Granite - A Third Gen Story

Congrats! Almost as nice as where I proposed.

 

National parks don't count.

 

I got out this morning for opening day of whitetail deer rifle season. I hiked in along a dead end road and set up overlooking a meadow across from private land where I found a bunch of sign during my scouting. Didn't see hide nor hair of a deer, though I did see a handful of grouse which had me kicking myself for not bringing the 10/22.

It may have been an unsuccessful hunt but mornings like this can't be beat.

 

Alu-Cab Contour Canopy

We've been finding that the Diamondback wasn't working out for our family needs. With all that comes with camping and travelling with a toddler, we've been wanting more storage space in the bed.

I started looking into canopies and narrowed it down to Leer, SmartCap and Alu-Cab. The fiberglsss Leer was the cheapeast, but not by much once you add roof racks, lights and interior liner.

The SmartCap is the most modular but also the most expensive. I'm not a big fan of its looks, to me it doesn't flow with the lines of the truck very well. I've also read about quite a few people having issues.

That led me to the Alu-Cab. $1000 more than the Leer and $1500 cheaper than the SmartCap. It has side windoors, lights and rack track as standard feature. The Alu-Cab crossbars were less than half the price of the Thule the other caps use. Finally, it has a rugged look that flows well with the Tundra lines.

 

Very nice!! Looks great.

 

This cap is the route I'm going. My 2025 truck is almost a twin of yours. I'm afraid the RSI would just rattle apart. The Alu-Cab being all welded seems to be the best option I've found. I'm just debating windows or not.

I had a fiberglass ARE cap on my 2017 and it rubbed the body paint off in the 4 corners. The dirt roads I travel rattle the truck pretty bad (my speed doesn't help much). My heat shields usually last 3 or 4 years due to the roads.

 

First engine problem

We were on the return journey from southern Alberta yesterday when we had our first engine trouble. About 170 miles from home outside a tiny town as we approached a hill, I had my cruise set around 70mph. The truck downshifted, then lost all power and went into limp mode. My check engine light came on and on the screen a message came on that read "automatic parking brake malfunction. reduced power. visit your dealer."

I got it over on a side road and we started figuring out what to do. It's a long weekend here so everything is closed, we're 170 miles from my home dealer and at least 100 miles from the nearest Toyota dealership at all. I have Toyota's extended care package which included towing up to 30 miles to my preferred dealer (too far) or up to 180 miles to the whoever is the nearest dealer (in edmonton) which is less than ideal since that's 4.5 hours from home and I have no relationship with them. Tow trucks can take hours to show up so I figured out best plan would be to limp into the town and go from there. Worst case we grab a hotel, my mother in law grabs my '05 from my house and comes to get us, then I have the '22 towed into the nearest dealer in edmonton.

I turned the truck back on and surprisingly the check engine light was off and the error messages were gone. I tentatively got back up to cruising speed and everything held together. I figured the hell with it, sent a few prayers upwards and sent it for home. I was hoping at the very minimum it would keep running until I got to the point where it would be towed to my hometown.

Fortunately, we made it home without further issue and the truck is running fine today. I took it to the dealer and the service advisor said that since there was no ticking prior to the limp mode, it's not likely that it was the engine fully cratering. They have my truck booked in for next week when they'll run a diagnostic to pull the codes and likely check the oil for metal debris.

I'm also currently in queue for the full engine replacement, which he figures will happen in about 2 or 3 months. I told him I need it done before a big road trip we have planned this summer, so they'll see what they can do. I was also told that it takes their tech 13 hours to do the engine replacement.

 

Hey Robert. I got my cap on, love the quality. They didn't include any wiring instructions that I could see. How did you wire yours (or did a Alu-Cab dealer do it)?

 

My Alu-Cab dealer did it for me.