Newbie Alert! The adventures of Tina Tundra.

What's up! My name is Jake, born and raised in the North East, in MT now for going on 14 years. I have some basic mechanical abilities, mostly learned from working in the Bakken, some self taught from necessity, so I love being able to save money and do things on my own if at all possible. Not a whole lot of usable space at the apartment, plus driveway is sloped down so not level enough to do many things, but I've replaced brakes in the garage with the floor jack and stands I do have; I'm stubborn as hell and really do like learning and doing things for myself and my woman. That out of the way, I'm early thirties and was basically "gifted" a 2011 Toyota Tundra 4.6L SR5 TRD 4x4, I believe it's the double cab, with the verticle handles on the exterior? I don't think it's a long box, but it's definitely not the shorty, just standard. She came with 177k miles, and the guy let me drive it around for a week and said if I like it, to keep it. Asking $8,000 paying as we go, as is, he just wanted it out of his driveway to make way for a new Dodge Ram Off road thing, and a Challenger. I took it, not knowing what I was being given, it was our second vehicle and my woman's '14 Jeep was on the fritz at 90k miles. I instantly fell in love, it was big, I had never owned a pickup, space is important because I'm 6'6" and some change, pushing 270lbs. Since I've had it, I'm particular about maintenance, high mile oil, the spendy fuel at the pump, Seafoam every few thound miles, pan heater in the winter until I can get something a bit better and a battery heater as well. My main concern is that he didn't take as great care of it as I thought initially, but it's still such a great pickup, I cannot complain. I am trying to baby it for now, it has the infamous cam tower leak, I have a valve cover gasket leak, but I monitor the oil levels weekly, maybe to a point of over doing it, but never see a noticeable change, so it may just be "sweating" at this point, slight burning smell after parking but really, I've smelled way worse on much newer vehicles. Other than that, I literally don't have any complaints, I had to put the stock wheels back on because he had bigger wheels and tires which were dry rotted from sitting for so long. I took those off and they are sitting in the garage until I sell or do something else (could include pics if anyone wanted) but I have no plans of selling yet. The stock wheels are the 18" steels if I'm not mistaken, heavy, not ideal. The direction I'm heading with Tina Tundra is comfort with hauling capabilities and maybe towing down the road (LOL) but I would make changes if that came around, we live in an apartment so no toys to haul or anything yet, just snowbards and paddle boards. I would like lighter wheels at the stock size for lower unsprung weight, great tires with a thick tread and sidewall but not too loud, again, comfort. I need to replace the rotors and pads, though I'm not too worried about that, just need to do it. I've also been looking at the rear sway bar upgrade, just not exactly sure which I need for my platform, but absolutely sold on that; my main issue with her so far is how "soft" and "squishy" the ride is, especially around the roundabouts we have here. It's soft and unresponsive yet rough and jarring. From what I know, the TRD pack came with upgraded shocks but from looking at them without crawling under, I don't see any branding or anything, but it could be too dirty or I'm ignorant. Even with them being upgraded, after 14 years, I just want to replace everything. I want to upgrade/replace all steering components and basically bring everything I can up to date so I know what I'm really working with. I have no intention of touching ride height yet, moving into my mid 30s, I want comfortable, discreet, capable, reliable. Flat turns, less lean. Let me know if I'm out of my mind to expect this! I would love to get it over 500k though I'm not sure how many of the 4.6Ls make it that far. I'm really attentive to things I own so nothing is really out of my wheelhouse. Let me know what y'all think! Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)! Out of all your description, what stands out to me is that it doesn't sound like you have the rear sway bar. That will help a lot with the lean in turns. The standard OEM sway bar is fine, or you can go with the TRD if the price is not very different. If you're on the original shocks, upgrading those will definitely help.

 

Welcome from NY.

 

Sweet, thanks for the info! I'll go check everything out today while it's cool out and get a better idea. Thicker bar, less lean?

Thanks! From the same neck of the woods as I!

 

Not sure about less lean, but sturdier.