Heavy Irrelevance

More gear install photos. Next step is replace the thirds.

 

Last photos of the front.

 

And finally the rear.

 

And rear pattern

 

I also started the steering wheel mod train. It’s likely to be a long ride. I picked dark since that seems both more common and better looks-wise than moon mist. I hope it will match ok. Since the cruise is already black and the turn stalk, it doesn’t seem nuts to abandon the moon mist wheel in favor of dark charcoal.

 

And some teardown on the stock LSD at 20 years and 160k miles. My friend used it to tow a little bit, I never did in the 90k I put on it before selling. Not a huge surprise that it was still in fairly nice condition.

 

I should send him my spare LSD diff for an overhaul… my lsd in the truck works still. But I can tell she’s getting weak

 

Hoping this gets my ass in gear and up off the couch.

 

Military wrap to the front...

 

Did you ever get your ass in gear!?

 

Jason has the parts, don't know if he's started yet. I'll go visit today b/c I think I am going to suck it up and swap the 2005 Taco suspension again, it's just too damn stiff.

 

Got my 4 pin tow harness setup done. Yay. Got my 140 amp alternator fuse in too. And new bolts for the rear bumper. Just need to fix headlights.

 

Got rid of the stock alloys. Picked up some new wheels I don’t need. Maybe sell the faux beadlocks? I dunno. Got the wheel setup for this guy. Jason is still working through the last bit of welding.

 

Note, that’s before the front shock rebuild with stiffer springs.

 

Dave, I need to read this whole thread...

That's an LSD you put in your rear???

Never seen pics of them apart before!!

 

Sounds a little dirty doesn't it?

Got numbers for the harness length you need? I'm almost caught up on regular stuff, could possibly get to it next week.

Yeah, I went to wormy LSD from stock but the stock was apparently in good condition. Still, fun to have 4.56 gears with the bigger tires and 4 speed. Coulda gone locker but I'm thinking if I ever do gears in the Tacoma maybe front locker there. Most of what I read seems to prefer the rear locker anyway and I got one with the '16 from the factory so figure I should learn how to use that before I start going crazy with lockers.

The goal with this truck was something as futureproof/indestructible as possible. As in 30+ more years of life. So I've gone nuts I guess but that's the intent. The '16 is about family fun and the '05 is about fuel economy and daily driving pleasure.

 

I have some TT's now too, 10 total 16x7.5's at the moment, 4 grey beadlocks and one black beadlock then 4 black FJ style and 1 silver FJ. Dunno if I'll keep both sets but I have two sets of snows (one for each Taco) so maybe I'll do some 285 snows for the Tundra. Of course in the past 13 months I've driven it maybe one full tank of gas? LOL. It just sits in Jason's yard for the most part.

 

I don't have numbers yet, and it does sound dirty...

I hear ya on future proofing. Let me know how those new gears treat you. Since we basically have the same starting point on trucks. I'd be happy to hear your feed back on them.

 

I thought the black ones (above) and the one silver I have for spare are called Trail Teams? I dunno. FJ style? What do you call them? I just like 16x7.5 so I can run big meat, though haven't really driven with the new suspension post accutune.

 

I'm antsy to go get it but waiting patiently, I think Jason has the gussets to deal with and maybe a few more things before he signs off as "done". I don't ever plan to have it back in so cal at this point (unless we move back after the kids are in college or something) so I want him to be 100% on it before I go get it. I didn't quit finish the '05 before I took it up here and I'm bummed, have accutune fox 2.5's in the box with TC UCA's just sitting and waiting for me to get them on. Super stiff ride in the meantime.

 

Would you dump the grey beadlocks and run the dark TT's? They were significantly less expensive. But the unobtaniumness of the faux beadlocks make them fun too. Not 100% sure the look works for me though, truck is so plain and white, they are a bit fancy.

 

That was sort of the plan but I got some blizzark's for the '05 Taco so now I have 8 of the 2nd gen silvery offroad wheels in nice condition with 8 great tires, 4 snows, 4 summers, and a nice clean oem steel spare. So, kinda all set on wheels for that guy and trying to keep it street. Really might prefer if both snows and summers were 245's and it's kinda odd that my '16 summers are indeed 245's (firestone destinations on SR5 black wheels).

The wheels to maybe dump are the oem OffRoad set from the '16 b/c they are so boring but I don't really want to regear the '16 at all b/c it's expensive and that's the newest truck. If I regear a taco it'll be the '05 but it's my daily / semi fuel efficient vehicle so :IdunnowtfI'mdoing:

Maybe I need to buy another truck? 2.5Gen is a different wheel though.

I recently scored my dad a decent '06 as well so between us we have 4, that's a decent number, you can almost count the '04 Rav4 as a 5th since it's quite useful for hauling.

I wonder how 285's would fit on the '16 after the suspension work. But I need to get the sso bumper and m8000 winch on to see where it lands. It might droop a little bit after that weight.

I suspect at some point my kids will be too big for the back seat of the '16 and that might be an interesting time, would I sell it after all the time I put in? Hard to imagine. But it's not super roomy back there at all.

 

It was kinda by accident but DT threw my Nokian snows on the OEM OffRoad wheels so that sort of married me to them for winter. I love those tires, so awesome. Kind of excited for some poor weather experiences.

 

Sequoia would be fun!

‘16 Taco OffRoad DCSB MT
‘02 Tundra buyback (my buddy has had 4 vehicles since letting me buy it back, no joke)
‘05 Taco RC MT Prerunner

I love them all but the ‘05 was truly the truck I wanted from the get go.

 

Oh, my dad’s ‘06:

 

There isn’t a word to describe the feeling of dropping 8’ lumber into the bed and pushing the tailgate to the fully up and locked position. Ahhhhh

 

Don’t know where else to put this so I’m throwing it here. Because the ‘18 Odyssey is white and so is my Tundra?

Did the front brakes (pads and rotors) over Christmas with my wife’s bro leading. My first time doing brakes. Pretty smooth but had to cut out a rotor screw that snapped off trying to get it out with the impact.

Wife said “squeak is still there” so I did the rear pads and rotors last weekend while she took the kids to Disneyland. A little more complicated due to the parking brake but it went well and I also removed the locking lug nuts because f those stupid things and replaced all 4 rotor screws with Allen head instead of Philips.

got the brake fluid flushed at the shop cause that seemed like something a machine and experienced labor is best for.

while doing the lug nuts, I noticed this.


Which got me worried. So I ordered some hakkapeliitta R3 SUV in the proper size. Today they showed up and I made it to DT just in time to get them done. Minivan is now reliable safe and smooth again.

 

Those are only there for ease of assembly on the assembly line. You can just remove them all together and never worry about it again.

Do you have winter and summer tires for the van?

 

Bro in law sent me this when I told him I was replacing them instead of leaving them out.



I just can’t help myself, there is a threaded spot and something needs to go there. Allen head is my compromise, fills the space and less likely to strip than Philips. But, yeah, I’m an idiot.

I now have three used summer tires but no wheels. I do have TPMS inbound. I’m hunting for wheels. But I’d have to buy at least two new tires and they are $220 each now vs $165 when I bought in April 2021. So, shrug, I dunno about summers. At least I have some time.