Irrelevance

OK, so, I've been doing too much crimping and not nearly enough truck mod work but I did manage to pick up a beautiful knob when @FloBass offered his up for sale (thanks Eric!)

I'm going to add his photos here so that if his BST thread goes bye bye down the road I have them for the historical record and then I'll try to take some of my own once installed.

 

Awesome! I hope you enjoy it.

 

OK, today I actually made time to do a tiny bit of truck mods. I got the shift knob installed and boy is it hefty. I also re-routed switched power to the Germes off my under cupholder 8 circuit blue sea compact fuse block as I had one spare circuit left and I had started to get annoyed at the 3s delay on remote out from my

$22 PAC TR4 PAC TR-4 Remote Turn-on Module , Black

PAC TR4. I first went with remote out b/c @svermilyea held my hand through getting the Germes functional with the Pioneer. It's likely that all normal humans with direct remote out have no actual delay, but I screwed myself over with the PAC TR4 so I figured I'd just go directly off IGN switched power. One nice side bonus is I have a dedicated 5amp fuse for the Germes now, though 1 or 2 is probably all I could possibly need for that thing. Last, I finally peeled the stickers and stuck it to the underside of the Pioneer, let's hope I can get the whole shebang out if I ever need to. For now it's pretty easy to just remove the HVAC controls and get to all the wires underneath. The only thing I might want to remove the Pioneer for would be access to the usb-c port but I think for now I'm OK with the OEM usb-a.

Speaking of, I had left that oem USB-A and audio jack switch out in place of the Qi but I've permanently decided that wireless charger is completely useless so I swapped those for now. If I ever get my LSP8 installed maybe I'll put the Qi back, but then again maybe not because it's just so useless and I have so many wired 2amp charging options that it's dumb to go slow wireless charging.

Last, I finally took possession of my Expedition Essential bedside cubby for ARB twin this week, it had been living at my sister's in SF as I had gotten it used on the cheap and I had hopes of avoiding paying for shipping. But with the whole lockdown we just never could get anywhere close to SF so screw it, I paid a ton to get it shipped to me and for my bro-in-law's hassle. I hope he has a few beers on me. Now I need to finally get my high current distribution done, run 4 gauge to the rear, distribute it to ARB and aux 12v charging, run switchpros circuits for bed dome line red and white, drill a hole for the deutsch flange connector, tap the signal to tailgate lock, and get the leer 100xq on. Though I probably have at least a couple of months before my Leer is remotely ready, some have waited 14 weeks for theirs and I think I'm barely 4 or 5 right now.

OK, photos of the knob.

 

Today I caved and got

$35 HIGH FLYING Car Accessories LED Side Mirrors, Sequential Dynamic Turn Signal Lights Indicator, Pair for Toyota Tacoma 2016-2023, RAV4 2019-2025, Highlander 2020-2025, Set of 2, Smoked Black

these mirror lights. They are good value. I was waiting on the MESO v5's but for $49 and 10 minutes of my time, these are done and done. They look nice, though the sequential is a bit more of a shooting arrow type sequence than the OEM LED reverse sequential which go full on then fade out in sequence.

A quick video of them in action.

 

Well, $45 was my price to dechrome the bumper caps. I don’t love the finish on the new ones and they are not particularly excellent quality or anything but they are not chrome and that was really the only important thing.

Down the road I am thinking steel bumper. Just not sure exactly which one yet.

Before:


After:

 

Got my shell in the garage as I try to figure out time to finish prep.



I also got some overlays to install for the doors and tailgate.



And this fun adapter to use the OEM microphone which I figured was priced too low for me to pass on such a refined custom solution.



Last, a DMM.



Lots to keep me busy.

 

After the boys finally decided it was indeed time to go to sleep, I got started on modifications to a light bar harness for @ljh824 which will include a tap for the DRL signal. I’ll be merging this trigger into his existing harness so that he can use a standard latching switch to fire up the light bar but can leave the light bar backlight controlled by the stalk. I built this part in a modular way so he can decide if he wants it to stay on at night with the headlights.



I also swapped out one side of the headlights in my brother in law’s Ram 5500 with H9 for low beams and Toshiba HIR for the high beams. I’m about to go out and capture a few photos of how the two sides compare.

Ram

Stock Bulbs

Low beam comparison

High beam comparison

 

Dave, do you happen to remember which MESO Driver Cubby layout this is? I need the exact same one.

 

It was a custom spec but a common one for MT switchpros DC peoples. You type in the letters for the openings in the custom driver cubby form.

Double check me but I think the below:

FC
EBBB

 

Awesome that's exactly what I needed. Thanks!

 

Definitely the least sexy mod I’ll ever do to the truck. I give myself 5 years to have these on then I’m ripping them off and never looking back. Daddy training wheels.

 

I was really hoping to get some crimping going tonight but on our way back from a quick dinner run, a milkshake decided to spill into the center console. So, there goes another night. Only one broken tab, not too bad. Trying to decide if I’ll bother jbwelding it back on.

 

First attempt at fluids today, making a bit of a mess. Got the rear diff and transfer case done, stuck on front diff and going to try manual transmission fluid right now.

 

Preparing for the maiden voyage, @JFanaselle thanks for the fridge hookup.

 

I'm happy that it has a great new home

 

At my wife’s bff’s near Ukiah. Stable includes two silver Forresters (one up the hill), our Odyssey, a Prius and an F250. Also a broken down gator and a non functional bus/schoolbus which hasn’t moved in over a decade. Everyone is quite dirty. Good times. River bound tomorrow.

A JT would work well here. An old Tacoma would be perfect.

 

More photos from my goodbye walk this evening. Water is everything here.

 

Nice use of the silver stack.

 

Trip to my bro in law’s hangar today.

 

Watching kids is boring, cutting wood less so.