What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

Swapped out my 3rd brake light on my Leer topper. I did this one to match a powder coated finish, but I might do the next one color matched? Not sure yet, I’ll see how it grows on me. Once again, shout out to @paranoid56 for making all my stupid ideas a reality The light itself is a VLED LPB designed for license plates. A little cutting and bending from Paranoid Fabrications, some epoxy, filler, and painting on my part, and it worked out alright.

Before:

After:

 

Busy few days!

Had my spacer lift changed out for Dobinsons 3” front lift with new extended travel struts, coil springs and UCA’s.
Rear blocks removed and new Dobinsons leaf packs and long travel shocks for 2” of lift.

Driving down to the US border tomorrow to pick up a Molle plate for behind the rear seat and the RokBlokz I ordered.

Applied a bit more of the Corrosion Free rust inhibitor today, a little at a time!

Got a huge rock chip in my windshield on the way home from my 10k mile service today too.

 

Burned $60+ in gas in one day:
[work] day trip to Baltimore. (Some say I should have some 40mpg POS for days like this). Screw it. I like the truck. It’s great for that battle zone.

 

I've had multiple vehicles for years. When I purchased this Tacoma I decided that having only 1 vehicle was best...at least for now...I'll decide if I want an ancillary vehicle when I get up over 100k.

I rolled in a taco for a looooong time with several ancillary vehicles and sports cars. I wouldn't even say any of them were a POS, but the $500 trade in the dealer offered wasn't worth it and I wound up keeping a couple cars until I had a repair that was more than I could handle or more than $500.

In the end the dorky 36 mpg scion xA, the sporty little Celica, the reliable 34 mpg Corolla, and the turbo charged Genesis Coupe were not worth the time, maintenance, and insurance. That 40 mpg POS winds up costing more in the long run than it saves you .... It does keep the miles off your truck and comes in handy when something does break and you need to get around...but honestly do the math .....it doesn't save you anything....

Note: these vehicles all came and went in the time I had 1 Tacoma... That first gen taco outlasted all of them.

 

Been looking at portable air. I had a ARB dual on my 2009 that I was less than pleased with. Wire feed to battery kept burning up until I wired it my way with welding cable. Really didn't want an on board this time as I don't use it that much. While looking at compressors, I stumbled across this. I remember reading about them before. They had a very good offer & if you bundled the 4 tire inflate/deflate w/ digital gauge, they would discount it further. I then went online looking for discount coupons & started entering them at check-out. Success! So, the whole deal with carry bags delivered in 2 days was $399 & change. Wife has a low tire in front so I hooked it up & took that 1 tire on her Avalon from 21 to 35 in less than 10 seconds. Probably less because it went to 45 before I shut it off. The gauge is easy to read & bright, has a sliding on-off valve & the compressor has auto shut off. Couldn't be happier, and it's a whole lot quieter than my old ARB.

Oh- isn't the duck thing for Jeeps?

 

Toytec's Aluma 2.0 kit
TC UCAs
Vision Flow 351 17x9 -12 offset
285/70r17 Cooper ST Maxx

 

True gentlemen. God bless.

 

I slowly bought parts over 9 months. My wife was running out of room to put all the boxes

 

Been working on a combination fob for my Viper remote start as I hate having two keys rather than just one if possible. It finally just pushed myself to learn a 3D modeling program, and I think the result is pretty good!

Going to sand and paint it this weekend, but wanted to share as it's finally working!

Bonus for anyone who wants to remix what I've got for their own usage

 

^^^ Thats cool and innovative. Using a block of cream cheese for your R&D is both incredibly adaptive and resourceful.

 

LOL That’s where I keep mine but it’s wrapped in foam now because I had the same issue.

 

I can say the one thing that came of this is you will not find any loose bolts under my taco. lol

 

I would call it a boulder chip. Helluva gash there.

Fantastic suspension!

 

.. will have to look into one of those

 

At least you found the issue before sinking more money into it!, and it’s good to laugh at yourself every so-often…

 

There are posts about the compressor being rebranded eBay units. Before I pulled the trigger, this one has a pressure switch that shuts the unit off, the copies don't. The biggest plus is the hose kit. I priced a similar hose kit from MoorAir but the hoses were connected to manifold w/o disconnects. That kit was $224 shipped but if you wanted the manifold with quick disconnects, you added $100. That's $324 for hoses. I priced out building another from scratch but the materials sent the diy price over $200 using hose clamps. One big plus with the hose kit I got is the hose ends are repairable. Not so with others. I wanted to love the ARB but I had so many issues with mine. Plus, it wasn't that fast.
I will air down to 18 & back up to 35 on Sunday & see how long it takes to do all 4 tires.

 

I have what I think is the older version of that, the napa brand one (maxitrax). Did the pressure sensor and quick disconnect mod to it and it's been great! I've used it quite a few times after beach trips and let a few random people use it to air up. Everyone thinks it's awesome! I think I bought it on sale for like $90 right before napa discontinued them

 

Ended up taking off the AVS low profile window visors. I just couldn't take it any longer. Windows are tinted to 20%. At night, that combined with the visors made that section of the window unusable as far as vision was concerned. Almost feels like I got a new truck again and now I can see a lot more.

 

I've never understood the purpose of those and yet so many folks seem to do them ASAP. Is it to reduce wind noise when you partially crack the window?