What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Outer two?

I think this will just take some time to find what's right for me. I'm decently happy with the Up/down adjustment on both pods. Just figuring out left/right now.

 

I spent like three bucks on these brackets from Tractor Supply. The lights that face forward are only white. The ones on the edges are white/amber/ flash etc. When off road I like driving with the flashers on during the day because people coming head on might see me sooner. For how little I spent on this light setup I'm really not complaining since it does the job.

 

I'm impressed. I never would have thought about a simple piece of flat/bar stock for that.

I thought about adding some lights like these. Amber side shooters. I could run the amber wire down and t-tap into the turn signal. (Which was the original idea.)

OVOTOR Side Shooter, LED Pods Light 4" Off Road Dual Side Yellow DRL with Flash Strobe Function Driving Flood Spot Cube Work Light Bar for Jeep Truck ATV Boat

Link.


What brand of lights are yours? All of mine are cheapo Amazon.

 

I saw a similar bracket made for this type of use with ditch lights that was $20. No way I'm paying that for a stupid piece of flimsy metal that isn't as thick.

The lights are both cheapo Amazon as well. I got a third set that I hope to figure out something in the rear. Would be cool to tap into the reverse and rear turn signals with those. I love Baja Designs lights but can't justify them on the truck.

 

I figure a piece of ⅛" flat stock would be plenty for it. I may be able to fund something in the scrap bin at work. (They don't give two shits about the scrap bin. Just don't take from the "good" pile.)

I was originally going to reuse my "first" set of ditch lights as a reverse light, but I think I'll just go with something like this.

$29 LED Light Bar 6", Niwaker 2PCS 96W Flood Light Bar Single Row Driving Lights Backup Lights Slim LED Pods Lights Off Road Fog Lights for Truck SUV Bike UTV ATV Toyota Boat

Link

Those would work well here. Compliments of @Darkness

 

I picked up those exact lights with the intention of mounting them to the under side of the rear bar on my roof rack. I bailed though because it just looked a bit too “yee-yee”.

Great flood lights though.

 

https://youtu.be/H2FKDRHammE?t=14s

Positive feedback is always nice! I'll keep these in the cart for awhile.

 

Rad pic. Kinda looks like a painting

 

Yeah it's called "stary stary tundra"

 

ive never driven at 70 with od off, am I suppose to turn it off at 70?

 

Do not do this. Keep your OD on at that speed. Only turn it off when at lower speeds below 45mph.

 

or when towing.

 

I wanted to make sure they were bled correctly and get some hours in before I say anything about the new brakes.

Initially, they feel very similar to the stock calipers. The primary difference that I notice is when you really step on it. It seems to bite quite a bit harder.
I had to bend my dust shield a tiny bit to avoid the new bigger rotors rubbing, but that's as much as I had to do.

The machine shop initially quoted me $100 for the machining of both, but it ended up running me $220 for the machining. If you are patient, I definitely would recommend going through that Geoffrey Beers guy on the Facebook first gen tundra page. It will be the most cost effective, but it'll be like two months before you'd actually receive the calipers.

Combined with the t100 booster and MC, the brakes feel good.

 

You can drive around with OD off at any speed you want. The purpose of the overdrive gear is to help with fuel economy at highway speeds. Running the engine at 3200rpm for miles and miles down the interstate won't hurt it at all. Just hurt your MPGs. Don't use OD when towing as the engine makes less power at lower RPMs and will need to unlock the torque converter (creates heat) or downshift constantly (creates heat). Higher RPMs when towing (above 2000rpm) are better. More powah. Also some isolated OD planetary gear issues with some of the 4 speeds.

 

On my truck its loud outside at that speed with OD off but not a bothersome amount of volume. I've done freeway speeds with OD off on occasion, usually on accident.

 

I frequently turn OD off at 70mph if I'm pulling a long steep grade. If I don't the TC unlocks and the temps shoot up rapidly. As soon as I turn OD off temps drop back down. It's actually not terrible at all on the 4 speed. I can't recall where RPM's jump to but it's actually not as high as you might think.

 

That is until you regear. With OD off I’m turning 3500rpms at 70.

 

I think the 5 speed has a similar final non OD drive number. 70 is totally reasonable.

 

Today I redid some of the front suspension (tie rods, LCA, LBJs, springs, coils, sway bar links) and ran into a snag.

The driver side spindle keeps popping into and binding the coil spring when I let it down to full droop.

This truck has a tuff country 4.5" lift with their replacement long spindles. The shocks are 5100s and the springs are the TRD springs.

I'm not sure if its a coil "clocking" issue where I should pull them out and rotate them or if I should get limiter straps or what. It doesn't seem to matter how I adjust the cam alignment bolts.




Fixing it to make another attempt entails separating the lower ball joint and almost entirely removing the shock/coil to be able to get enough play to get the spindle out of the spring.

The pigtail of that spring is pointing towards the driver tire, about 9 o'clock if you're looking from the top down.


Tech support at tuff country is out until Monday so I thought I'd check here and see what else I should try. I think I can probably get it together by using two jacks but then would have no confidence that it wouldn't pop in there going over a speed bump or something. Unless I zip tied a piece of steel strap in there or something to keep the spindle out. Which seems dumb.

Any ideas on what I should try or look at next?


Thanks in advance

 

i've been happy with my fog light 9012 bulbs and modifying them to be on with the high beams.. the coverage is amazing.. so my ditch light purchase has been put off for now lol

 

Limiter straps would be a decent bandaid. That lift scares me. What is the situation that your bottoming that suspension out?

Surprised you haven't popped that upper ball joint.

 

Umm. You mean the droop? Just putting it all back together on the jack stands. That droop. Nothing dynamic. No tire on it. The spindle pops in with just the weight of the hub and force of the spring.

Or do you mean hitting a bump and compressing everything up? I haven't done that yet. I think the bump stops may be a little short.

 

Those look like OEM upper control arms. Am I wrong? I don't see how you can run those. Are you sure those spindles are longer?

 

It says "Tuff country" right on the spindle.

That's a hell of a set up. I'ma skeert

 

I noticed that too. I just went and looked at my truck. The top of my spindle is even with the top the coil. I realize his coils are a lot longer, but even then his "extended" spindles are coming up short.

 

Yeah, that's definitely more sketch than I'm willing to put on anything I own.

 

Yeah, end of travel on the droop side not the compression side. Does it do it when your driving? Or just when you put it on jack stands.

 

His coils are stock size. There's a metal spacer in between the top of the strut assembly and the frame mount. Then it uses a longer spindle which is better than the spindle spacer.

 

Yep. Almost negligible.

4 speed A340 is .705
5 speed A750 is .716

Works out to about a 25-35rpm difference at 65/70.

 

Doesn't look like a spacer to me. Looks like his strut is longer rather than spring like I said. Could be wrong though?

Maybe that space is where my threads are for adjustment. Just looks longer than mine.