1794 LE mod diary

After a few weeks of planning, tearing the truck apart and too many Amazon purchases here's what I came up with for mounting my air compressor, air tank, switch panel, fuse/relay box and a few other things. Grab a drink, it's a long one.

Install of Viair 485C compressor and 3 gallon air tank...
I measured, mocked up and tore down several areas to find the right place to put one of the dual air compressors I pulled out of my 08 Tundra. I was very hesitant to start drilling into the bed of the truck in order to mount the compressors so until I find a second location or decide to drill I only installed one of the two.
I mounted it to a Viair air compressor mount and bought a few rubber dampeners so it wouldn't vibrate and make too much noise. The ideal location that didn't require any drilling was on the passenger side frame rail at the rear on the exterior portion of the frame near the spare tire. As you can see from the picture there are 4 threaded holes that accept the standard Toyota bolt. I forget if they were 10mm or 12mm.


I drilled out the mounting bracket and used a few rubber pads to dampen the vibration from the compressor.


Mounted to frame-sorry, not the best pic.


Compressor installed.





The second compressor will be added at a later date when I can figure out where to put it. I'm thinking about mounting it to the bedside in the driver wheel well just above the support. This would require me to drill the bed.


The next part was to install the 3 gallon air tank complete with all associated valves.
The best location that it would fit was at the back wall of the cab just over the muffler. I ran the control wires from the air tank valves through the black port in the middle of the picture.


This pic shows the port from inside the cab. It's located behind the rear seats and requires the removal of the back panel and sound deadener. The port has several rubber flaps that I believe vent the positive air pressure inside the cab to the outside.



I located two threaded bolt holes on the frame crossmember, fabbed up a few mounts out of 1x1 steel square stock and went to work wedging it in it's new home. The following pic is just the mock up, I'll take pics of the final product later.



With the compressor and tank mounted it was time to install the air bags. I decided to go with the PacBrake Alpha Air Bag system.

Why this over the other brands? Their marketing video was the kicker, more robust components used compared to the competition.


Installation of the airbags was fairly straightforward. Best advice I have is to lift the rear and put the axle housing on jack stands. Using the bottle jack from the truck and a 6x6 piece of wood I unloaded the suspension by jacking up the rear off of the trailer hitch. This allowed the airbags to slip between the axle housing and the mounting plate that takes place of the bumpstop on the frame.




Now that the airbags, compressor and tank have been mounted it was time to move onto the wiring, this is where the real fun began.
I enjoy wiring projects and making everything look like it came directly from the factory. Sometimes there are things that don't quite look perfect but I strive to make it look the best I can even though it will probably never be seen.
The first step was to get power from the battery to the relay/fuse box. Being a hybrid truck and the battery being under the rear seat it was a challenge to find a suitable location to mount everything without having to run 1/0 cable to the engine bay.
First came the distribution block mount. Under the passenger rear seat is an access panel that has an unused area between a relay panel and the enclosed hybrid battery. I fabbed up a mounting plate out of some sheet metal and utilized 2 existing bolts along the back wall to bolt the plate to.




The distribution blocks and 100 amp breaker were mounted to the plate and installed using the 2 existing bolts on the back wall. I did drill the mounting holes on the plate in the wrong location and needed to redo one of them. Measure twice, cut once! Using my 3D printer if made up some risers for the positive distribution block and the breaker. My intention was to have the ground wiring running from the relay/fuse block to go under the positive distribution block and the breaker to make it look cleaner and not have to loop around.


The positive 1/0 cable from the battery was ran to the breaker then to the positive distribution block. The lugs on the distribution block were then used to connect six 12ga wires to the relay/fuse box which was mounted forward of the positive distribution block. The 10 slot relay/15 slot fuse box fit perfectly between the metal braces that would support the seat bottom right where a persons heel would sit. I'll try to get better pics later but here is the block I bought and you can see the relays forward of the positive distribution block labeled Driver and Passenger. Yes, 10 relays and 15 fuses is quite a lot but it allows plenty of expansion without having to find another location to mount another fuse block. Presently only one relay/fuse is being used, that's for the compressor.

$31 Delgada 12V Fuse Relay Box and Universal Automotive Block 10-Slot Bosch Style Relay Holder,15-Slot ATC/ATO Fuse Holder for Car, Truck, Marine, Boat

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C9LJ85VX?ie=UTF8&th=1




Now that I had power ran for the air compressor and the many more accessories to come it was time to work on switches. The air compressor needed a power switch so it was only fitting to use one of the 22mm blanks on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. AliExpress supplied the air compressor switch with the perfect symbol to match. In my case the following was the wiring path:
Red-Positive
Black-Negative
Yellow-To the air compressor pressure switch.
Blue-to the tan wire leading off of any one of the other stock switches. The tan wire lights up the switches when the parking lights are activated.

In order to connect the blue wire from the switch I installed to the tan wire I used a Deutsch connector pin. The pin was inserted into the rear of the stock connector where the tan wire is.



In order to fill and purge the air bags I found a great deal on Amazon Prime day for an 8 gang multi switch panel. Regular price was $80, with discounts I bought it for $45. Incredibly cheaper than an Auxbeam or Mictuning unit. Had I known it was going to be so nice I would have bought a second one for my rock crawler.

$80 Xhtechnology 8 Gang Multi-Function Switch Panel, 12/24V Touch Control Waterproof Toggle Momentary Pulsed Switch Panel Box Electronic Relay System for SUV Truck Trailer ATV Marine Boat Yacht Camper…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BM3BSHP2?th=1

 

Good looking project. I mounted compressor in similar location. Checkout the air bag cradles that airlift makes. Will give you back downward suspension travel and keep use of air bags. Best of both worlds.

 

In order to mount the relay/fuse panel for the 8 gang switch panel out came the 3D printer. The battery area on the hybrid has very limited space so this is what I came up with. The captured nuts were pressed into the mount and the larger holes are recessed to accept a 10mm bolt. The bolt holes line up with the bolt holes for the fan located to the rear of the battery. A notch was put in so the battery ground wire didn't have to be relocated or modified in any way. The extension was used to mount the 60 amp breaker.




Now that the relay/fuse panel was mounted I decided to run the control cable to the overhead console where I used 3m VHB tape to hold it up. It's holding well for now until I come up with a more permanent mounting solution. In order to get the cable to the overhead console I ran it up the C Pillar and under the headliner.




With the panel mounted it was time to mount the air compressor gauge. The gauge is able to read the left and right air bags independently along with the air tank pressure. The hiccup I ran into was that I didn't want to cut into the leather dash or drill any holes to mount the gauge. Banks does make a pretty slick mount that connects to the oh-sh*t handle but I needed something that was not like the other.
I sat in the driver seat for a half hour placing the gauge in different locations in an attempt to find just the right spot that would require no modification for mounting. The only place that kept calling me back was the small piece of trim between the gauge cluster and the driver side dash vent. Luckily there is a void behind the panel that would allow the wire bundle to pass through. Armed with the 3D scanner I went to work.


After printing several versions of the gauge mount the final product came out better than I expected.






The last thing I did was to connect power to the 22mm air compressor switch mounted earlier. I tapped into an ignition powered port in the underhood fuse panel located on the driver side of the engine bay. I ran the cable into the box and out the access hole where the stock harness enters. To get it into the cab there is a grommet just above the main harness gromet on the firewall. Using a pick I was able to ram it through the grommet. This hole was just large enough to run 2 cables through. One cable from the fuse box, the other running to the front crash bar in anticipation of adding a light bar behind the bumper.


The wire was then routed up to the side of the dash.


Just as a precaution a 6 gang fuse panel was added for future connections. Luckily the panel mounting bolts were in line with the existing holes in the crossbar. Some fender washers helped keep it in place. The cover for the panel was pre printed. At some point down the road I'll use some acetone and remove the printing or just add a label over the existing print.

 

wow nice work