CoastieRon's Progression of Idiocy journal & BS

A much needed wash today!

 

Woohoo, I'm finally putting in the MLO/Dobinson's lift today!

 

And now my ruck looks like it skipped leg day.



I let my son and his posse do some of the work








Tomorrow it goes in for alignment, needle bearing replacement (ECGS clamshell), 65k service, and maybe a few other items the kids might have fucked up lol

 

Also, the 5100s did not age well in the New England salt

 

Needle bearing replaced with the ECGS bushing, alignment done, feeling good, driving good.

Now back to car audio stuff.....

 

So I have listened to the system for a little over a week, switching between the 3 settings on the DSP. A couple of items of note:

1. I've been listening to music at lower volume levels than I have ever before when the windows are up. My sound deadening, while not perfect, has done a wonderful job of mitigating road noise/vibrations, and the music is just flat out enjoyable.
2. At high volumes, I am getting ear fatigue quickly.
3. I set the volume of the head unit to the volume I set the gains at, and have been using the DRC for the volume control, making it incredibly easy for me to find that "sweet spot" of volume.
4. Something is not right with the staging of the subwoofer. The bass seems muddy for some reason - I'm not getting that ridiculous thump that I love from that sub.
5. I've been listening primarily to the green profile. When I go to the blue profile, it just seems like there is too much bass overlapping.
6. Those Unity 8.0s absolutely amaze me. The highs are nice and crisp, while bringing the sound stage for the low(er) end up higher on the dash.
7. The "Ron's AF Tune" is the file I am trying to learn with. Right now it has no EQ'ing, only X'Overs. It's volume is really loud, and I attribute that to not being eq'd.

 

Today I added recovery points because I actually like to do some wheeling this year. So I am starting to slowly outfit a case with gear as well.



These are the Demon Hooks brackets.

 

Turns out those demon hooks are not tow rated. D'oh. Perhaps I'll look more into a new bumper.

Anywhooooo, I decided I wanted some sort of lockable storage in the back of my truck. It had to fit under the OEM bed cover (which I think is garbage and heavy, but whatever), be waterproof (ish) and hold recovery gear, etc. I went cheap(ish) and installed an Apache 9800 Harbor Freight special gun case. I mounted it using nylon spacers and threaded grommets


Also tested the polarity of all my speakers, and found that my dash speakers were out of phase, which was causing all sorts of ear fatigue. Fixed that through the TuN software and reverified. All better now......

When I had my 1stgen Tundra, I had a Softopper for it, and I hated it. Not because of the way it was built, or the job it did, but because I couldn't see out the back. Now having a backup camera and blindside alert, I think I'd like to get one for this truck......

 

Well, I ordered JBA UCAs.......

 

Nothing like paralyzed analysis. Looking at bumpers.

 

Well, the AudioControl amp comes back today. I'm unsure if I'm going to sell it, hold on to it for future use or install it in my cousin's LeMans.

I bit the bullet and bought a new bumper. I went with the BodyArmor because I don't do any real heavy offroading, but will be looking to do some green/blue trails this year, as well as getting up to Fort Courage on my brother-in-law's property. I'm probably going to add a winch in the future as well.



Still waiting on the JBAs.

 

Photos of the bumper once you have it installed, please. It’s that or Victory on my short list.

 

What tipped me over the edge was this thread here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/body-armor-hiline-series-bumper.625719/

I had been going back and forth with a local company to purchase one of their bumpers, but in the end I couldn't justify the cost: as I am not going to be as tough on it

 

Ive definitely been thinking about a metal bumper and the slimline one i wanted was over a grand, Then i thought about victory 4x4 because i have their bed rack but i HATED the fitment on it but this BA bumper you purchased looked perfect and isnt costing an arm and leg interested for pics

 

Yeah, free shipping, and it's getting here Sunday? I'm ok with that.

 

All right, here we go. Unboxed the bumper. A couple other things on order, hopefully I can get to install this next weekend.



I see nothing wrong with the welds, everything is clean, with no defects/scuffs or dings/dents. Bumper was packed well in the box.

I'm not a fan of the license plate adapter, so I ordered something else for that. I also decided that I am not going to be able to live with the lightbar hole, so I ordered a light bar, wiring harness and switch.

 

Going in today (hopefully). Wiring up this weekend.

 

No install today, but my plate holder came in....

I did not like the one that came with the bumper....

 

Boom. I may have cut too far on the sides, but I'm happy.