What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

looks good......did you block the back wheels?

 

One ... aluminium is not as heavy as steel (RCI), so stop being a wuss!

Two ... buy some of those hard knee protectors used for carpeting activity (Lowes, Home Depot) ... rest the skid plate on your knees and shimmy underneath.

 

Man, long time back, my friend chocked his wheels on a set of ramps. Tercel wagon, it was a 4wd, without 4w engaged it was just front.
He forgot to pull the chock, and just gunned it when he couldn’t get off the ramp. The ramp shot out, hit the dirty oil pan, and we took off before his pops got home. So much oil raining in that barn.

 

Got the Front Runner Outfitters Cargo Slide - Medium ordered with the Labor Day sale deal on Monday, picked it up on Tuesday and test fitted it on Wednesday (although, I still need to bolt it in place). I should have ordered this bed slide earlier on soon after getting the DB cover. It’s probably the slickest and most low profile bed slide (edit: commercially made) to fit under the DB covers (edit: or other tonneau covers and bed caps/camper shells). For those mounting their bed racks / crossbars with gear (e.g. overlanding gear, kayak, bike racks…) on their DB cover such that none of the panels can be opened, this bed slide might be a good option for accessing their gear that are stuffed toward the front end of their bed.
Looks like the Medium sized cargo slide is a nearly perfect fit to the short bed Taco’s bed space. Pic above shows it clears the fuel containers hanging from the rail.
NOTE: Bed slide floor to the bottom surface/crossbeam of the DB cover is 16.5” or a little less than that.

The slide also appears to clear the Mountain Hatch tailgate panel. (Again, the bed slide isn’t bolted down yet. It might not clear after bolting down the bed slide frame.)

 

Yep - those big black rubber chocks also from Hobo Freight.

The jacks and stand were under the truck frame, not the skid. The truck is what I was calling heavy. Driving up onto the ramps w/o a spotter made me nervous enough, but I was maybe a little paranoid the ramps would fail given those ALSO came from Harbor Freight.

I propped the skid up with a cardboard box resting on a wheeled mechanic's sled. Actually worked a charm as I could make fine adjustments via the wheels while starting the bolts. Should've taken a picture...

 

That is a super nice setup..what is the clearance from the edge of the DB to the floor of the cargo slide? just wondering if a fridge could still fit back there without having to open the DB

 

Thank you!

I gotta measure that later on. However, from the bed floor to the bottom of the DB cover, I think it measured to about 19”. This bed slide looks to raise that floor about an inch and a half to about 2”. Best to get a lower profile fridge that’s about 16”-17” tall.

Also, the locking rods of the rear panel of the DB cover reduces that height. I got the DB cover in 2017. I think DiamondBack changed the design of their locking rods so that they tuck up a bit higher to avoid getting in the way of gear in the bed, such as portable refrigerators. Others have bent and reshaped their rods to get better clearance.

Edit: Bed slide floor to the bottom surface/crossbeam of the DB cover is 16.5” or a little less than that.

 

I bought it yesterday. So I mean.. TECHNICALLY I did something to my Tacoma 3rd gen.

Drove her home from a dealer an hour and a half away.. Other than how much it costs. I regret NOTHING.

I feel like I need a bug defector tho. Jesus.. the bugs.

 

We live in the North East where salt is liberally applied to road surfaces to mitigate icing. Yesterday, my wife brought our '22 to a garage that does undercoating with Wool Wax. I think last year we had Fluid Film applied, but I wasn't super thrilled with the application. Both products have their fans. It may come down to who is actually performing the application. Down South we didn't have to worry about rust... Up here, it's a different story altogether. YMMV.

 

Mavcoat is a pretty good product in my experience. It's a little pricey at $20 a can, but 3 cans cover everything... even the inner fenders

 

The gradual brightness/dimming on those: is that a function of the LED strip?

 

Generally it is a function of the controller. PWM = pulse width modulation, where the duty cycle of the on-off periods are gradually changed to affect illumination levels. I'm working on a homebrew VLEDs alternative around a controller by Oznium.

Should be able to control footwell LEDs, and some mounted below the vehicle as well. Speed of the fade-in/out is selectable.

https://www.oznium.com/led-controllers/fade-in-fade-out

 

That is what I was wondering. I think the VLED controller is just a trigger off the ground, so it doesn’t use the PWM like the dome lights would. I had a oznium controller for mine that worked great. The 8A version. I triggered mine with the DSIM dome rock. There are a couple things the dome light does that the bed light doesn’t, I don’t recall exactly what though off the top of my head though. But anyway, that set up worked good. The reason I changed from the oznium to the timers.shop dome light dimmer module https://timers.shop/Universal-Dome-Light-Dimmer-configurable-via-phone_p_46.html is that the oznium is ground side PWM, where as the timers.shop is positive side PWM. Not a huge deal, but with a common ground system, you can tie the lights to different systems. So in the back of the truck, I have bed lights attached to triggers to turn on when the topper or tailgate are opened. I also added a couple lights under the bumper aiming down that turn on with the bed lights (so you can see where you’re stepping while back there). But using a positive side PWM also meant I could tie the same lights to the puddle lights. So they come on with both. The one thing oznium did that timers.shop doesn’t though is allow for control of the dimming time. The timers.shop one takes about 2s to change from on/off, where the oznium one was selectable up to 20 or 30 seconds? I had it set at 1.5s, so the difference isn’t noticeable for me anyway. The other option I kicked around in the rear was tying the reverse lights to the puddle lights, but I decided against that. But hit me up if there is anything I can help with. Having played with both, I might be able to help some.

 

Saw the belching beaver sticker and had to say. North County resident here, work about a mile from the beav'!

 

Thanks for that offer! I just have to install the LED strips in the cabin at this point. Everything else is set. If I extend it to handle "puddle lights", I am going to use a bracket where normally the steps would be installed, which I don't have. As a courtesy getting into and out of the vehicle, and locating a vehicle in a parking lot. However, you bring up an excellent point, and that is, what about the back under the tailgate? My wife and I are getting older. No desire to "roll an ankle" because of a curb or some other change in the surface when getting in or out of the vehicle.

Previous project was homebrewing my own forward-facing camera. I installed a front bed rail, and soft-top. Also some hood stuts.

Now, I've got a few other things in the works... Bought a tiny amp (Sony XM-S400D) and will be seeing if I can get a little better sound quality over the stock radio install (non-JBL 8" HU). I'll be replacing the tweeters, and the rear door speakers first. This amp is so small, it will fit behind the head-unit. No desire for lots of power, so 45Wrms x 4channels into 4ohm fine for me. I like to hear the road, and the emergency traffic.

I want to do simple little projects, that don't draw too much attention from the wife.
I'm also thinking about engine bay illumination, since where I live, there's no street lighting, no significant outside lighting at the farm. So many project ideas... so much time.

 

Sounds like you got it I do like the lights in the back. I have 4 lights back there actually. The puddle/bed lights are VLED Max Pods, and the puddle lights on the outside are VLED mini pods. Works good. I also am going to add puddle lights to my predator steps, but that is going to be a little down the road when I can physically do it. You can't see the actual lights here, but this is where they are, aimed down.

 

Got the side steps replaced with some bomb-proof RCI sliders.

Before -



After -

 

Regardless if the DB panels can be opened (mine can) or not, I really like the idea of not having to open/close/fold panels to get to stuff. I'm also using a Cross Bin so utilizing that little space underneath would be cool too. Let us know how the install goes with the Mountain Hatch, which I also have. Looks like you're loaded for bear.

 

Welcome to TW

 

Grew up in NE Ohio. I get the Canadian soldier/midge reference. Fall was always the worst. Hope the union guys aren't busting on you too bad. Whenever I make an appearance in my Tacoma I get some 'Buy American' junk, not too bad though. It's funny how they bust my b*lls but whenever they hop in it's like "damn this thing is nice!". Where did you end up buying your Taco?