drizzohs '21 off-road build

Got the KDMax Pro 10 tune early and am now able to report that it is just better all around than 9 was. Tip-ins and shifts are much smoother, and somehow my mpg actually seems to be going up. Awesome upgrade, definitely worth flashing over 9. +33ft/lbs isn't bad either.

Took advantage of the Memorial day sale and picked up these sweet Charvonia Designs billet tie downs. These things are stout. I ordered them in the textured black powdercoat. They are a nice upgrade from the wimpy factory pieces. The only downside is they came with polished hardware which stood out way too much against the black, so I painted all the hardware black with frame paint before installing.



I think they're the last mod I'm doing to the bed and they finish it off pretty nicely. I flipped them to hide the branding as it was a little too busy for my taste. (alsoooo mmmmmm that storage compartment tho).



While the paint was drying, I thought it would be the perfect time to yank out the most obnoxious speaker in the world. No more beep when opening the door now! This was the last super annoying thing about this truck. The silence is beautiful.



Beep speaker removal vid: How to Remove Warning Beeper From a Tacoma - YouTube

 

What is the mat under your bed mat? I'm wrapping up my drawer build project, and although it will be raptor lined, stuff still likes to slide on that stuff. I was thinking about that grippy but soft boat decking but unsure what I want to do yet.

 

It's the BedRug. Fills in all the gaps to make the floor flat and makes it infinitely softer if you spend any time in the bed itself.

 

Ahh I didn't recognize it as it wasn't the whole kit (sides and all). I'm not sure if I want to put carpet on top of the drawers or not.

 

Actually, they sell a cut to fit piece that looks like exactly what I need. SCORE

 

Any more thoughts on the borla Y-pipe?

 

What about it? It's fine with the tweaks needed in my earlier post.

 

Had a free day this weekend so was able to knock out some small front end mods I've been meaning to do.

The first was to finally throw on the WarFab tie rod sleeves that I got with the group buy like a year ago. I widened the inner ends of these with my step bit and they threaded on beautifully over the inner tie rod hump. These are heavy, stout pieces, and although they don't completely prevent the tie rods from having issues, they for sure beef it up from stock and should give a bit of protection as well. I think the newer design of these have been shortened a bit to prevent them needing to be modified.



Then I replaced the lower shock bolts with the OEM ones from the 4Runners that have a solid shaft instead of a tapered one. P/N: 90105-14104. Hoping they help extend the life of my misalignment bushings.



And lastly, I finally pushed my front splash shields forward a bit to cut down on the rubbing when turning while flexing. Gained about 1/2" - 3/4" of clearance from this and it looks like it fixed the rubbing on the front side of the wheel well. I still have a bit of rubbing on the back of the fender area under the same conditions, so I get to figure that out next. Thinking the pinch welds might need some persuasion. Pretty successful weekend though.

 

Just if you've noticed more or less responsiveness/power. I'm looking to change out the stock y pipe but haven't decided if its worth it or not.

 

Yes I do. Noticeable power gain on the top end as expected with this type of exhaust mod and less highway drone with my catback. Better exhaust tone as well, sounds a little beefier. I did it for ground clearance, but the other benefits are great additions.

 

Does it remove any cats?

 

No. Installs after them.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/drizzohs-21-off-road-build.748190/page-8#post-28349851

 

Another smol update. Finally fixed my bubbled Qi charger, tested it to confirm it's still useless (lost 1% of battery after 15 min with my Pixel 7 Pro), and then disabled the pad. At least it should stay flat now with no power going to it. Wish the pnp aftermarket one was still available.

Anyways, pic of my center console finally looking proper for the first time ever, since when I picked the truck up with 4 miles on it, it already had the bubble.



Have a plan to repurpose the Qi button, but need to figure out how to do it, and gave Archive some more money, so hopefully another update soon.

 

Realllly smolllll update (literally) but I'm geeking out about it too much to wait to post it with other things.

Last night I swapped out the white cubby light for one that comes on the RAV4 that matches the rest of the blue interior lighting. It's way cooler than it should be and it is a direct swap. No idea why this wasn't the standard part to begin with.

P/N: 81080-42040

 

This weekend I replaced my Wheelers U-Bolt Flip Kit & Superbump bump stops with the much nicer Archive Garage Stealth HD U-Bolt Flip Kit & Yellow Speed Bumps bump stops. The Superbumps are fantastic up front, but they're not a good design for the rear and were causing harsh bottom outs and limiting my uptravel due to their foam design and high pedestals. The Archives are a softer but progressive layered material that dampens bottom outs much better. They're also solid on top to not allow for water or dirt to get trapped in the center and can be replaced without removing the base plates. More info here. I really like Archive Garage; all their products are so well designed. When the rear end was apart I also added 1/2" axle shims & center pins from Toytec to regain the height lost from adding the longer Archive 3.6" shackles that I installed with the Hammer Hangers. I didn't necessarily do this to make the truck higher, but the ADS shocks are very long and I wanted to allow for maximum uptravel without the shocks bottoming out. With these shims, the truck is only about 1/3" taller than it was before the hanger & shackle upgrade. After installing the shims and Archive Speed Bumps it looks like I gained ~1/2-3/4" of uptravel in the rear and I can no longer feel when the back end bottoms out. Makes the rear feel even closer to matching the front as far as smoothness now. On the quick loop I use for testing it looks like I still have about an inch of uptravel remaining on my shocks which will be perfect for the harder hits and flex I'll experience offroad. Very successful weekend.

Wheelers vs Archive Flip Kits:



Sexy fully-functional pillowy rear suspension <3:

 

Spent this weekend knocking out a couple interior upgrades that I've been meaning to do.

After disabling the useless Qi charger, I really wanted to repurpose that button to do something better. I don't like tapping into factory wiring (and this is my first time doing so on the truck) but it's needed in certain situations, like changing the behavior of a factory switch. And since I'll never be reusing the factory Qi charger again (all it did is bubble its pad and heat up my phone), I was okay with doing so. When I pulled the Qi charger a few weeks ago, I inspected it and figured out what wires controlled what. This weekend I tapped it's power and ground wires to power a set of footwell lights from VLEDS. I figure the Qi charger drew a lot more power than a small lighting kit would so it should be fine using the prewired ground, but if this becomes an issue I'll change it. I pieced together my own footwell lighting kit instead of grabbing the pnp kit offered by VLEDS. I don't like how you can't turn them off while driving, and piecing together my own kit with a dimmer was $80 cheaper. It also still provides me with the option to wire them to come on when the doors open, but for now I have only run them off the Qi switch. I really liked how the VLEDS setup is all modular, made running the wiring and doing the actual install very simple. The dimmer control module and all of the wiring is hidden under the center console where I tapped the signal from, and I installed everything with disconnects in case I want to repurpose the button again at some point. Install came out really clean and I'm pretty impressed with how well these tiny LED modules fill the footwells.



Next up was to remove the Anytime Backup Camera kit and rewire the front camera directly to the

$930 DMH-WC6600NEX Digital Multimedia Receiver with Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 9" Floating Capacitive Touchscreen, Modular Double-DIN, Built-in Bluetooth, WiFi and Amazon Alexa

DMH-WC6600NEX. The ABC kit worked fantastic with the stock hu, but was not besties with the Pioneer. It's not a huge loss though, that was the only switch that didn't match when lit up. After removing the ABC kit both cameras also seem to load quicker. I then reflashed my Maestro to have the backup camera come on if I hold down the End Call Button, so I still have a physical button to load the rear camera. Haven't figured out to make it toggle the front camera with a button yet, as there's not an option that says 'Secondary Camera' in the settings, but hopefully can soon.

Removal of the switch allowed me to install something else in its place so I added the OEM Glass Breakage sensor along with the small style Tundra mic (P/N: 08192-65810). The mic's are exactly the same on the back, but this fits the smaller cutout.

 

This weekend a buddy and I finally did the cab mount chop that I've been needing to do for a while. Even with the caster at 4 degrees, I still had some gnarly rub with my 285/70's when flexing at full lock. We used the Total Chaos plates and the install took about 4 hours to do - which included a lesson in welding and waiting for a few coats of paint to dry. He did the initial cuts with the 6" wheel and the welding and I did the precision griding and cutting of the cab mount to get the plates to fit just right. That said, the plates fit fantastic with minimal manipulation and allowed for an additional 1.5" of tire clearance. We also folded the pinch welds over and resealed them inside and out with silicone. Doing the full on CMR looks a lot cooler, but I really did not need to go that aggressive as my goals for the truck are only 285/75's. Anyways, install pics:

The homie throwing sparks with the 6" grinding wheel:



Capped:



Painted with VHT Chassis paint:



So much room for activities!

 

Quick question... You have the Focal Flax Evo PS 165 FXE's in the front doors and the Focal Flax Evo PC 165 FE in the rear doors. What do you have in the dashboard tweeters alognside the A pillars? Or do you have the 165 woofers in the doors and the tweeters in the dash?

 

The Tweeters are in the dash and the woofers are in the doors. I rewired the whole audio system when doing the install.

 

Grabbed the MESO Steering Wheel Control Fix kit pretty much the second it was released and threw it on this weekend. With going back and forth between driving a few different vehicles regularly, I could never get used to the ass-backwards setup this truck came with. Was originally going to just swap out the button and then reprogram my Maestro to match, but it was too easy to just throw in the MESO board while it was apart since the stock board needed to come out anyway. Was a very painless install. Using a magnet helped to pull the 2 T25's for the airbag out so it was able actually come out of the car. They're kept bolts but didn't just fall out of the airbag after loosening like the video would have you think. I also kept the factory-colored steering wheel trim and I like how it looks with the rest of my interior color scheme, but I removed both to add some felt tape between them and the wheel itself to help it sound less plasticky and feel a bit more solid.

I got used to the button placement immediately. With the touch screen Pioneer HU, I rely on the steering wheel controls almost exclusively while driving and it's so nice to not have to think about what button is what anymore. This upgrade worth it just for the 3d aspect with the tactile feel of it.

Comparison:



Installed: