eon_blue's 1st gen Build: Radiant Red 2004 Tacoma

Lotek sells A-pillar dual gauge pods that are pretty nice.
http://www.gaugepods.com/toyota.html

LCE sells them as well

 

This looks cool but it would require me to remove my 'oh shit' handle...mine is exactly where this gauge pod mounts. My current boost pod is a single holder right under the handle but I don't think I could fit one this size where that one currently is

 

So I wired up my 4 Cree LED roof mounted lights last night; I didn't realize that the lights came without a wiring harness so I just used the one I had installed already for my Hella halogen lights. It works, but I'm a little afraid that the LED's pull too many amps and it might fry the wiring harness. I guess we'll see

Let there be light!

 

Went up to the Southern/Eastern Sierras this past weekend to camp for a couple days and nights with my fiancé. Wanted to hit up Laurel Lakes, but could only go about halfway up the trail due to there still being too much snow out there. So we camped at the 2nd campground along the trail about a mile or two into the mountains, was a beautiful place to wake up to. Although we got rained and snowed on that night, which I wasn't all that prepared for...

2nd day we hung out in the town of Mammoth and then wandered the trails up above there for a few hours until we found a cool camp spot accessible with 4x4 only and a great view.

 

Looks like an awesome trip!

 

thanks!

So this trip made it undeniably obvious to me that I had way more faith in my new Dakars to hold my camping weight than they deserved....they suck. They suck hard. I was riding on my bumpstops nearly the entire time we were on dirt. My stock pack + 3 leaf AALs held this weight better than the Dakars do.

So I ordered the OME AAL for each pack, supposed to increase load capacity by 15% and add an inch of height. Hoping that'll level me out when I've got weight back there. If I still need some help after that I'll probably just get an adjustable shackle that I can raise the rear another inch with.

Oh and the Dakars are noisy AF...have to spray water between the leaves every few days with a hose to get them to shut up. I really don't know why they get so much praise on TW...wishing I had spent more on a Wheeler's leaf pack or the AllPoo HD springs. Only good thing I can say about them is that they ride smoother than my stock pack + AALs did, but not enough of a difference to have made the switch worth it. Hopefully these new AALs help....the Dakar install was a bitch as-is and now I've gotta take them out again to add the new leaves lol. Fun times ahead.

 

That sucks to hear about the Dakars.
I think most of the praise comes from the 2nd Gen / 3rd Gen crowd.

I am running the HD pack for the 2nd Gen. They are a bit squeaky off road but haven't really noticed it on the streets.
Then again I also have upper and lower control arms with poly bushings and they squeak as well if they aren't greased so its all meh to me at this point.

Does your pack have the anti-squeak pads between each leaf at the ends?

 

I also need to fix my Quickfist mounts...the plastic washer that comes with them that's supposed to protect the rubber from the metal bolt that holds them in place is weak and broke on my drive up to the Sierras. The wind on the freeway through the desert was intense and the Quickfist's washers failed that were holding my axe to my roof rack, which cause the bolt to slip through the Quickfist and consequently sent both them and my axe flying off my truck like a giant battle axe on the freeway going 70mph <---- my fiancé and I's faces when we looked in the rearview mirror and saw the axe swinging through the air behind my truck....

Luckily, the ax had a pretty good quality cover on it that didn't come off until it hit the ground, and it landed on the side of the highway off the emergency lane (I was in the right hand lane, fortunately). Even more lucky was that it didn't hit another vehicle. The axe was okay, got pretty beat up but still works well.

 

yep they have those little yellow pads between each of the leaves...but still squeak pretty bad as well as the front hangar bolts. I know they make greasable shackles but my stock shackles are the only part that doesn't make noise, lol. I've seen some rubber leaf spring lining that you put between the leaves that's supposed to quiet them down so I may pick that up when I do the AAL install.

Unfortunately, Dakars for 1st gens only come in standard duty (no HD option as far as I could tell) so I'll have to add the AALs to them to increase the load capacity.

 

Oh the HD version for the 2nd/3rd Gen is just an additional leaf in the pack.
In theory you can add two of the AALs to make them a Super HD pack.

Crazy about the axe.

 

yeah I was thinking about maybe adding a 2nd one but I'm afraid I would end up with a way stiffer back end when I'm unloaded....realistically I'm only carrying 500+ lbs of weight maybe once every month or two. The rest of the time it's just my bed rack and RTT, maybe my tools and a few supplies if it's a weekend day trip which I think the single AAL will be perfect for. Was thinking maybe an adjustable rear shackle would be ideal for the occasional camping trip with a lot of weight, so I could raise the back end an inch or so to compensate for the sag when that weight is back there. I don't have any experience with adjustable shackles though so I'm not sure how sound of a plan that is.

 

My Dakars with AAL squeaked real bad also. ARB suggest pushing a grease gun nozzle on to the underside each pad and give it a pump or two. This has worked well for me. The negative is it contaminates the grease gun with dirt and is hard to clean out. I have a small, cheap grease gun just for this purpose. Also it gets better as the nubs on the pads were down.

I have taken apart my leaf packs about 5 times trying different setup. Two C clamps and a large tapered center punch makes life a lot easier getting the center bolt lined up.

 

Nice thanks for the tips! Yeah when I had my leafs out to install the AALs I had them on saw horses and kept a punch in the center hole to keep them lined up, worked well. I used a dirt repellant grease-free lubricant on each leaf while they were apart and they've been pretty quiet so far...if they start up again I'll try the method you mentioned with the grease gun

 

Got my Budbilt belly skid installed that I've had sitting around for about a year. Much better coverage than the single t-case skid I had on previously, but goddamn is it going to be a pain in the ass to change out my fluids next time

 

I like your build a lot. May I ask, where did you get your skid plate? Did you manufacture it yourself?

 

Thanks! I really need to update this thread, done quite a bit more to my truck since I last posted in here..

My front IFS skid is a 3/16" steel skid made by Budbilt, I bought it from another member on here though along with a 3/16" Budbilt belly pan that covers from the IFS skid to the t-case. I only run that one though if I think I need to for a hard trail, otherwise it's too big and bulky to keep on my truck all the time since it's still my daily driver.

But the front IFS skid stays on, I really like it. It takes a beating pretty well

 

I like both of them. I want to buy the front Skid Plate. So just "google" budbilt and I should be able to find it?

 

It's this one

http://budbuilt.com/19955-2004-Tacoma-Skid-Plate--Front_p_591.html

just the regular 3/16" steel (not stainless, that's another $250). There's also an aluminum option

 

Thank you!