PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

I am generally not interested in stock 2nd Gens, unless it's a 5-lug or a regular cab. There are Tacomas everywhere around here, but regular cabs and especially 2WD regular cabs like mine are not common, especially not in the condition that mine is in...

 

You don't see many around here either.
And when you do, it's the same ones with the same driver.

 

I have had mine for almost 15 years, so I can attest to this...



I know of a 1-owner 2009 or 2010 Tacoma in the Lehigh Valley area (about an hour from here) that looks just like mine and @ABA180's and only had like 26K miles on it as of October 2020 because the older guy who owned it didn't drive a lot. If I had sold my truck and bought that one, it would have about 107K miles on it now, which is still very low for a 2009-2010. Back in 2011 or 2012, I came across a 2005-2008 RC 5-lug automatic with a refrigerated enclosure on the back that was used to deliver fresh fish. The delivery driver was sitting in the truck, so I walked up and asked him how many miles were on the truck. He gladly looked at the odometer, and astonished me when he told me that it had 300K; 300K is chump change for a well-maintained 2TR-FE, but I was shocked because the truck was no more than six or seven years old at the time and it was in very good shape for a fleet vehicle with mileage that rivaled a semi. The driver told me that the truck ran great and the A/C worked. I'm guessing it probably burned a bit of oil, but that guy from North Carolina got his 2007 to 880K before the head gasket blew, then he put an engine with 100K out of a totaled truck into his truck and got his truck to like 1.5 million miles!

 

@TnShooter

The A/C in my truck works so great that @Stitchgirl90 ends up closing the vents on her side when we go on long trips! The evaporator core was replaced in September 2018 because it started leaking refrigerant, and the A/C system had to be evacuated and partially disassembled in November 2021 when the frame was replaced, but every bit of the A/C system is original except for the aforementioned evaporator core! If the compressor shits the bed, I'll just replace it!

 

I try to roll the windows down as much as possible.
I work outside (mowing) and the in/out of a cold truck is brutal.
I'd rather be "hot" then go "back and forth".

 

I would never have a vehicle without A/C, and a lot of times the A/C in my truck ends up being more for the girlfriend than myself. What you say makes sense though...

 

Perfectly legal to respectfully request someone delete pictures they took in a public place. Key word is “request.” Cannot force/threaten/etc. If Charlie willingly deleted the images per the owners request, this is a non issue.

I sympathize with those who do not want to be recorded in public. Crazy ass world we live in.

 

@ColoradoTJ

There was one time in 2014 where I felt threatened, and it wasn't the S-10 incident on 9/11. This happened in probably April or May of 2014. One thing everybody needs to know about me is that I like to take pictures of vehicles most people wouldn't consider particularly special. In this case, it was a gleaming black 2006-2010 Ford Explorer with a beige leather interior and big chrome wheels. I was at Fred Beans Chevrolet on a warm Sunday, and in Pennsylvania all car dealerships are closed as required by law. This Explorer was parked in the customer service/recent trade-in parking area, so I had no reason to believe the owner was right nearby. It still had a license plate with a valid registration sticker, but vehicles get traded in with license plates still on them...

I was started taking pictures of the Explorer from different angles, and then the owner showed up out of nowhere and confronted me. This was one of those rare situations where I was scared during one a photography-related incident. At one point, the guy actually made a move like he was trying to grab my camera, and I in no uncertain terms told him "hands off". This was not a phone or a little point-and-shoot camera, but the $800 Nikon that my parents had gotten me for Christmas in 2012; I would have seriously decked the guy right then and there if he touched my camera.

Looking back on the situation, I should have just run to my truck and driven off, but the guy ordered me to delete every single photo of his Explorer; I was too afraid not to comply, so I did just that, and the asshole was standing directly behind me watching the whole time. Like, I thought he was going to get violent with me just because I took pictures of his vehicle.

This was at least six months before I started working at Puck (a bar/nightclub/music venue in Doylestown, for those who do not know), but I'd been friends with this woman named Sam (the general manager of the place) since 2011. Sam got a female Boxer/Labrador puppy named Tully in October 2012, and she paid me to walk Tully due to her busy work schedule. This eventually evolved into becoming her personal assistant. Anyway, after the incident with the psychotic Ford Explorer owner, I brought Tully with me (with Sam's permission) whenever I wandered car dealer lot on Sundays. Tully did not get along with other dogs, but she loved people and was not the least bit vicious. She is still alive and now almost 12 years old! Anyway, Tully is a sweetheart, but the average stranger had no way of knowing that; I never had a problem again with regards to taking pictures of vehicles at dealerships, but having Tully with me made me feel safer.

 

@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@Speedytech7
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

My first dog, a Black Labrador named Molly, was born on December 11th, 1994. We picked her out sometime in January 1995 and took her home a few weeks later. She lived to the amazing age of 15 years old! We put her to sleep on December 23rd, 2009 due to failing health. Molly was a lot like Tully, even though she died almost three years before Tully was born. She was very friendly to people, but with very few exceptions, she was very aggressive to other dogs. My dad was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, Washington from 2000 to 2002. I started middle school when we moved there, and it was absolutely brutal for me in terms of bullies. Kids teased me when we lived in California and Virginia Beach, but it was a large area, and the tormenting ended when I got off the school bus because none of the bullies lived in neighborhood...

Okay, not true...

When we moved back to California in 1996, we lived in military housing on the Navy base. A few of the kids who picked on me at school were from military families and lived on base, but I had far more friends in California and it kind of evened itself out, plus kids living on a military base are nowhere near as bad as ones living in a regular neighborhood. Our neighborhood in Oak Harbor was one of the worst places ever in terms of bullies; I had plenty of friends in Oak Harbor as well, but Oak Harbor was a relatively small community compared to places we'd lived before and a good number of my tormentors lived in our neighborhood.

It was in 2000-2001 when I started taking Molly for walks all by myself, as I'd only been five years old when we got her and not big enough to control her on my own during a solo walk for the first three or four years we had her. In middle school, I got really big and could handle Molly; I say that Molly did not like other dogs, but she loved people. In 2000, she jumped out of our van at my grandma's house in Maine and took down the neighbor's full grown Rottweiler. She loved kids though, but to my benefit, not all kids loved her...

I found out quite accidentally that at least one of the neighborhood bullies was terrified of dogs. He was with his friends, all ready to pick on me, until he realized I had about 70 pounds of Labrador Retriever with me and took off like the coward he actually was; I don't know if his friends were also afraid of dogs, but they also took off...

 

These pictures of Molly were all taken at the house in Oak Harbor, Washington in 2001-2002...

 

Christmas 2001 in Oak Harbor (the dates on most of these pictures are incorrect)...

 

@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

Remember the house in North Wales, Pennsylvania where we lived from 1990 to 1996? Here I am with Molly at that same house after the big blizzard of 1996! Just look how big that tree has gotten!

 

Molly in the North Wales house after stealing a spatula from the kitchen, circa 1995-1996...

 

Molly with my aunt and uncle's dog, Sandy, in late 2008; Sandy was born in July 1995 and one of the only dogs Molly got along with. She was euthanized just a few months after this picture was taken, due to failing health...

 

Molly and my dad's 1996 Nissan Pathfinder at our old house in Furlong, Pennsylvania; August 2009

My dad traded the Pathfinder for my Tacoma in September 2009, and Molly was put to sleep in December 2009...

 

Molly in the bed of my then-new Tacoma, in November 2009. She was put to sleep less than a month later...

 

We got the Tacoma less than three months before Molly's health really deteriorated and we had to put her to sleep, but we finally got another dog in September 2018 and she spent a lot of time in my truck; Mandy only lived to be a year old due to a rare kidney disorder, but I took this picture of her on the day we brought her home!

 

This picture was taken in June 2019, the day before we put Mandy to sleep. She looks a lot healthier than she actually was...

 

In March 2020, literally a week before the COVID lockdowns started, my dad and I outvoted my mom (who still hadn't gotten over Mandy's death) and adopted Porter!

 

Porter's very first ride in the Tacoma, in May 2020!