- Joined
- Dec 15, 2020
- Threads
- 101
- Messages
- 4,846
- Reaction score
- 9,122
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
- Vehicle(s)
- Mustang
- Your Bronco Model
- Badlands
- Thread starter
- #1
I love this basket. I keep all kinds of crap up there. I use it to hang my Midlands mic, stash flashlights and most importantly, some hand sanitizer.
https://mountains2metal.com/over-head-squatch-basket-fits-2021-ford-bronco/
But there is one failure. If you want to take your front panels off they give you some really horrible hardware that, by the time you get it installed, you will have gained some new, yet undiscovered profanity. I understand why they used this hardware, because there aren't a lot of options that are purchasable.
If you never take your panels on and off go ahead and skip this thread. And to be honest I park outside and take the panels off less frequently than I would like. But @aermtr mentioned that he recently got the basket and he commented about the fastening hardware. In understandably unfavorable terms.
Well, I always love a challenge. And I have a 3D printer. A dangerous combination at best.
If you are familiar withe latch area you'll know how irregular it is. And this is what vexed Mountains2Metal too. But it's regular enough to take advantage of. But there are many obstacles hidden in that area too.
I took inspiration from the same push pin connectors that litter other parts of the Bronco. This is the second proto. For the first version I used standard PTEG and it was too stiff and wouldn't deform. But then I remembered that I had recently printed out some gaskets with TPU and the TPU was too stiff. But it was still flexible. Just not flexible enough for the gasket. Somewhere in my little noggin' the tiniest little LED lightbulb went off...
Much to my surprise it seemed to work.
So I made it easier to uninstall and then for fun I added some color. Technically the red shows you how far you need to pull the pin out to release it. From a practical standpoint you probably won't see it.
So after briefly testing it on my rig I took some over to @aermtr for more testing. So far the report is that it works. More testing is required but so far I think it might work. And it's massively easier to install or remove compared to the option provided by @Mountains2Metal
Well, off to my next project.
https://mountains2metal.com/over-head-squatch-basket-fits-2021-ford-bronco/
But there is one failure. If you want to take your front panels off they give you some really horrible hardware that, by the time you get it installed, you will have gained some new, yet undiscovered profanity. I understand why they used this hardware, because there aren't a lot of options that are purchasable.
If you never take your panels on and off go ahead and skip this thread. And to be honest I park outside and take the panels off less frequently than I would like. But @aermtr mentioned that he recently got the basket and he commented about the fastening hardware. In understandably unfavorable terms.
Well, I always love a challenge. And I have a 3D printer. A dangerous combination at best.
If you are familiar withe latch area you'll know how irregular it is. And this is what vexed Mountains2Metal too. But it's regular enough to take advantage of. But there are many obstacles hidden in that area too.
I took inspiration from the same push pin connectors that litter other parts of the Bronco. This is the second proto. For the first version I used standard PTEG and it was too stiff and wouldn't deform. But then I remembered that I had recently printed out some gaskets with TPU and the TPU was too stiff. But it was still flexible. Just not flexible enough for the gasket. Somewhere in my little noggin' the tiniest little LED lightbulb went off...
Much to my surprise it seemed to work.
So I made it easier to uninstall and then for fun I added some color. Technically the red shows you how far you need to pull the pin out to release it. From a practical standpoint you probably won't see it.
So after briefly testing it on my rig I took some over to @aermtr for more testing. So far the report is that it works. More testing is required but so far I think it might work. And it's massively easier to install or remove compared to the option provided by @Mountains2Metal
Well, off to my next project.
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