250000yota's '15 CM build (Mighty Mouse 2.0)

Well, I always get to the point where I can never remeber what all I've done to my vehicles, so, I figured I might want to start a build thread to keep track.

I purchased the truck 7/30/18, from Prestige Dodge in Longmont, CO. I can't remember the exact mileage, but it was somewhere around 86,600. Aside from obviously being some sort of contractors truck, based in the bed damage, the truck was in fairly decent shape. It is a SR5 TRD Off-road. I purchased it with Katzkin leather/heated seats, and a Undercover Flex tri-fold tonneau cover.



First additions to the truck were mostly electrical and organizational, including a Vechicle OCD center console organizer, a Cobra RAD 450 radar detector with mirror mount and hardware kit, and a OEM traile brake controller and bezel.



Next, for a little more engine airflow, I installed a S&B intake. I've screwed around with intakes before on other vehicles, but with this truck, I wanted better, cooler air flow, and a sealed box to keep it segregated from hot engine air. This intake gives you that ability, and I'm very happy with it.

 

Next little upgrade to make the truck a little more comfortable for myself was installing a engine block heater. I’ve been rounds with people over theses things in gas engines, and regardless of your opinion, I love them. Nothing like getting into a truck that’s already on its way to being warm. This especially helps with the remote start. Working with the two in tandem, the truck is almost to operating temp within 5 minutes of starting. I also installed a NOCO sealed plug and extension cord, for a cleaner sealed look.

 

So for my birthday, I ordered myself some LED lights to upgrade the interior. I got these from Diode Dynamics, and I think this is one of my favorite things I’ve done to the truck so far. It’s amazing how much brighter these lights are than stock. Hands down one of the best upgrades I think I’ll ever do!

 

Along with the interior LED’s, I also ordered Diode Dynamics stealth 40” LED light bar. See, (no pun intended), I live in a rural area, just up against the foothills in Northern Colorado. We have a decent sized elk herd that comes down out of the mountains to ride out winter storms and cooler temperatures. I’ve found the most effective way to prevent meeting one of them is early detection. I opted for the combo spot/flood housing, to reach out as far as possible with my light. Install was pretty easy, though I’ll say, I found it easier to install everything from the top instead of underneath as their instructions suggested. I also ordered a ch4x4.com switch, to use instead of the provided switch. These switches are customizable with custom text and imaging. Plus, they are the correct size to fit directly into the factory switch holes.

 

In early November, a good friend of mine Rolled his ‘13 Rock Warrior. His misfortune benefitted me, as he had recently installed a RCI engine skid. It did have some minor damage, but nothing I was worried about. Install was a breeze (when you have a little brother who is a Toyota Master tech) with a lift. Also, in these photos, you can see my mounting point for the NOCO plug for my block heater, on the lower left of the bumper.

 

As many of you know, we lost @Thegr8punkin, Connor, on December 3, 2018. He and I had been friends for a number of years, dating back to our days working together at Whelich Toyota in Greeley. He was a great kid, and I’ll miss him a lot. In honor of him, I had stickers made, which I sold to make a donation to The Donor Alliance. Since I was working in the bed, I decided there was no better time to add the sticker.



The reason I was working in the bed, was that in the last year or so, I’ve seen quite a few vehicle fires, both on and off road. So, both this, and my off road truck, my ‘o98 Toyota T100 got fire extinguishers. The Tundra got the smaller of the two, as it’s less likely to be off road away from normal human contact.

 

I bought a set of Baja Designs Squadron Spirts from a friend of mine. They were used, and the wiring harness was less than ideal. It took a little while to get everything line up parts wise, but I finally got them on and wired. I installed them with a set of CBI ditch light brackets, and a ch4x4 switch, like my light bar. Now, to just take them out and aim them.

 

how did you wire up your ditch light button?

 

Did you use a special tool to remove the trim from the lights? I'd like to do this as well but not sure how difficult it is to swap. Once you get the light covers off, is it just plug-and-play for the LEDs? the difference looks pretty amazing on the pics you posted

 

The Ch4x4 comes with a pretty decent break down of its wiring with the package. It's a 4 wire switch, with one wire for supply, one for load, one for interior illumination, and one for ground. I tapped the interior illumination on one of the switches in the lwer left hand switch panel, near the headlight level switch and mirror switch.

The front is easy, there are two torx head screws in the sunglasses pocket, and two clips at the rear. Remove the screws, pull down, sharply at the rear, and the clips will pop. Just be careful of the wiring harness, it connects to the console in the front right corner. The rear is just clipped in. Here's a really good video. The only difference between the video and my experience, I removed the entire over head console, and the just removed the individual lenses.

https://youtu.be/HT8ZYEF4NDo

 

Thanks for posting that vid - that was great

 

Love the thread! Keep us updated