drizzohs '21 off-road build

Appreciate it man! It's been an ungodly amount of work so far and I really wish I was less picky, but I can't change so I might as well embrace it lol. The details and subtle changes have always been my jam. Still have a bunch planned but hopefully the audio will be wrapped up soon so I can move on to getting the Hammers installed.

 

Pioneer 6600nex?

 

Yesm. Best replacement option I could find. Makes the amp a little overkill now, but it won't hurt lol.

 

After fighting with my truck for another entire weekend, the audio system is almost wrapped-up. Feels nice to have all of the interior panels back on and no visible wiring exposed from the install. Everything is clean and hidden. It's taken so much effort to make it look like I didn't do anything, I have to be close to 60 hours on this install so far.

Headunit = Mostly in - Installed and works but waiting on an adapter to show up to keep the factory USB port functional that I overlooked. Looks like all of the important factory truck functions were retained with the iDatalink Maestro but I haven't looked into it too much yet. Was mostly just testing to make sure things worked so I could put all the interior panels back in. But during the setup testing I also noticed the ATB camera was only partially working with the picture looking like when you tried to watch channel 18 when you were 12, so need to look into that when I have a minute and unlock some functions of the head unit. Spent the whole weekend reinstalling everything and further clearancing panels to make everything fit like stock.

The one thing that actually went as planned is that the Overland Equipped auxiliary fuse panel actually fit the JL Audio MAXI fuse block perfectly:



Bigass Focal FXE crossovers = tucked away nicely under the rear storage compartment in their forever homes <3:



Stealthbox and VX700/5i = Behind the seats in their forever homes <3:



Still waiting on a few things to show up, have a few issues to fix, and the system needs fine-tuning, but this setup sounds phenomenal already even with a flat eq on the headunit. These Flax speakers sound similar to my Focal DFS's in the tC but just.. better - very full and balanced, more natural and less harsh on the highs. The TAM tweeter design blends very well since they're not as directional as a standard dome tweeter. This combo is going to be amazing once it's dialed in.

EDIT:

Updated post with the tune settings I found the best for my ears + this Focal Flax / JL combo.

 

So one cool thing that happened from changing the headunit that I wasn't expecting is that the Compass and Current Song tabs got added to my gauge cluster info screen. So far, the compass isn't displaying but the tab is there. Might be able to make it pop up after playing around with it some more. It's not something I ever plan on using, but if I can make it work somehow it will be cool to have. There's so many things to tweak and configure with the new setup, I've only scratched the surface.

 

Same here on my 2021. Was told by others that I should have the navigation tab and the music tab with my factory head unit on a 2021. Nope. Switched to the Maestro and Kenwood, they popped up. Nothing shows up on the nav/compass tab, but the Music definitely works. I never use it though, but it's cool that it started working anyways. Can skip songs and such with the right D-pad if I wanted to. I might make a habit to use it more, so I can keep maps on full screen mode.

I just switched my Maestro RR to an RR2 as I had many radio reboot problems. Did some searching and on TW, and many other forums, folks who have their radio run by the Maestro (pretty much any vehicle specific application) have issues with this eventually. Radio just randomly restarts for no reason. Completely random, doesn't happen from bumps or anything else. Not a problem in universal applications because in those, the Maestro doesn't run the radio's power. In the Tacoma it does, hence the problem. The RR2 supposedly doesn't have this issue. Nearly a week later, no reboots yet but sometimes my RR would go weeks or months without rebooting, so only time will tell.

Also, I forgot to reply but thanks for the OBD2 splitter suggestion. I may use that, but I'm leaning towards just splicing the wire in permanently to the circuit with a disconnect plug wired in and then when I need to do something like retune the truck, I just disable the OBD functions for that process.

Something I highly recommend you turn on if you never have before, is the "accessory while cranking" in the Maestro settings. Makes it to where if you flip the key to accessory first, then go to start the truck a bit later, the radio stays on (like factory). That's one of the best benefits of the Maestro actually powering the radio.

A few other tweaks I like on the Maestro:
Setting the following "hold" functions on SWC:
Mode button hold - play/pause toggle
siri button hold - screen off/on toggle
off hook (answer) hold - vehicle info screen (shows open doors, hood, voltage, etc)
on hook (call end) hold - OBD gauges

 

Thanks man. I have a Maestro in my other car as well so I'm not new to the features, just new to how everything plays together in the Taco. I didn't plan on changing the HU in this but it was a necessity, so I'm playing catch-up with the info I need in order to tweak it properly. My tC has had a Maestro RR for 5+ years and does have the random reboot issue periodically when trying to connect to BT if it fails on startup, wonder if the RR2 would fix that (put an RR2 in the Taco).

Right now I have my Mode button set to toggle the gauges on/off since I never deviate from BT, but need to make some other tweaks and yank out the ABC mod since the switch doesn't want to work with the Pioneer. I'll probably change the behavior of some of those buttons to bring up the front/rear cameras since it's cooler to have a physical button for that. Not super upset to yank the ABC switch though since it's the only one that doesn't match.

RE: The OBD2 features, I've never had to make any changes to the HU with the splitter in place. It automatically disables itself if I'm tuning the car or it's getting scanned for emissions. With how cheap the splitter is, it's a much safer bet than hacking into factory wiring. Even with all the upgrades I've done to this truck, the factory wiring is still 100% untouched. Got the new splitter in that I ordered last week and it's much better quality than the one I originally purchased. I definitely would go that route. There's also room to zip tie the splitter portion up out of the way so it's completely hidden.

 

Good deal. I'm about two months past 2.5 years in with Maestros, I had an SW in my first Frontier, not wanting to spend for the RR because I had a ScanGauge. Eventualy I said to hell with that, and when I got the second Frontier I opted for the RR. Never had rebooting issues with it because Frontiers were a universal application and the RR did not run the radio, it simply connected the gauges and adapted the SWC. Now I've swapped to the RR2 just for the reboot reason. Oh well.

Yeah, customizing the SWC is nice however you do it. I also flipped the volume and seek controls because I hated the factory layout of going left and right to change volume. I like to have the screen off toggle because aftermarket units are bright and it gets old at night. I don't have a front camera but I would definitely reprogram a button for that if I did add one, which I may someday.

Good to know on the OBD2. My Maestro in the Frontier was hard spliced to the CANBUS wires in the OBD, as that was how it was supposed to be, and it did disable itself when I plugged in. I've only used the supplied plug in piece for the Taco, so I wasn't sure if it would still disable itself or not. Good to know on that one. I do agree about hacking into factory wiring...I shouldn't have said hacking. What I meant is I'm pretty certain the single OBD wire that the supplied Maestro harness goes to, can also be located at the radio. Once I confirm that, I will probably pick out an unused wire from the Maestro HRN harness and pin it to the proper truck pin that wire corresponds to, that way the OBD2 pickup is local to the radio. Still wouldn't affect the truck's factory wiring at all. I'm with you, I can do custom wiring and never have a problem, but it is nice knowing I have never actually cut or modified a factory wire on this truck even once, and I've made a lot of changes. the main benefit being able to quickly return it back to stock at any time.

Also, I may have missed why you changed your factory head unit to aftermarket, but mine was hot garbage. I always use CarPlay, and the CarPlay implementation on the factory deck was horrendous. When I got the truck I thought "cool, factory CP, I don't need to mess with it!".....on the drive home from the dealer, I realized that was a lie. Thankfully, I had my Kenwood from the Frontiers just chilling, so swapping it in was no problem once I bought the adapters.

 

That works too if you want to set it up that way, pinning would be much nicer than adding a Scotchlok lol. I like the way it works with the second splitter I linked since it daisy chains the Maestro after the main port, so when you connect to the vehicle port, nothing is in the way.

 

Oh definitely no scotchloks! I have super solid butt splices that I use my own heat shrink on. My connections end up stronger than the wire. But definitely more desirable to leave it all alone. I may entertain the splitter, or pin the harness, we'll see.

Don't want to continue to derail your thread, so this should be my last comment but the splitter you linked (the second one that you said you ordered instead).....does it clip into the factory location so that the truck can appear stock? That's really the only thing I have against the splitter, is if it can't be done cleanly.

 

Yup it looks OE in there and fits much more snug than the first one. This is the way to go

$10 bbfly-B11 OBD II OBD2 Splitter Extension 16 Pin Extension Cable Adapter (0.5FT/15CM)

bbfly-B11 OBD II OBD2 Splitter Extension 16 Pin Extension Cable Adapter (0.5FT/15CM) (amazon.com)

Pop out OBD2 plug
Black end into existing plug
First end into OBD2 slot
Hidden daisy chain end into Maestro behind the scenes.

 

Jumping back a bit... Did you notice any change in the ride when you added the sliders? Did the rear come down at all?
I ask because supposedly the J66 are very sensitive to extra weight. Are they still sitting about 1" above stock height?

 

I noticed an improvement in ride quality adding the Total Chaos bed stiffeners (don't ask me why but it was fairly drastic), and a little bit as well adding the sliders (~100-120lbs). But no noticeable changes in ride height. Just added another 30lbs with the sub and amp still can't tell anything changed. The pack doesn't seem as sensitive as the forum makes it out to be. I feel like the guys writing those reviews have a bunch of crap in their beds (racks, shells, 800lbs of bricks, etc). It's fine for normal stuff, but will probably sag a bit if you fill the bed up with a couple hundred lbs. If it's mostly empty, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I feel like I got more lift out of the pack than 1" (~1.6ish when compared to friends with 1" blocks) but it's definitely not sagging that I can tell.

 

Had a few days off at the beginning of the week and decided to retune the DSP again. Much happier with the way this tune sounds. Beefed up the upper-mids a bunch and kicked my front stage and sub up a little. It's also fantastic how clean the new setup is turned up with the windows down. Incredible clarity.

Then figured out how to get wireless AA setup and I'm amazed how much smoother and faster AA is on the Pioneer vs the stock headunit. Also I no longer have the weird glitchy audio cut issue when running Waze on AA. Greatsuccess.mpeg (still need to have the dealer swap out my bubbled qi charger though).



The last thing I changed this week was upgrading the ECU tune from the VF 2.0 map to the KDMax Pro 9.0. I had gone back and forth a bit between KDMax and OTT and chose KDMax because I received much better support from them. With cash in hand, OTT would not give me any details or answer most of my questions and I felt they had a condescending attitude towards the few questions they did answer. Kreg (the K in KDMax) has been cool as hell and after only 15 or so miles I don't regret going with his tune. The Pro 9.0 tune is much more polished than the VF 2.0 map, shifts smoother, and got rid of the dead pedal feel for the first 30% of the pedal stroke. Probably does other stuff better too but haven't put many miles on it yet. The driving characteristics from my end are different with the 9.0 and will take some getting used to, but initial impressions are that the trans just seems to be behaving how it's supposed to and feels like a normal vehicle instead of pissing me off multiple times a day. I first tried the Sport tip in tune but found it to be too harsh off the line so I went down to Normal (still much sportier than the enhanced throttle VF 2.0 map) and think I'm going to go down another notch to what they call the N-L tune (between Lite and Normal) and see how it goes. I'm so used to the dead pedal at the start of the stroke that I haven't yet gotten used to it doing something immediately and it still feels a little jumpy when accelerating from a stop. I never thought I'd be a Lite throttle guy, but with them fixing the pedal feel, it's looking like that might be the way to go. Anyways, all good things so far. Now to find the time to put my Hammer Hangers on.

 

Someone is gonna have to update their sig.....

I'm actually considering going from KDmax to OTT. Who were you talking to for the OTT info @drizzoh ?

 

Oh snap lol. #ferociouslyupdates

I'm not sure, I contacted them via the website and just did not feel good about using their product after a couple of emails back and forth. It was like pulling teeth to get any info out of them and I did not feel like I would have any support after the fact if I needed any adjustments made to the tune. On here it seems like their tune might be a little smoother, but I've not seen a comparison comparing both of the newest tunes from these guys. Either way though, they lost me as a customer.

 

Hahaha.

If I'm not mistaken, there's only one tuner OTT has for AZ, but I went the self tune route before... did you at least get pricing for that?

 

Somewhere around $350 for the tune files themselves.

 

KD was $750 for 3 files DIY. That did include the VF tuner OBD connector. Thanks for the input.

 

I was not including the VF Tuner software package with the last message, you only asked about the tune files. The tune files themselves from KD were $300 and $350ish from OTT.