Ken B's 14 Taco

Guess I have finally done enough to the truck to call it a build...

The day I brought it home



5 weeks later...


Truck: 2014 Tacoma Double Cab Short Bed 4X4 TRD Offroad with Entune Navigation
Tinted Windows by Dealer
Wheels: TRD 16" BAJA style in Black
Tires: Goodyear Wrangler Dura Trac 265/75-16

Suspension is a 3 inch Lift From Toytec
Shocks: Bilstein 5100
AAL: ToyTec
UCA: Icon Uniball

Lighting:
Bumper mount brackets
30" rigid sr light bar
Lifetime LED headlights
Lumen LED bulbs in the Fog light and back up lights

Misc:
Shell: ARE Z Series
Shell Rack: Yakima (Rails; Towers & cross bars)
Bed Protection: BedRug
Towing Mirrors
Nerf bar: Smittybilt
Coverking Seat Covers



Mods:
Fog light anytime mod

 

Looks nice! Awesome progress in only 5 weeks! welcome to the forum. looks like I may spot you around the base?

 

Looks really nice, love the shell.

 

Installed the Rigid Mounts and 30" SR light bar. Kinda a pain in the ass as one of the mounts had to have the holes elongated. It was drilled off just about 2mm. The wiring took some extra time too. I ordered the switch that matches the rest of the switches in the truck. Since it's an Offroad truck the only switch location I had available was above the center console. Co to access that I had to remove the entire center console. Then I use the Bright lights to enable the circuit through the relay. Took a little time and some Forum help to get it right.

Front view


Lights on Bright no LED or fog lights.


Lights on bright with LED bar.


Lights on Bright w/LED bar and Fog lights.

 

ARE Shell fiasco.

So I ordered my ARE Shell from the Local dealer. It took 3 weeks for it to arrive and they had it installed in about an hour.

I drove off thinking everything was great...

I went two weeks of driving without having to hit my breaks hard or anything like that.

Then it happened, I had to hit my breaks hard since I got cut off at an intersection. Next thing I know the forward rack on my Shell goes flying down the front of my truck. It Chipped the shell, dented my roof and my hood. The rack ended up 20+ feet into the intersection. Fortunately nothing worse happened.

To say that I was pissed was an understatement. I called the dealer and gave them a heads up of what happened and that I would be there in about an hour to show them. I told the guy on the phone to let the manager know and I wanted to speak to him briefly when I got there.

I showed up at the dealer and went to speak to the Manager. He was with a customer, I said I Need to speak to him on an urgent matter. He told me to have a seat and he would get to me when he can. (Basically shut up and sit down). Since I was already pissed this didn't sit well with me.

I went to the truck got the part of the rack that flew off and went back in to the showroom and dropped it on the ground. At this point I told him I didn't want to do this in front of his customers but he left me know choice. I told him about the situation and what happened.

Now the clue light came on... Also we found out that no one told him I was coming or what happened....Lovely...

He took a look at my six week old truck and the damage that occurred. Took pictures and asked me to get estimates to repair it. I went to a body shop I used in the past for my wife's car. The estimate in Damage was $2100. The dealer said they would pay for it so I scheduled to have the truck dropped off.

4 days later I get the truck back with the repairs done.

Now the dealer the entire time is claiming this is ARE's fault. ARE assembled the rack on the shell but never tightened the thing up. The dealer assumed they did their job and didn't double check the security of the rack.

So I wrote ARE an E-mail to let them know about the rack and to let them know about the inner lip being to long. The inner lip is so long you can't use the bed rail tie downs.

So I get this back from ARE:

So ARE takes no responsibility nor do they say they will remedy the problems in the future. Basically they blow me off....

The dealer stepped up and got my truck fixed, ok crap happens I'm not happy about it but at least they fixed it. ARE on the other hand basically doesn't really give two shits and they blow smoke...

I'm not looking for a payout or any thing like that. Despite the fact that I went without my truck for 4 days. I merely want to know that they will fix these problems so other customers can buy with confidence. Since they didn't give me that warm fuzzy feeling I can say, DO NOT BUY ARE SHELLS.

This is my experience with there customer service. Hopefully it will save someone else the head aches I have had.

 

New picture of my Rig with the lightbar and Nfab Nerf bars.

 

Installed my Coverking Neoprene seat covers today.





Also installed Lifetime LED headlight bulbs.

 

sweet pics man! Super white FTW

 

Nice truck - Looks great!

 

Saw you yesterday on Hwy 60 north of Suprise. Nice truck! Sorry to hear about the rack on the ARE shell coming off and scraping up the Tacoma roof.

Georgeous photo of your truck and that colorful sunrise (or sunset).

 

My 2014 Tacoma was in a hit and run. They hit my back bumper. The Damage was only a small crease like hit and the plastic on the top got nicked. I was looking at aftermarket bumpers but most where unrated towing capacity. I needed a rated receiver so I went with a stock bumper. I never liked the Chrome stock bumper on my off road. But I disliked color matched bumpers more. So it was an easy call, install the SR5 black (otherwise known as a Sport bumper that hasn't been painted yet).

So yesterday I picked up the bumper from Camelback Toyota in Phoenix. I got the old bumper off yesterday. This morning I finished the task.

So here's an Offroad TRD 4X4 with a Factory black bumper.

 

For sale now:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-2014-4x4-offroad-dblcab-loaded-and-built.486895/