X4 Custom heater, cargo basket, gauges and spare tire carrier..ready for the trails.

[Mass-n-Trash]

Hello all...been lurking here for a while, taking notes and formulating some mods. I have acquired a ton of info from many of you and used it to customize my X4. Figured it was time I shared my ideas and decided to join in and try to contribute a bit. Bought my X4 a few weeks ago..brought it home and pretty much took it apart and started in on the custom things that would make it work even better for me.

First off, my last ride was a Viking (which I loved) but it seemed as though I always had 4 people wanting to go, so it was time for an new machine. I feel sorry for the dealer, as I'm sure they got tired of me coming down to take photos and measure things on the X4 at least a dozen times. The one major problem I had with the X4 itself was the fact that it did not have near enough cargo space for what I needed. I do a TON of hunting, and I needed something that would allow me to carry ( along with my gear ) a deer or elk out of the woods. At the same time, I needed to integrate something so I could also carry a spare. Also, I was purchasing it for four people...but wanted some thing capable of carrying gear for those 4 people. I came up with a custom, tilting cargo basket/spare tire carrier.
Next on the list was a heater. I am very fortunate that my wife and daughter like to hunt (specially my daughter) but they HATE the cold. Having some experience with the Summit line of heaters in my Viking, I decided to try one of those in the X4 for the front seats. Seeing that he had an OEM heater in his X4, I did call James to hear his pros and cons on the setup...and was given some great advice on the defrost vents! The 28,0000 BTU Summit heater was going to take care of the front, however I needed to figure out a way to get some heat to the rear passenger area as well. For this, I used a small (high heat rated) fan and mounted it to the underside of the front two cup holders..in the back seats area. I used a couple round louver vents and simply set it up so it pulled heat out of the engine compartment. This ended up being very simple and functional install.
Last was the dash area in which I wanted to place ducted heater vents-gauges and switches. All of this was on top of the 28" tires, wheels, front and rear windows, lift kit, off road LED lights and dome lights.

Anyways, I finally got it all back together...and I couldn't be happier! Going to take it on it's maiden ride next weekend! Here are some photos....