2012 Taco slow build - The Escape Pod.

[Finlay]

I got the mounting bracket for the relay box built. It's not my best work ever, but it turned out pretty well for a first shot with some scrap materials I had. It'll do for now and I can take another better crack at it later this summer.





I was an hour late for work this morning because of this.



Sigh.

However, while I was waiting, I got a call that the steel I had ordered as ready.



The fridge fits in the tray perfectly. With about an inch front and back for some mounting hardware. The angle iron will provide a nice base, and a frame to build a shelter around the fridge.



I got some 200 lb. drawer slides from drawerslides.com. I had thought to recycle some slides from old retired servers, but those are actually kind a pain to side mount and I didn't want to hack together a ghetto stumpy server rack to use them in.

 

[huntsonora]

It's funny, I've never looked at a blue truck and either liked it or disliked it, I've always been indifferent to that color on a truck BUT your truck and a couple others I've seen on here and around my town have made me reevaluate my opinion. They look damn good!

 

[Finlay]

That new blue that they they have for the Tacos is pretty sharp - and you're right, it looks great with black. Or Chrome, I guess, but my wife's 4runner is blue and chrome and I just couldn't do that. Thanks for the compliment!

So I had a bad week at work, and I haven't had much chance to work on the truck - and anyway, it's been cold and raining pretty much full time. Still, I got a new toy installed :



It's a BlueCat - a bluetooth CAT interface for the Yaesu 8x7 series radios. That is nifty enough as it is, but what I got it for is to interface with the RepeaterBook app. Instead of having to program all the various repeaters I might want/need to deal with ahead of time on the trip - this uses the GPS to find the ones near me. And, with the BlueCat, I have it program the radio all pushy-clicky like. It's like living in the future.

I also got some work done on the fridge slide:







I've got a bunch more work to do, but, it's coming along.

 

[Finlay]

So, it's been a hectic few weeks. Got the truck cleaned and prepped, and I've started accumulating gear in the garage. I've got the day off Thursday to take care of last minute things and then to leave Bright and Early Friday to roll out to Denver, CO. From there, I'm meeting up with some friends and rolling to Moab for a few days before rolling down to Overland Expo.

So, what I've done :

So, you take one of the blanks out of the switch panel on the dashboard, and you're left with a hole like this :



The carling switch won't fit in there, so you have to do some dremelling. Maybe you can do better than me.



But none of that matters if the end product works :



The switch (and some future switches) are connected to the relay box I built earlier. That is mounted on a bracket I built out of some scrap metal I had laying around. I might redo it at some later point - there are some things I wish I had done a bit differently (more places to mount wire harnesses, for one) but it will work for now.



Anyway, I got that hooked up to a 15 amp Blue Sea outlet. It seems to work OK, but I think I will want a less bulky plug/socket type in the future. I'll have to do some research into that. Anyway, it's enough to drive the fridge and the little air compressor I got, too.



Then I was working on the fridge - some of the wires in there needed to be loomed and secured more tightly. I noticed that because of the way the one corner was pushed in that the drain was impacting onto the coil in a way that looked very worrisome.



It's a strange place for the drain, but I busted out a hacksaw and took 1/2" off it and now there is much more clearance.



The last thing I did was pick up some interlocking exercise mats (similar to this). My wife and I both disliked how cold the aluminum honeycomb of the RTT could be at night, and she wanted a bit more cushion to the mattress. We've seen the aeromat from the RTT improvements thread - but that stuff runs 200 bucks.

This was an inexpensive option to try - with some carpeting tape and a bit of trimming these went in just swell and are cushy and nice. If it sucks, we'll be out 40 bucks and a couple hours of labor, but I think it will do well.

 

[RKRUGER]

Love the mat idea. We have some of those on the concrete floor in the basement where the kids play... Target or something like that. Very durable and insulate that you can be down there with little bare feet. Cool idea!

Sounds like you are going to have a great trip. Are you coming thru this way, or dropping right south?

 

[jgreen-fsi]

Very cool project!

 

[Finlay]

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to it.

I'll be going south, through Nebraska to Denver.

I had been hoping to make it to a MOS meeting this spring, but I just didn't have the time. I also won't be able to make the June Nipigon run they've got planned- which is sorely disappointing. I love going up there.

I'll definitely be joining them for a fall trip. I love autumn in the north woods.

Love the mat idea. We have some of those on the concrete floor in the basement where the kids play... Target or something like that. Very durable and insulate that you can be down there with little bare feet. Cool idea!

Sounds like you are going to have a great trip. Are you coming thru this way, or dropping right south?

 

[Finlay]

Been a spell since I bumped this. Not much progress on the truck. The Moab/Overland Expo/Colorado adventure went exceedingly well. Too well - my wife gave me permission to find a job somewhere out west. If I can make enough for both of us, we'll move there. So.... if anyone needs a good IT administrator with ~20 years experience, let me know. References available upon request and all that, too.

The one big thing I did accomplish was fixing a nagging problem I had with the OTRATTW switches I had installed. Getting them to light up with the dash lights was easy enough, but getting them to dim with them was not so simple. The problem lays in how Toyota designed the dash light system on the 2nd gen Taco.

The dash lights are run by a switched +12V circuit. Easy enough. However, the lights are grounded through the dimmer circuit which delivers 0V (full bright) to 12v (full dim). It's a nifty system, but incompatible with the OTRATTW switches, because those use a common ground for the switch body and the lights - if you drive the ground at some voltage, it can backfeed into the switched circuit.

So, I dusted off the engineering degree and built a comparator circuit from some spare parts I had laying around.



It works OK - it's not as linear as the dash lights, and doesn't match the brightness exactly. However, it mostly works as advertised and was a fun little side project.


I'm getting the truck ready to roll out with MOS to the Badlands later this week. Should be a blast.

 

[Finlay]

Me, the dog and the truck took a short jaunt to South Dakota with MOS.

The trip itself was great, although I did suffer a minor setback in that my tent was destroyed by some higher than anticipated rainfalls.



I've been in contact with Bobby at CVT - who called be back even though he was on vacation - he's sending parts and we've talked some strategies to reinforce parts of the tent. The dude is great and I love how relatable and no-nonsense he is. I'm sure I'll have my tent fixed in no time.

In other news, I swung by Armor Tech Offroad in Platteville and Adam - the owner - did something very unkind to my truck. He removed the rear bumper and then cut off a part of the bedside!!! ZOMG, how could he ?!?!?!





Actually, it worked out kind of awesome. He does really good work and this thing rocks.



Tomorrow, I have to roll down there to get some finishing touches done, and get the swing out built. I should get them powdercoated soonish, and then run the wiring. This bumper is totally bad ***. I love how it turned out.

 

[Finlay]

Popped down to 4xInnovations today and got the swingout made.

Sweet. They made a custom propane tank holder and I used their standard jerry can holder. All of which is very well done.



Now to find someplace to get them powdercoated.

 

[uscg2008]

my GSP BAILEY goes with me too

 

[BenMara]

Cool
My hounds love Toyotas

After the dog park time to head home

Hang out in the FZJ80 on Shem Creek, SC

 

[Finlay]

I got the bumper back from the powdercoaters.



I'll get more and better pictures up later, but it turned out really well.

I also managed to get a job in Grand Junction, Colorado. I'll be moving there in a few weeks. A tidy little raise in pay and much closer to the playground - I just couldn't take that haul across Iowa anymore.

I'm gonna spend the next years rocky mountain way....

 

[OttawaXJ]

Hey man I know you were wrestling with the mileage issue with your tent up top. I'm planning on doing a similar cage to yours for my RTT going on my ford Ranger. What I've found in my research is that if you drop those hoops just a little lower(4-6") it allows the wind to go over the tent saving mileage, bugs and you dont need to screw around with air dams.

Food for thought.

Love the build dude, if I didnt already have a ranger to work with I'd be going with a Taco too.

 

[doug720]

I like your dogs for some reason...


Marco(Viz) and Misty(GSP).

Truck looks good too!

Doug