went wheeling this weekend, for the first time in a while. my good buddy had his 2016 subaru outback (rallitek lift, motegi wheels and falken wildpeak tires, roof basket and various accessories, it was a nice little rig) stolen and so he bought a brand new 2021 tacoma trd off-road with the help of insurance. he wanted to go break it in a little bit, so we found an overlanding route in the hill country and went after it. we had planned to go to hidden falls adventure park, but the chance of rain steered us to less difficult trails.






She was pooped by the end of it.

we did ~60 miles of dirt back roads, with a few river crossings and some slightly sketchy corners, but nothing challenging at all. it was just DUSTY. drove way out of austin to the start, then drove back roads back toward fredricksburg, stopped for a late lunch, then drove on back to austin for the evening. took me all day sunday to clean the truck out.





Then,
flushed the trans and rear diff today.

redline MT90 into the trans, new drain and fill plug.
valvoline 80w-90 in the rear diff, also new fill and drain plugs in the pumpkin too.

i'll have to get another bottle of 80w-90 for the front diff, i didnt have enough to do the front too.

 

finished replacing all the fluids. the redline always makes a difference in the transmission. feels good now


also;recently picked up fly fishing, mostly just as another excuse to get outside during a time of the year i otherwise wouldnt have much of a reason to.



i took an into lesson a couple weeks back and got to practice my casting this last weekend on the llano and james rivers west of austin. i stayed at dos Rios Campground and RV park outside of mason.







spent a fitful night in my hammock, had some pretty decent pad thai from a backpacking meal, and then almost sank the kayak i rented (had a hole in it that i didnt know about, so when i had to drag it back up stream into the wind, it weighed at least 200 lbs and was nearly full of water inside).















the Llano was somewhat cold, but its beautiful. the water is crazy clear, its mostly wade-able, and the scenery is fantastic.







then i caught my first, second, and third fish on a fly rod!!

the only one worth showing was this itty bitty largemouth bass. the other 2 were extremely small sunfish.







i took part of the Texas Hill Country Overland Route back to austin and stopped at a crossing and thats where i caught those fish. the river was the james river.











saw this weird frog. can anyone shed some light on this? some cursory googling produced nothing













more trips coming up.



and i've nailed down the mounting for the set of bucket seats i have. those will likely be going in this weekend.

 

for use coming up this weekend

http://fixingthetruckagain.blogspot....nstall-cs.html

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/wir...arness.542446/

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...03/index2.html

I'm hoping to get the GM alternator swap done this coming weekend. 12si model. as well as replacing the water pump, coolant hoses, and doing a coolant flush. it'll be a full weekend.

 

picked up a bunch of stuff for some repair work in the next few weeks.

got a gm 12si alternator and plug as well as the trail gear 22re to gm alternator mount. painted it black.

i also have a new water pump, all new main coolant hoses, and new coolant to install.

still planning the full sound system install to happen in the next 2 months or so. thats why i'm putting in a higher output alternator that will be more robust and easier to find in parts stores. i also have proper sound deadener on the way (cld, ccf, and mlv, not just cld, for anyone who cares to know the actual plans) as well as color matched carpet for both the sub box and center console. goal is as factory as possible.

i'm also contemplating putting a molle panel, fabric or alloy, behind the drivers seat. think it could be really useful, instead of the shelving i was originally planning to use.



oh i also installed bucket seats. WHAT A COMFY DIFFERENCE

 

its been a while since ive stopped by, but i just wanted to say, your rig has come a long way and im glad that youre still around to share with us. too bad i didnt realize that you were in Reno area when you still lived around here. i would have gone 4wheeling with ya!

 

Thanks!

well i'll reach out if i end up moving back. its something i'm contemplating.

 

picked up one of the stock dash clocks for the truck a couple weeks back. finally took the hour or so to pull the dash apart to install it. cleans everything up just a little bit. way better than having a non functional bass knob in a panel that kept falling out.

 

In process of replacing the water pump, alternator bracket, alternator, a bunch of wiring, and motor mounts. I’ll update with photos once finished. Currently taking lots!

 

Thanks for the updates!

 

Coming along nicely man!

 

ok.

got the new alternator and water pump installed. i was really hoping to fix the massive oil leak i have but time got away from me. i also replaced the drivers side motor mount, but not the passenger side cause of time. started on the project on friday evening, and started the truck back up at like 630 or 7pm on sunday.

i had a noise coming from the front end that i was pretty sure was a bad water pump bearing. turns out i was right. i also pulled the water pump in hopes of fixing a small coolant leak. but of course i now have a slightly larger coolant leak. i cant win with this engine and leaks. i put fipg on both the housing and pump, and used the gasket, torqued all the bolts to spec, and STILL have a small leak. so annoying.

replaced upper, middle, and lower rad hoses and installed better clamps thanks to 22re performance.

also did a gm alternator swap. i have some work still to do with the wiring to get it how i want. but it all works as of now. the alternator i have is better for sure, but i think its somewhat running as a one wire because on warm starts it doesn't charge unless i rev past 1500 for a hot second. then it self excites and will maintain voltage and charging down to about 700 rpm. i'm getting 38 amps at idle and upwards of 90 at cruising rpms so its a worthwhile upgrade. the trailgear alternator bracket was a bit of trouble. the old alt bracket was much thicker, and the lower rad intermediate pipe uses a bolt on the alt bracket to hold it in place. luckily i had enough washers or came up with some other solution to allow the bolt to tighten everything. i never heard of this being an issue before. i also strongly recommend getting all the bolts in the bracket finger tight, then getting the alt lined up with the belt by moving the bracket, as there is some play in the hole spacing, before final tightening.

now on to what everyone actually cares about. the pictures:





my useless wrench companion. cant even fetch a beer...



said beer that fueled the repair

















in the above pics you can see i added a 1/0 gauge power cable from the alternator output to the battery. ran this up the side of the radiator with a 150 amp breaker in it over to the battery, then connected the fuse box to the battery instead of having the alternator running through the 80 fuse in the box. below you can see the full car audio wiring setup i got from Knuconceptz to wire in the amp and speaker install thats coming up.


i wanted to get the alternator upgrade out of the way before i did the rest of the audio stuff so i have a good base for power. it realistically shouldn't pull any more that it is with my current audio setup, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

Alternator is done and working well. Got a sweet little setup on top of the battery for a fuse block. I am about to be in between jobs and I have about 2 weeks off. I have rolls of ccf, silicone speaker surrounds, rolls of mlv, tape, etc all either in or on the way. Gonna finish full sound treatment on the truck, a false back wall, center console build, and full system install and sound treatment application in that time. Oh and building a sub box. This build is about to get interesting!

 

Welcome to probably the biggest update in the truck so far.

An overview of what's been done so far and what's left to do:
- Sub box - built, speaker installed, wired, temporarily installed in truck until it can get wrapped in carpet(might do it myself depending on cost)
- Back panel - built and painted. Needs to be wrapped in vinyl
- center console - have main carcass built but it'll take a lot of work to finish
- speaker rings - built mostly. They need fastener hardware, some finish trim routing and sanding, paint, and to be installed.
- cab sound deadening - still needs the full treatment. Cld, ccf, then, mlv in the cab firewall to back wall, and in the doors. Then I have some 1/4" expanded pvc to make door baffles as well. Back wall has some Cld tiles, as do the doors, but otherwise all that still needs to be done.

This sub hits SO HARD compared to the ported Walmart Kicker sub and box that was in before. Wow I'm so glad I spent the money for this sub. Can't wait to get the component speakers installed and get everything tuned! My audiophile dreams are slowly coming true.

Now onto the part everyone really cares about, the pictures!

(I'll post once I get to my computer and get all the links sorted)

 

here start the pics:

i started out by building a false wall for the back of the cab to pretty it up. it bolts into place across the top and has grooves to match the doors. it will also be what the amp and wiring mounts to behind the drivers seat, as well as the quick releases for the sub once they come in. on the driver's side, i'm going to make a partial Molle panel to fit the available space to hold a few things. then a fire extinguisher will go on as well, but actually get bolted to the back wall. i'm going to try to (in the future) come up with some quick release mechanism for the extinguisher because... fire.



mock up in the cab



i was able to get pretty decent fitment against the side of the truck with a bit of room to spare with just carboard templating. next time i'll use the washer trick to get it a bit cleaner, but i'm happy with how this turned out. also got holes drilled and rivnuts installed in the back wall to hold up the panel.



mock mounted up with grooves to match whats on the doors



planning out where the amp will live. the cutout next to it is or the stock bottle jack, which i'll be keeping.



another shot of the back wall with the routed grooves in it. you can see my apprentice marks there where the guide for my router slipped. looks like a heart beat sinus rhythm, somewhat fitting for car audio as well i guess. im just glad it will be behind the sub box.



i spent a fair amount of time moving the seat in and out and cutting cardboard to fit to get the sub box shape right, as well as some drawing to figure out all my actuals dims. here is the flat back of the box.



and me in the layout process





then i got it all glued and nailed up except for the face so i could figure out exactly where the driver was gonna sit. this is what i landed on. i retrospect, i should've gone down about another inch. i can always build another box. it really wasnt as bad as i expected. and i could improve my joinery a little bit in the next one. plus it was only like $20 in lumber.



this is how it fits behind the seat before i mounted the front panel on. you can also see i finished all the seams in construction adhesive for a good seal. apparently silicone will eventually eat parts of the speaker in a sealed box? who knew...



the final major touch i wanted to add before final trimming, edge treatment, and paint, was to add a panel on the front and create an inset for the sub. this turned out about as well as i could've asked for considering. i used the 3d model of the sub i'd generated a few months ago to create a laser cut router template.



i also added the hole for the neutrik plug receptacle in this hidden part of the box for speaker cables. you can also see i've edge routed all the corners to soften them and complete the box.



then i painted both the box and the back wall with a bunch of coats of sanding sealer, then hit them with some primer. then i mounted the sub finally! you can see the back panel in the background.

 

while i was working on the box and back wall, i also started patterning out the center console and some speaker rings. i wanted them angled but not sticking out too far from the door . so i opted for a 0.75:8 taper for the very scientific reason of it being convenient math. however, figuring out how to actually cut that taper out was a bit of a challenge.



i ended up building a jig to hold the glued up rings vertical on a band saw so i could slide them along the resaw fence. the jig had the correct taper, so all i had to do was clamp the ring on and push.



i added an extra trim ring after cutting the tapers. this is how it fits with the speaker and grill in it.





patterning out the parts for the center console.





i then transfered the cardboard template to a piece of underlayment board to make a router jig out of, cut out the templte on the bandsaw and sanded to final shape. the left and right panels for the console are the same except for the first ~5 inches, so i just made that piece swappable. worked out really well using the jig on the table router.



here you can see the sub box done, the back panel mounted, and the mock up of the center console in the cab. i'll have cup holders behind the sticks, and some panels going across to tie the whole thing together.

 

thats all i was able to do in the funemployment time i had.

the back wall and center console will go for vinyl wrap once they're both done. it will match the door cars and dash.

then the box will get wrapped with carpet to match the cab.

i'll probably just bed line and then paint the speaker rings. they'll likely get remade sometime in the near future anyway. i like how they came out, but i want to make them from abs or x-pvc after talking to a pro installer about them.

once i get the rings painted, i'll start on cab sound treatment in earnest. as well as making baffles for the doors. then i can do all the wiring wnd get the new woofers and tweeters installed. oh and i need to finish the tweeter pod designs to have those mount nice and flush on the a pillars. i'll be designing and 3d printing those enclosures.

lots still to do!

 

let it also be known. this sub throws DOWN. dayum

 

i think i've got the tweeter pod aiming and profile all dialed in. thanks to some good guessing and my 3d printer.

 

updates coming soon for this page, been a busy couple months. i moved back to reno and have been working on the truck a bit as wel las doing a ton of camping/outdoor things

 

Lots of stuff has happened between May and now.
In summary:

• took a new job that's remote so i can now work from anywhere I have internet
• my partner/girlfriend graduated from grad school and got a job in Reno
• I packed up my whole life and moved to Reno after finding an amazing house in a great area to rent
• I HAVE MY OWN GARAGE! TOTALLY MINE
• camped 5 or 6 times since we've moved here, enjoying the Sierras immensely
• and truck stuff, which is why anyone comes to this page anyway, so I'll continue with that

Here's a couple of pics of me and the doggo moving across the country. Made the drive from central Texas to northern Nevada in 2 days. Rough 18 hour first day to Flagstaff for sure.





I'll have to make a post of just a Summer 21 recap with some pics of camping and hiking photos. Let me know if i should do that or not in a post below this!!

one day While driving around town, I ran across the camper top sitting on the side of the road. Initial reaction was "wow I can't believe someone is just getting rid of that; no way it would fit on my truck" but I turned around anyway to take a peek at it. My partner helped me pick it up and put it on the bed. IT FIT. WHAT. It was pretty clear by the way it fit against the cab that it wasn't for an 89-95 pickup(with how close it fits, I'm guessing it was made for a first gen Tacoma, though I'm not usre of which body style), but it was close enough and $free.99, so I went home and grabbed a few tools and got that bad boy bolted to my bed, real quick. It was definitely lacking in some areas, but it had the right stuff where it counted. There was no back glass, and not all of the mounting points were still there, but it came with some attachment hardware, a serial number, and hinges and ball stud mounts for the back glass, as well as intact glass and hardware everywhere else.



The dogs (and the girlfriend) enjoying the covered bed during a comping trip:





I had the Snugtop dealer in town search the serial number on it and get a hold of Snugtop to see if I could just buy a back window for this (definitely the preferred solution) but apparently they don't make this model of topper anymore and thus don't have any stock of the back window, typical. Like anything else worth doing, I figured I would just do it myself. Then I got to work making "glass" fore the back. I bought a piece of pseudo scrap plexiglass from a plastics supplier in town, then I made that into a pretty close match for back glass, but for much less. I'd worked with Makrolon in the past and knew it could be cut with standard woodworking tools, which is something else I'm into, and I'm a member at a makerspace in town now that has a full woodshop, so I made (relatively) quick work of mocking up the glass into a wood "mold" pattern that I then transferred to the acrylic/plexi. I ordered mounting hardware and then some generic locks from the Amazon, and got everything together and looking fresh.

initial fab:






mockup and mounting:




results:






And in use already:


It's not fully done yet, I have a piece of aluminum deep c-channel on order(should be here in 2-3 days) that I'll be adding to the bottom of the window to stiffen it up substantially, as well as adding gas struts to it to make it stay open without a 2x4 . I think i'll glue and rivet that part in place, as well as paint it black, and then apply a piece of camper top window-specific weatherstripping to the back of it to seal the window to the tailgate. Other notable things done that I don't have pictures of, fixing all the wiring so the 3rd brake light works with the running light switch and wiring up the interior camper cab light to function as well. I had a trailer wiring thing under the truck from PO that I'd just zip-tied out of the way. I bought a trailer wiring plug thing and used the plug to wire in power from there, and all the lights are LEDs so I'm not concerned about blowing a fuse from the extra load. I still need to order a new perimeter seal and new mounting j-hooks for the cap to be 100% done, but i'll have less than $200 into it when all is said and done to get a fully functional camper top with all glass, working lights and all the mounting hardware.i also added a piece of pipe insulation across the top of the camper between the cab and camper. This is wedged in there (held onto the camper with gorilla tape) to block the wind from getting forced in between the top and cab; I think i'm going to do this all around the window now so it effectively seals the cab and camper top together. This will hold me over 'til I can get a Softopper in the next year or 2.

Lastly, I've had an awful intermittent buzzing from the left turn signal only, and I've been able to mostly ignore it for a while, but I have to get my truck inspected to get it registered here, and that won't fly if they can't get the blinker to work first try, tho it always works the second try. I'm currently in the middle of removing the lower dash panel to unplug the master dash plug so I can take apart the switch for the blink stalk and clean it, ugh. I search around and apparently you don't need a steering wheel puller to remove ours, and I'm glad I searched cause there was a tip in one of the threads about it that said to keep the nut on the steering column when removing the steering wheel. Glad I read that cause otherwise I would have 100% punched myself in the face with my steering wheel.