Official Crawlbox BS thread!

2022 Automatic Off-road Manual T-case (2022 4Runner t-case), Crawlbox (TG 4.7), and NWF Trident, anytime rear elocker wire harness swap (stock elocker), ADD wire harness swap. Pulled 4WD-ECU fuse for right now.

Triple sticks run to ebrake location

 

Linkage

 

Armor fits, but some updates will be required...

Crawlbox mount

 

How is the shifting with the pivot so far from the lever, can you easily just push on the lever, or do you need to lift/pull it?

 

That is a really great question and observation .... Here are all of my observations and opinions on the swap.

• Pull and Pushing back and forth is a little better then pushing up and down. Although you can push up and down without much issue. Sometimes pushing down on 4-Lo T-case bottoms out on the floor, but not by much.
• I have no clearance issues with the design, and no linkage rubs or pushes other linkage out of gears
  • For me it took some time and effort to come up with the design to clear everything and still keep as much flooring and tranny shift housing in place... more time then I thought it would take, maybe 8+ hours of my time
  • A bender would have made this way easier over cutting, hammering to bend, then welding
  • I really wanted to keep the center console in place so using the ebrake location does work... Note: at the cost of moving the ebrake
• There is more noise in the cab, even after sealing it with silicon and EPDM and the original floor material
• After designing and installing the the Crawl box mount there is more noise in the cab, it took a wheeling trip to get all of the metal to settle in to help some noise go away
  • I decided to experiment with the mount by attaching it to the tranny armor in place of a new cross member. I was a little worried about this at first but given the design there hasn't been any noticeable issues after a couple of hard wheeling trips.
    • I did this so I can easily keep the armor I have, and remove the mount to more easily remove the crawl box and t-case in the future
    • I will be watching this closely to make sure this design works
  • I can feel when the truck goes into gear now through the seat w/ this addition
• I can still shift into and out of 4-Hi while driving, I have only tried it up to about 40 miles per hour. In fact moving makes it easier if stopped it is harder to shift in and out of 4-Hi
  
• 90% of the time I need to turn the truck off to shift out of 4-Lo easily... Gears keep spinning otherwise and I don't want to grind the gears
• 4-Lo linkage sometimes makes a little rattle noise, I haven't pin pointed the cause yet
• I like the fact I left the ADD in place, this is easier to change while in a tight turn while wanting to disengage the front wheels, trying to shift in and out of 4-Hi to only get rear wheels is harder while at a stand still
  • I considered the ADD delete, but right now I am happy I left it in with a new wire harness controlling it
• Having all of the 4wheel components on their own is way better than the 4WD ECU in my opinion. Rear elocker on its own harness, ADD on its own harness, and gears being shifted... The ABS sensor no longer break 4wheeling
  • Anytime rear elocker
  • ADD engage and disengage when needed
  • Shift in place of circuits driving 4-wheel
• 230 total crawl ratio gives me the impression the brakes are going to rub away quickly the torq is massive. Sometimes I have found it is better to shift into neutral to sit still when needed
  • Rear disc brake swap really helps with the low crawl ration in my opinion, I am glad I did this
  • I also swapped out to 4Runner calipers and rotors, I am glad I did this as well
• Pulling the 4-wheel drive ECU 10amp fuse under the dash removes most of the dash lights

Overall I am really happy with the swap... Better wheeling at the cost of... (I use this as my daily driver with no issues)

• More noise in the cab vs almost zero noise prior
  
• Feeling the gears through the seat vs not noticing before
• Understanding how to use 4-wheel drive components vs just turning a knob
• No Dash lights currently working vs 4-wheel dash light indicators working
• Currently - no 4WD ECU options including traction control, craw control etc... vs having them

Feel free to ask any questions I would be happy to help anyone wanting to do the swap with information. It took me about 3 working days at about 12 hours each day to get the core if it done by myself on jack stands in my driveway (minus crawl mount and electrical spoofing I am working on)

 

Hey all, so I'm finally getting around to installing my marlin tacobox that may or may not have been sitting in my garage for the past 4 years... So it's a circa 2020 tacobox with the inchworm adapters.

I've got a 2nd gen with the 4L V6 and 6-speed manual. Didn't realize what a PITA my configuration was for a tacobox lol.

Something I wanted to confirm with ya'll because I hadn't really seen any chatter about it on this thread (possible I missed it, lot of pages to get through). So both Marlin Crawler's page and Big Mike's thread state that for us manual owners, we need to open up our transfer case and swap the 22-spline input shaft for the 23-spline input shaft from the automatic variant of the transfer case.

1. Can any other 4L V6 6-speed manual owners confirm this?
   
   
2. Can you confirm the parts needed for the transfer case?
   
   1. Marlin's page states the part number for the input shaft itself 36201-71010, but are any other parts needed?
      
      
   2. Mike himself stated that, "When changing to the smaller 23-spline automatic-transmission-type input we must also change to it's matching t/case nose cone.". Yet Marlin's site makes no mention of needing to replace the "nose cone".

Here's a few pics of the box and what I was provided, including the 23-spline to 22-spline coupler for the crawler box to transmission, oil seal and extension, and the shift lever of questionable quality... (might ask for a new one).

Thanks!

 

pretty sure what Marlin said is true, however, if you also put in a FJ case, then you dont have to swap inputs. if you keep your stock tcase, then yes, you would have to swap input shafts.

it would just be easier to swap in a tcase from an automatic or an FJ case. by the time you order all the parts to swap input shafts around, probably just cheaper to get a stock auto case and install that, or change out to the FJ auto case

 

Seems like an option worth looking into, but seems like a new case would be a whole lot more expensive and I'm sure used ones are hard to find and might require rebuilding anyway.

Do you know what all parts are needed if I did go the route of modifying mine?

 

the whole planetary gear set.

you can get a fj case for less than 500. probably get a stock auto case for less. and i wouldnt worry about unless the case is coming out of a vehicle with a shit ton of miles on it.

just did a search for an auto case on car-part.com around hillsboro oregon and most were under $200.

 

I agree with @wrmathis that it'd be easiest to just buy another tcase out of an auto tacoma which is essentially plug and play, or a tcase out of an auto FJ, which is a little more involved dealing with the ADD and extra shifter coming up through the floor. A couple hundred bucks to just swap cases it worth it IMO, versus breaking open the case.

If you're really gung ho about converting your tcase, I have a 23 spline input you can have. Just cover shipping. You'd have to swap the sun gear from your input, and I think a few other parts. So it's a little more involved than swapping the whole planetary, but its no more difficult if youre in that deep. You'd need to source the front input flange (aka 'nose cone') from an auto tcase, but that should be relatively cheap even if you had to source new from Toyota.

 

Well at that price that's definitely something to consider, I'll take a look. Thanks!

 

It does certainly sound like the path of swapping cases is the easier route and I guess explains why I didn't really see anyone talking about opening the case to swap the input. If I can get ahold of a case for a few hundred bucks then I will most likely be going that route.

I'll take you up on that 23 spline input, thinking I could just swap it as a side project and then I'd have a spare case which could be handy if I end up having an issue with the other case I get. I'll send you a DM. Thanks!

 

@wrmathis @Littles
Either of you know if the VF2CM in the third gens is compatible with the second gen transmissions, or in this particular context, with the TacoBox? I guess the question would be if the MC or Inchworm adapter plate is any different for a third gen versus a second gen or if the input shafts are different (diameter, spline count, spline depth)? Would just be great to source a third gen tcase since I would have more options for newer cases with less miles.

 

Also, either of you know where to get the custom shifter boots/covers that Marlin shows on their website (but annoyingly doesn't say where those people got them from or who they are so we could ask them directly)?

Like these two

 

I would say it’s compatible. I know people have replaced the ra60 with a rc60 for the manual and I don’t think the tcase changed. So if it’s compatible one way, I’d say it would be compatible in the opposite direction.
And honestly, unless the tcase was neglected with no oil, I really wouldn’t worry about mileage. That’s me personally tho.

 

I got my shift boots from a at the time local auto upholstery shop.
Other than that I think people get them from a company callled redline? Or from Amazon.

 

Not the ones you linked, but this is the route I went: https://jb-custom-fabrication.myshopify.com/products/shifter-boot-triple-stick-tailored-p-n-trsbt

 

That's good to know and seems like sound reasoning. I agree that the mileage shouldn't be too big of a deal, but if I can have a newer one for almost the same price, why not.

 

Thanks guys! I'll check out both of these.

 

I emailed Marlin crawl box company for installation cost. And they came back with 4,500. Do you think this is accurate? I doubt they would mislead me. But curious what everyone thought. Not something I could handle myself so I’d have to pay the cost of install. this is on top of the 3900 for the box.