TacoBox Updates!

They seem to be having issues getting a 3rd gen front tube bumper into production... since it's been in pre-production for what seems like a year. Getting a full LT set up with fabbed spindles definitely seems like a long shot at this point.

 

I look forward to the 2nd/3rd gen derp when Marlin starts taking orders for the LT kit and doesn't ship for a year. Third gen guys get upset if their truck isn't vegan friendly, much less having to wait a year for suspension parts.

I am sad to see Marlin struggle like this...TG got to where it was by competing with Marlin and Inchworm and I'm afraid we will see a decline in products or an increase in price if TG has no natural competition because Marlin has pretty much stepped away and Mike isn't particularly interested in producing product.

 

I'm in the same boat with you, I was out 2500 for 13 months for a Crawlbox for the 6 speed manual on my 2nd gen. Kept getting pushed off and finally cancelled mine Monday. I'm going Atlas as soon as I get the refund.

 

What a bad deal. Only reason I bought HHG’s was because I refuse to order one.

I wouldn’t mind having their long travel one day but I doubt Ill order from them

 

There used to be one on rock solid toys when they had a forum but it all got wiped out

 

There is one guy in that thread that's convinced it'll be available August of this year

 

The supply part seems to be lacking...

 

I almost said this, but you can buy a trailgear box and have it in a week... soooooo

 

It was a bad attempt at a joke

 

Hey guys,

Thank you for the feedback and sorry for both the lack of replies and delays we've been having. This isn't our first rodeo and know what the issues are, and have been taking steps necessary to get production back up to speed. The only updates I have are that we hired two new employees that are in training for our transfer case department and many of our billet parts will be returning to stock this summer. As for other product, once I get healthy I will resume working on RCLT, HD Frame Brace & Camber Tab kits for additional applications, and the 3rd gen front bumper that we've been wanting to get into production for too long now (I broke two ribs about a month ago and have been frustrated and recovering at home).

Thank you to everyone's patience and again sorry to those who have been waiting for their TacoBox. We normally can get these built without too much delay, but when we run behind with an item we can only manufacture in limited quantities, it really messes up our production schedule and we are working hard to get the flow back to where it needs to be.

Lastly, regarding our sales guys, they can only relay to the customer what they know so please don't hold things against them. Myself plus a few others need to do a better job at keeping things in stock so our sales guys have the tools and accurate info they need to do their job efficiently. We never want to be in this situation and are always making improvements, but when things fall behind with machine work it can snowball out of
hand quick and at this point all we can do is work hard to get stuff done and get back on top of our game.

I'll do a better job at monitoring this thread and will post updates as they become available.

Regards,
BigMike

 

Thank you for the update, regular pop-ins help, even if it's just a short paragraph about what's going on and what the delays are, I'm OK with waiting as are a lot of folks. After the Pelfreybilt incident I think folks want to know what's going on with their parts and have some sort of path of completion after they get charged a couple thousand dollars.

Sorry to hear about the broken ribs, I can feel for that since I broke my wrist back in November, was out from work for several months and the pain still flares up even now.

 

Glad you got some answers man. You are much more relaxed about it then I would be. I'd be typing in capitol letters "I want my tacobox by the Dusy" lol

 

Did you buy that $75 dollar marlin mount and make a crossmember?

 

What's the current lead time on a Tacobox for a 3rd Gen V6 MT? Also, the link mentions turn-key install available, but the sales rep I spoke with did not think this was available. Have in-house installs been discontinued?

 

For what its worth, I called yesterday just to see what they would say. I've been on the magical waiting list for over a year now, called Marlin several times and messaged BigMike here on tacomaworld (never heard back). What they told me yesterday is that not only is production not happening but they are also waiting on design changes. I asked him his best guess at a timeline, which he wouldn't commit to understandably, but when I said a year he didn't disagree. He mentioned that a lot of work is going into the steering project, which is cool I guess, and that is taking most if not all of the focus. Marlin is obviously a great company with awesome products but this debacle has been going on for a long time. On to Atlas it is, I guess.

 

To add to the above, I called marlin today too regarding putting a tacobox in 6 speed 4.0 (2nd or 3rd gen). The tacobox itself isnt the issue...it is the same between MT and AT so the lead time is the same regardless of trans. It's the adapters that are the issue, specifically the adapter plate and the spline adapter to mate the crawl box into to the trans tailshaft.

I was told that with the current adapter plate design, there is extra space between the crawl box and the trans that is allowed to fill with fluid and cool better. On the MT, the extra space is creating back pressure that forces oil up to leak out of the shift boot. They are working on a redesign as stated in the previous post but who knows when?

The other is the spline adapter. The AT tailshaft has a 23 spline output which works great with the 23 spline input on the TacoBox. The MT on the other hand has a 22 spline output (thats based on MY research...Marlin says its 19 spline) and Marlin does not make an adapter from the MT to the Tacobox. Once again...they are designing one. With Inchworm out of business, there is supposedly an adapter available from Advance Adapters (I haven't found it yet in their site) but according to Marlin, the quality isn't up to their standards, the fit is loose, and has caused issues with vibrating annoyingly and/or fretting (wearing down) either input or output shaft.

They decided as a matter of quality that they dont want to produce taco boxes for MTs until they get those issues worked out.

So my take away is that you can get in line on the wait list to have a crawl box built for your MT by lying and saying you have and AT, but you're going to have to get creative installing it and may have to deal with rattles and leaks and possibly damage to trans output or crawlbox input.

I am learning as I go here and by no means and expert so if anything is misstated above, please correct me.

 

here is the advance adapters *never mind, wrong one. wasnt paying attention*

and i just dont understand whats so hard with the 6spd. its not like the second gen hasnt been out for 13 years. dont understand why a redesign over and over again. also, i dont think they want to support the 6spd anyways. cant even put out a short shifter for it like every other manual tranny toyota has

 

Which is sad because the guys that really need it are the MT guys.

 

Ordered January 13, received today. Looks like lead time is 6 months, the extra guys they hired might bring the lead times down.

 

Nice. Now these guys on here will be jealous
I doubt issue is with helper, more like USA made billet.