Building a Toyota that fits Douglas

[allen.wrench]

I was using all those skid plates to compensate for not having the ground clearance.

I know that feels. It's how you learn all of your low spots and exactly what needs upgrading. Also get street cred for beaching yourself on a downhill trail, lol! Ask me how I know.

Crowley

Did you blast some Ozzy?

All the same. Glad to hear you're putting your Tacoma to good work!

Allen

 

[DouglasVB]

It's definitely an adjustment moving to a stock truck from a built rock crawler. I keep having to remind myself that my ground clearance is MUCH lower

 

[DouglasVB]

I've got a question about tire repair. I picked up a 3/4" gash in the tire tread last weekend that I patched with one of those sticky rubber bacon strips. It holds are pretty well and I drove several hundred freeway miles without incident. However it's losing about 3psi a day I assume out of that patch.

This weekend when I have time I'll spray the tire with soapy water to make sure there isn't another hole.

Assuming the leak is from the patch, is that something a tire shop will repair or am I either going to have to buy a new tire or deal with the slow leak for another 10k miles until these tires are ready to be replaced?

 

[DaveInDenver]

If the cut is in the tread a tire shop may be able to repair it. There's no guarantee but they may have more robust plugs and strips than you used. Did you take the tire off to put the patch in?

If it's on the sidewall or shoulder you might get lucky doing it yourself but a tire shop probably won't want to touch it.

A repaired tread is fine, I'd run it as long as it holds air until it's worn. If it's constantly leaking I might not trust it but a proper repair shouldn't leak. A tire shop repair has the benefit that they'll probably take the tire off for a good repair and re-balance it to compensate for the patch.

If it's in the sidewall I'd replace the tire as soon as is practical even if the repair holds air. That might not be everyone's opinion, so take as FWIW. Discount won't work on a tire with a sidewall/shoulder repair but they will honor the tire certificate and gave me a new one. A couple of plugs in the sidewall of a BFG AT made it from North Rim of Grand Canyon to Flagstaff on the Interstate...

 

[DouglasVB]

I did not take the tire off the rim to do the patch. I used one of those auger tools with the bacon strips of sticky rubber. The punctures are squarely in the tread -- nothing near the sidewall.

The local America's Tire wouldn't work on it. They said they can't patch a tire after it's had a temporary plug put in. They only wanted to replace the tire and didn't want to swap the spare tire onto the rim. So that was a dead end.

I used some soapy water today and found a second leak a couple inches from the first. The patch from the first hole was also leaking around one edge. So I put in a few more rubber bacon strips and we'll see if that holds.

I'm thinking I should spend the $100 to get the harbor freight tire balancer and the $60 for the manual tire changer. And whatever else I'd need to safely remove and then remount the tire without damaging anything (rim, tire, TPS). Although I've got no experience doing any of that.

The tires probably have another 5k miles left on them. They're the original tires from the factory and have 19k miles on them. I would rather wait a bit before getting new tires. I have a fantasy I'll find pennies under the couch cushions that would allow me to regear and put bigger suspension on to move up to bigger tires for the next set.

 

[DouglasVB]

The plugs in my one tire have been holding well for the past month and about 1500 miles. I expect that I'll wear the tires out before the plugs give me any issues.

We've been out and about a bit in the last month.

I found some fun back roads to get from Fresno to the coast rather than taking the normal freeway route. California is absolutely massive and is mostly empty one you get outside the cities.


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLTkbqAp4n4/


I did some exploring around the San Joaquin Gorge and the north side of the Kings River earlier in the month. Most of these trails haven't seen maintenance in decades and we ran into several washouts with no bypass.


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLTk8rCJYHx/


We were up in the redwoods last weekend on the Lost Coast


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLTjTe5ptKe/


And speaking of the Lost Coast, there are some truly remote areas on the ocean in northern California.


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLTj3noJIZ4/


I still need to change up my front winch situation. The thimble I've got on the end of the winch line keeps getting dragged when I have mildly sharp approach angles. I'm thinking of removing the thimble and leaving the winch line inside the bumper with a piece of nylon webbing sticking out so that I can easily extract it. Not sure if I'd bring a pair of C clip plyers with me to mount a thimble or a hook when I need to use the winch or if I would use the winch rope eyelet and attach directly to that.

I nearly ripped off my rear bumper on a sharp departure angle a few weeks back. It popped one of the chrome covers off and ripped off some of the plastic fasteners on the bottom. I got the cover back on and it looks fine so I guess whatever But I really should get a high clearance rear bumper at some point... this is not the first time dragging it over obstacles.

I continue to use all of the skid plates. The ground clearance just isn't very good on a stock 3rd gen Taco. If I had the $$$ laying around, I'd be upgrading the suspension, regearing, and adding bigger tires. But for now I keep pinging off of rocks with the skid plates and nothing super important has broken yet so

I finally have the plastic part I need to increase the number of switches in the overhead console. I think this weekend I'll get that installed. It requires cutting some plastic on the console for the switches to fit in a similar way to what I had to do to get more switches to fit in the left side switch panel that lives by the driver's left knee.

I still haven't decided on how to mount radios in the truck. So I keep carrying hand-held radios which work fine but are annoying tumbling around in the cab or being out of reach in a pocket in a bag in the back seat.

I still need to decide on a topper for the truck. The siren song of flatbedding the truck and building a custom camper is strong...

 

[DouglasVB]

I did an oil change today at about 6000 miles since the last oil change. After the dust around Mono Lake and the dust around Clear Lake and dust elsewhere plus several hundred miles of 4x4ing, I figured it isn't the worst idea to change it early compared to what the manual recommends (10k oil changes). That oil change kit and fumoto valve I picked up a few months back makes it SO EASY. Including getting the truck up onto ramps, getting my tools out, and yada yada, it took under an hour going slowly. The most time consuming part was getting the access hatch off the skid plate to get to the oil filter.

I also installed a four hole 3D printed overhead switch panel in place of the existing two hole switch panel and the blank panel where the controls for a sunroof would normally go. I got the 3D print file from this site: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/3erd-gen-tacoma-2016-2023-overhead-switch-panel-4-slots/ My buddy printed it for me on a bambu x1c using paht-cf filament and support material. It was a bit finicky to get the support material dialed in especially around the tabs so they wouldn't break off when the support material was removed (hint: make some indents around the tabs in the support material).

Installing this does require dremeling the back side of the overhead console housing to accommodate more switches and remove the existing panels. I also had to glue it in place using some silicone caulking.

Here are a few photos of the 3D printed switch panel install process. I'm waiting for the glue to dry before reinstalling it in the truck.

You have to dremel out plastic on the back side to make room for more switches and to remove the blank plate on the right side and the center switch plate.

And here are a few pictures under my truck from the oil change. I've got more bash marks on the skid plates and it's a really good thing I have the A arm skid plates because one of them took a pretty good hit. It still scraped a bit of metal off of the sub-frame where the A arm attaches