Queen Elizabeth's Revenge

This is my "build" thread, although I hate to call it that since it's not as built as a lot of trucks out there. Heck, it's nearly still stock. It's more of a truck ownership thread detailing the minor tweaks that have been done to enhance it's usefulness to our camping/fishing/wandering travels. Please bear with me, as this is being transported from other forums and covers many many postings and pictures.

The original thread was titled "The 100,000 Mile Tundra thread" but since it now has twice that mileage I decided to change it.

Here goes nuthin'

3/18/2008
Well, the Tundra crossed 100,000 miles last weekend


So to celebrate I thought I'd let ramble on for a bit about it. Since my last truck couldn't make 100,000 on a flatbed it's a milestone for me.

We bought the truck new in the fall of 2002. The salesman asked "What color do you want?" I was thinking green, or blue. Beth says "Black, it looks cool in black." And there we were a few weeks later signing papers for a black TRD 4x4 Access Cab. My first new truck!

Since it was purchased with home improvements in mind, and we never had time for camping, I said (you can laugh now) "It's perfect for us, I won't even have to modify it at all!"

Two weeks later it had sidesteps, and Rhino-lining in the bed. December saw the Truxedo tonneau cover added. This is the closest thing to a new car picture I have of it. It was a little wet out and the driveway had a little water in it!


Another few months and the fine PA winters set in. With 15000 miles on the original tires they weren't cutting it in the snow. I found a used set of BFG AT's to try out (thanks Mark) and a buddy on Tundra Solutions had a set of Wheelers Black Steelies for sale cheap. Much better now!



The house finally got finished enough that we decided to take a real vacation somewhere. After much net surfing we came across the Outer Banks. After more searching we discovered the 4x4 beaches north of Corolla. "Hey we've got a 4x4! Let's try it out!" So we rented a house for a week, got a tow strap, shovels out of the garage and packed food clothes and various other necessities for a beach week. The beach was the best vacation to that point in time! We try to go once a year now even if it's only for a weekend....it's the bomb!

The winter of 04 brought a deer collision. Bugger ran out of a field at dark, nosed into my fender, took out the drivers mirror, scraped his eyeball and antlers across both windows, and proceeded to convolute every panel on the drivers side. The undamaged items, turn signal on the front, tailight on the rear!

Our last PA winter...no it wasn't the deer's fault. We moved for other reasons, partially snow and cold. After the move we found we had more free time. What to do? What to do? Let's go camping! Yeah that sounds like fun! I haven't done that for years! Beth bought me this neat truck tent...totally cool...then.
We wound up at GWNF after fishing on 4x4icon's (Paul) website and he wrote so highly of Flagpole and Meadow Knobs. Truck loaded and GPS'd we went into the unknown (to us at least) on our first family camping trip
in years.
To say we were bitten (me at least) by the "exploration" bug is an understatement. Suddenly we want to see what's down every road. I know someone's been down that road before, but I haven't and I won't be happy with you just telling me what's there...I want to see what is there.

Enough rambling (for now) and wasting anymore of your time. I'll post more on my truck and our explorations later. If you're enjoying yourself stick with me for a while; if not you may want to find a thread that is more to your tastes and avoid this one. The build up is not wild, the explorations are mild, but here we are having fun and enjoying the outdoors.

 

3-19-2008
Anyways...I need to backtrack just a little. At some point, after our first trip to OBX, I managed a cold air kit from ebay for $10, it's an SSAutochrome (bling) with a blue conical filter. It's still on the truck, but the filter has been replaced with an AEM dryflow now. I know it seems cheesy, but the stupid thing netted me about 1 mpg on the highway, I could crack into the 18.5s at 70 if I held steady on the throttle. Never got more than 18 stock, so I kept it on (plus it does an old man's ears good, it's got that old 4bbl moan to it)

After our first trip to GWNF and camping out, not being able to find things in the dark under the cover, and airing up tires with a portable TruckAir compressor (45+ minutes) I decided if we were going to do this with any frequency at all I needed a few things.
First came a bed light and a 12v power port. Now I could see under the tonneau cover in the dark, and I could air up the mattress without climbing into the cab. I wired a switch in the dash to cut power to both (paranoid for leaving lights on)



Second, I bought a little MV-50, it was fast, 20 minutes now to do all four. However, I didn't want it taking up room in my little gear box with all my fluids and puncture kit, tow strap etc; so under the hood it goes.

No room. Big truck, little V8 and no room for the compressor. A perfect spot was on the fender right next to the air intake, but that big steel plate that comes with the kit took up to much room. I found an equally cheap (that's me) method of making the air intake smaller. I used a battery box to house the filter and plumbed a nice little ramair system from the bumper. I made it so I could block off the ram air if I was offroad and the truck would just have to breathe hot underhood air from the vents on the box.



That gave me room for the compressor, mounted it on a steel plate using the original airbox's rubber isolated bolts. Worked like a charm!

Now I could airdown with my nice Staun deflators, drive wherever i was, and air up in half the time as before. All was right with the world.

Then I met my neighbor (Sean) with a blue Unlimited Jeep on 33x12.50s...

 

3-19-2008
Sean liked to wheel, and he asked us if we wanted to go to GWNF. Heck yeah! So here we were a family of four, following two jeeps, (one on 33's the other on 31's and a Dodge Ram on 35's. It was fun, but I like to go slow and look around, get the kids out to hike, geocache, etc. This day we were there to drive trails. Going up the trail (same one we came down by ourselves last time), I followed the others on a side trail. This is what happened...wham!

So much for the steps. They were only there for the kids anyway. Kids can climb, right?
Regardless of the slight damage (the door still opened), we continued the day...





The blockoff for the airbox came in handy, and I decided that I didn't have quite enough ground clearance. I spent some time researching tire sizes, how much lift was needed, and how much hammer I needed to fit the larger tires. The White Paper on Tire Selection was very helpful, as was the Expo Portal. Not having the ready cash available for the Donahoe coilovers and full Deaver leafspring setup I wanted, I settled for the slightly less desireable (ok way less desireable) Daystar and Deaver 3leaf AAL. Both purchased from members of TS, both slightly used, both very cheap. I got 1.5" out of the Daystars in front and 3/4" from the 3Leaf in the back. Now I could fit taller tires without much effort, and all I had to do was wait for the BFG AT's to wear out.

We continued through the summer camping and fishing on weekends. Most notably we went to Mount Rogers (tallest peak in VA), camped at Hurricane campground. The hiking was great and the campground was quiet. Nice.


Then came Monongahela 2006, we showed up...and Chris (Cshontz) showed. We didn't get there in time to run the forest roads, but we had a good time, and made a friend for life. Trips just keep getting better!







That was our last trip for the year, it made a lasting impression on us. Actually knowing someone who was like us made us much less apprehensive about meeting new people in the middle of West Virginia in the middle of nowhere...

 

4-3-2008
Winter set in (if you can call it that) and we settled in to our daily routines for a while. In early 2007 the ol' BFGs finally were worn enough to warrant replacement. I had spent my winter thinking of tire sizes, going back and forth...keep the 265s, get 285s, get 255s...the only thing I knew was I wanted an AT. I simply put too many road miles on the truck to warrant a mud tire.

After an amazing amount of consideration and research and looking at my picture of bent tube steps, I crossed out the 265 on the list. Now then...285s or 255s. I admit at this time to spending money to help decide... I bought two tires, both halftreads; 1 in 285 and 1 in 255. Mount them up and try them on! Well guess what? With a 1.5" lift on a Tundra 285s rub like h...! 255s on the other hand...fit! That narrows it down considerably. Let's see a 255 with an AT tread...hmm...not too much choice there. The only one I liked was the Cooper Discoverer ST. The internet reads (opinions) were good, the tread looked good. I knew (personally) no one with first hand experience with them so I thought I'd be the first on my block with them. Bought em love em can't recommend them enough, you need a do all tire that rivals the standard BFG AT this is it, plus they look good on the truck. The size of the tire combined with the mild lift keep the truck very stock looking, no one notices, it's just another Tundra. Of course there was the guy with the lifted (way high) Jeep at a light one day who very much noticed my tires were taller than his, yet my truck was much lower...what a waste (his opinion)


Spring came along and with 500 miles on the tires I was following those pesky jeeps through the same trails that bit my steps. Oooh this is better, less scraping, bumping thumping pinging noises from underneath. Same trails less mess!


Then the road trips started...went to Baltimores Aquarium, camped overnight in PA went to Cabelas. Bought two new tents and four cots which updates our new "system" no more unloading the whole truck for an overnighter! Spent a week at Lake Anna (cabin)
,

trips to Rapidan (no camping just touring)
,

a trip to Trout Pond WVA (with Haggis and crew)

a trip to Greenbriar State Forest (noisy campground)
,
on into Kentucky and back trying to come back along forest roads as best we could

...fun fun fun.

Then to Indiana and back, and whew! the summer was flying! Miles were piling up fast!

Soon it was back to Monogahela to visit with Chris, Mark and Family and Big AL!

 

4-4-2008
Beginning with the '06 Monongahela trip I thought about a bed rack. Four of us absolutely fill the bed with stuff (we try to live comfortably you know), and we have this unwritten rule that gear muxt fit under the cover! How to keep dry stuff dry, and the cover down and still have room for everyones stuff? Rack! Right!

Beth and I talked it out and we planned a half length, full width bed rack. It had to be high enough to allow the cover to roll up, but be low enough so gear wasn't standing taller than the roofline of the cab. I drew plans all winter, bought steel, and started cutting and welding in the spring. By summer time I had a rack and it's first loaded run was to Trout Pond in WVa. I was a bundle of nerves for that trip out, three gear boxes, water and a bit of firewood on the rack...I watched the mirrors a looong time waiting for a bump or turn in the road to collapse the rack like so many metal matchsticks! Whew! It worked, as planned and exceeded my expectations!



I like it because in a matter of minutes it goes from being 3 pieces of wall art in the garage, to a functional utility rack. It doesn't wiggle, wobble or creak. It holds a lot of weight, and if I could dance a jig I could dance it on the rack!

By the time of the Second Annual Monongahela trip we were all worn out from racking up a lot of road miles, but this was the trip we really looked forward to. The gang on the East Coast of the Portal are top-notch, fun to be with people. Whether sitting by a campfire trying to get Chris to eat snails, hiking along the river, or joy riding the Canaan Loop, they were all commendable people and I can't wait to meet them again and meet the rest of you all.





We settled down a bit after the Mon trip. We made it to OBX in October for Beths birthday, just a quick weekender, but we got to test the Coopers in the sand. Narrow tread still works in the sand, can't say it was better than the slightly wider/shorter BFG ATs (265s) but they certainly weren't any worse. They just drive through the sand, no drama.


That was the last off road trip for the year of 2007, the truck made a few more road trips, including one to Asheville NC. It got pretty quiet after that and we very slowly approached the 100,000 mile mark.

In March of 2007 with the brand new Coopers the Tundra sat at 72000 miles. In March 2008 we rolled the 100,000, that's what 28,000 miles in one year? Not a bad year, busy but fun for all.

And that's the story of our first 100,000 miles with the Tundra. Tune in a few years down the road and I'll let you know how the second 100 go...

 

Lol. The largest part of my mods are all past now. It'll take a few days to bring this up to date. Stay tuned.

 

8-1-2008
I did a complete OBA with a Viair 380C and a 2.5 gallon tank. This was done in its own thread.

Tundra On Board Air

if I need to reiterate, I can, but there it is.

I also added a Hidden Hitch front receiver. It's for moving the boat around (works like a charm) and for a winch. I've always like the idea of a winch but never wanted to spring for the large bumper, or wanted the additional weight of one. The Hitch tucks up nicely ( I've seen worse ones) and I can drop my skidplate without a problem for oil changes.

 

8-1-2008
Camping is a lot of fun for our family. We go when the weather gets too warm to spend the days on the river fishing (in VA, that can be a lot of days!) Hauling water was always a problem, for us. 4 people use a lot of water! We decided the 7 gallon Walmart cans weren't cutting it so we stole some ideas...Thanks Articulate! Your well written articles led to this!

We purchased a 21 gallon potable water tank from PPL Motorhomes, along with a Shur-flo pump (2.8 gpm; same one as Articulates-well not the same one his is junk now as I understand it and he lives too far away to share such things so I guess I mean the same model as his).

I also picked up another Blue Sea fuse block, a toggle switch and a 12volt outlet.

From scrap lumber we had in the garage I built a frame that would house a hugexlarge boat battery, the fuse block, 12 volt outlet and provide a place to mount the pump.






The whole unit sits at the cab end of the bed, it's lightweight (without the battery) and installs in minutes. Toss in the frame, place the tank and connect the quick connects (pressure washer) from the pump to the tank. Insert the battery; fill tank. Viola!



We built a cover to not only keep things in the bed from rupturing the tank, but it also holds the whole thing in place. It fits tightly under the tonneau cover rails and, until I can work out a more elegant method, is held in place with ratchet straps.



The toggle switch is mounted near the tailgate, flick it "on" and the pump pressurizes, unwind the drinking quality garden hose and spray, wash, drink till your hearts content! Barring a few leaks (vent and fill cap) it's worked out well.



Oh yeah, I almost forgot...things have slowed way down, it's August and I'm only at 108,000 miles now!

 

8-5-2008
For a long time we were looking for something nicer to load the rack with besides the Contico plastic boxes from WalMart. We really liked the Zarges boxes but they were a little on the pricey side. We eventually settled to a slightly more affordable aluminum ATV box. Well, 3 of them. They are United Welding Service boxes from Agri-supply. They were bright! aluminum but I took an idea (thanks Pierre!) and ran with it. Now they are black, ah, truck bed liner, the multi-purpose paint!



And to fit the hidden hitch (and to see if anyone is paying attention) I've added this:

 

Well, about the lift, since I'm a cheap ba$^@&% at heart, I went cheap on the lift.

The front is a Daystar spacer. It's the top puck from a 2.5" set I got slightly used. Just using the top puck lifted the front 1.5", that and a slight massage with a hammer and the 33's fit fine. I've still got the "on the coil" puck from the set in my garage. Someday I'll upgrade to a real set of coilovers, not today.

The rear is the Deaver 3leaf AAL. Got it cheap and slightly used also (like only 6 months of use). It netted me .75" on the rear. It actually wasn't necessary to lift the rear for the tire, but the front was high enough to look funny to me, so the rear had to come up for aesthetics. I've got a little less load capacity but a little more flex. I may throw on some airbags sometime because when I'm fully loaded with a weeks worth of gear I mange to hit the bumpstops frequently. Or, I may go to a full set of Deaver springs; can't decide. Airbags are cheaper.

Regear? Um, I'm cheap remember? Seriously, the little V8 seems to have enough guts to pull off the 33's. I've not noticed much difference in the performance or mileage, and I've run loaded with gear in the VA mountains, tow a boat regularly, and moved several loads of gravel/dirt/stone that set the truck on the stops.

 

12-8-2008
forgetting the exact order of things, but...I did get the winch. It does get hooked up to the hidden hitch when we go out by ourselves. It does work, for pulling stumps at least!

The wiring: The factory winch wiring was super long! Of course, I took a pair of bolt cutters to a brand new winch! Installed a set of 350amp Anderson(?) quick connects and wired the loose end to the marine bolts on the Deka Intimidator 34/78 Marine/RV battery under the hood. I do not know if the auxillary connects on the battery can handle that kind of amperage; but this was temporary; as I plan to run a rear power line and hook both up to some kind of switch. No need to have full battery power running down huge cable all the time - kind of like asking for trouble, ya know?

For now, there is the winch set up. The Anderson QC on the truck side bolts under the hood so it does not bang around while driving. The winch bolts to the truck and voila! 9000lbs of pull!







Yes, it hangs a bit low. Lower than I like, but I'll deal. If I get wild I'll pull off the bumper cover and see if I can mount it higher, but for now it's OK.

Yes, I've buried the winch. One occasion, running a fair bit of speed, trying to find a campsite, before dark, rolled over a runoff swale; as the truck came down...Bang! No damage to anything!

I buried it in a hillside doing a 37 point U-turn.
And on our MON scout trip I put it through a mud hole (Al provoked me I swear!) I rolled the front of the truck down in the mud and to get it up the other side I had to dig a little trench with the fairlead to get out. Wash it off, spray it with WD40 and it's GTG!

 

12-29-2008
I guess at this point, all we did was trips. We did another GWNF trip; just the four of us, we went up on Vepco Road, which is not the roughest of roads but it sure is pretty. It's got some awesome views of the mountains, and we know of some good campsites now.



This was a good trip, just a weekend, but we all had fun and got to work some bugs out the system.

Next trip was the Monongahela Scout trip, we (Haggis,BigAl,CShontz and I) did this a little under the radar. We knew we would have a bigger turnout this year so we set out to find a bigger campsite. We did, as the attendees can attest. I only managed one picture from the scout...

 

12-29-2008
Of course then came Monongahela itself. That trip was a blast! New friends, good food, forest roads, spelunking, swimming and unicorns! Read all about it!
Monongahela2008

Then of course was the Elk Rendevous. I had to work the first two days so we arrived late Saturday, said goodbye to some old friends who had to leave early, set up camp and built a campfire. Sunday we got to wander around and saw some Elk, nice countryside, oh, more food of course. Monday comes along and we were gone...6 hours up and 6 hours back. It was a tiring trip but, hey, I rest up at work for this stuff!


Of course it was only a short time after this that the Cape Lookout trip came around. It was started as an Expo East trip, had a lot of interest, but in the end everyone but us had to back out. We were terribly sorry that no one else could make it, but we perservered and enjoyed ourselves anyway. We're going back in 09, probably the middle of September, if anyone wants to come along!

Lastly was our trip to PA for the burning of the Yule Log, another one of our famous "driveformanyhoursandspendashorttimethere" trips, but it was cool; to the tune of negative degrees before the 45 mile an hour wind chill was factored in!

 

12-29-2008
On Black Friday I got out of work early enough to take advantage of a sale...Pep Boys had a color backup camera for 59 dollars. I got it wired up today. The monitor hangs on a homemeade bracket between the rearview mirror and the sunglasses console. It's wired to pull power from the interior light circuit and the camera is switched on at my bed light switch so it can be on anytime. That should work swell when the rack and all the gear is on; I'll be able to see who's sneaking up behind me that way. It works, um, well it worked.....until I shorted out the power wire and blew the fuse for the interior lights. Replacement fuse, you say? Of course I don't have one! Luckily, I know I'll be out to town tomorrow anyways, so I'll pick one up then......and then maybe I'll get a pic or two of the system.

Mileage? 119,000

 

3-25-2009
Ok, Ok, I know you've all just been dying to see anything new, but, it's been coold! (for virginia) and I really haven't been out to work on the truck much. Here's your latest update:

The backup camera was installed and worked well, but the original bracket I made let it hang down in front of the rearview mirror just enough to be annoying and cause a slight blind spot if you were using the mirror. No pics of that bracket setup, but I did get out the aluminum and bent a new one. The unit now hangs behind the mirror, the view frame is not obscured by the mirror, and now it works like a charm!

Here are two views of the same shot. One through the camera and one through the mirror. If anything in the bed (like a gear rack, or a japanese maple) blocks the mirror, I still have a good view of who's sneaking up behind me!

.........

 

3-25-2009
I also managed to get out and get another set of tires....yes, I put 50,000 miles on my Cooper ST's in almost exactly 2 years. My replacements? Another set of Coopers, same 255/85 size. I like them that much, and me not being Redline, I can't afford more than one set of tires at a time. These have proven to be rugged and versatile. I won't bore you with a pic since the truck looks the same with the new Coops as it did a few pages back with the old ones.

The next thing I managed was a new CB mount. This one was my wifes idea (really!) as the box I built to house the power inverter and cb sat in her purse storage location for trips (center hump). Her idea was the in dash cupholder..."We never use these, can you mount the CB there?" "Sure I can, Hon, It'll be easy...all I have to do is pull out the holder and slap in the CB"

We all know how this is going to turn out, don't we?

Those of you with early Tundras know the location I'm talking about. Can you just pull out the cupholders? NO! The dash comes out, from the drivers side all the way over! I should taken pictures, cause my wifes comment was..."What the H...happened here? Can you remember how it all goes back together?" " Sure I can Hon"

And I did, took several hours, some swearing, bracket making and discovering a 5" long CB would fit sweet! Mines 7...aaarrgh! But there it is, wired up and working.




That's all I got for now, I wish I had Jonathon's fabbing skills...all this stuff would look waaay cool. But this'll work.


Oh yeah, I'm at 122,700 miles on brand new treads!

 

6-1-2009
So far this year: we've only managed to get the boat out on the river once! Rain, rain, rain...of course it tends to be sunny when we are stuck inside at work! Hopefully it will cease and desist long enough for the Expo Yak Float!
We've managed one camping trip (it rained of course, but at least our tents stayed dry) to Monongahela on Memorial Wekkend.

I did manage (after doing so much work on Tundrabird2 - Haggis' new ride) to pay a little attention to mine. I installed a set of Bilstein 5100 rear shocks (easy right? - WRONG!) and a set of Air Lifts Air Cell spring/bumpstops.

The shocks...what can I say...it should have been easy peasy but someone smarty-pants at Toyota decided a shock with a stud on top instead of an eye was better...better for whom I don't know; because it was a royal pain to remove that top nut! My hands just barely fit between the framerail and the bed, ibuprofen was my friend for a couple of days after that....oohhh to be twenty something again!

The air cells on the other hand were easy. Remove ubolts, remove bumpstop; place aircell bracket on replace ubolts. Tighten and torque ubolts. Snap in air cell.

I really was torn between these and the already proven Timbrens. But I like to try new things and I couldn't find any reviews on the Air Cell. So I did what any normal geek would do; I bought the air cells and you can make your decisions based on my one review!

AIR LIFT AIR CELLS
The ride unloaded is a bit bouncy, but I think that is more due to my sagging 3leaf AAL, which makes the stops ride really close to the stop-plate, instead of the inch or so gap they are supposed to have. As a result the air cell tends to hit the bumpstop plate more often than it should. New springs, or at least extra leaves may be needed to alleviate this and bring the truck back to it's original lift height.
Loaded is a whole different ball game! The ride is great. On road and off road bumps that had the truck slamming into the stock bumpstops had it compress gently down. Never once was it harsh hitting the stops. Cornering is improved at speed, and the truck sits quite level with a full load in the bed. I do not know if they have affected the rear articulation, as I haven't done anything dramatic with them yet, but I'll keep you informed.

I'll post some pics of them soon, but they are not very pretty. They come shipped white (eeewwww!) and now they are white with greasy fingerprints and some dusty West Virginia dirt...oh well, soon they'll be uniformly dirty...





As you can see, the Bilsteins are shiny, and the Air Cells are a direct replacement for your bumpstops, just about twice as tall; and as you can see, with weight in the bed the stopplates rest right on top of them. Unloaded there should be an inch gap, I've got maybe a quarter inch....hmmm I wonder if Deaver will sell me two more leaves to make a 5leaf AAL?

 

6-2-2009
.I've got a good lead on a little used set of Donahoes for 200 bucks....with a little luck I may be riding on these.

6-11-2009

As a matter of fact, I did spring for the DRs. The guy had 15,000 miles on them (that's about six months worth of road time to me) and decided he wanted an RCD lift instead. I figured 200 bucks was worth it for a nearly new set of rebuildable coilovers. Turns out, now that they are resting in my garage, they appear to be perfect except for a bit of road grime...no damage, no leaks, etc. I need to clean them up and set them to what I think will be a 1.5" lift (he was ARB'd, winched and dual batteried-lots of weight up front) and install them and I should be good for another few thousand miles....

 

8-23-2009
I had a vacation day last week, trying to use up my last few before I turn another year older. Use 'em or lose 'em! I spent my day (well part of it) installing my new/old Donahoes. Wow! That was easy! This is the third set of coilovers I've had the pleasure to swap out on a Tundra and it gets easier every time.




The old ones came out and the new ones went in. The bushings in the old set were shot, and after 135,000 miles (70,000 of which were with the 1-1/2" lift) the shocks really needed replacing.



The ride difference is totally amazing. No more nose diving in hard braking, it floats over large bumps in the road now - before it was big bouncy time....well worth the 200 skins I paid out. Am I a cheapskate or what?

The only mistake I made was adjusting the coilovers on the workbench. I let them down too much and I'm sitting with about a 1/2" lift. No rub on the street, but it's so close I can see trouble off-road. With the boat on the front receiver it just rubs the front of the fender, and if it weren't for the pinchweld mod it would rub the rear of the fender badly! I'll adjust it up another 1/2" or so, flex it out and check the rub.

Now I need to get the out on a more interesting road!

 

9-11-2009
The Donahoes are cranked up just a little higher. From previous measurements it's sitting with a 1 inch lift. If it doesn't rub there I'll leave it.

Just an FYI, it was relatively easy to adjust the coilovers on the truck. Lift, remove wheels, loosen set crew, and turn the adjusting collar clockwise. It was fairly easy to turn except, at the previous height the A-arm was right where the spanner wrench needed to be and I could get a little less than a quarter turn at a time....tedious, but easy.

 

1-18-2010
Well, it's been a litle while since I've been here, and I actually have an update. I've ran my Ipod off of a Griffin Itrip FM transmitter for several years now. It played music ok (I never got very good stereo separation out of it), and it always had interference at some point on any trip.

I had the Ipod mounted with a Scoche Gripit, mated to a ProClips mount on the radio face...like this



It was actually a good setup, travel wise. The mount was solid and rattle free...the only fault it had (well, my fault really) was my fat fingers had a heck of a time using the tuner knob partially blocked by the mount.



Since I was only mildly annoyed on any given trip, I didn't worry about it. I missed the CD quality sound I had from discs, but I'm no audiophile! For my birthday this past December I received a UsaSpec Ipod Interface Adapter (specifically the UsaSpec PA15-TOY)



That's a stock photo, but that's all it is...a little box and a couple wires. I failed to get pics during the installl (it was COLD! outside) but it was easy-peasy. 5 screws remove the faceplate over the radio. 4 bolts remove the radio. Detach wiring. Attach UsaSpec wiring harness, reattach stock wiring, button the radio back up. I mounted the box to the floor, behind the center stack.



And ran the Ipod connector cable up and into the back of the glovebox. My dash now looks all stock, when I listen to the Ipod I get a Text display on the radio for the song playing



The radio controls the Ipod, I can change playlists (as disc on the radio display), change songs with the tracks button. If I pick disc 9, I can run the Ipod manually. It sounds good too, I've got stereo separation I've never heard from the Ipod before....best of all, when the metal comes up it will JAM! Not that I would ever play my stereo at a deafening roar, mind you...no, not me....

 

4-1-2010
A lot of people are out having a good time this time of year....some are wheeling, some are camping, some are taking family portraits, or having kidneys removed, or whatever twisted bit of fun they have.

For us, this is the time of year for work....it's not too hot out and you can get a lot done. That also means the DD Tundra gets it's share of work too. This year it's the back yard/patio area. Some of you have seen it and you'll be delighted to be able to actually gather around the fire pit next time you're here.

This idea for adding this to the thread got started on IZVERG's Shoe Creek thread, so I thought I would keep showing all yall what's what with the stone wall.

We had to move a lot of dirt by hand, lucky for us that's all it is, dirt. No rocks, roots, or any other tragically painful things to dig up. We used three pallets of PA field stone to build this wall. You've all seen this one so far but this is where we really started to see the new patio taking shape.



This gets the truck thread involved, because, as a truck it gets hauling duty. All 3 pallets got loaded (half a pallet at a time) into the truck and moved to where they were needed.

 

4-1-2010
That wall was nearly finished in a day. Since, we've managed to build the rest of the walls for the patio area (that's 4 more pallets of stone; all moved with the truck.) And we've got the patio roughly leveled to our 4 inch below grade stage.

The rock you see in the foreground is the top of the wall in the previous picture.



And a second angle



This weekend it's spreading out the stone dust, tamping said dust flat and level, and laying the 24x24 pavers. Those bad pieces of aggregate are a nasty 90 lbs each; so if anyone's feeling young and strong and bored to tears; you're welcome to join the party and lend a hand with the pavers!



The truck got involved in the paver move, too. The delivery driver couldn't get his truck down the drive, so we had to offload them into my truck on the street, drive them down the drive, around the house (in the rain) and stack them. We loaded 20 at a time; the first time I nosed into the backyard and had to turn around, running the truck up the greasy clay mud slope before I could back around to the right place.

It's not Georgia mud (unless Georgia mud is like Indiana clay...in which case it's very similar to Virginia mud), but it's clay; it's slimy (you can't stand on the slope without sliding) and it weighs your shoes down. With 1800 lbs of pavers and mud flying up the slope; when I got stopped and out I got one of my best compliments ever from the delivery driver...."Dude! I will never bad mouth another foreign vehicle ever!"

The Cooper ST's are way better than your average AT tire in the mud.....

 

4-1-2010
Dear diary:

I had a major upset today. My truck had a major malfunction. I was driving to work as usual. It was a cool morning, so I reached over to turn the heat up, switched the thing to "defrost"...and the defrost knob broke off in my hand! It was so upsetting, I was really out of sorts at work. I was able to "field" fix (or rather parking lot fix) on my lunch break though. I don't know how Toyota has managed to keep a reliable reputation by using plastic parts. I do feel better now, though. I took some pictures of the offending piece and the repair.





Maybe it's time to rid myself of the beast before it falls down around my ankles.


Naaah!

 

4-1-2010
One last thing, I have managed to install some 12v outlets for the kids electronic devices. There were none in the back seat area, so we've alway had to reserve one of the three dash outlets for the kids stuff.

I wired two outlets under the edge of the seat. They're out of the way, but still quite useable.

 

4-21-2010
The nearly finished product!

 

4-27-2010
I've been wanting some sort of armor for quite a long time now. I've tried to be really careful, but I know someday my luck will run out and I don't want to be plugging my trans pan with JBWeld hoping it will hold til I get home.

I invested in the transmission skid and transfer case skidplates from SkidRow. I wish the provided bolts were a little more streamlined, they'll do for now. The plates themselves are solid, easy to install and pretty black, just like the truck. Plus, it's one of those mods you never notice unless you're looking for them....my kind of mod....unnoticeable to the public eye....yep still looks like a Tundra.