Build regret(s)

For those of us just joining the Tacoma world (been absent from Toyota for several years until recently) would you share any or all of your build regrets? It will help us make better choices and may save us some money as well.

 

Roof rack that required drilling. I liked it for a year or so but now it just makes too much noise and kills MPGs on the highway so I want to take it off, but it's going to take some work to make it look good when I do thanks to the 8 half inch holes I drilled to mount it.

 

I regret taking a 1987 Dodge 3/4 ton truck and marrying it to this 1988 Toyota........then selling it. All the time and money was fun at the time, looking back what was I thinking? A 318 V8 in the Toyota, I couldn't keep the engine temps down.

 

I regret thinking that Deaver J59s and OEM length King shocks would
be a good combination.

-Mike

 

Ouch, hopefully that didn't result in some brand new blown Kings...or did they just not fit?

 

I regret not getting a bigger welder from the start. Thought that little 125 would do the job well enough, and underestimated how much welding I'd be doing on the truck... Probably doubled my workload just on the front bumper.

 

https://odditymall.com/no-ragrets-temporary-tattoo

Not buying this sooner

 

I bought the cheap HF flux core welder a couple months ago, returned it (unused) a couple weeks later...did some reading and learned it was a poor buy. I'm trying to get into welding this summer and wanted something I could use at home easily that wouldn't break the bank. I'm looking at the Titanium 120

$279 Mig140 140A MIG Welder Advanced Auto MIG Synergistic Setting, Voltage Fine Tuning, Gas MIG Welding & Gasless Flux Core MIG Welding - Brown, 120V, Without Aluminum Spool Gun

Mig140 now through them instead.

 

I know a guy selling his Lincoln 125...

just sayin...

 

I regret modding my truck and not enjoying it stock

 

The Tacomaworld Disease, it spreads quick and is difficult to treat and cure

 

herecy!

 

Not 3 linking the front with 1 tons and atlas 37s to start. So much i want to redo but i may be better off money wise building something else.

 

Keep it simple, a nice clean look. You dont want to be the guy with the AR-15 with 7,000 attachments that it's so heavy and awkward you cant really do anything with it.

 

I remember you quoting me on that other thread; ouch.

 

No fit.

The shop that did the work for me ate the cost of the OEM length shocks and
ordered me some custom length ones that took about two months to come in.

Even though I spent too much money there, I doubt they made any.

My truck sure does go down the road nice now ...

I still haven't gone over any boulder fields or gullied-out uphill dirt
roads, I hope everything articulates properly iffn ever I do ...

-Mike "if I ever went to the mall maybe I could find a big curb to roll the front wheel up on "

 

FIFY

 

Ahh that's right I remember you posted about this in another thread awhile back. Yeah might be good to take it out and flex it a bit to see how it works, before too much time passes after the shop installed them. If I remember right they had to make some custom mounts for you?

 

Aals and Trac bar vs just new and better leafs
Not doing water/meth right first time around
Not getting a 4 door but extended cab
Getting a mig instead if tig

Lots of little things. I think a common regret is dabbling too much- meaning slow incremental mods of the same thing instead of going strait for the jugular. Ex:. Gets stock taco. Does emu + 5100s, aal or shackle rear. Then Fox. Then mid travel coils + UCA. Then new rear leafs and rear shock relocation + travel. Then long travel all around. Just do it right out of the gate, and do lots of homework first on the brand, characteristics and dependancies of the mod.

IMO modding for the sake of modding sucks/causes regrets later. If it ain't broke or completely incapable for your use case, them don't dick with it.

On the fence- should have gotten Kings over Icons, but I think the slow speed stack will fix this.

 

>> If I remember right they had to make some custom mounts for you?

That was how we tried to recover from the too-short-shocks, but it didn't
work well. I have standard shock mounts and custom length
shocks now.

>> Yeah might be good to take it out and flex it a bit to see how it works,
>> before too much time passes after the shop installed them.

My truck, with 150K on it when I got it, was already lifted about as much as it
is now, and I think the PO wheeled it pretty good . It had a add-a-leaf and these longer-than-OEM
worn-out things on it, it was easy to mash them to full compression and pull them back to full
extension with almost no effort while holding them in your hands.



I think the shop has already bent over backwards for me, if there's still something
wrong I haven't found yet, I think it is on me for not doing enough homework first.

-Mike "don't do enough homework = regrets"