What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Thanks! They are just mocked up right now, not sure how I feel about them or if the brackets can even hold the weight.

 

What is their intended use? If they are for actual ditch lights, they seem like overkill and shouldn't be aimed facing forward as in the pic. They are of course totally illegal as headlight supplements so hopefully that isn't your intention.

 

How do you like the bilsteins? Are they pretty stiff? Looking for a stiffer setup for mine and the bilsteins are up there on my top selection.

 

They are a bit firmer. I use them on my lowered truck as well, and have been very happy with them. They are OE on a lot of vehicles anyway, including Tacomas.

 

I never really understood the use of actual ditch lights. I always put spot lights in that position on my past trucks. This style of light in the picture makes a little more sense as a ditch light because they have the angled floods on the sides. I'm probably going to go with LP4's in the future.

 

The side shooting aspect helps. But ditch lights are normally on a bracket that allows you to angle them outward and down. It helps you see what's just off the road, and lights up the edge of the road better. Also, angling them outward keeps them from creating a bunch of glare on your hood.

 

Yeah understood, I guess it's personal preference. I've had properly aimed ditch lights in the past and never used them. I'd rather throw light forward.

 

For sure. Most of my forward light comes from my projectors. I have a light bar that comes in handy at times, but I use the ditch lights a lot at night.


But, I can light shit up in all directions if necessary.

https://youtu.be/TwAST0V1bls

 

Hey @mobflip,

If you are looking for more information on our LP4 or a forum special, feel free to send me a PM.

Best,
Bill

Bill Sonevongxay | Forum Sales & Support 
Email: Bill@bajadesigns.com Phone: (760)560-2252

 

Bit late to the party but I just swapped the lines so that part is angled away.

TundraBrakes-43.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

the hood glare is gonna be bad with those side shooters haha

You clearly don't live or drive a lot of places where your biggest highway threat is critters deciding to make a break for it in front of your vehicle at 75mph. I use my ditch lights ALL the time for this reason. Has saved my ass so many times from deer, elk, lions, turkeys, ect.

for long distance throw in front, I'd never use lights in the position. The hood glare would be so bad, and even if you think its not, it's ruining your nigh vision. To be able to see properly far down the road, you want your eyes to adjust correctly to the darkness and get light as far out in front as possible. The more like you have in close proximity to your vehicle the worse your night vison gets. This is exactly why OEM cars with fog lights turn off the fogs when you turn on the brights. And is why you should have your fogs on when you have spots/high beams on.

they will be much more effective on the front of the truck or at the very least appear more effective due to your night visison adjusting better since there won't be the hood glare or any light really bounching off the hood. Or up above the roof but BEHIND the front of the wind shield so the roof cuts off the light from hitting the hood(this is why those LED bars mounted right above the hood are not very effective they bounce off the hood too much).


But you do you! I have some Hella 500s with HIDs in that spot. And while I liked them, they light off the hood and also the bright light off the edges of the lens killed it for me.

 

Right on! Thank you. That solidifies my next purchase then.

 

Disagree.

 

I use my ditch lights to look for tracks, way better than holding my hand out the window with a flashlight, brighter the better.

and they're point at an angle when I'm not using them for the above reason so light up the shoulder more and then some bigger lights pointed forward

 

I’ve been rebuilding an 05 v8 4runner the past few weeks. Finally got it back on wheels and had to take a picture with the taco… I gotta say, I love my driveway now haha.

 

Do you have the part numbers for those Hoses? Thanks.

 

Not a “what have you done today” but it’s now been 1 year since I did the head gasket and the heads. A lot of you were following my thread on it but for those that weren’t I fucked up on the initial install by installing two right sided gaskets. Don’t ask lol. Had to tear it all back down again and replace with Felpro gaskets since I was on a time crunch. Runs flawlessly at 300k.

 

What hood light is that?

Last night I started on fixing all the snapped capture nuts on my bump stops.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

You know it's a good time when the comes out.

 

These are the numbers for my 99’ along with their proper name.

 

I feel lame now for not taking pics, but it is the middle of winter and I am working on my truck outside in the snow so I just wanted to get the job done...
I did a full overhaul of my Aisin manual locking hubs.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this task but I am happy to report that it really was quite easy with special thanks to Wheeliepete on YouTube who has a couple of great videos on this for:
1. Freeing the cone washers so you can remove the hub body.
2. How to make sure your clutch assembly and springs are all assembled properly so they will function fully.

Anyhow, if you haven't done this job before, go for it! Super satisfying little bit of maintenance and it is so nice to feel my dial to switch between free wheeling and locked, now turning easily and smoothly!

 

Just this week I drove my Tacoma 1200 miles from Wisconsin to Texas. After 1,000 miles into the trip the 3600 mile Rotella T6 5W-40 oil looked like this

Very generous speed limits allowed for 17-19mpg on 87 octane gas



Mike