Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

haha yea seems like it. Just yours in much better condition to start with.
Yea that's how I did it with ECGS. Sent them my old ones to get the core charge back and put in the ones they sent me. Pretty straight forward process.

The 4.88's are pretty much spot on with my current 33's. Pretty close to what it was with the 31's & 4.30's I'd say.

 

Thanks for the info. I feel 4.30/31" is an excellent balance. I recently purchased 265/70r16(31") and kind of wish I had gone 265/75r16(32") for looks and clearance but I didn't want to mess with the ratio and loose any power. My truck is my DD.

 

Yea I enjoyed it when I had that setup. A jump to 32" wouldn't be too drastic of a change I feel. Mine is my dd as well.

 

Haven't done much to the taco lately. Just been driving it and enjoying it.
Changed my oil recently and sent in a sample to Blackstone labs for another analysis to follow up on the outliers from my last one.

Pleased with the results and what they had to say about my analysis. Makes me feel better about having an engine with an "unknown" number of miles on it.

 

Got tired of having to dig my hi-lift out from the bottom of my toolbox, so bought a 4XRAC to mount it to my toolbox. It's super solid.
Pumped cause now I have tons more room in my toolbox for spares and more tools.

Just need to get a lock for it now so that someone doesn't steal it.




Also discovered that I'm not a huge fan of that rear diff guard I got. With how the drain holes are on the bottom, it basically scoops up mud and dirt when you drag your rear diff across the ground. I cleaned about 5 lbs of dirt out of there from my rubicon trip.
If I were to do it over again, I'd do something like this instead. Much more lightweight this way too. I can deal with it, just gonna be kinda annoying to have to clean it out every so often to make sure it's not completely caked full of dirt & debris.

 

Ran the back half of the Rubicon this Saturday. From East entrance to Rubicon springs.
Wasn't planning on going that far since I was by myself, but ended up running into a guy that I knew from when I was in middle school funny enough
He was driving this Toyota surf that he had bought the night before for 3 grand. Needless to say, the thing needs some work done to it. The rear u-joint was about to explode, and there were plenty of leaks all around the drivetrain. Otherwise it was a pretty sweet rig for the money!

Going back up Cadillac hill was tricky without a spotter, but ended up managing. Gave my armor a workout and gained further appreciation for how compact first gen tacos are. I'm stoked on how well my truck handled it all and how nothing broke or went wrong really. I made it back to the east entrance from the rubicon springs in about 2 or so hours. Left the springs at around 5 or so and was back in the parking lot airing back up just after 7pm. Made pretty good time if you ask me, but then again I have no perspective.

There were some ultra4 buggies just speed running the whole trail too. They passed us twice going a different direction each time. Cool to see. Some serious money in those rigs, it's insane.

Now I'm curious about the first half of the trail from the west entrance to the springs now! I'll hopefully be back soon (and with more of a crew ideally)

 

What rear diff guard do you have? I was thinking about ordering the marlin crawler weld on.

 

This one from TG:
https://trail-gear.com/armor/tacoma-rear-differential-armor-1995-2013.html

Keep in mind the marlin one is probably 2x heavier since it is twice the material with the same thickness (if that matters to you). Full face coverage is a bit overkill imo.
I'd also wanna notch out the bottom of it so there's a place for water to drain out. Not sure if that's incorporated into the design already or not.

 

How is dirt getting in? Your don’t weld the entire edge?

 

No, it's due to the inherent design of the guard itself.
There are these two large relief cuts on either side at the bottom that just scoop it up.


It's not like they stick down below the diff or anything, but when you drag the rear pumpkin through some mud it just picks some up through those spots.

 

Ah shit, I see. Gawd that would annoy me haha maybe I’ll make something like you pictured above, I still have some 1/4” plate laying around.

 

yea it's not ideal haha but not the end of the world.
And it's not like i'm wheeling through mud that often either but still.

Yea If I were to do it over again, i'd just do something like ruffstuff offers and weld a strap over the ring gear part of the cover and a bit at the bottom below that

 

Looks like you had fun on the rubi, how much of it did you do? Is the springs half way? I’ve never done it, but I’ve been told it’s long.

 

Yea it was sweet. It's a super cool and fun trail. The springs are about halfway yea. It's definitely is a long trail. We should plan a trip there sometime soon.

 

It’s been on my list for a while, been waiting for my buddy to get his truck ready. He’s pretty much only needing skids now. But I’m definitely down.

 

It’s been on my list for a while, been waiting for my buddy to get his truck ready. He’s pretty much only needing skids now. But I’m definitely down.

 

Spray insulation could manage to keep stuff getting in there, depends on how much you dislike stuff getting up there I guess

 

Yea definitely need skids for that trail. That and my sliders got put to good use.

That's not a bad idea actually. Might just deal with cleaning it out every so often though so that I can keep it open for water to drain out of. I wonder how the spray insulation would hold up to the ~200F diff temps.

 

Threw together some clips I got out on the con this last weekend. Check it

 

Did the daily driver mod!
Jetta SE with the 5 speed manual. Awesome mpg, turbo, and super fun to drive.