Battleship Jones: 2015 Tacoma DCLB Build Thread

[Adventurous]

After a bunch of back and forth with both the wife and my BFF out here I've decided to up our game a bit by getting an ARB fridge/freezer. I was waffling back and forth between a Yeti Cooler and the ARB and think I've settled on going that route. While the up front cost is enough to make me choke, I'm hoping it lasts many many years and is the "game changer" that so many people say it is.

Anyway, this led me to the dilemma of figuring out how to mount it. Ordinarily I've seen it either mounted in the bed or in a back seat perpendicular to the axis of the truck. Given that we use the bed as a literal bed and have two pooches in the back seat meant it would get awfully crowded in there if I chose to orient it as such. The only way I could foresee getting it in there in the, IMO, ideal orientation was to remove the back seats ala Tacozord. It all came out fairly easily and proved to be plenty spacious.

Pictured is the 50qt ARB fridge. There is sufficient space in front and in back to position it with enough room for the cooling fans to operate properly. The only downside is the lid will not open fully. A bummer for sure but not a deal breaker.

IMG_1182 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

In due time I'll be fabricating a platform that will provide a nice home for the ARB to live on as well as provide a significant space upgrade for the dogs. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned; I get more space back and I don't have to worry about muddy paws ruining the back seat. Not to mention I rarely carry more than myself and the wife so having all of that space back is something I should have done a while ago.

Removal of the back seats of course meant that I now had an exposed, thin skinned wall at the back of the truck. There was a perceptible increase in noise that I'm not big on considering the truck was already loud enough. Dynamat it is! Managed to snag the rest of a box from said BFF until I can order some more in to cover the back panel. Being that it was my first time applying sound deadener of any sort I decided that all of the literature I read about cutting it to fit was bologna and I was just going to save myself some time and apply it in a full sheet. My poor misguided self did that for a single sheet before abandoning that method. It turned out okay but given my penchant for perfection I know it's one of those things that will bother me until I have the chance to cover it up. Anyway, I got part of the back done before calling it quits for the night. I'll pick it up tonight and try to finish the back panel. While I know they say you don't have to cover 100% of the surface area I choose to do so for this portion of the truck as there is no other obstructions for both sound and heat. Hopefully this will provide a sufficient barrier to discourage each from negatively impacting the cabin.

IMG_1184 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

[mouse007]

After having almost ate it multiple times standing on the sliders to get to something on the roof, I went ahead and put some 3M Safety-Walk ladder grip tape on the tops. Install was a breeze, though it took a bit of finessing and several pieces of tape to build the curve at the kick out. Time will tell how durable it ends up being.

Where did you get the 3M Safety-Walk..? I need to do this as well, I wear dress shoes every day, and also slip like crazy..!! HAHAHAHA...!!!

 

[Adventurous]

Where did you get the 3M Safety-Walk..? I need to do this as well, I wear dress shoes every day, and also slip like crazy..!! HAHAHAHA...!!!

Home Depot actually. It was in the painting section near the Blue tape and such. Should be about $13 for a roll that will do the entire slider.

 

[mouse007]

Home Depot actually. It was in the painting section near the Blue tape and such. Should be about $13 for a roll that will do the entire slider.

Awesome, going to look for some. Thanks, truck is looking killer..!!

 

[Adventurous]

When I last updated this thread several weeks ago I had a partial sheet of super crinkly Dynamat laid down. It was ugly and I hated it. So I did what any rational human being would do, stepped back, took a deep breath, and commenced ripping it out. Word to the wise, the foil edges of Dynamat are super sharp and I must have ended that night with a dozen cuts on my hands and fingers from that foray.

Anyway, I spent the past few weeks taking my time to do it right. I laid things in much smaller pieces and took the time to properly contour it to the dimensions of the back wall. At the same time I also figured that I would source some foam to fill in the two voids in the back wall for insulating purposes as well as looks. Even though the intent is to cover up the back wall I would hate knowing that whatever I put back there was hiding the half assed job that I did.

During the course of removing the side trim panels I had several of the retainer clips grenade on me. They are fragile as anything and tend to shatter into a billion pieces if you even look at them wrong. I ended up sourcing some more from the Toyota dealership and they were fairly reasonable at $1.58 per. I've attached a picture of the original clip and the part number in case anyone needs it. Just an FYI, Toyota listed ~4 or so clips that would satisfy this same need. The ones I chose were one of the options that featured a neoprene washer to cut down on vibration. They are also available on Amazon and eBay if you choose to go that route.

IMG_1193 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

For the foam I used a sheet of the following: http://www.homedepot.com/p/R-Tech-1-in-x-2-ft-x-4-ft-R-3-85-Insulating-Sheathing-321365/202533710

It was easy to cut to size with a razor blade, was double faced and claims moisture resistant. Should be sufficient for the interior of the vehicle in a location that's not bound to see much if any moisture. I did my best to cut pieces that were slightly oversize and would press into the locations I wanted them. A few strips of Dynatape held everything in place.

IMG_1194 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

It is not necessary in the least to cover the entirety of the back wall with Dynamat according to their literature. It only needs something like 25% surface coverage to deliver it's designed effectiveness. Given that it was acting as a thermal/sound barrier in this instance with the thin sheet metal I chose to cover everything. Tada! Not nearly as wrinkly and much better looking IMO.

IMG_1195 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

And finally with the insulation in place and taped.

IMG_1196 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

A few things of note post install. The seats/bins work really well as a sound deadening interface. No surprise as there's a ton of material there to block sound. The sound in this instance is the cabin air vent which on truck was tucked in the back passenger corner in the recess where the seatbelt spool is located. It was rather noisy once everything was removed and was one of the main motivations I took on the sound deadening project in the first place. With the foam and Dynamat in place the whirring air noise is reduced but not completely eliminated. Hopefully the addition of a back panel helps to reduce that noise. I intend to apply additional Dynamat to all 4 doors to reduce cabin noise as well.

Next up is actually making the platform. I've been throwing a bunch of ideas back and forth and still haven't 100% made up my mind how I want to tackle it. I know it will be full width and have L-track routed into the surface for tie downs. I am still up in the air on material (carpeted plywood, coated plywood, plastic) and whether or not to extend the length all the way to the back of the front seats and lose out on some wheel well space OR get a front runner 10 gallon water tank and compensate for that. Decisions decisions...

 

[Adventurous]

Next up is some more lights! A friend we were camping with last year had some lights on the side of his trailer that light up the camp site nicely and made working or finding things at night a much more pleasant experience. I decided I needed some of those. At the same time I'll be sinking some LED light pods into my rear bumper to assist with backing up into places at night. There have been several instances where the additional light would have very much been welcomed. So in the spirit of adding things as their usefulness presents itself, I ordered up some 2x2 pods for the roof rack (install coming in the next few weeks) and some 2x3 pods for the rear bumper. Specifically I got the following:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KC8JYGQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J5AAX5S?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Upon their arrival I was pretty impressed by the construction. Being a mass produced no doubt foreign product they actually included some fairly nice touches. Both have fairly solid grommets where the power wire enters the housing and the fit and finish was about what you would expect from LED light pods at this price point. The general theme of a lot of the folks who gave them poor ratings was due to water intrusion and subsequent death as a result. Nothing a $5 tube of silicone and 15 minutes per light couldn't fix.

I undid the 6 face bolts, pulled off the cover, the lens, and the diffuser lens to find the circuit board. I cut the tip on my silicone pretty small so it could fit in between the power wires and fill the cavity with silicone to discourage water intrusion past the grommet.

IMG_1198 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

This particular light had a rubber gasket that would sit in the light housing and provide a compressible surface for the lens to ride on. I chose to seal that in two dimensions by first running a bead of silicone to assist in the waterproofness of the gasket

IMG_1199 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Then another bead on top of the gasket that will seal the lens surface. You can see some of the squeeze out along the sides but this is hidden by the faceplate

IMG_1200 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Another bead of silicone on the outside of the gasket to seal the faceplate against the light body, some blue loctite on each of the bolts and I snugged things back up.

IMG_1201 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

None of the additional sealing I did is visible after reassembly. I used this same technique to seal up the LED light bar I have on my roof rack with great success. I have noticed no water intrusion after a year or so of having it on the truck through rain and snow storms. All 4 lights were completed in a similar fashion save for the differences in gaskets between the two sets of lights necessitating a bit of variation in procedure. I'll end up doing another set of the 2x2 pods for the roof rack but wanted to check out the quality of this particular brand/set before going all in.

Now to order up some jacketed neoprene 16-2 cabling as well as some weatherpack connectors. The camping lights will be a traditional on/off rocker switch whereas the bumper lights will be on an on/off/on switch to allow them to come on with the regular backup lights, stay off all together, or come on independently.

 

[Adventurous]

And I got some traction mats in the mail today. Went with Maxsa Escaper Buddies instead of Maxtrax owing to them being half the cost. Of course now I need to come up with some good way to mount them to the roof rack, we'll see what I can come up with.
IMG_1221 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

[kojackJKU]

Good idea. I am going to do this with my flush mounts before installing them the spring.

 

[Adventurous]

Came home to this bundle of joy from Zach at Prinsu Design Studios last night.

IMG_1224 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Ordered it during the most recent group buy. I've been lusting after a matching rack for my topper ever since I put one on the cab during, you guessed it, last year's group buy. Guess I have good timing for these things. Install instructions are pretty straightforward and are readily available through his website so I won't bother with a comprehensive write up or anything. Just a well packed box with a sh!tload of hardware that needs to be sorted through and many wrenches to turn getting this thing on the truck. Well worth it though, it is very, very study and looks great. Now for a few pictures!

IMG_1225 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

IMG_1226 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Now I must gather all the necessary hardware to mount up a few AW cases on there, my awning, traction mats, Rotopax, and Hi-lift jack.

As a side note, a few very annoying noises have cropped up recently that I'm wondering if anyone has experience with.

Dash noise - Primarily seems to manifest itself in colder weather and presents as a ticking type noise over bumps and really any sort of road surface that isn't perfectly smooth. Appears to be coming from the middle of the dash up by the windshield. I stuffed a piece of foam between the windshield and the dash to compress it a bit and that has gotten rid of it but I would rather not have the foam mod be a permanent addition.

Passenger seat headrest noise - Rattles like a mother in cold weather, again, over any sort of road surface that isn't perfect smooth. The cacophony of this + the dash noise is enough to make me want to plow into a tree just so it will be quiet for a bit.

Behind glove box noise - A buzzing noise behind the glove box that presents itself typically around 1,200 rpm and most often between 30-40 mph (probably because that's a common rpm to sit at for that speed range). continues buzzing until around 1,400 rpm then quits. Mostly a warm-weather kinda noise. Tried zip-tying every single wire/wiring bundle back there that I could thinking it was just something vibrating but it still persists.

Driveline clunk? - Not sure it's the driveline, but it seems to be the most likely culprit. If I come to a quick stop on the road, after the truck has a chance to settle, like 3 or so seconds after it comes to rest there is an audible clunk. I've read that the Toyota slip joints get sticky and will sometimes make a clunk, or perhaps it's related to spring wrap, or maybe the torque converter unlocking. Either way, I hate noises that aren't supposed to be there.

Rear end noise - Probably the most disconcerting of the bunch. Makes a terrible oscillating type groan when backing over the sloped curb into my driveway. I typically only notice it when backing into my driveway but it will sometimes present pulling out of the driveway too. I haven't heard it during ordinary driving. Appears to mostly be present when the wheels hit the curb at different times and the driver's side has to compress before the passenger. I've tried torquing the u-bolts, un-torquing then re-torquing the shackle/leaf spring bolts, tightening the topper bolts and tightening the bed bolts. It's driving me crazy.

Anyway, thoughts on any or all of the above would be appreciated if you've encountered and slayed those demons. Now that I think about it it's a pretty long list, perhaps I'll ask the Toyota dealer to go through it next time I'm there for Toyotacare service, although I can already hear the "Oh it's all related to the modifications you have done on the truck." Guess I have 2,500 more miles to go trying to figure it out myself before I go that route.

 

[thethePete]

Driveline clunk is going to be your slip yoke. Take the d-shaft off, clean it all out and reapply some quality grease. Common on any vehicle with a slip yoke, from Ford to GM to Toyota.

Dash rattles are just a reality of a vehicle that sees a lot of off-pavement use. Your "foam mod" is pretty much what the dealer will do, except they may pull the dash and sitck it in a slightly less visible spot. NVH concerns can be a bugger from a tech's standpoint. Same with the headrest. Try moving it to a different position, but there's probably not a lot that can be done about it. Do you drive with the radio off a lot? I get customers coming in with these rattles that they swear are so bad they want to drive their car off a cliff, and it takes 3 technicians and specialized equipment to find, isolate and resolve the noise because it's so minute. Half the NVH concerns I get can't be heard with the HVAC system on, never mind once you turn the radio on...

The rear end noise would probably be one someone will have to diag in person, unless they've had the exact same symptoms as you...

Buzzing behind the dash will be either a cable vibrating somewhere (check your own installs too, noise will transmit quite far through a vehicle), or two panels vibrating. I forget, do you have a techdeck installed? That might be a good place to start. Try pushing on various places in the dash as you're driving and see if it eliminates the noise. Try driving with the glovebox removed, different things like that. Grab a roll of masking tape and drive and start taping things up until the noise goes away, then you can figure out how to eliminate said vibration.

Good luck, as I mentioned, NVH can be a real bugger.

 

[Adventurous]

Driveline clunk is going to be your slip yoke. Take the d-shaft off, clean it all out and reapply some quality grease. Common on any vehicle with a slip yoke, from Ford to GM to Toyota.

Dash rattles are just a reality of a vehicle that sees a lot of off-pavement use. Your "foam mod" is pretty much what the dealer will do, except they may pull the dash and sitck it in a slightly less visible spot. NVH concerns can be a bugger from a tech's standpoint. Same with the headrest. Try moving it to a different position, but there's probably not a lot that can be done about it. Do you drive with the radio off a lot? I get customers coming in with these rattles that they swear are so bad they want to drive their car off a cliff, and it takes 3 technicians and specialized equipment to find, isolate and resolve the noise because it's so minute. Half the NVH concerns I get can't be heard with the HVAC system on, never mind once you turn the radio on...

The rear end noise would probably be one someone will have to diag in person, unless they've had the exact same symptoms as you...

Buzzing behind the dash will be either a cable vibrating somewhere (check your own installs too, noise will transmit quite far through a vehicle), or two panels vibrating. I forget, do you have a techdeck installed? That might be a good place to start. Try pushing on various places in the dash as you're driving and see if it eliminates the noise. Try driving with the glovebox removed, different things like that. Grab a roll of masking tape and drive and start taping things up until the noise goes away, then you can figure out how to eliminate said vibration.

Good luck, as I mentioned, NVH can be a real bugger.

Thanks for the advice. I kind of figured as much with the dash related rattles, it seems to be pretty hit or miss in terms of both replicating it, and then getting the dealership to fix it.

In an exciting piece of news I managed to track down the heinous rear end noise. I went through pretty much the entirety of the truck tightening or checking every bolt I could get my hands on. When I got to the leaf springs I noticed that it looks like the leafs on the rear driver's side pack had shifted and there were what appeared to be rub marks, a good indication that there was some lateral movement. Upon further inspection the leaf spring clamps were cocked a little bit and weren't tight. I hammered them as straight as I could as they were a bit deformed and loose; it appears they came that way from the ARB factory. After tightening them up the problem went away. Hallelujah. Unfortunately they claimed the life of my Craftsman 3/8" ratchet in the process, I'll have to warranty that one here shortly. Sadly it was one of the last USA made ones I could find, I'll have to just swap out the ratcheting mechanism.

 

[brianjwilson]

I wonder how long before you ditch the OME leafs, and see how much better a good progressive deaver style spring rides. And so much quieter too!

 

[Adventurous]

I wonder how long before you ditch the OME leafs, and see how much better a good progressive deaver style spring rides. And so much quieter too!

That reminds me, I have to go get some fertilizer. The money tree I planted a while ago still hasn't produced any green yet.

I definitely do see the appeal however. I will at some point re-do the rear suspension of the truck but can't see tackling that within the next few years. Current life plan, which granted is a couple years out at this point calls for purchasing a smaller travel trailer and doing a fairly length road trip. Not sure my current setup is adequate for such duties.

Anyway, I'm reversing my position on the ARB fridge. After looking long and hard at them the pricetag is a bit much to swallow, especially seeing as how the wife and I usually don't do anything longer than 5 days and the price difference between an ARB and a quality cooler is significant. I was able to pick up a Yeti Tundra 45 cooler over the weekend for a bit north of $100 that should at least cover us in the interim if I decide that the fridge is the way to go. Still working on the platform for the back seat where this will live, but looking forward to it either way.

IMG_1232 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

[Adventurous]

A few pages back there was a discussion on the use of AW gun cases on the roof as additional storage. Some are a fan, some are not. I decided, for better or worse, to mount up a couple to gain a little bit of protected outside storage. We'll see how they fare long term, but it was a fairly cheap endeavor with a nice upside to it.

Ended up going with a pair of the following: http://www.amazon.com/Plano-108421-...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Construction is pretty solid, obviously not up to the quality/durability of a Pelican case but I was able to pick up both for a fraction of the cost of a single Pelican.

Installation is pretty straightforward. Drill 4 holes in the bottom of each, run 1/4-20 carriage bolts into the Prinsu crossbars, and set the case on top. I snugged it all down with some plastic hand knobs with nylock nut inserts, so they shouldn't be moving anywhere or vibrating loose.

IMG_1236 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

They are pretty solid up there and there is minimal wiggle if you grab hold and start shaking them.

IMG_1238 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Long term durability will be a question under the strong CO sun but time will tell. Until then I am pretty pleased with the way they turned out. Should be a nice place for voluminous things such as our bows, fishing rods, backpacks, or MTB gear to live. I did consciously make the decision to mount them ~ in the middle of the rack so I could still have the use of a crossbar both in front of and behind the cases to take stuff such as a shovel or Hi-Lift. Those with OCD may notice that the latches aren't centered over this crossbars. I did this on purpose as it would have been a bit unwieldy trying to get my fingers under the latches if it was mounted as such.

IMG_1237 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

[Adventurous]

Upped my electrical game recently. Wasn't a huge fan of using heat shrunk spade connectors to hook up electrical accessories exposed to the elements. I invested in the tools to crimp up Deutsch DT terminals and have to say I am impressed with their construction and apparently weatherproofiness. Just a few pics of the beginning of the harness I'm making for the camp lights. Also trying out some SJOOW neoprene jacketed cable as it looks much cleaner in my opinion than a couple of exposed wires and should provide an additional degree of protection.

Plug end with marine heat shrink to prevent water intrusion into the jacket.
IMG_1240 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Receptacle end with the same.
IMG_1241 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

And a happy union!
IMG_1242 by Tim Souza, on Flickr