-
Welcome to Tacoma3G.com, a free resource for 2016-2023 Toyota Tacoma owners!
Tacoma3G is a beginner-friendly 3rd Generation Toyota Tacoma (2016-2023 model-years) forum. We are a community of people who are focused on good information and good vibes.
CoastieRon's Silver build & BS
- Thread starter Ron
- Start date
-
- Tags
- build threads
I don't want to add anymore accounts LOL. We have the apple music for the family and I have amazon music as well. The iPhone 6 actually charges very well off that data port, and keeping it locked and on airplane mod so the batt lasts and new music doesn't get added wirelesly by other family members is ideal. I finished up today and found that I listened to a lot of shitty music in the 90's and early 2000s.....
Installed and I can tell a difference. There is a crispness going on. Need a few commutes before deciding.
JL 10TW1-2 on left, Audison APS10D on right
I had to cock the Audison just a little because the holes didn't quite line up
Current amp settings
JL 10TW1-2 on left, Audison APS10D on right
I had to cock the Audison just a little because the holes didn't quite line up
Current amp settings
Update on subwoofer:
Everything I say is subjective in regards to how I feel the subs compare to each other, so first, I'll lay down some data from each manufacturer:
The JL Audio model 10TW1-2 is a one - 2 ohm voice coil driver that can run at 75w - 300w continuous with a peak of 600W. It has a mounting depth of 4.36". It requires 0.35 NET cubic feet of air in a sealed box. 0.35 net equals a box built for 0.42 cubic feet before the subwoofer is installed. Because the subwoofer speaker displaces 0.047 cubic feet, you get 0.35 cubic feet of space in the box.
Audison APS 10D is a two - 4 ohm voice coil driver that can run up to 400w continuous with a peak of 800w. It has a 3.46" mounting depth and requires 12 lr or 0.42 cubic feet of air in a sealed box (no such displacement aerobics here, just build a box that has 0.42 cubic feet of space before you put the driver in).
The amplifier I have and has been connected to both drivers (at different times of course) is an Arc Audio 850.5 XDi. The subwoofer channel produces 225w RMS at 4 ohm and 400w RMS at 2 ohm. The JL subwoofer is a 2 ohm voice coil driver, so it falls into the 400w RMS setting. Because I ran the Audison's dual 4 ohm voice coils in parallel as per the manual, it also ends up at 2 ohm falling into the 400w RMS setting.
So now for the butt dyno:
I had some tuning issues with the JL. The bass felt muddy and the timing was off. So after a lot of back and forth with @Mr Marv (who by the way is a treasure trove of audio information), the amp settings were changed multiple times in small increments until I ended here:
The tic marks on the dials are 20hz intervals. That said, the crossover point for the front speakers is 90 hz, the rear 100 hz, bass boost is 6dB and the sub is set at 60 hz. These sounded to me like the best settings so far, and I am rolling with them for at least a month before I change. I ran with these settings on the JL for two weeks before the Audison was installed.
Also, for timing, Marv suggested I switch the wiring on the sub to the opposite of pos - pos, neg to neg. His explanation from text:
This actually made the JL sub sound much better than it had in weeks, projecting the kick closer to the dash and not into my back. it made the front stage sound much more full, but it only seemed to sound good for a couple of genres: Rap, Country and Pop. The problem with that is I'm a big fan of Progressive rock/metal, Metal and Hard Rock. Trying to find that happy medium is difficult.
Doing a ton of research, I put out the following question on do it yourself mobile audio: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...t-my-car/398594-10-sub-0-42cf-sealed-box.html
That's where I found the Audison for sale, and found that the specs were perfect not only for the sealed box, but also better suited for the amp.
The Audison is wired to the amp the exact same way (except for the voice coils being run in parallel). The timing is perfect, and the bass is great for everything I'm listening to right now, which is a range from the following:
Opeth
Umphrey's McGee
Snoop Dogg
NWA
Porcupine Tree
Spock's Beard
Megadeth
with some Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead thrown in for good measure as well as Kenny Chesney.
The bass response in definitely quicker and more defined. I don't get any flat bottoming out with metal, especially with Metallica's Master of Puppets (this one seemed to beat up the JL). I am running the same music I ran through the JL and there are noticeable differences.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a clean sounding, shallow mounting, not needing a huge sealed box subwoofer driver, don't be afraid to look at Audison. It is a comparably priced subwoofer (in my case, I spent $229.99 on the JL from Boomer McLoud's in Merrimack NH, and $225 from a member on DIYMA, shipped).
Everything I say is subjective in regards to how I feel the subs compare to each other, so first, I'll lay down some data from each manufacturer:
The JL Audio model 10TW1-2 is a one - 2 ohm voice coil driver that can run at 75w - 300w continuous with a peak of 600W. It has a mounting depth of 4.36". It requires 0.35 NET cubic feet of air in a sealed box. 0.35 net equals a box built for 0.42 cubic feet before the subwoofer is installed. Because the subwoofer speaker displaces 0.047 cubic feet, you get 0.35 cubic feet of space in the box.
Audison APS 10D is a two - 4 ohm voice coil driver that can run up to 400w continuous with a peak of 800w. It has a 3.46" mounting depth and requires 12 lr or 0.42 cubic feet of air in a sealed box (no such displacement aerobics here, just build a box that has 0.42 cubic feet of space before you put the driver in).
The amplifier I have and has been connected to both drivers (at different times of course) is an Arc Audio 850.5 XDi. The subwoofer channel produces 225w RMS at 4 ohm and 400w RMS at 2 ohm. The JL subwoofer is a 2 ohm voice coil driver, so it falls into the 400w RMS setting. Because I ran the Audison's dual 4 ohm voice coils in parallel as per the manual, it also ends up at 2 ohm falling into the 400w RMS setting.
So now for the butt dyno:
I had some tuning issues with the JL. The bass felt muddy and the timing was off. So after a lot of back and forth with @Mr Marv (who by the way is a treasure trove of audio information), the amp settings were changed multiple times in small increments until I ended here:
The tic marks on the dials are 20hz intervals. That said, the crossover point for the front speakers is 90 hz, the rear 100 hz, bass boost is 6dB and the sub is set at 60 hz. These sounded to me like the best settings so far, and I am rolling with them for at least a month before I change. I ran with these settings on the JL for two weeks before the Audison was installed.
Also, for timing, Marv suggested I switch the wiring on the sub to the opposite of pos - pos, neg to neg. His explanation from text:
Doing a ton of research, I put out the following question on do it yourself mobile audio: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...t-my-car/398594-10-sub-0-42cf-sealed-box.html
That's where I found the Audison for sale, and found that the specs were perfect not only for the sealed box, but also better suited for the amp.
The Audison is wired to the amp the exact same way (except for the voice coils being run in parallel). The timing is perfect, and the bass is great for everything I'm listening to right now, which is a range from the following:
Opeth
Umphrey's McGee
Snoop Dogg
NWA
Porcupine Tree
Spock's Beard
Megadeth
with some Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead thrown in for good measure as well as Kenny Chesney.
The bass response in definitely quicker and more defined. I don't get any flat bottoming out with metal, especially with Metallica's Master of Puppets (this one seemed to beat up the JL). I am running the same music I ran through the JL and there are noticeable differences.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a clean sounding, shallow mounting, not needing a huge sealed box subwoofer driver, don't be afraid to look at Audison. It is a comparably priced subwoofer (in my case, I spent $229.99 on the JL from Boomer McLoud's in Merrimack NH, and $225 from a member on DIYMA, shipped).
Colorado_Taco17
4️⃣ Gold
I wish I had the knowledge and courage to do my own electrical wiring
I've taken baby steps and have installed ditch lights and a CB radio but nothing to this caliber. Maybe one day haha
I've taken baby steps and have installed ditch lights and a CB radio but nothing to this caliber. Maybe one day haha
Tacotunes has premade harnesses like what I made.....I wish I had the knowledge and courage to do my own electrical wiring
And now here is the towing post!
Yesterday we finally took delivery of our new camper. We had decided last year to trade in our Zinger 286BHS for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that only my wife sleeps in it. Me and the kids hammock camp at every single opportunity, even up at our property. If the weather gets too "weird", the kids go up in the loft of our barn house garage, which is set up as a guest room with bunk beds, couches and a flat screen.
Knowing that we were trading in the camper is what allowed me to trade in my 2009 Tundra TRD Offroad. There are a good number of posts on this site that argue that the 3rd Gen Taco can't tow for shit. I disagree. I have towed more camper with less truck, and had no issues downsizing to the Tacoma because of that. This is our 3rd camper, and I have towed boats and campers since I was 19, so I'm pretty confident in my abilities as well as what equipment should be used.
The new trailer:
This is a Coachman Freedom Ultralite Express 192RBS. You can see from the floor plans in the link, that this is for the most part, the Queen's Castle. Us surfs got to sleep outside.
Weight stickers:
Here is much of the same from the website:
OK, so the trailer is a bit on the heavy side with a stickered dry weight of 1883 kg, or 4152 pounds. Dry weight isn't necessarily the whole picture though, and I'm willing to bet the trailer, as set up driven off the lot, was closer to 4500 pounds, probably a little heavier.
Which brings me to gear. As I posted quite a while back, I installed a Redarc Tow Brake controller, so I have the stopping part covered. What about the hitch part? The one thing I always want to make sure of over the last 2 trucks and trailers is not to sink my ass end. That said, I have owned a Reese Straight Line Weight Distributing hitch 10,000 system for over the last 15 years, and it has done me extremely well. I thought there was no sense in changing that up.
I had the camper dealership install and ensure that I had minimum sinkage:
I was pretty satisfied with the hook up, I think I might have sank about 1/4" overall.
Looking good, and ready to drag the trailer up to the property, I headed to the house first to test the breaks, make sure that I would be good to go for a longer ride (the camper dealership is only 5 miles from the house).
Redarc impressions:
Holy crap that break controller is sensitive. I had to dial it down from the setting of 5 to 4, then down a little bit more to 3.5ish to get the response I was looking for. The controller has no issues with the trailer whatsoever, so I felt pretty good about it. I had always used the slide controller type brake controllers, so the was a little learning curve, but it was very minimal.
Got to the house, grabbed a water bottle and hauled up to the camp.
Our property is 59 miles door to door. I live in New Hampshire, and the roads and highways are not exactly flat. I travel up the F.E. Everette to US 93, then on to Rt 4 for the remainder of my drive. I towed the trailer in S4, and had to downshift 3 or 4 times myself (and the truck shifted down at least 5 times as well). I had the ETC on the whole time. The trip was a little over an hour with speeds varying between 60-75mph on the highways, and between 35 and 60 on Rt. 4. I averaged 10.8 mpg for that trip.
In order to get the camper onto its pad, I have to enter through a gate, pull a huge u-turn through the yard, then back the camper between a tree and the garage, bank towards the driver's side at a 90* along the water facing side of the garage, then bank 20* to the passenger side onto the lot. Here is an old satellite photo (please pardon the crappy drawing on it):
The Tacoma handled this chore very well. I usually have a spotter with me when I move the camper around, but yesterday it was just me, and I only needed to adjust my approach around the corner once. Nailed it:
Of course, when the queen gets there she'll probably have me move it or something, so I hooked up nothing. Your eyes are seeing correctly, we have a 30/50 amp hook up as well as two dumping stations that go into our septic system. We purposely designed our system to handle 2 campers and a 5 bedroom house (in the future).
Final thoughts:
The truck did just fine. Could I feel the camper behind me, damn right I could, but I never had any real concern of anything going wrong during this evolution. The truck is quite capable of pulling up long grades in fourth gear if you are already at a good speed. I shifted down to third a few times myself just to keep with the flow of traffic. During those times I never got above 4000 rpms, and I was comfortable with that. I believe this truck to be well suited enough to hit any campground within my area, but this camper will, for the most part, only see one other campsite this year, and even that is a stretch. We kind of like to just hang out where we are (and I think you can see why). Any place I would take this trailer would be within 100 miles from where it sits now.
That said, would I do any long distance trips hauling this trailer? Hell no. I would be stopping for gas every 170 miles if I did, and it would get boring really friggen quick. I certainly wouldn't be making the multi thousand mile trips that some folks on this site seem to like to make, that's for sure. But the real question is, can the truck do it? I believe there is enough evidence to say yes to that with a trailer as heavy as this.....
Yesterday we finally took delivery of our new camper. We had decided last year to trade in our Zinger 286BHS for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that only my wife sleeps in it. Me and the kids hammock camp at every single opportunity, even up at our property. If the weather gets too "weird", the kids go up in the loft of our barn house garage, which is set up as a guest room with bunk beds, couches and a flat screen.
Knowing that we were trading in the camper is what allowed me to trade in my 2009 Tundra TRD Offroad. There are a good number of posts on this site that argue that the 3rd Gen Taco can't tow for shit. I disagree. I have towed more camper with less truck, and had no issues downsizing to the Tacoma because of that. This is our 3rd camper, and I have towed boats and campers since I was 19, so I'm pretty confident in my abilities as well as what equipment should be used.
The new trailer:
This is a Coachman Freedom Ultralite Express 192RBS. You can see from the floor plans in the link, that this is for the most part, the Queen's Castle. Us surfs got to sleep outside.
Weight stickers:
Here is much of the same from the website:
OK, so the trailer is a bit on the heavy side with a stickered dry weight of 1883 kg, or 4152 pounds. Dry weight isn't necessarily the whole picture though, and I'm willing to bet the trailer, as set up driven off the lot, was closer to 4500 pounds, probably a little heavier.
Which brings me to gear. As I posted quite a while back, I installed a Redarc Tow Brake controller, so I have the stopping part covered. What about the hitch part? The one thing I always want to make sure of over the last 2 trucks and trailers is not to sink my ass end. That said, I have owned a Reese Straight Line Weight Distributing hitch 10,000 system for over the last 15 years, and it has done me extremely well. I thought there was no sense in changing that up.
I had the camper dealership install and ensure that I had minimum sinkage:
I was pretty satisfied with the hook up, I think I might have sank about 1/4" overall.
Looking good, and ready to drag the trailer up to the property, I headed to the house first to test the breaks, make sure that I would be good to go for a longer ride (the camper dealership is only 5 miles from the house).
Redarc impressions:
Holy crap that break controller is sensitive. I had to dial it down from the setting of 5 to 4, then down a little bit more to 3.5ish to get the response I was looking for. The controller has no issues with the trailer whatsoever, so I felt pretty good about it. I had always used the slide controller type brake controllers, so the was a little learning curve, but it was very minimal.
Got to the house, grabbed a water bottle and hauled up to the camp.
Our property is 59 miles door to door. I live in New Hampshire, and the roads and highways are not exactly flat. I travel up the F.E. Everette to US 93, then on to Rt 4 for the remainder of my drive. I towed the trailer in S4, and had to downshift 3 or 4 times myself (and the truck shifted down at least 5 times as well). I had the ETC on the whole time. The trip was a little over an hour with speeds varying between 60-75mph on the highways, and between 35 and 60 on Rt. 4. I averaged 10.8 mpg for that trip.
In order to get the camper onto its pad, I have to enter through a gate, pull a huge u-turn through the yard, then back the camper between a tree and the garage, bank towards the driver's side at a 90* along the water facing side of the garage, then bank 20* to the passenger side onto the lot. Here is an old satellite photo (please pardon the crappy drawing on it):
The Tacoma handled this chore very well. I usually have a spotter with me when I move the camper around, but yesterday it was just me, and I only needed to adjust my approach around the corner once. Nailed it:
Of course, when the queen gets there she'll probably have me move it or something, so I hooked up nothing. Your eyes are seeing correctly, we have a 30/50 amp hook up as well as two dumping stations that go into our septic system. We purposely designed our system to handle 2 campers and a 5 bedroom house (in the future).
Final thoughts:
The truck did just fine. Could I feel the camper behind me, damn right I could, but I never had any real concern of anything going wrong during this evolution. The truck is quite capable of pulling up long grades in fourth gear if you are already at a good speed. I shifted down to third a few times myself just to keep with the flow of traffic. During those times I never got above 4000 rpms, and I was comfortable with that. I believe this truck to be well suited enough to hit any campground within my area, but this camper will, for the most part, only see one other campsite this year, and even that is a stretch. We kind of like to just hang out where we are (and I think you can see why). Any place I would take this trailer would be within 100 miles from where it sits now.
That said, would I do any long distance trips hauling this trailer? Hell no. I would be stopping for gas every 170 miles if I did, and it would get boring really friggen quick. I certainly wouldn't be making the multi thousand mile trips that some folks on this site seem to like to make, that's for sure. But the real question is, can the truck do it? I believe there is enough evidence to say yes to that with a trailer as heavy as this.....
Nice write up and new trailer. I’ve never seen a weight distributor like that.And now here is the towing post!
Yesterday we finally took delivery of our new camper. We had decided last year to trade in our Zinger 286BHS for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that only my wife sleeps in it. Me and the kids hammock camp at every single opportunity, even up at our property. If the weather gets too "weird", the kids go up in the loft of our barn house garage, which is set up as a guest room with bunk beds, couches and a flat screen.
Knowing that we were trading in the camper is what allowed me to trade in my 2009 Tundra TRD Offroad. There are a good number of posts on this site that argue that the 3rd Gen Taco can't tow for shit. I disagree. I have towed more camper with less truck, and had no issues downsizing to the Tacoma because of that. This is our 3rd camper, and I have towed boats and campers since I was 19, so I'm pretty confident in my abilities as well as what equipment should be used.
The new trailer:
This is a Coachman Freedom Ultralite Express 192RBS. You can see from the floor plans in the link, that this is for the most part, the Queen's Castle. Us surfs got to sleep outside.
Weight stickers:
Here is much of the same from the website:
OK, so the trailer is a bit on the heavy side with a stickered dry weight of 1883 kg, or 4152 pounds. Dry weight isn't necessarily the whole picture though, and I'm willing to bet the trailer, as set up driven off the lot, was closer to 4500 pounds, probably a little heavier.
Which brings me to gear. As I posted quite a while back, I installed a Redarc Tow Brake controller, so I have the stopping part covered. What about the hitch part? The one thing I always want to make sure of over the last 2 trucks and trailers is not to sink my ass end. That said, I have owned a Reese Straight Line Weight Distributing hitch 10,000 system for over the last 15 years, and it has done me extremely well. I thought there was no sense in changing that up.
I had the camper dealership install and ensure that I had minimum sinkage:
I was pretty satisfied with the hook up, I think I might have sank about 1/4" overall.
Looking good, and ready to drag the trailer up to the property, I headed to the house first to test the breaks, make sure that I would be good to go for a longer ride (the camper dealership is only 5 miles from the house).
Redarc impressions:
Holy crap that break controller is sensitive. I had to dial it down from the setting of 5 to 4, then down a little bit more to 3.5ish to get the response I was looking for. The controller has no issues with the trailer whatsoever, so I felt pretty good about it. I had always used the slide controller type brake controllers, so the was a little learning curve, but it was very minimal.
Got to the house, grabbed a water bottle and hauled up to the camp.
Our property is 59 miles door to door. I live in New Hampshire, and the roads and highways are not exactly flat. I travel up the F.E. Everette to US 93, then on to Rt 4 for the remainder of my drive. I towed the trailer in S4, and had to downshift 3 or 4 times myself (and the truck shifted down at least 5 times as well). I had the ETC on the whole time. The trip was a little over an hour with speeds varying between 60-75mph on the highways, and between 35 and 60 on Rt. 4. I averaged 10.8 mpg for that trip.
In order to get the camper onto its pad, I have to enter through a gate, pull a huge u-turn through the yard, then back the camper between a tree and the garage, bank towards the driver's side at a 90* along the water facing side of the garage, then bank 20* to the passenger side onto the lot. Here is an old satellite photo (please pardon the crappy drawing on it):
The Tacoma handled this chore very well. I usually have a spotter with me when I move the camper around, but yesterday it was just me, and I only needed to adjust my approach around the corner once. Nailed it:
Of course, when the queen gets there she'll probably have me move it or something, so I hooked up nothing. Your eyes are seeing correctly, we have a 30/50 amp hook up as well as two dumping stations that go into our septic system. We purposely designed our system to handle 2 campers and a 5 bedroom house (in the future).
Final thoughts:
The truck did just fine. Could I feel the camper behind me, damn right I could, but I never had any real concern of anything going wrong during this evolution. The truck is quite capable of pulling up long grades in fourth gear if you are already at a good speed. I shifted down to third a few times myself just to keep with the flow of traffic. During those times I never got above 4000 rpms, and I was comfortable with that. I believe this truck to be well suited enough to hit any campground within my area, but this camper will, for the most part, only see one other campsite this year, and even that is a stretch. We kind of like to just hang out where we are (and I think you can see why). Any place I would take this trailer would be within 100 miles from where it sits now.
That said, would I do any long distance trips hauling this trailer? Hell no. I would be stopping for gas every 170 miles if I did, and it would get boring really friggen quick. I certainly wouldn't be making the multi thousand mile trips that some folks on this site seem to like to make, that's for sure. But the real question is, can the truck do it? I believe there is enough evidence to say yes to that with a trailer as heavy as this.....
Totally hypothetical, but I have a 6,000# truck that I’m gonna eventually need to get across the country. If I did it with the Taco, plus the weight of the trailer, what do you think the Taco would be like based off your testing here? I know it’s wrong, I’m just curious.
I think it would be awful, and it would be cheaper for you to use a transport company honestly. Towing anything over the rated value, no matter what is a bad idea. There's all sorts of things to consider if you even think to do it, most importantly your transmission going over the mountains....
Some follow-up and BS:
Sound:
All of the speakers continue to operate well and I believe they are still breaking in. I try to listen at different volumes with different sources to ensure that I am breaking everything properly without over-stressing the cones to early failure. The Audison continues to outperform the JL. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the Audison was made for that box, and I believe the JL could have benefited from a little more room than its manual prescribes. I would imagine that once that driver is fully broken in, it's going to be even better.
Lift progress:
I still have not gotten my little lift put in. The spring has been busy and I haven't been able to line up my schedule with my cousin's schedule. This coming weekend is a bust, I'm going to see Slayer's final tour at Mohegan Sun on Friday, staying overnight, then golf on Saturday. The weekend after that is camping with the scout troop, then I just want to go to the damn lake and relax. I'd love to get that off my bang list, the sooner the better.
Wheels/tires:
I've been thinking lately on either going with the TRD SEMA 17" wheels in the graphite color:
or the 4Runner Trail 17" Trail wheels:
and I can't make up my mind right now. I really like both of them, and am honestly leaning more towards the TRD SEMA wheels. I can get them ordered through the dealership for $177.33 each. I think that's a pretty good deal honestly, and I won't have to deal with shipping.
I can't justify doing the tires until right around November-ish, but I can probably get away with doing the wheels with minimal damage from the ruling class at the house.
Other items:
I've been noticing a good amount of random scratches in the paint and have been "erasing" them with McGuire's Scratch X. Yesterday I gave the truck a good washing and quick detailing. I ordered some F-11 to give a try for the hell of it. F-it, why not, right?
Oh yeah, I hate the OEM bed cover and I think I'm going to sell it. It's heavy and I took it off the truck.
Sound:
All of the speakers continue to operate well and I believe they are still breaking in. I try to listen at different volumes with different sources to ensure that I am breaking everything properly without over-stressing the cones to early failure. The Audison continues to outperform the JL. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the Audison was made for that box, and I believe the JL could have benefited from a little more room than its manual prescribes. I would imagine that once that driver is fully broken in, it's going to be even better.
Lift progress:
I still have not gotten my little lift put in. The spring has been busy and I haven't been able to line up my schedule with my cousin's schedule. This coming weekend is a bust, I'm going to see Slayer's final tour at Mohegan Sun on Friday, staying overnight, then golf on Saturday. The weekend after that is camping with the scout troop, then I just want to go to the damn lake and relax. I'd love to get that off my bang list, the sooner the better.
Wheels/tires:
I've been thinking lately on either going with the TRD SEMA 17" wheels in the graphite color:
or the 4Runner Trail 17" Trail wheels:
and I can't make up my mind right now. I really like both of them, and am honestly leaning more towards the TRD SEMA wheels. I can get them ordered through the dealership for $177.33 each. I think that's a pretty good deal honestly, and I won't have to deal with shipping.
I can't justify doing the tires until right around November-ish, but I can probably get away with doing the wheels with minimal damage from the ruling class at the house.
Other items:
I've been noticing a good amount of random scratches in the paint and have been "erasing" them with McGuire's Scratch X. Yesterday I gave the truck a good washing and quick detailing. I ordered some F-11 to give a try for the hell of it. F-it, why not, right?
Oh yeah, I hate the OEM bed cover and I think I'm going to sell it. It's heavy and I took it off the truck.
Last edited:
I agree. I'm due for the 10k mile service, and think I'll buy the set and have them put on then.
This weekend I had the opportunity to wash the truck and give it a once over with the F-11 Topcoat spray. The application is extremely easy, spray on, spread, buff out. I'm not entirely sure I believe the whole "lasts 6 months" claim, but I'll roll with it, and probably put another coat of it on next Sunday after camping. I will say this, it sure does shine up the truck nicely:
Talked to my cousin Saturday. We are finally all set to install the lift on June 21. We're going to work on it over night to get it done. Shouldn't be too much of a nightmare, as the truck just rolled 10k miles. Like mentioned before, it's a small-ish lift, 5100's all around, 1/4" spacer on the driver for lean, 1-1/2" Rogue Offroad AAL in the rear, OME 884 springs in the front. That will give me a better rake (I don't like the level look) and a better ride while on my meager off road excursions while camping up here in New England.
To that point, I have also remembered to not skip leg day, and ordered 17x8 Level 8 MK6 wheels with 0 offset in Gunmetal with black lugs wrapped with Falken Wildpeak A/T3 265-70-17s. Those should be in right around the time the lift gets done.
Very excited to get this all done!
Talked to my cousin Saturday. We are finally all set to install the lift on June 21. We're going to work on it over night to get it done. Shouldn't be too much of a nightmare, as the truck just rolled 10k miles. Like mentioned before, it's a small-ish lift, 5100's all around, 1/4" spacer on the driver for lean, 1-1/2" Rogue Offroad AAL in the rear, OME 884 springs in the front. That will give me a better rake (I don't like the level look) and a better ride while on my meager off road excursions while camping up here in New England.
To that point, I have also remembered to not skip leg day, and ordered 17x8 Level 8 MK6 wheels with 0 offset in Gunmetal with black lugs wrapped with Falken Wildpeak A/T3 265-70-17s. Those should be in right around the time the lift gets done.
Very excited to get this all done!
Nice work in here. I have to add the extra USB ports to my list. Maybe do it all at once when I add the front and rear anytime cameras.
Yeah, I couldn't wait....
New shoes.
Wheels: Level 8 MK6 17x8", zero offset, matte gunmetal with Falken Wildpeaks A/T3, 265/70/17 standard load. There is rub right now at full turn, but that's getting taken care of with my lift later this month.
It's amazing what wheels and going one size up on tires does for the stance/look of these trucks.
New shoes.
Wheels: Level 8 MK6 17x8", zero offset, matte gunmetal with Falken Wildpeaks A/T3, 265/70/17 standard load. There is rub right now at full turn, but that's getting taken care of with my lift later this month.
It's amazing what wheels and going one size up on tires does for the stance/look of these trucks.
So a couple of quick observations:
After the wheels and tires were mounted, I had a Boy Scout trip with my troop about 40 miles away. I put in a fresh tank right after the tires were put on. I am definitely taking a hit with fuel mileage, dropping from a 21mpg average to a sub-18mpg average so far, but the tank is not empty yet.
Also, in regards to the rubbing, it was occurring at half turn, where the inner part of the tire was rubbing against the center of the mud flap. I removed the front mudflaps, and now there is no rub. However, when I removed the mud flap, there is now an outline of the flap etched in the paint. I tried using some cleaner wax as well as Maguire's Scratch remover, and there is still a bit of a line. Because I can't go driving around for too long risking rocks flying up and chipping my paint, I ordered RodBlokz mud flaps, and hopefully they come in before the weekend (going up to the lake to check in on a bit of construction that's supposed to happen this week).
Amazingly enough, there is not as much road noise as I thought there would be. I tend to listen to audible during my commute to and from work when I happen upon a new book, and right now I'm listening to The Outsider by Stephen King. I had no need of raising the volume any higher than normal to drown out any road noise.
When I got home from camping (which by the way was a good time, I love sleeping in my hammock), I found that there was a box from Georgia Killer Waxx with some soap, liquid wax and detail spray, as well as a couple micro-fibre towels. So I washed and waxed my truck.
I'm really happy with the offset of the wheels and tires, the color of the wheels is just right, and the tires handled very good this weekend in the woods. The one thing I don't care for too much is the spray painted in white block 8 in the middle of the wheels. I think this weekend (or hell, maybe even tonight) those 8s will disappear.
Overall I am very happy with the wheel/tire combination. I don't feel as though they are bogging the truck, but I am sure I am going to take a hit in the gas mileage. I think the next biggy will be the OVT tune up.
After the wheels and tires were mounted, I had a Boy Scout trip with my troop about 40 miles away. I put in a fresh tank right after the tires were put on. I am definitely taking a hit with fuel mileage, dropping from a 21mpg average to a sub-18mpg average so far, but the tank is not empty yet.
Also, in regards to the rubbing, it was occurring at half turn, where the inner part of the tire was rubbing against the center of the mud flap. I removed the front mudflaps, and now there is no rub. However, when I removed the mud flap, there is now an outline of the flap etched in the paint. I tried using some cleaner wax as well as Maguire's Scratch remover, and there is still a bit of a line. Because I can't go driving around for too long risking rocks flying up and chipping my paint, I ordered RodBlokz mud flaps, and hopefully they come in before the weekend (going up to the lake to check in on a bit of construction that's supposed to happen this week).
Amazingly enough, there is not as much road noise as I thought there would be. I tend to listen to audible during my commute to and from work when I happen upon a new book, and right now I'm listening to The Outsider by Stephen King. I had no need of raising the volume any higher than normal to drown out any road noise.
When I got home from camping (which by the way was a good time, I love sleeping in my hammock), I found that there was a box from Georgia Killer Waxx with some soap, liquid wax and detail spray, as well as a couple micro-fibre towels. So I washed and waxed my truck.
I'm really happy with the offset of the wheels and tires, the color of the wheels is just right, and the tires handled very good this weekend in the woods. The one thing I don't care for too much is the spray painted in white block 8 in the middle of the wheels. I think this weekend (or hell, maybe even tonight) those 8s will disappear.
Overall I am very happy with the wheel/tire combination. I don't feel as though they are bogging the truck, but I am sure I am going to take a hit in the gas mileage. I think the next biggy will be the OVT tune up.
Couple of quick hits hit tonight:
Removed the "AVS" logos from the vent visors
Removed the "8" logos on all the wheels
Both were removed using Laquer Thinner. For the vent visors, it took about 3 swipes and the logo was gone. For the 8 logos on the wheels, it probably took about 30 seconds per wheel, with no real pressure on the rag. I applied the Laquer Thinner to a section of a microfiber rag and basically erased the logo using circular motion. Then buffed out with dry section of the rag. This had no effect on the color of the wheel's center cap.
Lastly, I removed the rear OEM mud flaps. I found a lot of sand and grit between the mudflap and the paint. Cleaned it up but there is some etching. I'll have to fix that later.
The Rokblokz come in this week.
Removed the "AVS" logos from the vent visors
Removed the "8" logos on all the wheels
Both were removed using Laquer Thinner. For the vent visors, it took about 3 swipes and the logo was gone. For the 8 logos on the wheels, it probably took about 30 seconds per wheel, with no real pressure on the rag. I applied the Laquer Thinner to a section of a microfiber rag and basically erased the logo using circular motion. Then buffed out with dry section of the rag. This had no effect on the color of the wheel's center cap.
Lastly, I removed the rear OEM mud flaps. I found a lot of sand and grit between the mudflap and the paint. Cleaned it up but there is some etching. I'll have to fix that later.
The Rokblokz come in this week.
RokBlokz
Because the tires I bought were a little oversized, going from 265-65-17 to 265-70-17, i had a little bit of rubbing on the OEM mudflaps only. It occurred just before full turn, and the edge of the tire was rubbing on the very center of the OEM mudflap.
After a bit of research, I decided to purchase the RokBlokz mudflaps. They are a bit on the spendy side ($149.95 right from the manufacturer) for what they are (stiff plastic with holes), but they were easy to install, look very clean (I purchased the black flaps with black logos) and offer the protection to the paint from dirt, pebbles and debris being flipped up from the tires.
For the fronts, there is a cut out section for "oversized tire fitment" that I utilized, pulling the flap further away from the tire.
Front exterior
Front interior
Rear exterior
Rear interior
As you can see from the interior pictures, there is a gap that looks as though it may collect mud/dirt/debris in the wheel well.
Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase in the "near term". I say this because I'd like to see whether or not the gap does collect debris. The flaps offer a clean look, protection to the paint, while mitigating an rubbing.
Because the tires I bought were a little oversized, going from 265-65-17 to 265-70-17, i had a little bit of rubbing on the OEM mudflaps only. It occurred just before full turn, and the edge of the tire was rubbing on the very center of the OEM mudflap.
After a bit of research, I decided to purchase the RokBlokz mudflaps. They are a bit on the spendy side ($149.95 right from the manufacturer) for what they are (stiff plastic with holes), but they were easy to install, look very clean (I purchased the black flaps with black logos) and offer the protection to the paint from dirt, pebbles and debris being flipped up from the tires.
For the fronts, there is a cut out section for "oversized tire fitment" that I utilized, pulling the flap further away from the tire.
Front exterior
Front interior
Rear exterior
Rear interior
As you can see from the interior pictures, there is a gap that looks as though it may collect mud/dirt/debris in the wheel well.
Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase in the "near term". I say this because I'd like to see whether or not the gap does collect debris. The flaps offer a clean look, protection to the paint, while mitigating an rubbing.
In for great product reviews ??
You can put a good sounding system in your truck for WAAAAAAAAY less than I did if you want loud and bass. I wrote something up on that, I'll find it. I think I priced it out to less than $600....
Thanks! I hate when I see phan boi review crap. I want evidence and objectivity.
You crafty motherfucker. Truck looks good.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Thanks! I think Friday I will have more pics of before and after with lift installed. After that, I believe everything else is going to be aesthetic/software.
"Small Lift" install (1)
I'm going to try to be as succinct as possible with this post, but I know that I'm going to forget something so bear with me please.
Last night, me and my cousin installed my "small lift". I call it a small lift because it certainly isn't as tall as 3/4 of the lifted trucks on this site. I got a set up that fits my needs, which were:
a. better ride than the Hitachi suspention
b. better ride on some of the sketchy camp roads
c. light off-roading
d. a bump up in hauling capacity
e. aesthetic beauty (LMAO)
So bearing all this in mind, I went with the following set up:
3rd Gen Bilstein 5100 PN 24-239370 (on bottom setting)
Bilstein 5100 Rear shocks
OME 884 Springs
Headstrong Offroad 1/4" spacer (for driver side lean)
1-1/2" AAL (This AAL was from Rogue Off-Road)
The 5100s (front and rear) and the AAL came as a kit from Rogue Offroad, and is called the Tacoma Stage 1 lift.
The OME springs and spacer came from Headstrong (I like to spread money around to small businesses).
Start Time: 8:02 PM
Fuel: Mountain Dew
We put the front end on jack stands, and removed the wheels. We followed these two videos for taking off and putting on the front shocks and springs:
We started off with the passenger side because that was the most simple of the front, because we were not taking off the shock's top hat to add a spacer like on the driver side. Following that video, from the time I pulled in to the garage, to the time we had the new shock on (not including time to torque to specs), was 32 minutes.
You read that right.
Murphy's Law showed up while doing the driver's side, but it was 100% MY FAULT. We got the OEM shock off, took the top hat down, put the spacer in, put the top hat back on it, put the new shock/spring in, and could not fasten it. The lower control arm was waaaaaay down. So after much back and forth, we went to the spring compressor.
Then I realized that the bottom seat for the spring was on the shock upside down. We flipped it around, fastened the top hat to the shock, and installed easily.
With that fuck up by me, we had the fronts done in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Keep in mind, we had air tools, the truck just crossed over 11k miles, making everything very easy to take apart.
On to the rears!
Items of note. The shocks are self explanatory on this. They come out very easy, and need to be removed before tackling the AAL install. However, before lowering the axle to get the new leaf in there with the much longer setting screw, you MUST disconnect the guide/fasteners for the break lines.
The rears took a little longer because after we got the first one done, we took a break and had a beer LOL.
We torqued everything to factory specs using this guide:
3rd Gen Suspension Guide
Then we celebrated a job well done that took us 3 hours and 34 minutes, not really rushing, fumble-fucking with tools, a stupid move by me, a quick internet search on adding a leaf, a beer and some friendly family banter.
Results and measurements:
I measured my height a while back, and I'm pretty sure I did it wrong, but I went from the ground to the top of the wheel well. Some folks do it from the center of the wheel, some folks do it from the top of the tire. I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be from the center of the wheel, but oh well. These initial measurements were made with the stock Sport wheels, and OEM tires (265-65-17) with the OEM cover on it:
Driver Front - 35-1/8" Passenger Front - 35-1/4"
Driver Rear - 35-5/8" Passenger Rear - 36
Post lift install measurements with new wheels and new tires: (265-70-17)
Driver Front - 37-9/16" Passenger Front - 37-9/16"
Driver Rear - 39-1/2" Passenger Rear - 39-1/2"
Talk about nailing it! However, to get the net lift from the suspension alone, we have to subtract 1" for the tire change. That said, net lift numbers work out like this:
Driver Front - 1-7/16" net lift Passenger Front - 1-5/16"
Driver Rear - 2-7/8" net lift Passenger Rear - 2-1/2"
HeadStrong's handy dandy chart states that Bilstein 3rd Gen 5100s with OME 884s on a DC 4x4 will give 1-1/4" lift. I hope I don't settle that much LOL
There is rake
Of course this is all going to change as it "settles".
All wrapped up, pre-alignment
I'm going to try to be as succinct as possible with this post, but I know that I'm going to forget something so bear with me please.
Last night, me and my cousin installed my "small lift". I call it a small lift because it certainly isn't as tall as 3/4 of the lifted trucks on this site. I got a set up that fits my needs, which were:
a. better ride than the Hitachi suspention
b. better ride on some of the sketchy camp roads
c. light off-roading
d. a bump up in hauling capacity
e. aesthetic beauty (LMAO)
So bearing all this in mind, I went with the following set up:
3rd Gen Bilstein 5100 PN 24-239370 (on bottom setting)
Bilstein 5100 Rear shocks
OME 884 Springs
Headstrong Offroad 1/4" spacer (for driver side lean)
1-1/2" AAL (This AAL was from Rogue Off-Road)
The 5100s (front and rear) and the AAL came as a kit from Rogue Offroad, and is called the Tacoma Stage 1 lift.
The OME springs and spacer came from Headstrong (I like to spread money around to small businesses).
Start Time: 8:02 PM
Fuel: Mountain Dew
We put the front end on jack stands, and removed the wheels. We followed these two videos for taking off and putting on the front shocks and springs:
We started off with the passenger side because that was the most simple of the front, because we were not taking off the shock's top hat to add a spacer like on the driver side. Following that video, from the time I pulled in to the garage, to the time we had the new shock on (not including time to torque to specs), was 32 minutes.
You read that right.
Murphy's Law showed up while doing the driver's side, but it was 100% MY FAULT. We got the OEM shock off, took the top hat down, put the spacer in, put the top hat back on it, put the new shock/spring in, and could not fasten it. The lower control arm was waaaaaay down. So after much back and forth, we went to the spring compressor.
Then I realized that the bottom seat for the spring was on the shock upside down. We flipped it around, fastened the top hat to the shock, and installed easily.
With that fuck up by me, we had the fronts done in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Keep in mind, we had air tools, the truck just crossed over 11k miles, making everything very easy to take apart.
On to the rears!
Items of note. The shocks are self explanatory on this. They come out very easy, and need to be removed before tackling the AAL install. However, before lowering the axle to get the new leaf in there with the much longer setting screw, you MUST disconnect the guide/fasteners for the break lines.
The rears took a little longer because after we got the first one done, we took a break and had a beer LOL.
We torqued everything to factory specs using this guide:
3rd Gen Suspension Guide
Then we celebrated a job well done that took us 3 hours and 34 minutes, not really rushing, fumble-fucking with tools, a stupid move by me, a quick internet search on adding a leaf, a beer and some friendly family banter.
Results and measurements:
I measured my height a while back, and I'm pretty sure I did it wrong, but I went from the ground to the top of the wheel well. Some folks do it from the center of the wheel, some folks do it from the top of the tire. I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be from the center of the wheel, but oh well. These initial measurements were made with the stock Sport wheels, and OEM tires (265-65-17) with the OEM cover on it:
Driver Front - 35-1/8" Passenger Front - 35-1/4"
Driver Rear - 35-5/8" Passenger Rear - 36
Post lift install measurements with new wheels and new tires: (265-70-17)
Driver Front - 37-9/16" Passenger Front - 37-9/16"
Driver Rear - 39-1/2" Passenger Rear - 39-1/2"
Talk about nailing it! However, to get the net lift from the suspension alone, we have to subtract 1" for the tire change. That said, net lift numbers work out like this:
Driver Front - 1-7/16" net lift Passenger Front - 1-5/16"
Driver Rear - 2-7/8" net lift Passenger Rear - 2-1/2"
HeadStrong's handy dandy chart states that Bilstein 3rd Gen 5100s with OME 884s on a DC 4x4 will give 1-1/4" lift. I hope I don't settle that much LOL
There is rake
Of course this is all going to change as it "settles".
All wrapped up, pre-alignment
Last edited:
"Small Lift" install (2 - Alignment and thoughts)
Knowing that I was going to be installing the lift last night, I scheduled an appointment for the alignment for this morning at 7:30. My cousin suggested a particular tech that we both knew and I booked it. So this morning, my truck went in.
Took the tech an hour and a half, but that was due to him showing me the machine, how he was going to go about doing it, and bullshitting about my cousin.
Post alignment:
Thoughts:
I really thought this was going to be much more difficult than it was. However to be fair, my cousin is a gear head, had the space, the tools and the time to make it way easier than it would have if it was just me.
Butt Dyno:
It feels as though the ride is more "plush". The bumps aren't as jarring as they were with the Hitachi shocks and OEM springs. I feel as though I got the rake that (in my humble opinion) the truck should have. There's a bit of work that needs to get done for the rear alignment, and I'm going to need advice on that, as only the fronts got done (the rears are grayed out?) The truck tracks nice and straight (and did last night and this morning pre-alignment honestly), and right now I am extremely happy with my decision to go through with this.
Knowing that I was going to be installing the lift last night, I scheduled an appointment for the alignment for this morning at 7:30. My cousin suggested a particular tech that we both knew and I booked it. So this morning, my truck went in.
Took the tech an hour and a half, but that was due to him showing me the machine, how he was going to go about doing it, and bullshitting about my cousin.
Post alignment:
Thoughts:
I really thought this was going to be much more difficult than it was. However to be fair, my cousin is a gear head, had the space, the tools and the time to make it way easier than it would have if it was just me.
Butt Dyno:
It feels as though the ride is more "plush". The bumps aren't as jarring as they were with the Hitachi shocks and OEM springs. I feel as though I got the rake that (in my humble opinion) the truck should have. There's a bit of work that needs to get done for the rear alignment, and I'm going to need advice on that, as only the fronts got done (the rears are grayed out?) The truck tracks nice and straight (and did last night and this morning pre-alignment honestly), and right now I am extremely happy with my decision to go through with this.