2012 TRDS Blendmount Installation

Hey all... sorry in advance for not posting pics with this thread, but I wanted to give a brief rundown of installing a Blendmount for a Scangauge II in a 2012 with the Sport Upgrade package. I hesitated to do this because there isn't a step-by-step for my model year and I wasn't sure it would work, and I wanted to let everyone know how it turned out for me.

I took a chance and ordered the whole kit from J28 (http://store.blendmount.com/scangaugeii-c109.aspx). Shipped same day and overall I was pleased. Got it out of the box and more or less followed maverick's install thread to get it in (http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/te...-using-blendmount-rear-view-mirror-mount.html). I wanna give big ups here, the thread is very detailed and eased my nervousness. Thanks!

The major problem I had was getting the collar situated on the mirror stalk. It's not as easy as it looks in on the website. I actually removed the mirror from the truck by taking off the plastic shield over the wire bundle (Above the stalk, against the glass. Finger force, pulls right off) and disconnecting the plug. Then I took the unit off by removing the one screw with a T-15 bit and just lifting it out.

This is where it got tricky. Firstly, the screws that come with it are not even sort of long enough. I went to my local Ace and picked up a few lengths of 6/32 machine screws, and ultimately used 1 1/2 inch reduced heads.

The next issue was that the collar is too narrow for the hard plastic part of the mirror stalk, so I had to situate it more forward (closer to the windshield). Problem there was that the wire bundle isn't protected mechanically from the clamp-up force (the lower half of the collar presses against it directly). I resolved that problem by cutting the felt bushing (they include it for narrow stalks) roughly in half and putting it under the top half of the collar. This way it required only a bit of clamp-up to feel secure, as opposed to the metal collar on the plastic, which shifted on me a bit even when I started to hesitate about tightening more.

Once the collar was on and I rotated the face of the mount to be parallel to the mirror lengthwise, I found the angle heigthwise was atrocious (it would have pointed at the floor pretty severely). Luckily, the mount has several oval shaped holes at the bend locations which made it easy to bend up a bit just by hand. It wasn't all that clean, but it only needed a few degrees more on both bends, so I sucked it up.

Once all that was done, I found that the angle width-wise wasn't great either (the unit would have been a few degrees cocked counterclockwise from a horizontal line across the face of the mirror, because the wire bundle doesn't give an even surface to clamp to). This one I resolved by pressing it onto the mount with a clockwise tilt to level it. In other words, the mount and the unit aren't parallel, but the unit and the mirror are.

One more note: There is no way I could find to reinstall the shield that covered the wire bundle out of the factory. There's just no room between the mount and the glass.

However, following the DIY above I was able to situate it so it fits above the mirror and doesn't prevent it from rotating all the way up. I'm pretty tall, so if it had, it would leave me looking at the backseat rather than the road (an obvious dealbreaker).

I'm generally very conscious of craftsmanship in mods and don't appreciate kludges or "brute force and duct tape" installs, so overall I can't say I was thrilled with how it fits up. If you're picky about details like I've described, I'd recommend waiting for a different mount.

That said, the unit conceals the wires and the mount so you wouldn't notice if you didn't know. It feels solid when you push buttons, functions as it was intended, and is pretty friggin awesome, so I think I'll leave it as it is. It took awhile, but if you're patient you can get through it.

Hope this helps anyone on the fence about the SG like I was. I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow to make it clearer.

 

Sub'd in anticipation of pics

 

OK guys, got a few shots of the install this morning. First up, the front view of just the mount... You can see it's a bit wonky.


Here's a closer look at the mounting collar. It's hard to tell, but it's just too narrow to fit around the widest part of the stalk.


I thought I'd post this angle so you can see what I meant about not getting the plastic shield back in behind there.


Anyway, here's the final result, as viewed from the pilot's chair. Not too bad.


Hope that makes things clearer.

 

very nice!