Heater and gauges not working on 99 tacoma

So I went on a wheeling trip yesterday and about 10 o'clock I noticed my heater quit working. Awesome, I thought, gonna be a cold day but I'll still make the most of it. Couple hours go by and I notice my speedometer, temp gauge and fuel gauge also stop working, and the 4x4 light wasnt working when engaged to 4 wheel drive. Buddy of mine came over to have a look see and came to conclusion my alternator went out. So we headed back for home. Halfway down the mountain truck loses all power. Was able to jump start it once but it died a minute later. Jumper cables wouldn't start. So we took the alternator out and he ran to walla walla to oreillys since this where I bought this alternator from less then a year ago and they carry a lifetime warranty. Comes back with new alternator but my battery was so dead and not holding a charge that we ended up leaving it overnight. We pulled the battery, put on a charger overnight and drove the hour back to my truck. Alternator checked out good, battery was charged. Threw them both in and she fired right up and made the hour drive back home with what seemed to be no issues. Battery was charging and held the charge whole way home. Heater is still not working and all 3 of my dash gauges, temp, speedo, and fuel still are not working. Just for shits I tried the AC to see if it would blow any air and it did not, the light didn't even come on the AC button. I guess my question is does my heater and gauges stop working ha email anything to do with the alternator going out and then draining the battery down to nothing? I kinda need the heater to work now that it's winter and it'd be nice to have a fuel gauge, I could care less if the temp and speedo don't work as I have an ultragauge anyway. Fuses look good but my buddy did say the relay didn't click or make any noise when just the ignition was turned on, and that it was reading a higher ohms then what he thought it should. He said to go get a new relay but I don't want to be buying a bunch of parts if that's not the problem. With all my research there seems to be A LOT that goes into making a heater work. Haven't done much research on the dash gauges. Anyone have similar experience or any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Found out a couple other things that don't work, my reverse/back up lights. Anyone, anything???

 

Oh and my ultragauge doesn't work now either when you start the truck, you have to unplug/plug it in for it to work. I'm at a total loss as to how my truck just falls apart and half the shit stops working. I thought toyotas were suppose to be reliable but this thing obviously has some serious issues somewhere. About ready to drive the SOB off damn mountain..

 

check all fuses and relays musta blow one when alternator choked


check all ground straps might dislodged one flexin