What can go wrong with my truck - or RysiuM build

Good news for me. After I started to commute to the construction site of my new house (to be) the gas mileage went up to 20mpg. This is what I used to have in California when I was commuting 60 miles a day to work. My construction site is similar distance from my current location and on that route the gas mileage went up from 15mpg what I was getting when I used my truck as a shopping cart (1 mile trips to the grocery store). Here it the site as it looks one week after groundbreaking (Tacoma is parked on my new driveway).



At this stage I had to bring a bit bigger trucks than my little Tacoma.

 

when are you going to have a TW house-warming party?

 

The plan is that construction will end mid-next year and move in before the end of the next year. But there is one condition: you have to drive in your Tacoma over here .

 

for those that cannot drive their Tacoma you can have a virtual party!

what do you have planned for a garage?

i could ship mine to London or France and drive through Germany, i drove through Germany once but it was in a rental VW van, my Tacoma was at home in the garage!

 

The house is relatively small (but big enough for the old fart like me) - about 2000 sq ft, but it has 3-cars oversized garage, that is about 1500 sq ft. All in one level (single story) so when needed I can easy navigate without single stair. My idea of retirement home .

 

More tree cutting and taking it to the pile. This time Tacoma did the service. Because I had to drive over freshly put loose soil I utilized 4L (with front hubs locked) and drove at idle rpm on the first gear.



The 25 miles commute to the construction site that mixes city and country roads driving puts me back at 20.5 mpg (checked at the pump) - the same as used to get in California. By the way calculating mpg at the pump requires a unit conversion calculator as my odometer is in miles but a fuel pump is in litters.

 

Coming back to Mama.

Finally I was able to replace license plates with US size. This summer government passed the regulation allowing some cars to carry "small" license plate, where the car does not have enough space for "normal size" plates. Of course the ticket will be issued if someone puts "small" plates on European car or US car that has designed space allowing for normal plates. Tacoma with factory rear bumper has just enough space for small plates, so my Taco qualifies.

During my last visit to USA I stopped by Folsom Lake Toyota (the place I originally bought my Taco in 1998) and got brand new frames. So it is like going back to Mama. Because new plates are smaller, they have only 4 digits/letters (vs 7 digits/letters on normal plates).

 

very nice
why did they not make you have European size for the front?

 

There are few reasons:
I did not want the long on the front because I wanted to use the same "Folsom Lake Toyota" frame on both plates.
I justify short plate on front to allow the air flow in AC condenser. Long plate i blocking the opening.
And finally short plate use 4 digits/letters tag - it would be very weird if the long plate would contain short tag.

It's bad that we have to show license plates on front - I would rather have a led bar in there. But it is what it is. I love my "Folsom Lake Toyota" frame. There is no single car in Poland that has that.

Of course I had to protect plates from thieves. It is a well known practice to steel a license plate and use it on gas station scam. So my plates are mounted with stainless steel bolts with dual locking nuts on the other side. Actually you can't remove plates without removing the bumper (made a PITA to replace them).

I'm happy the most with the rear plate. I hated that big square plate that did not belong there. Now it's back to "stock" look.

 

This is this time of the year for mandatory annual safety inspection. Unlike the last year my truck passed it with flying colors (no more "almost"). This is how it was the last year:

Later in March that year I found and fixed the issue of asymmetrical e-brake application (Inspected and cleaned rear brakes (driver side), fix e-brake cable) so I was curious if it did fix the issue or not. The result showed by the machine during this year inspection proved it did. My 25 years old truck is 100% road worthy in excellent mechanical condition.

I love Toyota trucks. Not surprising my 2012 4Runner went through the same "torture" and passed with very same results. I have to say that 4Runner has more breaking power on the rear wheels than Tacoma, but 4Runner has disk brakes, which are a little more efficient. And because Tacoma was empty possibly the brake adjuster valve played a role too.

Regardless of all details, Tacoma is good to roll for the next year.

 

A little side story about Toyota Service and Parts department. My wife's Nissan Versa Note windshield wipers went bad. No surprise, they survived more than 4 years. I went to Nissan Poland Parts and Service and asked if I can buy matching wiper blades or inserts. They told me that they don't sell inserts, but I can only buy the whole wipers for cars sold in Poland. European version of "Versa Note" is called just "Note" and wiper blades are 2 inches shorter. So I ask, can you order it from Nissan (as Nissan in Japan) and they said "Nope". So frankly no parts for my wife's Nissan can be bought in Poland unless it is the same part that is used in Nissan car in Europe. The last option the guy gave me is to register my VIN in their service system and then maybe, really maybe, when it is approved I will be able to order some matching parts. I will know answer in two weeks.

On contrary when I went to Toyota Service and Parts department here and asked if I can order any part for my Tacoma or 4Runner they said "No problem. If that part is available anywhere in the world, we can get it". The only thing they can't do is to order aftermarket parts. Have to be OEM. I can live with that.

That's the difference between Nissan and Toyota.

 

Nothing new happened to my truck besides it became my daily driver now for commuting to my new house construction site. It is about 25 miles trip taking about 50 minutes each way. That reminds me a little the time in California, when I was commuting similar distance to my work every fricking day. The cool thing is that now my truck went back to 21mpg (from 15mpg when I was doing only very short trips to grocery store).

There is another funny thing about that. For the comfort my wife always preferred going in 4Runner, and any time I offered a ride in Tacoma, she was complaining and joking about "dump truck" ride quality. But because the construction site is a bit muddy now, when I asked her, which car we will take: Tacoma or 4Runner, she looked at me like I was joking, and said that we are not going to dump our 4Runner into that mud pit. So Tacoma we ride.

The other thing is that I can pack much more tools and materials to Tacoma than 4Runner without worrying about tearing up the upholstery. First gen Tacoma does not have much weight load capacity, but it seems like it has unlimited volume capacity. Love that truck. Here she is parked in front of my future residency. Can't wait to finish it so I can finally park my cars in that oversize 3-car garage (1500 sq ft).

 

All one level and a BIG garage and plenty of room around you to breathe, what's not to love about this place man? Looks great

 

Thanks. My wife is joking that we are building a 3 car garage with house attached to it. It is 2000 sq ft living space plus 1500 sq ft garage. But this is the way I like - I will be spending much more time in the garage than in living room . The best setup I ever had was a house I was living in California in 1997 - my first rental. It was a single story 800 sq ft house (old unit built in 1950-60s) with 900 sq ft garage attached (two cars wide and two cars deep).

By the way in Poland the common cookie-cutter architecture is even worse than new construction in California: 2000-3000 sq ft houses come with tiny single car garage that you can only fit a compact car in it, and short driveways good for parking a lawn mower. And this is in suburb areas where you have to drive everywhere (there is nothing there in the walking distance). So all streets around these houses are full of parked cars with no room for guests.

 

Love seeing threads like this, please keep it going!

 

Thanks. With the construction going full swing now I do not have time to do stuff to my Tacoma, just use it as a work truck (getting tools and materials to the site). But when I finish the garages my Tacoma will have nice warm place for all maintenance it deserves. Just few more months (if Corona Virus will not cross my schedule).

 

Kind of related to Tacoma (very loosely). Four days ago when I tried to move my 4Runner it refused to start - dead battery. I'm mostly diving my Tacoma now (construction) so it was sitting for a week, but still in one week good battery should not go dead. It was original Panasonic installed in Toyota factory in 2012 (Manufacture date 01-03-2012).





I think 8 years is quite good mileage from a battery.

Anyway because of the virus thing all "battery stores" are closed, so the only way I could get a new one was on-line. The delivery was actually fast, and the battery arrived today.

So you might ask "where is the Tacoma connection?". Here it is: what I found the physical battery size in 2012 4Runer is exactly the same as in my 17 years younger Tacoma. So I got for 4Runner exactly the same battery: Banner Power Bull P80 09 ASIA. (see Replaced dead battery) It has better CCA (703 CCA) and Ah (80 Ah) than the old Panasonic and because Banner still uses good old technology (not the modern one used in "dispose after warranty expires" batteries) I'm expecting the same life as Panasonic gave me.

 

Quick update - my Tacoma is working really hard lately. I mean after the move to Poland she became a "shopping cart" with short distance driving once or two times a week for grocery (less than 1 mile trip each time). The gas mileage went downhill to 15 mpg but visiting a gas station every two months or so. For the last few months my Tacoma feels like a wild horse on open pastures (before it was like a horse pooling a wagon in a coal mine). The gas mileage went back to 20-21 mpg and visit at the gas station became a weekly event. The bed is also utilized, not for few bags of groceries but for a "real man stuff": tools and materials.




She knows, that it will be her home too, so she never complains and happily drives that 30-miles each way serving me well. Here is a glimpse of her room, she will be sharing with 4Runner and Nissan Versa Note (it's used for construction material storage for now):









The cool thing about this garage is that the steel I-beams can be used to hoist stuff, like an engine for example. Each one is capable of holding at least 2000 lb.

 

Little Tacoma is still working hard as a "construction site vehicle". Of course, it can't dig trenches nor bring 5 cubic yards of gravel, but does what it can between big guys. Stock high ground clearance and 4x4 on normal size tires lets her come to places, where normal vehicles are not allowed. So here she is working between "big guys".



That day when so many things were happening at the same time (besides normal interior work connecting to the water main, connecting to electrical grid with underground cable, installing septic tank and installing lighting protection) Tacoma was used as a mobile anchoring point for safety line for workers on the roof laying down the lighting protection system.



Tacoma's mobility was working great there. Because the entire front yard and public road was dug out (trenches for water pipe and electrical cable) the only way to to get from one side of the house to the other was driving across the field behind the house. Truly off-road. Tacoma did very well. Never got stuck in a mud or loose sand. And at the end of the day she stayed proud of the job well done.

 

@RysiuM

I wish you had made a build thread about the construction of your house. Looks like very different styles than here in the US. Can you explain the wall construction. Especially what is the circled area material? Also, is that the exterior layer or is there another material covering these?