This Ain't Your Grandmother's Taco - TacoGranny's Mild Sauce Tacoma

Monday, May 16th, 2022 (Moab trip, Top of the World continued)



Another majestic photo of myself.









Sam decided to see how close he could park next to Zack.



And elsewhere, Grant was taking a different kind of picture.



More to follow.

 

Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

Another day, another trail. As would somewhat become the theme of the trip, a late night resulted in a late start in the morning, so we ended up doing a lot of repeat trails from last year. Most of the popular trails are close to town and doable for most of our trucks, which makes them so appealing. We decided that Fins n Things was worth another run, as it was one of our favorite trails from 2021.

At some point, I got a new sticker on my rear bumper corner cap, leftovers from a bachelorette party from the previous summer. I'm not sure how long it was on there before I noticed, but what I originally thought was a happy little mushroom man appeared more phallic upon closer inspection.



This was the spot where the SxS in my Top of the World rant was baffled by us playing on some obstacles. Three different little obstacles next to each other (two shown) that gives you the option of difficulty. Plenty of hitch scrape marks on the left line.



Cement blending in with the slickrock. I still love this color as much as the day I got the truck.



Unfortunately, our day was cut short due to a leaky radiator in the 4runner.



After the radiator had expelled most of it's contents on the hot slickrock, we opted for a shortcut off the trail, which unfortunately cut off a bunch of the fun slickrock fins towards the end of the trail. The FJ handled towing duties, it was actually pretty impressive to watch that thing tow out the pig of a 4runner.



With a lack of more trail pictures to jog my memory (I was driving the entire time without much stopping, so not much for pictures), I remember Fins n Things feeling much more challenging than it was last year. I'm not sure if the SxS's have just torn up the trails more or what the case may be, but I distinctly recall thinking to myself "I can't believe we got our vehicles through this last year." There's really only a few tricky areas of true rock crawling on the trail (one of which claimed another rear bumper corner on my truck), the slickrock is more the big draw, but those spots felt like they were much less forgiving. I came down hard on my skid plates a few times, with Chuck riding shotgun. Chuck, being in his 50's, grimaced every time as his spine compressed on impact. I apologized for his back, and he apologized for my truck, before I reminded him that his back would be a lot more expensive to fix. The RCI skid plates were definitely getting used and abused.

We made it back to town and were able to find a replacement radiator in town for the 4runner (which I think was some oddball size, i.e. not OEM, so we were a bit surprised).

 

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

In similar fashion, we opted for another favorite from last year, Hell's Revenge. Like Fins n Things, there were four of us that opted to do Hell's again, with the other three trucks instead deciding to check out some easier scenic trails. Moab is certainly spoiled for options, so it worked out well that everyone wasn't forced to do any trails that they didn't want to do.

Sometimes we take it for granted, but reflecting back on it, it always amazes me what these Toyota trucks are capable of. From ~1,300 miles of interstate driving to crawling up obstacles most people would find insane, to (hopefully) being able to make the return journey after all the abuse, the trucks continued to take everything we could throw at them.





I had forgotten how much slickrock there is on Hell's Revenge, some of my favorite stuff to drive on in Moab.



The front camera was once again showing it's worth, as I was often leading on the trail again, and coming over the top in a lot of spots would have been completely blind otherwise. Plenty easy to see the dark tire marks on the rock on the camera, so keeping the truck on the trail (and not tumbling down the steep side slopes) was a breeze.



No complaints here on the scenery.



Another instance where I screwed myself on good trip report photos in favor of videos, I somehow don't have any photos of Hell's Gate. We were also missing our best photographers (Kayla and Courtney) as they were on a different trail. If there's one video I would like to add later, it's the 4runner going up the gate. The articulation and travel on that thing were really put into perspective going up the unforgiving V-notch obstacle. I opted to skip the gate once again this year, mostly due to having a manual. After watching Don roll his Jeep last year from being a little late on the clutch-in, this might be an obstacle that I avoid until my truck gets gears and/or a crawl box. Zack in his silver 4runner made it up the first time without much drama. Sam in the FJ, however, almost rolled his truck sideways into the wall of the V, and had to meticulously back up about 30-40' to readjust his line and keep all four wheels on the ground.

After Hell's Gate, Andrew wanted to test out the 4runner on the biggest obstacle of the trip: The Escalator. He had successfully done it in his Tacoma last year, but that had a longer wheelbase.

Another awesome obstacle, another time where Andrew was a bit impatient waiting for us to get set up to spot him and grab some photos.

The shorter wheelbase on the 4runner proved to be too much for The Escalator this year. There's basically a giant hole in the middle of the obstacle, and Andrew got sucked down into it after a few attempts at readjusting his line. At least we had a few spectators for the shenanigans. I opted to hop in the FJ to go around to the top to help with winching Andrew out of the hole.



Another one of my favorite pictures of the trip, just Andrew and Big Country, casually waiting to be rescued, looking back at me out the sunroof.



Back to safer grounds, although you can get and idea of how steep it still is by how much the truck is lifting in the front.



Unfortunately, the 4runner didn't make it out unscathed on this one. It was a small miracle that the rear passenger window didn't shatter.



Looking back down The Escalator, doesn't really do it justice, but gives a little more perspective.



View from the bottom, looking up. It looks like some buggies (presumably) had made their own line off to the right up the steep rock face.



The FJ, sitting pretty.



Grant can be a bit of a diva, so we always make a point to mess with him in some small way. He was pretty proud of his 4runner up to this point, with some tasteful mods and some aesthetic accents. Someone decided that his front emblem overlay would look better zip tied to my receiver hitch. I won't say I tried to avoid damaging it, since the receiver hitch is the one thing I drag on pretty much every steep departure angle obstacle, which Hell's Revenge is full of. I am sorry to report that it did not survive.



However on a more positive note, I did find a good use case for my anytime reverse camera for the first time on the trip.



As far as I know, we still haven't told Grant about the destruction of his emblem, as he assumed it just fell off somewhere. Someday I'll point him to this thread if he's interested in reading the trip reports. Grant if you're reading this: Sorry! Remind me to reimburse you for the new emblem you ordered.

Back at camp, Zack was excited to add a new sticker to Andrew's 4runner. We all agreed it was appropriate.



A few pictures from our more photographically gifted friends that were doing another trail that day.

 

Thursday, May 19th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

Several people in the group were a bit worn out at this point of the trip, so they opted to stick around town and enjoy a relaxing day checking out the shops. A few of us decided to check out Hidden Canyon and Bartlett Overlook.



In a rare stroke of luck, I spotted the ever elusive Big "Foot" Country in his natural habitat. Despite his best efforts to camouflage himself with his surroundings, I managed to document the historic sighting on film to serve as proof of his existence. We'll see if my submission makes the cut for the "Year in Pictures 2022" by National Geographic.



This was the best photo anyone had of him prior to the above being captured.



My truck, looking a little lighter at this point in the trip. Same bumper corner as last year, I believe lost to Fins n Things this time. Unfortunately I also lost my mushroom/dick sticker as well. Stupid cheap plastic bumpers really don't like being smashed off of rocks.



This little rock was actually way more terrifying to stand on than it looks, as the wind was blowing about 1,000 mph, and the ground below is probably 8-10' down.



Even though these trails were fairly easy, we still had enough obstacles to keep things interesting. I think at this point, Kayla was driving the white Tacoma to get some wheeling experience.



Dave has since informed me that she wheels like I do: All Gas, No Brakes.



The Overlook, another spectacular view where it felt like you could see forever in almost every direction.



Grant taking it all in, probably still mourning the loss of his emblem overlay.



Someone with a much better camera than me got this cool photo of my truck.



The trails didn't take us all day, so we opted to play a few rounds of golf at the local course upon our return to town.

First time I've seen a tumbleweed on a golf course.





When we were done with our round, we came across some big birds that I recognized...turkeys! I wasn't even aware that Utah had them. I've hunted them for most of my life on a yearly basis in Wisconsin, they aren't the sharpest birds in the world, but they have the eyesight of a hawk.



Back at camp.

 

Friday, May 20th, 2022 (Moab trip continued)

At this point in the trip, our group had dwindled a bit. Dave and Kayla had left towards home so that they could stop and see one of Kayla's friends in Iowa on the return trip. Jay and Courtney had left earlier in the week as they weren't able to take the entire week off of work. Left with one more day to wheel, Andrew decided that we should try Poison Spider again. Knowing the trail from riding along with Big Country last year, I opted to hop in Andrew's 4runner and leave my truck back safe at the house.

Zack, however, decided that he wasn't afraid of any trail, especially after Steel Bender, so he tagged along, along with the FJ.





We came across this sweet old Willy's jeep at the top of the next obstacle. I was glad to see he had good taste in football teams. In talking with him and his buddies, they kept saying that we wouldn't believe the stuff that he drove up with that thing. Knowing the obstacles we had already gone over on Poison Spider, it was impressive to say the least. Tall skinnies for the win! Just goes to show you don't need anything fancy to wheel hard. They also seemed to enjoy Andrew's 4runner about as much as we enjoyed the jeep. Sam actually has a similar generation Willy's, so they got to chatting for a bit before we continued on.



At some point, we noticed Andrew's fuel tank was slowly dripping fuel. The trail fix turned out to be rubbing bar soap on the small pinhole in the weld to seal it up. I'm not sure if it needs to be a specific type of soap to work, but it won't dissolve from fuel (at least not immediately).



Satisfied that the drip had come to a stop, we pressed on. A bit of fog was enough to partially obscure the La Sal mountains from our view.







Steve decided to check out a giant pothole. He also decided shortly after this photo to make the trek ~1/2 mile to an overlook above the city of Moab, only he didn't mention to any of us that he was doing this. After a few minutes of standing around and talking, we were about to get back in the trucks and continue on when we realized Steve was missing. We finally spotted him several blocks away, walking the opposite direction (unsure of his intentions) and yelled to him "Steve, where the hell are you going?!" He pointed in front of him and continued on, although at a bit quicker pace. I think we're going to put a bell on him next year so we can keep track of him better, we don't need him wandering off into the desert.



On the return loop, Andrew decided to try a wall that he had tried on the way out, but was unsuccessful on the previous attempt.



The wall ended up being too steep for his wheelbase, as the front tires just couldn't find enough grip to bite and pull him up.



After a bit too much skinny pedal, we heard a loud "POP", the telltale sign of a broken axle shaft. The studs had actually sheared at the hub end of the axle. We were able to get one bolt back in to try and hold the shaft in place as we slowly limped the 4runner out and off the trail. We heard another small pop on the way out, and Andrew asked me riding shotgun if the shaft was sticking out. It was, by a good two feet or so, so we stopped for another trail repair.





Again, we were only able to get one bolt back in the hub. Progress would continue to be slow and steady.



My view from inside the cab. Lot's of sticks to play with.



We soon came up to the obstacle that took out Big Country's CV shaft last year. At least we were going down it instead of up it at this point.





It wasn't too much further before the rear axle shaft decided to expel itself from the truck once again, this time completely out of the axle.



We would have taken the shaft completely out if we had a good way to stop all the diff fluid from leaking out. We were basically operating with front wheel drive only at this point, which made some obstacles on the way out interesting. We would end up stopping several more times before we reached the trailhead to fix our field repairs, which included various combinations of ratchet straps, tie wire, gorilla tape, and a rock.







Even limping over obstacles in the 3-legged 4runner, the FJ and silver 4runner were having a tough time keeping up with us. Sick of the constant stopping to fix the axle, we pressed on as steady as we could in front, opting not to wait for the others, as we just wanted to get off the trail at this point. When we finally reached the trailhead, the others were nowhere in sight. Andrew recalled seeing one of Zack's upper ball joints looking a little suspect on the trail, which he informed Zack of at the time. Zack said he knew it was a little loose, but didn't have a big enough wrench to tighten it, so he figured he'd ride it out and get it tightened up back at camp.

Unbeknownst to us, the ball joint was giving him problems on the way out, and him and Sam were having a hell of a time getting it tightened back up without the proper tools. We were in a deadzone for cell service and couldn't reach them on the walkie talkies, so we sat in the parking lot for a good half hour or so without a sighting of the two vehicles. Eventually I decided to start hiking back up the trail to see if I could get into a better position to reach them on the walkies. Some Jeeps rolled by and I asked them if they had seen the FJ and 4runner, and they had, and by the sounds of it, they were slowly limping their way out. Not long after that, I spotted them on the top of the last few switchbacks before the trailhead, and was able to get them on the radio. Once we got back, we limped the vehicles back to town (thankfully it wasn't too far from the trailhead) and made our way back to camp.



Elsewhere, Grant was off taking some more photos.





Somewhere in Colorado, Dave and Kayla were running into some weather on the way back east.





I finally decided to check out my skid plates to see how they were holding up. Definitely worth the investment, and nothing a BFH and some paint won't fix.

 

Saturday-Sunday, May 21st-22nd, 2022 (Moab trip continued, the return home)

Amazed at how fast time flies when you're having fun, we started the long trek home over the weekend. Andrew loaded up the 4runner on Sam's trailer and drove his FJ home. We ended up running into similar weather to Dave and Kayla going through the Rockies, otherwise the return journey went off (mostly) without a hitch.





The scenery really changes fast in only a few hours.



My highlight of the return trip was getting to try a Fat Dog somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska.





And finally back home.



I'm starting a collection of rear bumper corners, it seems.



My mudflaps surprisingly returned to shape after I curled and bent the hell out of them on Top of the World. We'll see if they're salvageable with some new hardware.



I also picked up a new hat to replace my beat up one that I got last year. After going through 4-5 stores looking for a new hat, apparently I have a particular taste in styling.



A few weeks after the trip, I decided to swap Dave's OEM leaf springs in for my clapped out set. Tough to tell if there's any difference between the two, as I'm still on bump stops far too frequently. The durobumps are an inch taller than OEM, so that may be some of my problem, but I'm still not overly impressed with Toyota's leaf springs. I'll probably be selling my first gen Tacoma in the coming months to help fund a much needed upgraded suspension setup.



Tough to tell the difference between mine and his, but I believe mine are on the right in this picture, being slightly more flattened.

 

Originally after Moab, Zack and I had discussed with Andrew about building us some rear bumpers, since I was sick of wrecking bumper corners, and Zack's rear bumper had seen it's fair share of abuse on Steel Bender and Poison Spider. I have had my eye on At The Helm's high clearance rear bumper since I busted my rear bumper corner last year, but if Andrew was willing to make a custom bumper, I was all for it. About a month ago I was looking at lead times on ATH's bumpers and watched the estimated time go from 5 to 7 months on his website. Realizing I had to make a decision soon if I was going to have Andrew build me a bumper or if I needed to order one (if we planned to do another wheeling trip next spring), I discussed it with him. Since he's fairly busy with life at the moment and understanding that it was a lot to ask, I decided to pull the trigger on the ATH bumper. ATH is a one man shop out of Nevada, and Morgan was awesome to deal with. I think his high clearance rear bumper is one of the best looking out there, and it's always nice to support a small shop and fellow enthusiast. Here's a photo of the bumper (obviously not my truck).



When I ordered the bumper back in early August, I was anticipating not getting it until some time in November. When ordering, Morgan informed me that the lead time was actually 14 weeks, which meant I could possibly get it installed before we get too deep into winter in Wisconsin. About two weeks ago, Morgan contacted me and asked me if I wanted my bumper early, since he had made a small mistake in configuration while building another bumper, and mine was the next on the list to be built in that particular setup. Giddy at my good fortune, I paid the remainder of the invoice and received the bumper yesterday. Upon initial inspection, I'm happy with the solid construction and overall quality of the bumper. Although, it's not easy to unload by yourself as I found out when I got it home, all 125 pounds of it.







I can't wait to get this thing coated and installed. I opted for no tire carrier. For my use of the truck, it seems like having to open up the tire carrier every time I want to get in the bed would get old quick. If I need my spare while I'm in town, it's never far away. On longer road trips and wheeling trips, I'll likely mount it back underneath the truck and then put it in the bed like I have on these last two trips to Moab when we wheel. I realize you can take the tire carrier off the bumper when not in use, but it seemed like too much messing around to me. Plus, I like the cleaner look of the bumper by itself without the carrier latch and support bracket.

I also opted for the hidden receiver hitch behind the license plate, as it didn't seem like a bad trade off for more clearance, and I rarely use my hitch or tow anything anyways.

I was originally going to hold off on putting it on until I could get my 1st gen Tacoma sold and some new suspension ordered, but I might put it on earlier. With the frequency of which I'm bouncing off bump stops, I figured the added weight would make my truck's rear end unbearable. However thinking about it more, the stock receiver hitch and bumper weigh roughly 80 pounds, so the increase in weight is only 45 pounds. I'll also likely remove my spare tire and leave it at home unless I'm going on a major trip, since it'll look silly hanging down exposed with the new clearance in the back, so that should shave another 70-80 pounds, making me lighter in the rear end than I sit currently. I'd like to coat it the same way as I did my sliders, by sandblasting, coating with two part epoxy primer, followed by Raptor liner. Hopefully I can get to that in the coming weeks.

As for suspension, I'm still a bit torn, and it will depend a bit on how much I can get for my old truck in terms of what I can reasonably afford if I'm going to order stuff soon. Dave has seemed pretty happy with his budget lift, which includes Icon RXT leaf springs and the Eibach 2.0 front coilovers and matching rear shocks, along with SPC UCA's and the ECGS bushing. After test driving his truck for an extended time last week, his suspension feels so much nicer than my clapped out stock stuff. The rear end is especially plush, with the Stage 1 RXT's and no weight in the back. He says his only regret is not going with a better 2.5 coilover for the front, which I would definitely like to do, especially as I have plans for a front high clearance bumper with a winch down the road.

Current thinking is the Deaver u402 leaf springs, SPC UCA's, the ECGS bushing, and then some flavor of 2.5 coilover in the front and probably matching shocks in the rear. I'd also really like to do the Archive Garage Hammer Hangers in the rear. Andrew has them on his Tacoma and said the difference is incredible, much like a lot of people have said on these forums. Probably will get a U-bolt flip kit as well, and possibly different bumpstops, as I'm not overly impressed with the durobumps, but that might be due more to my rear suspension sucking than anything else. I'm tempted to go all out with some King's or Fox's from Accutune, but we'll see how things shake out.

All caught up currently with the truck and trip reports, hopefully I'll have some updates on installing the new rear bumper in the coming weeks.

 

Added a 3rd brake light to the softopper last weekend, hopefully it will help decrease the chances of a rear end collision. With the new high clearance rear bumper going on soon, I'd like to avoid any frame-tweaking incidents at all costs, and with winter quickly approaching in the midwest, I like the extra attention that it should draw to all of the drivers that universally seem to forget about the increased stopping distance required for a few weeks every year when the snow starts to fly. I opted to attach it to the back window portion instead of the body of the softopper between the clips. My thinking was that I'd rather punch holes in the cheaper window portion that's easily replaceable than the topper itself. Seems to stay in place just fine, and has the added bonus of the lip above it providing a little bit of a roof to help keep out any water. We'll see how it holds up.



Forgot to grab a picture of it in the dark, but the brightness seems to be on par with the brake lights, maybe slightly brighter. I was able to sneak the wires through a gap near the bed rail, where it connects to a harness behind the drivers side tail light that adds a ground (-) and a brake (+), so no splicing into the factory harness. Then there's some disconnects for when (if ever) the softopper gets folded down, or removed.

 

Got the bumper coated this weekend. I actually had a difficult time finding a shop around me that would sandblast the bumper, seems like it's not very common anymore since new vehicles have plastic bumpers. When I had my sliders sandblasted, it was at a waste disposal shop (the guy did a lot of sandblasting and repainting of dumpsters). He was a little pricey and a bit of a drive, so I wanted to look elsewhere this time around. Ended up finding an engineering shop near my work that does a lot of fabrication work for big lake freighter parts that was willing to give it a blast. It seemed like they got a kick out of it, as it wasn't something that they would typically work on. Ended up BS'ing with the guy for a good 45 minutes as I was picking up the bumper, when another guy that helped me load it in the truck walked by and said "Jeez, I figured you would have had that thing coated by now." I told them I'll probably be back in a year with a front bumper.

Forgot to grab a picture of the sandblasted bumper, here's after laying down the epoxy primer. Before priming, I wiped the entire thing down with acetone and sprayed some brake cleaner in the harder to reach areas to try and get it as clean as possible.







Ended up with two coats of epoxy primer, half of which seemed to end up on my buddies garage floor. Since there were a few vehicles outside and it was a bit breezy, the doors were shut a bit more than they probably should have been to prevent any overspray clouds finding the vehicles, which meant somewhat poor ventilation for me. I'm sure I knocked a few days off my lifespan, even with a mask on. We decided to let the primer cure overnight.

My only complaint so far with the bumper is that it proved to be tricky to coat a lot of the crevices on the inside corners, as there often seemed to be something in the way of me getting a good angle with the paint gun on some spots. After we inspected my work after two coats with a good light, I ended up brushing on some more primer in the hard to reach areas that were missed. How we hung the bumper didn't do us any favors either, as all the hard to reach areas were facing down, so I had to shoot up at them.

We opted to move the operation to my buddies car port the following day for better ventilation and to help keep the mess out of the garage. However, when I went to grab the raptor liner that had just showed up from Amazon, I realized I had ordered the tintable version, not the black, which comes clear and then you mix in the color tint you want. Since we were sitting in the last decent weather weekend for our (way too short) fall, we opted to run to the store to buy another case of the black raptor liner. Two coats later, I think it turned out decent.











My only advice would be to wear gloves. Hopefully the coatings stay on the bumper even half as decent as their remnants have stayed on my hands, even after a dozen or so attempts to wash them. We'll let the bumper cure for the week, hoping to get it on the truck next weekend. My sliders have seemed to hold up great for the last 1.5 years, so I'm hoping for the same results with the bumper. Living in the salt belt, we'll see how they do in the long term.

 

Did some work on the truck yesterday. Decided to swap out the rear shocks again and put the OEM bump stops back in to try and help with the ride in the rear. To summarize, up to this point:

• One OEM Bilstein rear shock blown during 2021 Moab trip. Probably had a bit too much weight in the bed on the way out, and hit some nasty bumps in Colorado that felt like full bottom outs at highway speeds. Dealer wouldn't warranty with ~15k on the truck, but I've come to accept that I shouldn't expect that for a wear item (that I also abused). I also now suspect that my leaf springs were basically junk after this trip, either from being overloaded, from wheeling too hard, or some combination of both.
• Put on some used Bilstein rear shocks after Moab 2021 from a buddy that I believe were designed for a RAM truck, but soon found out that they were too long and I was bottoming them out all the time.
• Replaced shocks with new pair of Bilstein 5100's. Drove like this for ~1 year. Still occasionally hit bump stops from what I recall (which isn't super fun).
• Added Durobumps 3.5" bump stops in the rear, which measured 1" taller than stock, prior to Moab 2022 to try and protect the 5100's from getting blown. Also brought way less stuff to Moab to try and keep the weight down.
• Swapped clapped out OEM leaf springs out after Moab 2022 for another used set of OEM leaf springs from a buddy that were less clapped out.
• Rear end still way too soft, hitting bump stops far too often, especially evident with minor weight in the bed or 1-2 passengers in the cab.
• Removed Durobumps, put back OEM bump stops, and swapped in new rear shocks (11/13/2022).

Ended up going with the KYB Gas-a-Just shocks based on a recommendation on here as a cheap(er) alternative to Bilstein 5100's. Ended up having to cut one 5100 out when the top stud with the Allen key stripped and no amount of clamping force would keep the shaft from spinning when trying to undo the top nut. Pretty disappointing after being on the truck for only a year, and with plenty of anti-seize on the threads when I installed them. To my (somewhat) surprise, both 5100's were junk coming off the truck, even before cutting one out. Both were easily compressible by hand, working shocks (like the KYB's) should take one person's full body weight to compress (slowly).

I'm inclined to blame the 5100's being blown on running them with my worn out OEM leaf springs for over a year. I'm still surprised they were both blown, however. The rear end didn't feel nearly as bouncy as the OEM rear shocks when one was blown, but maybe I slowly got used to it over time as they wore out. Either way, I won't be going back to Bilstein's at this point, as I've blown 3/4 of them in less than 30k miles. We'll see how the KYB's hold up, which were about 2/3 of the price of the Bilstein's. The Bilstein's were also hitting some different points in the shock tower in the rear to the point that they were worn down to bare metal, which was super strange to me. I feel like that may have had something to do with some of the excessive harshness I have felt when I thought I was bottoming out in the rear, being far rougher than I came to expect, especially with the positive reviews around on the softness of the Durobumps.

While still being entirely disappointed with the state of my rear suspension in general, I'm leaning towards holding off on installing the rear bumper until spring when I can re-do my entire suspension. I figured the worse case scenario would be to put the bumper on and have the rear end ride even worse, with no easy solution until I can afford a proper lift, and have to deal with it bottoming out all winter. The rear end feels much better with the new shocks and OEM bump stops so far, so hopefully I can get by like this until spring. I took the spare tire off to help reduce the weight in the back, we'll see how much it helps.

I also crawled around underneath my truck and did another coat of Fluid Film before the snow flies (which some did this morning, so good timing). So far this is my 3rd application prior to my 3rd winter with the truck, and I am very happy with how the Fluid Film has kept the underside rust free. The underside is filthy as the Fluid Film collects dirt like crazy, but wiping off any one spot reveals a clean frame underneath. From my experience, the Fluid Film holds up just fine from road spray and doesn't wash off nearly as easily as some people make it seem, there was still a ton left on virtually everything metal underneath my truck after 2 winters. Part of me is tempted to do a deep cleaning of everything underneath in the spring to remove all of the old fluid film and start with a fresh application, but I think there is some merit to "layering" it every year so that all of the nooks and crannies and missed spots get touched up and added to every year vs. worrying about getting everything covered in one application. Either way, if you live in an area that uses salt on the roads, I can't recommend Fluid Film enough at this point. It's been well worth the money, the time, and the mess so far, although it is certainly a chore. I'm hoping to keep this truck for a long time, so keeping the rust at bay is a major priority.

That's it for now and probably the near future, unless I change my mind on installing the rear bumper sooner (although unlikely, as it's below freezing now). Apologies for the wall of text and lack of pictures, but I'm still using this build thread more for personal documentation of the truck and my thought process as it progresses, hence the rambling. Til next time.

 

12/29/2022

Changed the oil and rotated the tires today on a rare 40 degree day in December.

Mileage - 30,101
Oil - Mobil 1 0w-20
OEM oil filter
Rotated tires straight front to back

I didn't plan on doing any of my own maintenance on the truck, but the dealership (where several of my buddies work) was booked out til the end of January and I have a road trip coming up (Packers vs Vikings game at Lambeau on New Year's Day) so I opted to do it myself this time.

People weren't joking that the dip stick is hard to read, I basically just added a bit more than 6 quarts and called it good. I ordered the MotivX kit and it made it slightly easier, although draining the oil filter made a mess until the adapter was fully threaded in.

I wouldn't mind doing my own services if I had a bigger garage that was heated, but I think in the future I'll opt for dealer services for convenience.

 

Super small update:
I've been running the H9 bulbs in my low beams for awhile now, definitely the best bang/buck mod so far on the truck. Originally I shaved the tabs on the bulbs themselves to make them fit, then someone posted a conversion harness for <$10 that I bought so I wouldn't have to keep shaving bulbs (even though it takes 5 minutes). Discovered this post about simply removing the green plastic adapters so the H9 bulbs don't need to be shaved, they are just plug and play now. Took longer to get the bulbs twisted back in their sockets than to remove the green adapters.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ctor-headlights.589465/page-300#post-28111591

Also added a hose clamp (with a unique/keyed screw head) to the tailgate to help prevent theft. Tailgate theft doesn't seem to be an issue where I live, but for a few bucks for the hose clamp and 30 seconds of my time, it gives me a small peace of mind until I eventually grab an OEM tailgate pop-n-lock kit for additional security.

I also (somewhat impulsively) bought the

$53 Motorola MA1 , The Only Google Authorized Wireless Android Auto Car Adapter, Smartphone to Screen Wireless Bridge Car Accessories, USB Type-A

Motorola MA1 dongle to allow for wireless Android Auto. I was a little worried about the compatibility with my dinosaur of a phone (Galaxy S8) since I read conflicting info on Android 9.0 working with the dongle. Spent probably an hour total over two days trying to get it to connect to my phone, and was about to concede that I'd need to wait to get a new phone to make it work, when I gave it another try, and it connected almost immediately (after enabling USB debugging on my phone in the developer mode, not sure if that was the ticket or not). Now it connects after 15-20 seconds of turning the truck on automatically. Has worked great the last few days, and I no longer need to plug my phone into my USB port where the cord would inevitably get bumped by passengers or jostled hitting bumps in the road, causing somewhat frequent disconnects.

That's it for now, should have another update some time this spring when I get my ATH high clearance rear bumper on.

 

Its basically spring lets put the bumper on

 

We're in fake spring, winter 2.0 is right around the corner, lol.

Will probably wait until the salt gets washed off the roads so I can paint my bedside cuts and give them a day or two to cure before we slap it on.

 

Just drive the 1st gen for a few days

 

Finally went ahead and installed my At The Helm high clearance rear bumper this weekend (thanks to @TehWanderer for pushing me to get it done, and for helping me do the install in his garage, and for storing the bumper in his garage all winter ). It's been about 8 months since I received and coated the bumper, realistically we could have put it on right away but with winter coming early last year, I opted to wait for this spring/summer so there wasn't any possibility of road salt contaminating the bedside cuts before I got a properly cured coating on there (I really don't want it to rust).

We started around 10 am on Saturday, I figured it would take most of the day to get it done.

First we worked on removing the factory bumper and associated wiring. There's really only the license plate lights harness and the trailer harness plug (I don't have BSM), so despite some minor struggles removing some clips (that always seem to be a pain), we got all the wiring disconnected in short order. Next, there were 10 total bolts (5 on each side) mounting the factory bumper to the frame, the instructions had us remove the rearmost 4 bolts on each side and to leave the front bolt threaded half way in. Leaving the front bolt in (which is in an open slot) kept the bumper from falling off and allowed us to pull up and rearward to remove the factory bumper, in theory. There's a pin on the factory bumper in the rear that needs to be lifted up and then out of a slot to remove the bumper, and we struggled with it a bit.

Here's the photo showing the slot where the pin sits, per ATH's instructions:


For whatever reason (possibly a manufacturing defect) the driver side slot seemed to have a little lip on the bottom flat portion that caused the driver side pin to get hung up when we tried to pull up and backwards. Trying to lift the bumper higher and over the lip caused interference between the top of the bumper and the black steel edge below the tailgate (where the hole is to lower the spare tire). The passenger side pin slid out fine, but it took some serious persuasion to get the driver side pin to clear the slot. After some smacks with a dead blow hammer and some finessing with a jack, we were finally able to clear the pin and remove the bumper. It was still relatively early in the day at this point, but I think I cracked my first beer upon successful removal.

Once the factory bumper was free, we removed the top plastic step piece from the bumper (which was fairly easy since most of my passenger side clips were already broken from Moab 2022) and finished removing the wiring harness from the factory bumper. Next, we removed my license plate and worked on installing it on the new bumper. Since I opted for the hidden receiver behind the license plate, the license plate bracket was a flip up style that hides the receiver for daily driving and flips up if you need to use the receiver. I will admit, it took us way too long to figure out how to install that flip up license plate bracket, but we finally made sense of it and got it mounted. It's spring loaded, so when in the normal "down" position, the license plate sits tight against the bumper, and with resistance from the springs, it's able to be tilted up and out of the way for mounting a hitch. ATH also provided new LED license plate lights with the kit, so we mounted those as well. This was around the time that I realized I should take photos so I could do a proper write up on TacomaWorld.

New ATH high clearance rear bumper, license plate/bracket and LED license plate lights installed.



I invited a few friends over for the garage day (what's better than watching your friends work in the garage while drinking a few beers and offering support/criticism)? I suspect everyone was eager for the main event, as I continued to read and re-read the install instructions, we had arrived at the critical step:

Cut bedsides.

ATH recommends a 4-1/2" angle grinder with cutoff wheel, so that's what I purchased. Talking to a friend who does automotive paint work, he recommended a diamond tipped cutoff wheel, so I grabbed one of those as well, although all they had in stock was a serrated edge.

ATH gives two measurements for the bedside cut, from the install instructions, measured down from where the bed caps meet the bed:



We measured, re-measured, adjusted, measured again, and then had someone else check our work (several times). We adjusted for the width of the cutoff wheel, and carefully marked out everything with pencil on painters tape. I believe I saw someone on here use a metal yardstick as a guide, so I picked one up for this purpose and taped it right to the truck so I could follow a hard edge during the cut.



Moment of truth time, I took a few more sips of beer (for courage) and decided to first try the serrated diamond tipped cutoff wheel. Since everything below the cutoff line was about to be junked, I took the opportunity to do some practice cuts. The diamond serrated blade proved to be too difficult to get a clean cut, so I swapped it out for a standard steel cutoff wheel, which seemed to cut smoother. After a few more minutes of psyching myself up, I made my first cut.



Below the tailights, there were no measurements, but there was a picture of how to cut the corner. This didn't have to be perfect since it would be hidden by the bumper, so I took less time marking it out and finished the work with the cutoff wheel.

From ATH's instructions:






I cut the wheel well liners level with the bedside cut, per the instructions, and removed the factory bedside support brackets. The new bedside support brackets supplied by ATH required a hole to be drilled behind the fender flare to bolt to. Also of note, I coated the new bedside brackets with Steel-It (since they arrived as bare steel), so we'll see how that coating holds up long term.



I spent some time with a file smoothing out the edges of the bedside cut. Around this time, we decided to make the bedside cuts on the passenger side so that we could get to test fitting (to see if we needed any more work with the cutoff wheel before we spent too much time smoothing out the initial cut). I was feeling pretty confident at this point (only one practice cut on the passenger side), so I went for it.



It didn't go quite as smoothly as the driver side, but in the end I'm the only one who will know the intricacies of some minor imperfections with my cut. All in all, both sides went pretty well, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it was nerve racking both times.

After trimming the fender liner and drilling a hole for the new bedside support bracket, we went for the test fit.













The result: it looked awesome. There's a fair amount of adjustment available, thanks to the slotted holes on the new bumper. We got it close to the point where we were satisfied that no more major cutting was required, and removed the bumper again to continue cleaning up the edges of the cuts.

Coating the cuts was something that I went back and forth on a lot, I even posted the question on here and got a variety of possible solutions. Since I live in the salt belt, trying to keep my bedsides from rusting prematurely after cutting was my biggest priority. My buddy in automotive paint suggested taping off above the cut, sanding with 320 grit sandpaper, and coating with POR-15, a rust inhibitor. I actually had a kit of POR-15 on hand that I purchased last fall as an option when I thought we'd be installing my bumper back in October. The kit came with a cleaner/degreaser, metal prep, and a small can of POR-15, along with rubber gloves and paint brushes. This was by far the longest and most tedious part of the whole install, but the part that I wanted to spend the most time on to ensure a good rust-preventative coating.



First coat of POR-15 applied (after several hours of filing, sanding, taping off, degreasing, applying the metal prep primer, and finally painting). We followed a taped edge for the visible portion, and applied the POR-15 more liberally to the areas that won't be seen (below the taillights, behind the fender flare, and on the inside of the bedside).



The POR-15 required a minimum of 2 hours dry time between coats, so we waited until it was completely dry and applied a second coat (2 coats minimum, per instructions).



The removed bedsides, complete with practice cuts:



The full pile of removed parts. No more looking at my broken chrome corner.



My buddy Zack worked on splicing the new license plate lights into the factory harness, and we loosely installed it on the new bumper.

At this point, I believe I put the 2nd coat of POR-15 on around 9 pm, so we opted to let it dry overnight and finish with the final install the following morning (Sunday). Saturday was a long day, but good times were had by all.

The next day, @TehWanderer and I worked on the final install. Now that the POR-15 was completely dry, I installed the provided edge trim to both protect and hide the POR-15 along the visible cut edge, plugged in the license plates lights harness and trailer plug harness, and then it was time for final install/adjustments. Overall, I think it turned out great.



The bedside brackets allowed the bedsides to be adjusted in and out to match the bumper, I love the way the ATH bumper lays down the side of the truck.









Checking for tailgate clearance, there's not much gap there, but the curved part over the "Tacoma" lettering on the tail gate sits about 1/4" from the edge of the bumper.



Hidden receiver:



I also decided to chop my exhaust at the rear axle crossover, since it looked silly hanging (much) lower below the new bumper than it did from the factory bedsides.





I ended up picking up some high temp exhaust paint and sprayed the tip where I made my cut black.

The last step was to enjoy my victory sucker, included with the ATH install kit.





Out of curiosity, we took some rough measurements to compare the difference in clearance between @TehWanderer's truck and mine. His truck is lifted on Icon RXT stage 1 leaf springs and Eibach 2.0 coilovers and matching rear shocks, which gives him about 1-5/8" lift over stock all around, which is what I'm shooting for when I get around to doing suspension. Other than that, we're both on 33's with sliders, skid plates, etc. A before/after pic of my truck's stock clearance and new clearance would have been more useful, but we didn't think about it beforehand.

@TehWanderer's truck, roughly 30.75" to the tailgate, and 18" to the bottom of the receiver.



My truck, 30" to the tailgate and about 21.5" to the bottom of the bumper (with my old bumper and tools, etc. in the bed).



Rough math indicates I gained roughly 4.25" of clearance with the new bumper vs. my old lowest point (being the hitch receiver), which is a huge amount. In my limited experience wheeling in this truck, dragging the rear bumper and/or receiver hitch was always the weak point, so I'm glad I went with the high clearance (and hidden receiver) option. Once I get it lifted, I should have substantially more clearance (~6" more) over stock in the rear, and more importantly, everything back there is steel now. No more breaking expensive plastic parts!

Shoutout to @At The Helm for a great product, stellar packaging and clear install instructions. Even the edge trim provided was high quality. I can't thank Morgan enough for all of the small details and care that clearly goes into his products, and for getting my bumper to me well ahead of schedule (even though it took me 8 months to finally put it on ). Overall, I'm ecstatic with the end result.





Next up I'll have to come up with a mounting solution for rear mudflaps, and I'd like to add reverse pod lights in the cutouts on the bumper, but I haven't decided yet if I'll tie them into the reverse lights or have them independent on a toggle switch.

Future planned mods (in the order I expect to do them in):

• Rear mudflaps
• Rear LED reverse light pods
• Full suspension (new leaf pack, hammer hangers, 2.5 coilovers, rear shocks, UCA's, ECGS bushing, U-bolt flip, bump stops)
• Wheels (17x8.5, 0 offset), new 255/80R17 tires
• Upgraded sound system, cab sound deadening
• Front high clearance bumper, with winch, front bumper lights
• Possible regear to 5.29, depending on drivability after the front bumper (it's a heavy pig now with the skids, sliders, E-load tires and rear bumper, but the stock manual 4.3 gears have worked just fine to this point)
• Possible crawl box (i.e. NW Fab) if I still find the need, would be in the way distant future

I won't say for certain that I'll be done after that, as there's always something to improve on, but I think that's as far as I'll likely take the truck.

I didn't do Moab this year since I chose to use my vacation on some other trips, but we'll likely do another wheeling trip somewhere in the lower 48 next year. I'm excited to test out the new bumper, I'm sure it will survive being bashed on rocks a lot better than the stock one did.

Until next time.

 

I've had my Mastercraft Courser CXT's (255/85R16) for a few years now, originally installed back in May of 2021 just before our first trip to Moab. I had originally planned to go with Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx's since they had decent reviews in the snow, and they were one of the few 255/85R16's that weren't straight up mud tires. They were sold out nationwide at the time, so I somewhat impulsively ordered the Mastercrafts since I was sold on the pizza cutter tire size, and they were marketed as a sort of hybrid tire between an M/T and an A/T. I've since put about 27,000 miles or so on them (mounted around 10k miles, now at 36,754). Overall I really like them, although they don't seem to be a particularly common choice. The one area they leave a lot to be desired in is winter traction, which is a concern for about 5 months out of the year here in northern Wisconsin. With the help of 4WD, I've gotten through the last 2 winters fine, but my typical commute is only ~5 miles down a straight road through town to and from work. In more questionable conditions, especially at highway speeds, I didn't have a ton of faith in the traction. I'm a pretty cautious driver in the winter, but not having confidence in unexpected braking situations and corning performance led me to purchase some dedicated snow tires for this winter, and likely for the rest of the truck's life.

It seems the consensus on here as to the best performing snow tires comes down to Blizzaks and Nokians. Being of Finnish descent myself, I figured I'd give those crazy winter rallying Finns the benefit of the doubt here, so Nokian Hakkapeliittas were my first choice. I'm a fan of the skinny tire look and overall benefits vs. a wider tire, and I couldn't really see myself going back to a close to stock size after enjoying my 255's, so I decided to go even skinnier and picked up a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3's in 235/85R16's that just so happened to be on sale through Walmart for around $190 per tire. Since these are also 10-ply E-load tires like my Mastercrafts, I decided to go without a spare for now. Like I mentioned previously, most of my winter driving is nearby in town, and I have a tire patch kit and air compressor in the truck at all times if I pick up something in a tire when I'm out of town. I stopped carrying my spare 255 around when I mounted my rear bumper for similar reasons. The 235's should also be easier to find a replacement tire if need be vs. the 255's since they seem to be a more common size tire, mostly for dually trucks. There seems to be plenty of debate around the internet on wide vs. narrow snow tire performance, but from what I gathered, wide tires are better for deep snow (for floatation, similar to in sand) and the skinnies would be better in basically all other scenarios. I'm assuming either way they'd be better than my Mastercrafts in the slippery stuff, so I'm all in on the skinny life now.

My next dilemma was whether to purchase another set of wheels or not for the Hakkas, since it's obviously easier to swap out mounted wheels/tires seasonally vs. paying numerous mounting fees at a tire shop. I see that a lot of people go with steel wheels for their winter tires, which I wouldn't mind (and I like the utilitarian look). However, once I went down the rabbit hole of new TPMS sensors, cloning sensors (which meant buying a tool to do so), etc., I decided I'd rather just mount the new snows on my existing OEM wheels, at least for this winter. I may end up getting some aftermarket wheels for the other three seasons come spring time, so this will give me some more time to research and decide what I want to do.

I figured I'd grab some before/after photos this morning, so here's some comparisons for if there's some other weirdo out there that wants to go from 255/85R16's to 235/85R16's on OEM offroad wheels on stock suspension. Apologies for the poor lighting and old phone quality pics.



















Went from a 33x10 to roughly a 31.7x9.25. Definitely skinnier, not as noticeable on the overall diameter. I should have measured my fender heights before and after to get an idea of the actual difference, I'm sure my Mastercrafts have lost some height with 27k miles of wear. Overall, I'm pleased with the look, now it's only a matter of time before I get to test them out in the white stuff (although we've had an odd lack of snow so far this year, no complaints here). I'll update my thoughts on the switch after the winter, although I have high hopes for the skinny Hakkas.

I must be getting old, I never would have guessed a few years ago that buying snow tires would get me this excited, or call for this long of a writeup on them, lol.

 

I've been debating my options for reverse LED pod lights to go in my ATH rear bumper since I installed it earlier this summer. The easiest (or rather, cheapest) solution would have been to throw some Amazon pods in and call it a day. However, I had at least some desire to buy nicer lights, since the bumper itself wasn't cheap and currently it's my favorite thing that I've done to the truck. Throwing some $30 Chinese lights in my ~$2k bumper would feel a little like throwing a cheap mismatched topper on a brand new truck to me.

ATH's website claimed the bumper cutouts "fits most brands, including Rigid Industries" so I decided to look there first. After quickly discovering that Rigid Industries' flush mount pods cost $267 for a pair, suddenly the Amazon option looked like a better solution to lights that I anticipate will rarely get used. However, while poking around Rigid's website, I noticed a scratch and dent refurbished single pod light for a much more reasonable $56. After almost pulling the trigger, I noticed an identical deal, $56 on a scratch and dent refurbished pod light, but this time for a pair of lights, not just a single light. Figuring it was some sort of type-o, I decided to pull the trigger and see what showed up, and if one pod only showed up, I'd keep my eyes out for another scratch and dent to complete the pair. To my delight, two lights showed up a few days later, with one minor scratch as the only defect in one of the lights as far as I can tell, for $80 shipped. I'll need to source a connector and figure out how I'm going to wire the lights. I'm currently debating on connecting them to my wires stubbed out for the OEM bed lights that exist behind the tail lights of later model year Tacomas (2020+?), so I can run them off my 3rd brake light bed lights switch since that's no longer really needed due to my softtopper blocking it. I'll have to do more digging on this option since I know next to nothing about wiring, and I also may want to add the OEM bed lighting kit in the future, so I'm not sure if I can run both off the same pre-wired bed light circuit or if doing so will cause any problems.

Rigid Industries D-Series PRO Flood Flush Mount:



The only defect I could find, a small scratch on the top edge on one of the lights (near my pointer finger in the photo below).



Since getting my snow tires mounted a few weeks ago, I've been thinking ahead about what to do when spring rolls around for a 2nd set of wheels, so I don't have to get my summer/snow tires swapped every winter/spring on my OEM wheels. My initial plan was to buy some aftermarket wheels, the biggest question being to go with either 16" wheels again (same as OEM off road wheels) or move up to 17" wheels since the tire choices seem to be more plentiful. Aftermarket wheels would also give me options for something closer to a +0 offset wheel, which brings the outside face of the tires about flush with the fenders. For awhile now, I've wanted a set of the Fifteen52 Analog HD wheels in black: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fifteen52-analog-hd-alloy-wheels.612392/

My Mastercraft 255/85R16's still have a decent amount of life left in them, so if I ended up with 17" wheels, I'd have to swap those tires back to my stock 16" wheels come spring time if I want to run them for the remainder of their tread life. The other option would be to sell the tires and get something new in a 255/80R17 (same size, 33"x10").

I'm not sure where I got the idea from, possibly to make things simpler, but I ultimately decided to look for another set of OEM off road wheels. First, I really like the off road wheels styling, and have since I picked up my truck. I honestly think they are some of the best looking OEM wheels that Toyota has put on any of their trucks in the last 30 years at least. I've seen people put them on 1st gens and 2nd gens and they always look right at home. I think they are a timeless design, and one that will never go out of style. There was also some line of thinking about keeping the stock offset wheels to hopefully prolong the life of front end components on the truck. Going from the stock +25 offset to a +0 offset wouldn't likely add too much additional stress and wear on components by itself, but coupled with my heavier E-load tires and the weight of armor I've already added to my truck, I sort of like the idea of keeping the wheels themselves where they were designed to be from the factory. I have a hard time believing that the crazy negative offsets you see on full size trucks nowadays aren't inherently harder on front end suspension components, wheel bearings, etc., but who knows. A part of me also likes the pairing of the factory 16"x7" wheel with my skinny tire obsession, I certainly wouldn't want any wider than a 7" wheel on my snow tires in 235 width (although Nokian lists they can be mounted on up to 7.5" wide wheels). Sticking with the 7" wide factory wheel also makes my 255's look a little beefier.

I looked a bit on the wheel/tire classifieds on here for OEM takeoffs, but quickly discovered that most people sell the stock wrangler tires with the wheels (and thus, want more money for the set), and most people are also unwilling to ship and prefer to deal locally. I turned to Facebook marketplace and immediately located a set for $400, with OEM TPMS sensors, although they were about a 3.5 hour drive away. Also doing some reading, I don't think I can run two sets of OEM TPMS sensors since the truck can only store 5 ID's at once, and would instead have to pick up some cloneable sensors. While making travel plans with a buddy, he decided on a whim to look at Craigslist (which I had presumed was dead years ago) and found a set of OEM off road wheels for $375 only 2.5 hours away. The wheels had been posted for 3 months on Craigslist, so I was surprised they were still available for what I thought was a great price (considering new OEM wheels are around $380 per wheel). They ended up belonging to an older gentleman who had upgraded with some (what I'm assuming were) 4Runner TRD Sema Pro wheels, judging by TRD 17x7 boxes that he put the OEM wheels in. His wife was the only one home when we picked up the wheels, and she said her husband wanted us to take the OEM lug nuts as well, so now I have a spare set of those too. Score!





The wheels have 48k miles on them, but I struggled to find any issues with them. Overall, I'm pumped with the deal, and excited to be able to rock the OEM wheels year round for the foreseeable future.

I'll update when I get my wiring figured out and my reverse pods installed. I'd also still like to figure out a solution for mounting rear mud flaps to my ATH bumper, we've been weirdly fortunate so far in northern WI to avoid any snow sticking on the ground yet this winter, but if I can keep all that snow/salt crap from caking the rear end of my truck all winter, it would go a long way in helping everything stay rust free.

Another minor item on my to-do list, I'd like to black out the top portions of my LED license plate lights, since the glare in my backup camera makes it almost unusable at times, especially if the camera is dirty at all.

I'm also overdue for an oil change, as I ticked over 37,000 miles when I picked up my wheels. I originally paid for an early oil change at 5k miles, but since have had the dealer do oil changes at 10k, 20k, and then I did one myself last year at 30k. I had intended to follow the 10k oil change interval, but I believe I actually fall into the severe 5k interval due to my winter driving. The manual says something along the lines of "repeated short trips of 5 miles or less in below freezing temperatures", which basically describes my work commute for 5 months out of the year. I'm also in the habit since I installed my N2 Designs remote start to let my truck idle for a few minutes when its below freezing out before I leave, so 5k oil changes will give me some cheap insurance and peace of mind.

 

Well, I finally parted ways with my old 1st gen Tacoma. The truck that started my (now much more expensive) journey with Tacomas, it's been relegated to a yard ornament ever since I bought my 3rd gen back in July of 2020. I decided at the time not to trade it in for my new truck, figuring the dealership wouldn't give me nearly what I could get for it selling private. I knew on the drive home with the 3rd gen that I would never regularly drive the 1st gen again, since the new truck was so much more comfortable in every way, but it still took me almost 3.5 years to finally get rid of it. I had fleeting aspirations of turning it into a trail rig down the road, since the size is much better for wheeling and I could beat on it without worry, but as it sat it got rustier, older, and generally lest desirable to spend any money on.

A buddy, who is also a Toyota enthusiast (mostly 3rd and 4th gen 4runners) was looking for a work truck for one of his employees to help out with his concrete business. After going through all of the minor issues and things I would fix on it before driving it full time, I finally said goodbye to the old Taco. I figured I'd throw up some photos in memoriam, although I hope my buddy gets many more years of use out of it.

First photo I could find of it, August 28th 2014:




There's still something about the old trucks that are classic. Minus my Moab wheeling photos, I took way more candid shots of the old truck than I have so far of my new truck. They just look so good in every environment.















How it sat as of a few weeks ago, when I was grabbing some photos for my buddy.



And my last photo of it from last night.

 

Since I think we're "officially" done with winter (knock on wood), I decided to swap back to my summer tires with temps hitting the 50's-60's outside now consistently. I picked a great year to finally invest in snow tires for the first time (we basically had a record low snowfall total here in northern Wisconsin, I also bought a ski pass and snowboarding helmet that were never used). Truck is at ~39,300 miles.

I picked up the

$199 Autel TS408 S, 2025 TPMS Relearn Tool Updated of TS401 TS408, OBD II Programming Scanner, OEM Sensor(315 433Mhz) Relearn, Activation, Reset, Read Clear DTCs, Smae as TS501 PRO TS508WIFI TS601

Autel TS408 TPMS tool and a set of Autel MX cloneable sensors so that I can run TPMS all year round in both sets of wheels/tires. After getting my 255/85R16's mounted on my (new to me) 2nd set of off road wheels and the sensors installed, I should be able to swap between sets myself for the foreseeable future.

We'll see if I ever get my money's worth out of the Autel tool, I'm thinking it would only take 2-3 uses for it to be cheaper than a tire shop or the dealership reprogramming the TPMS sensors in the long run, especially if I'm going to keep running and swapping between summer/winter tires. Copying the ID's was easy, it walked me through the locations on the truck one by one, then I was able to "paste" those ID's to the 4 new sensors.





The 255/85R16's look a lot beefier coming from my 235/85R16 snow tires.



I got some OEM bed lights as a gift. The 2020+ trucks are pre-wired from the factory (behind the tail lights) for the bed lights, so it seemed like a simple and useful upgrade.



I also broke down and ordered some seat covers for my front seats. I've always thought seat covers were sort of pointless, but I've been hard on my factory seats and now they are making some sense. There's a nice burn hole from a fallen cigarette ember right in the middle of my passenger seat that I look at everyday (a buddy leaned in talking to me through my passenger window while smoking years ago, for which I will never forgive him). My driver's seat is also getting beat up just from the wear and tear of getting in and out, particularly the bottom seat bolster, so I decided to remedy the situation (or at least cover it up).

I ended up ordering the Carhartt Precision Fit seat covers made by Covercraft in the gravel color, seeing they were on sale for 20% off. Since I have the dog hammock in the back seat, and because the covers are pricey, I decided to go with just the front seats for now. They should ship within the week so I'm sure I'll have a post and photos for when I get those installed. It sounds like they add some additional padding, work with my electric driver's seat and seat airbags, and fit pretty well. I'm excited to try them out.