What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

I think I found a good spot for the controller. Right behind the kick panel. Gonna start the connection process, fingers crossed.

 

Evil Manufacturing made it for me. I made a mock one with cardboard mimicking the C4fab Tacoma bumper and simply asked for how I wanted the tubing to go. Evil Man made it happen.
The skid plate is of own design. Little different, large with side protection and since it’s bolt on I can get behind it easily.

Maybe one day I’ll learn how to make one on my own, that would be cool but don’t have those skills as of now.

 

Boots are fine, some oil on the boot on PS tho. I’ll find out soon enough if it’s simply not seating correctly.

 

Good ol CAD(cardboard aid design)

 

Exactly the same except completely different. Lost my back glass indeed, but there was no saving it.
So.... there I was, blazing thru the desert, offroad and about 60 mph. I was informed by one of my trail buddies (@alb1k) via radio (baofeng) that "you lost something". I should mention, this was not a smooth road by any means. Apparently, the latches had come undone, glass door opened and slammed shut so hard that it shattered the glass, and blew apart the frame. Half of the frame still hung from the camper. i looped back to recover the other half, and within a couple days, I rebuilt it with plexi.
THEN, a year or so later, on another not so nice-n-smooth road, same thing happened. This time the entire frame ripped off. and again, I rebuilt with new plexi. BTW, decent plexiglass is not cheap. Roughly $110 each time, then add for all-stainless hardware, sealant, and possibly new struts.
Neither of those times had me sweatin like the time I almost lost the entire shell off the side of a mountain. Savior credits out to @des2mtn and again, baofeng for that one

 

The news was fear mongering about hail a couple days ago, and in a state of panic i moved my truck to protect the back glass. The rest of the truck probably coulda handled it, but i had to protect the caps hatch.

 

After a week of not working my oil psi gauge rose from the dead this morning, like JC Zombie. Then it promptly died again five mins later

 

I've worked with Polycarbonate quite a bit and I remember buying 4x8x1/4 for about a hundred, now its $250 or more. That had to have dropped quite a few pounds off the weight on that door/hatch. Mine will prob never see that kind of use so this should hold. It's obviously not it's first Rodeo and you can see someone had already moved the fasteners to some new meat. I haven't looked extensively but Ide like to get all the locks working again. I have no key and the side window locks are rusted to shit, so I can't keep anything valuable back there.

 

you have a glass roof hatch? interesting

The sheet I was pricing is only 6x3x1/8" IIRC. 1 sheet 48"x96"x.220 (1/4") is about $340. OR, $390 if you want the bronze tint.
Even with locks, I try not to leave too much money in the shell. I would rather have used 1/4", but the glass was not that thick, nor the channel that it lived in. I've considered a piece of sheet aluminum. Would be more secure, and I dont use my center mirror anyways. Gotta have a reverse cam with a shell. That's mando

 

Did the solo drive from LA to Vegas, and back. Solid 80mph the whole time. I was looking at the scangauge the whole time watching temps, she did great. I was scared to do the drive, but then I remembered I’ve done every piece of maintenance possible.

 

Got sumo springs on, glued my mudflaps where they were peeling away and got them back on the truck. Power steering flush. Made a mess so I spent more time on cleanup than flushing.

When I had the steering knuckles off last weekend I didn't realize how big the axle nut cotter pins are, so I put what I had in there, which were way undersized. Opened things up again today and put in bigger cotter pins.

Low-tech, box-checking weekend.

Not sure how the Sumos sit for other people who have them, and whether or not you're lifted makes a difference, but on my truck they just make contact, with a tiny tiny bit of compression, with the frame. My leaf springs still have a little arc in them but not sure if that means they're a bit worn or if that's how Sumos sit on a stock suspension.

 

Leafs are probably pretty worn. That overload end is sitting real close to the rest of the leaf pack

 

You re-used your U-bolts? You maniac!

 

I did too on a few occasions haha

 

Messed with my brakes some, and installed a rear backup camera (from Master Tailgaters).

 

Looks good. I like when you can still see the bumper for a frame of reference.

 

I'll do it if they're not too stretched looking, at least once or twice, but if they looked like that, I wouldn't.

 

I remember seeing someone post about it being recommended to change them, but in the FSM diagram they don't show them as a non-reusable part, so I reused them. I suppose I should look into it more. I don't remember them being cheap...but of course that's not the primary concern.

 

Brake controller works! No faults or codes. My asshole was puckered something fierce when scotch locking the brake light wire, but calmer heads prevailed. All is well on the 7 way, as well. Finally got to test the trailer lights (needed a new battery) and she's good to go!

Now I just need to decide if I'm going to replace that TRE before the trip, or after.

 

OEM u-bolts should be hardened, so you're likely fine if they're in great shape. Aftermarket bolts, you need to check. Not all (not many?) are actually hardened steel, and will stretch. Opinions vary; if it's aftermarket, I typically won't re-use more than 1x-2x before I toss them.

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Scotchloks are the fucking devil, especially for exterior wiring. Use Positaps for christsake!

 

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In that case I was fine on the off-roader with OEM u-bolts and AAL, pre Alcans (I already knew that, didn't die), but I probably need to buy some new u-bolts for the street queen. She's been taken apart and reconstructed twice since these u-bolts were included in the SOS kit. I actually plan to take it apart once more so I can swap out the ill fitting lift block (being used as a lowering block) for a proper lowering block made by SOS to fit the kit right. I guess that would be the opportunity to swap the u-bolts for new and be done with it.

Then it'll be time to install the lift block on the off-roader and I'll be re-using the Alcan u-bolts, assuming they have the threads to make it fit.

The street queen just barely has enough threads on its current set up.

 

I may ultimately swap out with hardened bolts, I highly doubt the ones in the Icon AAL kit were.

But I'm waiting to hear back on these damn '97 Hilux bumpstops b/c I'd love to, in one fell swoop, update the bumpstops, swap out my driver's ATS HD leaf, and throw on fresh bolts.

 

@panhandlemonium we torqued bmf's u-bolts for days. Never hit torque & was surprised when his shock mounts failed.

 

Yeah I'm afraid for those u-bolts. Pretty sure they were a different material from OEM and pretty sure we were trying to reach OEM torque specs. Probably need to be replaced and properly torqued haha

But wft do I know? I just use the impact!
I don't think I've ever used my torque wrench.

 

Counting ugga duggas is a reliable means of torque measurement. Don’t knock it.

 

Yeah those look like a way better option!

 

I was worried about the clamshell connectors on my Tacoma too. They came with the kit. But it was only for the interior brake pedal wire. Not much weather down there. I agree they're not a good option, but often they hold up. My camper is a 1992, made in British Columbia, and all the interior splices, from the factory, are clamshell. Everything still works. Any time I do a project on the camper you can bet I use a better wire connection, but I'm also not out to go fix everything that ain't broke.

I mention BC because I posted a photo of the Tacoma controller install on a Tacoma forum and a guy from Canada was giving me crap about the clamshell, saying it wouldn't hold up two winters in Canada weather. I pointed out my Canadian trailer uses them and has been holding up fine for a few decades...

 

I can't disagree with anything that's been posted. Just want to post this for reference. I'll admit that my bolts could be replaced. They threaded fine and mostly torqued without issue, but could have at least used a thread cleaning. But I was full speed ahead with the job and they were good enough, and I didn't have new ones on hand for the job after checking this diagram.

 

Can you post a pic of the sos lowered truck? Which drop did you order?

 

I’ve been singing the gospel of “fuck scotchloks and t-taps” on here for years now, where were you on that one, bud?!