Topic: BigMike's Big Journey: A 2016 Tacoma Build Thread

[BigMike]

Have you attempted the soup bowl on the Rubicon?  I'm curious if the modern Taco has enough frame clearance for obstacles like this. 

TREV is right, and this is his pic from last Sept. Frame clearance is definitely an issue. Those are 40s. That hole is huge. The preferred line I take with my 1981 Hilux is more to the left.

A lot will have been changed by the next time I do Soup Bowl this June @ TLCA Rubithon.

[BigMike [OP]]

I want to update the thread but don't want to go through all the work of doing so. /firstworldproblems

Rubicon last Sept



Last weekend at the Fourwheeler Overland Expo, courtesy of @4runningmutts

[Toyotadon]

Hey OP, update this thread already.

[Cheesemaker]

Looking good buddy!    I remember texting you about the picture you posted up about being a Slinky Boi in the back, and you told me I see nothing!   


Great progress, I wish I was on here more often.  But like your posting, FirstWorldProblems, I am in the middle of saving up to finish my house's exterior.  So, I have not been online much.  Been trying to avoid the internet as much as possible.  Unless for Youtube vids for the how to section of home ownership.   

[Hilux_Max]

  Just bumping this up...been 3 months...hope all is well Mike?

[emsvitil]

Did you take this picture on



Be a pirate day?

[Hilux_Max]

Mike,

I have a question with your kit and the 40" tyres....Are you still running the standard Tacoma Hubs?  How are they holding up?

[BigMike [OP]]

Mike

Yes?

I have a question with your kit and the 40" tyres

What is your Question?

Are you still running the standard Tacoma Hubs?

Yessir

How are they holding up?

The hubs are quite large, much larger than hubs on 8" Hilux axles which are known to survive 37s to 40s, so honestly I have yet to even think about the hubs and do not carry any spares

[BigMike [OP]]

What's up guys and gals! I've been making a lot of progress in 2020 trying to get the Tacoma finished to where I've envisioned it to be. It's now about mid August 2020 and I currently estimate to be only 80% finished with the Tacoma. I've been preparing updates a lil at a time and have many things to post so here comes some updates!

The combination of developing RCLT HD prototypes and breaking my ribs meant I only went wheeling once in 2019 which was the Marlin Crawler Round-Up (September, 2019). My ribs healed well; Took about 6 months until I could sleep on my side. During recovery I began working on four really great new products, two of which are complimentary to RCLT HD. Fast forward to Jan '20 and I had the third & final RCLT HD prototype finished and passed over to our production team which finally gave me quality time to spend on SlowestTacoma.

Resuming major work on SlowestTacoma this past spring kept my mind distracted from the event cancellations, scheduling concerns, and employee & company well being surrounding COVID-19 and it's now high time I get this thread properly updated!

May 12, 2019: Dumb USB power outlet

Last April (2018) I installed a dual USB power outlet with a digital volt display and critiqued how it's voltage reading was off... (reply #904)



So I ordered a replacement from Amazon which resulted in the following:



I reached out to the manufacture and all they did was send me a refund and told me to keep both defective parts. Gee thanks.

[BigMike [OP]]

June 26, 2019: Start on Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper

A few weeks after the rib injury I made some rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper mock-ups. This was the direction I was heading, with the goal being to bring our classic 1979-2004 Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper (Hilux/4Runner/1G Tacoma) to the modern Tacoma platform.





I was also thinking of a lower / double rear cross bar, something like this...



Then I began taking measurements, drew up frame brackets in Solidworks, and waited for some raw metal to arrive.

Production concerns are (1) License plate lighting (which on a Tacoma is part of the bumper rather than body), (2) Trailer plug mount (if applicable), (3) Proximity sensor mounts (if applicable), (4) Spare tire access hole, and (5) This late model bumper extends up on each side which means there will either be two large body panel holes or customers will be required to trim the rear lower sides of their fenders which I'm not a fan of (see first pic).

To be continued...

[BigMike [OP]]

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand

Our transmission builder Chris is an expert carpenter so I had him whip together a very simple 17" tall wooden stand for me to park the Tacoma on while at work. Chris made 1/4 height and 1/2 height pieces for ease of use, which I found only the 1/2 height piece was needed. To get off the stand, I simply reverse down with out any brakes and let the super low Marlin Crawler gearing do the work. This does put an enormous amount of load on the corner of the top piece of wood which is wearing out. I'll need to wrap some sheet metal around it if I plan for it to last.





The stand could be taller so I'll add a couple more levels eventually. One issue is that with the truck facing uphill, weight shifts to the rear, so the rear suspension is doing most of the work. Also, I am aware that my front spring rate (600 lb) is on the high end. More on this later.

[BigMike [OP]]

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand (continued)

Painted!

[BigMike [OP]]

July 15, 2019: New Truck Stand (concluded)





It looks AWESOME from afar. When you turn the corner onto our street it is quite the sight. An attention getting for sure!





At this time I did not make a video of mounting/dismounting the stand, however I will post one later (the video I have has too many spoilers to post at the moment )

[BigMike [OP]]

July 16, 2019: DRL Overnight Battery Drain Test

Also back in April (2018) I connected my factory LED Daytime Running Lights to an anytime-switch in the cab (reply #908) which I'm considering leaving on overnight during camping as campground nightlights. Note the DRL is the actual high/bright circuit of the LEDs, as there is a dim circuit that enables when the headlights turn on. They throw a lot of light in the dark.

So the next day I tested the battery impact of the maximum/brightest LED circuit and here are the results of voltage directly at the battery terminals and engine off:

9:13pm:
DRL OFF: 12.96v
DRL ON: 12.89v

10:10pm:
DRL still ON: 12.72v

6:50am:
DRL still ON: 12.16v
DRL finally OFF: 12.22v

So in almost 10 hrs the DRLs only consumed 0.67-volts which is no problem at all.

(Battery: Bosch Platinum Advanced AGM 24F-710BAGM, 120 min reserve, 710/850 CCA/CA)

[BigMike [OP]]

August 6, 2019: Random RCLT HD pic

I took this pic of RCLT HD Prototype No.2 on my way home one day and wanted to share. Seeing this picture now (Aug 2020) is a trip... The production version has so many small but very important changes... It's neat as the designer to see the evolution as RCLT HD, which is now in the final production stage and will be available soon!

[BigMike [OP]]

August 18, 2019: Electronic 2WD Low Range

At the 2018 Texas Toyota Jamboree I performed Marlin's famous full-brake Crawler demonstration in the Tacoma, however, the following two reasons have been preventing me from doing Marlin's proper demonstration of 2WD Triple Low Range:

1) Because I've chosen against popular opinion to retain the factory electronic shift t/case setup (stay out of the mud and sand kiddos), I don't have a Marlin Crawler Twin Stick and therefore cannot engage 2WD Low Range at the t/case, and

2) Because USA Toyota trucks this side of 2004 do not have locking front hubs, I can't even "cheat" to get into Marlin's 2WD Triple Low Range mode with unlocked front hubs.

I can, of course, engage both my Marlin Crawlers into low leaving the t/case in 2WD high, rendering a 2WD Dual Ultimate. But it is not nearly as impressive. I posted a video of this from TX, skip to the 2:15min mark of this YouTube video. SlowestTacoma's 3rd gear is the lowest 2WD ratio I have, which is our Dual Ultimate ratio of 254:1. The truck bucks and shakes and it's noisy; frankly it's embarrassing since I know how it could be.

So I sat down with electronic diagrams of both the t/case shift system and front diff and figured out how to trick the system into thinking the front diff is engaged. I then remembered how I performed the reverse camera anytime mod myself to enable twin forward-facing rock crawling cameras, which was difficult getting the sodering iron and heat shrink deep inside the dash, only to later discover someone made a plug-n-play harness that didn't require hacking factory harnesses.

Low and behold after a bit of searching I came across this TacomaWorld thread and knew it was what I'd rather do for this new truck. As a result the install was straight forward and very quick.



The bulk of the addition is shown zip tied at top-right:



...and here is the switch I went with, which is the short & wide Toyota style. My original plan was to use the tall & narrow style switch installed into a 3D printed boss extruded from the left of the mode select rotary dial. But because the Round-Up was less than a month away I needed to get this done so I installed the switch in my old Blind Spot Monitor switch (the system of which I plan to reinstate eventually)...

Activation is as follows:
Step 1: Engage the 2WD LOW RANGE button
Step 2: Shift into 4WD
Step 3: Disengage the 2WD LOW RANGE button
  At this point the system thinks it is in 4WD, so the switch may be deactivated here or prior to returning to 2WD
Step 4: Shift into Low

To return to 2WD High:
Step 1: After returning to 4H, ensure the 2WD LOW RANGE button is disengaged
Step 2: Shift into 2WD

If you fail Step 1 above, then you'll get a Mode Select error message with beep that reoccurs every 10 seconds or so, and won't go away until you cycle the ignition.



Posting this from the future, I have a nice Triple 2WD Low Range demonstration video, however, it's another video I can't post yet due to other spoilers.

[BigMike [OP]]

Aug 20, 2019: Improve rear suspension up travel

I had two important tasks remaining before the next Rubicon trip, the first of which being rear suspension work.



The problem is that my up travel was limited in comparison to my body line, and for Rock Crawling, I prefer having more up travel because (1) the higher up a tire can stuff the longer the body will remain level and (2)
just because you have a lot of downtravel doesn't always mean that tire is contributing to forward traction because by the very definition of being extended down, the tire will have the least amount of vehicle mass acting on it which means it has the least amount of traction.

Here is where my up travel was at:



So I was missing a good 3.5-inches which was my fault as I was the one who approved the location of the lower shock mounts...



...so off they came





Here we are fully stuffed up to the 1" thick rubber shaft bump stops which is what I was after. (I still need to level out the panhard bar, but that's a low priority for now.)





Comparison of the before and after!

[BigMike [OP]]

Aug 23, 2019: Reflashed my ECM

There is a thread on TW that came out a year ago referring to a software update for the 6MT V6 Mk3 Tacoma, wherein Toyota released an update addressing a surge and/or stutter issue in second gear. I can't say for sure if I have experienced this problem, but the update is suppose to also improve throttle response and improve mid range torque.

It had been on my TODO list for some time but as my truck is running well there wasn't a need, plus, it involves risk of bricking my ECU as I obviously don't take this truck to the dealership and perform work myself.

So I sat on this for a while and then decided to give it a go! The exact instructions I followed are at Reply #1808 and it went very smooth (was originally reply #1828 when I did this).



Before...



...and after!



Conclusion:
It is always difficult to gauge ones subjective butt dyno, but mid range torque does feel better and low RPM power-shifts feel smoother. It was very easy and seemed very safe to do so long as you following the instructions to the T, so I'd recommend any fellow 6MT owner to give it a go! Thank you to the TW community for sharing how to get this done yourself!

[emsvitil]

Line the truck up so it's right rear tire is high next to a pole.


Then put a puddle of water there..................

[BigMike [OP]]

Then put a puddle of water there..................

Under the right rear tire?

[BigMike [OP]]

August 27, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper I

Wooohooooo!! Oh man what a great day.



Thank you sooo much factory bumper! I can't believe how long it lasted :lol: It certainly limited my approach angle and got dragged all over the place through many trails, but I couldn't have come this far still without any body damage if it wasn't for that sweet low hanging trailer hitch lol



Here is what my frame looks like after shortening it 6 inches during the bed bob. I went from 10 bolts total for the bumper mount to only 6, so I added our recommended stitch weld for added support which worked great, even held up when I helped pull a massive eucalyptus tree out from my folk's out front yard.



The goal for the production version is to run 2.00" OD DOM tubing to match our upcoming front bumper, however for this prototype we used 1.75" HREW. Here is the progression of what I came up with!



My idea is to follow the bed's body line with both main tube and uprights, and here is how it was looking.

Couple things I noticed right away is that it's pretty close to the body, which is good for clearance but less good for protection, and it extends below the body line of the bed. This will require trimming the bed which I'm not a fan of requiring customers to do, and our production Hilux bumpers avoid this requirement so I think our Tacoma bumper should be designed the same way.

[BigMike [OP]]

August 27, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper I (continued)

Next we added all our production Locktup4x4 & Fabrication goodies and completed the middle section with low profile seamless trailer hitch and two 1-inch thick bow shackle mounts










Again, it's a bit close to the body, but I'm starting to like this. It will come out a bit more once we switch to the planned 2.00" main tube.



And here it is back at home! The temporary license plate mount is a rubber magnet mount.



Ohhh heck yes!! Let's go!!

[BigMike [OP]]

Sept 10, 2019: Marlin Crawler Rock Slider upgrade

I finally upgraded my old bolt-on sliders with Marlin Crawler weld-on Rock Sliders! Finally, no more shearing off bolt heads and having to readjust the dang slider!!

Locktup4x4 Road Runner gussets were added two per leg at the frame but I don't take pics of them.

[BigMike [OP]]

Sept 10, 2019 (continued): Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper II

Despite my discussion of not wanting to trim the fenders, I decided that since my truck is already custom with trimmed wheelwells and bobbed bed that I would perform a minor trim here that we won't require for the production version of the bumper.



We added our well-known side bed protection armor parts with the goal to match the original upward slope angle of the body line

I was very pleased with how it came out and especially how we were able to retain the traditional Marlin Crawler design, including our trademark underbed side supports!



Added our usual inner brace tubing and I decided to slant it towards the rear rather than our traditional upright position. I really like the great low profile design on this one





I could have tucked it up even higher, but the passenger side tailgate hinge is where the soft opening mechanism lies which takes up room, so I designed the brackets to be as close as possible. The plan is to include formed plates that attach to the bed to close up the large holes beneath both taillights.

[BigMike [OP]]

Sept 10, 2019 (continued): Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper II (continued)

BOOM!









A friend's truck was at the shop so I had to get some poser pics before calling it a day

[BigMike [OP]]

Sept 11, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper FINISHED

The next day we painted the bumper and compared weights vs stock: 56.5 lbs MC vs 70 lbs Stock. Grated we still need to come up with the aforementioned solutions such as license plate mount, etc, and the final bumper will be made out of larger 2" DOM material, but if we can keep it at or just below stock weight then that would be awesome





Final pics!

[BigMike [OP]]

Sept 11, 2019: Rear Rock Crawling Tube Bumper FINISHED (continued)





Here is a detail shot around the tailgate hinge. The production bumper will stick out more due to both larger 2.00" DOM material and space for formed caps to be fitted onto the bed over this area beneath both taillights.



So cool now seeing our bumper in my rear view camera!



Nearly ready for another Marlin Crawler Round-Up!

[BigMike [OP]]

2WD Triple Low Range, a video from the future (March 25, 2020)

Now that I've gotten the rear bumper out of the way, I can finally share a video we posted this past March showcasing 2WD Triple Low Range. Enjoy!!

[emsvitil]

Under the right rear tire?

Tire and pole.........



But some bright backup lights / rock lights in the hole under the existing rear lamps where the bumper was.

Cover with shaped clear plexi for nice contour look.

[BigMike [OP]]

But some bright backup lights / rock lights in the hole under the existing rear lamps where the bumper was.

This is a pretty good idea actually

Sept 4-11, 2019: Final remaining items before MCR18

Finished up a few more items before the Round-Up.

On the 4th I installed a pair of our 90-degree exhaust fittings to my ARB solenoids to get oil film spray out of my engine compartment



On the 11th I added basic diff armor as a temp. solution until we get our Full-Face Armor ready for the new 8.75" axle housing



And finally I added these lil LED lights with these surprisingly strong 5mm button magnets which I can slap onto the license plate for now until I get the plate mounted properly and powered lights reattached.



All loaded up and ready to return to the Rubicon!!!