AlumEscape Expo Build

@allpro sliders are on!



I ended up trimming the pinch weld on the cab for extra clearance which was the toughest part of the install. Otherwise, easy as pie!






I also wired up some more @mattgecko LED's on my rear canopy door and it's perfect for cooking on the tailgate. I ended up using the strip inside of an extrusion with a duffuser lens to soften the light.

 

Sliders look good, great choice for your rig. No red light option on the canopy door

 

Probably going to add it later, I ran out of red strip when doing the lighting on the awning so I'll need to get some more. I'm still deciding if I want to pick up another awning to put on my trailer so I'm holding off on ordering more LEDs just yet. Decisions decisions....

 

Right on. I'm really into that front runner awning swing arm. Will be looking into making one for my cap basket in the future. It will work well with my awning lights since I chose to do a 12v extension power cord instead of hard wiring.

 

So nothing definite at this point but I'm considering options for a regear for the rig and going with ARB's courtesy of the tax man and my rainy day fund. I'm running LT265/75R16's at this point and do not forecast an upsize soon but know I will never go smaller. My rig is heavy, probably around 6k with camp gear, and I tow a 2.5k trailer when traveling. At a minimum I'll be going to 4.10's but what about 4.56's?

On my other rig I run 4.88's and 32" tires and it has an overdrive of 0.79:1 and it'll run maybe 75 tops before I'm in the 3,500RPM range. I don't like running that hard though the low end grunt is a big perk. That said, on the Tacoma I need to be able to maintain highway speeds of 65 to 70 mph minimum. I'd really like to be able to use overdrive while towing as I know even now it searches when towing on low to moderate grade. Fuel economy is a non-issue but this is my daily driver so I'd like to keep the RPM's in check for my 70 mile commute. The Tacoma 0.72:1 overdrive and the other numbers seem to say 4.10's are the best choice.

Thoughts?

 

4.56 would be good if you're not going smaller than what you got now and towing on top of that

 

I run 4.56's now and do tow quite a bit. But I also am running 285 70 17's and they are heavy. But I can maintain 65-70mph w/o issues (only issue being gas millage) but I don't tend to drive very thrifty. But I love my 4.56's.

 

Decisions decisions haha

 

After running some approximate numbers 4.56's may really be the better route for me (the green shaded area is where I tow now and stock wasn't that good either). I still need to verify these on the ride home but if they are right it looks like with 4.56's I'd be able to tow again in 5th on relatively level grade and be able to kick down to 4th and be in the power band for steeper grades.

 

Finally took care of my annoying fogged headlight situation. I'm not entirely sure what the issue was but the headlights that I'd done the MGM mod on had become unacceptable cloudy and could not be cleaned from the outside. I think it has something to do with the paint curing so I'll try popping them apart and cleaning them at some point and maybe sell them on. I had a heck of a time squeezing everything in and out with the ARB on there but I was able to get them swapped eventually. That said, the "smoked" TRD ones look much better!

Where I started:


New versus old:


All done:



Also enjoyed a ride this afternoon!

 

any one know if the bumper would have any issues on an 09

 

Great build man. I know I came in a little late to all this but well worth it. Your fab skills are awesome! As I'm building my rig from Afghanistan and trying to get together the necessary parts, do you have a break down of your wiring setup in your rig? I will be placing a dual setup with my home battery behind the passenger seat. How did you go about hooking up that second blue sea fuse box?

 

as far as gears go, last I checked there aren't any aftermarket 4.10 gears for our trucks. I could be wrong, but if you want nitro or Yukon or something like that you would have to go with 4.56 or 4.88

I have 4.56s and I'm on 35s. (Automatic transmission). Not sure how they would be on a smaller tire.

 

You can sometimes get the stock 4.10's... Andy got a set from ECG...

 

That's what I thought too but then I wasn't sure if they would actually sell you used gears so I didn't mention it.

 

If I'd have gotten 4.10's I'd stay with 35's instead of thinking 37's in the future...

 

Thanks bud, I could probably pu together a sketch in the next few days if needed but each setup will be a little different.

I wired up the Blue Sea fuse block under the hood and in the bed through a large re-setable circuit breaker off the auxiliary battery. From there all of my accessories from lights to the fridge, compressor, etc are powered. The winch runs directly from the auxiliary battery. To control charging of the battery I run the Blue Sea auto charging relay which connects and charges both batteries when the truck is running (the relay controller senses the output voltage of the alternator). When the voltage in the starting battery drops to around 13.5v, the really disconnects the auxiliary from the main to leave the starting battery fully charged. In any emergency like a dead starting battery or a winching situation, you can manually override the relay disconnect to use both batteries below the normal disconnecting voltage. So far I'm extremely pleased with this setup versus the dual battery setups I've run in the past.

That said, I do plan to augment the charging system in the future with some type of solar solution for longer trips where the truck and trailer are base camp and I travel by bike or hike during the days. The fridge doesn't draw a ton of juice but I have had it draw the auxiliary down to 11.5v or so after running for three or four days with the truck parked as a base camp.

 

ECGS seems to look they will build the 8.4" rear and the 8.0" front with ARB's and 4.10's. I haven't reached out to them just yet as the tax return is being diverted to an awning for my camper and a SENA for the bike.

I figure this will buy me some time for the 4.10 vs 4.56 decision - the numbers say 4.10 will be better than I was stock but I'm afraid it'll still hunt for OD when towing and I'd have to still run in 4th. 4.56 would probably let me tow and use OD but I'm not sure it's worth the tradeoff in fuel economy while this is still the DD.

 

Also, I hope everyone had fun in the snow this weekend - I really wanted to put the Maxtrax to use but the deepest snow I found was just over the sliders but the truck just wouldn't get stuck. I guess that's a good sign haha.

 

very very nice truck man!!! you got a build on your trailer really want to check that out?