FYI- The Storyteller’s Heaven, the first book in my Promised Land trilogy, is available for nothing for a few days on Amazon. It’s part of a promotion for the official launch of book #2 in the series, The Storyteller’s World.
If you’d like, you could swing by and score a copy.
What’s super cool is that the amazing sci-fi author John Birmingham has posted about this event on his website, and he asked me for a short story in one of his universes. I chose the Axis of Time universe, the short is called The End of the Circle.
Some serious developments around here on the book front as of late.
Today I quietly launched The Storyteller’s World, the second installment of my Promised Land trilogy. To bring you up to speed, it’s an unconventional space exploration series that starts on Earth and continues in the Trappist-1 system, about forty light years from here. Good stuff happens. Bad stuff, too.
I have enjoyed writing these books; there’s a lot of speculation and thinky stuff in them.
What’s exciting to me was that Storyteller’s World was the first book I’ve ever launched in all three formats- ebook, print and audio. The print version on TSW is still in process (I’m waiting to review my proof copy), but I hope to have the paper version live by the end of next week. Ebook and audio are available right now (in the US market) for both the first book in the series, The Storyteller’s Heaven, and the second, today’s Storyteller’s World.
As you may have caught from the bit above, the audiobook versions are only available in the US for now. This is kind of a pain, because my demographic has a real international flavor. However, I’m confident that in time it’ll be available worldwide. It is what it is.
So, if you’d like to have a look, just click on the links above for the latest. As always, I’d like to hear from you all.
The actual launch will be in a few days; but I figured I’d let my peeps in on my secret.
I have cracked the code for producing paperbacks of my later novels, this includes the first novel in the Storyteller space-opera trilogy, and my Ohio Rifles series, an alternate World War One trilogy. Cool. Yesterday, after reviewing the proofs, I hit the big yellow publish button on Amazon four times in rapid succession. They said it would take a while for my books to churn through the review and setup process.
I was fine with that. The paperbacks have waited since 2022, when I broke my long publishing dry spell (2017-2022). I could wait another week or so. No biggie.
Well, holy crap. Amazon moved at blazing speed. This morning, less than 24 hours since I hit said buttons, I received word that my paperbacks were live on the Beast. Whoa! I checked, and the US and UK markets showed “in stock,” but Australia was not.
OK, I waited to inform peeps about the current status of the paperbacks until Oz went live. This makes sense- one of my key demographics is Australia, in large part due to the mighty JB and his entourage.
But now the time is here. The paperbacks are live in my three key markets, the US, AU, and the UK, and probably in others.
If you feel like adding my scribbles to your analog collection, here are the links to make it happen.
Got another Christmas present today. I reached out to the coordinator of the Terp extraction effort, Matt Carpenter, and got an update re: the Adeeb situation.
At last, he and his family will be Stateside in January. This is real success, and it is the product of years of labor by Matt, who has his shit together. A lot of people have helped out here- and you guys in particular. It’s not easy to fork over cash to someone you don’t know, but this is a worthy cause for a fella who risked it all for us overseas.
And now, real, no-bullshit results. The tickets have been purchased, and an apartment and support are in place for these latest and most welcome immigrants.
I’d imagine that you all are kicking back in your various time zones in differing states of consciousness as I type this. Me? Today I plan on a quest to find fondue cheese, it’s a favorite snack around here. Special occasion stuff. Will probably have a glass of wine with it, my first alcohol in nearly a year.
‘Tis the season, right? Might as well put a nice glow to it, this modern Western reimagining of the annual rebirth of the Sun, a tale as old as humans in their modern form.
To put a nice spin on this Christmas, I managed to score an Amati pattern violin for a reasonable fee. I’ve been looking for one for years. See above. It’s a nice player, but I haven’t drawn a bow across it yet. You should let a new violin take in your house’s humidity and temperature before you tune it, so I’m leaving this little jewel alone for now.
But it waits for me, and playing it over the break will be super cool.
Here’s hoping that all of you have a nice holiday without conflict and bullshit. I know that’s tough to do at times. But the sentiment is there.
You guys have been busy heading into the break, I get it. Not everyone has the luxury of retirement like me, where you have nothing but time. Strangely enough, it slips away regardless, and you wonder where the day went.
So it goes.
I thought to load up on content before you can read in that dead spot between Christmas and the new year.
Therefore, I aim to publish INVASION CH20 and 21 behind my paywall before the ball drops on Times Square. It’s doable. Also, I’ve pumped out the partially finished first two novellas of the proposed co-authored thing with JB. Curious what you guys make of them, of course, if you have chosen, or choose, to join the team.
My publishing schedule didn’t meet muster this year. I am short two published novels. However, I still booked it as a success because the MS for STORY2 was done, and LIGHTS END (my alien invasion series) exploded on me. It’s a much bigger book than I planned, but as I wrote, it struck me that giving it the scope I wanted was necessary.
So, here we are on Christmas Eve. I thought I would send you all my well wishes.
Wherever you are, whoever you are, treasure the things that have gone right in your lives, and try to forget the fuckups. Value your friends, hang out, and relax. Try not to stress about shit you can’t control. Eat ridiculous, delicious things. Knock a few drinks back. Enjoy this side of the grass and the sun. Celebrate the renewal of the cycle, this gift of life, in whichever tradition you follow.
It’s all good, and may these words find you well off, too.
Cheers, and I won’t be a stranger across this bridge to 2024. Chat with me anytime.
Ok, so let me get this straight. From my recent experience, we can’t get an automated chicken door to work right, but we want to give machines independent authority to kill people?
This doesn’t strike me as a good idea.
So, I came across this automated chicken door on the Beast. It looked like a grand idea- a door that automatically opens in the daylight and closes at sunset. A great concept; you must lock up the birds at night because that’s when the other beasts come around to get that delicious succulent chicken flesh. If you keep hens for eggs, this is undesirable. Nothing like going to the hen house and finding one of the girls in pieces because some little furry wretch decided he/she needed a snack.
Of course, opening and closing the chicken house door is an extra step in your day. It’s kind of trivial, but it can be annoying. For example, at night in a rainstorm. Or in the morning when you’d rather take your time getting outside. When you keep animals, this stuff isn’t an option. The beasts depend upon you, and you have to do your bit. Also, someone else must do this if you have the silly notion of going on vacation. It’s bad enough coordinating care for your animals. It’s worse to explain all the extra steps and inconvenience to a neighbor.
So, this door looked great. It would surely work, right? It has two functions. Go up via a signal from a very simple photo-electric cell and then go down. This isn’t rocket science.
I installed the door, it was straightforward. Charge it up, install six screws, then walk away. For three days, it was OK. On the morning of the fourth day, I went outside late, and the chickens were still cooped up. What the hell, I thought. I hit the manual “up” button, and the problem was solved. That night, the door went down. All good. The very next morning, same deal. So, I changed the morning setting to the timer function.
Nah, that didn’t help. Then, the door started randomly cycling up and down. Later, when I checked before sunset, the door went down prematurely and stayed down. I had to gather my distraught birds and put them in the coop. They get pissed when they can’t roost at night. This is why such an automatic door is good- chickens roost around sunset, and the door closes.
This one didn’t work. I returned it, thinking maybe I had a bad unit. The new one showed up a few days later.
Guys, this one didn’t even last a day. To make matters worse, it wouldn’t cycle manually, either.
What a pain.
And this is a stupid chicken door, operating from a zero or a one. And it can’t be trusted to do that one thing and to do it well? And we’re talking about letting overgrown chicken doors independently launch Hellfire missiles?
Since when is this a good idea?
At present, we are letting some brilliant/stupid people dictate where we’re headed as a society. What do I mean by brilliant/stupid?
Mr. Musk is a great example. He is a brilliant assembler of teams to achieve a singular goal. For example, Space X. He had an idea. “I want to build reusable spacecraft to radically lower the price and feasibility of space access.” With a singular drive, he surrounded himself with people to accomplish that goal. He succeeded, and I admired this accomplishment.
He didn’t have the common sense to stop there. This is where the stupid part comes in. He made the assumption that because he was amazing at assembling teams (Tesla is another great example), he was brilliant in ALL areas, not just his specialty. This is also known as hubris, the stupidity that destroys brilliance.
Hubris, definition.
“Excessive pride, or self-confidence.”
Have you ever noticed that people can be very confident about demonstrably rubbish claims? The world is chock-full of such examples. I won’t bother to list them.
I posit that our current headlong rush to an AI-driven world is spearheaded by brilliant people without common sense. People who build chicken doors that work well in the lab but fail spectacularly under real-world conditions. It was easy to see when the chicken door started to glitch and easy to dismiss the first warnings. Finally, the chicken door failed completely and obviously.
Who will see the subtle glitch in an autonomous combat system, which will be maintained by an eighteen-year-old who met the minimum standard of an Army maintenance course? I can how this will play out. An example, based upon past experience.
“Hey, Sergeant. I pressed F18, and the screen blanked.”
“So?”
“Well, it was weird.”
“Does it fuckin’ work now?”
“Yeah. I reset it, and now it looks OK.”
The sergeant looks up from his iPhone, where he has been looking at porn. He speaks.
“Why are you bothering me with this shit? Fuckin’ thing works, right?”
“I guess…”
“Get the fuck out of here before I go lookin’ for a Late Man.”
Private Whoever skedaddles, quickly (BTW, “Late Man” in a maintenance unit is the soldier picked to work on a problematic machine while all of his peers go fuck off. It’s an undesirable assignment for a young troop and is frequently a disciplinary measure).
War machine and its quirks forgotten, Private Whoever takes off to the barracks and gets drunk. His sergeant does the same. Midnight shift launches said vehicle, which performs to specs. Until it doesn’t, and it’s loaded with high explosives while loitering over a battlefield somewhere. Machine malfunctions, with predictably fatal results to someone who didn’t have to die.
We can even bump this up a notch and give said killing machine The Big One, the Silverfish, or nuclear weapons. A simple flaw in the software or hardware, and it ignites a crisis.
All caused by a brilliant/stupid person who had an idea. “Wouldn’t it be cool…” So, they do it, giving zero fucks about any possible third-order effects, and lacking any awareness of real-world conditions. Someone takes their idea, sells it to the lowest bidder, and off we go.
I’m hardly a Luddite. I recognize that AI has enormous potential. My fiction is full of the wonders and horrors of such a world. But damn it, before it is fielded in critical areas, you need to make sure it works, every single time.
This was my beef with the M16 rifle, which has become a very reliable battle rifle. But, it took sixty years of service and numerous iterations to become what it is today. In the beginning, it started as a great idea that really sucked in the field under imperfect conditions. Soldiers in Vietnam died because of its early flaws, due in large part to hasty fielding under wartime conditions. Yes, it is a very good rifle today, and if the soldier does his or her part, it will work every time you pull the trigger. But it sure as hell didn’t start that way.
No, the US military took an unproven novel design and dumped it onto a conscript army familiar with the M1 Garand and its cousin, the M14. Both were far more forgiving of field conditions than the M16. So, the kids in the rice paddies treated the M16 like the M1 or M14, and bad things happened. As a result, the M16’s design went through numerous iterations, and the military changed its culture and training to allow for the weaknesses of the black rifle. Ultimately, it became a good battle rifle, but the process was painful, to say the least.
And that was a simple assault rifle, not a flying computer loaded with semi-autonomous weapons.
Did you get that part about reliability? Right now, it’s simply not there. If a machine doesn’t do exactly what it’s supposed to, every time and under all conditions, it is worthless.
Worse, it defeats your stated purpose by doing the opposite of the desired intent.
Don’t let psycho chicken doors operate autonomous weapons. It’s common sense.
Common sense is not common. As a society, we are heaping dump trucks full of money and power on those who have none.
I give this security system a four and a half star overall rating. Why four and a half stars? Well, keep reading and I’ll lay it all out for you.
I am late to the home security game, as I could hardly describe myself as an early adaptor. I’m a tad allergic to technology, and I struggle with basic tasks on my phone and computer that others would find trivial. So, I only do things when I must, and, being on a fixed budget (Army pensions, while good, will never make you rich), I tend to pay attention to dollars and cents.
One of my afflictions is paranoia and worst case thinking. There’s not a lot I can do about it, I’ve seen terrible things happen and unlikely, deadly scenarios unfold before me. I have used firearms for self defense, for offense, and to defend others around me. I guess, looking back at things, that I’ve lived a violent life. It’s a source of sadness and regret.
This is one of the reasons that vacations are difficult for me- not only do I feel helpless as a traveler, but I fear that something catastrophic will happen to my home and loved ones in my absence. It can really ruin things for me when I should be relaxing and enjoying the sights. This nagging feeling makes it so that I want to cut the vacation short and hurry home when I should be enjoying a break.
It’s not a break for me. It’s torture.
This is my reality, and it can be hard to live with. The VA has done what they can, but the feeling, that everything can be taken from you in a split second, remains.
It’s the Soldier’s Sickness, in living color. Not a day goes by that this isn’t a vexation and burden.
Which makes me wonder why TF I didn’t buy a Ring system years ago. See above, I guess. I wanted mature, reliable and easy to use tech, and oh yeah, it had to be inexpensive.
Enter the 2023 Ring system, seemingly designed for guys like me. Wow. What a device, and how relatively easy to tie into a complete package.
Where even to begin?
I guess with the device itself, the Ring doorbell that is much more than a doorbell. On a Black Friday sale, I got the Ring doorbell package, which included an indoor cam- this struck me as a handy capability, both outdoor surveillance and an indoor monitor. I really didn’t want the indoor cam on all of the time for privacy concerns, so I figured I’d set it up when we went on a trip. Easy peasy, right? I clicked “buy,” I think I got the package deal for 69 bucks, a real bargain. BTW, this is why I always buy electronics and high ticket items on either Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. There are real deals to be had. However, 139 for the bundle, which is the regular price, is still a bargain for what this thing does.
The devices showed up a few days later. I unboxed them, but waited to install until I had a solar charger. There are many options, but make sure you buy one specifically for the Ring doorbell. My ancient house had indoor door chime wiring once upon a time, but it was defunct in my childhood. So, I needed a power source that didn’t involve routing new wires. I also didn’t feel like pulling the Ring from its mount every couple of weeks to recharge it, which is an option. Therefore, I bought a solar charger from Amazon, and as far as I can tell, it works as advertised. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
OK, when I had the complete system, Ring devices along with the solar charger, I no longer had an excuse not to install them. I also remembered an Echo Show 8 device that we received as a freebie when I changed cell phone service a couple of years ago. I had never unboxed it because I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
Well, now it’s being used, because I discovered that the Echo interfaces with the Ring system nicely.
So, here is what I started with. One Ring doorbell, an indoor cam, the solar charger, and an Echo Show 8. All were brand new, and I had to figure it out.
It made sense to me to have the power source ready before I did anything else, so I unboxed the solar system first and installed it. This was pretty easy, but the supplied power cord was too short. It was easy to lengthen, however, and I did so. Then, at the end that would hook to the Ring doorbell, I made sure to test the power leads (BTW, at this step, make sure your voltmeter is set to VAC, not VDC). You always want to do this to ensure that your device is being powered. If you are using the home wiring, please remember to turn off power. Kind of important.
Viola, without too much effort, I had power. See below.
I installed it on a southern exposure, which is the best in the Northern Hemisphere. Then it was time to install the doorbell.
It was pretty easy. I made sure to use a level. The only part that was tricky were the tiny power lead screws. I dropped them several times while fiddling around with the power wires. The device doesn’t care about polarity, so you can stick the red and black wires wherever. I followed the instructions in the app (which I had to download), and powered the device on. It worked immediately, but I needed to tailor its use.
This is where the half star comes in. Geez, did I have to mess with the apps, both Ring and Alexa, to get my doorbell and Echo Show 8 to work together in the manner that I wanted them to.
Speaking of the Echo Show 8, my next step was to pair that device with the Ring doorbell.
On its own, the Echo is an impressive device. I soon learned that once paired with the Ring (Childishly simple. This is an advantage of using all Amazon platform devices.), it serves as an extension on your home security system. Note the cam in the upper right corner of the device.
One of the concerns I had with an indoor cam was privacy issues. This is why I only wanted to install my package-deal cam when we left for vacation. However, the Echo comes with one automatically. How was the privacy factor addressed by Amazon?
In my estimation, adequately. Why. Two reasons. First, you can view the feed from the Echo cam at any time via the app. However, for the cam to be turned on, you must press LIVE FEED in the app- when this happens, the Echo’s screen displays, clearly, that someone is using the cam. Also, there is a physical barrier that can be placed over the cam in the form of a sliding door in the top of the device. I was satisfied, and I learned that I could view what was happening in my living room from anywhere in the world with cell phone service by simply going to the Alexa app and pressing on the CAMERAS tab.
This was super cool, and it eliminated the need for an extra cam under normal use. However, I do plan to install the Ring indoor cam while on vacation in a sensitive area of the house. Perhaps in the basement, just to monitor the house plumbing. Until you have dealt with a pressure plumbing emergency, you do not know how handy this could be. This would, under ideal circumstances, be a very boring view. But if something goes wrong, it could be a lifesaver.
So far, so good. However, there was one flaw that I didn’t like. While the Ring cam is amazing in detecting human motion at my front door (it does not pick up animals, or my Ring notifications would be non-stop) and it paired with the Echo using verbal and on-screen notifications, it did not instantly display a live feed from the doorbell cam when the Ring cam detected motion.
Now, to be clear, I could easily bring up the Ring app and go to its feeds, or I could manually bring up the feed on my Echo. However, that involves an extra step, and I wanted the front door feed to instantly display on my Echo, so that at a glance you could see who could be messing around on the porch.
From a simple Google search, I knew that the Echo and Ring, working in tandem, had this capability. Yes, the Echo would automatically bring up the Ring cam feed if someone pushed the doorbell, but the notification combined with the extra step of getting into the app annoyed me for events that involved human-motion only. I can imagine several scenarios where someone would be in front of my house and would not choose to advertise their presence by ringing the doorbell. Therefore, I wanted maximum instant notification options.
Friends, this took me a while to figure out. It turned out that if you go into the “Routines” tab in the Alexa app, you can manually type in the proper command for Alexa to bring up a live feed whenever human motion was detected. It took me several tries to get the proper manual wording for my routine, the phrase was “show front door.”
Once I had this figured out, and I learned to properly save the routine, I was set. But it took my ham-fisted self a couple of frustrating hours watching YouTube vids to get it.
Now, I am all set up, and at any time I can bring up my apps and check things out. If I sit here and type, and someone comes on my porch and doesn’t knock, both Ring and Echo will dime them out long before I would otherwise realize that someone is out there using my RPG blasted ears. It’s perfect, and it buys me precious time in case I need to react. Also, at any time I can check the function of my components using the app. See below.
It’s too easy, and for a minimum cost, it’s peace of mind. I also subscribed to the Ring cloud service- for about forty bucks a year they will store your recordings (possibly handy for any law enforcement interactions) and there’s some other bennies that come with the service.
Total cost involved less than two hundred bucks. Peace of mind? F’n priceless. Ten years ago, this level of security was only available to those with deep pockets, or gadget nerds. These days, anyone can do this. And BTW, the Ring is night-vision capable, and even if someone smashes it with a hammer, you will get a recording of them doing so. It is a powerful deterrent.
One last note. A lot of people have a problem with these sorts of devices because they think The Man will spy on them. Well, I don’t doubt that this is true, and there are justified concerns about what Amazon does with the data. However, I will counter with the fact that even if you don’t install such a system, you are screwed anyway. Do you have a cell phone or internet? Guess what. Everything you do can be tracked with a subpoena, and your data will be harvested no matter what. Wear a tinfoil hat and use the computer at the library? Your new car will rat you out with location data and its onboard electronics. Drive a 1970 GMC truck, straight Luddite shit? Do you go to Walmart or use an ATM card? Still screwed.
You might as well use the tech that’s out there. The Man could care less about your furtive sexual activity, for example, and if you’re really concerned about that, then don’t keep anything electronic in the places that you do stuff. It’s that simple.
For a guy like me, this is great. For everyone else, it can be damn helpful, too. On balance, this tech is a godsend. It’s up to you to judge the pros or cons.
OK- this is me, a lot younger, lighter, and way more pissed off.
Once upon a time, I did stuff. On this particular gig, I was an advisor to local forces. We’d go out into the mountains and live with the populace. Sometimes it was smooth, sometimes not.
But on every occasion, we leaned heavily upon our interpreters. Those guys made a real difference and experienced the same hardships and dangers as us. Their position was more dangerous because while Americans were enemies, the bad guys saw our interpreters as traitors. Not a good place to be, and we all saw how that went during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I’m still waiting for the happy asshole who planned that op to be cashiered. But I digress.
That was an excruciating time for me because our guys and their families were outside the gates in Kabul- you heard on the news about people being spirited away via covert means. I heard about it in real-time, with people I knew.
It wasn’t just something on the news, more fuel for the culture war bullshit machine. No. This was a chunk of my life melting away as I watched.
But enough about me. Here’s where you can come in if you choose to do so. One of the guys on our advisor team’s ‘terp has settled in Ohio, and he and his family need a little help to get started in their new life. Terps aren’t eligible for standard government assistance, like everyone else with a pulse. Kind of bullshit, but it is what it is.
SOMEBODY decided that she needed to locate a dead animal of unknown origin and type somewhere in the forest.
Then, she simply had to roll in it. I discovered this fact when I touched her to remove her leash. I knew I was in for it when I touched something sticky.
A question- why on earth would I sniff my hand afterward? To confirm that the wretched animal delighted in the stench of a departed beast so much that she had to dive into said carcass? It was a reflex, and a dumb one. Wow, did that reek.
On the other hand, I’d rather have a stinky hand than a stinky couch. Because I’m sure the next step was to go in the house and roll around on her favorite perch. To give us all the gift that keeps giving, of course.
Nope, didn’t happen, and I didn’t need to throw a perfectly good piece of furniture on the fire.
Straight into the shower with her and half a bottle of dog shampoo, immediately, full stop.
A friend pointed out that she surely wanted to bring us a gift. Well, she did. A delightfully clean dog, ahead of schedule.
Hey, all. I’ve gotten a decent response on my Mahindra Roxor series, the Indian WW2 Jeep clone. Therefore, I decided to show a few more things that I’ve done since my last post.
The first thing I’d like to discuss was my battle to make this thing street-legal- it took some doing. As you can see in the pic above, the Roxor now has legit plates. There’s a caveat, of course. They are utility plates, and the Roxor can’t be operated on divided highways. This is fine because it won’t exceed 55 MPH if you drive it off a cliff. But it can now be operated on rural roads.
To get it street-legal, I had to get a title made, ensure it met all of the state’s requirements for a streetable vehicle, and then, last but not least, it needed a written inspection by local law enforcement using the Ohio DPS Form 1373. After I did all the hoop-jumping, it was easy. I showed up at the DMV, handed over the paperwork, and paid my fee. Received the plate, went home, and installed it.
The hardest part was figuring out the process. But now it’s done.
Something else I wanted to discuss was my work on the front bumper. Guys, if you decide you want to buy a Roxor, IMO there is no need for an HD front bumper. The stock unit is good stamped steel, it just needs a couple of mods. The first thing I addressed was the addition of a tow strap. See below.
You can see the shackle work in progress in this pic, but I’d like you to look at how the tow strap is installed. I used two Harbor Freight 2.99 tie-downs (I’ve used many, many of these in this project. They are SO DAMN HANDY.) One on each end, secured to the existing beauty plate mount bolt, and a new hole drilled in the plastic plate. Now, lots of people would discard the stock plastic plate for a fancy steel electric winch mount, but I didn’t. I use an old-fashioned come-along to do the same job. Cheaper and dependable. Of course, to use the come-along, you need good shackles, but I’ll discuss that later.
It’s nice to have a solid home for a tow strap, and you can see how I did it. I secured the tow strap to the tie-downs on both ends and made it neat with disposable zip-ties, just like we did in the service. Instantly accessible when you need it. The tow strap is a surplus French Army unit, but Harbor Freight has a good one, too.
Then, it was time to tackle the install of the tow shackle. Of course, you could probably buy these from Mahindra, but I did my own thing. This was much cheaper, but it came with several installation headaches. First, the inexpensive (but beefy as hell) shackles had the wrong hole spacing for the existing Mahindra bumper bolts, which I planned to use. Also, by using the stock bumper, there were clearance issues with the two outer bolts of the shackles. So, I had to get creative.
I ended up milling the shackle mount holes to fit the stock 2 1/2 inch bumper bolts. The shackle holes were 3 inch. This was fine for the frame-mounted bumper bolts, but what could I do for the outer holes? I wasn’t satisfied with just running the bolts through the bumper, even though the kit had a stout backing plate. Well, I looked at the hardcore steel pipe that Mahindra ran between the front frame horns (a definite improvement from the original Willys design), and I had an idea.
I needed big ass U-bolts. See below.
This. This would do the trick! Finding the proper U-bolt took a lot of looking, but I managed. Now, all four holes of each shackle had a ton of support. I was confident that I could use the shackles to pull my vehicle out of a hole and suspend the Roxor in the air using the mounts. This wouldn’t be necessary, ever, but you get my drift.
It’s always better to over-build. See below.
In the pic above, you can see that the two inner holes were modded to the stock 2 1/2 inch spacing, and the outer holes remained at 3 inch, which was OK for the U-bolts. Pretty beefy. More than adequate for the task- the inner holes are secured to the stock bumper/frame interface, and the outer holes are pulled in tight via the massive U-bolt secured to the reinforcing frame pipe. I was happy, even though it took some doing. See below for completed look.
Now, some more mods had to be addressed. It gets cold around here, and I didn’t want to be totally hardcore in this Army Jeep. I need some creature comforts and, eventually, an enclosed cab. Am I willing to pay thousands for said comforts? Hell, no!
Of course, I hit Amazon up in a search for what I needed. The cab enclosure is a mod I haven’t started on, but I have the materials for it. I’ll construct the enclosure from marine vinyl and military-style click straps. But as of right now, I’m not there yet. However, I have installed the heater system.
Guys, this took a lot of thought. When thinking about the heater, I considered a traditional water-fed automotive heater at first. This is a huge pain in the butt, and it’s also expensive. Of course, it would be awesome. But I don’t need awesome, just adequate. Basic defrosting and enough heat to keep the cab above zero when enclosed. That’s it.
I settled on an electric unit, once again, an Amazon find. Note: do NOT get paint on the blower fan and motor. Don’t ask me how I learned this lesson. Scratch one heater in the first attempt.
I secured everything I needed via Amazon. Two rolls of 12GA primary wire, one red, one black. A switch, I needed it to remind me that it was on, so I chose a lighted unit. It ended up working great. Strangely enough, one of my struggles was finding a good defrost vent- you’ll laugh, but the best fit for the job was a repurposed shop-vac gulper nozzle. You’ll see, I promise.
The little heater came with hoses, and I modded its wiring to fit my needs. The stupid switch it came with, while adequate, wasn’t the “stock” look I was after. I wanted the lighted toggle switch mounted to the block-off plate in the dash. See image below for how it all looked installed after a real struggle.
In the image above, you can see the heater switch, and the heater itself, which I left unpainted. Curiously, the toughest part of the job was removing the stupid block off plate and installing the darn switch! A real hassle, but I got it done, and it looks like it was meant to be there- as I intended. The heater itself was very simple to install. There is a rectangular raised area on the floor which just so happened to be the exact right size and shape for the heater. Of course, before I installed the heater, I made sure to look underneath to ensure that no screws or drill bits would hit something I didn’t want screwed or drilled. It was OK, lots of clearance. So, I simply used self-tapping screws and within five minutes the heater was installed.
It took a lot longer to route the wires and ensure everything was hunky-dory within the little supplemental fuse box I installed for my mods. But I got it done.
Then, I needed to route the defrost hose. This took some thought. There was a block-off plate in the center of the top of the dash, I suspected it was screwed into place. I looked under the dash- no, the plate appeared to be glued somehow, but yes, there was an existing hole for a defrost duct. I just needed to remove the block-off plate. I hatched a plan.
Using a putty knife and some care, the aluminum block-off plate peeled up, revealing the existing duct hole. The oblong hole was slightly narrower than the heater hose that came in the heater kit, but I reasoned that that was good. Squish the hose a bit, and it would hold itself in the hole, right? Well, that’s how things worked out eventually, but I needed to mod the plate.
This is why the Dremel tool is one of the essential items in a jack-mechanic’s tool bag. Of course, it is also one of the most dangerous tools, as well. You can really screw stuff up with a Dremel if you aren’t careful. But, as you can see, the cut-off wheel did a pretty OK job at making the hole I needed.
So, I popped the hose under the dash and maneuvered it around the speedo. I grabbed it from the top, squished it to fit through the hole, and ensured I had enough protruding for the hose clamp, which secured the heater hose to the sweeper nozzle, my new defrost duct. As I tightened the hose clamp, of course the heater hose ripped. Of course.
But… I had HVAC tape on hand, an indispensable homeowner’s quick-fix. Make sure you get the 3M variety. I reinforced the heater hose with the tape, and all was well. I also used the HVAC tape to stick the block-off plate back on the dash, then to be sure, I ran self-tapping screws into both ends. When I was satisfied with the install, I prettied everything up with flat-black Rustoleum. I swear by Rustoleum, I wouldn’t use anything else.
Behold, the final look of the complete install.
Note how one port of the heater goes to the defrost duct, and the other is simply vented into the passenger compartment with a 90 degree piece of PVC pipe, which I painted. I believe in simplicity.
One last thing- in the pic above, you can also see a curious military-style radio hanging on the dash. This was a conceit of mine. For my own amusement, I bought a radio that looks an awful lot like the Harris radios I used overseas, complete with a SINCGARS-style handset. The radio is fully functional, but it’s not a Harris. It’s a Baofeng AR-152, an amazingly affordable and capable civilian ham radio. An even cheaper, but still very capable, version is the Baofeng UV-5R. It was a revelation to me that ham radios were so inexpensive these days- I thought you had to spend hundreds of dollars for a good unit. Nope, not so much. I had to do this- to get the neat dash install, I had to buy a dash bracket and purchase the radio itself. I modded the radio pocket with a grommet to power the radio via the vehicle 12V port when necessary- the grommet provides access to the charging port.
So… my WW2 Jeep clone, the Roxor, has military-style communication capabilities, as well. Laughs, I need to find the time to learn how to actually use the radio, though!
But here you go. All the mods I’ve been pecking away at. When I get the cab install done, I’ll show you guys.
The Interstellar Valley 