Malyk's STX Overland build thread

[Malyk]

Figured id have a dedicated place to keep track of everything so here it is!

The Day finally came yesterday where I got to pick up my first new car, oxford white Maverick XL. And of course not even 24 hours after taking it home I had to ditch (this might hurt some feelings) the god awful Steelies for some RTX wheels I painted a while back and some 245/65/17 Falken wildpeak trail tires.
Definitely a much needed upgrade. My final goal will be to go camping every other weekend off the beaten path so I think these tires will be a good in between onroad, off road and winter tire. And I got a great deal on them so I can't complain, I'm thinking some colour matching will be up next aswell as a trailer hitch

I actually picked up an RV hitch at princess auto this morning for 28 Canadian pesos. I just finished welding it up 5 minutes ago, needed a little modifying to work but should get it painted and reinstalled in about an hour. Also ordered a Curt harness which should be plug and play.

this was the outcome of my 28$ rv hitch install spent a couple hours on it but was pretty straight forward

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[Shakesbear]

Nice work! Flew up to Seattle to catch a Mariners game a few years ago and then slid up to Vancouver for a Paul McCartney concert at BC Place. We walked from downtown up to Prospect Point Lookout in Stanley Park. What a beautiful place

 

[Malyk]

today was my day off since receiving several new parts and decided today is the day i start adding some things. tailgate assist, curt trailer wiring harness, bed lighting, rear switch panel, tailgate lock, and lastly tinted the chrome on the taillights. we just got a new hoist at work and was much better than doing all this on the ground.

The light strips i had where salvaged from a cheap under glow kit i had on an s10 previously. firstly i routed the bed lights and ziptied to the clips for the box side pads. and ran the wires behind the taillights to deal with once i got under the truck. i ended up using the bed power to power the panel as well as added a couple grounds to that wire for the future

this tailgate assist was almost 20$ cheaper than the deezee one and it seems to work just fine, longterm we will see but that install has been seen several times and took no more than 5 minutes.

The curt harness definitely took the most time, from start to finish i would say its a 2 hour install. most of it is just routing wires. I mounted the controller up behind the driver taillight and ran the taillight connections into place making sure to keep the wires up and out of the way with many zipties. Once that was set and done only thing left was the power wire which I ran to the battery. removing the undertray shield I snaked the wire from below up to the battery and slipped some cable housing over it. Underneath the truck again the wire was zip tied to the brake lines, until I got to the rear and started following the stock harness. Simple butt connector with heat shrink finished it off.

Here are the taillights with the chrome tinted, I've seen the zep used but personally am not a fan of how dark the red on the lights become at least on oxford white. Again from another project i had some left over smoke tint I covered and trimmed directly on the light. There is a small seam that I was able to follow with the razor blade. In person they are darker than the camera makes it appear but I am happy with the outcome

And last but not least, the tailgate lock. Being my truck is an xl it doesn't have the option for a remote locking tailgate, and seen it could be added I wasn't worried. it started with a lock solenoid from.. you guessed it, another project, that I screwed into an existing hole on the tailgate. And to my surprise the supplied clamp actually fit over the tailgate latch making this very easy.

Now that I had my latch sorted I had to get the wiring done, added some additional wire to the existing leads and some wire loom and followed the reverse camera harness to just under the spare tire. There I was able to find the two wires I needed, the yellow/purple and blue/orange. Using my depin tool I removed the two wires from the stock harness and added my own connector so I can remove the tailgate without needing to cut them in the future

 

[Malyk]

First time towing with the truck and everything went well besides loosing our transom saver along the way.. tow/haul mode seemed to engine brake which was nice coming into turns, very maneuverable which was great, i need to check the curt harness i don't believe the ground is good enough as they where pretty dim, but hopefully it is an easy fix

 

[mav_kev]

I'm here to say that bronze/white combo is the sheeit!

 

[JBryant]

Congrats from way down in Texas on your truck, and 10 thumbs up on a fantastic modification post. You did a fabulous job and I have only one complaint. I just wish TX was not so far from BC or I would be headed up your way to get a few things done to my Maverick LOL. I am getting a bit too old to do stuff like, but sure like the work you did. Great job, my friend, and many years of happy Mavericking.

 

[zakstang]

sweet rims! Can I ask what color you used to paint them? or were they that color when you bought? i think i read you painted them....thanks!!!

 

[Vtec87pr1]

Looks very good

 

[Bokmingo]

Outstanding work. Love the rims. Does your truck come with the 4K Tow Package?

 

[Deleted member 12536]

Figured id have a dedicated place to keep track of everything so here it is!

this was the outcome of my 28$ rv hitch install spent a couple hours on it but was pretty straight forward

I get mine in 28 days and going to do the same
Getting excited
Randy from
Hamilton Ontario

 

[Barksdale123]

Very nice. The panel on the cubby, all separately put in?

 

[Malyk]

sweet rims! Can I ask what color you used to paint them? or were they that color when you
bought? i think i read you painted them....thanks!!!

I actually took a photo of it yesterday incase I forgot

Outstanding work. Love the rims. Does your truck come with the 4K Tow Package?

I wish I had the chance to order it with 4k, I just picked this up as a cancelled order but no options

 

[Malyk]

Today I started on building my bed rack to eventually add a roof top tent and solar shower. I haven't found anything I liked that was affordable while also retaining the usability of the hard trifold so here we are.

i started off with a 1020 aluminum roof rack picked up on Facebook for somewhat cheap hoping to disassemble and reuse the material to build the complete rack but after thinking about it the aluminum wasn't beefy enough for what i wanted so decided to keep it intact and pick up some steel to build the uprights, also makes it easier to fabricate some stronger supports and weld.

my original plan was to do a clamp style mount but it just wasn't sturdy and the box was flexing too much so for the rear I tapped the upper tie down holes to bold the rack to it and i feel confident now that its not going anywhere.

just mocked up before it was all welded

Tomorrow i will have all day to finish it off, i had about 5 hours into it today. i just need to figureout a stronger mount for the front and drill the holes to mount the rack. Not sure ill keep the rack, i might be better off selling it and just welding more steel tubing to join all the towers. Once i get my tent and know exactly where it bolts too i might do just that.

 

[Eklipse]

Very impressive skills, and the rims look great!

 

[thev8man]

Outstanding work. Love the rims. Does your truck come with the 4K Tow Package?

No, you have to order the FX4 to get the 4K Tow option.

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