ramonortiz55's scandalous build - if it doesn't feel right, you're doing it right

Next Mod is to install the Expedition Essentials 2TPAM to hold my Garmin unit and cell phone when I am on the road:





I put together the 2TPAM and set it over the radio. Positioning it evenly and carefully - Then I held it in place with some tape:



See the holes on the sides?

These holes will be marked using a black marker:







Then over the radio there are four more holes. These holes are hard to reach, so I bent a small nail and used the nail to scribe the locations of the holes:





Once I had all my holes marked up and ready to go, I removed the coin holder:



AC Controls:





There are four bolts that hold the radio down:



Remove bolts and pull radio out:





Carefully remove all plugs:





See these buttons that are over the instrument panel on the dash? - Poke the middle of them to remove:



This will allow the fascia of the instrument panel to be pulled away:



Have a friend remove the Gray Radio Trim Bezel:



Unplug the 4x4 switch



Time for surgery:



Drill some pilot holes and go to town:







Tweezers aid in setting washers and nuts:



Other side:



Next drill the holes for the radio, always use pilot holes to prevent the drill bit from wandering. Any mistakes here will be visual:





Time to set the piece that goes over the radio:









Next, per instructions from Expedition Essentials, I trimmed this lip off on the driver's side of the Gray Radio Bezel:



Dremel time!



Now go run in the truck and trim this lip off the instrument panel fascia:



Like this:



Next notch the radio to allow wiring to travel to the USB charger on the 2TPAM:



Wiring for the USB Charger on the 2TPAM was spliced onto the power points below the radio, I reached back there and removed the plug:



Splice Colors for reference:



At this point I ran the gray wire for the USB Charger on the 2TPAM BETWEEN the gray bezel and the dash, see at the top of the picture. The gray wire has the 2 red connectors at the end:



Put it all togther now:



So clean!



Start up the truck to ensure proper operation:



Install wire cover:



Final install picture:



Accessories to come soon!

 

Time to install my Dual ARB Compressor that's been sitting in the garage for about 5 years. I decided to install it in the bud cubbie using an Expedition Essentials bed cubbie mount:





I also ordered the ARB Extension harness from Expedition Essentials - This baby is WELL made!



A few things I wanted to point out in the picture below, to keep the reader organized with what wiring is for what. Seeing all the ARB wiring can be intimidating, hopefully this write up clarifies things up a bit.

If you are NOT using the ARB supplied rocker switches, the small wiring harness shown on the bottom left in the plastic baggie will NOT be used.

The top left harness is the one provided by Expedition Essentials. It allows wiring to reach from the front of the truck to the bed cubbie with PLENTY of slack. Keep this in mind when running the wiring!

The wiring in the middle with the yellow o rings and two fuses is the ARB provided compressor wiring.

The wiring on the bottom right is the wiring for the lockers and compressor. If you are not going to use a locker, we still need this wiring. I will get to that later.



Remove this guy:





Clean up so the template stays on with tape:



Attach template:



Kinda center it horizontally and vertically between the existing cubbie box holes:





Drill baby drill:





IF you are installing a dual ARB Compressor, take a peek under the truck and behind the cubbie box. See that center rib? Cut it off. I used a saw zall and dremmel:









Now time to set the compressor to the mount:





These small brackets sandwich the compressor mount onto the bed:



Using a friend, I set the compressor and mount in. You WILL NEED A FRIEND. It is heavy and hard to reach back there:



Now, time to modify the cubby box, I measured 3/4" from the inner edge and cut away!





Plug the expedition essentials wiring and run it thru the back of the cubby:



Finalized faceplate:



These nubs had to go:



Using the long spacers provided in the Expedition Essentials kit, I installed the faceplate:





Now time to run the extension wiring:





Over the frame using zip ties to secure it:







I pushed it back into the INSIDE of the frame here, close to the front driver's side:



Now let's play with all the other wiring, if we are not using the ARB switches, chunk this one away:



I attached the ARB harness here:



Smaller plug uses this smaller harness:





This end goes to the switchpros:



These plugs go to the locker solenoids, since I am not using a locker I could either cut them off and tape the wires separately OR tape them up and keep them on the harness in the event if I ever change my mind:



Plug this end to the extension harness:



Tape or cut these guys off:





For reference if you ever want a replacement harness for the switches:



I then ran my wiring into the engine bay, tucking in all the excess into the frame like this:



I crimped the ends of the ARB harness together with O rings like this:





How to wire these guys to switchpros?



I bought this guy from Switpros directly. Keep in mind this also works for SPOD.



Wiring diagram from Switchpros:




NOTE for people that don't use lockers or want to wire the lockers to switchpros:





Attached the plugs:



Since I have no lockers, I taped these guys back:



Obviously you don't need the switchpros adapter harness, I just didnt want to cut the ARB harness up.

Attached o ring:



Connected to switchpros:



Done deal!

If anyone has any recommendations, tips, or advice, I am all ears!

 

There's literally not a single good write up on installing an SOS Concepts Hidden Winch Bumper.

All the install questions and photos around here seem to geared towards third gens.

Well guess what, that's about to change.

Had this puppy sitting out in the back since February. Time to get it installed!



Goodies! - A BD light bar and a Smitty Winch



Install the light bar FIRST. I had to bend the end tabs that hold the light bar a little bit because they were too much of a tight fit and the light bar didn't fit. It's like an 1/8" to "closed", per se.

Use a croissant wrench. Yes, croissant. Not crescent. Croissant.



Do an eyeball inspection, make sure the lightbar sits even with the light bar opening:



Time to install the winch!



Make sure to install the fairlead BEFORE installing your winch, cable or synthetic line





Winch Installed along with control box and wiring. Winch wiring is straight forward, smitty makes it dummy proof. All wiring is color coded for ease of installation:





Now that the bumper is assembled, time to get into the meat and potatoes of it all!



Remove the grille by removing two phillips screws and two push buttons. These are on TOP of the grille:





Now the grille will pop off. Pull away from the truck firmly but carefully.



These tabs are holding the grille to the truck, so if it wont budge try messing with them using a flat head



Those flat tabs go in here:



Now the grille has been removed:



Once the grille has been removed, you will find these push buttons on each side by the headlights. Remove them.





Next remove the headlight filler CAREFULLY!



It is held by this green pop button:



Take a good look at this picture, you see the fender has a tab that goes INSIDE of the headlight filler. So once the green pop button is released, you want to remove the headlight filler by pulling firmly away from the fender, parallel to the headlight. This will prevent damaging the headlight filler:



Here's a better picture of all of it removed:



Next we remove all bolts securing the bumper cover to the truck:





There's a few along the fender wells:



Save your bolts!



Bumper cover removed! **IF YOU HAVE FOG LIGHTS, DISCONNECT!!**



Now we will remove the aluminum crash bar





Let's remove the tow hook:





Bumper cover removed, again - if you have fog lights, don't forget about disconnecting them!



See these blue buttons? remove them:



I used a flat head screw driver:



Next, I popped out these tabs to release the bumper filler:





Bumper filler removed:





See this ridge? Use a dremel tool to cut it, leave about 3/8 inch.



See how the ridge here has a lip curves towards the camera? Looks silver. Trim that down, but do not cut much of the ridge here. Just trim down that curved lip.



Trimmed!





Here is a close up of what the ridge looks trimmed. Try to leave as much as you can. I almost cut too much up toward the top of the the picture here. You need that ridge to attach the rubber edging.



Install rubber edging:







Reinstall bumper:



After discussing the winch box placement with @Th3_Admiral , he recommended to move the box over to the side instead of over the spool. For clearance purposes. Smitty provides support brackets to install it over to the side. Picture of one of the black brackets is shown here:



After relocation of control box:



With the help of someone else, I installed the bumper using the hardware provided by SSO:





Next I ran my wiring for the lights and the winch along the front of the radiator frame:





Used zip ties to secure it and tuck it away:



Ran the winch wiring thru the hole next to the headlight and connected DIRECTLY to the battery:



Almost there!




Now it is time to install the synthetic line and spool it into the winch!



Once the synthetic line is bolted onto the spool, DO NOT reel it in. It must be reeled in tension.

I parked my Camry down the block, popped the Tacoma in Neutral and started winching the Tacoma towards the Camry.





Keep an eye for an even and clean spool. Prevent the line from pinching into itself. USE GLOVES!



You are now done!

 

I failed to take a picture of the SSO hardware. The hardware was some replacement bolts and nuts for securing the bumper to the frame of the Tacoma. I highly suggest reviewing the SSO instructions to determine which bolt/nut goes where.

I could not take pictures of this because the bumper with winch is heavy and it was hard to take pictures of the locations for these bolts.

Believe me, it is straightforward!

 

Installed the Hilux 4x4 switch - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/machined-ring-for-hilux-lighted-4x4-switch.451738/

and

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-gen-2-illuminated-4wd-switch.3681/

and

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ighted-4x4-switch.451738/page-2#post-13259204
















Switch was epoxied in to keep in place - other option is this:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/machined-ring-for-hilux-lighted-4x4-switch.451738/page-11

 

Had the lift and snorkel install.

Had these done at Duggy's shop here in Houston:

 

You still around?

 

depends on who's asking.

 

1,750 lbs of tile on my springs, shocks, and bump stops.

Was riding on the bump stops.

Total sag was about 4 inches.

 

Have a singer alternator pending install, love the gold powdercoating

 

someone who says he's owed money from you

 

I've had to replace the swingout bumper plunger mechanism once - took me awhile to find. For the record here is the part number from Mc Master Carr:


90222A116 Steel Weld-Mount Retractable Spring Plunger, T-Handle 1.5" Long Body, 0.5" Diameter x 0.625" Long Nose

 

Performed the voltage regulator mod per this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

Instructions for installation:

 

completed this mod last spring 2024 -

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...you-own-a-tacoma-you-should-read-this.449563/

 

https://www.quadratec.com/sites/def...-Compressor-Kit-Installation-Instructions.pdf

https://www.arb.com.au/assets/air-lockers/3-07.pdf