MARYLAND TACOMAS

Merry Christmas everyone

 

Which Outback did you get? We have honed in on the 16 limited 2.5 with nav eyesight and lane departure warning. Didn't want to sacrifice creature comforts coming from the Acura. Nothing wrong with the Acura just thinking about more space for kids that might be in the future. Any options you like/don't like or can't live without?

 

I got the 2011 3.6 Premium new. I threw a tow hitch in it for a small trailer (pre-taco) It has been awesome. Love everything about it except the nav. The 2011 nav blows. It works accurately but frankly I throw a garmin on the dash and use the Subaru nav as a strategic reference ( like where in the world am I). The 6 cyl. Rocks. I get mid 20s/gallon at 75 on the highway. I thought the 4 with cvt was slow off the blocks but got good mileage and if your girl is okay with that it was solid. Space is great. Kids love it for travel.

I don't know about eyesite or any of the new options.

I have two subarus and the Tacoma. All good.

 

I was coaching towards the 3.6 as her Acura is pretty peppy but she's the responsible voice of reason and said since her Ac gets 28.7 mpg she didn't want to loose ground in that department. We drove the 2.5 and thought it wasn't too bad, though we haven't driven the 3.6 as nobody seems to stock those. And since my truck averages 15.8 mpg I wasn't going to push the issue. They seem to be well built cars. I seem to recall the sales guy saying they've made good progress on the Nav. The car we test drove just came off the truck so they told us the Nav had not been programmed yet so we didn't get to see for ourselves.

 

Glad to see all you cats come out of the wood work

Merry Christmas gents

 

I say go EZ36, you can make it an 11 second car with some boost

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0KnUFYB--jDPJ-km5lSpvJvEJtCIdgl

on the other hand, parts for the EJ25 are freaking everywhere

 

Vtec kicked in joe! (sorry I had to say it)

Cool air intake, magnaflow exahust, next: ssteel headers and maybe later cams

 

I like that ole Evinrude behind that Honda

 

Marine Mechanic son i can't help myself

 

Speaking of marine related things......

I have a habit of building things for people as gifts for their birthdays and Christmas. My dad's gift this Christmas took me a little longer than normal. my folks bought a 44 foot boat a little over a year ago. they are traveling around on it a lot, as my father nears retirement. the frequently drop anchor, and take the dinghy to shore for dinner/drinks. they then end up returning to the boat at after dark. to help them both locate the boat, as well as make boarding it from the dinghy easier, I wanted to get them some lights that could illuminate the entire rear of the boat, and the water around it. then I decided I didn't want them to have to leave the lights on all night if they didn't want to. the solution was a wireless controller.

end result: I built a waterproof box that houses batteries for the light, so It can run independent of the boats electronics. it also house all of the circuitry and wireless module. the wireless unit and the lights are powered by two 12 volt batteries, and it will run the lights for a long time, but I wanted this to be a set it and forget it kind of thing, so I wired up a solar panel with a built in charge regulator, so they'll never have to manually re-charge the box.

then my mom mentioned to me that my dad was looking into having a backup camera installed on the boat, to make getting in and out of smaller slips at the dock easier with just a single person. so now the box and remote also power/activate a backup camera and monitor.

the box itself. master on/off switch, and a 12v charging plug (just in case you want to charge a phone or something).


waterproof wire penetrations. top one is power in for the solar charger. bottom two are power and ground out to the lights and camera.


the guts


solar panel. just over 1 square foot. box sticking off the bottom is the charge regulator.


gave him two lights with some pretty serious brackets to mount them to the handrail on the upper deck of the boat, facing backwards, to light up everything behind the boat.


the monitor and camera. the monitor may not be needed, as I think the nav system on the boat has video in channels. being that it is going to be around salt water almost constantly, I got a more robust, durable camera than what I use on my truck.



waterproof plugs on everything




the remote. tested at roughly 1/8 of a mile, and it worked great. couldn't test from any farther, since I would have needed some waders to walk ant further away.


wiring harness all coiled up, ready to go down the boat for install.

 

That looks so clean you'd think the box was destined for that application, and that wiring is probably some of the cleanest I've ever seen, Toyota factory wiring isn't even that clean

 

thanks. it's got a little more going on than some of my past projects, so I've had cleaner.

started a thread a while back about my utility/light station, which then turned into a portable waterproof stereo build as well

some fun project ideas in here if you're looking for something to do.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ultimate-off-road-utility-light-and-power-station.322666/

 

that is super cool, need to get the truck back to 100% first, and the longer i think about it the more i think im gonna end up just getting a project vehicle, so that if i break it its not a huge deal, looking at building a rallycross car right now, so probably a subie as they are cheap and built like legos

 

Colin, i gotta project i could drag down to Lusby 4 ya!!!!

 

as already stated, very clean sir!




oh, and a ride on yer Dad's boat or its a scam!!!

 

Using winter break to freshen up all that sun faded hardware!





Never really got into all the Tactical get up, but I thought this AR-15 carry box would make great dry storage. I'll take the foam out and seal and bolt it down after the paint dries. Like how it's slim and won't make to much noise or catch wind.

 

Hopefully I didn't miss it on here but does anyone know if you can buy the Maryland flag TRD sticker somewhere online?

Thanks!