Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Love your build keep up the great work.

 

Flip Pac Power
March 2016

The Tacoma comes with an AC outlet in the rear, but no 12V. Who thought of that? The Flip Pac has two bare bones interior lights but FRP does not connect to power during installation. I've got grander lighting plans in the future, but for now might as well get power back to the bed and get those two lights connected.

My planned power requirements for this truck are quite low. There will be no winch. There will be no refrigerator. No off road lighting. No additional radios or amplifiers. The only camp power will be for some LED lighting and probably some USB charging ports. I do plan on permanently wiring my Viair 400P at some point, but other than that no other accessories need to be connected to the battery.

Based on those very limited power requirements I've opted to keep things simple and light. Sticking with a single factory sized battery. Going up to 31M usually breaks the factory mount. A second battery really isn't needed for camp with this low a draw. I've got a compact jump starter as an emergency backup should some sort of unexpected draw down in camp occur. With only two new connections (Flip Pac and Viair) no need for a distribution block either.

I did want to minimize the number of connections right up at the battery clamps and so for camper power I connected inside the engine compartment fuse box where there is a large lug. This keeps things a little cleaner:

Flip Pac Power Connection
​

I used a simple inline ATC fuse holder tucked where various wiring harnesses connect in the fuse box. This run is red 12 AWG, plenty large for the few hundred mA the LED lighting will draw. It is a single wire run with a ground point picked up further back. The entire run to the back is enclosed in 3/8 split wiring loom. In the picture above you can see the wiring loom head off to the right past the brake lines. I did not route through the cabin as I am not going to have any cab switch, the power switch will be in the Flip Pac itself.

The cable was tucked behind heat shields as appropriate passing the exhaust and cat. Basically it follows the brake lines to the rear. At the rear wheel there is a factory ground point and there I added the ground connection into the wiring loom.

Ground Point at Rear Wheel
​

You can see at this point we've met up with the factory wiring harness that goes to the rear. That wiring harness reaches the undercarriage at the rear of the cabin and my power run follows it along the way. The power run then follows one branch of the factory harness into the cavity behind the driver side rear tail light. Within that cavity I left about a ten inch service loop for any future slack requirements.

Finding a decent exit point required some thought and compromise. Most folks route to one of the cubbies in the bed, but in my build those reside under the raised floor while I need this power up at the Flip Pac. After much fussing, hemming and hawing I concluded the best compromise was just to put a hole in the metal surrounding the tail light cavity. I drilled with a step bit to get an opening large enough for a grommet that could pass two 12 AWG wires.

Power Entry into Bed
​

I passed the wires themselves through the grommet and then put them back into wiring loom. The loom was then wedged in a gap in the Flip Pac to bring it up to where the Flip Pac power wires are. At this stage connecting was made with insulated 0.250 blade connectors (a.k.a. FASTONs). The main point here was to run power and make a temporary direct connection to the Flip Pac lighting power. More fanciness will ensue later!

For now I put one red LED bulb in one fixture and one warm wight LED bulb in the other fixture as the most basic form of red/white selection. My daughter and I used this setup on our recent Afton Canyon trip and it worked out nicely. Next I'd like to make each fixture support both red or white light. After that I've got a variety of supplemental lighting ideas.

Let There Be Light!​

 

Any photos of this crossover with the RCI skid installed? I'm looking to do the same thing! Already have the stock RCI skid and want to do the reroute.

 

Clean job on the aux power wring. Any plans to add V/UHF radio one day?

 

Don't have a specific photo of that, but I can try to get one in the next few days!

Nope, though I know lots of people do put them to good use in their rigs. I've never run with more than one other vehicle for which handheld FRS is just fine. Especially since the likelihood of the other vehicle I'm with having a V/UHF and a licensed operator are low I generally don't have a desire to hit repeaters out in the wild just for fun and for true emergencies I've got reliable satellite links to depend on. My ham hobby is pretty much dead these days, too many other hobbies to occupy my limited time!

 

Are you able to access the Cams to do alignments with the LCA skids on or do you have to pull them off to get your alignments?

 

I haven't tried myself but it looks designed so a box end wrench would get in there. I'm not sure an alignment shop would want to do that so my assumption is I'd take them off. They are just two bolts each so that would be a pretty easy operation.

Which reminds me, I've got to take the LCA bolts out to apply anti-seize to them soon!

(3YR UPDATE: Alignment shop was in fact able to do the cams without removing the LCA skids.)

 

I gues this wouldn't work on a 05 taco since the wiring changed in 12? Is there a DIY for the earlier years of 2nd gen? This is something I've thought about multiple times!

 

Yes the exact same concept works with earlier models it is just the fuse/relay box is laid out a bit differently. Here's one link showing what the mod looks like on a early 2nd gen model:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cheap-free-mods.4838/#post-45430

Not a hard mod to do and I've found it really useful!

 

Nice!! That is awesome! Thanks so much man! Attacking two projects on the truck tomorrow and now this makes #3!

 

wonder if I can use heat shield wrap, instead hose clamps

 

I'm sure you could. Both approaches would protect nearby parts from getting too hot but understand the difference in effects between the two on the pipe itself.

With exhaust wrap you are preventing the wrapped section of pipe from radiating much heat at all. So the wrapped section gets significantly hotter than normal while the parts of the pipe just past the wrap also get hotter and radiate all the heat that the wrapped section can not.

With the spaced hose clamp shield only one side of the shielded section of pipe can't radiate very effectively while the opposite side still radiates heat just fine. Also the shielded section still has significant cooling by convection because the shield is spaced away from the pipe. The end result is the increase in temperature of the shielded section of pipe is much lower than with a full wrap.

Does this matter at all? How much hotter is the pipe section when wrapped vs. using the hose clamp shield? I haven't the foggiest idea! I just know the wrapped pipe will be hotter than the hose clamp shielded pipe. I also know people use wrap effectively lots of places on other vehicles and I'd expect it to be just fine here especially since the shielded section is not very long.

 

Nice thoughtful build and great writeups.

I'm going to try to keep things light as well.

Have you looked at any light rear bumpers? I can't seem to find many options.

 

Yes! Well, depending exactly what you are looking for - there are always trade-offs. For me I know I'll never tow and I want that low hanging receiver hitch out of the way. The receiver hitch is actually pretty amazingly heavy!

All Pro makes an aluminum rear bumper with optional side panels. It isn't a "high clearance" bumper in the sense of needing to cut body panels - it is just a bolt on.

The All Pro aluminum rear bumper has an optional receiver hitch which weighs as much as the bumper. Bumper is 30 lbs, receiver hitch is 32 lbs. It is hidden behind the license plate so as to not reduce clearance. So if you want to forgo towing (like I do) the All Pro is quite light weight (but add 7 lbs if you want the extra panels for the side). Also be aware if you use the All Pro receiver hitch you really can't fit any sort of oversized spare under the truck anymore.

Near as I can tell the OEM tow package receiver hitch and chrome bumper combined are about 80 pounds together. The chrome bumper by itself seems to be estimated by folks on TW and places shipping parts to come in around 20 lbs. Aftermarket class III hitches for the Tacoma are around 45-50 lbs and the OEM one is a class IV so probably a few pounds more than that.

So I'm estimating by going with an aluminum rear without any receiver hitch will actually knock about 40 lbs off of my curb weight.

I'll probably order the bumper this week or next!

 

I was hoping for a bumper that could carry a spare tire. I asked AllPro if they can make their aluminum bumper with swingouts, they said no unfortunately.

 

Pelfreybilt is a great option.

 

Do they make rear bumpers in aluminum? I don't see any offered.

 

Good question. Never noticed that. The rear steel bumper is only 65lbs IIRC. So aluminum isn't needed in my opinion. Heck I want MORE weight on my rear end. Steel is much stronger than aluminum so it may be a protection issue.

But you could certainly call them! Satin Pelfrey is awesome. I'd imagine either they can do one or give you a legit reason why they don't offer it in aluminum.

@Pelfreybilt

 

I inquired about rear aluminum bumpers from Pelfreybilt, they do not make them. Tow hitch strength was apparently the issue.

 

You might try Aluminess, they definitely make aluminum swing outs for the Tacoma. Not sure about the towing options, but it looks like they can integrate with stock tow package receiver hitch as well.