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

My eBay awnings were like this. Just took em apart and flipped the case so the zipper was at the bottom.

 

Re-wired the abs module. No more annoying abs and traction control light!!!

 

I've noticed here in the past month that my ABS and Traction light have been on and off just maybe two times. It doesn't stay on long at all. The only times I have noticed it was pulling out of my driveway and when I pulled into the garage. Seemed a tap of the brakes stopped it or maybe it just went off. Do you the possible cause?

 

Installed my amber led pods in the ARB bumper with my home made bracket. Came out pretty descent

 

Got it dirty driving up to Chinns Reservoir and eating our left over, homemade chicken cutlet sandwiches on the tailgate. Fun times!

 

I've been debating on whether to throw some amber floods in place of the stock fog's. Are you noticing a difference? Did you use the same wiring harness and all that?

 

New grille! Need to wire up the lights still.

Figured it was about time. My scooped hood is in the shop getting painted.

 

Wow. Amazing rig.

 

Thanks to a mbr on here I snatched these

 

These...what ?

 

Scooped up some aftermarket tailgate cables on eBay. Mine are pretty hammered on and for half the price I’m gonna give em a try

 

I cleaned the AC condenser as shown here https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/improve-ac-performance-for-6.621255/#post-21174144

 

Put some take off wheels and tires off a 2019 Tacoma TRD onto my 2008 SR5 DCSB 4x4. Looks very nice!

 

Wanted to borrow and tow a friend's 5 kayak trailer this coming weekend, but found out last Saturday that it's a 2" ball and the ball on my bumper is 1-7/8"

So I did some research and found that a new ball was like $9 at Home Depot. I don't tow stuff often (obviously), but I figure 2" is the most common, so I figure swapping them's a good plan, right?

Anyway, so Monday was a busy day, so it was about 9:30 Monday night before I could hit home Depot and, whoa they have a lot of balls. I picked a 2" x 1" x 2", bought a BFW to go with it (big freaking wrench, because I don't have anything for a 1-1/2" nut) and off I went.

I got home and prepared to go to town on it and then noticed that the one I picked up was actually a 1-7/8 again. Crap! I look at the time, 10:01, Home Depot is closed. Figures.
So I go to town on getting the old one of anyway. But it's so rusted, it won't even budge. Even after soaking overnight with wd-40. I used the wrench and threw all my weight at it, no dice. I used a rubber mallet with the wrench, nothing. Enter the Sledge hammer. It laughed at me.

Ok, this is going to get real right now. Backed up to the basketball hoop, wrapped a ratchet strap around the post, tightened it against the wrench (with a coat over it in case it snaps) and slowly creeped forward. Success, I broke that SOB loose. But then what? Turned out there was no lock washer on the shank, and there were no flat sides on the ball's base so nothing to hold it as I turned the nut. It was still pretty rusty, so it wouldn't budge any more without just twisting the whole thing. No amount of wd-40, heating, sledging, or gentle coercion would do anything more. I put a pipe wrench on the ball, but it just shredded the edges.

So my next thought was to just cut it off, but the only thing handy was a 6" hack saw with a dull blade. Next stop Walmart for some fresh blades. While there I notice they have balls, too. So I get a 2" one this time. Good to go.

Back at home now around 12:30 I start into the nut, I made my cut straight up so I can just crack this nut in half and it's going well because the shank only sticks down far enough to go through about half the nut. So once I get a slit in this nut I I grabbed a chisel and hammer and start splitting this guy open. After a few whacks and seeing that slit get wider I grab my pipe wrench and BFW and successfully get that thing off. If the idiot PO who had put that thing on there had picked a longer shank so the lock washer could fit, this wouldn't be such a problem. So I pop in the new one and realize, I bought the same size shank, so no thread to grab onto with a lock washer on there. Suddenly I can relate to the idiot PO. So now I have two balls to return to two different stores. "Ok, I'll deal with that tomorrow. Time to check the wiring. The flat 4 plug had actually fallen off, so i knew I needed to redo the wiring. The terminals were a bit corroded, but some acid cleaner took care of that. But didn't leave much metal left surprisingly. So I start stripping the wires on the plug side and it's crumbling in my hand. WTF, no wonder it fell off. This is stupid. So off to Walmart again for a new plug and when I get back (2:00 now), I realize I should have checked the other wiring when I was under there. I start poking around, strip the wires on the converter side and I test the voltage with each of the functions. It's coming through really weak on the right turn signal, not at all on the left or taillights. Ground looks a little corroded so o clean that up. Still no luck, I check the splices, good voltage there if I can get the ground working. Then I wonder, is the converter toast? I check continuity and it's hit or miss. Seriously. I'm going to bed now. (3:30 after cleaning up. Up for work at 6:00.

Tuesday night, Round 2. I returned the balls, and pick up a 2" with 3"shank. And a converter. Done and done. I look at the instructions and it says to tighten to 250 ft.lbs. WHAT? OK, so my wrench is probably 18"long, I'm 150lbs, if I put all my weight on that wrench, that's probably in the ballpark of 250. If not, I hope in not screwed.
Wiring the converter was not bad other than the dirt in my eyes undoing PO's electrical tape. I quickly learned that even with safety glasses, it doesn't stay completed out of your eyes. And it tastes nasty. I get it working, clean up and then I realize after I finish up under there, I should have spliced in wiring for my shell's 3rd brake light. What an idiot. Off to bed again. But today, I towed that little trailer like a champ. Should have taken a picture, though. My truck looks good towing 5 kayaks.

 

Well, today I received finally my Smittybilt Awning!
Going to install it tomorrow morning! wooohoooo!

 

Got a glove compartment organizer, fixed my OCD

 

What I did today was finish up the hitch hauler for the new toy, was a project ski to begin with, the ski is now back together and runs, tested, and now time to register! Very pleasing fixing something that wasn’t running and now it rips!

 

How do you like your DIY spacer mod? Have a link to that collar with the set screw? I saw a thread about those, but cant bear the idea of $170 to put 1in spacer on my truck.

 

cleaned out the debris building up in the pads



drove it to the local bike shop to get the mtb tuned for the weekend.

 

Went to NZ and was inspired by all the badass Hilux's