Where Form Meets Function. Steveo27’s Bolt-on Thread (Camping/Fishing/Weekend Exploring Build)

Seat spacers -

- 10.9 flange bolts

- Hardened steel shaft collars - 3/8” ID. 3/4” OD. 1/2” tall.





Under 10$ from the local Ace Hardware.

They raise the rear of the seat bottom up just enough. Seat wasnt uncomfortable before, but its more comfortable now.


Installed an EZ-Down on the tailgate -




You can see the modifications I had to do to get the piston and cable to not bind.






1. I had to trim down the inner tailgate skin. (Light grey spot in the picture) super easy, just used a wood file to reshape the edge.

2. I had to tweak the cable. Bent the top mount so the cable pushes itself towards the taillight. Bent the bottom mount so the cable pushes towards the tailgate. You can see the S shape the cable makes now. This lets the cable fold over and sit next to itself instead of on top of itself. This should keep it from binding like it does for people.

3. I added another washers to the bottom mount along with the factory washer. This keeps the bottom cable from binding on the inner skin.

Worth the little bit of trouble I think.


Added yellow LED bulbs to the Hella 500s.

I had to make a set of bulb springs to clear the new bulbs. The Hella ones didn’t fit the new bulbs. Added male spade terminals to them since they ground through the body of the lights.









Light output sucks compared to a modern LED light bar. Not super concerned, just dig how the lights fill the void in the Satoshi.

 

Swapped out the old ditch light pods for a set of side shooter pods.

Before.



After.



I may put yellow Laminex on them like the old ones at some point.


6000k Bumper light bar & 4500k high beam.



6000k Bumper light bar, 4500k high beams, & 6000k side shooter.




Im impressed with the difference the side shooter style pods makes. Really adds a lot more light off to the side of the truck and fills in where the headlights/bumper bar stop.

I’ve had pretty good luck with Amazon LED light bars and pods. These are a cheapy 40$ set. I've been ordering from the seller "Northpole Light" on Amazon for a while now. Seems to be a good compromise between quality and price and warranty.

I found as long as you specifically search for 6000K LEDs they have a much better white light than non 6000k specific lights. Those always seem to the be ugly blue tinted 6500k-7000k LEDS.

 

i havent popped in here for a while, damn you been busy! looks great!

 

Thanks.

 

Enjoying the thread! 2 Questions: How are you maxtrax mounted in the bed? What kind of awning did you end up with - looks DIY?

 

Thanks.

The awing is an ARB Ebay knock off -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Tent-A...hash=item3fb86858d0:m:mze-kpwY7QDYOgcQ61IMmEA

6.6' x 8.2'

The traction board mounts -







Bolted em to the rails using T nuts. I also replaced the wing nuts with knobs.

 

What kind of traction boards are you using? I’ve been looking at the Maxtracs but wasn’t sure how well they actually perform.

 

$108 X-BULL New Recovery Traction Tracks Sand Mud Snow Track Tire Ladder 4WD (Green,3gen), Bag+Hardware+Tracks

https://www.amazon.com/X-BULL-Recov...ix=X+bull+,aps,955&sr=1-1-catcorr-spons&psc=1

I haven’t used em yet though.


This thread has some good info -
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...tion-offroad-boar-4wd-recovery-boards.512366/

 

Quick update...

Wasted some tax return money and ordered a set of Ride Rites finally. Excited to finally correct the saggy ass rear end of the the truck.

Also ordered 2 Molle pouches, 1 for the first aid kit and a spare black with use TBD. I plan on adding mounts to the rear of the headrest to attach these pouches.

Today, made another step in the right direction on finishing the interior lighting conversion.

Added a red gel filter to my Ultragauge and compass today.





Interior lighting is 99% done now. I just need to change the passenger side air bag indicator over to red and it’s done.

 

Cleaned MAF and throttle body and the K&N on Friday





Kinda embarrassed how dirty it is. This is less than a years worth of dust.



Also replaced the spark plugs.

Measured the old plugs. .047”-.050” after roughly 50k miles.



Hoping this bumps the fuel mileage back up a little. Tryin to squeeze as much as I can outta it.

Also

Trimmed the fender liners a little bit more to add a bit more clearance.


Installed a Grid It to the console lid on Sunday.

Took a slight different route trimming it. I pulled the stitching from the border then trimmed the Grid It then restitched it instead of just hacking it up like most do.



And I screwed it in place instead of Velcro.







I need to order a glovebox organizer now.

 

Tacticool mod of the day -

Picked up a couple cheapy Molle pouches from eBay.



Added some nylon straps to the headrest covers.





I transferred all the stuff from my first aid kit into it.

The pouch weighs practically nothing so I’m not worried too much about it hanging here. Plus the inside is backed with nylon as well.

I need to do the passenger side one tomorrow

 

Recent pic from this weekends fishing trip.

 

Looking good man! Seeing your Jetta is making selling my mk1 ever harder!

How rough was it fitting those 285s? Did you have to CMC?

 

Keep the MK1 for sure!

It wasn’t horrible. No cab mount chop. Tweaked the fender liner a good bit in the rear to make room. Same with the from. Also had to trim the bottom corners of the flares to gain a little more room too.

 

I can definitely make due with that, I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get the 285s and just do what I have to do to make them work!
I plan on very light wheeling (there's just not a lot of places nearby anyway), and it seems as though we have very similar goals! So has off road experiences been with them?
Thanks man!

 

A good alignment and the proper offset is key to fitting 285s without metal work I’ve found.

Tons of good info in this thread describing how to achieve a ton of clearance just through an proper alignment.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...driving-report-with-light-racing-ucas.158795/

So far so good off road. I don’t do anything extreme, just forest service roads and stuff like that when camping and fishing.

 

Ride Rites and Daystars installed

 

Do you have any issues with them flapping in the wind without the other side holding them up? Mine are rubbing on the section that you cut out and I was thinking of either using a heatgun to bend them or cut it out all together.

 

I actually threw a zip tie through each one to pull that inside corner back even further to make more room.

They didn’t flap pre zip tie though.

I’ll snap a picture of what I did at some point for you.

 

Couple pics from this past weekends adventure.





Not sure why I waited 5 years to install the Ride Rites. It’s amazing the difference they make. Even with a bed full of camping / fishing gear the truck rode so much better than it used to, especially on forest service roads.

1000% glad I put them on the truck.

One thing I have noticed is I don’t like how high off the brackets my new ditch lights sit. I need to pull the brackets off and chop an inch or so outta em.

One other thing, I think I’m gonna put the chrome grille back on it.