2016 Appalachian Toyota Round-Up (Labor Day Weekend - Windrock Park, TN)

If you climb under your driver side cab and look up to about where the drivers left mid-thigh will be you will see a wiring harness that makes a couple turns off the frame and then enters the cab. On the last trail I ran over a limb that flipped up and got caught between the frame and my sliders and was strong enough to grab that grommet and tear that hole open to at least twice the original size. This was honestly one of those "one in a million" things that had us all scratching our heads. As soon as it went in it grabbed that section of wire and yanked it causing the following obvious damage.

1. Hole under drivers seat.
2. No air conditioning or fan.
3. No window control. (Front windows stuck in down position.)
4. No speedometer.
5. No odometer.
6. ABS light on.
7. Emergency brake light on.
8. VSC light on.
9. TPMS light on.

With all of that i had a problem going into the event as my electrician moved some wires around to "make things neater" and I didn't notice anything was wrong until after we parted ways and I then saw that the IBS dual battery manager was throwing some crazy lights at me. I believe now that he piled all of the IBS wiring into one place instead of leaving it where it was supposed to be. I hold myself partially to blame on that one for not remembering that there are certain wires that cannot just be hung on the most convenient post and speaking up. In the end I think the IBS unit was registering a fault and trying to correct it. It's unplugged from the harness now but I think the damage is done. I'll pull the batteries and put them on the bench charger and keep my fingers crossed. Hate to lose a pair of brand new batteries.

Truck is on its last leg to the house. Took over nine hours to find a tow truck driver that wanted to make money on a holiday. Everyone else refused. In about three and a half hours it will be in the driveway and I'll be $1,400.00 lighter.

 

Got a dialysis treatment in, emptied out the Tacoma, and will trailer it to a friends shop tomorrow. Sadly I again didn't take enough pictures. I have to apologize for that as I see all of the cool toys and meet their owners, I simply forget to bust out my camera phone. I did hang some GoPro cameras off of my truck - first time for me - and I'll sift through that and share soon.

 

Gary, it sucks to hear about the truck. That was like a once in a lifetime thing that happened to it. It was good to see you again and meet your wife and little one!

I will have a good amount of pictures to upload once I go through them and put them on my computer. Not to mention the pictures and videos that other people took while out on the trails.

 

Dang that sounds like a not so fun time. Well at least you're back now, right?

 

Yeah all good now had a local shop retube it with 3/16" wall tube. To give me a little better protection just in case. They had to put a new yoke in it and an ujoint. Cost me 265$. Much less than a new drive shaft. Haven't got to really test it at speed. Max I hit was 35. But seemed vibe free. The guy told me they don't balance either. He said they just get it straight and don't have any problems. But bring it back if I have any and they can try to balance it.

 

They don't balance? What kind of fly by night drive shaft shop did you find?

And don't bother with a heavier wall tube. With the length of the driveshaft the heavy wall will make it too heavy. Build or buy a traction bar and you won't have any issues.

 

Nobody around here "balances" them. They all say, that they get them so straight they don't have any problems. And nobody around can balance a two piece. This place said they could balance it but they'd have to do the two pieces separately. It was a good bit heavier trying to put it back on.

 

Well it certainly looks good. If you're ever in Cleveland area and need it balanced, Henderson driveline in Westlake specializes in that stud and does a great job in my experience.

 

Sweet. Yes it definitely looks better. Seems ok. Haven't been able to find and problems. Yet.

 

PHOTO DUMP