What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

can't do that with a 6' bed anyways haha


In my experiance, the 5 foot bed is much better. It is so much better to pack. I would choose it every time.

 

haha really does. I’ve been working out of the donor with the 6ft bed and I do home remodels and construction and damn it really is so nice having a bigger bed not always having to tie down everything and fitting everything. The extra foot does make the difference in what I use the bed for. And putting mountain bikes for trips is a bitch in the short bed. Barely fit to close the bed, have to take the wheels.

Thanks man, will probably have trouble with electrical lol, not my strong suit but I still need to do a little more research as to what I actually need to change. Was almost thinking the whole harness but that’s a bitch. Might just try to swap the ECU first and repinning. My main concern is that the donor has the push button Tcase and my double cab is Jshift. I really don’t want to wire up the push button, I have heard that they are swappable between transmissions and I don’t see why they wouldn’t be but also heard that they aren’t.

Haha yes!!! I’ve seen that before it’s like a mix between both that in a way turns it into a sequoia/4runner/tacoma without anything from a sequoia. Do it!!

 

Exactly. I was poking fun at Tacoma people calling short beds not trucks.

How so?

I've only ever had 5 and 8 foot beds, the 8 is was easy, just toss all the shit in.

I'm no good with electrical either, but this kinda forced me to figure it out, I just recently re wired a few things from the swap, cruise control and the clutch start is now a toggle switch, basically a kill switch.

I swapped in just the ecu, no need to repin if you get the same year ecu. It's a bitch, but better than the whole harness. But the harness would be cleaner.

I swapped my push button onto the manual, I've got 2wd low just by pulling one connection. The j shift should just swap right over, I don't think you have to do anything to the 4wd.

 

There is less space(duh) which means less space to fill. I can perfectly pack my 5' bed with perfect tetris setup every time no matter what gear I decide to bring. With the 6' bed, always hug gaps. Which sure, not a huge deal but when you drive hard and fast like me it sends stuff flying or sliding and banging around. And then you have to strap stuff down all the time and getting to it becomes a pain.


I know that sound minor and trivial, but man does it make a difference. I was surprised.

 

Makes sense.

When mines loaded up I also put the topper on and fill it to the top. 2 people and 3 dogs take up all the interior space so everything gets shoved in the back. Someday I'm gonna design a slide that maximises space and allows easy access. The slides available waste too much space.

 

honestly the 2wd Lo mod is the only reason why I want the push button and the donor already has it done, but I can’t really think of a time of really using it. I know like tight switchbacks or something but don’t know if it’s worth the hassle to swap the push button just for that. have you used yours to get out of any situation? It’s the biggest debate I’ve been thinking about with this swap lol just trying to get some different opinions.

 

You could just put in a twin stick into the J shift and it'll do the same thing. Just be mechanical. You're gonna have it pulled anyways.

 

Congrats on the baby, we had ours 4 months ago. We've taken her on a few outings in my truck, no camping trips yet though. Luckily her car seat actually fits in the xtra cab behind the passenger seat but the seat has to be all the way forward, fortunately my wife is small but it's still not very comfortable for anyone lol. The 4runner will be much nicer

 

I’ve thought about it, but don’t really want to spend the money for a Marlin unit at the moment. I live in Florida right now and don’t really wheel much just because I’m not into mudding for the sake of mudding, did that as a kid with 4wheelers but would rather be on a mountain trail rather than playing in mud constantly, not saying it’s not fun but gets boring now that I’m an adult haha

not sure if I’m correct here but wouldn’t that require a Marlin unit or something equal? I’ve always thought it requires the second “box” added to the transfer. Which that could just stem from only seeing twin sticks talked about when doing marlin reduction boxes. I could be completely off on all of that, havent really looked into it much to know.

 

Yeah this is if I get a closer job too haha I liked the 3rd gen 4runner idea because I know the front end and motor really well. I don't want anything I plan on doing anything super hard with but still want something capable. Fj Cruiser might be a fun option too.

Thanks man! That's what I told my wife but she doesn't believe me. Also not sure I can fit both the car seat and fridge.

 

yeah the fridge might make it impossible, also depends on the car seat since some are bigger than others. Once our daughter outgrows the infant car seat she won't be able to ride in my truck until she's old enough to use just a booster seat. At which time (or before) I may *gasp* sell the truck for a double cab or 4runner. As much as I love my truck, it ain't a 3 person rig. Not if you like the 3rd person anyway. If I win the lotto or move to a less expensive area in the next few years maybe I'll keep it and get a 4runner, who knows.

 

I use mine off-road when I don't want 4wd but want the extra torque. Especially downhill, love it for that.

I had planned to do that, but it's easier and cheaper to just pull the blue plug. Also are there any real advantages to the j shift? The whole electrical thing just seemed a bit of a stretch since the whole truck is electrical.

No that's a crawl box, twin sticks basically replace the shifter. They're about $200 though.

 

Twin sticks would be great for traffic and being able to shift from 2 low to 2 hi on the fly

 

No thats "triple sticks". You add a whole second transfer case for that.

Twin sticks just separates the High gearing and Low gearing from the 2wd and 4wd. So you have one lever for 2wd/4wd and one for High/Low. So think of it like the pushbutton mod but you just have two levers instead of one.

Marlin isn't the only company that makes a twin stick.

https://frontrangeoffroadfab.com/twin-stick/

 

I've heard of others doing this on the fly while in traffic but wouldn't it grind like a mofo when the trucks moving?

 

You can go from low to high while moving. I do it all the time. Not the other way around.

5th low to 2nd high is the prefect jump.

 

Any of you guys with an apex front bumper that has the larger center hoop wanna take a couple of measurements for me. I’m planning on getting one made, since I don’t have a way to bend the tube then welding it on myself

 

ahh that’s not that bad, I might look into this now that You guys have cleared that up for me. $200 isn’t bad, isn’t needed at the moment But I will have everything torn out anyways so might end up with twin sticks.

Honestly the only thing I prefer the J shifter for over the push button is just having to do the wiring and stuff during the swap. I’m not afraid of electrical but would rather just leave it alone if I don’t have to mess with it, just tedious in a different way than hard parts. Not saying mechanics are easier but more enjoyable I guess haha. with that being said, it would also be nice to only have the single stick and have the same function without cutting an extra hole in the cup holder or something. Telling myself to just get over it and do the electrical, instead of spending more money, spend more time. Still on the fence, especially now haha

 

I would've feel the same way about going from j to push button. I'm not really sure what that would entail with the electronics. I would probably just stick with the j shift. And from the sounds of it you don't really need 2low. If you decide you do, it's really not that hard to pull the Tanner you case.

 

You can actually go both ways. With a manual transmission and a J-shifter anyway. I don't know about those fancy push button 4wd or automatic transmissions. The reason it's hard to go from high to low on the fly is because you have to be going real slow, and you will usually roll to a stop before you can get it shifted. Your best bet would be going from 2nd gear high to 5th gear low. I shift from low to high on the fly all the time. Going from 3rd, 4th or 5th gear in low to 2nd gear in high goes in easy.