Duster's Double Cab Build - The Daily Do-it-All

I wish you the best. You can do it. Just take your time and you'll get it.

I would say if you were near Vegas, I'd come over and bring a 6-pack of help. haha

 

On a side note...

I've been letting mods & upgrades stack up that I need to get shared on the build thread. Some upcoming posts:

• Solar setup & isolated house battery - I've been running this for a couple of weeks now. I'm pretty happy with how this setup turned out. I'm running my fridge, GMRS radio, and bed lighting off of it.
• Rear suspension change - Swapped out the OME springs for Dobinsons last week. Waiting on the Dobinsons MRR rear shocks to come (upgrading from their IMS monotube shocks) and their adjustable rear sway links to arrive. Those should arrive next week and will go on the truck next weekend.

 

Looking forward to your house battery setup.

 

Rear suspension swap #2 went in last week and then I took it on 25 miles of washboard trails on Sunday. Really a huge difference in the rear. It's got me fired up to swap out the front Icons to a tuned & adjustable setup vs the 2.5 Non-Adjustable Icons that I have up front right now.

• New Springs: Dobinsons 220-440lb Springs (C59-837V) - Removed the OME 2866s
• New Shocks: Dobinsons MRR 3-Way Adjustable Rear Shocks (MRA59-A687) - Removed the Dobinsons IMS Med/Heavy Shocks
• New Sway Bar Links: Dobinsons Rear Adjustable Links (SE59-591)

I'll have the Dobinsons IMS Shocks and OME 2866 springs for sale soon as take-offs, if anyone is interested.

 

Great build and looking Tundra.

 

might I recommend an additional antenna. I run around with the ghost when I need to hit the car wash or planning to use the repeaters locally a lot, but I get much better far out reach with my 35” whip. Being NMO it’s easy to swap out when needed. It wasn’t bad SWR out of the box but with a meter I was able to get it around 1.03 trimming about 1/4” off the top whip. Just spreading the love, I run an MXT275

Tram 1173 premium 35" coil UHF 450-470MHZ 5.5dBd antenna with metal base and top 5/8 over 5/8 wave https://a.co/d/7bJMleG

 

I feel like you were with me last month with timing of this post. We were out in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and poking around some trails between Devil's Hole and Crystal. I realized we were too far out to get any reception. As a result, I was about to pull the trigger on the

$60 Midland – MXTA26 MicroMobile® 6DB Gain Whip Antenna – Quadruple Signal Output – 32” Antenna

Midland 32" MXTA26 but the Tram is about half the price. Gives me more room to trim, depending on how I need to tune it.

I'll have to spring for a newer SWR meter when I order the antenna. I was spoiled with the Midland Ghost antenna since it's not tunable...just pull it out of the box and go. haha.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll order up the Tram and see how it goes.

 

I will say “untuned” still wasn’t bad I think swr was either 1.6 or 1.7, I just wanted it a little better. Used bolt cutters to trim. You trim the top whip and leave the bottom alone.

 

Nice install KroppDuster.

Where did you get power from under the hood? I am thinking of doing the same thing for GMRS radio where I need constant 12v power. I don't need much current, a few amps is fine. I put the GMRS radio in the center console, with it's OEM bracket "bolted" to the change holder slots via short bolts and washers that slide into the coin slots. But now I need constant power. I've fished a wire to the floor outside of the center console, so I'm that far. I'm hoping that I don't have to tap onto the battery itself as just out of caution I don't like to mess with the battery connection. Hoping there is an unused tap point in the fuse box. Any thoughts appreciated. thanks.

 

For power (initially), I ran the wiring through the firewall and over to the battery along the top of the firewall in the engine compartment. I had it like that for close to 4 months. It worked great. The newer power cables & coax antenna cables have removable connectors that make routing the cables through the firewall & floor pan grommets a piece of cake. I never checked for always on fuses in the cab since I ran to the battery.

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. :-( I know you don't want to run to the battery. I will say that there is no risk "in messing" with the battery connection. Running off the battery is perfectly safe. I've done it for years on many, many vehicles. At one point on this Tundra, I had the GMRS, my Trigger 6-Shooter light controller, and my winch all running off the truck battery. It's fine. Nowadays, it's just the Trigger controller & winch that I have connected to the battery (see below).

BTW...I'm assuming you don't have a hybrid because you mentioned running through the firewall. If you have a hybrid, it's a walk in the park since the 12v battery is in the cab under the rear seat.

Eventually though I connected the GMRS unit to my house battery that is in the bed. I'm being lazy because I haven't done a write up about the solar & house battery install from October yet. Right now, I'm running a 100w solar panel mated to a solar charge controller & 1000w inverter in the bed that's connected to a 100ah LiFePO4 battery. The whole package is built into a weather resistant Apache case (Harbor Freight's Pelican knock off) so that it's removable from the truck. It's great in the event the power goes out and I need it for the house. It sits flat against the front of the bed so it takes up minimal space. I've now got most of my GMRS radio and fridge, and LED lighting for the truck cap running off that house battery vs the truck battery.

 

Thank you very much for the detailed install information. Very clean! did you secure the antenna cable between the cab and the bed/topper or is the installation tension enough to keep it from flopping around or rubbing? I’m planning out my GMRS install now.
Edit: AND never mind, I just found the post where you answered this question! Thank you again!

 

I'm glad the thread could help! Happy to answer any other questions, that I can, for you.

 

So, it's the end of a 27-month era for me.

I have been effectively "done" with my build for quite a while. Hence the slow post cadence on the build thread. I'm the kind of person that is always antsy to do another project and ever since I "finished" the truck, I've been restless to get another vehicle. I've looked at many 1st Gen Sequoias and wanted that to be my next project. That is, until I came across a truck that I couldn't pass up: 2021 Tundra SR5 with TRD Off Road Package in my absolute favorite color of all time...Cavalry Blue. One owner with 24k miles (less than my 22 had BTW) and a California truck (not a speck of rust anywhere).

It's a color that I've always wanted but never could find the right truck at the right price. So, when I saw this, I took it as a sign.

Who knows what will be next. I'm not in a hurry to change it right now. I'm happy being back to a stock Tundra and enjoying it as if it's factory fresh right off the dealership floor. We'll see what happens. Maybe a new build thread will pop up over on the 2.5 Gen Builds forum? Maybe. Just not anytime soon.

I'm still around and happy to answer questions about the MY22 Build for anyone that comes across this thread. These build threads have always been super helpful to me and I'm happy to pay it forward.

Thanks!

 

Great looking truck! My work car is a Calvary Blue RAV4, it’s a great color!

Congrats!!

 

Congrats!! I have a friend who has been in car sales for 25 years. His advice to anyone buying a used vehicle; 1) Buy what you like, 2) Buy miles. looks like you’ve managed to do both.

 

Nice new truck! Did you have write ups planned for your solar/battery setup?

 

I won’t be able to do a full write up but I can take pics of the setup I built. I pulled it all out of the truck and kept it. I built the whole thing (except for the battery and solar panel) inside a slim, weatherproof case so it could be mobile and I could use it as a generator replacement in a pinch. I’ll lay it out this weekend and do as full of a write up as I can without having the truck any longer.

 

Thank you! I might actually give this one a wash more than twice a year. The color is sharp when it’s clean. On a side note: I really liked what they’ve done with looks of the RAV4. They’ve come a LONG way! I got one as a rental during a work trip last month and I really liked it.

Solid advice for sure. I appreciate the kudos. As I get older and my aches & pains get louder and louder each time that I crawl under vehicles, this will probably be the truck that takes me to retirement.

 

That would be awesome thanks! I have an EcoFlow that I may wire up as a removeable solution but may go with a self built that lives in the truck at some point

 

That is a clean truck. Congrats! And thanks for all of the build info. It was very helpful for me and I'm sure it's the same for a lot of others.

 

When you hooked up your winch to power did you get any Stop Start system malfunction errors? I hooked mine up directly to the battery and it started throwing a code. I used the disconnect switch on the positive terminal mounted in the same location as you.

 

Odd. No, I didn't. Never got any errors after the install nor while using the winch.

If I had to venture a guess, I might start with putting the battery on a load tester to see if it's still good. I know a poor battery can throw the Start/Stop error if it's weak. I guess it's possible the winch pushed the battery over the edge, if it was weak. Since the winch doesn't connect into any "system", that means the battery is the only link between the Start/Stop system and the Winch. With the winch off or the disconnect switch turned off, it should be like the winch isn't even there. Do you get the error when the winch is on or all the time, even with the winch off & disconnected?

 

I get the error when the winch is off and the disconnect switch is in the off position. I am going to play around with the configuration a little bit, there must be a short somewhere. It usually takes 75 miles or so to get the code to show up so it will take me a little. Appreciate your help!