Barlowrs Expedition Tacoma Build

[targa88]

Robert,
How did you make the "Ham" plug or where did you find this?

[barlowrs]

Robert,
How did you make the "Ham" plug or where did you find this?

Well, the final configuration I went with was as follows:

a standard 6 conductor extension with male ends like this one:


This is the same type of cable that the 8900R handset uses (6 conductor). I ran this extension cable from my 8900R control unit that is mounted on my headliner (See http://www.summitsource.com/images/products/PJ1LCI.jpg) down behind my lower console and plugs into a standard 6 conductor female-female plug like this one:



I had to mill this down to fit the blank plug location I decided to run it (See http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=41291).

So it goes as follows: 8900R controller -> male/male extension cable -> female/female plug (mounted in dash)-> 8900R handset (removable).

Make sense?

[TRICOMA]

Robert...I see your truck on TW and just want to get my tacoma set up Expedition style. I like to hit up the trails here in SD and OC as well as hit up Ocotillo Well and the Anza Borrego Area. Question about your tires. I notice that you still have your mud flaps on. Do you rub much with that size tire? I am thinking of getting 265/75/16 as an upgrade to my stock size of 265/70/16. Thanks in advance for your help. You truck is sick....my first post!!!

[barlowrs]

Robert...I see your truck on TW and just want to get my tacoma set up Expedition style. I like to hit up the trails here in SD and OC as well as hit up Ocotillo Well and the Anza Borrego Area. Question about your tires. I notice that you still have your mud flaps on. Do you rub much with that size tire? I am thinking of getting 265/75/16 as an upgrade to my stock size of 265/70/16. Thanks in advance for your help. You truck is sick....my first post!!!

They originally rubbed when I would turn (remember, the 255 are slightly larger than 33") however I have trimmed my mudflaps where you could see the "wear" spots on them. They seem ok now.

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...756#post617756


Well after crossing the water crossing on the Mojave Road MULTIPLE times during a recovery operation, and seeing how DUSTY my air filter was after 3 days out in the Mojave, I figured it was high time to install my snorkel.

Now as most probably know, there is no snorkel made for the 05 Tacoma, however, it has been discovered that it is possible to modify a snorkel for a 2.8L Helix Diesel.

Parts List:
Part# ARB SS135HFD
3”-3” Rubber Flexible Coupler
6” Length of 3” exhaust pipe (muffler shop scrap yard)

First step was to get it in place. Unfortunately, since it is not made for an 05+ Tacoma, the template can be used for nothing more than getting the holes lined up with respect to each other, so to actually decided where the snorkel goes, it is just a lot of mocking it up, lining up the antenna spot, as well as the A-pillar mount, and hoping you got it. Once you think you got it, its time to cross the point of no return, and drill a BIG @$$ hole in the side fo your truck.





Now, once the holes are all drilled, it is time to mock it up and drill the A-pillar holes in place.

There are a few gaps, as the body lines are not the same as the helix, but they are not noticeable unless you REALLY get up close and look at it.





Believe it or not, this was the easy parts….its now time to plumb it.





Now there are many different methods to doing this. I chose to reuse my stock intake tubing bu cutting it off behind the big bulge. This allows me to use the stock flexible tubing.

After a LOT of muscling the rubber elbow that came with the snorkel to get it to come out at a somewhat useable angle, I was able to connect the 6 in piece of muffler tubing and connect the two.





Also note, there are two holes in the filter box that need to be sealed to make it watertight. Sorry I did not get more pics to help along, I was in a hurry to install it and didn’t get many.

Anyway, here is the final product:

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...089#post633089
Well, I could tell my truck was having some self esteem issues, as here she is this big truck driving around sharing the same Toyota logo as your grandmas corolla, so I figured I would try to make her feel better about herself..after all, she is a TOYOTA TRUCK!

Step one was to get the parts laser cut, MetalMiller over on Tacoma world let me use his great laser cutting services to cut out all three pieces along with a backing plate. He did a great job!

After some time in my machine shop, I had the edge of the outer oval blended, as well as guide holes drilled through backplate to hold the front pieces on. (Yes I did mess up once so you can see my incorrect hole…I did some math wrong on the mill..haha).

My original plan was to just press fit some pins and epoxy the pieces to the back plate, though considering how much I beat my truck up, and the fact that these are solid steel (heavy) parts, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold. I decided to tap each hole and use some 8-32 set screws with locktite to hold them in place.

After a quick trip to the chrome shop for the front peices and a few coats of flat black rustoleum on the back plate, here are the parts laid out.




And here it is installed on the grill:


And on the truck:



I can tell she feels a lot better now, after all she is a TOYOTA TRUCK and proud of it.

[maxama10]

Your truck is hot.

[barlowrs]

Specific Thread (Comment Here): http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...ad.php?t=45579

Well everyone says all good things take time, and this bumper was no exception, but it finally arrive in the mail…my FULLY LOADED CBI Rear bumper. This puppy includes the following:

- High clearance bumper (Bushmaster 2.0)
- Tire Gate
- Hi-Lift Mount
- 2 Jerry Can Holder
- CB Antenna Mount
- Fold Down Table (Perfect for my camp stove)
- Backup Lights
- Hitch

So, although CBI does have a wait, trust me, their workmanship is WELLLLL worth the wait!

The jerry can holder and fog lights should be arriving end of the week, so for now, this write-up does not include them, but I will revise it once I get them and install them…so onto the write-up and pics!

First step was to paint it. Obviously, this is meant to be used (I cannot afford things like this just for looks) so I chose rust-oleum so that I could touch it up easily. I originally planned to do Rust-oleum Hammered, however, after the first coat, I realized that it was more silver/grey than black and did not like it. So I topped it off with a coat of plain old semi-gloss rust-oleum. All in all I think it turned out well. (Take your time doing this, as there is a LOT of metal to cover!)
One thing I want to make clear, do not paint the spindle or the bushing on the gate, this will make it impossible to install later (trust me, I made the mistake of painting the spinal, luckily my gf had a great idea and used acetone to take the paint right off).

Once I had the painting done, the fun began. CUTTING TIME!....I guess my snorkel broke the ice, because it was much easier for me to cut into my truck this time around (no more tears..haha).

Because this is a “cut to fit” type thing, there is no template or standard way to do this, as each one will fit each truck differently. I chose to make cardboard templates to get an idea of where the cut should be, then made it nice and strait using the body lines as reference:





Here it is all cut up. Note that you do not need to cut the crap directly below the tail light (it is much thicker as well):



I have not had time to clean the cut up yet, but I plan to clean it up, use touch up paint to keep it from rusting, then using that door jamb plastic liner crap to make it a nice clean line.

Next it is time to mock it up and see if my templates worked. This part was difficult because I had to figure out a way to lift the bumper in place, with only the help of my gf (the bumper weights more than her!). I finally figured out a good plan of attack. I used ratcheting tie straps anchored inside my bed to ratchet it up into place. It actually worked very well:



Once again, CBI great craftsmanship showed, as all the bolt holes line up perfectly, and the grade 8.8 bolts they supplied worked perfect. I may upgrade to 10.9 someday, but this thing is very solid as is.

My templates actually worked great and there was no need to trim anymore, so I was able to bold her up for good.

Here you can see the bumper itself.




I made the cardboard templates you saw in my first post, but for those that just want to measure and cut. I would start with the following measurements:

4.25” below the bottom of the tail light.

START here and then you can trim later. Even with my templates, I made sure to cut a little higher than I wanted and then trimmed it later to get a nice strait cut. Ideally, you want to have about 0.75” clearance around the board. This means that my tail lights have approximately 0.75” clearance underneath them, and the body line cut is 0.75” clearance as well.



Why 0.75”celarnace? Well I took after the install I tool her out for a bit of flexing to see how much the Tacoma flexes. We all know the frames are not boxed and DO flex. Her you can see how it looks when the rear tire is stuffed and frame fully flexed (I had my opposite rear OFF the ground)





You can see that with the frame fully flexed, there is about 0.25” clearance, so my frame flexed 0.5” total.

One the edge was cleaned up and strait, I used some Toyota touch up paint to cover the raw metal edge to stop from rusting. Then I decided to add some of that black plastic door trim crap to clean up the edge, I think it looks pretty good with that:



I also lined the bottom of my table with it and the frame that my table folds up against (the table does rest against it, so metal on metal contact will wear my paint right off, this will help a bit):

[barlowrs]

(I hate teh 15 image limit on posts )

The tire gate slides right into place (assuming you did not paint the spindle or bushings) and here is the final product!





Swing down Table:



After that all that was left was adding the rest of the accessories:

Aux back up lights:



License plate light:



I also used gasket material to make a rubber washer to reduce the metal on metal contact on the main gate latch:



And the final touch, the dual can carrier!:

[barlowrs]

Well, after getting Scott’s approval and the original creator of the globe sticker (didn’t want to infringe on anyone) I had this little gem made. Hopefully my truck is worthy of sporting the decal. I am very happy with it, I admit I did mess up on the passenger’s side slightly when I installed it, but I think it still works!



It looks a bit wavey in the pic, but in real life its not..haha