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One of my weekend projects will be to "fix" the Retrax and BedRug installations my friend did for me. He runs service where I bought the truck, and did me a "favor" and had my cover and liner installed for me while I was out of town, before I even picked up the truck.
I get the truck on Monday, and while they are "installed", they are not even close to being correct. First, the Retrax is almost permanently installed, meaning it won't slide easily. Perhaps some adjustments. Second, the BedRug is just dropped in and fastened with Velcro in there. No cut outs for the lights, tie downs, or BoxLink
Now, I wasn't charged for any of this fine installation work, and he is a good friend who was helping me out, so my solution is just to fix it myself. I really should have done it myself in the first place, I would have been very happy with those results I'm sure.
I've been told I should just ask him to do it right this time, but in the end, I think I'll be happier doing it myself and knowing its right. I've seen that service dept do really cool things, apparently aftermarket accessories are not one of them.
I know what you are saying. This is exactly why I do most things to my truck myself. If its not right, I can only blame myself.
BTW your garage is amazing. I'm way to messy to have one that clean and well organized.
I know what you are saying. This is exactly why I do most things to my truck myself. If its not right, I can only blame myself.
BTW your garage is amazing. I'm way to messy to have one that clean and well organized.
Mike
You are correct sir! I knew better in the back of my mind but was out of town, and it was late, and wasn't thinking straight and just let him do it. Talked to my buddy over the weekend and he told me the guy who did the install took 6 hours to do the BedRug and cover....and do it wrong! Like I said, I knew better but did it anyway, another lesson learned.
Some people look at the garage and think I'm crazy. They are probably correct, but my CDO (OCD in the proper order) wouldn't have it any other way.
Did get a chance Friday night to get the bedrug and cover correct though. It was a pretty good feeling.
Beautiful truck. Congrats on the new ride. That garage is awesome. What other plans do you have for the truck?
Thanks! Quite a complement from someone with a truck as nice as yours.
Got most of the electronic stuff installed this weekend, will update the post as soon as I can. The next "biggest" things will be to get the Bilstein 5100s installed and swap the headlights with the smoked SE version.
BTW, I looked at the Putco trim to test fit on my truck you recommended this weekend and think it will look very nice color matched, thanks again for that! Just need to get these off to the painter......as soon as I get my fender badges to get painted as well, Billet Badges is taking there sweet time.
Had a great weekend diving right into the truck, will post updates soon, but wanted to share something so stupid, it really still amazes me what people will do.
Ordered the Blackvue 750 dual camera setup from amazon, third party seller. Received the box right before Memorial day. Never opened it up until this past Saturday morning. About 6 am (wanted to get started taking this beast apart!) I cut open the shrink wrap and found it odd the box was glued shut. OK, so I start to tear into it and find this inside
That is 4 tiles, they were glued together, put into the box, the box glued shut, probably with the same glue, and then shrink wrapped. Amazing to me what people will do sometimes to get one over. The one tile came apart from the others as I was trying to manhandle the box and thought it strange something was rattling around on the inside.
Just in shock, my first thought was....How can I finish my electronics install when I can't run the cables for the camera? I had the radar detector, and my RV camera wiring all going in the headliner, and this just threw my day off.
I called Amazon, and they were pretty good for someone you talk to at 6:30 am on a Saturday. They had the same camera in stock at their local warehouse and were going to send me a new one same day. The camera got there about 3 pm and had the wires all ran by 7 pm. They are doing an "investigation" but who knows what will happen. I got my camera, it is installed, and all is well, just thought I'd share my crazy story as I tried to hit it hard this weekend on the truck.
I couldn't help but laugh at what you got from Amazon. That reminds me of something that happened to one of my buddies. He bought is son a Playstation for Christmas "from Santa Claus" and it had a solid block of wood in it instead. Needless to say, he was pissed and his son was devastated. We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time. I can't stand thieves. They work so hard to get over on someone. I'm really sorry that happened to you. I'm glad it all got sorted out and can't wait to see the rest of the progress. I'm really looking forward to seeing that window trim.
I couldn't help but laugh at what you got from Amazon. That reminds me of something that happened to one of my buddies. He bought is son a Playstation for Christmas "from Santa Claus" and it had a solid block of wood in it instead. Needless to say, he was pissed and his son was devastated. We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time. I can't stand thieves. They work so hard to get over on someone. I'm really sorry that happened to you. I'm glad it all got sorted out and can't wait to see the rest of the progress. I'm really looking forward to seeing that window trim.
I can imagine laughing about it now, but also know the shock of opening the box, and if it was my kid opening that, not sure how i would have reacted.
So it was a busy weekend installing some things I stocked up before the truck got here.
Friday night I got the bedrug and Retrax all lined up.
Saturday morning started with the dash cam drama, I was thrown for a bit because the plan was to wire everything I needed in the headliner at once, so had to improvise.
Started by pulling out the drivers side vent to install a Raxiom vent gauge. This was for sure an impulse buy, but picked it up off Ebay crazy cheap so I'm not too upset I don't really like it.
The gauge is a really cool idea, but all the things it will show, I can see in my dash. Think it looks "cool", just not sure its really functional for me. But, I already modified it, so there is no going back. Since the "insert" is much larger than the gauge itself, I decided to run my remote wires for the radar detector in there. I drilled two small holes in the insert for the LED (blue naturally) and the mute switch. This really is an ideal location for these things and always liked the remote light and switch. Ran the gauge wires down and the radar detector wires up.
Used some Tesa tape on all the wires so its nice and clean. I must have used a whole roll this weekend but like how it turns out.
Here is the finished product with the light and button. Forgot to take a picture with it running, but the light and mute button work great. Just not sure yet what to display on the gauge, will put some more thought into that.
Got to practice my soldering skills this weekend as well. Just making sure I has good connections all over, and for fabbing up a test wire. For the gauge, you have to run one wire to the "illumination" wire. The instructions say "this is purple for an 09". so yeah, that's not so helpful, and for the life of me, couldn't find the color codes anywhere so decided to make a test wire so I could probe the likely locations. This shows my new ground wire on the clamps, but you can see that purple wire back there that I soldered a pin onto for testing. On my multimeter, grounded, the hot side attached to the wire, it only took two tests before I found one I needed.
For reference, on my 2018, the green with red wire attached to the "ambient lighting" on the drivers side worked perfectly. The gauge is all lit up during the day, but when the lights turn on it dims. In this picture, I already have the wire soldered in and started to tape it all back up but realized I wanted to get a pic.
06-01-2018, 10:01 PM
