Sas's 'Will It Fit in the Garage' Build

For sure. I really wanted to knock that one out because I'm headed to Arizona on Sunday for a week to visit my sister and brother-in-law.

 

will you stop by SDHQ ?

 

Nah. Other than a few odds and ends I don't own anything significant of theirs. I'm still looking at at couple of their items, but won't be ready to buy anything while I'm out there. Maybe another trip though.

 

Great write up on the shocks! Had me cracking up. But there's a much easier way to put on the bumper shims. Just remove fender liners and the bolts on the plastic piece connected to the valance and disconnect the fog lights. Then you can get your arm in there to remove the 8 nuts holding the bumper in place. Then a second person pulls the entire bumper off, one side at a time as another person slides the shim in. Put the nuts back on, reconnect fog lights, put the liner back on and you're pretty much done. Me and @GodlessPro did his this way and we whipped it out in like 20 minutes. You do need a ratcheting wrench though.

 

That is a tight fit to get the wrench in there. It was a good thing you had a good tool selection.

 

Nice! It's just me working on this thing so I didn't really have that option. I was actually looking at doing it that way initially but didn't have anything that would fit in that small of a space and not take forever.

 

any Tundra lean after the suspension settled ?

 

Not visibly, but I still need to take measurements and do some fine tuning on the pre-load. I'm planning on doing that after I get back.

 

Added a shorter, off-road antenna from Antenna-X. It's quite a bit beefier and about 6-7" shorter or so. SUPER happy that it's no longer dragging the garage beam and marking it up every time I enter/exit the garage. The great thing is that it's actually performing better than the original one in town. Go figure. I haven't gone out of town yet to test its range, but in town it's picking up one my my classic rock stations clearly whereas the original antenna was a little fuzzy. It's also staying on the HD signal from one of the pop stations instead of jumping back and forth from HD to standard like the original antenna did.

https://antennax.com/i-24624838-antennax-cb-24-inch-am-fm-antenna-for-toyota-tundra.html

 

Just ordered that antenna. Thanks for the review. I've been wanting a new one for a long time.

 

You bet. I figured for $20 it was worth a go. Pleasantly surprised so far. If you get out in the boonies before I do let me know what you think of the range.

 

Will do

 

That's a good antenna. It's basically a short FireStik. I use a longer version for my CB. I just ordered that 24" incher. Need to get one that will work in the city and up in the mountains. I was about to put back on my OEM antenna.

 

I've been looking for one. Thank you

 

Upgraded the blinkers from Headlight Revolution's LED's to VLEDS Triton V6 after one of the HR's went out. The VLEDS are far and away brighter than the HR's. There's no missing the blinker on these babies!

 

Swapped out the flatter, vinyl tailgate letters for the raised metal ones. I like the look a LOT better. Infini-Tint down in Norman did the tailgate vinyl and the tint on the reverse light section of the tail lights. Great work and service. If anyone in the OKC area is looking for a solid tint/vinyl shop, give them a holler.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

looks great !

 

Thanks! I still laugh a little when looking back at those OE wheels/tires surrounded by the fender flares.

 

Added a Pop & Lock actuator to the tailgate. Here are a couple of tips that may help those looking to do this mod:

• Use a wire hanger (or similar) to fish the wires from inside the tailgate or you'll be there a while.
• Buy some wire loom. The kit doesn't come with any. 20' outta do it for a CrewMax (I had 12' and was short about 6' or so).
• Before installing, hook all of the connectors together and check continuity.
  
• Before wiring anything in, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!
• Wire everything up and test that the tailgate unlocks when you push the unlock button and vice versa for the lock button BEFORE zip tying anything down or taping anything off. Mine was reversed and I had to flip the blue and green wires.
• Use some dielectric grease on the main connector. It's waterproof, but it's outside and under the truck.
• There are a couple of blue connectors on the passenger side of my 2017. It was the bottom one that I was looking for.
  
• Bring extra zip ties. The kit only came with 6-8 or so. I ended out using at least twice that.

Install was three hours, including adding the wire to the loom, connector flipping (they were heat shrunk and taped), and adding extra zip ties.

$168 POP & Lock – Power Tailgate Lock for Toyota Tundra, 2007 to 2021 Toyota Tundra, Truck OEM Lock, Anti Theft, Truck Tailgate Lock Replacement, Easy to Install, Made in The USA (PL8547TUN)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LST3022/

 

There have been quite a few times where a bed rail system would've come in real handy. So I picked up the Toyota one instead of doing one of the other DIY systems. Total install time from unpacking to putting tools away was only 30m or so.

 

Added a Softopper. Mainly to give the dogs some more cover for long trips.

 

looks good. how you liking the ridge Grapplers in the snow ?

 

Thanks. I haven't really tested them outside of some street driving and parking lot donuts last year. They fared better than I thought they would. We don't get much snow down here tho, so I'm probably not the person to ask.

 

Out with the old triple bypasses ...



... and in with the new remote reservoir.





Basically the triple bypasses were just a bad choice for me. The tappets were constantly going off with every little crack in the road and the ride quality was just not very good regardless of what I set it at. I simply wasn't happy with the setup at all and didn't like driving my truck.

So I spoke with Matthew over at @M C M about it and he worked out a deal. They weren't quite plug and play shocks though. The shock mount had to be trimmed to allow the fittings to fit and holes had to be drilled into the frame to mount the reservoir. It's probably a good thing the garage already has another project in it and I had to take it to a shop to do it, because that wouldn't have been something that I wanted to deal with.

For you Oklahoma folks, the guys over at Custom Off-Road Equipment did the install and did an awesome job as always. If anyone in the area is looking for a quality shop, they're it.

I also had them throw the front sway (stabilizer) bar back on while the truck was there.

I gotta say, I LOVE driving my truck again. The suspension is nice and quiet, the ride quality is MUCH improved, and the handling is back where the truck feels solid and planted again.

 

that's interesting. I did the opposite and went from KING reservoirs to ADS triple bypasses and really felt the ride was better. I wonder what was the issue with your bypasses.

 

Tough comparison to make as I don't know how much of a difference there is between King and these ADS reservoirs. Ride quality is pretty much subjective so could just be the difference in preferences. That being said, my truck bed is empty 95% of the time, I don't have a heavy shell or anything like that on it, and I'm on the road 95% of the time now too. So I needed a setup that fits rough pavement more than trails and such.

 

Well, had the adjustable, greasable camber/caster kit installed on the front. HOLY CRAP what a difference this made! Steering is now effortless, more predictable and has eliminated the weirdness when turning all the way to the left or right. It also made the stance look better as well. If I knew what an improvement this would have been when I first installed the suspension I would have done it as part of the upgrade. This is honestly a must-do IMO.

She's finally a well-behaved joy to drive now.

 

I came in here expecting to see a SaS on the tundra (Solid Axle Swap)... maybe next time I come back you’ll have made some progress

 

Hah, will never happen on this build. I'm basically done modifying it at this point (maybe I'll update my OP one of these days).

 

So did I, bummer.