18" wheels weigh compared to the 17" Methods but I'll weigh a stock 18" wheel & tire and figure out the weight of the new Method wheel & tire.

Only other changes are a hood blackout that I had a local wrap shop make for me, a touch screen protector from OCD Plug which is definitely worth it (2024+ Lexus GX 550 | 14" Main Infotainment | Matte/Anti-Glare | Screen), and an iphone wireless charger mounted in that odd space beneath the 12-volt plug (Amazon.com). The screen protector has a bunch of bubbles in the photo below but they all went away after a couple days. There is now no glare or reflection on the screen and no fingerprints. I located the wireless phone charger in this spot so that my phone can sit there and charge and I can still see it if needed (I just used double-sided tape). My truck didn't come with the stock wireless charging pad - I checked into getting the stock charging pad but the tech guy at the dealer said they are way too slow and it's better to just use the USB plugs.

Next upgrades will be rock sliders that also have good running boards so my kids can better climb up into the truck. I have the stock rock rails which are worthless as a step. Westcott Designs is working on rock rail/running boards. There are a few vendors with them already available but I'll wait to see what Westcott has to offer. The Westcott roof rack is incredibly well made and surprisingly cheap at $995. The similar Prinsu rack is $1355 and the Dissent Offroad rack is $1799. I'm hoping that Westcott's sliders are more attractively priced. Dissent's sliders are $1795. NYTOP has sliders for $1400. I also have a 7-foot Ironman 4x4 shade canopy that I'll be mounting to the roof rack.

I do like the NYTOP front bumper at $1200 but I'm waiting to see what winch bumpers come available. I've been building and wheeling Land Rovers for the past 25 years and I like having a winch up front. I'll probably upgrade the rear bumper too but I don't want to get a swing-away tire carrier. I had one for the larger tires on my Land Rover LR4 and the swing-away is a pain in the ass. You end up not putting things in the rear cargo bay because it's a pain to use 2 hands to open the swing-away and then open the hatch. I'll be picking up a cheap Toyota spare wheel that fits the GX550 and I'll mount a cheap spare 33" or 34" tire on it and leave it underneath in the stock location (will have to see what will fit underneath). I'll be mounting an ARB compressor somewhere in the truck so maybe a 34" tire will fit uninflated or underinflated. I'll be selling the full set of stock 18" Overtrail wheels and tires. I also sold the stock Overtrail roof rails and cross bars to a guy with a new Land Cruiser that came with no roof rails or cross bars. The parts are interchangeable - I took detailed measurements of the mounting points on the GX and they exactly match the Land Cruiser.

edited to update Westcott's roof rack price to $995 (not $950)

View attachment 1854

View attachment 1855

View attachment 1856

View attachment 1857

View attachment 1858

View attachment 1861

View attachment 1862

You did a great job with these mods. Looks great! I had a random question. You mentioned the spare. Did you figure out how large a tire you can fit up in the stock underbody spare bay?

 

[GX550Key]

@Bluegill Once you install the JW bumper, what do you anticipate will be the net gain in front approach angle compared to stock.

 

[Bluegill]

I don't know, haven't really thought about it. But I will measure before & after. I haven't had any issues yet scraping the front plastic offroad and my main goal with the new bumper is simply to house a winch. It's great to improve the approach angle but you can't forget the fact that you have to drag the stock rear bumper over whatever you manage to approach.