Barlowrs Expedition Tacoma Build

[HawaiianDC]

Sockmonkey designed it for me...check out the black expedition sticker on my charcoal grey truck in a previous post.

[barlowrs]

Pray tell WHERE did you get THESE???

haha, great istn it! there is a guy on Tacomaworld that makes them...very good quality:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/soc...fo-thread.html

[AlexJet]

I like those ones. Looks good.

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...494#post585494

Hey Guys, well, I took my truck in for a service yesterday, and while there, the dealership called me to tell my cabin air filter was dirty and they recommended replacing it. I asked how much it would cost…..get this…$79.00!!!!!! I said no way, I can do that myself. If you have ever done this it is LITERALLY (not exaggerating) about a two minute job.

When I went to go pick the truck up, I purchased a new one from the parts dep for $29.99, so if you think about it, the dealer getting one at cost, lets assume $20.00….they would have charged me $60.00 for labor to do a job that takes 2 mins. WOW!

After getting home I got to thinking about my recent purchase though. Why should I spend $30 bucks every time my filter gets bad (with lots of dust and dirt, this is pretty often) so I decided to look into making a reusable one. This would allow me to clean it for free anywhere, even if I am out in the mountains.

So here we go:

Tools:
Good pair of scissors, or knife
Drill (could just use the knife to pike holes)

Materials:

Web Plus Adjustable Electrostatic Washable Furnace/Filter (about 20 bucks at home depot)


So, first off, I used the new filter I bought to get the dimensions, this filter is exactly 8” x 8”. Each square on the mesh is 1” so it is pretty easy. I cut out from the center section because there is a plastic rivet that holds all the layers of filter together.



Once you get the filter and plastic mesh all cut out, you take the frame apart. Using the SMALLER (skinnier) sides (that fit inside when adjusting) you cut them down to size. The skinnier sections fit perfectly in the truck.

I then drilled a hole in the two corners that needed to be connected and use the white plastic rivets that are included to snap them together.



You can see the washable compared ot the new dealer filter. It’s a prefect fit..now you can wash your filter whenever you want!

[flyingwil]

Very nice!

[AlwaysExplr87]

Very nice man. Really liking the build. I'm glad you posted up this washable filter idea, I was going to use a cheap paper furnace filter and cut it to fit but this is much cleaner and I like how its washable. How often do you change yours? Kind of ashamed to say but I haven't changed mine in the almost four years I've owned my truck! I rarely use my a/c though, but I am kind of scared to see how nasty this thing is.

[barlowrs]

Very nice man. Really liking the build. I'm glad you posted up this washable filter idea, I was going to use a cheap paper furnace filter and cut it to fit but this is much cleaner and I like how its washable. How often do you change yours? Kind of ashamed to say but I haven't changed mine in the almost four years I've owned my truck! I rarely use my a/c though, but I am kind of scared to see how nasty this thing is.

I rarely use my a/c as well. people usually reccomend every oil change, but if you run in the dessert a lot, might need it more.

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=40936

Well I finally pulled off my all-pro bumper for some “alterations” I have been planning, on while it was off, I took the time to do a few fixes on the winch.

First off, grease. For anyone that has tried to freewheel the XRC out, you will know you have to pull DAMN hard. The grease they use inside this thing is more like glue than grease. So I decided to open her up and put some GOOD grease in it.

Here you can see the gooey grease they use:





After a LOT of degreasing, I finally got the gears cleaned off and started to rebuild it.



Here you can see it packed with some good quality grease!



Once I got her back together, the difference was night and day, you could pull the line out with one hand and it didn’t take much force at all! It was great! I highly recommend this to ANYONE with an XRC winch.

Next up was the electrical stuff. Something that was pointed out to me by FlatBlak (http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...1&postcount=22) was the electrical ground terminal. This winch pulls a LOT of current (as all winches do) so you want to make sure all terminals have a good connection, however the factory ground terminal has the majority of its surface painted:



After some scraping and filing, I had a nice surface to contact with the lugs. I feel much better about this now:


Then I decided I wanted to protect the wires a bit better up front, while I used all marine grade cables, I decided to shield them just for good measure. I shielded all the cables and put a plastic grommet where they run through the front radiator support.




One last thing I noticed when taking it apart was that there was some SLIGHT surface rust on the bolt that holds the synthetic line to the drum. I am not sure if this is a big deal, but I decided to upgrade it to stainless just in case.



I feel much better about this winch now and feel it is ready to save my @$$ if I get into some trouble.

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...531#post600531

Well I finally decided to install my CB for the times when I am with people that don’t have HAMs. My weapon of choice was a Cobra 75 WX ST. I like the compact nature of it and the fact that I can unhook it when not in use. I do not like the look of having handsets hanging all over the place in my cab.

For those that have been following my build, you probably have noticed a patter that I like to try to make things look as “factory” as possible, which usually just results in making a lot more work for myself than is really necessary, and this install was no exception. While working on this, I also decided to “revamp” my Yaesu FT-8900R remote plug location as well. For those not familiar with the original install, it can be found here (http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=38670).

So, here we go. In order to try to make this look as factory as possible, I decided to upgrade my 07 center console to an 09+ console. The 09+ consoles have a nice addition to them in the form of switch holes (this is where the new aux plug goes on later models). I decided to pick up this console along with 3 blank plugs for the plugs. One plug will be my CB plug, one will be my Ham Plug and one will remain blank for now.

For the Ham plug, I simply milled out the reinforcements behind the plug as well as milled the edges of a female-female 6 connector RJ25 plug (what the 8900 handset uses) so that it would slide into place. Then it was a matter of trimming a hole in the front of the blank to allow access to the plug behind.

Here you can see the original blank:



And here you can see the “reworked” one:







Next up the CB plug. This one got a bit tricky, as I had to find a means to mount it to the blank, and allow it to be fixed without pushing back, when I plug the handset it, or pulling out when I unplug the handset. And of course, visible screws or bolts are unacceptable to me.
The solution to this problem was to first unsolder and remove both the male and female connections from the handset and the control box. I then re-soldered them on backwards so the female plugs (pin receptacles) were on the handset and the male end (pins) were mounted to my dash.

I then tool the male end and, using a lathe, cut it in half and took some material off. This gave me a two piece plug. The front piece would mount in front with the large “knurled” edge retaining it from pushing back into the dash while the smaller inner diameter was what piloted it in the plug. The second portion of the plug would mount behind the pug and clamp tightly to the cable preventing it from pulling out of the blank. This effectively sandwiched the blank between the two portions and kept them in place.

Here you can see the original male plug:



Here is the “reworked” plug:



All that was left was to prepare the blank plug. Once again, I milled out the inside and drilled a hole the size of the smaller diameter. Here is the plug sandwiched:


All that is left now was to reassembly my truck with the new plugs:

Here are the two plugs:


Here they are with the handsets plugged in:


This allows me to remove the handsets when not in use so they don’t need to just hang around my cab.


For the CB external speaker, I did the same kind of mount I did on my Ham radio. So now there is an embedded speaker on the drivers side that is for my ham and a speaker in the same location on the passengers side for the CB:

[maxama10]

You do some really quality work!