Bannock452 Build

So I added some rock lights. No I do not "rock crawl" in my truck but I did want these lights for camping lighting and being able to see under the truck.
I had these on my Christmas list in white to match my leds and the white truck. I got them in Blue for Xmas and figured blue might look pretty cool also so I just kept them. Installation was a pain like any electrical wiring but came out nice.
Here is the link to the light kit I have installed
http://www.gglights.com/collections...s/rock-light-package-deal?variant=19175301379

 

That's sick!

 

Clean build man always coming back to it.reminds me of mine, and also taking the time to do it all yourself it's soemthing I enjoy as well.

 

Thank you! Love seeing all the progression of the builds on here. Alot of good looking and performing trucks. Costing too much money!

 

looks great !

 

Always one step in front of us Brandon ! Looks pretty cool. A few more lights and your ready to take off like a UFT. ( unidentified flying tundra ) just in case you missed that. Only concern might be that they are in the line of fire of rocks and debris flying up in the wheel wells. Looks like you may be able to swap one out if it goes down in the line of duty. Always excited to see your next mod. Keep um comin !

 

Spent the weekend in Glamis with some friends n family. Definitely my favorite place to go offroading! Tundra was amazing out in some simple dunes. And kings are beyond my expectations for all the bumps. And it towed like a champ as expected.

 

Sand looks perfect ! Looks like they had a few rain drops or two recently. My wife and I are heading down to Plaster City this coming weekend. May be a rain out though .

 

We had a few rain drops Saturday morning but the sand held up great and riding was smooth! Might be wet for you next weekend but a little mud is always fun! Until you have to clean it up!

 

How many inches of Lift are you running on the King's and are you happy with the ride? Is it def smoother on and offroad?

 

Check out page 2 of my build around post #46ish. Some good numbers and measurements there.
But to answer your question Kings are straight out of the box. I believe it's around 2" of lift and I still am running that setting currently.
I'm no pro offroad Baja racer or anything but I came from racing motocross and I am very picky about my suspension and settings. I can tell a huge difference ON road and definitely OFF road too. Stock shocks and springs were super bouncy and soft. Now with kings it is a much more firm feeling when cornering on normal daily driving.
I did not want to crank up my kings because I don't want to change the stock suspension geometry and put a lot of stress on my 4wd system. So that's why I have it at almost stock hight. Trying to keep the spring rate as soft as possible while letting the compression valving do it's job.
Offroad I set my adjusters about 15 clicks "harder" and the truck is able to absorb any hard hits a lot smoother. This is my daily driver so I also don't do much bashing or hard abuse offroad. But sometimes the whoops come a little faster than the abs can slow me down. Just like to go play in the dirt when I can! Let me know if you have any other questions! I'm always here to share my side of the coin. A lot of info sorry!! but hope it helps some others around here!

 

Great info thanks.. That's the only reason I am hesitant on going Kings is because I wouldn't want to waste them cranking them up for 3" of lift. I too think the stock suspension is bouncy and too soft. Have you ridden on any other Tundras with other suspension? Other ones I have been eyeing are ToyTec Boss , ToyTec radflo or Icon's.. most likely going to get some suspension the end of this year so I still have a while to figure it out.

 

Oh yea I wanted to meantion that also. That I don't have anything to compare besides stock and kings...at least on the this Tundra. I did have bilstien 5100 on my Tacoma and thought those worked really well until harsh hits. But for $200 it was expected. If I were to go another route I would definitely consider toytec or some kind of bilstien like the 6112. I'm sure you will find what fits your needs with a little time.

 

So haven't done a lot of new MODS lately but did a few small things along with much needed maintenance as I'm just approaching 15k miles.
-Got all my driveline zerks greased(5)
-Changed rear diff oil 3.8qts
-Put a K&N Cabin filter in(much needed)

Will be changing transfer case and front diff next! Rear diff oil was pretty dirty for only having 15k so glad I changed it early!

Cleaned up the magnetic drain plug.

Highly recommend Maxima SC1 spray for cleaning up and making your undercarriage and wheel wells shine like new!

Used Lucas oil Red n Tacky grease for the zerks. Had to scrape off the black paint to reviel the zerk opening.

New K&N Cabin filter vs stock at 15k

Boring pix here but IMO very important parts of owning a vehicle! All easy DIY stuff!

 

How bad was the 35" rubbing I want to do the same setup not sure if I want to cut the cab mounts ? lol

 

Based on my reaserch I trimmed my cab mount and removed the mudflaps before buying my tires. All depends on how much you lift the front end. I'm pretty positive any 35" tire will rub the cab mount unless you get a lift kit higher than 3".
Cab mount chop was very easy and no rubbing at all now. Keep searching tire sizes and lift options and seeing what other people have done and make you decision then! Good luck!

 

Just ordered kings and camburg uca's and rims are same size and offset as what you have but most likely I will do a cab mount chop to get 35"

 

Nice! Camburg UCAs are on my list! Did you order the uniball or balljoint one? I look forward to seeing some pix of your truck once it's done!

 

I did uniball Also ordered k37 deaver leaf pack and shackles for the rear ! Last will be tires after I get it all figured out just need to find someone to do the cab mount chop just hard to pull the trigger on a new truck but I know I will be very happy in the end with 35"

 

DIY LED Whip Mount
I did this mod a while back but since desert season is approaching figured I would share. Used it all last season and worked great.

I just used a die grinder and cut out the lip on the tie down clamp. Drilled a 1/2 hole and mounted my whip using the quick disconnect mount that came with the Gorilla whip.
I like to cruise around in the sand dunes and you need a flag so I came up with this.

 

Finally completed my audio build! Definitely went as DIY as I could on this one and I’m very happy with how much better it sounds in the end. Not doing a write up or anything since many others on here have done a much better and more professional step by step! @TundraTex is a madman and I learned almost everything I needed from his audio build. So thank you!

Used 1/2” MDF as speaker spacers
Went with 6x8” kicker components for the front speakers



Had some pioneer 6.5 components from my Tacoma that I used for the rear speakers. Yes I just used tech screws right into the door.
Stock vs Pioneer 6.5s

Wanted to keep the stock head unit so went the route of the

$124 audiocontrol LC7i 6-channel line output converter with accubass

audiocontrol LC7i
Crazy wiring but I did exactly what Tundratex did using wire harness he stated in his build. I went from the LOC to the amps and back to the factory wiring in the doors.

I had these amps from the past to used what I already had. Wired everything up just in the back seat so I could test it out and make adjustments before I tucked the amps under the drivers seat! It was a really tight fit! I did not get a pic of the amps under my seat.

Last and the biggest challenge was getting a subwoofer behind the rear seats! Had to buy a new 10” kicker RT shallow mount. Built my own box based of my measurements of what would fit behind there. Very tight fit but works perfect and I got 0.4 volume out of this box. Min required for this 10” sub. Also used 1/2” MDF to maximize the inside volume!


Spray painted the box and added a sticker for more horsepower.

Here’s the box installed and you can see how close it is! No rubbing tho

I know this isn’t the most clean audio build but I can care less what it looks like since almost everything is hidden when all said and done.
Hope this can help others decide what they want to achieve with there own crewman audio upgrades.

 

looking good...BASS !

 

Nice job, @Bannock452!

 

Hey Bannock452, just letting you know you have my dream truck, and without a doubt the best looking Tundra Ive seen so far. Admittedly I have been drooling over all the pics and the video for a while but just havent signed up until now. Ill be getting a tundra soon, im going to pay cash so its taking a while (more than two years haha) but im planning on King 2.5s resi's front and back, TC UCAs, Diff Drop w/ skid plate spacers, 18x9 +18 offset Method Mesh (probably black though haha) and 33x12.50 Toyo R/T or 325/60R18 Nitto Terra Grappler G2s. I would like to leave the rear as close to stock height as possible because I want to run a 33 inch tire instead of 35s. If you dont mind me asking, I have 3 questions;

1. Do you have aftermarket UCAs yet and if not, are you still able to get within factory alignment specs as far as camber, caster and toe?

2. Do you have an add a leaf in the rear or just the King shocks? If not, do you ever feel like you might want an AAL if you had to carry a heavy load in the bed?

3. Between the 33x12.50R18 R/Ts and 325/60R18 Terra Grapplers, which would you choose? Did you ever have hydroplaning issues with either tire, being so wide?

Thanks a ton for any advice, I have gotten all of the information I have about lifts from people like you on these forums and plan to do a similar thread when I build a truck. I am just starting out and have much to learn, so everything helps!

 

not sure where you are located but I will be selling my 33x12.50x18 Toyo R/T soon. Only 10,000 miles on them. Will be a good price. Going up to same tire but in 35".

 

Im near Redding in Nor Cal. Where at in SoCal are you? I should be headed down south a little next week to look at some used tundras so maybe we'll be close.

 

Thank you man! I really appreciate the compliments. I also did tons of research throughout this forum prior to buying my truck and also making it my dream truck.

1.I currently do NOT have aftermarket upper arms. I installed the Kings straight out of the box which gives a small lift. The alignment shop had no issues getting back into factory specs. I did not want to lift any higher since i have 4x4 and do not want my CV angles to be maxed out. So factory UCA works perfectly for my setup.

2.No AAL in my rear. Only added king shocks. I tow a 20’ trailer estimated weight at around 7-8,000lbs and don’t feel like i would need any extra support for towing. I do use a weight distribution hitch which i feel helps a lot with that tounge weight. Also not changing any factory suspension geometry was my main goal. AAL would change driveline angle very very little but still different. If i got a heavier or bigger trailer i wouldn’t be opposed to adding an AAL if the truck felt like it needed it.

3.I chose the Toyo RT only since I liked the aggressive look of the tire more than the Nitto. I have 35x12.5-18 and have had no issues hydroplaning but also don’t drive wet conditions very much. I do more off-road so the wide tire helps in sand and mud.

Hope that helps your research! Feel free to PM me anytime with any other questions. I’ll do my best to give you my opinions and answers!

 

Thanks for the help, your thread has been very informative.

 

Well it turns out that i found a truck about 25 minutes from where i live that already had Bilstein 5100s, Method Standard +18s, 285/65R18 Toyo A/T2s, a Leer camper, trailer brake controller, and a bed liner. Brought it home last night, so these are my only pics as of now. For anyone who is wondering how far the tires stick out with +18s and 285s, theres about 1 to 1 1/4 inches of tire sticking out, about to the inside of the first tread lug on the toyos. I think im going to leave the Bilsteins on for now but i might upgrade to Kings later on.

 

Just realized I haven’t updated my build thread in a while. So here’s some of the newer things I’ve added and changed.

$318 ARB CKMA12 On-Board Air Compressor High Performance 12 Volt for Air Locker Differentials and Tire Inflation

ARB CKMA12 on board air
Built a custom aluminum mount at my shop and it’s been installed over a year n working great still. Highly recommend this little compressor for anyone looking to air down often.
I made another thread about mine and others on board air so there is more info in this link below
https://www.tundras.com/threads/on-board-air-compressor-location.7699/