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

I remember when gas was .78 .83 .88 ... So we all adjust.

 

I hear ya, but my wage was also $2. 17/hour then. so now gas is 5x as much, and so is the wage for a entry level retail worker.

 

For reference, I also bought my first Toyota that year for $400. It was a 77 2wd rust bucket. It was only 12 years old, and I had to put my foot over the hole in the floor board to keep the rain splash off my pants. So cry about gas. But also cry that you cant buy a reliable 10 year old car for car for $400, while making less than $5/hr.

 

A rotted out 2wd 2010 Tacoma from the rust belt today with less than 100k = $4-6K? maybe $8k for the mileage? Maybe $10k for covid era pricing? Buy that on $2.17/hr. Gas price wont matter much.

 

I remember when gas was around $2/gal and wages were the same of higher. You could also buy a good tundra for under $12k. Then again two years ago isn't that hard to remember.

Just put my old headlights up for sale... Wish me luck. Dealing with people that want free stuff isn't my specialty. If headlight prices matched inflating gas prices I would be asking $400 haha.

 

Assuming you listed them on here for sale?
I wanna upgrade my headlights but don’t wanna spend the money since my output is pretty good right now if I’m being honest.

 

I remember when I bought my truck in 02, gas was around $1.48/gal and it didn't seem so bad even though I was making less than 1/2 of what I do now.

So where's the psychology in that? Maybe it's just my dismal raises as of late and with everything going up in price, I feel that way.

I wouldn't be surprised if I start getting headhunter calls for great pay after I'm ready to hang up my hat in a few years and be done with it all.

 

I just started a new job 3 weeks ago and got a 30-40% raise(depends on overtime). 2022 will be the most I've ever made by around $30k. My wife just got a 10% raise. I know other people changing jobs right now getting substantial raises. This is an employee market. Wages are going up substantially for a lot of people. The only people I know that feel stuck are ones that stay beholden to the same job for years with employers that don't really value them.

 

If you're going the Craigslist route may God have mercy on your soul. Lately damn near every transaction I've made there is a shit show. FB market is a bit better but only if you have FB(I don't).

 

At my job your there for the benefits, so the wages are absolute crap, but NORMALLY the work load in minimal if existent at all. The old timers always say, if you want more money, only work 4hrs a day; you just doubled your salary…..

I’d like to stay there until I retire but at least until I’m vested with the retirement program and possibly for the tuition reduction for my kids. If their college plans change, then so might my employment.

 

I’m mainly on the Book for some local off-road groups, where I can usually find decent deals or up to date info. Super stoked when I found those snowflakes for 50$, and dude was cool with holding them for two weeks until I could meet up with him

 

Completely understandable. I hate that benefits are even part of the equation when thinking about jobs.

My last job had much better benefits than this new one but I couldn't say no to the money. I'm going to miss having an HSA though. Those are great.

 

Yeah my sister had a HSA at her county job, it sounded like it worked well for her and the bro in-law, our HSA at work sucks so it’s not beneficial to be under it.

money talks for sure! We have one guy that bitches moans and complains about the pay, yet he doesn’t actually do anything, so I’m constantly like well go somewhere else then!!! Hopefully that parasite will be gone soon

 

This is the major gripe for me. My work has slowed to a bit of a crawl and I work best when at 90-110% load for my 40-50hrs/week.

Sadly, benefits are great. Totally flexible schedule. Hybrid work environment, don't hafta go in if I don't want, although they admittedly prefer to see your face 2-3x per week. Got into my 401k with them, trading aggressively from minute they offered it back in '01-'02ish and they've been matching fully-vested dollar-for-dollar up to 5% of my salary for nearly 20 years while I've diverted 8-10% of my salary. I get 6-7weeks PTO plus 3 weeks of national holidays, including closing down the last 7-12 days of the year. Plus medical, dental, option of HSA or PPO, including Kaiser as an option. Tons of surgical programs they've added in, transportation perks including if you ride your bike in, take the train, free parking and fuel reimbursement if you carpool with others in the office. etc. Free life insurance, access to cheap pet insurance. That's not even the end of it.

So I'm in a position where I probably make below market salary for a similar role, but easily 20-40% above what I could make doing other things I'd "prefer" doing. While I'm not happy at what I'm doing right now and I really need a more strenuous workload because I have a hard time being motivated in a low-workload stop-and-go environment, it's also nice having extra time to focus on personal growth and education right now. The real bitch here is the work I'm doing comes REALLY easy to me, so I'm slaying it, everyone giving positive feedback. However, everyone is jumping ship. I just lost my 4th manager, who was VP-level, since 2018 and haven't gotten a very warm-fuzzy feeling about my newest manager, who's flying in 1st of December to meet the team (yep - manager is remote, overseas).

It's a hell of a dilemma. Bitched about this maybe a tad differently in the past, about how unhappy I've been, looking elsewhere, not wanting to keep it up. I did open myself up on LinkedIn a couple months back, but all the recruiters are throwing crap at me I really don't want based on my weird, long history with systems engineering. I'd prefer getting back to managing, I love building technical teams for various needs in the industry. Right now, it's super focused on engineering in the virtualization platform/infra world.

PS - I had the HSA previously. It's great, as long as you're not prone to accidents like me, or don't have family members on it who are also prone to accidents. 1st year I had it, I shattered a toe, sawed thru a finger, had a kidney stone requiring surgery, it was a mess. Paid out like $10k that year before hitting all deductibles in October, then spent the last 8-10wks of the year scrambing to book appointments for other crap so I didn't hafta pay out of pocket, missed a lot of work, it was really stupid for me.

 

Unfortunately, I still need to work 2.5 more years to qualify for an early full pension at 60 instead of 65. I still have several years after I leave my employer (if I choose to do so) to work till 60, so at that time I'll make my decision.

Hopefully the hiring won't be abysmal at that time, but with my luck I'm not sure. It is always a good feeling when you can tell your employer that if things get out of hand, you'll just pick up your stuff and leave.

I don't think I've felt that empowered since I was 16 and could jump from job to job without giving any information on work history.

I still remember when my manager at a drug store wanted me to crawl down into the trash compacter and free up an item that was jamming it. I was like "I don't think so, I'm outta here!" and got a job the next week.

 

MAF sensor cleaned.
Took a measurement with ODBII Torque app.
Before: @55Mph: MAF 30 engine load 36%
After: @55Mph: MAF 27 engine load 31%
Dunno if that means anything but I'll check the MPG and see.

 

Removed the dealer sticker finally and put my temp sensor wire in a wire loom to protect it.

 

I started to rebuild my front end, got the jba upper, LCA, power steering bushing, carrier bearing installed have a long way to go.

 

I'll be on the lower end soon. If your upper arms are like mine, loosen the main bolt before pumping any grease in there.

 

Sorry I'm a little slow didn't understand what your trying to say. Are you referring to greasing the jba UCA?

 

yes. that big ass bolt should be loose before greasing through zerks so you don't deform the bushings

https://youtu.be/xvMdAX2uybs

TC but looks the same

 

New remote start and head unit with backup cam were installed today. Super stoked. Remote start is an AstroStart 2 way with a 1 mile range.

Headunit is a Kenwood and the camera is from Master Tailgaters and is seamlessly integrated into the tailgate handle. The systen is wired Android Auto/Apple Carplay and best of all, has an anytime camera. I can hit a button on the headunit and turn on the rearview camera to check my trailer.



Backup camera:



Anytime camera:

 

Interesting I believed JBA made there bushing with some slots for that reason, so ghe pressure doesn't mushroom them.
https://jbaoffroad.com/jba-ez-lube-bushings

 

I stand corrected. As you were, lol

 

No worries I don't mind suggestion.

 

Finally did some wiring. Installed switch box controller. Trans cooler fan works. Last time I was at the dunes trans hit 240. At the dunes today and I couldn’t get it passed 185. Super happy with it. It was a cooler temp day as far as weather goes so maybe that helped but I’ll take it. Mounted auxbeam button pad!? On the ash tray. Took off front cover. The piece that matches the dash color and used supplied mount.

 

sweet

 

Love this. Also like your rims. Looks super solid.

 

Nice I'm thinking in adding the same control panel but I'm going to use this mount to install it where the sunglasses compartment is.

Also what fuse box did you use? Is it weather tight?