What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

I loaded up the Trek dual sport 2 in the bed took it out to my favorite state park and did 10 Mi on the bike, stopped in Tampa before I went home and drove the Riverwalk for a couple miles on bike, then on the way home took a detour to Whole Foods for some replenishment. Parked near this dude in Tampa originally from Nevada, he had some nice wheels on this rig sorry I didn't get a close up or side view. Cheers!

 

I am in the same boat as far as not deliberately looking for places to test out rock sliders or the skids. I do want to go on the trails, but nothing extreme. So I am looking to see if I should invest in some rock sliders for just in case.

I'm near Colorado Springs. I have never been on the western side, but it looks really nice though.

 

I finished up the last of the 60k maintenance this morning with the spark plugs. Looking at them in the photo from left to right, the first is drivers side firewall and the last is passenger side firewall. You can see the passenger side at radiator and firewall have the most carbon build up…

 

Do you want mine?

I’ll sell it to you for cheap. I never use it because it has its own wifi that you have to connect too, so in order to use it I can’t use my wifi hotspot and I have to burn up my data.

 

Thank you!! And if it goes thru, I'm pulling a motor out of a wrecked Tacoma on Saturday, and should be able to pull mine on Sunday and atleast start swapping the new one in. If all goes smoothly haha

 

Thanks!
Taking a look through their site and info, it looks like it would be a pretty big pain. And probably a chunk of change. It’s a head unit and amp change, as well as the harness. If I’m going that far, going full aftermarket starts to look more appealing.

 

I kept my stock HU and added a dsp/amp. Changed all the speakers and added a sub.

 

Harder for me to do since I have the JBL system. Less replacement options because of the 2 ohm system. I really liked the idea of just doing the newer model HU, but the cost/ease factor is not there.
Upgrading the audio is not a high priority for me right now, so I’ll take my time and research out my options a little more. And how much work I’m up for!

 

Forgot to share these goodies I installed during my vacation/banned from TW. I Found a nice used set of Rigid Industries D-SS pro flood pod lights on offer up. Took a risk on buying them because they were dirty and wires were cut. But Once obtained them I shortly bought the nvision wireless remote and created a harness for them. Then once. Everything looked good and worked, went to Off-road warehouse in Corona, California and got some yellow rigid light covers. Then went on Etsy and bought some small Toyota decals to slap them on the light covers to make it a lil retro( I know it’s tacky but I don’t know what y’all think)

 

Changed my oil and rotated my tires for the first time! I had it done once at the dealership and decided I'd rather do it myself given their pricing.

Kind of glad I did - the OEM skid plate had only three of the four bolts holding it in place. Two of them were 12mm and the other was a 13mm. Call me OCD, but kind of annoyed that the dealership couldn't bother to come up with a fourth bolt or replace them with the right ones when they serviced it.

Installed a ValvoMax Quick Twist (

$50 ValvoMax Oil Drain Valve - Quick Twist Oil Drain Plug for DIY Oil Changes At Home in 10 Minutes - No Tools, No Mess, No Cleanup - M12-1.25 Thread Size - Made in USA

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077ZGZ39V?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) drain valve for next time and removed the air dam to prep for upgrading the skid plate.

I don't know if I was doing it wrong, but the plastic plug for the oil filter did not want to lock in place; I had to keep pressing on it to drain the oil from the filter housing. Not a big deal, just a little messier than I expected.

 

If I remember correctly the first time I changed my oil had the same problem. What you want to do is inspect your next oil filter make sure it's got the screw in type plastic plug drain adapter.

 

First big modification in the books.

-Body Armor Hiline Front Bumper
-Smittybilt X2O 10k winch
-500amp relay and 12v switch to control power from in the cab

The bumper went in fairly easily. Probably could of cut a bit more than I did a long the top, also ended up with the side tabs in front for now. I may try to get the tabs in the back in the future. I was able to get the cooler line bolt back in that in the main thread for this bumper struggled with. I had to put the nuts on the cooler bracket to raise it up but I left the bracket nuts loose and was able to get the line support bolt back in. The bracket to move the cooler back was at an angle but still provided the needed clearance.

The 12v side of the relay I did in advance of the main install. Used the tacomabeast tap and then add a fuse. Works well, button lights up brighter than I want, but I could only find ch4x4 button with what I wanted and you get what you pay for.

The winch...started wrapping the line then realized the hook was too large to fit through the fairlead (in hindsight, dumb of me to think it would). unwound everything then installed the winch and the bumper. Got everything installer and electrical hooked up. Go to winch in....nothing. Winch out works. learned a lesson to test everything before installing, I wont make that mistake again. Was able to unbolt the winch and get access to the solenoid without taking off the bumper, switched out and in and testerld again. in now works, out doesnt. Good enough for now, as in is the important direction and ill follow up with customer support another day. Get everything together and go to put the license plate bracket on. Realize that I need to unwind the rope and thread it through like the fairlead. Whoops. Luckily enough, while doing this the solenoid unstuck and started working in both directions, so well call it a win.

I'm happy with it, good starter mod before going into the realm of suspensions and lifts.

 

Holy Sheep Shit! Your ready Dud.

 

How did you attach the mount to the hex rack? I’ve been using Velcro straps to mount mine and this seems like a better option.

 

I stripped out the Horrific JBL Speakers Amp and Sub.......

 

as a guy with both a Tacoma and a Jeep wrangler I'm offended by this...lol

 

I am offended that you own a Tacoma and a Jeep Wrangler. We will call it a draw. So I guess you have a Jeep to get you there and a Tacoma to get you back home. Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

 

Thanks. That’s another idea. When I get a chance I’ll dive into it more. Reall doesn’t bother me much to plug in but it’s just ugly having it there. I have considered reworing the center console to be the CarPlay connector.

Yeah I knew it’s a little smaller for sure. I guess the option is to leave it or cut it. I was a car audio installer for years so hoping I can figure something out.

Might be interested. Didn’t 100% follow the WiFi thing though and what you don’t like.

 

Sorry I probably could have phrased it better.

I have a wifi hotspot that I use in the car when I’m on long trips and such so that I don’t have to use all my data. The wireless CarPlay adapter that I have works by creating its own wifi signal, which you connect to with your phone.

Because I have to connect to the CarPlay adapter’s wifi, I can’t use my wifi hotspot at the same time. So if I want to use the wireless car play adapter, I have to use up the data on my phone plan.