RainMan's 2021 Lunar Rock TRD Pro Build

Any update on the progeny and her SO? How long since the accident now?

 

Been like 15-1/2 months now?
They are doing good.
He’s pretty much 100% - riding dirt bikes and training for a triathlon, and working full time.
She’s back to work, but still dealing with hip and back issues that will likely plague her for her entire life - she can’t stand for more than about an hour at a time without having to lie down to relieve pressure. Still doing PT twice a month.
They are looking at buying a townhouse using some of the settlement money - it will be good for both of them to be in their own place.

 

For what’s its worth, Travis Pastrana, put out at least one, maybe more, videos covering his injuries and how he’s recovered from them.

Found one. FF to 25m to get to his recovery methods..
https://youtu.be/wjo95b0qGQo?si=FVDq6aLlofbCh1XL

Hell, he seems like a cool dude. I’d reach out and see if he’d take a quick call to go over recovery techniques. Bet he would and doesn’t hurt..

 

Had a busy day yesterday doing octothorpeteetwoessprep

Trimmed the mud flaps to alleviate the small bit of rub, which is WAY cheaper than a set of ARK mud flaps right now.

Rub spot:


Marker layout of area to trim:


Finished product (used the M12 oscillating tool):


And installed:

 

The Sherpa Handle Light Brackets in this last week, so I went ahead and got those mounted. The BD Rock Lights will be here this week, so either they will get mounted in a hurry this next Friday or I'll have a camp mod to work on when I get to T2S...

 

I also completed the wiring for the BD Rock Lights that are mounted in the Bullet Proof Diesel TBL housing.

For now, I re-purposed the "Reverse Lights" switch that I had been using for the tow mirror reverse lights. I need to order a new switch with a more appropriate icon/name, but haven't decided what yet.

I'm running the lights directly off the switch, because the two lights don't have enough draw to burn out the switch (they are 0.4A each light).

(I need to get a picture of the lights).

 

I organized my sticker collection into groups. It pretty much fills a 30-cal ammo can.

• Name Brands & stuff
• ToyoMafia slaps (there's some rare shit in there)
• Friends/Avatars/Special
• Funny shit

 

The rear window decal had been showing it's age, so I went JDM Stealth Mode with a new one.


I also stuck a bunch more patches to various carpet spots but didn't grab any photos.

 

I spent a fair amount of time working on getting the Puddle Lights from the Platinum Mirrors hooked up using "factory" wiring to work off the footwell/dome light circuit.

The Footwell/Dome light circuit is negative switched with always-on (battery) +12V, so it doesn't work to connect the hot from the footwell to the puddle lights or they will always be on (they use a shared ground in the mirror that combines with BSM ground). Note that this is not the case for people using an fully aftermarket puddle light kit since they are running a dedicated ground.

The plan is/was to use a relay that had the coil connected into the footwell light power, and then run the puddle light power through the switch side of the relay. The negative switch on the puddle light would trigger the relay and that would kick on the puddle lights. I spent a bunch of time getting a relay wired up, finding a nice mounting spot, getting all the wiring in and tidied up, and when I tested it, it looked like it was working perfectly...

I made a handy break-out harness for the power and ground that uses a male "light bulb" plug from VLED, a new bulb socket from scamazon, and the the tapped pigtail for wires to run to the relay.


Until I tested locking the truck and walking away then walking back (which triggers the interior lights on the keyless start vehicles)...

The dome and footwell lights use a dimming "soft start" to come up to full brightness, and that doesn't play well with a mechanical relay coil. You hear a nasty "twang" sound as the relay coil vibrates until it has full power. And again when the lights turn out.

So, I had to rip it all out and move on (for now). I'm digging into some other options that might still work, so stay tuned...

 

AND, finally, I got the Icom coms radio powered up.

Ran a 12AWG power wire through the firewall and hooked it up to the Blue Sea SafetyHub 150 on one of the smaller fuse sides (the radio uses a 15A fuse). It is following the wires that run to the switch for the ML-RBS solenoid that acts as a disconnect for the winch.


Inside, I ran the power lead up to a relay mounted up above the fuse box - it is zip tied to an M6 stud on the main dash crossbar tucked up there behind the warning buzzer. From there, the switch side of the relay runs to the radio in the console. I ran the ground for it to the ground point in the driver kick panel, along with the coil ground. And then I used an old "Winch Power" AOB switch mounted in my switch spots next to the MagSafe charger (right behind the CAT5 jack for the mic) and ran that switch wiring from an IGN fuse tap and then to the relay coil. This provides a "double cut-off" so that the radio cannot have power unless the truck is on, the switch is engaged, AND I turn on the actual radio using it's power button.


The control unit mounted, hooked up, and powered on.


The only thing left is to figure out some sort of hanger for the mic. I also think I'm going to drop my head unit screen down one setting and then lower the control unit a little as well.

Oh, and order a different switch with appropriate icon and get a picture posted of that.

 

go tag your cargo lights at the switch on the knee bolster, does not fade in/out.

 

But then he doesn’t get the cool proximity feature… maybe running it into a 12v timer to trigger the relay would help.

 

Proximity smoximity…the relay buzz as trigger voltage ramps is AIDS AF

 

That’s my backup plan…because:

Maybe, but that’s stacking a lot of variables. I have thought about it, but have one other thing to try first.

Yes it is.

 

More important is finding aptly labeled switches

For the two little lights in the TBL housing
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-9b04nb-12volt-toyota-oem-hid-rear-lights-blue.html
Or
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-913nb-12volt-toyota-oem-replacement-work-lights-new-blue.html
Or
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-9b20nb-12volt-toyota-oem-sasquatch-light-blue.html

and for the radio
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-991nb-12volt-toyota-oem-replacement-uhf-radio-new-blue.html
Or
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-9b90nb-12volt-toyota-oem-flux-capacitor.html
Or
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-9b87nb-12volt-toyota-oem-low-beer-alarm.html
Or
https://www.aironboard.com/online/push-switch-9b85nb-12volt-toyota-oem-passenger-eject.html

 

Got the puddle lights working today using the footwell light circuit AND with the fade in/out and proximity sensor feature.

Didn’t get to a couple other things before I had to pack, but that’s ok. Feeling pretty good about the state of the truck as I leave for T2S in the morning.

 

Recent tweak - "upgraded" to an Icom IC-2730B radio - it's exactly the same except it has a black LCD on the face plate.


I also went ahead and did the MARS mod on it while I was swapping things out.

 

Working puddle lights in Platinum Mirrors using the factory mirror pin-out (for a Platinum) and with fade in/out operation on approach (for push-button start trucks).

I got this done just before leaving for T2S (literally the morning before), so just now getting to the write-up. You can read a little about my failed attempt here.

The issue with using the factory wiring inside of the mirror is caused by two things:

1. The factory wiring for the Platinum mirrors combines the ground for the puddle lights and the BSM indicator light before they leave the mirror.
2. The Footwell Light (and the Dome Light) circuit that has fade in/out when approaching the vehicle uses a ground-switch trigger, meaning the +12V side of the light is always on.

So, I had already identified that to use the footwell circuit I would need to use a relay - with the footwell trigging the coil and then the puddle light power running through the actual switch. The problem then became that with the fade in/out, it acts as a voltage "dimmer" and this causes the coil of the relay to buzz until the voltage is great enough to actually latch the switch. It's not a pretty sound, and I'm sure it's not good for the longevity of the relay.

This led me to digging into solid state relays as an option, which ultimately worked.

On to the details.

First off, I needed a break-out harness for the footwell light, since I do not want to tap any factory wires.
For that, I needed these two items:
VLEDs Female 74 Base Adapter

$8 HUIQIAODS 4PCs T5 73 74 Twist Lock Socket for Dashboard Instrument Panel Cluster Plug Lamp Dash Light Bulb Base 4PCS (T5 SOCKET)

74 Base Twist Lock Socket

From my original plan, I was going to use the +12V from the footwell light, so I made my harness with taps for both circuits. Pay attention to polarity with the wires (more so just paying attention to which one is which when you plug it into the factory socket so that your tapped wire for the ground switch is actually on the ground side).


Next up was the relay -

$44 HELLA 931774031 Wiper Blade Multi Purpose Relay Relays

Hella 931774031
And a socket base for it -

$8 Hella Relay Socket Mini 5 Term Bkt 1

Hella Relay Socket
I also picked up a pack of

$10 Twidec/150PCS 6.3mm Male Female Spade Connector Quick Splice Crimp Terminals Non Insulated Wire Connector for Electrical Wiring Relay Car Audio Speaker N-005-6.3

1/4" open-barrel connectors for it off Amazon

There is an important thing to note about the solid state relay:
WARNING - this relay will fit in a standard automotive relay connector but the pins are NOT the same wiring configuration. If you are switching from a standard relay to this relay you will have to change your wiring.

I suspected this was the case (there was no instructions with the relay), so I had to do a bit of experimenting and lots of googling to finally find something that got me on the right path for wiring.
Ultimately, this little nugget got me what I needed:


The final result of the wiring is this diagram (on the right):


J51 is the factory footwell light socket. J51A/B is the harness I made. I ran a dedicated wire from a BAT fuse tap that I already had in the area to power the relay/lights. The brown wire is the ground switch from the footwell light, and the green wire is the power out to the puddle lights. Finally, there is a dedicated ground lead (which I ran to the driver's footwell ground point).

In this photo, it's hard to see, but the new relay base is clipped in with the other relay I have for powering the ICOM radio, which is mounted high up off the dash cross bar.


It's now been a couple of weeks since I got things done, and it's been working flawlessly.

 

This picture gives me anxiety…

 

When I took off the two mirrors and went to the Platinum mirrors, I immediately started hearing whistle whenever the truck got over about 45mph. I assumed it was something not quite fit up correctly with the mirror cap when I swapped them, but they were all tight (other than the normal slit where things fit up). I then thought maybe it was in the side cowl, but I pulled them off and checked the gaskets and put them back and no fix. The passenger side wasn't making any sound, but the driver's side was terrible. For the entire 1300 miles to Arizona, it was driving me nuts (radio only does so much to drown it out).

I got to camp and mentioned it to some of the AZ crew and @BiggHertz chimed in to say that he was pretty sure he knew the problem - an extra hole in the triangle area of the door that needed to be covered. I thought "no fucking way" but the next morning he insisted we pull the mirror in camp and "fix" it.

This is the hole (photo courtesy of BiggHertz)


And this was the fix:


And sure as shit - that solved the whistle. And left an easter egg for someone down the road.

That extra hole is for a little clip that is installed into the mirror body and used as an "erection aid" while the mirror is being installed - it clips in to hold the mirror on the door while the nuts are started/tightened. I remember the passenger mirror had one when I installed it, but the driver mirror was missing it and I didn't think anything of it...

 

Good.

That picture is so much cleaner that it was. I may go in there another day and do more tidying, but it is WAY better that it was two months ago...

 

5-Minute Mod Monday

Thanks to @TRDFerguson I was able to swap my Homelink NON-Compass rear view mirror for a Compass version. Ever since swapping to the Alpine radio, I lost the compass view in my instrument cluster. And I'm one of those guys that does like to see the compass direction while I'm driving (Google Maps doesn't cut it) but not quite old enough to want to mount one of these to my dash.


The "new" (to me) mirror is part number 87810-04110 and came out of Jake's 2018. It has HomeLink (garage door) buttons, EC (auto-dimming) glass, and a compass.


The "old" (to me) mirror is part number 87810-0C140 and does NOT have the compass (but has the other features).

A quick unscrew of the torx set screw, pop out the wiring connector, and pull off the wire trim piece, then switch out with the new one and plug it all back in.
Then it took just a couple of minutes to clear his garage door codes and program it for mine instead.


Then I was off to work...


After work I also took care of recalibrating the “Deviation” and the Orientation so that the compass displays the right directions…

 

Are there any differences between that mirror and a Platinum/1794 trim mirror? I'm going to be disappointed at losing the compass in the dash as well, if/when I decide to change out the HU.
Edit: other than the obvious compass info...

 

Showing off the black faced ICOM...

 

On the correct frequency.

 

it's not 420.690.. oh wait

 

ha.

 

he got the memo...

 

The wiring for any truck with a HomeLink mirror is the same - the mirror is actually what controls the auto-dimming in the two side mirrors. So this swap would work for any truck that has a HomeLink mirror that wants to add the compass

 

Shit