Gordi's 2011 Silver Tacoma Build Thread

truck looks great man!!

 

Been awhile, just been busy and haven’t updated in awhile. Today I moved my amber pods down to the Bruteforcefab hybrid, and installed my Cali raised ditch light brackets with spot led cubes. Not a bad install just kinda tedious. I wired the ditch lights to the same switch as the light bar bc if I want one on I want them all on and I hate 15 switches.

 

Also I was searching for a hitch for awhile now with the highclearance rear bumper by bruteforce. I tow a small trailer sometimes for home stuff and a motorcycle. I went with a 12 inch drop and it has a spring loaded hitch for bounce rates at 10k lbs. I got it on etrailer, with the tent and bed rack on it’s about got a little front rake still Incase the weight of stuff saga some.

 

Well the wife’s 4Runner was at 50k miles and she wanted a mild lift. Put the request into headstrong off road for 4 bilstein 5100s. I set the front at 2nd setting which is like .85 and it leveled the front perfect. Took me about 2.5 hours to swap all 4 by myself. Gets an alignment in a few days.

 

Having had the OME Dakar’s for 3 years and always having that blasted squeak I finally had time to take care of it. @Crom found the solution and I waited for him to test it for awhile. But you add leaf spring isolators to each leaf and it’s no more noise. Mine was loud and it was every shift of the manual transmission or bump in the road. So for about 20 bucks and a few hours Of wrenching I put them in. Re lubed everything and the results were as expected quiet and flexy. Wish I had done it from the start.

 

Looks good!

 

After several times out already this year mostly fly fishing up the river for a night or two on weekends. I discovered that the roof top tent is bomb and I can’t go back to sleeping on the ground. But what I noticed is just my tailgate wasn’t enough real estate for cooking and that I wanted a table. So I got a 5ft fold open table. Then I realized since it was flat when I stored it I always put it on the bottom which was a pain bc I had to pull things out in order to set things on it. I wanted table first. So I grabbed some
Metal and the Hobart 140 and started to glue some metal to my bedrack I had built earlier this year.
I might be an average wellder and that’s probably an over statement but it’s solid enough. I had a hell of a time welding thin metal hooks to the side because of the thicknesses but I got enough boogers on there to hold the table in.

 

The picture doesn’t have the strap on it yet. The table provides the pressure since it doesn’t exactly lock flat and has some expansion room as it wants to open when folded. It’s tight and slides in and out on the paint fine. I have been driving 3-4 days with it in and no strap. But I have a clasp hook and 550 cord for the back I just haven’t gotten to it. I did not want it to vibrate either so it’s tight and when welded it got even tighter so a little hammer work happened. Looks good at 10-15ft hahaha.

 

Got rid of the bed cover that kinda just leaked most of the time any ways. Found a used snugtop aero with ALL the options a few hours away. Paid 250 because the rear glass was shattered, new rear glass will be here in a few weeks. 2900 brand new was a price i just never could swallow. Also found some rails and put them on, it was a pain to do because the cap gets wider as it goes towards the cab.

Wifes 2013 4runner sr5 was nearing 80k miles and we had owned it outright for a few years so we were browsing cars and she decided on a 2019 highlander SE. The trade in on the 4runner was really good and we were considering another one until we rode in this and it really showed how dated the 4runner is and how much smoother the highlander was. Got tint and a clear bra for it on the way other then that its staying stock.

 

Also my side gig of putting heated seats in anything has been going well, clean install into a base model rav 4.


Pays for truck mods and beers lol

 

Picked up a 2020 tundra limited.

The trade in on my Tacoma was stupid good. For 10 years old and getting pretty squeaky she pulled big numbers.

with a Toyota incentive and then trying to clear the lot for 2021s it was too cheap not to make the jump.

I’ll be staying around though for sure.