Battleship Jones: 2015 Tacoma DCLB Build Thread

Awesome pictures!

I was there a couple of years ago, and agree with you on people's behavior.

I do think it is time to go back again...

 

is that top collar thing necessary?

 

holy cow this is heaven on earth! any chance you know the gps to this mill?

 

Really surprised more people don't drop into this build man. Just finished reading through it all and you certainly are luck to live somewhere so amazingly gorgeous

 

It's certainly a bit of a drive but it sure is worth it!

I'm assuming you mean the top collar on the coilover in which case, you betcha! The top collar is adjustable and controls the preload on, and the resultant lift provided by the coil.

39°03'32.8"N 107°06'16.1"W

There are the coordinates to the mill itself. It is accessed by either county road 3 or Lost Trail Road.

Thanks! I guess I have to say I'm a bit surprised as well, but then again my thread so far seems to be mostly mods and doing stuff with very little BS which seems to make some builds more "popular" than others. That and posts about actually doing things seem to be quite a bit less popular than posts about mods. Who knows.

 

Thanks man! Yeah I have icon 2.5 and all and eventually want to upgrade to those 3x14 700# coils to help with weight and loss in lift.
The mill and trail has been added to my list of places to visit. Really want to do a trip to Colorado to see these cool old buildings and trails that have been around for hundreds of years!
Really shocked its not more popular but maybe if you add more and get some people to drool over your photos then people will come. "if you build it they will come"

 

Keep doing what you like to do, who cares what other folks think.

 

Nice truck! I like what you've done with it.

 

@HomerTaco @Blackout14
Cause you might like Tim's backcountry pictures,..
Oh, the trail limo is pretty cool too.

 

Thanks!

Sadly they updates won't be as frequent now that the high country is getting snow.

 

Given how much the wife and I travel into the backcountry alone I figured it was about time to install a winch. While a Warn Zeon would be nice, it wasn't in the budget, so a Smittybilt X20 Comp 10K had to do. I went with the wire rope for now.

The install has raised a few questions for me however. For those of you who have installed a winch into an ARB bumper for an 05-15, are you supposed to install the upper bolt for the fairlead? Currently it's only fastened using the 3/8" bolts for the lower winch mounts.

Secondly, I don't feel comfortable wiring the winch directly to the battery. Given that a short could potentially burn the truck to the ground, I'd rather fuse it. I'm currently considering using a 400A ANL fuse and maybe a battery cutoff to cut power to the winch when it's not being used. Anyone have experience in this realm?

Lastly, I'm going to relocate the solenoid under the hood or somewhere it's protected. I'm not too keen on having it hanging out on the front of the bumper for anyone to fiddle with. What gauge cables do you guys use? It appears that the winch is supplied with a 2 gauge which given the max amp draw of the winch seems a bit light duty. I was thinking something in the neighborhood of 2/0 gauge sounds more appropriate. Thoughts?

 

380 amps at max pull. Granted I know most of the time it won't be operating anywhere near that, but the highest rated breaker I can find is a 200A Blue Sea. I see other offerings but I like to stick with Blue Sea or Bussman where I can as they seem to offer high quality products.

 

Thanks! Right now I have a 100A breaker protecting my auxiliary fuse panel, so perhaps I can just tie into that for the time being. I would imagine that should do it if that's the case.

 

Assume truck and great pictures.

 

Thank you!

 

Quoting myself as I just got off the phone with Smittybilt and got answer to question 1.

The two lower bolts that mount the winch also attach the fairlead. Now, the confusing part comes that they are specified as 3/8"-16 bolts with 10.9 stamped on the head. Grade 10.9 bolts don't exist in SAE threads, only metric. According to Smittybilt anything grade 5 and above is adequate, so I shall replace those lower bolts with some slightly longer ones in Grade 8 and that will more than suffice for the application.

 

I noticed the gofundme reached its goals!! That is awesome. How is Chewie?

 

Thanks man! Chewie so far is like the wunderdog. We got a second opinion on her situation and the vet recommended we let her rest up for 6 weeks and to let her use her leg as she saw fit. So far she is doing a good job motoring around with 4 legs at a 50% duty cycle. With any luck she will avoid the need for the pelvic surgery altogether and only have the head of her femur removed. Minus the pooping and peeing in her crate she is acclimating pretty well so far.

 

Haven't touched this one for a while, but then again I haven't touched my truck in a while so that's probably why. I haven't accomplished a ton recently, just general maintenance items as I roll onward towards 30K on the truck.

To follow up on the Smittybilt saga, their manual is incorrect, they are actually M10 metric bolts. The thread pitch is close enough that you could mistake it for 3/8-16, but alas, it is not.

Swapped out spark plugs this past weekend. The job was fairly straightforward with the exception of 2 things. 1, the stupid little boot on the spark plug socket kept coming out of the socket and sticking on the plug upon re-installation. Fought with that for a bit before opening up the rubber boot with a drill bit. 2, the forward plug on the driver's side bank was a real PITA to get to and my hands still have the wounds to prove it.

Plug part numbers for future reference.

IMG_1981 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I also addressed the growing corrosion on the positive battery terminal. I think combating corrosion is a general theme of my build and I thought it prudent to head this one off as well.

The problem:
IMG_1982 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The solution makers:
IMG_1984 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Give everything a healthy dose of spray, use the battery terminal cleaners to brush away all corrosion.
IMG_1985 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Re-install with oiled felt pads that hopefully prevent future corrosion!
IMG_1986 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Next update at some point in the future will be the overhaul of all things electrical to clean up some of the wiring related things that have irked me.

 

Continuing the theme of my very tame build thread I went ahead and replaced the air filter this morning. It only had 5K or so on it but was looking a bit dirty when I pulled it to replace the spark plugs, so I went ahead and ordered up an aFe pro dry to replace it. I figured it was prudent to go ahead and get the lifetime filter at this point as it will pay for itself within a couple of years if I replace the air filter at the recommended service intervals.

aFe power!
20161203-DSC_2095 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Side by side comparison with the OEM Toyota (on the right). Not absurdly dirty, but still starting to get there.
20161203-DSC_2098 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

And everything all buttoned up. Cleaned off the air box as my engine bay is filthy and applied the aFe sticker for extra points.
20161203-DSC_2100 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Another thing ticked off the list!