What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

Not who you asked, but not really.

 

Indeed, the TC stiffeners are awesome........
Got my bed back to perfectly square and gained some ties downs.
As stated above, they fit easily w/the OEM bed mat

 

The bed mat IS lifted a little. But I wouldn't say it interferes or would need to be cut.
I'll take a closer picture of that situation for ya tomorrow....

 

Up close and personal

 

That plastic bottles really likes to escape if left unattended. WOW

 

Added PPF to my headlights before winter. I tried it last fall and didn't do very well, so I took that off and gave it another try. This time I made a template with masking tape first, used heat, more stretching, and Rapid Tac. I put the film back to the black trim inside the headlight; the corners are tough. It's not quite perfect but I don't think anyone but me will notice the couple of bubbles.

 

So here's a question for you all, My friend who I work with at Home Depot has a third generation Tacoma SR5 and she doesn't have the blinkers built into the mirrors, is it possible to install them after the fact?
She's wondering what it will take to do that, like is the wiring in there or does she have to purchase a special wiring harness etc?

 

Would like to keep the mic location where it is from the factory if I can (truck is only 3 weeks old). Did you get the 9" or 11"? Can you keep me posted once installed? I believe I would want to have a local shop do the install. Can you post photos?

 

I still don’t get it about the bed stiffeners/supports. I mean, are these trucks that flimsy we gotta put corner gussets in there to keep the tailgates from not closing or something? Or is it an off roading thing? Why are we putting these things in aside from extra tie downs?

And the kinetic to thermal energy is more like friction to stop inertia. Some day we might get to use magnetic braking like the mag lev trains

 

The only way to know for sure is to peel open the mirror housing to see if the wires are there. Just make sure the plastic is warm and use a door panel pry tool so you don't chip the paint.

 

Yeah there's just a piece of a foam in there that you just pull out. I purchased a mic mount for the Sony mic and it just fits in there snuggly.

 

I drove it for the first time in 3 months (wife was driving due to lease miles). Now I have it back and will be buying out the lease. Let the mods begin.

 

How does the bed flex so much when running a bed cover ? I would think the my bak flip would keep the bed from spreading or flexing beyond whats normal.

 

Tonneau has zero effect on bed rigidity

 

how do you like that 285/75 size? im real torn on 295/70 duratracs or 285/75 rt trails

 

The side rails may provide some rigidity lengthwise, but the cover floats a bit between the rails. The rubber hinges would give up any side-to-side rigidity if flexed. I've decided not to worry about it since I don't carry a big load above my bed and my off-road driving is moderate. Only time will tell if I'm right.

 

I had the same question a couple months back and the conclusion I came to from all the input was they are cheap insurance if you carry a lot of weight above your bed or pressure on the sidewalls. I'm certain folks on the forum fuss about our trucks way more than the average Tacoma driver and all have been known to do cool but maybe unnecessary mods. For my use, I don't think I need them. But maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I'll get bored some day and buy some. TBH, the main thing that stopped me is I didn't want to drill any metal.

Or some day we might use that kinetic energy to charge a battery to get the car rolling again. We could call it, "Prius". But mag lev sounds cooler.

 

So Happy, Longest 9 weeks ever. A.R.E. Overland

 

It didn't. My out of square came before I ever had the truck.
It wasn't out of square enough to visually notice without the stiffeners in place, but once I got them installed prior to tightening them, I noticed the bed was off 90 deg square by over a quarter inch on the driver's side.

 

I've mounted mic's in that location in previous vehicles and it was hard for the people on the other end to hear me. I've had much better luck hiding them behind the rear view mirror, which is where I put mine in the truck.

In short, yes. The bed is a composite material and the bedsides are pretty much panels that are just stuck onto it. There is a little bit of metal but really no rigidity back there. If you put anything above the bedsides there is nothing to really keep it together and the sides can splay out over time. If you offroad or articulate the suspension often/hard/at all the bed flexes pretty significantly as well. The stiffeners keep everything where it should be and add rigidity to the rear end. If you just drive your truck with an empty bed on the highway all day you probably don't need them.