Wet 3rd Gen Interior

If you plan to flood the truck on a recurring basis, replace the foam underpad insulation under the carpet with waterproof foil insulation (Noico, Dynamat, etc.).

These pictures are from a trail run last spring. One guy got a couple of inches of water in the cab. We stripped the interior at camp and flushed the carpet in the lake, then hang it to dry. Bolted the seats back in on bare metal floors. He finished the trails the next day and drove 300 miles home with no issues.



There's no need to pop the drain grommets on the floor because the doorsills are level with the floor on our trucks.

Carry a spare engine air filter on the trail in case it gets soaked.

Have a spare starter at home. Once the starter gets soaked, chances are it'll die within a month.

 

Someone decided to completely ignore my fording thread

 

At least the wrangler can handle it. Fully loaded Subaru Outback has a ton of electronics. She didn’t feel too bad as I had her back. She does check every window and the sunroof every time now though.

You may need to occasionally warm the car up and get it warm inside. The warmer you can keep it the better the dehumidifier can take the moisture out. They can freeze up like an ac so be careful.

 

Was too busy taking on water

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool/5013975113


This is the one we got. Fit on the floor on the passenger side with the seat all the way back. Should fit the front floor on the taco also.

 

Thank you!

 

No problem. We all make mistakes. Take the criticism from others as a learning point.

 

You're right. As much as I dislike having a wet interior I had a blast and made some memories. The goal is to continue to improve to a point where I spend more time on the trail than I spend in my driveway fixing things from the trail. One day!

 

You said 6" up doors, and why door seals didn't work. Remember there are drains on bottom of doors, outside of seals. Water came in those and flowed over inner part of door through door panel. If it were mine I would pull seats/carpet to make sure it dried out, a d clean it well. You don't want no stank...lol

 

Avoiding stank is my #1 priority!

My girls comfort informs a majority of my vehicle mods and maintenance lol

 

Yea, take doors apart and clean the bottoms out for sure.

I used to do what you are doing. However, with age came wisdom and having a trail beater was much better than my daily.

 

OP, you have a great sense of humor to take all this input. I once flooded a Celica by driving it off the road in a rainstorm, not off-roading, just could not make out where the road was. I took out the seats, carpet, padding and anything else I could. Took two weeks in Southern California weather for it all to dry out. Never a problem afterwards, I did find some mud in places I missed years later. At the time, at 16 years of age, I'd never heard of dehumidifiers, so that was not an option, nor within by budget. My current well provisioned off-road vehicle is a Samurai with no carpet, no padding, just seats. When things get dirty, I just get out the hose, remove the floor plugs and wash away. I hope your travails work out as well as mine did.

 

Performed many flooded vehicle rescues, standard procedure is to take out all seats, carpets out and thoroughly rinse it all with fresh clean water and dry it all in the sun.
For sure replace all the carpet under laymen with new, and spray all connectors with electric drying spray, mold treatment spray and carpet freshener.
I’ve also had to take out lots of fuel tanks too, as they got water too. Now that’s a mess, hope OP did not get water there.

Nothing to it, boys just gotta have FuN!

 

If that's the case, just remove the damn carpet and leave it out.

That's what I did in my 2000 TJ. Pop the drain plugs and let it drain next time you venture into deep water.

 

spray on vinyl flooring FTW! get some extra thick fake grass to use as floor mats you can scrub your shoes on, now that would be a statement!

 

If you have power seats, flooding can cause the seat controls to malfunction (like running the cushion all the way forward) and make the truck undrivable because you can no longer fit. If you have manual seats, ignore.

The charcoal canister mounted high on the frame in front of the rear axle can fail if flooded with muddy water, causing an evap code. That part is $500-600 last I checked.

 

close all doors and windows, and run the air on high heat, a/c on, and recirculate on. this will act like dehumidifier and all the moisture will drain out the a/c drain line. i'd run it all day like this. you really don't want mold to take hold. it can make you very sick and it's extremely hard to get rid of once it starts to grow.

you could also run a dehumidifier too.

damp rid won't be enough. it's very slow, and doesn't absorb enough moisture to dry everything out.

if it smells musty after everything is dry, run an ozone generator in 10 minute increments. ozone oxidizes everything, so use it minimally.

 

So many times I've seen guys beating the shit out of their daily driver, sometimes the only vehicle they own. Just complete and total disregard for getting home, getting to work the next day, hell what it's gonna cost to repair.

I'm damn near 50 and this has baffled me my entire life. Spend half what you'll spend fixing an expensive new truck and get a fucking beater.

 

All of this. I flooded my interior and that padding under the carpet is fucked when it gets wet. Replace it with the stuff mentioned here.

 

When it's apart, take note of where the airbag ECU brain is located, and ask yourself if you want water getting close to that very expensive box again.