JFanaselle's 3rd gen build and adventure page

So I have the perch spacer on already from westcott and have the same spring compressors . Mine bend so bad and rub the shock body so bad . How hard was it to reinstall the spring with them ?

 

It was quite a pain, honestly. I had to remove the compressors and reposition them several times before I finally got the springs to sit right. The compressors rub pretty badly against the 2.5" shock body. My front shocks ended up getting a little scratched up, but nothing that will impact their functionality. Just a whole lot of swearing and cursing until I got them put back together correctly.

I think they're designed to use the wall-mounted style of compressor, but I didn't have access to one of those.

 

What tray did you use for the main battery @JFanaselle

 

Both the main and aux batteries are installed in the Off Grid Engineering group 35 trays

 

Thanks

 

Crazy we live so close to eachother but I still haven’t spotted you. Haha.

 

Haha, I was thinking the same thing. I'm ALL over this town almost every day, too. I can usually be found grabbing a breakfast burrito from one of my many favorite burrito spots, or taking photos of a crash or a fire (as I volunteer for the fire department as a photographer). What part of town are you in? I'm near Los Alamos and Whitewood.

 

I live off Winchester, by the airport. Let’s try to setup a evening for locals to meet and have some beers. Just a evening during the week….

 

I performed a long-overdue update to the first post, including some links to a few of my older and more recent mods. Photos are still outdated... I need to take some new ones and get them posted.

 

Took a little drive out to Las Vegas last Friday to pick up a new CVT Roof Top Tent and awning. Awesome group of folks there. Can't say enough about their products and their customer service!

The tent is a Mt. Rainier Hybrid model with extended fly, gray in color. The Awning is a 79" Hybrid model, also gray in color.

 

I've been hard at work with mods, but haven't updated this build thread in a while. There are even some older changes that I failed to update here, so here goes:

Installed a complete new suspension setup back in June. I went with Elka 2.5 extended travel coilovers with external reservoirs and dual compression adjusters, Elka 2.5 extended length rear shocks w/ external reservoirs and dual compression adjusters, Icon RXT leaf pack (set to "option 2"), and Element Hard Parts billet/heim UCAs. Also installed 2.5 degree rear axle shims, and the ARB carrier bearing drop bracket. I also removed the front sway bar, as I'm running 700 pound coils. I'm SO happy with how this setup performs. It is a perfect balance of off-road and on-road performance for my driving and wheeling styles.









Got a KDMax tune from TRDQuoc back in July. I'm still running stock gearing and completely stock engine/intake/exhaust, but I am VERY happy with how the truck shifts now and drives on the highway. I will still re-gear to 5.29s eventually, but for now, this is really helping compensate for the larger/heavier tires. (sorry, no photo of the tune )


Ordered RCI steel skid plates (engine/transmission/transfer case) during their labor day sale. They arrived about a week later, and I installed them in about 90 minutes. These are great skids... super solid, but still low profile/minimalist design, which makes them lighter weight than some of the other options out there.





Back in September, I performed the "anytime 400w mod" for my factory inverter, and installed an in-cab AC outlet on the rear of the center console. I also added a 12v plug that is wired to my aux battery (always powered, not tied to ignition), because I removed the 12v plug in the dash when I installed my Meso lower switch panel (and honestly, I prefer for this to be powered all the time by my second battery vs. being powered by the primary battery, and only when the ignition is on). I already had the dual-USB charging port here wired to my second battery, but I migrated it to the same trim plate/bezel as the 12v and 120v plugs. Looks a little funky, but it's serviceable. Link to a few more photos of the install: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...3rd-gen-today.399305/page-10646#post-26234510





Also in September, I converted my headlights and fog lights to the OEM LED ones. I used the conversion harness from @daveeasa, which was perfect for my needs (because it also features a tap for the grille lights). I ordered the headlights from Sparks Parts, and paid about $1460 shipped to my door (in California). The headlights were on backorder when I purchased them, but only took about 3 weeks to arrive. Sparks was awesome enough to open up the boxes and inspect them, then re-pack them with extra packing material (paper and bubble wrap) to prevent any of the tabs from being broken in transit. With a lot of the horror stories I've seen about broken tabs with just the Toyota factory packaging, I was very pleased to see this. I also installed the Meso headlight trim plates, and converted my grill lights from the smoked amber to the smoked white (photos were taken before I installed the new grill lights), to better match the LED DRLs. I went with the "standard" headlights (vs. the "pro" models), but it was a very hard choice to be honest. I also went with the smoked black version of the LED fog lights.








Shortly after installing the headlights, I scored a great deal on an N2 Designs remote start kit via the Buy/Sell/Trade thread here on this forum. Took about an hour to install, including watching a video on YouTube detailing the steps (especially the "programming" part, which seemed difficult but was actually super simple). No photos of the install, but I love this product! I didn't really need it, but it's super cool to have, and will pay off nicely on cold winter or hot summer days.


About a week and a half ago, I swapped out my V4 Meso ultimate turn signals for V5s with white DRLs. Had a little mishap with one of the assemblies having several burned out LEDs, but Meso made things right and shipped me a replacement very quickly. I already have V2 puddle pods installed, and the harness for those has a little pigtail for the DRL portion of the new lights. However, that pigtail powers the DRLs in "bright" mode whenever the ignition is turned on, and switches them to "dim" when the interior switches are illuminated (whenever the headlights are in the "park," "low," or "high" settings). I wanted them to match the DRL functionality of the headlight switch - meaning I wanted them to be "off" when the headlights are all the way off, "bright" when the headlights are switched to DRL, and "dim" when any other setting is selected. So, I "converted" the ignition signal within the puddle pod harness to a DRL signal from the headlight. I used another harness from @daveeasa to tap the DRL signal from the headlights, and pulled the wires through the firewall and up behind the dash near the driver side a-pillar. Found which wire in the puddle harness was the "ignition" circuit, cut that wire, and connected the "bright" signal from the DRL harness to it. You don't need to change anything for the "dim" functionality, as it already mirrors the factory setup. It was a super easy process - much easier than pulling new wires through the door boots again. Here's a link to how I did this, if anyone else wants to use the same method: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/meso-v5-turn-signals-are-out.737823/page-11#post-26348156





Around the same time, I swapped out my radio knobs to the Rav4 ones. This is one of those little mods that seems stupid, but makes a huge difference in everyday comfort and usability. My wife loved the mod so much, she made me order another set for her 2021 Highlander, which had the same original knobs as the Tacoma.





And finally, yesterday, I installed Clazzio seat covers and heated seat pads. I went with the black/black/black in perforated leather, as they had this combination in stock. I would have preferred to go with something that matched the factory seat colors (black outers with dark gray leather inserts and dark gray stitching), but I didn't want to wait 12 weeks to have them built, or pay the extra $150 for expedited manufacturing (which, as a bonus, does mean they are manufactured here in the USA) on top of the extra $100 for the custom order. Using the "tacomaworld" coupon code, the covers are $499 shipped to your door, and the heated seat kit was an extra $120. These were a pretty big chore to install (I actually did them over the course of several days, as I had free time between work and projects), but they came out SO nice! I'm very pleased with the fit and quality. I wired the heated seats to the factory 12v dash plug ("cigarette lighter" plug), which was just sitting loose behind the dash ever since I removed it and installed my Meso lower switch panel. This is a perfect use for that circuit, which is already fused perfectly (15 amps) and turns on/off with the ignition of the truck (which is how I want the heaters to function, too). I went with their small universal rocker switches, and installed them in the center console to the left and right of the QI charging pad using a couple of 3/4" holes. Overall, I'm very happy with this mod!

 

Beautiful build man! This is truck goals lol

 

Thank you so much!

 

Spent a little time up in the San Bernardino Mountains this past Sunday. Didn't get to do as much wheeling as I'd hoped, but still got a few cool shots at Strawberry Peak and along Cloudland Truck Trail.

 

I spent Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend wheeling up in the San Jacinto Mountains with my cousin in his Jeep. We took Forest Route 5S07 (Bee Canyon) up the hill from Highway 74 to 5S09 (San Jacinto Ridge), and then took 4S21 (Indian Mountain) up to Highway 243. 4S21 is rated as a black diamond trail, but the Taco handled it just fine. I was kind of impressed with the amount of articulation I was getting out of the rear end, although I did realize I need more clearance inside my front fenders (there was a whole lot of scraping whenever I was fully stuffed). I'm thinking of either doing a viper cut, or purchasing a high clearance front bumper (I'm really liking that SSO full plate bumper and the clearance it provides). Either option would then let me have the caster increased to 3.5 degrees or so, which should give me the extra clearance I need.

We aired the tires back up at the top of the hill, and took Highway 243 over to the town of Idyllwild to grab some lunch. Spent the afternoon in town walking around the shops and checking out their holiday festival, and stuck around just long enough to watch the tree lighting ceremony at sundown. It was an excellent day, complete with great wheeling, perfect weather (temps in the low 70s all day, with a nice cool evening), and the appropriate amount of shopping/dining to keep the wives happy.

 

Did a little wheeling yesterday around the area of the Calico Mines, north of Barstow, California. I went out with my cousin and his Jeep club. About 12 or 13 Wranglers and Gladiators on 37's, and me in my Tacoma. By the afternoon, everyone was blown away by how capable the Taco is (I did every obstacle that they did, and hung with them every step of the way). Thankfully I had developed some rapport with the group throughout the day, because I decided it was a great idea to snap my right ankle like a twig when we were exploring down inside of a mine after we stopped for lunch. A few of the guys helped me hike back out to my truck, and we splinted it up using a Sam Splint that I keep in my med bag. I drove myself and my 9 year old son off of the trail, and my cousin drove my truck the rest of the way back home (about 3 hours) while I sat in the back seat with my leg propped up. Definitely not the kind of adventure I was hoping to have, but I'm glad we got back safely and didn't need to be "rescued" off of the mountain.

 

Ouch!!!!!

 

I'm happy to report that the broken leg is on the mend. So much so, that I was able to participate in the 2022 Rogue Overland Expedition this past weekend. The trip consisted of approximately 40 rigs that traveled several hundred miles over 4 days and 3 nights. We started on Thursday at the General Patton Memorial Museum at Chiriaco Summit, which is east of Palm Springs. We traveled southeast for the first 2 days, covering several off-road trails and hitting many interesting landmarks along the way, in both California and Arizona. This included the Red Canyon Jeep Trail, the Bradshaw Trail, the Salton Sea, Slab City/East Jesus/Salvation Mountain, the Imperial Sand Dunes (Glamis), and the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range. On the 3rd day, we traveled north through the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, and ended the day at Robson's Mining World outside of Wickenburg, Arizona. We camped our final night here, and we were treated to an amazing tour of the property and relics on Sunday before departing for our homes. The trip included people from at least 5 or 6 different states, driving almost every kind of rig you could imagine... Jeeps, Tacomas, 4Runners, Subarus, full size trucks, FJ Cruisers, Xterras, Frontiers, Rangers, Broncos.... the list goes on! I took tons of photos, but some of my favorite are the ones I captured in Glamis during the last 30 minutes of sunlight as we smashed around on the dunes. I also won a $1,000 Method Race Wheels gift certificate during the event's raffle on the second night, so I'm happy to announce that a nice set of wheels is in my future! If you don't follow Rogue Overland on social media, I highly suggest that you give them a "like" or a "follow." They put together awesome videos and trip reports, along with product reviews and off-road/overland lifestyle information. They also sell some cool merchandise, if you're into that sort of thing. Anyway, enjoy the photos!

 

What a small world, found out you know Danny. Our daughters play on the same softball team.

 

Haha, yeah. I always say that Murrieta is the smallest big town I've ever known. He texted me and sent a picture of your rig, asking if I knew who you are. Definitely a small world!

Just adds another reason for us all to get together for a beer sometime soon.