A mostly Stock Taco-- mostly

Well, I got my 2010 Taco about 7 months ago & loved it right off the lot. Here in Northern Virginia there's not much need for big mods such as a big lift, etc, and frankly-- I didn't want to lift it & get into a rollover since safety was a big reason I bought it in the first place. So there were just a few little things I did to tweak it slightly; here they are. First thing was the iridescent pinstripe from streetglo.net gives it much improved visibility with that 'official blue' stripe.


I couldn't believe Toyota was so cheap my Taco doesn't have a thermometer. So a little aftermarket temp probe gets pasted to the knee panel-- the thermistor wire goes thru the firewall lateral to the rubber wire boot but there is some interference with the engine running-- at least I know if the road is freezing before I start.


Next sooner or later your'e gonna want a second set of D rings in the back up next to the cab-- these are OEM rings about $25 you may need to drill out the hole a little. That bolt is about 7 inches long & takes a T 50 torx bit. An air gun is really handy here.


By the Way, don't forget to secure your camera tailgate down with an ordinary hose clamp-- slide the clamp bolt around so the only thing that can turn it is an 8mm open box wrench--not likely the perv will have one of those! This little security fix is illustrated somewhere on the Forum -- here it is--http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/27829-tailgate-theft-how-prevent.html


I'm always amazed how folks up here will buy a nice vehicle and then leave it with shitty tires in bad weather. So the OEM wheels get studded PaceMark SnowTraker tires -- the Black Ice up here can be really bad with freeze/thaw cycles nearly every night. I really like these tires & the road noise is quite acceptable. The summer tires are going on Ultra Maverick wheels; don't forget the Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors that will cost you an extra $100 per wheel (!).


Now on to some other stuff: I wanted to be able to mount a canoe so I went with a TrakRak from CargoGear.com-- get the T-Rack G2 specifically made for the Tacoma. It's an easy install. Also, I didn't get fog lights on mine & didn't want to spend $600 for OEM lights-- went with BlingLights.com fog lamps which were only $100 (with a baseball cap!) I don't especially like the install here but they work fine. In Virginia they have to be switched into the low beam light switch but you can wire them either way. If you don't know about Add-a-circuit fuses they are a real blessing for these light wiring jobs. Wiring & switches are discussed elsewhere in the Forum; basically you pry those little plastic switch panel tabs out & build the switch back into them.


Incidentally, you might seriously consider swapping out the long mounting bolts that come with the TrakRak for some 3/8-16 1.5 stainless hex head bolts from Lowe's-- they look better & might give you a tiny bit of security over just a hex bolt holding that expensive rack on your truck. So far I just have the front bar mounted; the rear rack is in the garage ready to go whenever I really need it.


And as you can see, I just couldn't resist putting a pair of KC daylighters on top of the rack. Drill the mounting holes carefully you can't really get a wrench on the light bolt from inside the rack but it's held & can't spin by the rack sides. These are off-road lights not street legal but they look good for bling & mostly help you find your truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot!!

Now the big add-on: I really don't have enought reason to even consider a winch but the rear-mounted winch detailed here by BrutalGuyRacing is a great idea!! http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/product-reviews/100026-tuff-stuff-winch.html I went with the Smittybuilt winch from TruckandWinch.com for under $300; I can mount it in just 2 minutes any time I want it on the truck.


These winches are a connection challenge especially if you're running the wiring all the way to the back. You gotta remember the winch draws enough current in normal operation to melt a flawed cable connection or start a fire. A fuse just won't help in this situation. Instead I went with a heavy duty battery cutoff switch from Pep Boys. At least I can cut off the winch if disaster strikes, the switch is usually left in the cutoff position when not employing the winch.


Here's the 'shielded' #2 cable coming off the battery:


I ran the 'hot' wire to the winch down the chassis thru a plastic garden hose 'conduit' for extra protection. Ordinary #2 cable is really stiff & hard to use; you might consider going with welding cable even tho you'll spend a ton of money running it to the back of the truck. You gotta ground the winch all the way back to the battery you CAN'T ground it to the frame. The Tuff Stuff connector (Amazon.com) seems to work OK. You're gonna need a hot torch (Mepp) and a ton of solder to connect all this stuff.


And finally, as you could see in the previous photos I installed a

$689 Westin 40-1605 Sportsman Grille Guard Fits 05-15 Tacoma

Westin 40-1605 grill guard- the price from Amazon was OK & I'm glad I ordered from them as there was some hilarity (they sent me two) that they took care of very nicely. It's mostly for looks but there are a lot of deer hits in my area dunno if it would really stop a full-sized deer but it might offer some protection against a small one. But really still mostly for bling. The install is not difficult it comes with good hardware & the instructions are OK mostly. You'll want some good socket & open rachet wrenches though & be sure to have every bolt started before you tighten anything down.

And that's about it until I think of something else to put on the now Fully Operational Battle Taco!

 

all right mostly stock is not the right title you have done much more than a bunch of people and here and it looks sweet nice job man

 

welcome!! Looks Good.

 

You got any bigger pics of the truck in general? I'd like to see how everything looks all together

 

Yeah, here's another photo of it. The weather's moved in here in Virginia so she's ready for winter!



By the Way-- How does one go about getting a full-sized photo onto the website??