BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

While waiting for assistance, I took a look at the new RCV boots, which, based on previous RCV boot experience, I thought for sure would have been ripped due to driving with the front end unloaded and the axles at such a steep angle...



...but I was extremely happy to see they both survived! This is big news for RCV customers! They may have finally fixed their freak'n boot issues as I now have close to 1,000 miles on them when previous RCV boots in my experience couldn't even manage 150 miles

Driver side RCV Gen.2 outer CV



Passenger side RCV Gen.2 outer CV



Man oh man was I sure glad to see this backhoe!



Again, only took this video to share with my buddy, so nothing too special. I was extremely impressed with the operator: He did such a gentle job at not crushing the load and removed the entire load with this same small incremental motion so as to not pull too hard on the truck and trailer. I must have thanked him a dozen times for the help!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVJ7N_fV950

 

WHEW. FINALLY!!



So next I return to the scale to weigh truck + empty trailer, which came out to....

6,640 lbs (3,012 kg)

Then I removed the trailer and weighed just the truck, which came out to...

4,840 lbs (2.195 kg)

WHICH MEANS, the total gross weight of the haul -- trailer plus soil -- came out to...

10,320 pounds of actual tow/haul weight for the Tacoma!!! That is 5.2 tons /4,681 kg!!

When the Tacoma was new it was only rated to tow 6,700 lb and I just towed 154% the rated ability yet while having Triple Marlin Crawler Transfer Cases and 40" tires on a truck built for Rock Crawling that has done the Rubicon trail 6 times plus many others.

As much as I want to be impressed by this, if you've done any hauling before you know this was FREAKING RETARDED and I am very fortunate that nothing happened and I didn't get a ticket. Had I known it would be this much weight and also that I'd have to drive this far to a second dump, then I would have just hired someone to properly haul the load away.

But man.... what a stupid yet impressive experience! I LOVE THIS TACOMA. Also, anyone who thinks the Marlin Crawler cannot handle "heavier trucks" can freak'n shove it because I have not one but two Marlin Crawler Crawl Boxes with twice as many pieces and double the number of our Maximum Capacity Double Row bearings and it just pulled a 5-ton load without breaking a sweat. Yours truly on the other hand was definitely sweating!

 

June 26, 2019: Start on Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper

A few weeks after the rib injury I made some rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper mock-ups. This was the direction I was heading, with the goal being to bring our classic 1979-2004 Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper (Hilux/4Runner/1G Tacoma) to the modern Tacoma platform.





I was also thinking of a lower / double rear cross bar, something like this...



Then I began taking measurements, drew up frame brackets in Solidworks, and waited for some raw metal to arrive.

Production concerns are (1) License plate lighting (which on a Tacoma is part of the bumper rather than body), (2) Trailer plug mount (if applicable), (3) Proximity sensor mounts (if applicable), (4) Spare tire access hole, and (5) This late model bumper extends up on each side which means there will either be two large body panel holes or customers will be required to trim the rear lower sides of their fenders which I'm not a fan of (see first pic).

To be continued...

 

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand

Our transmission builder Chris is an expert carpenter so I had him whip together a very simple 17" tall wooden stand for me to park the Tacoma on while at work. Chris made 1/4 height and 1/2 height pieces for ease of use, which I found only the 1/2 height piece was needed. To get off the stand, I simply reverse down with out any brakes and let the super low Marlin Crawler gearing do the work. This does put an enormous amount of load on the corner of the top piece of wood which is wearing out. I'll need to wrap some sheet metal around it if I plan for it to last.





The stand could be taller so I'll add a couple more levels eventually. One issue is that with the truck facing uphill, weight shifts to the rear, so the rear suspension is doing most of the work. Also, I am aware that my front spring rate (600 lb) is on the high end. More on this later.

 

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand (continued)

Painted!

 

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand (concluded)





It looks AWESOME from afar. When you turn the corner onto our street it is quite the sight. An attention getting for sure!





At this time I did not make a video of mounting/dismounting the stand, however I will post one later (the video I have has too many spoilers to post at the moment )

 

July 16, 2019: DRL Overnight Battery Drain Test

Also back in April (2018) I connected my factory LED Daytime Running Lights to an anytime-switch in the cab (reply #908) which I'm considering leaving on overnight during camping as campground nightlights. Note the DRL is the actual high/bright circuit of the LEDs, as there is a dim circuit that enables when the headlights turn on. They throw a lot of light in the dark.

So the next day I tested the battery impact of the maximum/brightest LED circuit and here are the results of voltage directly at the battery terminals and engine off:

9:13pm:
DRL OFF: 12.96v
DRL ON: 12.89v

10:10pm:
DRL still ON: 12.72v

6:50am:
DRL still ON: 12.16v
DRL finally OFF: 12.22v

So in almost 10 hrs the DRLs only consumed 0.67-volts which is no problem at all.

(Battery: Bosch Platinum Advanced AGM 24F-710BAGM, 120 min reserve, 710/850 CCA/CA)

 

August 6, 2019: Random RCLT HD pic

I took this pic of RCLT HD Prototype No.2 on my way home one day and wanted to share. Seeing this picture now (Aug 2020) is a trip... The production version has so many small but very important changes... It's neat as the designer to see the evolution as RCLT HD, which is now in the final production stage and will be available soon!

 

August 18, 2019: Electronic 2WD Low Range

At the 2018 Texas Toyota Jamboree I performed Marlin's famous full-brake Crawler demonstration in the Tacoma, however, the following two reasons have been preventing me from doing Marlin's proper demonstration of 2WD Triple Low Range:

1) Because I've chosen against popular opinion to retain the factory electronic shift t/case setup (stay out of the mud and sand kiddos), I don't have a Marlin Crawler Twin Stick and therefore cannot engage 2WD Low Range at the t/case, and

2) Because USA Toyota trucks this side of 2004 do not have locking front hubs, I can't even "cheat" to get into Marlin's 2WD Triple Low Range mode with unlocked front hubs.

I can, of course, engage both my Marlin Crawlers into low leaving the t/case in 2WD high, rendering a 2WD Dual Ultimate. But it is not nearly as impressive. I posted a video of this from TX, skip to the 2:15min mark of this YouTube video. SlowestTacoma's 3rd gear is the lowest 2WD ratio I have, which is our Dual Ultimate ratio of 254:1. The truck bucks and shakes and it's noisy; frankly it's embarrassing since I know how it could be.

So I sat down with electronic diagrams of both the t/case shift system and front diff and figured out how to trick the system into thinking the front diff is engaged. I then remembered how I performed the reverse camera anytime mod myself to enable twin forward-facing rock crawling cameras, which was difficult getting the sodering iron and heat shrink deep inside the dash, only to later discover someone made a plug-n-play harness that didn't require hacking factory harnesses.

Low and behold after a bit of searching I came across @lapoltba's thread and knew it was what I'd rather do for this new truck. As a result the install was straight forward and very quick.



The bulk of the addition is shown zip tied at top-right:



...and here is the switch I went with, which is the short & wide Toyota style. My original plan was to use the tall & narrow style switch installed into a 3D printed boss extruded from the left of the mode select rotary dial. But because the Round-Up was less than a month away I needed to get this done so I installed the switch in my old Blind Spot Monitor switch (the system of which I plan to reinstate eventually)...

Activation is as follows:
Step 1: Engage the 2WD LOW RANGE button
Step 2: Shift into 4WD
Step 3: Disengage the 2WD LOW RANGE button
At this point the system thinks it is in 4WD, so the switch may be deactivated here or prior to returning to 2WD
Step 4: Shift into Low

To return to 2WD High:
Step 1: After returning to 4H, ensure the 2WD LOW RANGE button is disengaged
Step 2: Shift into 2WD

If you fail Step 1 above, then you'll get a Mode Select error message with beep that reoccurs every 10 seconds or so, and won't go away until you cycle the ignition.



Posting this from the future, I have a nice Triple 2WD Low Range demonstration video, however, it's another video I can't post yet due to other spoilers.

 

Aug 20, 2019: Improve rear suspension up travel

I had two important tasks remaining before the next Rubicon trip, the first of which being rear suspension work.



The problem is that my up travel was limited in comparison to my body line, and for Rock Crawling, I prefer having more up travel because (1) the higher up a tire can stuff the longer the body will remain level and (2)
just because you have a lot of downtravel doesn't always mean that tire is contributing to forward traction because by the very definition of being extended down, the tire will have the least amount of vehicle mass acting on it which means it has the least amount of traction.

Here is where my up travel was at:



So I was missing a good 3.5-inches which was my fault as I was the one who approved the location of the lower shock mounts...



...so off they came





Here we are fully stuffed up to the 1" thick rubber shaft bump stops which is what I was after. (I still need to level out the panhard bar, but that's a low priority for now.)





Comparison of the before and after!

(If the forum doesn't load the below GIF correctly, then here is a direct link to view before/after)

 

Aug 23, 2019: Reflashed my ECM

@tonered posted an incredible thread a year prior referring to a software update for the 6MT V6 Mk3 Tacoma, wherein Toyota released an update addressing a surge and/or stutter issue in second gear. I can't say for sure if I have experienced this problem, but the update is suppose to also improve throttle response and improve mid range torque.

It had been on my TODO list for some time but as my truck is running well there wasn't a need, plus, it involves risk of bricking my ECU as I obviously don't take this truck to the dealership and perform work myself.

So I sat on this for a while and then decided to give it a go! The exact instructions I followed are at reply #1808 and it went very smooth (was originally reply #1828 when I did this).



Before...



...and after!



Conclusion:
It is always difficult to gauge ones subjective butt dyno, but mid range torque does feel better and low RPM power-shifts feel smoother. It was very easy and seemed very safe to do so long as you following the instructions to the T, so I'd recommend any fellow 6MT owner to give it a go! BIG Thank you to @tonered and everyone else who helped contribute!

 

Thanks, Mike!

I was recently given access to the 1st Post in that thread and added a lot of info beyond the post that you linked.

Also! This year, another TSB was dropped for 2016 and 2017 MTs. TSB-0043-20 going to 04B14. It came out of left field. We only found out because a dealer randomly flashed it to someone who was tuned. That one and CUW software are linked in the 1st Post.

I highly recommend this update. I drove with it for two full tanks while waiting for OVT to support tunes for it. It was a long time since I drove 04B13 Stock, but it felt like an even better tune.


I also added the recommendation to reset the Learned Values and idle for 5min after the flash. That made a big difference for me after struggling with the first OVT flashes.

 

One other thing on the OVT side and looking at your sweet build, in the new 2.0 MT tunes, the DFCO function was greatly improved. 1st gear was dropped a couple hundred RPMs, but 2nd through 6th was dropped to near idle. Control on deceleration is greatly improved.

Also with the new vF tuning solution, we are allowed to share tunes. You might have someone locally that can help you out there.

 

Hey dude thanks for chiming in! Ok! I will re-read the first thread and reflash to the latest version, thank you very much!

That's pretty cool that you can share tunes. I don't have the Orange Virus Tune as I rarely experience power issues with the V6, but if I ever do go that route then I'll remember this so thank you very much!

 

August 27, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper I

Wooohooooo!! Oh man what a great day.



Thank you sooo much factory bumper! I can't believe how long it lasted It certainly limited my approach angle and got dragged all over the place through many trails, but I couldn't have come this far still without any body damage if it wasn't for that sweet low hanging trailer hitch lol



Here is what my frame looks like after shortening it 6 inches during the bed bob. I went from 10 bolts total for the bumper mount to only 6, so I added our recommended stitch weld for added support which worked great, even held up when I helped pull a massive eucalyptus tree out from my folk's out front yard.



The goal for the production version is to run 2.00" OD DOM tubing to match our upcoming front bumper, however for this prototype we used 1.75" HREW. Here is the progression of what I came up with!



My idea is to follow the bed's body line with both main tube and uprights, and here is how it was looking.

Couple things I noticed right away is that it's pretty close to the body, which is good for clearance but less good for protection, and it extends below the body line of the bed. This will require trimming the bed which I'm not a fan of requiring customers to do, and our production Hilux bumpers avoid this requirement so I think our Tacoma bumper should be designed the same way.

 

August 27, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper I (continued)

Next we added all our production Locktup4x4 & Fabrication goodies and completed the middle section with low profile seamless trailer hitch and two 1-inch thick bow shackle mounts










Again, it's a bit close to the body, but I'm starting to like this. It will come out a bit more once we switch to the planned 2.00" main tube.



And here it is back at home! The temporary license plate mount is a rubber magnet mount.



Ohhh heck yes!! Let's go!!

 

Sept 10, 2019: Marlin Crawler Rock Slider upgrade

I finally upgraded my old bolt-on sliders with Marlin Crawler weld-on Rock Sliders! Finally, no more shearing off bolt heads and having to readjust the dang slider!!

Locktup4x4 Road Runner gussets were added two per leg at the frame but I don't take pics of them.

 

Sept 10, 2019 (continued): Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper II

Despite my discussion of not wanting to trim the fenders, I decided that since my truck is already custom with trimmed wheelwells and bobbed bed that I would perform a minor trim here that we won't require for the production version of the bumper.



We added our well-known side bed protection armor parts with the goal to match the original upward slope angle of the body line

I was very pleased with how it came out and especially how we were able to retain the traditional Marlin Crawler design, including our trademark underbed side supports!



Added our usual inner brace tubing and I decided to slant it towards the rear rather than our traditional upright position. I really like the great low profile design on this one





I could have tucked it up even higher, but the passenger side tailgate hinge is where the soft opening mechanism lies which takes up room, so I designed the brackets to be as close as possible. The plan is to include formed plates that attach to the bed to close up the large holes beneath both taillights.

 

Sept 10, 2019 (continued): Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper II (continued)

BOOM!









A friend's truck was at the shop so I had to get some poser pics before calling it a day

 

Sept 11, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper FINISHED

The next day we painted the bumper and compared weights vs stock: 56.5 lbs MC vs 70 lbs Stock. Grated we still need to come up with the aforementioned solutions such as license plate mount, etc, and the final bumper will be made out of larger 2" DOM material, but if we can keep it at or just below stock weight then that would be awesome





Final pics!