Let's get some gun going on here!

Today I built a bump fire M4 and a scratch built one just to "learn" myself how to do that. The good news is I learned how to do it. THe bad news is I have two inop M4's at the moment!

THe bump fire gun launched a tiny spring out of the butt stock into the twilight zone where it is and will always be. Honestly, I think it landed on my malamute which took off and shook off in the lawn depositing it below this fall's leaf clutter, has to be that!

So that gun is out of there until I get that new spring. You know, come to think of it, I need to tell Nasa about those springs, I mean it's like fusion. It tucks in about 1/4 inch, yet fires out a half mile or so. Some wierd physics going on there.

So here's the bump-fire gun awaiting it's little 7th dimension bound spring:

Originally Posted by GreatLakeOffRoad View Post
Don, have you purchased tires and wheels yet? If not think steel wheels and custom weld on b-locks.........

Nope and for now I'm now 5 wheels deep into the John Deere product line. Now having said that, I could swap these wheels/tires onto the wifes Ga-Tor and free up some room for some steeleis...
You making them (yet?)
Hint: go 15" since the Ga-Tor has a 5 on 4.5" pattern same as you jeepers, the tire size selection would be pretty good. And me thinks you drive over a kia and get your tires all crunched up, find yourself a dead jeep, there should be olenty of them along with the fords to source a tempo spare...just sayin...

It now holds the rifle securely in place!

Those were rivited together on 1" centers

Next I finished the construction of the gas can mount. It's plenty sturdy now. I welded in another brace, a stiffner, and bolted in another U-Bolt. THere is no wiggle in the mount what so ever now, and it is rubber isolated from the rub rail/cage thing. I downsized the hardware to 5/16" since the full gas can will not make it to 30 pounds.

I got a little light happy, trying to reach my goal of having 300+ on the Tac-Gator. They had these cool hat bill clip on LED's which I picked up and slid home in a couple spots. Same thinking as the work/dome lights.

I picked up some emergency flares and tucked them away for some future use:

Tomorrow I'll finish with the details and the base mount, but here's how it looks as of beddy-bye time tonight.

And the weapon secured to the vehicle:

I'm used to storing guns next to the door. We locked our M4's part inside and part outside in the doorway of the littlebirds I was flying around Baghdad. Worked fine. And if you were getting out, there was that gun right there so you wouldn't forget it.
Here's a couple more shots:

Obviously, I still need to fab up a lower mount onto which, I can attach the gun-butt holder seen in the pic. I think a simple aluminum L bracket with some generous feet to spread the load and some fender washers, and that should get the job done.

The upper mount bolts directly to the factory steel handhold with two stainless U-bolts. I will trim off the ends of the U-bolts soon as I close in on finishing this little project tomorrow.

I still have to rubber line the mount, trim off the U-bolts, and round off the stainless sheet edges, but it's coming right along. Here's a few more shots:

Those were rose welds to keep it all fairly neat, yet super strong. The fuel can fits right on and inclines the gas can intoward the vehicle at the top to follow the contour of the front of the vehicle. I am not done yet, but just this slight tilt should help it clear some wait-a-minute vines.

Next up was the mounting of the 3 gal gas can.
I am not allowing convention to drive the train here. I will think out of the box whenever I think I need to and with regard to the gas can mount I did just that.
You would think I should mount it in the bed. But if I did that, then less room for the Rangers and stuff like sleeping bags, 81mm mortars and things like that. So I decided to go outside but try to place it in such a way as to flow into the vehicle lines affording it some protection while not taking up valuable space. I wanted to keep the CG of the thing between the wheels and close to a suspension point so I wouldn't have unusual gyrations with the 20 extra pounds hanging on out there.
Here's where I decided to place it. Passenger side outside of the bed, above the brush bar and slightly forward of the rear wheel. I wanted it to be strong so I started with a sheet of stainless steel and bent it into the piece you see here:

The mount boss and locking handle mounts to the base the same as the non locking handles do:

FYI folks, I was talking to brother Holton about getting the little rangers guns for Christmas. I suggested M4's th which, well saying it mildly, Holton our Marine disagreed. Now I have learned to trust Marines on all things gun. So this MArine says get them Ruger 10-22's.
He sends me some links
I get to lookin
Next few days I'm down at the gun shop. The guy there says I get $269 for a wood stock one and they are drying up! He says I only have one. So me thinks, hmmm, better act quickly so I bought it. But that left one Ranger out in the cold. So I purchased him a hunters series Marlin .22...nice gun.
Then Holton sends me this pic of a new breakdown 10-22 which actually breaks down to 2 short pieces!
Hmmm, this was supposed to be about the boys, but Holton infected me. This morning my buddy teh black hawk pilot calls and says Dick's sporting goods is running a sale on ruger 10-22's! They are only $180 ea!
So I rush over there and snag one up.
Great both Rangers now have their proper squirrel assault rifles! Then I get the idea of giving the Marlin to momma! She would like to kill tree rats as well. WHile there at Dicks, I mention I might order one of those break down 10-22's in the future. The sales guy asks if I want to see one?
You have one? Yes sir, I actually have 2!
So he shows me the one and weakness overcomes me. I start shaking and talking irrationally. SOmewhere in the dribble that followed I mush have said I'll take it, but I know I did not do that from any conscious state, or any other state in the country for that matter!
Anyway here it is on my floor.
Thanks Holton, now I have 2 Ruger 10-22's

So, now you have to help me with the optics!

The winch can be operated through a rocker switch or by plugging a hand held controller into the circut. Initially, I opted for option one, while retaining the option of also dash mounting the rocker switch at a later time.

I wanted to double fuse that critter so I dropped a 450 amp mega fuse inline and installed it under the factory console. That way, I also have a power source for future electrical growth. IR spot light???

When it comes to electric wiring and cables and in an off road application, I always pay close attention to routing and chafing points. My favorite technique is to use a rubber donut to secure a cable to adjacent solid mounting points. Here is how I did that with the winch cables:

The winch plate goes on first, then the winch bolts to the plate with some bolts going through the bumper and plate. I substituted longer bolts instead of using the too short Pro-Mark supplied fastners.

I just got finished installing the ProMark 4500 winch.
It's a good install, but not nearly as fast as I was hoping.
Anyway I started thinking I could drop it in from the front, but that was not to be. The winch installs from the backside very much complicating things.
I have had the winch for weeks. That was one of the boxes partially obscuring the red maple tree outside the garage windows. I like that tree, so that motivated me to actually tackle this particuliar project. Here's the winch plate and where it fits:

Nate Wrote:

i dont think don is speechless, i think another 100 ideas just rolled through his head and is now trying to work it all out. lol

Hmmmm....

From the last pictures you can see I paid a great deal of attention to detail. I welded a bolt to the vehicle frame where I connected the aux battery ground and the ground strap from the electrical control box. I found a switched hot lead for the solenoid and plugged that wire in. I ran a hot to the battery, and onother to the main vehicle battery.
Additionally I canned the Inverter cigar powered connection in favor os hooking it directly to the mega fuse block with some heavy wires. It will have no problem drawing all the current it (I) need.
I did find an interference issue with that access I cut for the control box through the head guard. the Cables were touching when I raised the bed, so I cut another corner off that square access and welded in a 45 degree angle brace. I will finish grind it and pretty it up in the morrow.
That leaves me with building the front cover/lid tomorrow and this project is officially in the bag!

Today, I got it almost finished. At this point the whole thing is installed and working as advertised. I started with fitting the battery frame and box and final welding it in place:

I then mounted it to the front of the bed on the steel bulkhead. I drilled 3/8" holes then used 1/4" bolts on rubber sway bar bushings. Remember that helicopter pilot vibration sensitive thing? Well, that's going on here. Don't like things to vibrate in harmony. Harmony = Buzz!
With that all snugged up, we might recall the bed tilts.
We might also remember one of newtons laws of physics. I'm refereing to the one that states two pieces of matter can not ocupy the same space at the same time. OK that meant that if I tilted the bed, either the electrical box would be scraped off, or that pretty head cage thing would get all mangled, or perhaps both. So one had to go. Since I just built the box, I decided it should stay. With the handy cut off wheel. I adjusted the rear piece. then welded stiffners back to it.
These pics actually show when I was pre fitting it without the pretty box condition (PBS) existing.