JB's not a Broverlander build - 2004 4x4 doublecab TRD

I guess it's time to share my musings and thoughts on the meaning of life.

Just kidding, this is really just going to be a place I can write down all the dumb things I do to my truck, post some pics of various mods/upgrades, write down ideas for next mods, and maybe give you a little insight into the method to my madness.

I'll try to keep it so 1 mod" = 1 post so if you have questions/comments, you can quote that post. Maybe that will help, I don't know...

I'm starting kind of late in the game, I've owned this truck since 2005, and kept it more or less stock for a majority of that time.

My goal for this truck is a reliable, capable trail truck. Simple, light weight(ish). If you want a broverlander build, this isn't going to be it.


Current status:
King ext travel coilovers
total chaos upper control arms
energy suspension poly bushings (LCAs, leafs, steering rack)
5100 rear shocks
Deaver J59's and 1" lift shackle (total of 2.5" lift)
CBI DIY front bumper
Warn VR10 winch, steel cable
4xInnovations weld-on sliders
Custom hi-lift brackets mounted in the bed
K&N "cold air" intake (it was there when I bought the truck)
partial "proper upgrade" headlights
plastidip'd fender flairs (clear coat started coming off - sanded and sprayed them)
swaybar delete mod
BFG 265/75r16 KOs on stock alloy SR5 wheels
Custom IFS/trans skid plates

Future plans:
Rear shocks to match the fronts
DIY kit/custom rear bumper with swing out
255/85r16 BFG KM3's


Anyhoo, this is pretty much how it started:
265/75r16 BFG KOs
Bilstein 5100's
1" lift shackle for the rear

As you can see, this basically looks like stock height because when you "lift" tired worn out springs, it basically just brings you back to stock height.

I make no promises about these posts being in chronological order, either.


Current Status:

 

When I did the 5100's (this was back in 2011) I also installed some energy suspension urethane bushings because I thought a creak/popping sounds was coming from bad bushings. It wasn't, but I still got new bushings. Still rocking those same poly bushings, actually.

This is how you get the old ones out:

 

Then I did a DIY Herculiner bedliner.

This was also way back in 2011, at least according to the dates on the picture filenames, lol.

A little bit of elbow grease goes a long way.


Yeah, it's no Line-X, but for $80 you can't really beat it. It's certainly due for a new coating now, but I'm really just being lazy...

 

Here's the mod for making the 12v plugs below the stereo hot all the time. Just a simple jumper wire. A <2" piece of wire and a couple connectors.

I can't remember when I did this exactly, but it must have been around 2008 or maybe earlier. Some people say you run the risk of killing your battery, but I just don't leave anything plugged into it, and I've never had a problem.

Love being able to charge my phone etc while camping or whatever without having the ignition on.

 

Headlights:

Nothing too special, but I was inspired by @crashnburn80's threads on the "ultimate headlight upgrade" and the subsequent 1st gen version from @goldentaco03:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/proper-headlight-upgrade.407879/

New CAPA certified housings but still using the Sylvania bulbs, rather than the Osram 80w ones. Reason being as that at the time, this was a daily driver so I valued longevity over brightness. Once these burn out, I'll probably track down some Osram bulbs. I also installed the upgraded wiring harness that's detailed in the proper upgrade threads.

The wiring harness is super easy to install. Just plug and play, and a few zipties. Hardest part was removing the battery and mounting the relays.


Just a comparison of the old warn out housings (this is AFTER polishing them with those refurb kits. twice).

In other words, if your lenses are yellow and fogged because you have a ~20 year old truck, don't bother with those kits. Just get new housings... As you can see, there is absolutely no cut off pattern.

High beams:

Low beams:

Notice how much reflection there is off my gutters.

----------------------------

New CAPA certified TYC housings from Rockauto.

High beams:

Low beams:

You can barely even see the sign on the garage door, let alone a reflection on the roof line/gutters.

So, not quite as nice as a true HID retrofit, or the nice cuttoff pattern like my 2017 4Runner has, but not bad for $40 housings and some wiring, and certainly every bit as good as original OEM (when they were new).

 

This isn't really a mod I did to my truck, but rather a mod my truck did to this kid who rear ended me on the freeway. All I got was a scratch on my hitch receiver.

This is why I drive a truck:

 

Here are some custom brackets I whipped together to mount my hi-lift.

 

On to my rock sliders.

I was dead set on a bumper and winch first, but after a trip in the hills I ran over a hidden log that flipped up and slammed into my rocker panel under the passenger front door.

So... I guess we'll do sliders first.

Ooooh, these look nice...


4xInnovations DOM sliders. These are a screamin deal at like $250, especially considering some people are throwing $800+ at their sliders.

I probably didn't *need* DOM tubing, but who am I kidding... For $250, I'm all over that.

A few bucks worth of welding wire and a little bit of time and they're done!

I ended up taking 1" off all the standoff tubes for a slightly lower profile, and angled then up a smidge.



You can see in this pic that it's pretty low profile, but it does still stick out (vertically) from the doors by an inch or two.

 

A few more mods:

I wanted to remove the lower bumper valance which required modifying the turn signals. So I hacked into the corner markers and epoxied the bulb mounts for the turn signals in the corner marker assemblies.

Then I figured while I was at it I would *finally* do something about my broken washer fluid reservoir. When I started tearing into my bumper and all that, I realize the washer reservoir would need to be moved. So I got a new one meant for an earlier model, iirc it's meant for a 5 lug... Suffice to say it fits quite well in the engine compartment with only minor modification to the ABS bracket. Just bend the bracket and use a rivnut to re-secure it.


After the valance removal, , blinker and reservoir relocation, I was left with this:

My god what have I done?!

So... what do to now? Only responsible solution is to spend a bunch more money and time on a DIY bumper from CBI (bumper build here). This *of course* requires entirely new skid plates too (it doesn't really, but you get where I'm going with this), and those currently sit as various pieces of 3/16" steel plate sitting on my garage floor.


There, that's better.

 

The icing on the cake so far has been the Kings:

King extended travel coilovers
555 lower BJs and tie rod ends
Total Chaos uniball upper control arms
Total Chaos diff drop kit.
Energy Suspension steering rack bushing kit.

There are, of course, many options for shocks. I wanted shocks that (obviously) increased performance, but I also wanted more wheel travel without going full bore long travel craziness. The Kings fit the bill with 1" additional down travel(that's shock travel, so about 2" more wheel travel). One of these days I'll remember to bring a tape measure with my and measure the actual travel.

Kings are also a linear shock (not the spring rate but dampening), which tends to offer a little better on-road ride. But as a trail truck I don't really care *that much* about road ride...

Could I have gone with external reservoir shocks? Probably. Sure, I guess, but I didn't feel like spending another $500 on shocks, and I don't do a lot of fast desert type stuff. Plus, I never felt like my 5100s faded from over heating, so these shocks which are twice the diameter would be more than sufficient.

Relevant to the "buy once cry once" theme, most people will try to convince you to just get the nicer coilovers right away, rather than buying 2 sets of shocks... "You want shocks? You should get the $1500 external reservoir shocks". But for me, I don't regret "buying twice" and I would suggest the same for someone else in a similar situation.

When I needed new shocks, my truck was a daily driver and occasional off-roader. It was pretty hard to justify spending more than a grand just on front coilovers that are really best suited for off-road. So, I spent $300-400 on a full set of 5100s and a 1" lift shackle for the rear. I ran that way for more than 6 years.

Fast forward to me buying a '17 4Runner as my new daily driver. I kept the Taco and it is now a dedicated trail truck, so I could more easily justify the $$$ on the shocks etc...

One thing people often forget is that the high-end shocks require more maintenance and need to be rebuilt relatively often (especially when it sees lots of miles from a daily driver), so I easily would have spent more than $300 on rebuilding them over the last 6 years anyway.


Mmmmmmm

My son giving me a hand wrenching.

My daughter likes helping too:

The awesome sauce:

Stretching the new coilovers a little bit on the first run after install. Sorta, but not really. This isn't anywhere close to maxed out. This is on a trail called Baltic Ridge off Hwy 88 out of Jackson CA.

 

This post will serve as my balljoint soapbox.

1st gen Tacomas have a "feature" designed into our lower balljoints. They catastrophically fail. Just google tacoma balljoit failure and you'll find plenty of pics of front suspensions completely collapsed. No Bueno.

As a result of this, there is a sub-culture of Tacoma owners who are OEM or nothing. I am NOT one of these and here is the "short version" of why:

One, the OEM balljoints were the subject of a recall anyway, so it's not like OEM parts are infallible. But that's not really the reason, it's more nuanced.

Secondly, from what I've been able to gather from the various ball joint failure threads is that the primary reason BJs fail is lack of maintenance and user error (not torquing the bolts correctly, etc). I've seen several "my balljoint failed!!" threads, but then you read into it and they noticed the boot was leaking grease a couple years back but did nothing.

I'm am definitely in the "buy the best you can afford" crowd, but that doesn't always have to be OEM.

Several years ago I was trying to diagnose a popping noise (see post #2 re: poly LCA bushings). One of the things I did was replace the balljoints. I used Moog BJs. Did my truck fall apart and kill innocent civilians? Of course not. As a daily driver they lasted 6+ years before I replaced them. And the only reason I replaced them is because I was tearing into the front suspension anyway (see post #10).

The BJs weren't leaking, and when I took them off, there still wasn't any perceptible slop.

However, when I replaced them, I "upgraded" to the 555 brand from Lowrangeoffroad.com.

Why the upgrade? Well, this truck is now a dedicated trail truck and will be seeing fewer, but harder miles than when it was merely a daily driver, and I wanted something a bit nicer. 555's are the next step up.

But why not go OEM if you're upgrading? Well, because out of an abundance of caution, I also plan to replace these things far sooner than how long even my Moogs lasted, and certainly more often than the factory recommends. Probably every 3-4 years, or maybe 10k-ish miles.

So the 555's are kind of a happy medium between the cheap Moogs, and the expensive OEMs. Given my planned replacement schedule, I would be replacing the BJs sooner than even the cheap BJs should really be wearing out anyway (OEM or not), so IMO spending double on the OEMs is a waste of money with no added benefit.

But that's just me.

If you roll with a daily driver, the best long term solution is still the OEM. But Moogs won't explode your truck, either.

Whatever type of BJs you choose, keep an eye on them.

/public service announcement

 

Have you ever cleaned your radiator and condenser? I've come across this thread and am considering doing it myself.

 

I flushed the rad when I did my timing belt, and I "wash" the rad and condenser whenever I wash the truck. Nothing special, just hose it off to get the bugs and dirt off.

 

Here are a few random scenery pics from over the years, just because.

A pic form way back in the day when me, @DGXR and another friend spent a long weekend in Mammoth playing on our dirtbikes.

Lorel Lakes Trail (near Mammoth)

"Deep" river crossing on some local forest roads.

Taking my father in law and his Jeep out for a stroll in the dirt.

Quick shot from a forest road in in the hills near were I grew up



Other fun things I like to do:
This was August 2017 during the total solar eclipse. We drove up to Vale OR to watch the eclipse

Got this shot using the above telescope/solar filter and my phone. Pretty cool to see the sun spots eclipsed by the moon.

Speaking of the moon:

 

jbrandt, dude that is just a stain on your toilet seat. I know because I put it there lol
Great pics from the Mammoth trip, that was so very epic! How was the ride last weekend? Sorry I could not make it.

 

It was hot, but only when you stopped in the sun. We mostly stuck to trails 1 2 and 7

 

this is good stuff

popcorn looks good, i feel like a fresh tub myself
the OP certainly has a way with the English language ... very entertaining thus far

 

Considering I write scientific papers for a living, you'd think all of my creative writing would have been washed from me a long time ago. Good to hear I still have some chops, lol

 

I am currently reading your balljoint soapbox (#11)
Recently I learned of the recall of the early 2000 models that for some reason my truck did not have an issue with (I still have all original suspension of 22+ years and approximately 125k miles) You or somebody else on TW have told me that I am on 'borrowed time' so it IS on my bucket list of maintenance items. There is not much for wheeling in my part of the country other than muddy fields, minimum maintenance rural roads, and the ever-so-fun wintery slop (the best time to use 4wd around here is the occasional foot of snow during blizzards!)
I don't even know if there is a factory recommendation on changing them or if it is just to inspect them?


Did you have your factory LBJs replaced before or after you bought your truck under the safety recall?