Chris' 1794 Tundra

Well it is time to start my build tread.... little back history
I first started with a 2002 Tundra SR5 access cab, 4.7L V8 2wd that I bought used in 2006 after a hail storm totaled my car. Truck had 68K miles, now has over 253K and my wife drives it now.


In late July of 2016, my wife's 06 Maxima was on the verge of catastrophic mechanical failure (it barely made it to the dealership), so we traded it in for a loss and bought a brand new 2016 Tundra SR5 TSS edition, 2wd with the 4.6L engine. I drove the truck for 5 or so weeks, trying to like the truck, but I could not take the small 4.6L anymore. It just did not have the power to weight ratio that I was use to from the 02 Tundra


So on September 10th I traded the 2016 in for a 2014 Sunset Bronze 1794 edition, 4wd, 5.7L with 62K miles. I originally tried to buy the 1794 in July, but the dealership had just received it and would not budge on price, well 6 weeks later they accepted my first offer. I now owned the truck I wanted in the color I wanted - time for upgrades.

The day I bought it




Current setup:

Wheels & Tires:
Method Standards, machine finish 18x9, +18 backspace
Nitto Ridge Grappler 295/70/R18

Suspension:
Icon 2.5 coilovers - non resi
Icon Tubular upper control arms
Icon 2.5 rear shock - non-resi
Toytec shackles
TRD rear sway bar
BMC with Relentless Fabrication plates

Interior:
Headlight Revolution LED interior lights
Edge Insight CTS2
ESP 3 compartment metal under seat storage unit
Center console organizer
Center consoe tray
P3 brake controller in ESP dash panel
ceiling mounted DVD player w/wireless headphone (came with the truck)
FRAC front camera harness

Sound system:
JL fix86 w/remote - removed June 2018
Rockford Fostgate DSR1 processor
JL HD 750/1 mono amp with knob
JL RD400/4 4 channel amp
JL C5 components - front
JL C2 components - rear
JL C1 tweeters - dash speakers
2 JL W1 10" subs in a Tech12volt carpeted box w/ toyota logo
Fully Dynamated doors, floor, and back wall
Kicker 4ga dual amp kit
Pure copper speaker wire

Exterior:
Retrax bed cover (came with the truck)
Toyota LED bed lights
Headlight Revolution LED 3rd break light and cargo lights
LED license plate lights
Aries bull bar (came with the truck) - Removed December 2017
Rear breather mod
TRD Pro Skid plate
Tailgate pop-a-lock
SDHQ ABS gaurds
ICI Magnum RT bumper w/o hoop
ENVE Grilles custom grille w/lights
P&P Engineering rock sliders type 4


Lighting:
Rigid Flush mounted back-up lights
Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro amber fog lights
30" single row with Rago Fabrications hidden bumper bracket - Removed December 2017
Baja Design amber sport Wide cornering on Rago Fabrication ditch brackets
KC cyclone lights under hood
40" curved bar - in grille
Amber accent pods - in grille
Infinite offroad rock lights - 24 lights
Custom Retrofit headlights

Electrical:
Bussmann RTMR fuse and relay box (using custom PowerTrays mount)
OTRTTW rocker switches
GP audio battery terminals
Odyssey battery

Performance:
K&N air filter
DAP remote tune
BAM TRD replacement exhaust w/ dumps

How the truck sits now

 

InteriorLED's (Photo is from the 2016 Tundra I traded in, But I moved them over to the 1794)


I started to collect parts, Got the wheels on sale from Amazon and then the Icons during Black Friday


In preparation for new larger tires, I did the body mount chop up front with plates from Relentless. I am not a professional welder by any means, but the grinder cleaned it up some



Then I tackled the rear suspension.
Hopefully someone learns from my mistake, I did components in the wrong order. I started with the rear shocks, then did the rear sway bar the following weekend, then the shackles the next. In hindsight the shackle should be installed first so you donot have to undo all the previous work, then the shock, then the sway bar.




Christmas weekend I tackled the front suspension, plus wheels and tires
After the alignment, I had to heat gun the front part of the inner fender well where the tire was rubbing

 

Got in on an early group buy for an Edge Insight CTS2 for Toyota's from a Tundra Facebook page. It displays the correct speed for the larger tires plus displays temps and other info


Christmas was good to my truck this year - P3 Brake controller with ESP dash panel and the ESP metal storage system

 

Nice ride! Love the seats in those trucks, cooled seats will be nice in the texas heat.

Going to fender flares? They tend to look odd on 1794's but you have giant tires on that beast.

 

Beautiful trucks

My next truck will be a tundra

Tired of these underpowered tacomas

 

I actually have 3 color matched fender flares I got for free, just need to find a 4th one.

 

Dont get the 4.6 V8, go for the large engine. I learned the hard way about an underpowered truck. If the 2016 had the 5.7, I would likely still have it.

 

Yeah I can't imagine the 2016 trade in was in your favor

Appreciate the help

I want the front bench seat option

 

It was actually only a $400 loss since I had added a few things to the 2016 during the short time I had it.

 

Installed a TRD Pro skid plate i picked up from craiglist and a pair of Rigid flush mounted backup lights from the recent group buy.

 

Few updates:
Tinted all the windows and windshield (no pic)

Installed Rago Fabrication ditch brackets and pod lights.


Installed Rago Fabrication hidden bumper brackets and 30" single row light bar





Wiring the lights in is the difficult part, I wanted a clean installation and did not want multiple harnesses all over the place. I choose to go with a Bussmann RTMR and 80A circuit breaker. I picked it up a few months ago from @Roo1041 that pre-wired it up with a harness with switch backs. The best location I could come up with that was easy access and would not block other things was the space right behind the passenger side headlight. I measured out the available space and drew up a couple options for a bracket, then made cardboard versions so I could test fit and make adjustments before cutting the metal.

Test fitting to the bracket

Test fitting in the truck

All wired up and painted


Ran the switch wires thru the firewall and made up the wire ends for the weatherproof connector.

 

Finished installing the RTMR

Installed a pair of KC cyclone lights under the hood

Installed switches in the center console, have room for future additions

Switch placement since the platinums and 1794's have no other free space for them. Have room for some growth.

 

Picked up a Rago fabrication flag pole holder and one of their non-rail mounts, but mounted to my rail so the flag pole would clear my Retrax cover.


Had washed the truck and mounted a flag for a San Antonio Tundra Crew fundraiser that was last month for the fallen San Antonio police officer


Picked up a white platinum grille locally for a great price. Had the surround and hood bulge color matched to match the truck. Have plans to replace the grille insert with a custom one.



Plan is to eventually replace the chrome and light grey bumper and bull bar with a Magnum RT or similar steel plate bumper.

 

Awesome truck man. Got something you might be interested in

 

Haven't updated in a while, but have not done much to the truck.

Picked up a pair of Baja Design sport wide cornering lights and the mounting kit with bezels. These things are bright, almost overpowering the stock low beams.



I received the FRAC harness from TundraTex At the end of September. I picked up the same camera I saw a few users with the Pro grille using (I don't have a pro grille but plan on replacing minewith a custom one at the end of the year). I learned the camera has to mount with the bolt shaft vertical, was hoping for horizontal. New camera will be in my future. No photos of the install, was under atime crunch. I followed @BlueBottle install write-up but rotated the switches 90 degrees, that I allowed me to keep the insulatedterminal connectors that comes on the harrness.

Picked up a sub box with Image Dynamic 10's and a JL HD750/1 amp from 1upper. Will be a while till I can install them as the JBLsystem requires the factor amp under the seat to remain if you keep the stock head unit, so a processor will be required. Leaning towardsthe JL Fix.


Cleaned up the truck for Texas Tundra meets that happened this weekend.

 

tundra crew texas takeover back in October
I joined in for a photo shoot up on logs

Photos from the Friday and Saturday meets

 

After many hours of installing dynamat on the inner and outer door skins, back wall and the floor, I spent a whole day running all the cabling, wiring up the JBL harness, installing all the speakers and amps. Tech12volts put together a great JL speaker package at a great price that sounds great. He answered dozens and dozens of emails I sent him all most instantly. I picked up the subs, box and JL HD amp up locally from @1UPPER. From tech12volts I picked up the JL Fix86 with remote, RX400/4 amp, C5 speakers for the front, C2 speakers for the rear, JBL harness and the speaker adapters.

I used 28 sheets of dynamat (101sf), have 4 sheets left from 3.5 bulk boxes I started with, 1 sheet of 1/4" dynaliner that I quartered and installed directly behind the speakers. Since my truck is also my daily driver I had to do things in stages so I could reassemble everything to drive to work. The doors took about 12 hours to dynamat inside and out using 14 sheets (51sf). I would say I achieved 90-95% coverage on the inner door skin, just cannot reach into some of the tight areas and 98-99% coverage on the door panel face. Just dynamatting helped improve the sound of the factory JBL speakers a lot, then when I installed the JL speakers I was floored by the sound difference.

 

Nice to see you here buddie!

 

Yeah, I am over here because of all the deals and group buys shaired here but not on tundras.com.

 

Back in December I picked up a Magnum bumper locally and replaced my grey and chrome factory bumper. I got a great deal on it since it did not have the angle hoop that most people get.


Had to trim an inch off of the front edge of the TRD pro skid plate as it was interfering with the bumper mounting bracket. The front center part of the skid is sandwiched between the frame and bumper bracket, plus the 2 bolt on each side at the tow hooks. I moved my Baja Design fogs over to the new bumper