The Lair

So when are you doing mine?

 

I can confidently say that this mod is the biggest pain in the ass thing I've done to the truck. I'm never helping anyyyyyone with this damn thing.

 

And pass up the chance to perfect the process?

 

Absolutely

 

@EatSleepTacos my 08 just developed a whistling howling noise around 55. Any idea what may cause this?

 

Any idea where it’s coming from? Front, rear, either side, etc. does it happen when accelerating, coasting, doesn’t matter, etc.

 

Mainly drivers front. Faster I go louder it gets, it don't matter if I'm turning accelerating, braking. On coming traffic as well as head winds make it louder as well.

 

Sounds like it could the cross wind noise that’s plagued some of our trucks. there’s a TSB for it you could have the dealer perform.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cross-wind-front-window-noise-tsb-update.530653/

 

Need a lift in my garage for sure.

 

I enter this thread:

"Oh man, i love seeing Access Cab East Coast builds, something I can relate to! Good motivation for my own 2005 V6. Wait....I already follow this guy on Instagram?"

Notices this is 4100 pages long:

"WAT."


How do you like your roof rack? I'm super hesitant to drill, but could really use the space on longer trips. We just got back from 7 weeks on the road working remote from the truck, and the bed and interior got MESSY fast.

 

The length of this thread is ridiculous so I would hardly call it a build thread at this point. I love the roof rack and will probably never get rid of it. Right now it's housing my light bar and solar panel but it's also handy for transporting the occasional long piece of steel or kayak or whatever. Being a 2005, you also don't have any curtian airbags to worry about drilling through, which is nice. If you do get one, you'll want a proper rivnut installer tool for it.

 

Thats good to know, I was talking to the Sherpa guys (Alex, the owner) at Overland Expo East a couple weeks ago, and was actually considering road tripping to Colorado to have them install it for me, and turning it into a week long camping trip. Any excuse to get out west again.

Are you running your solar panel to a charge controller mounted to the truck battery, or something like a Goal Zero? We run GZ batteries right now, but i'm looking to simplify the setup.

Side note, did you go to Expo? It was vaguely in your next of the woods in VA this year, but I feel like i'd have recognized the truck. Eric from Archive and I accidentally parked 2 spots apart from each other at the campsite.

 

I wasn't at expo this year. My truck only became fully drivable yesterday, as I've been working on a 2 month project installing a Tundra steering rack.

I have this renogy kit going to the included solar controller and it keeps my starter/only battery topped off. I have an X2power 27f from batteries+

$120 Renogy 100W 12V Solar Panel Starter Kit, 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel, 30A LCD PWM Charger Controller, Adaptor Kit, Tray Cables, Z Brackets for RV, Camper, and Other Off Grid Applications

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFCNFRM?ie=UTF8


You can kinda see the controller here, lower right corner.

 

Does it run solely off the panel + a dedicated battery or is it tied into your main battery? I've been considering getting a fridge since soggy food sucks.

 

Carvana round two, this time for the wife.

 

I only have one battery in the truck, the starting battery. I run everything off of that and the solar is hooked right to that to act as a trickle charger.

 

This is probably what i'm going to do, and keep the Goal Zero's in the Squaredrop.

Right now I run a hybrid setup:

• Goal Zero 1500x plugged into bed outlet using the 60W charger
• Fridge plugged into GZ
• While truck is running, it's basically all off the AC bed socket (which is finnicky at best on a 2005, sometimes it dies for no reason, or the wattage goes from 0-60-0 all the time. Part of me wants to chase that gremlin down)
• When truck is parked, runs directly off the GZ.

Doing a panel + a nicer truck battery would free up both 1500s (We have 2) to run our laptops and wifi hotspots etc etc.

 

Love the quote... that's what we've always called it...car camping!

 

Hah Thanks!

I don't mind the whole "Overland" craze, and it's benefitted me in a lot of ways (better access to parts, better vendors, renewed interest in conservation, more openness for my job to let me work fully remote).

But....I can't bring myself to use the term super often, even though i just got back from a 12k mile trip with the truck, of which probably 4500 was off road, dispersed and way way way out there. It's just a pet peeve.

You could pretty easily call me a serious Overlander, but I think a lot of Youtube channels ruined the term for me.

Attached is what I lived out of for August and September. This is before I put a Rhino Rack Pioneer platform on the roof.

 

Scored some oem steps for $20 today. I already love them, so much easier to get in and out.