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Your unique mod on the 1st Gens

Discussion in '1st Gen. Tacomas (1995-2004)' started by Desiel, Oct 14, 2010.

  1. May 12, 2022 at 9:29 AM
    #2161
    CrustyTaco

    CrustyTaco Well-Known Member

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    Todd
    Louisville, KY
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    881/5100/Dakars 4R wheels / TBU / New frame
    The RSX seats look great, nice color match with the stock interior. You're going to love the seat heaters, I installed the same switch and setup from reallifeonhold, one of my favorite mods.
     
  2. May 12, 2022 at 10:59 AM
    #2162
    VAXT

    VAXT Well-Known Member

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    Agreed! RSX seats are an excellent upgrade/mod!!!
     
  3. May 12, 2022 at 11:06 AM
    #2163
    Empty_Lord

    Empty_Lord Toyotaholic

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    Dan
    Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland
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    66 Mercedes, 93 mr2, 95,98,01,02 Tacomas, 05 Tundra + others
    Too many trucks and mods to list.. check builds
    If you ever do another I’d gladly pay for one in black leather with ivory/tan stitching to match the interior of my mr2
     
    unstpible likes this.
  4. May 13, 2022 at 8:01 AM
    #2164
    MatosTaco

    MatosTaco Well-Known Member

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    Coilovers, sway bars, wheels, tires, extended studs, intake, head and taillights, seats, short shifter,
    Cool. Do you have a picture of the interior? That would help me choose a tan that works.
     
  5. May 13, 2022 at 8:56 AM
    #2165
    Empty_Lord

    Empty_Lord Toyotaholic

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    Too many trucks and mods to list.. check builds
    I’ll grab a good one tonight
     
  6. May 14, 2022 at 7:48 PM
    #2166
    Empty_Lord

    Empty_Lord Toyotaholic

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    Too many trucks and mods to list.. check builds
    [​IMG]
     
    unstpible and MatosTaco[QUOTED] like this.
  7. May 16, 2022 at 6:38 AM
    #2167
    MatosTaco

    MatosTaco Well-Known Member

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    Coilovers, sway bars, wheels, tires, extended studs, intake, head and taillights, seats, short shifter,
    Sweet, my favorite gen MR2 at that, SW20! Man, the lawns in your neighborhood are looking pretty sharp too lol
     
    Empty_Lord[QUOTED] likes this.
  8. May 24, 2022 at 9:09 PM
    #2168
    Cattywampus

    Cattywampus Splitter of CV Boots

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    Mark
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    TL;DR: I wired my auxiliary lights with three settings.
    • Switch position 1: Arms all the aux lights to turn ON/OFF in sync with high beams stalk switch.
    • Switch position 2: Aux Lights Off.
    • Switch Position 3: Aux Lights On, even without key.

    More Detailed
    I'm sure this has been done. However I think it's a bit unique. I, like many fellow modders, have auxiliary lights on the front of my truck and it's for "off-road use only"... of course. However on those really dark lonely roads, it's nice to be able to switch on the lights and have the best approximation of daylight ahead of me. At first, I had the lights on a separate switch and would generally turn on my high beams and the auxiliary lights, two switches. The high beams switch on the stalk is very easy to turn on and off without looking or leaving the steering wheel, whereas the auxiliary light switch is a bit out of the way. If someone unexpectedly comes on the road or around the turn, I always scrambled to turn off the auxiliary lights in a timely manner and not fumble around in the pitch black to turn off the brights and the aux lights. If only there was a way to sync the brights with the auxiliary lights.

    The headlight bulbs are unique in some ways. The bulb has three pins and two filaments, power is fed to one pin and depending on which of the remaining two pins is connected to ground controls which filament is lit producing high and low beams. The light stalk switch controls the ground to bulbs thereby controlling the high and low beam. You'd call this type of circuit control a switched ground. Its a little tricky to conceptualize if you've never thought about it like that (see diagram below). The uniqueness of the bulb and how it's controlled required some a little bit more circuity to control. I used two relays. One is to separate the high beam control circuit and the other controls the relay. Simply hooking the ground of the aux lights to the ground of the high beams allows current to flow thru the filament of the bulb. The second relay is what switches the auxiliary lights on and off depending of the switch position. Speaking of the switch, the switch used is a SPDT ON/OFF/ON switch and also uses the switched ground principle. It is a Contura XIV type switch. I wired the bottom illumination to the dash board dimmer circuit so it dims and turns on with the dash board lights. The top illumination turns on when the lights are on. I also added a cluster mounted indicator light to the circuit. This is more for my idiot self, who can and has left the aux lights on in the bright sun after bumping the switch and didn't realize until later. At least a light on the dash will tell me I'm being an idiot.

    I'll leave it at that. It is hard to demonstrate without a video with pics alone. The installation i did not document in great detail. However, Feel free to ask questions though.

    Screen Shot 2022-05-24 at 9.53.14 PM.jpg
     
    Yossarian, SpokeWench, Civi and 4 others like this.
  9. May 25, 2022 at 12:30 PM
    #2169
    cynicalrider

    cynicalrider #NFG

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    I get the gist but would love a video. I am dealing with similar issues where I get frustrated needing to turn multiple switches off if a car is coming.
     
  10. May 25, 2022 at 1:16 PM
    #2170
    Cattywampus

    Cattywampus Splitter of CV Boots

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    I can attempt to clarify if you can be more specific on what you'd want to see in a video? The diagram above is more of the concept of what is happening electrically and not really how the circuit is built out in real life. Are you looking to see it all in operation? Or looking for a more detail diagram that represents the actual wire routing?
     
  11. May 25, 2022 at 1:56 PM
    #2171
    cynicalrider

    cynicalrider #NFG

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    I just feel a demo video would really properly show what you accomplished, and might have more impact? But no I can follow the diagrams you have to see what you did. Also is this only controlling one set of aux lights? For some reason I assumed it was covering multiple sets of lights.
     
  12. May 25, 2022 at 2:21 PM
    #2172
    Cattywampus

    Cattywampus Splitter of CV Boots

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    You're right, the post doesn't have the wow factor without a demo haha.

    To answer your question: In my particular case, yes, it only controls one set of lights. However, you can tack on as many lights as you want (assuming you don't overload wires, relays, fuses, etc) to the switched side of the "aux lights control relay" in the diagram. I'm guessing you already have lights installed. There are a couple of ways you could go about it and I'm not sure how you wired your lights up, so I'll explain just the general concept:

    Splice in the power from the switched side of the "aux lights control relay" AFTER your existing switches that control your lights. Essentially the "aux lights control relay" would provide power to all the lights you'd want to sync up, whether that's providing power to the relay coils or feeding it directly to your lights. In that case, you wouldn't need the fancy SPDT switch, you'd just need a "sync" switch. Just be careful because I don't know what type of power draw you have on all the lights you intend to sync up, on relay might not be enough to power all. Hope that made sense. If not I can markup any diagram you may have.
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2022
  13. May 31, 2022 at 8:18 PM
    #2173
    Godzilla619

    Godzilla619 Well-Known Member

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    David
    San Diego
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    2000 Black Taco prerunner v6
    Mid travel
    How much better are these than stock seats? Do they recline and slide? How hard was it to mount in the truck? I’m debating between these and integra seats. TIA
     
  14. Jun 1, 2022 at 8:55 AM
    #2174
    hp415

    hp415 Well-Known Member

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    Made this switch panel for the single din cubby. Now I just have to figure out the RF interference from the LED lights messing up my radio experience.

    IMG_5242.HEIC.jpg
     
  15. Jun 1, 2022 at 9:10 AM
    #2175
    cynicalrider

    cynicalrider #NFG

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    Personally I like them more than the stock seats a lot. They hold me better, and have more adjustments like up/down, and lower lumbar adjustability. They fully slide and recline just like the stock ones did since they are designed for a coupe. Installation really was cutting my old feet off the stockers and welding them to the rsx rails. They do sit a bit higher than the stock seats though and since I am 6'2" I have the height adjusted all the way down. I won't hit the ceiling but sometimes my mirror is in the way now. It is nice seeing over the hood better on tight trails though.
     
  16. Jun 1, 2022 at 3:19 PM
    #2176
    Godzilla619

    Godzilla619 Well-Known Member

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    Mid travel
    Thanks so much for the input! RSX seats are looking good
     
  17. Jun 3, 2022 at 7:54 AM
    #2177
    MatosTaco

    MatosTaco Well-Known Member

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    Coilovers, sway bars, wheels, tires, extended studs, intake, head and taillights, seats, short shifter,
    That's funny. I also did the RSX seats and am 6'2" so my experience has been the same. I really wish there was a way to make them lower without having to hack up the bases.
     
    Wulf likes this.
  18. Jun 4, 2022 at 12:01 PM
    #2178
    Godzilla619

    Godzilla619 Well-Known Member

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    Mid travel
    I'm about to buy some 2000 Honda prelude seats today for the truck, hoping it won't be too bad of an install
     
    unstpible likes this.
  19. Jun 4, 2022 at 1:18 PM
    #2179
    MatosTaco

    MatosTaco Well-Known Member

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    Coilovers, sway bars, wheels, tires, extended studs, intake, head and taillights, seats, short shifter,
    If you own an angle grinder and a welder, it will be pretty straightforward.
     
  20. Jun 6, 2022 at 2:45 PM
    #2180
    manapiko

    manapiko Well-Known Member

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    Patrick
    Lynnwood, WA
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    2003 Tacoma TRD

    This ever happen?
     

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