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

My stock speakers sounded better with my non JBL stock head unit than my upgrades. Stock unit didn't have enough power to power the new speakers. Upgraded to a new head unit that had more power and it was a night and day difference.

 

What are you going to use for material of the wheel well liners? I used ABS sheeting but if you off road or live in cold climate, be prepared to remake them frequently as they will crack. I made mine 2 peices so that I only need to remake a half when a section cracks, I'm looking to use a more plyable material next time.

 

Is this Utah? What part? Looks amazing. We will be back there in a couple months.

 

Yes sir! Near 4 corners. It’s been pretty epic! In all my years here in utard I have never seen so many creeks running with water some haven’t had water in them for over a 100 years! Here a couple more pics to burry plastidipers.

 

I'm using kydex so hopefully it stands up a bit more than ABS but I suppose we'll see! I live in florida and while I "off-road" it's pretty much just going through mud or sand not too many rocks. I'll keep you updated when it breaks though!

 

The brand was called Akkon but they shipped Spyder brand gear which was kinda funny.

 

If you’re going to invest in aftermarket speakers, you want a good quality headunit paired with the proper amplifier for the speakers. Stock headunits have a very weak output single and power output. A weak signal is going to result in a substantial loss of music quality and feedback (random noises) can also be introduced. Using the power coming from the headunit makes it almost pointless to purchase aftermarket speakers as they will sound worse than stock if they aren’t powered properly. Some people want to keep the stock headunit and use line output converters which allow you to convert the signal wires from the headunit into RCA wires that can send signal to ampliers. I’m not a big fan of these as they add a point of failure and usually wreck the sound quality.

most of that probably sounded like Spanish, but in simple terms, buy a nice headunit (Kenwood and Alpine are some good brands) and make sure it has RCA outputs that you can run to an amplifier, buy an amplifier that outputs the proper RMS (NOT MAX POWER) power rating that is listed for your speakers.

Do all this and you’ll have an amazing sounding system. There are a bunch of great resources on YouTube for all of this so make sure you do your homework. There is no sense in buying speakers if you don’t put the money into powering them properly.

 

Believe me, experiencing it is something I wouldn't even wish on my least favorite person (my brother-in-law). The Dr. Kept saying I was a great patient as he was doing it because most of his patients scream and try to move, I turned on the Masters on my phone and pretended that it wasn't happening. Once they pulled it out it was uncomfortable and slightly painful but not terribly so, it's like a 12" tube with pigtails at the end, I wish I hadn't seen it after they removed it because I got lightheaded.

 

+1 for the HU and Amp, that alone will drive the speakers to produce cleaner clearer sounds. Plus the bass will thump at lower volumes not just when you crank the volume up past 15.

 

Nice! Love that part of UT. You're not too far away from my stomping grounds as a kid.

 

Installed the SAI pump Uni filter mod today. Raining so not much else to do unfortunately

 

Oof!!!!

 

Updated and cleaned up the AUX fuse panel. Went from my homemade tray (Lexan) to an Overland Equipped tray.

Homemade:


and now the OE.

 

Homemade was pretty damn good!

 

Never should’ve tried that mud hole…even a week later I’m still washing shit out …I know I gotta wrap my hood soon

 

I've literally made a new section the last 2 weeks. Broke one the week before that I made last week,

and broke one Monday I remade today.

I've been looking into Neporene Rubber sheets. I think they'll hold up better, but not sure if they are rigid enough. Once I am out of this ABS I may order a sheet to test before I order enough for all 4. No matter what material I use, the 2 peice is the way to go.

 

Today replaced another busted fender liner and made a couple knee savers for the bed stiffners after destroying my knee coming down on the stiffner while loading the bed. I had just enough leftover edge protection from my fender chop.

 

Couple from today. So intense pictures don’t do justice. #middleofnowhere #wrongturns

 

I’ve updated the audio in every vehicle I’ve owned since I was a teenager, so it’s 2nd nature to me to install my own stuff. Honestly, one of the best resources is Crutchfield. Yes they are a retailer, but their advisors really know their stuff. It’s a free call, tell them all about your vehicle and what you want to achieve and your budget, and they can guide you down the right path. A big plus for them is they offer a wiring service so that your upgrades are plug and play, as well as detailed installation instructions based on their tear downs of each model.

 

Now that the rain stopped (for now) here in CA, I got around to chopping up some of the trees that fell across the fire roads near my place.