Hodakaguy's Overland Tacoma Builds - on to new adventures.

Great builds you and your father have! How is the 3M Acrylic Plus Trim Tape holding up with the miles you guys have done? Putting holes in the cab has also been the one thing I really didn’t like about having a snorkel..

Awesome job either way and keep it up!

 

Thanks. The tape is holding up great, rock solid. I’ve used this same tape for other vehicle applications in the past and it holds up really well.

Hodakaguy

 

score. Really enjoying the build and knowledge being passed along.

 

@Hodakaguy
Your current/future 3rd gen build is by far my favorite. Clean, classy, and hella functional. I can only dream to immulate what you’ve done thus far, and look forward to what’s to come.

You and your dad are a great example of self sufficient craftsman. I hope to one day possess 1/3 of y’alls skills/abilities/passion, and be able to share that with my son as well.
Thanks for the inspiration

 

Sounds familiar but your days seem to have 48h ;-)
I'm building a simple bed rack and it lasts already weeks and is still not ready to mount...
So keep building please...

 

I like to stay busy...sometimes burning the candle at both ends lol.

Hodakaguy

 

Let’s talk radio knobs. Installed a new set of machined aluminum radio knobs today, these things are the ticket!! These knobs sticks out further than stock (about double), have a knurled grip on the sides and they look factory! They also eliminate the super annoying trait of accidentally changing the radio station when you try and adjust the volume with the stock radio knob, by pushing the knob out further your fingers can grip the knob without bumping the touch screen.

Available on TacomaWorld by sending a PM to “Tacowiede”. They cost $29 a set and are totally worth it to me. Quality is a 10 out of 10.

Link here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/new-option-for-radio-knobs.543100/




Stock next to the new aluminum knobs.








Stock






And new knobs.






Hodakaguy

 

Any special tricks to getting the stock one off?

 

Use of force, pull.

 

Just pull on the knobs and they pop off, about a 30 second install total.

Hodakaguy

 

Spent the weekend up in Troy Montana, very cool country up there. My mother is building a cabin outside of Troy and I went up to install the HVAC system, it's now up and running and keeping the cabin nice and toasty . With the heat pump work out of the way we had a little time to explore around the area. Went up to Libby and checked out some local sites as well. Will explore more in this area this summer.

Cooking up some lunch on the BioLite stove. This stove has been great, we use it almost daily on our trips and it makes a great way to carry a super compact BBQ.





Crossing a cool old bridge in Troy. This is the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, opened in 1912.








Just up the river we stopped to check out this cool swinging bridge over the Kootenai river. If your traveling through this area this is a must stop.








My son and wife crossing the bridge.










Picture of my ugly mug checking out the Kootenai Falls.




Playing with a ND filter, forgot the tripod so had to make do with a rock.




On the way back home another Tacoma/FWC was chasing us down the highway




Hodakaguy

 

Quick after work upgrade. On our last outing I noticed that the USB charge ports in the camper charged my phone and tablet very slowly, there is no rating printed on the factory USB units so I assume they are cheap low amperage chargers.

Time to upgrade!

Here's the factory USB chargers, taken as I'm removing them from the camper.

Blue Sea USB Chargers available here: CLICK HERE






I'll be installing two Blue Sea 4.8A chargers. I've used these before and they work great.




The new Blue Sea charger next to the removed factory unit.




Marine heat shrink terminals installed on the factory wiring and new chargers going in.






And all installed...ready to charge up our gadgets while we travel.








Hodakaguy

 

I just installed one of these in my powerbox, and noticed it only draws 12v .4A to charge my Pixel 2, and only charges it at "charging" not "Fast Charging" speed.
Let me know what you see, as I want to make sure mine's not a dud.

 

I'll let you know how it goes, although I'm not set up to measure input current to the charger as it's currently mounted. Due to the voltage difference between input and output of the charger the input current may be drawing less since it's at a higher voltage.

Hodakaguy

 

Time for a TPAM mount power upgrade.

Just like the camper the TPAM mount came with a cheap low power USB charger that won't charge my Garmin Montana and charges the phone very slowly. I'll swap this unit out with a Blue Sea 4.8A unit (2.4A per channel). NOTE: Jeff from ExpeditionEssentials seen my post and may start offering the Blue Sea chargers with the TPAM when you order....Nice.

Blue Sea 4.8A USB Charger available here: CLICK HERE

First removed the TPAM from the truck. Here you can see the low power charger I'll be replacing. It's quickly removed from the mount.






Now a little back story on my install: I originally planned on using a Blue Sea 4.8A round charger that I already had on hand, Just like the ones I installed in the camper. I figured I would file some notches in the TPAM mount to allow use of the round charger in the factory square cutout, I would then fabricate a cover plate to cover any gaps on the sides of the charger. Filing the notches and installing the round charger went to plan but I failed to notice the charger was to long and would hit the dash when trying to install the unit back onto the truck......Time for Plan B. I ordered a square Blue Sea 1039 charger which is a direct replacement (should have just started with this unit) and fabricated a small aluminum cover plate to cover up the half round notches I had previously filed into the TPAM, if I hadn't done that it would have been a 5 minute plug and play job! Oh Well...what I get for not thinking things all the way through

The notches I cut in for the round charger.




Here's the square Blue Sea charger next to the original unit.






Time to fabricate a cover plate to hide the half round notches I filed into the TPAM mount. A small chunk of aluminum will do nicely.






And painted a matching textured black.




New charger installed in the TPAM mount. I need to trim the rubber gasket on the back of the charger a bit so it doesn't stick out past my cover plate.









This charger is also slightly longer than the original unit, to give a little extra clearance between the electrical connections and the dash I bent the tabs upward on the back of the charger.




And all mounted back up. My Montana is now happily charging . Overall a quick and easy upgrade (If you don't try and make it fit a round charger lol).



Hodakaguy

 

Wow, just stumbled onto this awrsome build. Sub'd...

 

Sunday night and not ready for the weekend to be over? Wife wants to camp out in the Swift tonight...in the Shop. Sounds like fun to me






Hodakaguy

 

@Hodakaguy Hey, what hardware did you use to get the air bag valves set up at the license plate holder on your truck? I've got a set of air bags on the way and want to do the same.

 

Your build is very well thought out and executed! Thanks for sharing such detailed posts with us.

 

I just used the factory hardware that comes with the air bags, you just need to drill the holes out a bit bigger on the truck and license plate and slide then air valves through.

Hodakaguy