CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
Good to know. This is my first rodeo with aluminum.
CowboyTaco's 2011 DCSB TRD Sport
- Thread starter CowboyTaco
- Start date
Good to know. This is my first rodeo with aluminum.
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
I'm told my replacement IFS skid should ship this week. Fingers crossed.
This past Saturday I got to install the front door speakers, more sound deadening mat and some dampener. Its kind of a hodge podge of pics from both doors, so don't judge me. You get the idea.
Before:
You can see that I already had some deadening mat on the outer skin, but still had the OE speakers and that plastic moisture barrier installed.
Covered all the holes and inner skin:
Then added the closed cell foam:
I also ran speaker wire in the front doors so that I won't have to do that when I install the amp.
Overall, it sounds better, but still not where I want it. The speakers seem to be a little more crisp than the OEM ones. Certainly not better enough to justify the effort or expense. As of right now, this falls into the category of things I wish I hadn't started and could have just left well enough alone. The money and time would have been better spent just adding an amp and subwoofer and calling it a day.
That said, I am hopeful that when I add the amp and cut off the OE tweeters it'll sound much better. Then the rear doors will be completed after the amp. I'm also hoping to have enough sound deadening material to do some up by the firewall/floor and roof. I'm not expecting Cadillac quiet, but there is more road noise than what I would like.
This past Saturday I got to install the front door speakers, more sound deadening mat and some dampener. Its kind of a hodge podge of pics from both doors, so don't judge me. You get the idea.
Before:
You can see that I already had some deadening mat on the outer skin, but still had the OE speakers and that plastic moisture barrier installed.
Covered all the holes and inner skin:
Then added the closed cell foam:
I also ran speaker wire in the front doors so that I won't have to do that when I install the amp.
Overall, it sounds better, but still not where I want it. The speakers seem to be a little more crisp than the OEM ones. Certainly not better enough to justify the effort or expense. As of right now, this falls into the category of things I wish I hadn't started and could have just left well enough alone. The money and time would have been better spent just adding an amp and subwoofer and calling it a day.
That said, I am hopeful that when I add the amp and cut off the OE tweeters it'll sound much better. Then the rear doors will be completed after the amp. I'm also hoping to have enough sound deadening material to do some up by the firewall/floor and roof. I'm not expecting Cadillac quiet, but there is more road noise than what I would like.
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CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
Some speaker comparison pics:
I also had to drill out a hole in the door adapters to attach the speakers with 4 screws. They just didn't line up! Nor did they come with screws. Kind of annoying at how many "road blocks" I encountered when installing them, but they are installed and functioning fine.
I also had to drill out a hole in the door adapters to attach the speakers with 4 screws. They just didn't line up! Nor did they come with screws. Kind of annoying at how many "road blocks" I encountered when installing them, but they are installed and functioning fine.
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CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
Also, got to cross off a trail that I've been wanting to do since before I moved to GA!
Hurricane Creek in NC.
I had read reports on the road that ranged from "a mild drive through the forest that any stock 4x4 can handle" to "has some technical sections that can challenge some drivers. Lift, 33s @ minimum and full armor required." As with any story, the truth was somewhere in between.
I was a little hesitant with no skids....not even the crappy OEM one. I met up with 2 other guys from TW, and was also a little nervous when we determined that I should lead because the others had little to no experience. I think I did hit the front cross member a few times, but there is no visible damage. I was careful to take good lines in a few places and I think some of the stuff that I did hit was soft (like thick mud). Oh, and I'm also running an almost 32" tire.
In the end, the trail offered a little bit of everything. At least one deeper water crossing and a handful that drown the pumpkin. Some slick rocks (there was snow, slush, and ice in sections), some muddy rutted out sections, and some spots that made your heard jump into your throat and the butt pucker.
I thought it was kind of cool that one of the other guys also had a Pyrite Mica. Seems like almost every Tacoma is either white, black or silver.
There are a couple of residents toward the beginning of the trail. Not sure who would live here, as the entrance to the trail requires slamming on your brakes on I-40 so that you aren't killed by semi trucks.
Lots of this in the beginning:
Pretty sweet 1st gen Tundra:
Then, the first (and deepest) water crossing:
{reserved for IG link}
Followed by more of this:
I went straight through this little puddle, but the other guys opted to stay on the shallow side....which was really just the shorter side.
Hurricane Creek in NC.
I had read reports on the road that ranged from "a mild drive through the forest that any stock 4x4 can handle" to "has some technical sections that can challenge some drivers. Lift, 33s @ minimum and full armor required." As with any story, the truth was somewhere in between.
I was a little hesitant with no skids....not even the crappy OEM one. I met up with 2 other guys from TW, and was also a little nervous when we determined that I should lead because the others had little to no experience. I think I did hit the front cross member a few times, but there is no visible damage. I was careful to take good lines in a few places and I think some of the stuff that I did hit was soft (like thick mud). Oh, and I'm also running an almost 32" tire.
In the end, the trail offered a little bit of everything. At least one deeper water crossing and a handful that drown the pumpkin. Some slick rocks (there was snow, slush, and ice in sections), some muddy rutted out sections, and some spots that made your heard jump into your throat and the butt pucker.
I thought it was kind of cool that one of the other guys also had a Pyrite Mica. Seems like almost every Tacoma is either white, black or silver.
There are a couple of residents toward the beginning of the trail. Not sure who would live here, as the entrance to the trail requires slamming on your brakes on I-40 so that you aren't killed by semi trucks.
Lots of this in the beginning:
Pretty sweet 1st gen Tundra:
Then, the first (and deepest) water crossing:
{reserved for IG link}
Followed by more of this:
I went straight through this little puddle, but the other guys opted to stay on the shallow side....which was really just the shorter side.
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CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
I think we're limited to 10 pics per post. Hurricane Creek continued:
This was our first and only spot that really required a spotter.
Twas our one and only spot on #HurricaneCreek that required a spotter.
Login • Instagram
As soon as I thought the fun was over, I had to go slow over another section with a hard right blind turn at the end. I expected it to be nothing, but ended up being a really long rutted out muddy section. With no way to turn around, I decided it was best to get some momentum and pray that I didn't hit anything too hard. Pictures never do it justice.
{reserved for IG video of Tundra going through}
The other Pyrite Mica taco owner had a monkey hanging from inside his soft topper:
Then we stumbled upon the "Cameltoe Country Club"
A fork in the road forced us to make a decision. Open doors ruin pictures.
Turns out we made the wrong decision, as a gate forced us to go the other direction.
There. That's better.
This was our first and only spot that really required a spotter.
Twas our one and only spot on #HurricaneCreek that required a spotter.
Login • Instagram
As soon as I thought the fun was over, I had to go slow over another section with a hard right blind turn at the end. I expected it to be nothing, but ended up being a really long rutted out muddy section. With no way to turn around, I decided it was best to get some momentum and pray that I didn't hit anything too hard. Pictures never do it justice.
{reserved for IG video of Tundra going through}
The other Pyrite Mica taco owner had a monkey hanging from inside his soft topper:
Then we stumbled upon the "Cameltoe Country Club"
A fork in the road forced us to make a decision. Open doors ruin pictures.
Turns out we made the wrong decision, as a gate forced us to go the other direction.
There. That's better.
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CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
More pics from Hurricane Creek. At this point, the Tundra was making some funny noises. He didn't have comms and seemed to be comfortable driving, so I recommended that he go first. I said it was because if he got stuck, he'd have no way of notifying us, but I really wanted to have a gauge on obstacles since I wasn't running any skids.
We were supposed to end up at Max Patch, NC. Instead, we made a wrong turn and extended our trail ride by a bit and ended up at Bear Wallow Gap.
Then, we were back on pavement. The Tundra guy's Smittybilt air compressor putting my little Home Depot/Husky compressor to shame. I think he aired up 9 tires in the time I aired up 3 1/2. During that time, a less than friendly local came by to "see if we needed any help." aka tell us to GTFO.
Finally, the most yellow/golden sunset I've ever seen. Camera didn't capture it at all, but it was glorious.
We were supposed to end up at Max Patch, NC. Instead, we made a wrong turn and extended our trail ride by a bit and ended up at Bear Wallow Gap.
Then, we were back on pavement. The Tundra guy's Smittybilt air compressor putting my little Home Depot/Husky compressor to shame. I think he aired up 9 tires in the time I aired up 3 1/2. During that time, a less than friendly local came by to "see if we needed any help." aka tell us to GTFO.
Finally, the most yellow/golden sunset I've ever seen. Camera didn't capture it at all, but it was glorious.
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Silverback
Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
pics no worky.
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
instead of copy/paste, I've saved them all and uploaded. Should be working now.
On another note, how do I embed a video from Instagram?
elverde.t4r
1997 4cyl. 5spd 4x4
Looks like an awesome trip!! Adding Hurricane Creek to the ever-growing list
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
I guess I'm going to have to upload the videos to YouTube if I want to post them here since no one is answering about direct from IG.
@tx_shooter - any idea?
@tx_shooter - any idea?
Oh sorry, yeah you'll need to upload them to youtube and post the links. I'm not aware of an Instagram plug-in on TOR.
Sorry, meant to loop back to this sooner. This version of XF does not have an Instagram module.
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
As part of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales, I picked up a 12volt.solutions plug and play remote start system for the Tacoma. It arrived before Christmas and the Thursday after it arrived, I decided to get everything installed. Installation was relatively straight forward and was essentially: "remove lower dash and lower steering column cover, disconnect this plug, plug it into our harness and the other end of the harness into where that plug was removed. Do that a few more times and installation is complete. Move on to programming."
That's when I ran into the problem. The directions say to hold a button while you connect the big black connector and you'll get 2 red lights. That happened as expected. The next step is to start the truck, wait 15 seconds, press and hold the brake pedal, press and release the same button as the previous step and you should get a red light. This didn't happen. So I call support and get a crap auto response about them being busy and working overtime to answer all support calls. That I should send an email instead and that their mailbox was full. So I waited and tried again. Then gave in and sent them an email. The auto response said to be patient and that they would get to inquiries as quickly as possible and not to send multiple emails as that will delay service for myself and others. They promised a response within 24-48 hours. This was on Dec. 10.
.....without the ability to go any further, I put the dash back together enough to drive the truck and went to the bar.
Side note, I was introduced to someone who works at Fox (the shock company). Apparently Fox is moving their operations from CA to GA and have an office that is extremely close to my house and more importantly to them, next to one of the race tracks here. He said to reach out to him when its time to replace my shocks. Not sure what, if anything, that will do....but it can't hurt.
While I waited on 12volt.solutions, I attempted to research online, but no one else seemed to have my same issue. I also tried reaching out to them on Instagram since they have a relatively active account. Still crickets. I finally decided that it was time to email them again and ask for the return process if they were unable to get me a working unit. This time, I finally got a response!
Turns out that my truck fell into this weird gap between 2010 and 2011 where I needed another harness that connects directly to my brake pedal. They shipped me the additional harness at no cost to me. It came in Monday and was installed Tuesday. I got it installed just as the sun was going down (wasn't able to start until after work and the kids were eating dinner). Oh, and I forgot to mention, there were no instructions! I watched their 05-10 install video to find out where it connected to the pedal, but there were still no instructions on where to connect the other 3 connectors. So I had to wing it and figure it out.
That said, for the cost, I'm happy with it. Support was great after I finally got ahold of them and the install was pretty straight forward. I'm glad to have this project complete and working!
Oh, and I was able to get them to include the "Forever Warranty" for the frustration of having multiple contact attempts ignored, so I feel like they made that right too.
That's when I ran into the problem. The directions say to hold a button while you connect the big black connector and you'll get 2 red lights. That happened as expected. The next step is to start the truck, wait 15 seconds, press and hold the brake pedal, press and release the same button as the previous step and you should get a red light. This didn't happen. So I call support and get a crap auto response about them being busy and working overtime to answer all support calls. That I should send an email instead and that their mailbox was full. So I waited and tried again. Then gave in and sent them an email. The auto response said to be patient and that they would get to inquiries as quickly as possible and not to send multiple emails as that will delay service for myself and others. They promised a response within 24-48 hours. This was on Dec. 10.
.....without the ability to go any further, I put the dash back together enough to drive the truck and went to the bar.
Side note, I was introduced to someone who works at Fox (the shock company). Apparently Fox is moving their operations from CA to GA and have an office that is extremely close to my house and more importantly to them, next to one of the race tracks here. He said to reach out to him when its time to replace my shocks. Not sure what, if anything, that will do....but it can't hurt.While I waited on 12volt.solutions, I attempted to research online, but no one else seemed to have my same issue. I also tried reaching out to them on Instagram since they have a relatively active account. Still crickets. I finally decided that it was time to email them again and ask for the return process if they were unable to get me a working unit. This time, I finally got a response!
Turns out that my truck fell into this weird gap between 2010 and 2011 where I needed another harness that connects directly to my brake pedal. They shipped me the additional harness at no cost to me. It came in Monday and was installed Tuesday. I got it installed just as the sun was going down (wasn't able to start until after work and the kids were eating dinner). Oh, and I forgot to mention, there were no instructions! I watched their 05-10 install video to find out where it connected to the pedal, but there were still no instructions on where to connect the other 3 connectors. So I had to wing it and figure it out.
That said, for the cost, I'm happy with it. Support was great after I finally got ahold of them and the install was pretty straight forward. I'm glad to have this project complete and working!
Oh, and I was able to get them to include the "Forever Warranty" for the frustration of having multiple contact attempts ignored, so I feel like they made that right too.
AlienXtx
Nignog
I installed their high idle and the remote start on my 250 a few years ago. I had similar issues with the remote start, ended up being a dip switch flipped the wrong way. Mine just plugs into the obd2 and the headlight switch. 3 clicks of lock button and it fires right up. The high idle comes on if you push in the e-brake.
So is the remote start worth the effort?
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
Considering it is all plug-and-play, yes. Under $300 shipped and I don't have to trust anyone on the Geek Squad to not mess up my truck. It has long distance remotes that supposedly work up to a mile away, but only one of them is a 2 way remote. I think you can upgrade to have both of them be 2 way remotes, but I don't think my wife is very likely to use the function so I didn't bother seeing about upgrading the second remote. Also, I'm parking in the driveway as the garage is a little tight. I'll probably think that it is more worth it when I actually have to drive somewhere on a cold morning or in the summer after it has been sitting in the parking lot all day (assuming things go back to "normal").
It also has what they call Pit Stop Mode. Press the remote start button before removing the key and the truck will continue to run. That way the AC/Heat can continue to blow while you run into a store. I don't really see ever using that feature, but people seem to love it.
Supposedly, from research on TW, they used to include the brake adapter in every Tacoma order but stopped because so many were being tossed/not needed. So to save money, they ship the basic kit and will ship the brake adapter for free where it is needed. I guess there is no fine line defining which Tacomas need it.
My only real complaint is how long it took me to get a response from them. Once I had someone, they were great.
All in all, it would probably take 30 minutes to an hour depending on how hard it is for you to reach the harness that goes into the door (and how much you curse it while getting that one). Everything is relatively easy to access.
CowboyTaco
Well-Known Member
Oh, and my replacement IFS skid is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed it actually lines up and can be installed. I'm tired of my wife asking what I'm doing with "those metal pieces in the garage."
Might have to surprise my sammich maker with the remote start then. That is one of the few features she has commented wishing the Tacoma had. She parks pretty close to her office at work so distance is not a big deal.
Just go buy her a vehicle with start stop and don't put anymore money into that truck.