Boden Build 2015 DCLB 4x4

Holy shit

 

Yup. Check out the flop. I don't think I need to tell you that I was a bit nervous following him down this hill afterwards. At least I knew what line he picked and chose differently.

 

That's pretty wild...
Yeah, I'd be a little nervous if that happened right before me! Lol

 

Your truck looks awesome. Love me some DCLB. I don't think I could bring myself to pinstripe it like you did.

 

Thanks. The DCLB did much better through the technical terrain than I had expected. I do wish I had lockers, though. I had to be tugged off a high-side at one point, and another hill took me several attempts and a lot of momentum to get up it.

Trust me, I didn't plan on it. But I'm hoping...

 

Great build! DCLBFTMFW

 

Finally...got my all-in-one key from Neneago working and programmed. This took a while to put together, because I refused to pay the dealer any money to enter the key into the immobilizer ECU.

I bought the key on 12/31/14. I then had it cut on 1/7/15 and programmed the buttons the same day.

To enter the encrypted keycode into the truck's ECU, I made two attempts of doing it myself. First, I bought a cable and Techstream software from Amazon. I was successful with the software and cable driver installation. After connecting, it communicated with the vehicle, but didn't offer any options to adjust. It was informational only, so this wasn't going to actually do anything for me. I ended up returning it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C9B32J4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Next, I bought the MVCI cable from China through eBay. I was successful with software and cable driver installation, but the cable communication was lost as soon as I plugged it into the OBDII port in the truck. They offered me a refund, but after cost of shipping back to China, I said forget it. (I might have better luck selling it.) When I asked the seller about the situation, they told me that it wouldn't work with the 2015 Tacoma.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30105345819...ame=ADME:X:RTQ:MOTORS:1123&vxp=mtr&rmvSB=true

Anyway, TODAY...I was able to get the dealer to program the key for free. I was there last week for my fan belt repair and asked nicely if they would program the key. After speaking with the manager, he said yes. I'm a very happy camper now.

Key: $48.32
Cutting: $4.83.
TOTAL COST: $53.15

Negeago's thread
Negeago's website
Key programming

 

Nice!!

 

Lookin real nice!Enjoy!

 

Last night, I installed new Osram Rallye 70/65W +50 H4 64205 offroad headlight bulbs. I used a light meter and read the luminance values at the steps in the picture, which was about 15 feet away. Here are the results:

Stock Bulbs:
LOW: 18.38 foot-candles
HIGH: 29.86 foot-candles

Osram Rallye bulbs:
LOW: 36.76 foot-candles
HIGH: 42.22 foot-candles

The low beams had a significant increase in brightness, and the high beams had a modest increase. I don't think the pictures really show the difference. But when driving, I could tell that they were brighter. So far, I'm happy with them.

I bought them from Candle Power: http://store.candlepower.com/64205.html

 

I finally completed my Big-3 upgrade along with a 250A alternator and Sears platinum Group 35 battery. This project took me quite a bit of time to complete because of research, gathering of parts, and a lot of trial and error.

My goals that I wanted to attain:

• 250A alternator
• Fused alternator cable
  
• Big-3 upgrade with 1/0 gauge welding wire - color coded (red-positive, black-ground)
  
• Techflex braided sleeving - color coded (red-positive, black-ground)
  
• Adhesive lined, dual wall heat shrink - color coded (red-positive, black-ground)
  
• Crimp battery terminals
• Positive battery terminal protector
  
• Clean and efficient wiring
• Positive and ground busbars
• Re-locate remote voltage sense wire to positive busbar instead of OEM fuse block

I began by buying a 250A alternator from a local shop near me called CAE that rebuilds Tacoma alternators using the stock part. They rebuilt the stator and rotor with more windings and then used a slightly smaller pulley to gain more RPM. All of this combined gives it the higher amperage. Also, because it's built from a stock alternator, the voltage regulator is original and the alternator bolts up without any spacers needed. On top of that, there is no core charge, so I was able to keep my stock alternator as a backup.



The next step was buying all of the parts, which were purchased from Remy Battery, Waytek Wire, Parts Express, Amazon, and Ballenger Motorsports.

• 1/0 gauge welding wire
• 1/0 gauge right elbow terminal clamp connector
  
• Right elbow terminal protector
  
• 1/0 gauge straight copper lugs - 3/8" hole, 5/16" hole
• $93 Blue Sea Systems 2104 PowerBar BusBar with Four 3/8, 600A
  Blue Sea 600A busbars
• $19 Blue Sea Systems 2708 Connector Cover, 600A
  Blue Sea 600A busbar protector
  
• $26 Blue Sea Systems 5005 ANL Fuse Block with Insulating Cover, 35-300 Amp, 32V DC
  Blue Sea ANL fuse holder
• $24 Blue Sea Systems Boating Accessories New Fuse Anl 300 Amp Systems 5133
  300A ANL fuses
• Engine Wire Harness No. 2
• $9 TapeCase TC790 Dry Vinyl Tape - 1.5 in. x 100 ft. Black Chrome Plating Tape Roll with High Conformability. Adhesive Tapes (TC790 1.5" X 100')
  Dry vinyl tape
• Techflex braided sleeving
• Adhesive lined, dual wall heat shrink tubing
  
• Sumitomo TS terminals
• Sumitomo TS Series wire seal

The first purchase was a stock "Engine Wire Harness No. 2". I found one online from a 2012 salvaged Tacoma through TLS Auto Recycling, which matched identically to my 2015. My plan was to take it apart and only use what I needed. By doing this, I was able to take my time. If I had to use my original harness, then my truck would have sat immobile for a very long time.

As I disassembled the wiring harness, I learned a lot about how everything was connected. With this knowledge, I started to plan out how I was going to do this.



As I stated earlier, one of my goals was to relocate the remote voltage sense wire. The stock wiring harness already accomplishes remote sensing by reading voltage at the fuse block instead of at the battery or at the alternator itself. The reason to move its termination point to a different location was because I wanted to sense system voltage where I needed full voltage, which is at the positive busbar. In my new system, this is the main source of voltage for all accessories. This includes the OEM fuse block, my future fuse block, the battery, the winch, and anything else I might want to add. For more information regarding this subject, I highly recommend reading The Alternator Bible at Billa Vista.

By looking at a schematic, I learned that the white wire at the alternator in the G2 connector is the voltage sense wire that I wanted to relocate.



The following image shows the G2 connector that plugs into the alternator. My plan is to remove the voltage sense wire entirely from the harness. After that, I'll make a new sense wire that would still be in this plug, but instead of continuing all the way to the OEM fuse block, it will terminate directly at the positive busbar.



Therefore, I had two choices for making the remote voltage sense wire. The first was to use the existing wire from the salvaged harness, cut it to length, and then add a ring terminal to the end that would attach to the positive busbar. The other option was to buy a new terminal to fit this plug and make a new cable from scratch. Of course, I had to go the hard route and source the terminals. This also allowed me to change my mind if I wanted to somewhere down the road and use the original sense wire. The type of plug is a Sumitomo, Part # 90980–11964, and the terminals are Sumitomo TS / SL Female Terminal 0.5 - 1.25 mm2 ( 20 - 16 AWG ). I ended up buying the terminals from Ballenger Motorsports. I also had to buy the wire seals.



I was almost ready to get down to business and make my new harness. However, I first needed to build a bracket for the ANL fuse holder and Blue Sea 600A positive busbar to be mounted to. Without this, I wouldn't know how long some of the cables needed to be. This is nothing fancy. It's simply 13ga steel that I cut, bent, and painted. The battery holds it in place with the friction of the battery hold-down.

My reasoning behind using busbars instead of routing all cables to the positive battery terminal is simply for cleanliness. I already had several cables going to the battery terminals, and this was only going to get worse with the Big-3 upgrade, my future-planned fuse block, stereo, compressor, etc. Therefore, I went with a positive busbar to keep things nice and clean.

A couple points to make note of:

1. I used nylon bolts to secure the busbar to the bracket. I did this to eliminate any risk of a short through the mounting hardware and bracket.
2. I used a plastic busbar protector that is not shown in this photo. But you'll see it in the final image of the completed installation.

With the bracket complete, I started wiring things up, but you can't make cables of this size without a heavy-duty crimper. I first asked several motor-heads I know if they had one I could borrow, but no one did. I then briefly contemplated using a crimper at a nearby West Marine, but I honestly felt that that wasn't very practical. I ended up buying a Quick Cable 4255-001 crimper from Battery Mart. I'm sure you'll agree as you read on.

I justified the cost of the crimper with other future projects in mind and that I can loan it to friends. Furthermore, I've never really hesitated buying tools throughout my life. It definitely makes a job easier, and sometimes it's the only way to do something correclty. But I digress...

My methodology for making each cable was the following steps:

• cut a length of cable slightly long
• crimp a lug to one end
• connect the lug at its termination point(such as the starter)
• route the cable
• cut to length
• strip insulation
• temporarily slip on lug
• mark indicator line across lug and insulation with a Sharpie
• remove cable
• crimp the remaining lug while aligning the Sharpie marks
• install Techflex and heatshrink tubing
• install cable
• use zip-ties to temporarily secure cables together as more were added

I found that it was important to follow this procedure in order to not have excessively long cables that would cause improper fitting. Furthermore, using a Sharpie to align the second lug helped to position it correctly. I could have certainly forced a twist in the cable, but following this process allowed the cable to lay flat and not get in the way of anything else. This was exactly why having a crimper on-sight was vital.

I continued making cables patiently. In fact, this was spread out over a few days around my normal work schedule.

Once I was satisfied with the cables, it was time to protect and restrain the harness. I re-used a lot of components from the salvaged wire harness I purchased, such as the brackets, heat shield, and split-loom. To bind the cables together, I used dry vinyl tape as a base layer with standard electrical tape over that.

The following picture shows the completed harness. If you compare my harness to the OEM harness, you'll notice one key cable missing, and that's the alternator positive cable. With the distance from the alternator to the ANL fuse holder being so short, I ended up keeping this cable separate from the harness.



The final step was to install the ground busbar, which I bolted to the lid of the OEM fuse block. I drilled holes through the lid and used black RTV gasket maker around the holes. The following picture shows the completed installation.



Now that this project is finalized, I'm very happy with the outcome. It took a lot of research, time, patience, and hard work to complete. I'm aware that some people might think that this is a bit overkill, but I approached this project with the mentality of "Do it once". Therefore, this will serve as the foundation for all future electrical needs on my vehicle. The next phase is a Bussmann RTMR fuse/relay block, which I'm currently building.

 

Fantastic job and fantastic write-up. I love it when someone produces a finished quality result that is better than OEM.

If you do not mind, how much did everything cost you?

 

Awesome write up. Looking to wire up my winch with upgraded wiring. Your links will definitely help me source everything.

 

Thank you!

So I'm not sure off the top of my head how much all this cost me. But the truth is, there are two totals...one is what I actually paid and the other is what it should have cost me had I not made mistakes. For example, I ordered 10 feet of welding wire for both red and black. That was a sufficient number, but made a mistake on one of the black cables, so I had to order more. That meant more wire and additional shipping cost.

Another example was that I ran out of 1/0 crimp lugs with a 3/8" hole. This was due to an incorrect count. So...more shipping cost.

Last, figuring all this out on my own incurred more cost as well. During my research I didn't get certain ideas or pieces of information until after I made a purchase at one particular vendor. For example, I initially purchased non-adhesive lined heat shrink. After more research, I learned that adhesive lined heat shrink was needed to fully protect the cables. Well, you know where this is going....another purchase with additional shipping cost.

Anyway, I'll see if I can tally up a rough total for you of what it should have cost without shipping. That's probably a more realistic number that you could use.

 

Thanks! I'm glad I can be of help.

Also, take note that if you're not so particular about color, the braided sleeving can be sourced at Waytek Wire in black, but not red. Additionally, buying welding wire in black only from a local welding supply will save you considerably in shipping costs, which add up due to the weight. But my local supply sells in 25 foot lengths only.

 

Absolutely. I am able to get 50 feet 1/0 welding cable for $120 Canadian local. Its blue, but hell it will be sleeved in plastic split loom anyways. My issue is finding good colour coded heat shrink and battery caps in that size that are of good quality at a decent price. Your links will definitely help.

Thanks again for the additional tips and the write up with links

 

I finally finished building and installing a Bussmann RTMR and switches. I took many photos along the way, so I plan on detailing the process in greater detail later. But for now, here's a few pics.

 

On Saturday 8/8/15, I met up with TTORA in Big Bear and navigated up Gold Mountain and White Mountain. It was a long day, but awesome. A friend of mine who's a camera operator for several National Geographic shows joined me. He took the following pics of me driving.

 

Here's a few pics that I took along the way.

 

Unfortunately, I suffered a bit of damage as a result of this last trip. While climbing up over some boulders, I smashed my tailpipe and it got sucked up into the wheel well between the fender and tire. Luckily, I brought a hack saw with me and was able to cut it off. What's strange is that this was the first time I brought the hack saw with me. Weird!


You can see that the tailpipe is still a bit kinked.




I also lost my passenger rear mud flap and damaged the underside of the bed behind the tire. No biggie! This section of the bedsides will be cut off soon, because I ordered a new high-clearance rear bumper from Pelfreybilt two months ago. I should be getting it real soon.