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

Picked up a used but never mounted CVT awning. Trying to decide where to mount it on my shell.

 

Hit 68k this afternoon...

 

Its like when one of your uncles tells you to do something stupid just to see if you'll do it, except it works.

I love America's Tire/Discount Tire. They're always good to me.

 

It looks like the ax1000 doesn’t have a volume knob, I assume you mean the ax100?

edit: never mind. I see that Amazon is just retarded

 

Aye, I'm right there with you.

69696 is right around the corner! only 1-2 more years of driving to get there

 

This scene right here. My auto instructor uses an image just like this as what not to do when lifting a car. His example had two jacks in the back, two on passenger side, one on driver side and one in the front. I understand alot of people don't take classes on this but I feel like It would be common sense to use stands. I guess that 10 seconds it takes to set a stand is just too much work?

 

Began THIS upgrade:


Will update with pics when it's done.

 

I'm kinda distracted by the flooring....

 

What do y'all think about this kit. Sure it's not name brand but it seems identical to others with same bolts etc for a lot less...

 

This one is made in USA for $10 less. Not sure about shipping.

 

Looks to be the same exact kit but with the brake valve relocation bracket included on the big girl site. Prime

 

Makes you wonder if it's actually made in the USA, eh? Unfortunately, there's nothing forcing vendors to back up their claim anymore. Other countries like Italy have decided to crack down on that, and there's really damn steep penalties supposedly. Wish we could do that here. Actually, I wish we could re-stimulate industry here in the USA, would be a nice change.

 

Problem is when USA produces something they rack up the price so damn high the average Joe can't afford it. You know when you are looking for something like a steel bumper or a fancy CNC part thats USA made, itswait's ut of the price range, naturally you start looking for a cheaper option and boom gyna (China) has that same bad ass looking part for a fraction of the price. If USA industry could level with the average Joe's wallet in America we would see a boost in production here.

 

The Toytech kit is only $30. No clue where it's made.

 

Thats how i totaled my 02 tundra. At 55mph i floored it after it rained and broke the rear end loose... rip

 

Just remember. Next one, I buy wreaks

 

@ColoradoGuy
I was distracted by the ammo boxes first......
But it looks like you have some fun stuff ahead of you as well as some new tools!!!! Tools are the best!
Also, what’s up with all the wood flooring? As of recent I’ve been collecting ice bin scoops................

 

I don’t even run a diff drop... probably should... but my boots seem fine for now..:

 

I feel you on this. It influences my decisions regularly: Do I go to Harbor Freight and get the cheap-o anvil today for cheap, spend twice or thrice as much for something USA-made, or buy a vintage USA anvil for the same price as Harbor Freight?

Reality is, regulations on testing steel over there more slack, and a lot of practices we're protected from (like adding Boron) are OK over there, resulting in a crappier steel product. For one-use products, that's great, I'll buy it. For a multi-use product like my anvil, or something critical to safety like the suspension parts of my truck, it's not worth it. I don't want to risk my ass. But I've also noticed several companies marketing 'Made in the USA' even though it's not. I found this most recently while considering upgrading my grease gun. Bravex says it's made in USA, but it's made in China. Lincoln used to be USA made, not anymore. Milton? Same.

I blame the powers-that-be for not protecting American craftsmanship, we screwed our labor force. They let, even encouraged, and sometimes paid big business to outsource overseas. Sounded good, initially, things were OK outsourcing. It was competitive, some companies would ship US steel over for manufacture of their products, then bring it back for assembly. Prices were so cheap it was feasible. Eventually, to shave costs, industries let the entire process happen over there, once it did, weird stuff happened. Suddenly steel was brittle, things cracked. Analysis showed shortcuts like adding Boron to steel to make more product from less base material.

The cost reduction killed us, killed our industry. It hasn't and won't recover any time soon. We have too much invested over there, not enough invested here. Trying to get companies to move back here won't be easy. We'll probably need to move it to Mexico, then incrementally bring it back up here. Sadly, nobody is pushing for that to happen. The demand for higher-quality domestic product is too low, for exactly the reasons you and I mention: It costs less for the consumer and many of us consumers are being paid less these days in relation to inflation. We've increased our expectation for lower costs in exchange for a much lower-quality product.

As they would say on Reddit: ESH (everyone sucks here). There's no winner except the country manufacturing everyone's products. They ultimately have everyone by the short-and-curlies at this point. Nobody can afford to kill the trade relationship, too much reliance on their super low costs. At the same time, can't afford to promote domestic products in an effort to take manufacturing back because market cost is too damn high. Rock and a hard place.

tl;dr - I'll probably keep buying my one-use products imported if the cost difference is more than 30%. For anything my life depends on, I'll pay what I need to for American product, the one thing we haven't lost (yet) is our many domestic consumer protections, testing, and regulations. However, with how anti-regulation, anti-science, anti-medicine, anti-government and pro-business we've become, I expect all that to change during the next decade as well.

EDIT - ... or pay for Japanese product. Japanese learned early about outsourcing to China. QC wasn't strong enough. From what I hear, Japan did a decent job of pulling back. their domestically made stuff is definitely higher quality, but, like our domestically made, is also more expensive. At least it's reliable though!

 

I have cool ammo box I sell cheap, I think is Russian. I take picture if you like comrade. Look almost like this:

 

Harbor Freight had a coupon... so I got 2. Going to put all my tow gear (chains, straps, etc) in them, then store them up in a new (used, but new to me) Thule Summit carrier Im about to install.
Project days, my friend.

 

Yeah man! Just moved back to the USA after 12 straight years abroad (work, not military).
Needed a truck, got a Tundra, found this forum...
Lots of the tools in my old garage (storage) got "borrowed" over that time, and the collection is now a mess. There is automotive, and construction tools all thrown in bins, used adhesives, chemicals, and a bunch of other random crap all over. So...

I figured I'd start the collection with a set of decent (not craftsman or snapon) tools:
- 1/2in Full Metric set (Kobolt)
- 1/2in Torque Driver 300lb (Ryobi)
- 1/2in Torque Wrench (20-150lbs)
- Random bits: Chalks, magnetic parts pans, new gloves, etc.

I pretty much have to start my tools collection again from scratch (also being back in the USA, pretty much everything in my life, really), but I'll back-fill with the old stuff, and eventually unload the old mix-n-match stuff down the road when I get some time to go thru it all.

I'll post some pics of the final job when its done.

 

Another Project... Brazilian Hard wood ("Ipe") for the back deck. Tore up the back yard, concrete retaining wall... and a new deck.
"When in Covid...." (spend money!) hahaha

Project time here in Colorado while the weather is nice, and HOT.

 

Aye, one would need to be crazy walking into HF without at least a 20% off coupon, you can download them anywhere and save even more.

Here is the one I've had laying around. Old pickup was driving down the road as I was leaving lunch, this fell out of the back, spilling ammo all over a 4-lane road. Was full of crappy foreign 7.62 and .44 rounds, I promptly picked up everything as friends stopped traffic. We used all the rounds and thoroughly cleaned after, it was garbage ammo but it worked. Now I have empty box I don't want. It's up for grabs if anyone wants it. What's fair, $10?

 

Been messing around on the newly install Torque Pro App. Pretty cool schtuff.

Ordered up the Bluetoof Device and a little adapter charger for the outlets.

 

Which Toof did you end up with?

 

Thanks but no Mandroid for me.

 

I hear ya. I scored a free LG Phone (large jumbo screen) with charging cord. It will be dedicated solely to the truck gauge readings. I’ll post up more over in that thread I started regarding questions on the topic once everything gets up and running.