Tampa Bay Area Tacomas BS Thread

This would be a daily driver as well and quite honestly the more I shop the more I realize I'd be better off new the used pricing on Tacomas is um. Wow. If I'm going to pay that much I'll go get factory warranty etc. I don't typically buy new, but if this is what used prices are guess I'm in for new!

 

also check out certified pre owned

 

Any recommendations for alignment shop in Pinellas County? Preferably St Pete area. Thanks in advance!

 

I take mine to Firestone every 6 months. If you plan on keeping your truck for a long time I would spend the extra money on a lifetime alignment warranty, especially if you do any wheelin.

 

When I was living in CA I had a bad experience with Firestone, but I understand 1 store doesn't represent the whole, which Firestone here in Tampa would you recommend?

 

I live in Wesley Chapel and take mine to the one across the street from the Outlet Malls off of 75. They've done an awesome job. Truck drives straight as an arrow and I'm on a 6" lift with UCA. There is another Firestone on BBDowns across the street from the Bay Breeze car wash. I've never taken it there though.

 

Yea same, I had bad experiences with the one in St. Pete and one in Bradenton. I like the idea of having the lifetime warranty, but I also don’t want to go back 3 times in a week because they can’t get it right.

 

There's an older guy at the one i go to that's very detailed and knows his stuff. Had him adjust the camber once (I have the adjustable SPC UCA)and then just do the toe adjustments from there on out. Any other tech would probably try to align you to factory specs but if you have a lifted suspension then factory specs is gonna cause wear and pulling issues. I would tell the tech to just do the toe measurements if you dont have the adjustable UCA's.

 

Appreciate the info. I seem to always get the tech that seems baffled about alignment specs for lifted trucks. I’ve got JBA UCAs on the 2015 I need to take in so they shouldn’t have an issue, we’ll see lol.

 

Good to know, I also have SPC's. I'll check it them out, thank you.

This is usually the case for me as well.

 

If you haven't found a place yet, check out S & M Truck World in Clearwater. Had them un-fk mine about a year ago after the dealership did an alignment and I had a crazy vibration above 50 mph that wasn't there before, it was perfect after that. Just recently had them install new leaf springs, SPC UCA, shocks all the way around, and do alignment. Still runs straight, no vibrations.

 

That’s exactly who I went to! I’ve used them in the past and for some reason they slipped my mind when hunting for a good alignment shop this time around. Went AFTER I made the mistake of taking it to Big Tires and More in Pinellas Park. They f’ed it up twice, and badly, it was a joke. Wasted over 4 hrs of my time so steer clear. I would 100% recommend S&M. Dylan is great, and he’s a Toyota guy.

 

Any recommendations or has anyone had their ECGS bushing installed at a shop in the Tampa Bay Area? I appreciate it.

 

Looking forward to having an REI here in Tampa! (March 5)
https://www.rei.com/stores/tampa.html


https://gosweepstampafl.splashthat.com/

 

This place is opening up near the Tampa Executive Airport, the "Off Road Hospitality" area sounds interesting




Edit: apparently you need to rent a garage there to utilize the track/off road area and they have public events once or twice a year where they let people "try it out"

 

I guess the high dollar crowd will only enjoy this.

 

Anyone know where I can get a box of 270 ammo?

 

Had to hit 4 different places here in Lakeland before we found a place with only two boxes left @ $40 a box. Good luck

 

You poor saps. I have enough components on hand to load up 1000+ rounds of .223 Rem and maybe a few hundred 6.5 CM depending on how much powder it goes through. Haven't got a feel for it yet and I haven't determined a front runner for powder. I do know that 100 rounds of 6.5 CM burned through more than half a pound of RL 17, but I still have 2 pounds of different powders I want to try.

Ah, the joys of handloading.

It is kinda weird though. Hodgdon is now selling right to the public any surplus supply they have that hasn't been committed to their distributors but the only powder they had available is either H335, Ramshot X-terminator, both of which I use for my .223 loads but have 8 lb jugs of already and stuff that has that copper fouling deterrent in it which I won't use because you can't store it for long before it eats the copper jacket off the bottom of your bullets. Varget is of course right out as is H4350 and Hybrid 100V. I would also like to try RL 19, but I need to check with Alliant to see if it had CFD in it. I heard only RL 17 didn't.

At any rate, the pace I'm moving, I'll whether the shortage decently, I think.

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I have been bitten by the black rifle bug though. I now want to build a 6.5 Grendel and a .458 SOCOM. I could take them out to Texas and surrounding eastern areas and kill hogs...and get paid to do it.

 

Good to know. When i get my relief check I plan on getting a membership. I'm also thinking about finally getting that MDT LSS chassis and a Magpul PRS butt stock for my 6.5 CM. I already bought the A2 buffer tube and the Houge pistol grip for it.

Odd thing with the powder though. On Hodgdon's website they has 1 and 5lb bottles of H335 and 1 and 5lb bottles of Ramshot Xterminator in stock--both the powders I use in my AR. Of course I have nearly full 5 lb bottles so I won't need any for a while. On the other hand, I want to try H4350 in the 6.5, but there none to be found anywhere. Nor is there any RL 17 which is what I've already tried with it. Figures.

Edit: Been watching MarkandSam AfterWork on Youtube. They are a couple over in Oz that shoot Ultra Long Range. They are hitting coke cans at 1200 yards and a 2' square steel plate at 1 mile with a 6.5 CM cheap Howa action and heavy varmint barrel in an MDT chassis. They are working on hitting a 2' square steel plate with a .375 Gibbs at 5000 yards (~2.9 miles). they are getting really close too. If it was the 3' square plate they are using for world record attempts over here, they would have nailed it several times already. Pretty cool to watch. You can hear Mark fire the rifle then you watch the target for about 11 seconds and you can hear the sonic boom as the bullet transitions back to sub sonic then you watch for a couple more seconds and you'll see the bullet impact the ground. Wild stuff. They are also shooting .22LR at 900 yards. Haven't watched any of that, but they have a lot of cool vids.