First Taco / My BS thread

I swapped my stock shifter for a Hurst t-handle. Pretty much the only interior aesthetic thing I have planned to do. it feels great because I use the shifter as a hand rest when I'm driving. It looks alright, though I rarely see the HURST script, unless I'm in low gear which is NEVER. I followed this thread to get the appropriate adapter for the post.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/georgia/363331-official-warriordinghy-mall-crawl.html maddaddy, this sounds like something youd like

 

I called around a few shops today to get an idea on a lift install price. If I want to do it myself I need a decent 2.5 ton jack $100-150), decent jack stands ($30), decent C clamps ($18), and about 6-7 solid hours in good weather. I'll also need an alignment, post-op ($65):

$150
30
18
65=
$263 + tax

The local Off Road shop quoted 4 hours at $75 an hour ($300), and then an alignment ($100). The local tire shop that does a lot of lifts quoted me $400 with alignment included.

$400-262= $138 difference. Considering my lack of time (work, school, redoing bathroom, baby coming next month), I'm totally on board for a $400 installation. What do you guys think?

 

welcome from Atlanta !!

 

Welcome to the board, what part of GA?

Later.

 

Placed my order with Headstrong Off-road. Thanks so much to this forum for all the great reviews and suggestions. I did my homework for 2 months before pulling the trigger. This means wheels and tires will wait until Fall.

 

Agree with you on getting the shop to install. Looking forward to seeing it lifted.

 

Spring break:

 

NICE!

 

Okay here goes: Dropped truck off at University Tire at 9. Picked up at 5:30. Headstrong sent the struts set at 0.0 (stock). Thankfully the guys at UT called me to ask where I wanted them set. We decided to go with .85. The .85 setting plus the OME 884s yielded 3" of front lift. I was shooting for 2.5". I imagine they'll settle a bit. The UCA's and alignment were no trouble at all. Everything is good to go, no rubbing, stutters, drifting, strange noises. The rear Billies and Deaver AAL gave 2" in the rear.

Stock: Fronts: 20” Rears: 21.5”
With Lift: Fronts: 23” Rears: 23.5”

It was wild walking up to the truck in the parking lot. It was wilder climbing inside the cab. It feels close to the ride height of my '04 F150 (RIP). Now these N-Fab steps will finally get some use.

Ride: It rides GREAT. I thought the truck was fine before but now it is smooth sailing. Turns feel a little different. I'll get used to it. I like it A LOT.

Now for pics:







Before & After shots:

 

man, what a difference

 

I was in Pep Boys getting new filters for the VW and checked on their Cooper AT3s. The guy said Cooper was discontinuing them and only doing ATs. He showed me a 265/75r16 AT and it was pretty great. It's a significant upgrade to the 265/70r16. He gave me a great quote with installation. Tires were $650 total installed, road hazard covered, tpms rebuilds and everything. I had a guy offer $500 for my Dunlops with 10,000 miles on them. But I feel I'd need to already have my wheels and tires ordered and installed before I could make that sell happen. I have a friend who has some worn stock 16s he said I could borrow for a bit.

 

I haven't done anything all summer due to a new baby in the house. I've taken the truck on a few trips North, South and West. I realized the cab can get snug and I'm filling up the bed when the whole family takes a trip. I nabbed a Smitybilt Defender 4'x2'x4" rack for an okay price and ordered some bed bars from @KB Voodoo . I'm waiting on the bars to arrive so I can mount it up. I'm going to put it behind the cab as a rack. I can strap down stuff when I'm at the farm or camping gear, or anything else and slide longer stuff underneath (high chairs, strollers, guitar cases, gun cases, etc.


Meanwhile, the stance of this truck has been bothering me. It looks like it's tiptoeing everywhere I go. I bit the bullet on some 1.25" Spidertrax and put them on today. I'll do the 50 mile drive and torque them down again. I've been toying with the idea of derping the center caps. I'll probably derp the caps when I remove the wheels to re-torque the spacers next week. I saw a taco on here that looked good with sport wheels and derped center caps. There's just too much shine going on with these sport wheels.

source: @mainewoodsballer



I'll have these wheels & tires on for the foreseeable future as my budget can't swing for the FNs & new rubber quite yet (see *New Baby in the House). The only other intended mods are the rearview mirror lift bracket, an Avid lightbar for the front, the FN wheels and either Cooper ATs or BFGs of some sort. The price seems to be fluctuating a lot on BFGs right now.

Avid Lightbar source: @2012TacoTX


Anyway, my arms are beat from wrestling with all four corners of my truck for 2.5 hours. I figured I'd update this as I try to keep it all together in one place.

 

Oh yeah, pictures of the truck with spacers.....

Previously:


and Now:

 

Welcome to TW!I see the mods have begun!

 

Today was a wash & detail job after some morning errands. I am most pleased with the process thus far. The truck is really coming together and nearing my final vision:

 

Installed Smittybilt Defender rack & KB Voodoo bed bars. I call it a "Rack'ette." I put our bedrolls and camping gear here and wrap a tarp around it to keep it high and dry. It's actually a 1st gen regular cab roof rack turned 180* and mounted on two KBVoodoo bed bars.





Up next: checking my spacers after 75 miles of driving, derping center caps, removing rear panel decals.

 

I'm settled on wheel & tire size, but not tire and whether I'd go laces in or out (the Cooper font isn't my favorite). In order of desire:

1) Cooper Discoverer AT3
2) BFG Rugged Terrain (got font and tread pattern going for it)
3) Cooper Discoverer ATP (same as AT3 as far as I can tell except for center tread, tread depth and mile warranty, 50,000 vs 55,000 on at3)

from the FN Wheels website:http://www.fnwheels.com/new-products/fn-wheels-five-star/nggallery/page/2


My truck, as it sits now:

 

Stopped by Pepbous today to look at the Cooper Adventurer AT again. Here's the 265/75r16 tire:

 

Hello form upstate SC. Your truck is looking great!