Intake - What did you go with and why?

Agree. I don't understand the logic there either... some people go on a Tacoma forum where all sorts of Tacoma mods are discussed, and then question why someone wants to mod their truck??

 

Poor man's TRD intake. because it keeps the resonator.

 

I bought a used Airaid from a friend for $100. It wasn’t the one I wanted but screw it for $100 I couldn’t say no. It sounds a lot better than the stock air box and that’s about it. Initially my gas mileage increased quite a bit but then after a week or two the computer adjusted and I went back to the normal.

 

I think you might have misunderstood my post. I was not questioning why anyone would modify their truck in general. I was asking specifically why someone would install a aftermarket intake purely for its looks (aka aesthetics) since very few people will ever see it. I’m sorry if it came off as mean spirited.

 

You can change out the filter for an aftermarket filter with more air flow and install the accelerator. That’s about the best you can get but there will still be negligible gains and you start to risk contaminants getting into your engine.

 

It's more of a self-gratifying visual upgrade...in my opinion.

I bought the hood struts because that darn hood is friggen' heavy...plus, it gave my wife something to gripe about...but really, I wanted the ease of opening the hood--$129! lol

I also bought the TRD Oil Cap...why? Because it visually looked better than the one it came with.

Opening the hood is a Grand Event for me...hahaha! I like seeing how everything is in it's place and connected so it performs as it should.

This truck is mine...for as long as I can keep her during my life. I want to be happy with it...she brings me joy.

Then I have to leave her to go to work and deal with the day's nonsense...until I clock out and get to drive her again.

The simple joys in life...

 

One person mentioned removing the carbon filter portion of the air box lid? What would that even do?

 

So true!!

 

When I pop my hood I see multiple colors of dirt, mud, and winter road grime that I would be embarrassed to show anyone.

 

Lol that’s okay too!

 

LOLOLOL!!!!

Sounds like you need to get some elbow grease going to clean it up!

 

I’ll get right to it after I clean the same stuff off the outside of the truck.

 

Speaking of aesthetics and getting way off topic, one thing I don’t understand is why there is so little talk about vinyl wraps. If I was serious about making my truck stand out and be unique, that’s what I would do. It’s like fashionable clothing for the truck and it might even be partially functional in protecting the paint.

 

For sure! I agree. Goat armor is also pretty cool!

 

I think the popular 2” lift, fancy wheels, and 32-33” all-terrain tires pales in comparison to a vinyl wrap if your goal is to personalize the look of your truck. Maybe it doesn’t seem as macho as pretending to go rock crawling… or maybe it is similar to ironic hipster fashion… idk

 

I agree especially with the overlander fad right now. A cool custom wrap really could set a truck apart

 

If it’s only about looks, you have a point. Many of the instagram mods make the truck objectively worse in every way except for a narrow band of offroad use cases. It’s very easy to ruin these trucks in pursuit of making them look cool on the gram.

Case in point, roof racks loaded to the gills with rarely-used junk. These trucks are already dogs, and the wind resistance is substantial. Off road they’re more likely to roll over as well. A fully laden roof rack makes more sense for non-offroad, “dirt road in a National park” oriented trucks with no lift, mild AT tires, and no/few other offroad mods.

Another one is gratuitously spamming LED lights everywhere. My goodness. Some rigs’ lights alone are worth a decent pair of NVGs…

 

Lol so true

 

$10 10 minute hvac intake lol

 

nice! Red neck engineering at its finest!