Colorado B.S. Thread

lol, well, I have one weekend left to get this project done. Then it's September and I'll be chasing elk and deer. Then it's winter. You can see how this plays out.

Plus, I have a date at 2:30 this afternoon for drinks. I haven't had drinks for a few weeks so would like to keep this appointment. This means I would have to leave at noon to get back in time to clean up and let Archer out to whiz before I abandon him again.

Then there is the need to get my haircut. I just have too much stuff going on.

 

What you haven't had drinks in 2 weeks Hahahaha
Does drinks not include Beer????

 

The drinks shouldn't be the important part of this appointment.

 

I think this is what he meant!!!
Hahaha

 

It took frame plates to stop that on my 2000 Tacoma. Think the frame after the box is a little bendy.

 

No excuses bring the bike

 

This is good to know. I was planning on doing plates when I do my relocate and rear bumper anyway, but it looks like it's more than just insurance.

 

I briefly owned a 2001 and adding frame plates is something anyone who wheels or carries cargo should do to the frame. It made a big time noticeable improvement to the ride. I used CBI's plates, they were made well I thought. I made the smaller ones for lower down on the frame at the forward bend.

 

That looks awesome, Dave! So the plates you added are the ones on either side of the forward bed mount?

 

Yeah, we just fabricated those up real quick when we were working on the CBI plates. They sell the two larger ones (total of 4 in the kit) but it seemed like since we had everything out that might as well add extra steel there. IIRC that's roughly where the frame transitions from boxed to 'C'.

BTW, my friend Isaac welded those, he laid down some beautiful beads IMHO.

That 2001 was 100% stock, didn't look abused although it was obviously used to camp or whatever and the top of the frame had started to develop a little wrinkle. So the frames are obviously barely enough for actual use as a truck IMHO. I'd like to do something similar to my 2008 but Toyota seemed to have doubled up the walls to make it a little stiffer and I haven't seen a lot of people doing it like on the 1st gens.

 

Just found out we are going to done with making mix in an hr. But I still have to stay at work to run a excavator to dig up a plugged sewer. Hopefully I get done quick so I can make the meet. I usually get off work when we get done with mix.

 

When you say four in the CBI kit, is that to plate both the inside and outside? I'm interested in going big with all of that like you did, since I'm planning on pulling the bed to do the shock mounts anyway. Might as well weld all of that at once.

And yes, those welds are pretty!

 

They may have changed the design, but they had two plates per side. The reason to give some ability to align things if the frame wasn't exactly the same as the one used for the pattern. Both were welded on the outside of the frame rail. You're essentially making the frame rail 3/16" thicker along it's whole length. So there is a long weld around the edge and then several rosettes throughout the field.

The alternative would be to box in the frame but I decided against that just because I wasn't ready for that level of fab and work. As it is you have to be careful around the gas tank but to so any work on the inside of the frame you'd have to remove it.

 

Gotcha! So they assume that you'll only need one 3/32" plate per side, but they give you two for the reasons you stated above. And it sounds like you decided to go big and use both per side to plate up to 3/16" over the stock thickness?

Thanks for answering, by the way. I'm really interested in doing this to my truck, and I'm prone to over building things, so I'm pretty curious!

 

Hope to see you up there! I'm dropping Hannah off at Gymnastics in 20 minutes then I'll head up that way.

 

I'm confusing you. It's a single layer of added plates. There are two per sides that join together like a jigsaw puzzle in the middle. IOW, there's a front plate and a rear plate that span the whole length of the frame rail.

http://www.cbioffroadfab.com/products/1st-gen-toyota-tacoma-products/1st-gen-tacoma-frame-plates/

No worries!

 

I already have frame plates from last year.
I'm thinking boxing the frame is next if the relocate doesn't help.
Just getting ready to tack a few things in place, might have this done fairly soon.

 

Frame plates are the neanderthal way to do it fer sure.