Barlowrs Expedition Tacoma Build

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...038#post562038

I chose the allpro mainly because I liked the look of it, though the modular design seemed like a good idea, if one part gets messed up, I can just replace that rather than a whole bumper.

I live pretty close to allpro, so I picked it up myself. Upon opening the two boxes (the modular design makes it pretty easy to ship, two smaller boxes) the first thing I noticed was the packing, had I shipped this, I could not imagine it would get hurt, they packaging was very well done.



Once I pulled the parts out, the assembly was very strait forward, and the directions were quite clear, though it would be easy to figure out even without the directions.

As I got to building it, I discovered the quality of the bumper was second to none. All the holes for every bolt lined up perfectly. I never once had to try to “force” things together. Considering you are dealing with steel that has been welded (warped, etc) I was very impressed. As you can see here, everything lines up beautifully.




The XRC winch fit VERY easily too, especially since I had relocated the solenoid box.

I decided to go with the PIAA 510 fogs inside (they will be wired to the stock wiring harness). I really like the look of the rock guards so I set out trying to figure out how to fit them into the allpro bumper. I quickly learned that if you simply sand (I used a dremel) some material off the two sides (not that much) they are quite easy to slide (with a bit of force) into the slots prior to mounting the lights:





And here she is assembled and ready to go on the truck:



Once it was time to install it onto the truck, I quickly realized that I was VERY grateful to have friends to help out. The bumper and winch combination are defiantly NOT easy to handle alone. Once again the holes lined up perfectly on my truck, and it was pretty easy to mount. The hardest part was just lifting the thing.
A lesson learned for anyone in the future: We discovered that it is easiest to set it on a hydraulic jack that has wheels, then you can jack it to the height you want and wheel it back into the bolts. Worked very well.

And here she is all mounted :



As far as the winch wiring, you can see I simply routed them in front of the radiator support and zip tied them in place.



I plan to add tubular light protection like the ARB. This will have light tabs, antenna tabs for HAM and CB as well as limb riser mounting places (if I ever feel like adding those).

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=38483

Mechanically, the winch installation is very strait forward; just mount the thing on the bumper. The end..haha
Now electrically, I decided to do some customization and make it a bit more complicated (especially for me, I am a mechanical Engineer, electricity scares me! Haha)

I decided to do two things:
- Relocate Solenoid to Under the hood
- Install In-Cab Winch Controls

To relocate the solenoid I had to first find a place to put it. I was already making a bracket to mount my auxiliary fuse block (See http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...049#post562049 for fuse block installation) so I decided I would try to add the solenoid.

First order of business was to protect it somehow, after searching the isles of the local home depot for a good half an hour, my wonderful girlfriend points to a shelf and says “what about that, will that work?” Low and behold there was a PERFECT vessel to mount my solenoid. A 4” x 4” x 4” junction box.

First I drilled all necessary holes to mount the solenoid.



Then cut a notch to run the plug for the remote out the back side.



I then cut a big notch on the front to allow for the large cables to run out to the battery and winch.



Next order of business was to get some cables that would reach all the way to the winch from its new location. After a faily expensive trip to west marine for some marine grade 2 gage wire, I had enough cable to reach my winch.

All that was left was to install the aux fuse block/solenoid braket in the engine bay. Here you can see the final result, the solenoid box is under the bracket. You can kind of see the cables running out from under it.



Now onto the in cab controls…

[barlowrs]

I decided I wanted to run in-cab winch controls, while also retaining my original “remote” plug. This gives me the ability to run the winch from in the cab, or, if need be, I can connect the original controller and relocate myself to a position where I can watch the winch.

I also decided I wanted everything to look as stock as possible, which threw in its own challenges.

The first order of business was to relocate the original remote plug from the solenoid. This was pretty strait forward. I made a longer harness that forked off so that I could route one set of wires to the original plug, and the second up to the in-cab controls.



I then drilled a hole in the lower dash area above my pedals and ran the wires out.



All that was left was to connect and install the original plug.



This allows me to plug the original remote in and be able to walk out and see the winch if I am winching alone.

Next was to install the in-cab controls. As I mentioned before, I wanted to make it as stock as possible. For this reason I decided to use a stock 05+ Tacoma double cab rear window switch for the in and out of the switch.

http://info.rockauto.com/getimage/ge...tex/1S7437.jpg

I also wanted to run stock “fog light” style power switch, however the stock switches turned out to be too deep for the location I wanted to install them, so I went with some Blue Sea conutra switches.



I used a laser inscriber at work to “etch” the labels of each switch (winch power, in, out, etc). I am planning on painted the etching with white paint to make it stand out, but that will be later, for now, you can still read them.



The location I decided was on the overhead console. I thought this would make it look somewhat stock as apposed to having random switches scattered around my dash. I used milling machine to cut the slots (more accurate than my dremel) and got everything lined up.

Here are all the switches in place:




I then routed the “fork” that I had soldered into the original harness up the a-pillar and behind the headliner so that it would reach the switches, all that was left was to plug them in, and here is the final product.



Hard to see, but this is the LED for the winch power lit up:



Note that I also installed my 4 switches that will run my roof top lights (once I finish that project)

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=38485


First off, I want to give credit to tooblutacoma06 and his install thread: http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...light=blue+sea

I had the fuse block, but his thread gave me inspiration to install it finally. It was done much like his.

Tools and parts needed:
About 13” x 11” 16 gage stainless steel
Metal Brake
Drill
Paint
Cardboard

Blue Sea 12 circuit fuse block (http://bluesea.com/category/5/21/products/5026)
Blue Sea 300 Amp Fuse Block (http://bluesea.com/category/5/21/products/5005)
100A Fuse

Build:

I first made a cardboard template:



Then found some scrap 16 gage stainless steel lying around. After some cutting, drilling and bending, I had a mount made up. A quick can of rusolium (I know, its stainless, I don’t need it, but I wanted it black, and had some laying around) here she is:



Unlike tooblutacoma06, I opted for a cheaper solution to my 100 amp breaker, as I could not justify spending $80 on a breaker that is made to protect the $50 fuse block. Though if I had the money, I would have! Haha.

As you can see in the picture, the bracket houses my Blue Sea 12 circuit fuse block as well as a Blue Sea 100 amp fuse to protect it. I have also added a section to hold up to 8 relays. On the bottom side of the bracket is a 4”x4”x4” junction box that is now the new home to my winch solenoid. (See http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=38483 for winch installation and wiring).



In order to make room for my winch solenoid box, I had to move the secondary small fuse box attachment thingy from my truck, so I made a cutout that will hold it stationary (tight fit to pin it in place) you can see it pinned against the fender now.




And here she is all mounted. This now gives me relay mounting location for lights (once I get my roof rack project going) as well as an aux fuse block for CB, HAM, lights, and anything else my heart desires.

[barlowrs]

This is another very quick one so I will not do an in-depth write-up. If you have questions about anything, feel free to ask and I can get more detailed with more pics if need be. Please PM me with questions

Before I had my 06 TRD sport, I had an 05 base model:



I fell in love with the black trim on that truck, both for aesthetics as well as function (branches cannot scratch paint off of black plastic), so I decided I wanted the black trim on my sport.

Luckily it is not hard to find off-road guys that want color matched stuff, so a trade was easy to find for my mirrors and handles (still looking to trade my fenders an grille surround, hint hint)

For both the mirrors and the handles you must remove the door panels. This is very easy, two screws (behind handle and behind door opener handle thing). There is also one “pop” clip towards the front of the panel. Once those are out, just pull the bottom of the panel out (there are lots of clips) and lift it out.



For the mirrors, you must also pull the triangular trim off right above the door panel. This is just three clips…just pull.

The mirrors are VERY easy, just 3 bolts and your good to go.

The door handles are pretty simple as well. There is a black plug on the inside of the door jam, behind this is a screw.



Remove the screw and the lock portion of the handle will come out. Then (from the inside of the door panel) you will see one more screw on the remaining handle, remove this and simply slide the handle back (away from the engine) and out she comes. To install new ones, just reverse the procedure.

And here is the outcome on my 06 SPORT model:

[barlowrs]

This was a quick mod that does not require much of a write-up, and many people have done it. It is very convenient though and has already proven to be useful (I use my flashlight a lot to route wires for other installs).

There is one thing that I did discover that I have not heard anyone mention though. When installing them, they come with a plastic “washer” of sorts. If you try to tighten the bolts too tight, the heads will actually pull THORUGH the plastic where the counter sink is. To fix this, I simply installed a normal metal flat washer:



And here is the final product…now for a fire extinguisher…..I recommend quick fists to ANYONE!

[flyingwil]

Looks great. What a transformation!

[barlowrs]

Looks great. What a transformation!

Thanks Wil, and thanks for all the parts! haha. I am happy with how it turned out.

[Rbertalotto]

Folks would pay real money in the marine and motorcycle world for custom etched Cole switch covers like that. I have a well farkled Suzuki V Strom with a bunch of those switches and I never remember what is what.......

Any chance you would like to offer this service? It's a money maker!





BTW, amazing install. Your attention to detail is beyond!

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=38670

Well it is time to tackle communications, and what better to reach out and touch someone than a FT-8800?

The following are the parts I am using:

Yaesu FT-8800R
Yaesu YSK-8900 (Remote mounting kit)
Diamond NR770HB Antenna
Cheap HRO $12.00 external speaker

The location I chose to install the radio is underneath the driver’s seat. This was the easiest part of my install, so I will not get into much detail on this. Just run the wires, mount it and you’re good to go.



The head unit was a bit more difficult. First of all, I want to give credit to Wil for the idea on this install. Because I like having things look as stock as I can and clean as I can, I decided to recess the head unit into the headliner.

To do this, I first had to remove the headliner (meaning I had to take out practically every piece of plastic from the truck!)



In order to secure the head unit, I made a bracket out of some 18 gage stainless steel. This bracket spans the hole I will cut and has tabs that match the angle of the ceiling of my truck. This SHOULD secure the radio (I hope).




Next was to cut a the hole….MEASURE FOUR TIMES CUT ONCE



…..we have reached the point of no return.

I cut the hole slightly small, and then used a very high temp heat gun to heat up the headliner and mold it up. Then I used spray adhesive and rolled the grey lining around so you wouldn’t see the white crap on top.



I then used some 2 part epoxy to glue the bracket to the headliner and then fibreglasses over it just to be safe (the bracket is also sandwiched between the roof of the cab and headliner when installed, so it shouldn’t go anywhere)

And here is with all the wires routed.



You will notice that there are two wires coming from it, and the remote kit only has one. This is because I also wanted to relocate the hand control. I did not want to have it dangling from my roof, so one wire is from the radio to the head unit, and the other is from the head unit to the hand control.

And here is the head unit when everything is put back together:




Next up, installing the hand control and external speaker.