BigFishAllDay's Truck Thread

that's an Elite Offroad front bumper. No longer made.

Relentless Fab standard rear bumper.

 

It is definitely worth a second round. I would have called you and Chris, but the main goal of the day was to spend some time with my Dad. We had a good day catching up.

Thanks for checking out the truck/thread.

Both front and rear bumpers are from Elite Offroad. I like how the front bumper looks, but the mounting brackets could definitely be improved. The approach angle and ground clearance are pretty good. I've owned an ARB as well, and had no complaints about it except that the approach angle wasn't so good and it got hung up on rocks often.

Elite front AND rear, actually.

 

ah my bad. Didn't know the rear was Elite too!

 

Where is this? Looks amazing!

 

No worries. I looked up the relentless bumper and they do look similar.

South central New Mexico.

 

Nice. Not exactly what comes to mind usually when I read "south central." Is it a national park or blm land?

 

Understandable, being you're in L.A. There area is admin'd by the BLM... Look up San Lorenzo canyon.

 

Awesome thank you

 

No worries. I mean, family time says it all. Nothing like a chance to have some Pops time! We'll catch it another day.

 

Alright I am looking to Visit NM this spring break the 10-18th I am wanting to spend about 4-5 days camping/hiking/wheeling. I am not wanting anything crazy just light trails. What would be the best place to camp preferably around a small lake/pond in a remote area? Thanks

 

For sure.

Hey Jacob, sorry I missed your post. You're coming early in the year and it will still be winter mode for the most part. There won't be much available that meets your criteria right now.

 

Stellar pictures there on the BLM - a slot canyon big enough to get your truck in there is like the Zion Narrows for your Taco! Looking great, I like the retro touches to an older Toyota Pickup, but with the beauties of the 1.5gen Taco. Still have this rig?

 

Thanks, Jon. That slot canyon is a very cool spot. You can only drive in about 150 yards, but it is a great spot for photos.

I still own this one for now. I have been looking for an 05-06 DC Tundra, but I'm pretty picky about the setup I want, so the search is taking forever. Once I find a Tundra this truck will be up for sale.

 

damn..another one bites the dust. Be a great rig too pick up.

 

Since Jon went and dug up this thread, I'll post an update on the truck.

The Tacoma has served as my daily driver for the last two years and I haven't done a whole lot in the way of modifications since 2016. Most of the time when I wrench on the Tacoma it is for maintenance or to fix some little annoyance. The Tacoma has been out on a few trips, but now that my 4Runner is basically done I have been taking it out for 90% of my wheeling trips.

In May of 2017 I went through the rear axle. When I bought the truck from Tom it had a broken mounting stud at the bottom of the rear diff and slowly developed a gear oil leak around the bottom of the diff. Then it started leaking from the driver side axle seal, so I tore it all down for a re-seal. Tom had new hardware for everything in the spare parts he gave me, so all of that got installed.

- Replaced all rear diff studs, nuts washers w/new OEM
- Replaced all driveshaft > rear diff flange hardware w/new OEM
- Replaced rear axle seals and O-rings on both sides
- Re-sealed rear diff with Toyota FIPG
- New extended rear axle breather to replace TG Creeper Breather. The TG breather had hardened up and would no longer expand and contract. It was as if the diff had a clogged breather, resulting in the blown seal.
- Cleaned rear brakes & drums
- Brake fluid bleed on both rear corners
- New 85w90 in the rear diff
- New washers on the drain/fill plugs



After that I didn't do anything but drive the truck until January of this year. The steering column rattle finally got to me and I removed the column to weld the slip joint. It steers beautifully now, and everything is nice and tight as it should be.









Next up, I got tired of looking at the hole in the camper shell where the 3rd brake light should be and ordered a replacement. I cleaned up the wiring and got the camper dome light working too. I don't use the cross bars often, so I removed them to try out the naked look up top.









The transmission was fighting me on 2 > 1 downshifts on really cold mornings, so I changed the trans fluid to Redline MT-90, which helped.



I've been trying to tune all the ping out of the SC setup and got it 90% dialed, but the truck has never been happy during full throttle upshifts from 3 > 4 and 4 > 5 and will usually ping just before and after the shift. It had an AFE intake on it when I purchased it, and I have always wanted to swap back to a stock airbox to add a little restriction to the system and slow down the intake flow. My thought was that if I could restrict the airflow at the intake it might help with the truck leaning out. Sure enough, with the stock box and an ISR mod, I can't get it to ping anymore and it pulls strong through every gear.





Next up was dealing with the winch. When I stole the Warn for my 4Runner and installed the Smittybilt on the Tacoma, I never finished up the wiring. I set it up with a 10 foot length of wiring to run in cab controls, but needed a place to punch through the firewall and just never got around to doing it. I saw another guy install a wireless controller on his build and decided to do the same. I picked up the controller for ~$20 on Amazon and it works great. I extended the antenna wire by 4 feet and took it up and under the core support, so the range is great.





Mounted with 3M double sided tape to the lower backside of the fuse box.

 

And what is an update without a couple pictures of the rig playing outside...

Socorro, NM... where all the 401K magic really happens...







I thought about being the one who was tagged by the universe, but left it for the next guy



Not even F+R lockers are getting past 60+ feet of super slick ice, uphill...





It wasn't as bad as they made it sound...











Just a little off camber in some spots...



Moving on, caves in the box...



The two holes in the upper left had raptor nests in them, with lots of animal parts kicked out below





And the final stop... Birdtropolis!











Pepe le Pew saying "Happy trails!"

 

I really don't want to let it go, but I have two little girls now and could use the extra room in a Tundra. This truck is so much fun to drive, it's silly. It makes my 4Runner feel like a slug, even though they have the same SC setup and the 4Runner has deeper gears. If I had room in the driveway, I'd keep it.

 

Yeah i love them. I have 3 My v6 single cab is so fun to drive.

Wish you could keep it man. Wish i could keep it for you 4 might be excessive though..

 

Where is this canyon?

 

Missed that update. Could have sold you my tundra if I had known earlier. You’ll love the tundra (if you haven’t gotten one already). Tons of room for 2 kids, giant bed, plenty of power and built way more solid that the 4runner/Tacoma. I miss mine everyday but financially it was best and now that #3 is coming I need something with more room in the cab. Looking forward to seeing what you do to it since I never got around to modifying mine.