samiam | One Thing Leads To Another

I purchased my Tacoma used in March 2011 with 25,000 miles. I hadn't planned on buying a new truck, but I became impatient at the dealership while the wife was trying to make up her mind whether to buy a new Camry. I wandered around the lot and found this Tacoma. I traded-in my 2004 base Tacoma that day, and the wife still couldn't decide what she wanted until 2 months later.
This is my first 4X4. All of my previous offroad experiences were in cars and 2WD trucks dating back to the late 80's, all of which were manual transmissions. I have no experience offroad with an automatic.
Unlike most people I don't have a photo of her the day I brought her home, but this was taken a few months later while checking out the 4WD system.



Specs:
2008 Toyota Tacoma DCSB OR 4X4 6MT 4.0L

Engine: 4.0L V6
- AirAid CAI
- AirAid TB spacer (I like how it looks)
- CFS Aluminum Radiator
- Mishimoto 160 Thermostat
- Amsoil Signature Series 5W 30
- Safari Snorkel (the big one)
- Solid Motor Mounts

Suspension:
- Front: King 2.5 Ext Travel w/Compression Adjusters
- Rear: King 2.5 Ext Travel w/Compression Adjusters
- Alcan Custom Pack 2.75" of lift, 800 lbs over stock
- Total Chaos Upper Control Arms (2/13/7)
- Total Chaos Expedition Lower Control Arms
- Timbren Rear Bump Stops with U-Bolt Flip

Drivetrain: 6MT
- Core short throw shifter with Hurst stick and T-handle
- Anchor driveshaft support bearing
- Anchor transmission mount (part #9494), sturdier than OEM
- ECGS front diff bushing
- Rear diff oil: Amsoil 75W-90
- Front diff oil: Amsoil 75W-90
- Transmission oil: Redline MT-90
- Transfer case oil: Amsoil MT & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W 90 GL-4
- Slave cylinder rebuild kit (part #04313-34011)
- Centerforce clutch/URD TOB with stainless sleeve (4/7/17)
- 4.56 Gears

Tires|Wheels:
- 255/85/16 Cooper ST/Maxx
- SCS F5 Wheels Matte Gunmetal. 0 offset, 4.5 backspacing

Armor:
- Pelfreybilt hybrid front bumper
- Relentless HC rear bumper with swingout
- Pelfreybilt IFS bash plate painted black with Rustoleum Bedliner spray
- Pelfreybilt Mid Skid painted red
- Total Chaos Bed Supports
- Relentless Front Bumper Mounting Brace Plates
- Relentless Tailgate Reinforcement (aluminum)
- Relentless Weld On Sliders with kickout

Lighting:
- Hood lights - (3) 19.7" LED strips, cool white (Superbrightleds.com)
- Meso Dome Light/Map Lights
-

Philips 194 Bright White Interior Vision LED light (Pack of 2)

LED license plate lights, bright white (Philips)
- LED brake lights (Philips)
- Cali Raised 3X2 spot (not installed)

Stereo:
- Pioneer AVH-X5800BHS
- Pioneer Shallow Sub
- Polk 6.5 Component Speaker Front/Rear


Electrical:
- Interstate AGM Battery (starter)
- Pelfreybilt fuse block panel
- Blue Sea 5025 6 circuit fuse block
- Blue Sea 7187 100 amp circuit breaker
- Otrattw switches and holders
- Generic relays
- A/C outlet behind center console
- OEM power outlets replaced with Blue Sea outlets
- Blue Sea USB outlet added to dash
- Blue Sea volt meter
- Battleborn 100AH Battery
- 170W Sunflare Flexible Solar Panel
- Victron MPPT 100|30 Charge Controller
- Victron Orion-Tr Isolated DC-DC Charger 12|12 -30
- Victron BMV-712 Battery Monitor
- SDHQ Billet Battery Terminals

Misc:
- Rear diff breather behind tail light (originally my idea), thanks to uncleArt for the write-up
- HomerTaco Satoshi MX mesh
- Bedrail corner gussets by NWexpo
- Relentless Fabrication hood light brackets
- Custom fuse block bracket made from acrylic
- Ultrgauge
- Kenwood Ham Radio
- President Johnny III CB
- Polyurethane core support by Energy Suspension - installed 11/21/15
- Firestik CB antennas 2' (red, used as stereo antenna), 3' (black), 4' (black)
- Firestik HD spring
-

FireStik AR-1A Matchmaker CB / AM/FM CB antenna splitter

Firestik Matchmaker
-

$47 Power Stop Z23-976 Front Z23 Evolution Sport Carbon Fiber Infused Ceramic Brake Pads with Hardware

PowerStop brake pads (installed 10/31/15 @ 64K miles)
- BajaRack
- Molle Panel behind rear seat

OBA

Camping:
- AluCab Canopy Camper
- AluCab Gen 3 Expedition Tent
- Alucab Shadow Awn with Custom Walls
- Alucab Shower Cube
- Tepui 4' Awning
- Decked Bed
- Dometic CFX 40 Fridge
- AluCab Tilting Fridge Slide



Some random photos

 

Modifications & Repairs​

Here is a photo of new vs old.


After following the directions for bedding, they feel silky smooth and noise-free.

Hood lights


Bed lights


One of my favorite mods. Gets used eryery day

Core/Hurst short throw shifter with t-handle


#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


A/C outlet with USB

Horn relocate




This


Then this

 

More Random Photos​

Cheers


Loaded up for camping


I love red heads


Logandale Trails

 

Looking good!!! Great pics!

 

Thanks. Doing this build thread is turning out to be more time consuming than I originally thought, but it's fun looking through a bunch of old photos and crap that I've done to this truck.

 

I gained some experience with carrier bearings this summer. I replaced it 3 times within a month. It's crazy how many horrible aftermarket units there are. I've tried three of them. I tried injecting Permatex Ultra Black into the Dorman unit and it didn't add any support. I think the reason for this is because I wasn't able to inject under pressure; I'm sure there were voids. I finally decided to buy the bearing from Anchor. I stuck some vinyl tubing in there for added support.
Here are a couple of photos with Permatex Ultra Black:



This is how to remove the stake nut if you don't have a bench vise:


And remove the u-joint yoke:


And the Anchor unit installed with vinyl hose:

 

My boy and I went for a quick run up Lava Butte trail this morning.



The boy collecting rocks for the fish tank.


I didn't realize he had collected so many.














Looking west toward the Vegas skyline.

 

Nice looking truck. I really like the t handle shifter.

 

Thank you. The T-handle entirely changes the feel of shifting...in a good way. The downside is that it's very sensitive to temperature. I can barely touch it in summertime.

 

Yeah I've been looking into different shifter handles and really like the look of that one.

 

I've used the TRD ball too. It's nice as well.

 

Yeah I'll have to look at those and see which one I like better

 

Nice looking bumper any pictures of it on your truck

 

It's still sitting on the garage floor waiting for me to buy new suspension, but I'll be getting it pc'd in two weeks...I hope.

 

On a side note, my neighborhood has seen an influx of scorpions over the last few months. So I bought a UV flashlight and started collecting them from my yard and the neighbors yard. Luckily only just a few found indoors.

sweet dreams...

 

Is there a DIY for the USB plugs in the a/c vent area? I've seen the one for behind the console. That's another one on my to do list.

 

I like that two tone pic of your truck with the green sky! neat!

-hilarious that your son collected so many big heavy rocks.

-Those scorpions! What's the risk of being stung?

-Also, how did you know your carrier bearing was going out? mileage? Thx.

 

I don't know of a DIY write-up, but it's pretty simple. On the '08 (I think it's different on your '13) that little panel pops off and I drilled a hole with a stepped drill bit large enough for the plug to fit. There is a positive and negative. Positive is run to my Blue Sea fuse block and I grounded it to the body and the center consol.

 

I was tracking down some feedback I was getting through my shifter. The bearing was fine, but the rubber housing was floppy as hell. I could push the driveshaft up and down quite a bit so I thought that was the problem. It wasn't, but now I had a horrible bearing on there (SKF - Proline) it squealed like crazy and was super floppy. I quickly ordered the Dorman with the intent on injecting the Permatex, but that didn't work very well. I couldn't pressurize it going in so there were certainly some voids. The rubber housing on the Dorman also rubbing on something. The Anchor unit felt a bit more robust, but I was done F'ing around at this point (doing this in the middle of the summer) and thought to stick some vinyl tubing in there for added support.
None of that really helped with my problem so I replaced the trans mount. It helped a little. I fear that it's the TOB.

I screwed up with the quotes.

 

Thanks. Sounds simple enough.