What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Obviously not all in one day but over the last few weeks I made some slight changes to my truck.

It has been Lifted, RoofTopTented, Hitchgated, Trans4Mered, Dual Batteried and (still in the works) Re-cabined

Installing the RTT was a bit of a challenge because I had some very specific requirements. I had to be mounted as low as possible and not interferring with my tonneau cover. I also needed to be able to mount my ARB awning on it. I designed a rack and had it built in aluminum by a local fabricator.

For the Dual Battery system, I bought a Columbia Overland Dual Battery Tray, two Odyssey PC-1400, and a National Luna Intelligent Solenoid with a dual controller/monitor. I wanted a clean installation for this and I had some aluminum inserts left from a pack I bought to install Quick Fists on my RTT Rack. I installed some inside the fender to mount the Solenoid.












The aux. battery was only connected after that picture was taken.

With that done, I started working on the inside. Tacomas are nice truck but an access cab is not very practical when you need to bring clothes, food and stuff for 10 days. So I decided to strip everything in the back and build a nice flat base where my ARB fridge and my other stuff would hold still.

I like playing with Google Sketchup so I first came up with a design and then started building it. At first I was only going to make a fixed base but while I was building it occured to me that I could actually make it so I could still have access to the storage and, most important, the OEM jack. So after building the frame I bought a board of pine wood for 25$ that was already cut to the exact dimensions I needed. I glued some pieces of 2"x2" under it so I can slide it in the frame and it doesn't move side to side. If I ever need my factory jack I only need to lift the cover.


Then I needed to cover the back panel of the cab so I got another board of pine wood, same size as the first one, and I added it to the rear of the base one, at a 90 degrees angle with a piano hinge.

Those pictures were taking during building & fitting. I still don't have pictures of the finished product.








My sister had a bunch of 2"x2" and other "scrap" wook lying around. The whole think only cost me 60$ + tax for the 2 boards and the piano hinge.

I still have a little bit of work to do on this, I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Before I could finish this, I had to take care of some issues on the outside. My truck only has 33K kilometers but 3 weeks ago, when I installed my Hitchage, I realized my rear suspensoin was dead. The leafs looked weird, I thought one was broken so we jacked up the rear, removed the weels and although they weren't brokens, the leafs looked like they had "collapsed". Instead of having a nice arc like one would expect, they were almost straight on the back of the axle and on the front they were making some kind of S, going toward the ground and then up again neer the end. Needless to say, my Taco was almost undriveable, the bottom kept swinging.

So I decided it was time to change the suspension which was only going to be done next year. Since I also wanted to install a winch I needed a heavy suspension in the front but I was not going to install it and then drive without the extra weight for a year so I went all the way and changed the suspension, installed a Warn Trans4Mer and a Warn M8000 Winch.

 

Added a rod holder.

 

Changed grille and headlights this weekend
before

Ater

 

Took it to the tire shop to get an 'out of balance' shimmy checked out. One of them was out of balance alright, the damned rim was bent! Had to crap out coin for a brand new rim so now I have an extra coffee table in the garage.

 

Much better

 

Finished adding some accents to my interior

 

What did you use?

 

not sure if im a fan but if you like it,

 

I used rustoleum fluorescent green and then rustoleum clear coat on the tweeter rings and gauge rings. Same thing with the chrome bezel around the shifter and the chrome piece under the shift knob. Just scuffed up the chrome with 400 grit sandpaper then put a white primer on it before I painted it

 

Everyone has different tastes and I respect that, granted I think it'll look much better once I get some black Wet Okoles with neon green full piping

 

A little TLC...

 

Quick update:
got Michelin LTX M/S2 265/65/17 mounted awhile ago... Sold the stock Dunlop AT20 w/ less than 500mi. the LTX's was in the Top 5 Mall Crawler truck tires

Installed Today 8.6.12

Bully Step in the Tow assembly. looks like it will help with rear-end collisions. seems like the car would hit the Bully Step and slide under the truck instead of hitting the rear bumper dead on.


Tailgate hinge lock. a little fancier looking that the original thread. this is a good $25 investment to help prevent theft. will do the complimenting washer mod soon.

 

were did you get the bouble battery set up?

 

I wanted a different style for my 3rd break light so I ask sockmonky to make me a custom sticker with the Hawaiian Island. He made it with no problem and how I wanted it. Thank you

 

Had some goodies done last week

 

well few hours ago. washed and waxed her. got home at like 12:30AM. took it down to my moms place of work. so i could pull it inside and wash and wax.

 

that's sick. nice work.

 

Don't expect everyone to get the humor of this. But it's a way of showing my dissatisfaction with the current political atmosphere
.

 

Sorry, no pics or vids yet (will post later), but I got my FM Super 40 SI/SO installed.

 

Thank!