3rd year ownership

4-4-16 marked the third year of my 12' CM Tundra.

Miles on truck: 70065

Parts/items failed in ownership:

- Seat belt guide. Not sure what is up with that, but I am on my third one. This time I took my system apart on the drivers side and shimmed the guild out a bit. Seems to be helping.

Parts/items upgraded in ownership:
- Centric slotted/drilled rotors, centric pads.
- LT tires
- Softopper
- Hellwig helper springs
- Husky molded floor mats
- window visors
- AFE drop in filter.
- K&N HVAC washable filter

Upgrade likes/dislikes:

- Window visors are loud going down the road. These may come out.
- LT tires. Love the stability of the LT tires, maybe just not the LR E I have. Very heavy and hard to balance.

- Hellwig helper springs. They work great if you have a constant load. When empty, they suck. These will most likely be coming off my truck and air bags installed. I was trying to stay away from needing an air source. It is just hard to beat the ride quality of a bagged truck under load and empty. So I blew 68.00.

- Brakes. Wow. My factory rotors were still good when upgrading to the Centric ones. No doubt they would have seen 120+k miles. The new pads and rotors really compliment an already great braking system. When the rears need replacement, I will go this route again.

Wear parts replaced:

- one windshield
- 3 wiper blades.
- factory tires at 36000 miles
- front pads were replaced at 64k

Maintenance Items:

- Transmission checked 30k, fluid changed 60k and will change fluid every 30k here on out. 191.00 was the cost at the dealership.
- Differentials, transfer case fluids were done at 3k, 30, 60k
- Motor oil changed every 4800-5200 miles.
- power steering fluid changed 50k
- alignment has been checked four times in 70k miles. Still on factory one for the most part. The toe was set to the bottom of the specs. This has been really good to my tires and mpg in my opinion.

So far, truck has been rock solid performer. Highway mpg ranges from 17-20. Average empty highway is 18.4. Average mixed city/highway is 13-15 mpg. Towing has been 9-10.5 mpg depending on load.

 

Good feedback. I've never heard of the seatbelt issue, but things do happen.

 

Nobody has Sean. If this is my only problem with my truck, I'm good.

Another 9k miles and this will be the best vehicle I have ever owned and beat out the 1995 Chevy truck I owned many moons ago. To be fair though, that truck never seen a day of work either. The Tundra has seen plenty of work, that is for sure.

 

Thank you. I am hoping for another three years for this truck. That should put me just under 150k miles.

 

I sure hope that is the case.

I was looking into diesel F-series trucks, but I can see myself staying with a Tundra and buying something like this for my tow duties. I would never have to worry about tow ratings again, and in most cases these are cheaper than a new 1 ton truck. This one is pretty pricy, but most of them I see under 50k.

 

Probably something like this:

 

Yeah it is just safer when up around 25k lbs. Most modern dually trucks can pull that kind of weight, but they are just so flippen expensive. I seen a Ram 3500 limited Laramie for 75000.00 the other day. These top three diesel manufactures are pricing themselves right out of the market. These FL or Topkick class 5/7 trucks will flat out pull, last way longer, more comfortable and usually have pretty good long term operation costs vs distroying a one ton truck.

For instance, let's take tires. Usually a set of 6 tires for a dually truck are at least 1500.00 and maybe last 50k. You can get tires for the FL for about the same cost and get over 100k miles out of them especially if not loaded to the hilt.

 

Id rock the F650 if needed

 

To tall. They look cool though.

 

An add-a-leaf and Hellwig helper spring are two different set ups. What are you trying to accomplish? If you are wanting extra spring rate the Hellwig helper spring/air bag set up is what you are looking for. If you are looking for a lift, add a leaf or new spring pack is what you are looking for. I'm not much of a fan when it comes to lift blocks. Axle wrap sucks.

 

You should be fine with a 1" block.

 

I have the 1" block and no vibrations or axle wrap. Heard the add a leafs are too stiff for unloaded truck beds and many complain.