Fabrication begins on Saturday.

Well, I took the summer off from truck mods and now it's time to get back into it. Previous stuff has all been very minor...TRD intake, URD shifter, mats and racks, etc., but things are about to get complicated.

I'm dropping off my 2006 Access Cab at Carroll's Rod and Racecraft (http://www.neverliftracecraft.com) for a full interior cage, custom mounting of a pair of Mastercraft ProSeats on sliders, 5-point harnesses, window nets, and a custom fuel cell in the bed. So far I've gutted most of the interior, but there's 1 thing that's bugging me.

It's my intention to keep the truck street-legal through all the modifications that I have lined up, but the airbag system is a little more complex than I was expecting. Has anybody been able to pull the factory seats and keep the airbags functional on the 2005+ Tacomas? Between the seat slider and weight sensors, I can see this being an issue when it comes time to have the thing inspected.

I'd prefer to keep the airbags disabled when offroad, but tricking the system into thinking everything is unmodified and happy when on-road seems to be a challenge.

Anybody have any suggestions?

 

Heck of a good point on the 1-way switches used for the sensors. If I leave them in place I'll have to make sure I check them before re-arming the system, especially if I hit anything or land particularly hard when knocking around.

So this brings up the obvious next question -- has anybody tried removing the sensors? Strictly for academic purposes, of course.

 

The joys of living in NJ. The state tends to get a little miffed if we mess around with safety and emissions stuff, regardless of whether or not the changes improve safety and/or emissions.

On the newer vehicles they hook into the computer. If the vehicle throws an error code, it fails. The airbag light being on would definitely be a big red flag. Since the truck is still considered new I don't have to have it inspected until 2010, and then it's every 2 years after that. This all assumes that the truck will last 2 more years. It's my intention to that keep it around for awhile.

On a side note, I had a Ford on which I installed a full exhaust, minus 1 of the catalytic converters, and it passed inspection with flying colors. Getting the engine breathing better did wonders for the computer analysis, but I still could have been failed for removing a cat if they had been more thorough with the visual inspection.

 

Exactly! As kilo clearly knows, they have these at all entrances to the state.

 

martie is pushing now