How to: black box removal

@MountainDrew Clean job... Can you tell me why you made the small hole where the white dot is?

So, there's only one bolt holding the black box on? Thought I read somewhere there were three bolts in there...

Last question...what did you cut the liner with? Utility knife?

 

Was hoping this removed any data recorder Toyota had snuck in the truck incase I was in an accident Bigger tires are cool tho too.

 

If you read the whole thing it will answer all your questions. He cut the liner with a box cutter, un did all 3 bolts to remove the box. then Reused one of the bolt holes to hold down the liner after, thats why he showed a white dot to mark where he put a hole in the liner.

 

Thanks, but I wasn't asking the OP what he used to cut the liner. I was asking MountainDrew. Maybe he used something different to cut with...Also, MountainDrew's after picture shows the two bolts put back in up top, but just a small square hole w/ no bolt on the bottom. Hence, the questions.

 

Finally got around to removing the boxes...

Couldn't really tell from the posts above exactly what was going on (they were helpful, though), so just dove in and kind of figured it out on the fly...

It wasn't clear to me from the previous posts exactly how to cut the liner. After getting down there, it seemed like the best way was to cut the entire inside part of the liner off - basically just cutting from top to bottom and remove the whole inside part of the liner covering the box. Almost like cutting 1/3 of the box liner off.

On the first box (2nd picture), I cut too much off, but still had enough to bolt the remaining liner down.

On the second box, I cut less liner off leaving more to work with when bolting it down. I would say cut close to the tab to leave more liner to work with. A box cutter worked well.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the liner at the top of the box (after the box was removed), because is bunched up and didn't really lay flat...So, I pushed it flat as best I could and just cut out the liner part that was sticking up...A bit of it is still sticking/bunched up. Maybe there is a better way.

I just screwed in the remaining bolt. There is still a hole where the tab was.

One of the harder things (although it wasn't too hard) was marking the liner to cut a hole for bolting the liner back down. I just pressed the liner down on the wheel well and took note of where the bolt hole was, then quickly drilled a hole in the liner while I had the location in mind.

In hindsight, it might be helpful to put the bolts in while you press the liner down so that you have something to mark the liner with...

Best part? No more rubbing!

Here are the pics:

 

This thread covers a very serious issue, bravo OP

 

Here is a video of how I did the Black box Mod
I hope it might help someone

https://youtu.be/1RVXKwz-vQo

 

thanks for the vid, I just found a decent deal on some 30.5 tires I'm going to try.

 

Thanks!!! Doing this with my son tomorrow…Curious Geronimo1111 when you say “recommend cutting close to the tab to leave more flap” ….which tab do you mean? Is it the tab holding the plastic to the black box or another tab?

Holland1 did the 30.5” tires fit with no rubbing and do you a lift? I’m planning to put on 16x8 rims with 0 offset and 245/175/16 tires this weeks (30.5”). If they run I may go 235/75/16 instead (30”).