Long time lurker, new member.

sleverage · Nov 24, 2016

Hey everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself to the forums. I am here to share and benefit from the knowledge of the huge and friendly member base here. I have always liked Toyota pickup trucks since I grew up on a farm with a couple of them that went through just about everything you can think of.

A brief history of the two I have owned,

In 2013 I bought a 2007 DCLB TRD Sport that had 192,000 km on it (that is about 119,000 miles), it looked great when I got it but it was also the newest vehicle I had ever owned so I was probably a bit blind to some of the issues. However it was in pretty good shape considering its age and mileage.

Here it is the day we got it home,

And then here it is after my girlfriend at the time drove it to work:

Truck got fixed, girl left, but in 2015 summer I started to notice some creamy brown-white frothy substance on the oil filler cap and there were some other signs that the truck was not doing too well. I had the compression tested and it was all fine and they couldn't tell me why it was doing this, so I ended up trading it in and got the new truck.

2015 DCLB TRD Sport, first new off the lot vehicle I have owned:

Basically this was the last 2015 on the lot when I got it, I did consider the 3rd gen which were arriving off the transport truck at the time, but ultimately decided against it because I knew the reliability of the 4.0 and the mature design and engineering of the 2nd gen. I may upgrade to a 3rd gen if there are enough compelling reasons in the future and people have put some miles on them so we can share in the experience and read their opinions. The truck has 14,000 km on it now and I have owned it for just over 1 year. I feel like I am ready to start wrenching on it a bit.

A few things I would like to improve or change:

I am too tall and the rear view mirror is constantly in my field of view, so I would like to relocate it.

I would like to add a switch to enable the rear view camera when not in reverse, and ultimately install a front and rear view dash cam which would potentially replace the input from the stock tailgate rear camera.

I would like to wire an outlet for the built in inverter to access within the cab.

Thinking about lifting it 2" or so because I take it off road/logging roads quite a bit, living near the rocky mountains it is too tempting not to.

Cap/Canopy for the bed of the truck because I use it for work, and I need the storage space for tools and job materials.

Laptop mount for when I need to be on the computer while parked at a job site (quite often as I run my own business).

Get rid of the dealership tires.

Anyway I hope to find the relevant threads with the search function, and I appreciate you taking the time to read my introduction and I look forward to seeing you out on the forums.

Cheers!

- steve