I'm writing this segment just a few days before April's annual Easter Jeep Safari event in Moab, Utah. The original plan was to have this truck finished by February, drive it up through Glacier National Park and into Canada, do some killer snow-wheeling, and head back into the States. When February came and went, taking Jinxy to Moab seemed like a good alternative goal, but thanks to a ton of work around the office, the build-up has slowed up more than I'd like. Things did not go as planned (do they ever with a truck build?) but Jinxy, our red half-ton project Dodge, is a lot closer to being done.
I have been tinkering away though, and managed to spend the downtime wisely at Off Road Evolution, adding some electrical accessories that I wanted to make sure to get done before the truck leaves on its cross-country trip. Were the parts we added vital to get this truck running and on the road? Nope. But they were part of the original plan to renew and rebuild this truck into a great work and play toy.
This month, we added some new batteries from 1-800-Battery, put in some new Jeepers And Creepers robust battery cables, replaced the sun-worn headlights, and were able to get some Auto Meter gauges inside the cab to give better readings on the powertrain.
By next month's installment, the truck should be driving on the road and getting really close to done. In fact, we should have this truck completely done and ready for its trip within the next two issues. At least that's the plan....
 One of Auto Meter's more recent...  One of Auto Meter's more recent gauge lines releases really hit home with me. The faces of the Phantom II line have the same font and light up similarly to the white gauge cluster I stuck in my truck years ago.
I ordered up three gauges to install onto an Auto Meter triple gauge pillar: a transmission temperature, an oil pressure temperature, and an air/fuel ratio. |  Auto Meter has made some updates...  Auto Meter has made some updates to all their gauge lines. They now provide harnesses with their gauges to save you from having to wire up your own harness. This makes installation much easier. |  I simply painted the pillar...  I simply painted the pillar the color I wanted, stuck the Phanton II gauges in, and plugged the harnesses in. I still had to put a bung in my exhaust for an O2 sensor, find a port for my oil pressure sensor, and tap a hole in my transmission pan for my tranny temp sensor, but a lot of time was saved in wiring. |
 The gauges looked great and...  The gauges looked great and were totally unobtrusive in the cab of this truck. I picked these three gauges for very specific reasons. I have killed six other transmissions in this truck and I'd like to keep number seven happy for a while so the tranny temperature was a necessity. Oil pressure is very important, and in fact I've already lost one engine in this truck due to a loss of oil pressure, so I wanted a second opinion on top of what my factory gauge cluster told me. The air/fuel ratio readout was essential as well. Jinxy has some modified heads, injectors, cam, intake and some other stuff done to it, and therefore I ran a Unichip control box on top of my OBD-I ECU in order to make the truck run right. I'd like to keep an eye on this engine and make sure it's not running lean because all those engine parts were expensive and it'd take me an arm and a leg to replace all of them if something went wrong. |  I also ordered up a couple...  I also ordered up a couple Odyssey batteries from 1-800-Battery. It's nice ordering batteries that get dropped straight onto my doorstep without a core charge, so that's why I went through them. I threw the PC1200 with high-quality brass terminals under the hood. I can still hook factory-style battery leads to it if I want, but I was really looking to thread a bolt into the top of the terminals in order to directly fit the Jeepers And Creepers cables to it..... |  ......The PC1500 is going...  ......The PC1500 is going under the truck bed in a battery box that I specially cut down to perfectly fit that battery. The PC1500 is a specific automotive application battery that comes with standard lead terminals, but also has two threaded posts that can deliver and accept just as much current as the standard lead posts. |
 I specially ordered a set...  I specially ordered a set of high-current battery cables from Jeepers and Creepers. They have complete kits for certain vehicles, but can tailor-make any custom length cables you want..... |  .....I spent a good deal of...  .....I spent a good deal of time measuring the needed cable lengths for my Dodge and then Jeepers and Creepers helped me decide on what gauge size I needed for the various cables..... |  ......I ended up running 2.0-gauge...  ......I ended up running 2.0-gauge cable for the big draws and 4.0-gauge for the rest of the equipment. A really neat feature of their cables is the double sheathing that shows in white if you nick or cut a cable. |
 I ran a 2.0-gauge cable for...  I ran a 2.0-gauge cable for the ground wire to the engine, and 2.0-gauge positive cables to the starter and auxiliary battery. 4.0-gauge cable was more than enough to run the short distance to the factory fuse box that does not pull a very large load.
It may seem a bit strange that I used a smaller battery as the main and a larger battery for the auxiliary. The main battery is used only to power the factory fuse box, the starter, and the low amperage Hella HID lights that will be going on the front of the truck. All the stereo equipment, the power inverter, and the rear-mounted Warn winch will be run off of the auxiliary battery, so it made sense to use a battery with a longer reserve capacity for that. They both get charged from the alternator at around 14 volts, so there is really no reason that you have to have any specific size as your main or auxiliary battery as long as the main produces enough amperage to crank your starter over. Electrical demands are different for every custom vehicle, so you'll have to decide what would be the best package for you. |  Remember how absolutely horrible...  Remember how absolutely horrible the plastic headlights on 1990s trucks were? They went white and hazy after just a few years, and barely gave even half the light output they originally did....... |  ......Well, a lot of us still...  ......Well, a lot of us still own 1990s-era trucks, and now there are starting to be answers for us. Stylin Trucks had a clear headlight application for this 1994 Dodge that was a welcomed addition...... |
 .......Not only did they look...  .......Not only did they look great, but we also got better light delivery than we did when the stock headlights were brand new. My one complaint is how much of a pain in the butt they are to aim correctly. | | |