2LM PnP - Plug and play 2WD low range for the 3rd gen. Tacoma

Hah, yeah nothing wrong with keeping it. I had it on there for 4-5 months after the regear. It was super low, and nice. Just not necessary at all. And while it’s not a failure prone mod at all, the fact that the relay could potentially fail and cause me 4wd trouble helped me decide that since I didn’t need it anymore, I may as well sell it. Plus it removed the clutter it adds to the dash. All things that are no big deal, but for me outweighed the pros of a super low gear for my use case.

 

Meant to circle back and follow up on my recent install (post #1916) with an update! Back in May, I was in a hurry to do this job on a Saturday because I sort of unexpectedly had to drive to another (hilly!) state on Sunday to go pick up a car on a dolly and was worried about not having enough torque on hills with the trailer. BTW, no rain in the forecast for that Saturday, but of course it rained on me the whole time while trying to do this install!


Anyway...here's the update:

On early Sunday morning before I buttoned everything back up, I decided I did not like how I had the wiring routed, especially after trying to re-install the glovebox, which wouldn't bolt on without a lot of pressure on the stack of wires. There's very little room in there! It kind of fought and resisted, and I didn't want to force it. So I undid the routing of the wiring shown in my last post and redid it in a way that was a little bit neater and fit better--see attached pic. It looks like a rat's nest, but everything seems secure. I went up, down, under, and over...pretty compact now.



Couple of other important notes to add about my install (which might help someone in the future):
1) unlike some of the dudes/gals in here, my arms were puny enough to fit behind the temp controls, so I didn't have to mess with the center stack trim or unscrewing radio, HVAC, etc. Simply reached in there carefully, popped out the far left blank in the row (blank/button directly below the 4WD knob in the center stack), handed myself the wiring for the new button (see pic here), routed it safely back toward the glovebox area, and snapped the new button in place. Then I zip-tied the excess at different points, being careful not to have it rub the servo mechanism (blend door?).




2) I secured the end of the black wire (near the relay) to the glovebox mount in the kickpanel area (see small black zip tie in this pic). When I went to re-install the glovebox, I realized I blocked a mounting point--D'OH! I ended up NOT re-using the lower right screw point for the glovebox and just zip-tied it there. Seems fine this way.


3) I towed the car dolly back no problem...didn't even have to use the 2LO mod once LOL. Towing with a 3rd gen Tacoma was not necessarily fun, but wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Stop and go heavy traffic on an uphill highway sucked the most, but still did fine (probably shortened my clutch life). For the most part, towed without any major issue. Just took some effort and thinking ahead, which anyone should do with a trailer anyway--never let yourself get too comfortable!

 

Revs are your friend, when towing with the 3rd gen

Excellent pics and write up.

 

Just installed! Works great.

I do have one issue tho, and that is that the switch is illuminated if the key is on... Not when the lights turn on.

I'm using the AIB switch.

 

Not an issue, that is how it was chosen to be done. You can get a switch illumination harness that will tie it to dimmable dash power if that’s preferred.

 

Ah, ok. Ill probably tie it into another switch's light power in that case.

 

Side note, the AOB switches LEDs are spectacular.

I would seriously avoid CH4x4, having tried both switches.

The CH switch is way off in color and brightness.

 

Got a link to the AIB switches? My Google-Fu is failing me.

 

Air on board. AOB.

 

Corrected, thanks

 

I have a '17 sport stick and am starting to trailer more, if I were to get this is there any hidden gotchas I should be aware of? Thanks much!

 

No, just click the button and then shift to 4hi and then to 4lo. Main thing is to unclick the button before going back to 2hi or else you will get an 4wd malfunction warning. The warning is harmless though, restarting the truck fixes it.

 

No gotchas. The ideal control would be a 4 way rather than 3 way + switch allowing all 4 modes. The button is a reasonable compromise. Since the knob is rotary and doesn’t appear to have any smarts, the icing on the cake would be a new control that fits in the original spot. But the juice is not worth the squeeze for that.

And, thinking of my ‘02 Tundra with two adjacent push button switches, that might actually be an interesting idea sometime.

 

A knob that handled all the functions (could turn opposite the normal direction with a push in interlock similar to 4lo) would be killer for 2lo activation. Could finally make it truly idiot proof. Sadly it would be tough to develop that.

 

I have an 18 sport stick which is the reason I got this mod and the only thing is once in a blue moon. I'll forget to hit the button before disengaging so I'll get the warning. But after while you get used to it

 

Free switch for someone who can use it. I swapped with the “short” version. Had this switch installed and it worked perfectly. PM me…pick up local in the SF Bay Area or just pay for shipping and I’ll send to you.

 

That has me thinking, has anyone ever added a TC without going full 4wd just to get low gear mode? Seems excessive but also a fun start to full 4wd conversion.

 

I’ve never seen anybody add a t-case without doing a full conversion but that would be an easy and viable way to get low range. Especially if you chose a manual transfer case for easiest operation.

 

What state does the mod leave the transfer case and or axle lockers in when you shut down while engaged in 2wd lo mode?

I've had my truck warnings go nuts several times and not been sure why. Pretty sure I'd shut down in this mode. A bit of panicky cycling through 2wd and 4wd modes follows. Tough when I've got scant three feet of clearance forward and back when parking my trailer.

 

Did you ever sell that harness?