Little things...
So the brakes and struts are sitting in my office gathering dust while I wait for my Doc to OK me for real work. I'm healing but it's like recovering from a whole body sprain.
So I did what any good patient does and see what I could get away with.
TRD Exhaust - I know 3-7 hp for a lot of money why bother? It sounds nice and I have never had a nice exhaust on a car before and I got it included with my truck purchase so why not?
Really really simple install, anti-seize for the two exhaust bolts, maybe some soapy water for pulling and installing the muffler hangers and raise the rear end of the truck a few inches to you can twist the exhaust free of the rear axle, and go ahead and buy a new Y pipe to muffler gasket "just in case".
GT Seat Covers- Wasn't sure what to expect, protection seems like a good idea, I'm not wild about their attempt to keep the fold flat front passenger seat back "open". I might call them and see if I can swap out the passenger seat cover for a regular one with a map pocket. The rears are really tight but feel like they are part of the truck now. There are some straps under the seats that will need to be secured but I feel better knowing that creosote, crude oil, transmission fluid ect wont be trying to destroy the interior.
RAM mount- putting a computer or tablet in a rig is really really common now, unfortunately most manufactures make it as difficult as possible to travel with these tools. The ram mount is mostly set up. Tab a into slot B type work. The tricky part is the little lock nuts that are "sunk" into the injection molded plastic. Forcing the nuts onto a broken pencil helps place them in the right area to get screws started. RAM mounts are a little clunky, but you can totally customize them, and you can order just the parts you want and build your own mount. These mounts do not like passengers and totally get in the way of passenger airbags, the only plus is that case is that the whole mount come loose with a couple of twist of a nut and just the base is left on the truck. I think a modified tennis ball or something might need to go on the post to keep the passengers from scraping up their legs.
Bupmstops - I added the front Timbrens and pulled out the front sway bar as an experiment. THe timbers do catch the truck and keep body roll to a minim however I do not recommend this with the stock shocks as the damping is horrible and increasing the body roll just shows how week the shocks are. On the Plus side, driving around on rutted washboard dirt roads is quite and the truck handles very, very well. The rear bump stops need the available spacer, I have enough room of the truck bed to accelerate and then "hit" the bump stop (horrible Albuquerque roads) this might go away with the new shocks but I will call Timbern and ask them about the spacing. FYI I have over 1 1/2 inches between the bump-stop and the frame.
Redline fluids are on order from my local supplier, 75 W 85 Diff fluid is not commonly used and had to be special ordered.
After playing with the exhaust and looking around the net I might give URD a call and ask them about a pre-programed MAF calibrator. With the modified airbox, freer flowing exhaust, sparkplugs, synthetic oil and the VVTI screen mod. There might be enough "slack" the stock CU code to use those mods a little more effectively. Also the URD short throw shift kit and MAF calibrator cost the same as the TRD short shift kit.... So it's really a free mod right? Also keep in mind that this truck will ALWAYS use regular octane gas to I'm trying to play with the .5-2% gains that each mod might be giving me and put it all into one package that allows a little better volumetric efficiency and more complete combustion. Which is A. Greener and will give me better gas mileage and B. More fun to drive!