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

Where can I get a set of these from?

 

Regarding storage and charging, battery bank is 200ah mounted under the platform. Charging is handled by a 25 amp DC-DC charger/battery management system. It charges from solar as first choice (200w solar array on roof) and will charge from vehicle power otherwise. It's wired to a smart relay that will allow the solar system to charge the front start battery if the rear bank is full. I also wired this configuration to allow for a momentary switch at the drivers position to allow starting the vehicle off the rear bank or jump starting the front start battery.

I currently have zero plans to draw 1200w for any length of time. Only thing that will run constantly is the ARB fridge (already DC) Will charge Ryobi and Milwaukee tool batteries (One + tool system & Milwaukee chain saw). Ryobi has all kind of interesting battery powered goodies including things like fluid transfer pumps and stuff. I've found some heated blankets from cold winter camping that don't draw too badly. Oh and one never knows if the GF will want to use a curling iron or hair dryer someday or you know... a travel blender

Just in case of too much discharge, I have a hard wired adjustable low voltage disconnect. It will automatically disconnect the load if available voltage drops too low and automatically connects it again once charge state is above disconnect voltage.

Very keen to give this system a go but gotta finish building it first lol. What did you do for your setup (regarding solar)? Always curious to see what other folks are doing. We are planning/building to be touring off-road 4-5 days without the need for other people more or less but I really like the idea of being able to stay out for however long at least with solar. Gonna run out of food, gas and other supplies at some point haha.

 

Kind of like not wanting to get on the scales the Friday after Thanksgiving, I hadn't added it up , but here goes:

I used 1/8" plate for the bed. I used 80% of a 4'x8' sheet = 128lbs. The frame(rails plus plates), I used about 25% of a sheet of 1/4" = 81lbs. The undercarriage mounts for the bedsides I used about 30' of 1"x1" tubing = 30lbs. Those side rails are 1"x2" = 15lbs. Tire carrier crossbar is 5' of 2"x2" = 10lbs. Cross braces under the bed are 20' of 1"x2" = 30lbs. Misc (trailer hitch brackets, storage box, reinforcements under bedsides to support weight of loaded toolbox,... probably 15-20lbs.

Roughly 300-325 lbs of material. But I deleted portions of the side members, the floor, and the front wall of the bed. Just a guess, but I'd say I deleted about 50lbs. Which puts me probably 250lbs over stock.

I could definitely have gone thinner on the frame as it is about double original, but I already had that plate, so I used it. Probably could have saved 30lbs or so there. Minimum add for the project COULD have been maybe 225 lbs.

So, , yeah, I should have known better than to buy the factory spec springs from General. If I end up replacing them, luckily I need one on my other 95, so my mistake only cost me one spring. I had just done a estimate in my head before start and figured I'd come in at net increase of 175 lbs over stock. Doh!

Another reason I was over confident in the original spec springs was just before I started this project, with my old springs, I had a fiberglass shell (150 lbs maybe???) on the truck and and no stinkbug droop. Those springs were originals with 160,000.

I think the weight lost by rust falling off the rear of the frame also helped fool me on what the old springs were actually supporting. That's actually not a joke. I'd say at least 25% of the weight of the rear of the frame was gone. Maybe more.

This is part of what fell off during the tear down (12"x12" box), so you can imagine what had fallen off over the years.

 

Ha, I have a similar picture. I've got a box about half that and I've only cleaned from the axle back.

Yeah its easy to add weight, which is why I like to ask Thanks for humoring me. I found a built on another site where they fabbed a flatbed from scratch for a taco in the ~800 lb range which is just way way too heavy. I've been sketching up one of my own and in theory, I've got about 130 lbs of steel, and then about 75 lbs of aluminum, plus probably another 50 lbs of misc brackets and welding. Since I'm guessing the original box is in the 250-300 range, I think I'm roughly where I want to be, but I guess we'll see.

I think you're close enough that some heavier springs ought to take care of it. General makes an HD leaf pack for our trucks, too.

 

Yeah I have warmed many a meal in those little stoves while trucking the lower 48 for a few years. Not great if you wanna eat in 5 mins but otherwise really awesome. I used to use little disposable tin pan inserts, heat up whatever and eat out of then chuck it and no mess!

 

Added some more miles to it

 

Finished slapping this together this morning:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

New corners, new headlights, LED's inside the headlights, new hella horns, CB antenna on drivers side, AM/FM on passenger side with cali raised led ditch lights. I actually took the time to color match the corners and everything.

Compared to:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

Wow! Those mounts came out really nice. Truck looks fantastic! Really clean organized looked to it

 

Sounds like a nice system, probably way overkill! Haha, that's the fun though, isn't it?

We just did 5 days in a base camp with a single 100 watt panel (so around 65 watts in practice) and had so much power we didn't know what to do with it. Will try to get that set up written up here shortly...

 

Thanks! Overkill is what I do for a living, being a Systems Reliability Engineer . It may be a bit overkill, but time will tell that tale. I'd rather have it and not need it, that's for sure. I am also a big fan of "buy once, cry once" and future proofing (as much as you ever can anyway). Plus I went with dual 100w panels and am connecting via a Y, so I can opt-out of one if I decide it's indeed overkill.

Depending on how I decide to go, I may be running some significant amps for radio communications equipment at some points also. Lots of big plans and grand ideas... as always.

Also hell yes over building is usually quite fun! Though I really wanted the Redarc Manager 30 for all the additional monitoring and shore power hookup, but couldn't justify the cost and space for it.

Looking forward to the write up. Always enjoy your stuff man!

 

Picked up the mirror / dash cam @MoneyB86 posted last week. Still gotta tuck the wires and fully mount the rear camera but I’m stoked on it ! Only thing I’m worried about is it coming loose since it just wraps around the stock mirror and with all the bouncing around I do offroad. Time will tell and I’ll update.



If I like how this one works I might look into something that mounts directly to the windshield. Hopefully she can hold on

 

Yeah, I should have ordered the HD, but I was afraid the ride would suffer. Ride probably would have been fine. Also, the HD's cost less than what local parts stores get for off the shelf (probably made in China) std springs. Very reasonable.

I am going to wait until it's completely finished, overhead rack and all, fill the gas tank, and then start loading on firewood or something and see how quickly I hit the overloads. Then decide if I want to buy the HDs and swap. Very likely this will happen. I hate it when the rear end of a truck sits even a little bit lower than the front. If hauling, I can tolerate. But empty, no.

 

Oil change and trans drain and fill today. This truck has 256,800 miles. I have only had it a few thousand of those miles. Unknown if changed before.

Round two on the drain/fill, and it still looks pretty dirty. May do it again before next oil change.

New vs old samples:

 

Interested to see how this setup works for you! I have a very similar plan and want to be able to run an electric blanket for winter camping.

 

While I wait for the Raptor on my bumpers to cure, I began my Satochi grill. Got the center hogged out and trimmed down fairly close, using jigsaw and a cutoff wheel in a Dremel, using the flex cable attachment. This helped immensely. Next I'll try to sand those down smooth with palm sander.



I do intend to fiberglass the edge of the top, so that the grill will sit back in as far as possible, rather than cutting off out closer to the chrome edge, as Customcargrills suggests. I prefer the recessed look. Hope I can pull it off.

 

Well, I f***ed up today a few minutes ago. Finally had a couple hours to mess with my front diff again and got the ring and pinion set, and the pinion preload dialed in. I went to press in the seal housing for air locker that’s attached to the little copper tube and didn’t use a piece of metal that was as large as the seal housing, so I just had to order a new one of those.

@Blackdawg and @Digiratus, I think the last time I was working on this we were talking about if set up bearings were worth it or not. So, my experience was that I had to take the pinion in and out of the clamshell about a dozen times trying to make the shim combinations I had work the last time I was home. I ended up having to order carrier shims to make the backlash work and had the pinion depth and backlash set within 2 try’s after having the correct shims this time home. Decided to switch to my new bearings from the setup bearings and when I got the new bearing on, my pinion had in fact moved in deeper. I took 0.002 out and got the pattern back the first go around. I still had to play with my pinion preload since I decided to use a solid spacer. I took the pinion back out 8 times. I really just should have used the crush sleeve. Would have been easier. @Blackdawg, how did you go about getting your pinion in and out of the clamshell when you did yours? I ended up having to use liquid nitrogen to shrink the pinion and bake the bearing to get them together Since I couldn’t figure out a decent way to put it in a press. I pounded the pinion out with a brass drift to take it apart. Total pain in the ass. I figured out the hard way too that the preload changed once the pinion warmed back up, so it was a hurry up and wait game to get the preload correct with the solid spacer and the liquid nitrogen method.

 

getting it out was easy, it was getting them back in that sucked.

Did this:

Front diff-8.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

Front diff.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-2.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


Thats how I got the new races in.

I fabbed up a bearing splitter to allow me to take the lower bearing on and off easily.

Front diff-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-14.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Front diff-15.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


I don't quite remember how I pressed the other bearing in. Might have just used the pinion flange for that.

 

Gotcha. Those races were a pain in the ass. I like that method! I was able to tap the rear on in with a brass drift, but had to shrink the front race to get it to go in. The first time I used the flange to pull the bearing onto the pinion, but decided I was probably going to mess up the threads if I kept doing it too many times.

 

Couple of diy upgrades today: replaced temporary OSB platform with top shelf ply, covered the tail gate which will now work as cutting board/beer and stove holder/ camp sign-in sheet. Also hopefully won’t tear up my shins climbing in as much.

Also made behind-the-seat platform to level the floor. Now a cooler can fit without tipping and my dog can sleep on it. Clyde approves. — Cass