What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Watch out, that wolf looks ready to strike!!!

 

I have 265/70r17 duratracs on my Tacoma. Absolutely love them. They are one of the best tires iv ever used. I liked them so much that I had 285’s on the truck for years that were duratracs and when I bought a new set in December it was no question to me I was getting duratracs again. They perform amazing in the snow too. They just grab that snow and stop fairly quick.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL with your Tacomas !!!!
Have a very good time !!

 

Sorry if you already answered this but I gotta do this soon and as well would be interested in knowing what you used

 

Don't see many Old Man Tan Tacos on here anymore. Nice truck!

 

I’m pretty sure that’s a weatherproof Molex connector. I’ve crimped Molex connectors, but never the weatherproof type. The way you have the wire part is correct. I don’t know about the seal. Toyota does not use Molex brand connectors, and their seals are not crimped and slide on the wire.

 

Hundreds of US tanks are going to fail (according to other people's posts) because their wiring harnesses are made like this

because I'm the guy that made those harnesses. Every single harness that I built passed the company that I worked for QC department and passed the military's inspection as well. There's also at least 20 cars out there that will fail for the exact same reason.

This method

Places 100% of the stress of keeping the wire in the connector upon the copper strands of the wire because that green seal is extremely squishy and has no density whatsoever and therefore will not hold anything to anything. It was built without density so its ridges will squish and hold itself inside the plastic connector housing.

This crimping tool crimps the connector with a round crimper

and that will never hold those copper strands under any stress of pulling on the wire itself.

You'll notice this connector was not crimped by a round crimper

but was actually crimped by a tool that had a pin hanging down in order to fold the connectors crimp tabs and therefore produces a much stronger crimp.


Ah yes, the 1990's idea of "we'll create our own industry by creating standards to make other companies look more credible by placing an acronym in their stats to appear all knowing and we'll stay in business by other companies promoting our acronym." Lol. An engineer's and a marketing persons dream come true by selling nothing but an acronym and a claim of being correct.

Ok, we may now return to our regularly scheduled misinformation... flame away.

 

I've never had any issues with it. It has a strong resistance to vibration, completely sealed, and is perfect for my extra auxiliary equipment needs. Optimas have a rep of not being what they once were since production was moved outside the US, but I've been fortunate with the Optimas I've owned since then.

 

They are also one of the lightest tire choices as well

 

It was done like that for decades with zero problems.

Before I was involved in wiring on a professional level I did it exactly like your photo for years. I rewired my first vehicle, a 1950 Chevy truck, using only that method (lol!). Give me a break, I was 14 years old.

Then sometime between 15 and 21 I saw a guy do it like this

(and putting electrical tape over it) so I started doing it like that. It made the connection less bulky and when you're wiring an entire vehicle like that (lol!) bulkiness comes into play (lol!).

But this

makes absolutely zero sense to me. It's poor by design, at best.

Ideally you don't want the strength of the tiny copper strands being the only thing that keeps it together (like twisting the wires together does, lol) but use the wires insulation to keep everything together like this

The insulation is squishy enough for the crimp on it to keep it still/together but dense enough to not shred apart easily like this stuff shreds apart

The raised ridges on the weather seal is what keeps the seal in the plastic connector body.
because it's so pliable.

 

just buy deutsche connectors and be done with it, seal is part of the connector body so no seal is required on the crimp! also molex mxl or higher end connectors are all designed like this!

 

This afternoon when I rolled into work

 

I have been building cables and wiring harnesses for 20 years, and while we admittedly don't build a ton of stuff that uses the wire seal type contacts I have never seen one that didn't call for it to be crimped with the insulation support crimp. Even with the seal in there it still is tight enough to just support the insulation. Most of the strength of the crimp should come from the wire crimp itself. Look at a machined contact for a circular mil connector, I don't know of any of these that crimp onto the insulation at all. With proper backshell strain reliefs and harness install stress relief, there shouldn't be any strain put on the contacts anyways.

 

From the Waytek catalog. Crimping instructions for weather pack contacts is in the bottom lefthand corner.
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/waytek/catalog231/index.php#/40

 

Decided I needed a load of gravel to fix some bad spots in my driveway. Bad idea.

 

Yikes. That's one heavy load of gravel

 

Yeah not sure what I was thinking. It was one skid steer scoop. I have a add a leaf to. Should have used my trailer

 

Just bought these. Hopefully the rain will stop so I can install them
I know not the most expensive light but they will deffinately improve my.night driving vision. 6 inch

 

Its stripped and pushed up

 

I slid the rubber bootie over it. I see what you mean about the wires being exposed to the last little crimp areas....hioe the way I did it works