Upgrades you regret

I uninstalled his full taillights (Morimoto collab) and went with his old retrofit kit. Much happier with that kit.

I refuse to buy any of his new junk, as he's no longer involved in the community and phoning it in.

Garbage
https://mesocustoms.com/collections...l-lights-full-led?_pos=4&_sid=8f47f72c0&_ss=r

Decent
https://mesocustoms.com/collections...6&_sid=3036ae1b9&_ss=r&variant=20733357162609

Not for me and many others.

I ordered the red lens kit and you could barely see the turn signal during the day. Additionally, the passenger turn signal would randomly not work, unless you flicked the lever multiple times in both directions.

The fact that he integrated the turn signal into the brake lamp, is straight up dangerous. Meaning if you turn the turn signal or hazards on and hit the brakes, there would be no brake light...

Not to mention, the wiring was crap, the plastic tabs broke, and the lenses constantly fogged. Suitable for a $100-$200 product, but unacceptable at $600-$800.

Taillights are a piece of safety equipment and not something you want to sacrifice for looks.

Glad to be rid of them.

 

I've got the clear lenses and they're plenty bright...and a 3rd brake light on my topper. Mine have never fogged up and still got all my tabs.

Morimoto does give a 5 year warranty on their products so I hope you were able to get some money back.

 

Interesting. What don't you like about this setup? I have basically the same setup on my Taco and it's ideal for what I do.

 

Fwiw you should have done that first, those are the upgrades that will make it sound better

 

Long story, but they were replacements for my OG Meso taillights (which were badass) that had a few LED's go out... so the warranty likely wouldn't apply and I didn't want them replaced for the safety aspects.

OG's when new:


OG's with dead LED's:


I ended up giving them to a friend.

I agree, the clear lens solves the brightness issue, but I still don't think the other issues are acceptable.

Regardless, I'm glad you like yours and hope they continue to work out for you.

 

Just a wear and tear perspective. Tires are more expensive, things don't last as long as they should when you're pushing around 285s

 

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, it definitely becomes a drain on your wallet. For me, I spend enough time off-road that it makes a lot of sense. And I work from home, so...mostly the truck is sitting in the driveway lookin' right sexy.

 

Oil undercoating. More specifically, not getting it undercoated until a few months ago for the first time, after having the truck since November 2021. 3 north east winters unprotected... but the rest will be.

Really though, out of $8k in mods so far, the only one that I look back on and wonder what was going through my head was paying $34 for TacoMods aluminum volume knobs. I don't even listen to the radio

 

Haha...but I bet those knobs look pretty sweet not gettin' used...

 

Oh shoot, I forgot about this one. I regret getting one too. I'm in the 'just let it dangle' crew.

 

I feel like we need t-shirts.

"I'm in the 'just let it dangle' crew."

 

Snorkel

 

These are a sort of half white labeled product from VLEDs. If you're gonna buy a taillight conversion, go straight to them and do it completely with VLED.

https://www.vleds.com/3g-tacoma-vt-tail-light-conversion.html

 

I've never had any desire for a snorkel. But of course I live in Colorado, where we basically don't have water, so...

 

I’ve done my fair share of water crossings but nowadays if it’s that deep I’ll probably avoid it.

 

Same for me. Its a love hate thing with my soft topper. In the summer I run either no cover or a tonneau cover, but in the winter I run the soft topper as my ice fishing gear is too tall to fit with the tonneau. But in the winter the soft topper gets stiff and is hard to use.
I would love to have a hard shell, but I need a full open bed in the summer for kayaks, bikes, dirt bikes and other summer stuff.

 

Bed rack with a drawer system? That's where I'm headed. Going to sell the SmartCap and probably get a Leitner bed rack. I already have a Decked Drawer System, so I can lock things inside that, and still get use out of my bed. The rack is great for my rooftop tent and overlanding stuff, but it's easy enough to take off if I need to do truck stuff.

 

I have a rack also right now, well actually 2 of them. I have a low profile one with fishing rod holders and a basket that I love and use when I dont have the tonneau cover on, then I just got a full height one for putting kayaks up high.

The decked system I have thought about many many times, but in the end the amount of space it takes up compared to how much storage space it makes just isnt worth it for me.

 

I definitely go back and forth on my Decked System. I don't like it in combination with the camper shell. It basically makes the bed non-existent. But with a rack system instead of the cap, I think it would be pretty perfect for what I do.

It does take up a lot of bed space in relation to how big the drawer is, though. So I totally get that. Also adds about 200 pounds to your bed.

 

I have more than I'd like to admit to.

I bought a cap when I found one online for $400. It wasn't bad for a summer, but I didn't like how I had to crawl into the bed to get anything out of it. Then I found it was loose and it scuffed my paint. I sold it for either $700-800 (I forget now).

I bought an Alpine powered subwoofer which sounded marginally better than the stock speakers. I ended up selling it and going with a Stealthbox. I'm still chasing speaker issues in the winter, which has been super annoying. It's been fine this summer, so that's good, I guess.

I bought a ditch light bracket setup and bout a Cobra 75WX CB radio / Firestick. I never used it and I couldn't get a good ground. I should just uninstall the rest of it. I've got a Little Wil antenna new in package which I've been meaning to hook up for the last 5 years.

I switched my winter wheels basically every season as I got different ideas (OEM 2G OR, OEM 3G OR, OEM SR Steelies, OEM FJ Steelies, OEM 3G Sport). I had a set of tires damaged in one of the switches and I should have just gone with the stock 16" OR wheels on my snows.

Other than that, I've been reasonably happy with my truck. The other things that irk me aren't necessarily related to my modifications, just general wear and tear over the last eight years I've owned it.