🛠️ Member Build Overtrail Updgrades

[Snooperstyle]

I emailed JW Off-road recently and they said this most recent batch is due back from powder coating imminently. "You'll definitely have it before Christmas," is what I was told so !

I’ve got a front bumper on order with them too. I spoke to him and he made it sound like the first batch was going to ship early last week and when we spoke it was already in powder coating. So I actually thought I’d get mine today or maybe end of last week. He’s also working on a rear bumper design and I like what he’s got so far on that. Will replace whole bumper cover so no trimming.

 

[Bluegill]

Mine was supposed to ship Nov 25th but I asked him to hold it since I was leaving town. I hope he didn’t ship it to someone else.

 

[jagud09]

I’ve got a front bumper on order with them too. I spoke to him and he made it sound like the first batch was going to ship early last week and when we spoke it was already in powder coating. So I actually thought I’d get mine today or maybe end of last week. He’s also working on a rear bumper design and I like what he’s got so far on that. Will replace whole bumper cover so no trimming.

Nice! I have CBI's rear bumper on order (also no trimming) with the accompanying swing arms. But not shipping til March time frame... curious to see what JW's will look like!

 

[Snooperstyle]

Nice! I have CBI's rear bumper on order (also no trimming) with the accompanying swing arms. But not shipping til March time frame... curious to see what JW's will look like!

He sent me a few prelim partial rendering pics but not sure he’d want me to post publicly? It’ll replace all the way to the sheet metal and sensors will be incorporated under where tire swing out is.

 

[nonamex]

Mine was supposed to ship Nov 25th but I asked him to hold it since I was leaving town. I hope he didn’t ship it to someone else.

Do you know if the bumper requires trimming of the wheel liner? The NYTop requires trimming of the wheel liner so that's a no from me.

 

[jagud09]

He sent me a few prelim partial rendering pics but not sure he’d want me to post publicly? It’ll replace all the way to the sheet metal and sensors will be incorporated under where tire swing out is.

Nice! Yes that's totally fair! I'll keep an eye out!

 

[Bluegill]

Do you know if the bumper requires trimming of the wheel liner? The NYTop requires trimming of the wheel liner so that's a no from me.

I’m sure it does require trimming of the wheel well liner. Think about it….the replacement bumper is higher-clearance than the stock bumper, which is one of the main reasons we buy replacement bumpers. The wheel well liner is made to be long enough for the stock bumper. The wheel well liner will therefore hang down too far when the higher-clearance bumper is installed. I suppose you don’t have to trim it though, you could just leave it hanging down and flapping in the breeze.

 

[markmanner]

I’m sure it does require trimming of the wheel well liner. Think about it….the replacement bumper is higher-clearance than the stock bumper, which is one of the main reasons we buy replacement bumpers. The wheel well liner is made to be long enough for the stock bumper. The wheel well liner will therefore hang down too far when the higher-clearance bumper is installed. I suppose you don’t have to trim it though, you could just leave it hanging down and flapping in the breeze.

I don't particularly like trimming either, but you are right, to get the benefit of less stuff to hit in front of the tire you have to do it. I'm sure that if you want to go back to stock later on, Lexus will sell you a couple new front wheel liners. I looked at mine today, and it appears that the front liner might be in multiple parts, so only the front part of it would need to be replaced later.

 

[Bluegill]

Still waiting on the JW Offroad bumper.....we are texting back & forth now and on Thursday he was looking into it. Sounds like he may have overpromised a bit.

Had a chance to set up the new Hele Box Duo sleeping platform. Here's a link:

Car Camping Platform

It does what it says...I'm actually very pleased with the overall size of the platform and the space available in the back of the truck with the front seats in normal driving positions.. I'm 5'10" on a good day and I have plenty of length to stretch out. The platform is 72" x 40". There is also plenty of room above so you don't feel like you're in a coffin. The rear hatch closes fine. It's a really nice atmosphere inside the truck with all doors closed, and also very nice with just the rear hatch glass popped open. That's going to prove to be a nice feature while sleeping in the truck. Need to create a way to open & close that glass hatch from the inside.

I was a bit worried when I received the platform and opened up the box - the very nice carry bag is really big and heavy at 36 lbs. I was wondering if this will be too much of an extravagant pain in the ass for camping. The wood platform is obviously the majority of the weight. Would be cool to recreate the wood portion in aluminum...would save weight and bulk too. I might have to look into that.

Setup was OK, simple but a bit tedious. The long bars connecting the front-to-middle-to-back cross pieces are simple snap-button into place. But the legs don't snap into place, you insert them into holders on the frame and then tighten an allen-head bolt to snug the legs in place. I suppose it makes it all more rigid but its takes some time and attention. I'll see how much I have to tear it down to pack it up but I suppose I'll have to take every piece apart. I'm wondering if it would be best to leave the frame together and just stash it in the garage and throw it up on the roof rack when it's time to camp. I hate wasting good beer-drinking camping time setting up tedious shit.

My sleeping pad is new too. I splurged for the Exped LuxeMat Duo in medium double size. It's perfectly sized, nearly identical to Hele Duo at 72" x 40.9" x 4" thick. I slept on it (on the ground) the other weekend camping and it was oh so nice. Here's a link:

https://www.rei.com/product/228557/exped-luxemat-duo-sleeping-pad?redirect-pup=false

I had a 20% off coupon and a $50 gift card and some REI bucks so it softened the blow.

Hele labels the front, middle and rear/trunk cross pieces. The "front" piece has horizontal pole extensions, I suppose to get the platform length out to a full 6 feet. I found that the front piece sticks too far forward and it was rubbing on my front seat backs (again, seats are in normal driving positions). See the photos. So I just swapped the front cross piece for the rear. The rear doesn't have the longer horizontal protrusions so the rear in the front position saves space behind the seat backs.

The legs have a lot of adjustability. They use the simple snap-button method and you just extend them until they are in the right place. The longer legs go in front so they can hit the rear passenger floor. Works great. The middle and rear legs are shorties and the middle legs just barely touch the little dip behind the rear seats when they are fully extended. The rear legs just adjust to wherever they're needed. A big part of the tedious setup process was adjusting the legs - now that that's done, I won't need to do it again. I'll mark the proper hole level on each leg with a paint pen just in case they get moved in the bag. Hele also includes 2 extra shortie legs so you can use the platform in another setting with it flat on the ground like a cot.

There are little rubber sections on a few of the wood platform slats that face up to grab your sleeping pad. Nice touch. This setup is very comfortable and actually quite perfect. If you're over 6-feet tall then you may have some length issues. My kids loved it. The neighbors were walking their new baby and their 2-year-old was riding his balance bike and the 2-year old jumped in the truck. His Dad walked back to his house a few doors down and brought back some cocktails, the kids moved to the trampoline in the backyard, and they ended up staying over for a couple hours. My wife held their baby the whole time and now I'm on the hook for another kid. If she goes camping with me in the back of this truck then she'll definitely get pregnant again. Lexus is really bringing the world together with this GX. May be a December to remember.

Time will tell how well it works for real world camping. We'll see how tedious the setup is out in the field. Or do I set up the rear portion only and install it in the truck and then load all my cargo under and on top of it? I think it would take up too much cargo space back there partially set up. And I don't want to lug my cooler up on top of it. If it's only 2 people camping then I could set up the whole thing and load cargo on it....BUT, the passenger seat can't go back too far before it hits the platform. When I'm a passenger with no one in the back seat, I like to put the seat all the way back and recline like a gangster. My buddies do too. We will see how it works out.

Here're some pictures because I'm all about the pictures:











The white arrow in the photo below is the allen-head bolt that clamps down to secure each of the 6 legs in place. The red arrow is the same allen bolt system that keeps the front, middle, and rear cross pieces held together but the red arrow bolts come pre-assembled and don't need to be taken apart. Two of the allen bolts and nuts had come loose in the bag during transport - you can see one set below on the instruction book. The silver collar on the black tube is there as a back-stop for the wood slats that secure at each end of the platform.


My 6-year-old wonders what the hell I'm doing now.


Circled in red is the horizontal extension on the front piece - it's too close to the front seat backs.


So I just swapped the front piece for the rear piece. You can't just turn the whole platform around because the middle section is not actually in the exact middle - the poles between the rear-to-middle are a bit shorter than the poles between the middle-to-front. This keeps the middle legs in the cargo area.


Now the longer front piece is in the rear. It still clears the rear cargo door with inches to spare.

















LOL....I just realized you can see my buddy Tyler through the rear quarter window walking back with cocktails.

 

[markmanner]

Bill, thanks for the informative post on the Hele. I noticed that on the left rear of your cargo space it looks like you've added something replacing the door over the side storage? Where did that come from?
Thanks
Mark

 

[Bluegill]

It's from Victory 4x4. A bit too expensive at $240 for what it is. But I bought it anyway.

 

[Bluegill]

Since this is officially my work truck, I frequently have to drive on a job site or from one job to another with dirty hands, paint on my hands, etc. I always end up messing up my steering wheels. Keeping your left hand at 12 o'clock also wears through the leather after a while, especially with with a wedding ring on your finger. I also tend to gouge the leather at about 7-8 o'clock with the knife clip in my pocket as I get up into the truck.

So, I picked up a "leather" steering wheel cover on Amazon. These are usually pretty cheesy and cheap china items but I looked for one as easy on the cheesy as possible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JG17ZDT?ref=fed_asin_title

It's listed at $19.79 but I happened to find it when it was discounted down to $15.83.

The reviews are full of horror stories about how hard it is to fit onto the steering wheel but I just left it on the dash in the sun for the whole day and it slipped right on later in the afternoon. There are still a few ripples in it but it should even out as the truck interior warms up today (it dropped to 39 degrees last night).

The cover looks fine (don't really even notice it) and it feels very nice, the rim is obviously thicker now and that's not a bad thing. We'll see how it wears.

 

[JPE]

Since this is officially my work truck, I frequently have to drive on a job site or from one job to another with dirty hands, paint on my hands, etc. I always end up messing up my steering wheels. Keeping your left hand at 12 o'clock also wears through the leather after a while, especially with with a wedding ring on your finger. I also tend to gouge the leather at about 7-8 o'clock with the knife clip in my pocket as I get up into the truck.

So, I picked up a "leather" steering wheel cover on Amazon. These are usually pretty cheesy and cheap china items but I looked for one as easy on the cheesy as possible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JG17ZDT?ref=fed_asin_title

It's listed at $19.79 but I happened to find it when it was discounted down to $15.83.

The reviews are full of horror stories about how hard it is to fit onto the steering wheel but I just left it on the dash in the sun for the whole day and it slipped right on later in the afternoon. There are still a few ripples in it but it should even out as the truck interior warms up today (it dropped to 39 degrees last night).

The cover looks fine (don't really even notice it) and it feels very nice, the rim is obviously thicker now and that's not a bad thing. We'll see how it wears.

I'm guessing that you don't use the steering wheel heater very often in Az, right? I wonder how much of an effect the cover will have on insulating the heated steering wheel. But it doesn't look too cheesy.

 

[Bluegill]

I took that pic this morning at about 7:45 when I got back from dropping the boys at school. All heaters were on full strength as it was only 39 degrees outside. I could feel the steering wheel heat just fine. My seat heaters and steering wheel heater seem to work much better than others judging by the complaints I've seen on this forum. The heaters aren't as strong as past vehicles (Porsche in particular), but they are fine.

 

[Jrox]

Still waiting on the JW Offroad bumper.....we are texting back & forth now and on Thursday he was looking into it. Sounds like he may have overpromised a bit.

Had a chance to set up the new Hele Box Duo sleeping platform. Here's a link:

Car Camping Platform

It does what it says...I'm actually very pleased with the overall size of the platform and the space available in the back of the truck with the front seats in normal driving positions.. I'm 5'10" on a good day and I have plenty of length to stretch out. The platform is 72" x 40". There is also plenty of room above so you don't feel like you're in a coffin. The rear hatch closes fine. It's a really nice atmosphere inside the truck with all doors closed, and also very nice with just the rear hatch glass popped open. That's going to prove to be a nice feature while sleeping in the truck. Need to create a way to open & close that glass hatch from the inside.

I was a bit worried when I received the platform and opened up the box - the very nice carry bag is really big and heavy at 36 lbs. I was wondering if this will be too much of an extravagant pain in the ass for camping. The wood platform is obviously the majority of the weight. Would be cool to recreate the wood portion in aluminum...would save weight and bulk too. I might have to look into that.

Setup was OK, simple but a bit tedious. The long bars connecting the front-to-middle-to-back cross pieces are simple snap-button into place. But the legs don't snap into place, you insert them into holders on the frame and then tighten an allen-head bolt to snug the legs in place. I suppose it makes it all more rigid but its takes some time and attention. I'll see how much I have to tear it down to pack it up but I suppose I'll have to take every piece apart. I'm wondering if it would be best to leave the frame together and just stash it in the garage and throw it up on the roof rack when it's time to camp. I hate wasting good beer-drinking camping time setting up tedious shit.

My sleeping pad is new too. I splurged for the Exped LuxeMat Duo in medium double size. It's perfectly sized, nearly identical to Hele Duo at 72" x 40.9" x 4" thick. I slept on it (on the ground) the other weekend camping and it was oh so nice. Here's a link:

https://www.rei.com/product/228557/exped-luxemat-duo-sleeping-pad?redirect-pup=false

I had a 20% off coupon and a $50 gift card and some REI bucks so it softened the blow.

Hele labels the front, middle and rear/trunk cross pieces. The "front" piece has horizontal pole extensions, I suppose to get the platform length out to a full 6 feet. I found that the front piece sticks too far forward and it was rubbing on my front seat backs (again, seats are in normal driving positions). See the photos. So I just swapped the front cross piece for the rear. The rear doesn't have the longer horizontal protrusions so the rear in the front position saves space behind the seat backs.

The legs have a lot of adjustability. They use the simple snap-button method and you just extend them until they are in the right place. The longer legs go in front so they can hit the rear passenger floor. Works great. The middle and rear legs are shorties and the middle legs just barely touch the little dip behind the rear seats when they are fully extended. The rear legs just adjust to wherever they're needed. A big part of the tedious setup process was adjusting the legs - now that that's done, I won't need to do it again. I'll mark the proper hole level on each leg with a paint pen just in case they get moved in the bag. Hele also includes 2 extra shortie legs so you can use the platform in another setting with it flat on the ground like a cot.

There are little rubber sections on a few of the wood platform slats that face up to grab your sleeping pad. Nice touch. This setup is very comfortable and actually quite perfect. If you're over 6-feet tall then you may have some length issues. My kids loved it. The neighbors were walking their new baby and their 2-year-old was riding his balance bike and the 2-year old jumped in the truck. His Dad walked back to his house a few doors down and brought back some cocktails, the kids moved to the trampoline in the backyard, and they ended up staying over for a couple hours. My wife held their baby the whole time and now I'm on the hook for another kid. If she goes camping with me in the back of this truck then she'll definitely get pregnant again. Lexus is really bringing the world together with this GX. May be a December to remember.

Time will tell how well it works for real world camping. We'll see how tedious the setup is out in the field. Or do I set up the rear portion only and install it in the truck and then load all my cargo under and on top of it? I think it would take up too much cargo space back there partially set up. And I don't want to lug my cooler up on top of it. If it's only 2 people camping then I could set up the whole thing and load cargo on it....BUT, the passenger seat can't go back too far before it hits the platform. When I'm a passenger with no one in the back seat, I like to put the seat all the way back and recline like a gangster. My buddies do too. We will see how it works out.

Here're some pictures because I'm all about the pictures:

View attachment 6153

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The white arrow in the photo below is the allen-head bolt that clamps down to secure each of the 6 legs in place. The red arrow is the same allen bolt system that keeps the front, middle, and rear cross pieces held together but the red arrow bolts come pre-assembled and don't need to be taken apart. Two of the allen bolts and nuts had come loose in the bag during transport - you can see one set below on the instruction book. The silver collar on the black tube is there as a back-stop for the wood slats that secure at each end of the platform.
View attachment 6158

My 6-year-old wonders what the hell I'm doing now.
View attachment 6159

Circled in red is the horizontal extension on the front piece - it's too close to the front seat backs.
View attachment 6160

So I just swapped the front piece for the rear piece. You can't just turn the whole platform around because the middle section is not actually in the exact middle - the poles between the rear-to-middle are a bit shorter than the poles between the middle-to-front. This keeps the middle legs in the cargo area.
View attachment 6161

Now the longer front piece is in the rear. It still clears the rear cargo door with inches to spare.
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LOL....I just realized you can see my buddy Tyler through the rear quarter window walking back with cocktails.

Awesome breakdown mate, looks ideal for a quick getaway with the family.