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

I wouldn't necessarily say "more complicated" so much as "less flexible" In a way, I guess maybe the LEDs on-board will last potentially much longer without maintenance, but then again, if they don't, you're kinda screwed eh?

But yeah, I'm sure someone around here probably has a picture of the back of a fully-assembled later-model '05-'06 dash bezel that shows what bulbs are back there so I can have the right size/quantity LED ready to go. Nothing I hate worse than getting 90% done and realize you don't have something needed to finish.

If nobody has a pic, I can probably find a pic of one on fleaBay.

 

It doesn't take 15 minutes to pull that cluster.
Might be better-off to just pull it yourself and have a look.

 

I don't want to say I'm too lazy, but I might be basically lazy. It's one of those things where, if I pull it again, I want to go ahead and SuperLube my climate control gears, pre-wire my RCAs for my amp, wire up my reverse cam ... there's a stack of about 10 other things. But I can't really accomplish the task + at least one other thing without having a clear picture in my head of what I need and having N+1 parts on-hand to complete the job.

 

Mine never worked, replaced the bulb (not LED) and still nothing. Kinda got over it, but next step was gonna be checking the sender circuit.

Why would the low fuel be variable? Thought it was either on or off, no?

 

Maybe it dims with dash lighting dimmer? Dunno. I was curious how that would fly assuming my '02 does not use PWM for dimming.

 

my low fuel light would slowly start glowing softly and increase in brightness as the fuel level got low. It wasn’t abrupt on and off. Not sure about others.

 

Anyone have suggestions on this photo of which bulbs could be white and which should be colored? I guess anything with a green condom on it is the colored bulb? But maybe they are all that way? I count 24 bulb locations.

 

Same. It's also a different part number than the others in the assembly. 9001006003 - 3W bulb vs 8312004080 - 3.4W

It also IIRC looks different than all the other bulbs.

 

Sounds like you need to pull the cluster first thing in the AM, order your LEDs on rushed shipping, work on the rest of your list, and then install the LEDs the next day when they arrive.

All that stuff will take some time and, given what you've shared about your schedule, you'll likely have to stretch the work over a day or three.

 

Yeah, when I changed mine a few years back, some commented not to change fuel bulb. It was at that time I noticed the length and girth size difference in a 74 vs the toshiba bulb that was in there.

 

Yup. That's the usual boner-killer for me.

I definitely enjoyed it "back in the day" (read: pre-kids) when it was fully viable to leave critical parts of my truck apart with no rush to finish everything in a 2-4 hour time slot. Just not the case anymore.

It's the main reason I haven't been able to justify picking up any long-term projects the last decade. Everything I work on anymore is all stuff I can pick up feet & walk away from after an hour then come back to after a few weeks without losing track of anything.

It really sucks. Out of dozens now, this is the first vehicle I've owned where I haven't been able to fully gut the interior and spend a few days installing a proper audio system into it. The fact it's taken almost 2 years just to install a freaking backup camera is laughable. Or even a simple power run to the rear view mirror, just because pulling the A-pillar trim and cluster will eat up at half the time I'll probably have on-hand for that day.

Honestly, it's depressing as hell.

 

But to your point, you're probably right. Need to pull the center console first thing in the AM, pull the bulbs for sizing, then use the wife's car or bike to the LAPS to get over-priced Sylvania LED replacements vs. trying to speed-ship them.

 

Yeah, shifty, I feel you. My long term plan is get space and acquire adequate vehicles such that one can be down for extended periods. I lack the space, particularly safe space where the pieces wouldn't get lost or stolen or broken.

 

just want to drop in and offer some experience in this thread. earlier this year i bought a full set of 5100s from 1st gen off-road. awesome experience. just recently ordered upper control arms from him, they said in stock, ready to ship on his website (4/13). a week goes by with no shipping notice so I email him asking for an update (4/20). he says that he directs all the orders for this product to the manufacturer (freedom off-road) and so he will check with them. They say they will be in the mail by the end of the month. Today I messaged him and asked if he could check with them again, as I would like to cancel if they are not already shipped. they just got cancelled and I'm now waiting for the refund. he never seemed apologetic and he never offered any help beyond the bare minimum. Am I being an ass or is this bad customer service? He said the delay was unexpected so there was nothing he can do. they still show in stock on his website.

 

Oh, I know you empathize, and I think you have it worse. If I tell the wife I'm blocking off 3-4 hours to work on the truck like I did with the VC gaskets, she makes sure I have the space and doesn't give me hell about it. I don't catch hell about it. That part of it is nice, but I also realize I can't do it every weekend or that likely goes *poof*.

I've done the multi-car thing, you know, where *I* have an extra vehicle, not just using the wife's car during maintenance downtimes. Paying the added registration, insurance, yearly emissions, etc. on the spare car in a year was 30% of my yearly vehicle slush fund, which I'm too damn cheapskate to justify these days.

 

This closely resembles my experience with 1stgenoffroad. I just waited it out. Took several months to get all my shit. But I didn't need it fast, so I just gritted my teeth and waited.
It did all show up eventually.

 

Frustrating, especially given I paid more to order from him rather than Amazon being cheaper and getting them much quicker.

 

That's pretty disappointing to hear. And I'd call it bad customer service.

Also, if you can swing it, I'd spend a little more and get JBA arms. The freedom arms seem very hit and miss where some have really good luck and others have them hitting coils, or not aligning

 

Glad to hear its not just me

 

I'd say that's a borderline either-or situation, depends on your perspective.

The drop-ship-from-manuf'er is a typical business model in many industries, it's not necessarily super easy to track all of your drop-ship orders.

He promptly did what you asked when he realized he couldn't fulfill in a reasonable doing what a customer asks of you promptly (cancelling) is good customer service.

I think it's dick as hell to still have them as 'in stock' when clearly you don't have stock of an item. Bad business practice, bad for your customers.

Outside of those two major conflicting points, I don't see what else he could do: Immediate refund? That's not really reasonable in most cases. Sweet-talk you?

So, a plus, a minus. I'd skip ordering again and wouldn't recommend to others. If they'd have given me attitude or done something else dick-like, it'd be different.

Sounds like the real issue here is Freedom Off-Road, not 1st Gen Off-Road...

 

Maybe I will. they look way cooler too

 

Yeah, I think I maybe had an earlier impression that it would be fine if I borrowed the wife's vehicle whenever I wanted to. I've come to realize that her car is only for me to drive when we are on a family trip or she is out of town. It's a small bummer since her vehicle is great for loading big stuff while my Tacoma isn't quite as nice at that.

 

Fair point, I'm not sure what else I'd expect him to do.

 

The backorder notice has been added since this morning.

 

There's another plus I've got over here. My wife is cool with me using her car whenever, as long as she has nothing booked. She's got a busy calendar, but she also wouldn't get pissed If i ordered an Uber for her in a tight spot as long as I'm watching the kids and I pay for it.

She knows I save her from having to sit at the dealership, the tire store, etc. for 2-4 hours at a time because I can do the same work they'll do in our garage or in less than half that time. She also knows who found that car, ultimately saving her in the ballpark of $8k-15k in the process.

Like anything in life, it's a give-and-take. Every healthy relationship requires it. We mutually agree to never say "no" up front, try to work things out within reason instead.

Doesn't always work, but usually doesn't fail either.

 

My job requires me to do a lot of root-cause analysis. Shit broke, why did that shit break, and how can I fix it?

Sounds like Freedom is the root failure here, not 1GO-R. Freedom should've provided better input to 1GO-R at the 1st call so he could set your expectations correctly. Clearly he has that lead-time info now, and the website is updated to avoid having to potentially screw over other customers. I think that qualifies as above mediocre. Sounds like you may be the unfortunate guy at the front of the line (or end of the line?) to find out the actual fulfillment date the hard way.

If it were me, for a product like that, I'd consider leaving a "call for current lead times" on any manufactured goods. Especially given this supposed "supply chain shortage" swindle going on right now. Hindsight 20/20, I'd have probably also written a calendar reminder to call Freedom at EOM to ask, then call you back also. But the latter would be some serious top-notch customer service, which is hard to find these days. These days it's hard just to get an order cancelled.

 

It's bad CS and you're one of several members who experienced the same thing. I wrote about it in the past. I tried to spend around $2000 with his company and couldn't get him to return my calls. While he was ignoring me he would be posting updates on Instagram. I'm pretty sure his store is just a side hustle for him and not something he seems to put much effort into.

I eventually ordered from someone else that had a better price. Win for me.

 

@shifty` my plan with that is f it, just buy more trucks I no longer really care about the expense I think. Back in 2010 I was caught up in a little bit of the minimalism thing and while I agree with simplicity, I think having more than one vehicle has a lot of upside. Insurance for 2 isn't really double. The CA DMV fees suck but then again for older vehicles they scale down. It's nice to be able to choose the right tool for the job. And I think a lot of the "fear" of a depreciating asset is mitigated by the current used vehicle trends and toyota trucks in general. I've had zero trouble selling my Toyota trucks the two times I've sold.

Ironically, what I wanted back then and got from my '06 corolla and then '13 prius was reliable and cheap transportation. I'm over that s, not interested at all in that

 

I mentioned days or weeks or maybe months ago that I wish there was a good solution for saddlebags for the bed of our trucks that didn't require drilling sheet metal. Maybe something that uses the lip under the bedrail with a compression fastener.

Well, I haven't been able to find anything but I still need a solution to house at least the little hauling crap I still need to keep in my bed, ratchet straps, that kind of stuff.

I've had this spare ammo can I couldn't even give away, tried posting it here a while back and several other places. Turns out there's a little cubby in the back corner of my Permaguard liner where this tucks neatly. So I fastened it into the liner, and for now, this is my bed storage.

 

Nice. I have an ammo can with no idea what to do with. For my truck, though, I have a rather small/low black/yellow home depot bin for rope, straps, spare tools, lug nuts, etc. Big enough to fit my breaker bar. And I have a nice roam box I can take too, might move all the stuff into that to be a bit classier.

I could see doing two small ammo cans in the back though, behind the wheel wells. Sort of a poor man's swingcase. I like it.