Battleship Jones: 2015 Tacoma DCLB Build Thread

[yonah]

I'm really liking your build and attention to detail - especially in the the electrical department. I've always enjoyed installing electrical accessories and doing it right. You do good work.

I have a '12 DCSB that I was fortunate enough to buy already outfitted with some practical modications for overlanding. I'll be following your build for sure as you've given me a lot of great ideas. Maybe I'll start my own - who knows. Cheers,

 

[Adventurous]

I'm really liking your build and attention to detail - especially in the the electrical department. I've always enjoyed installing electrical accessories and doing it right. You do good work.

I have a '12 DCSB that I was fortunate enough to buy already outfitted with some practical modications for overlanding. I'll be following your build for sure as you've given me a lot of great ideas. Maybe I'll start my own - who knows. Cheers,

Thanks for the compliments! I'm glad that people are able to get something out of my thread. As someone who didn't grow up around modifying trucks or 4-wheeling, this is all completely new to me. I have gotten more than my fair share from this incredibly knowledgable community and continue to learn new things every day. You should definitely start a build thread, it's always cool to see what kind of awesome rigs people are rolling around in.

 

[Adventurous]

A couple of small updates. I started collecting some recovery gear for this upcoming season. Got a few shackles, a recovery strap, shovel, and a Hi-Lift jack. I'm quite impressed with the beefiness of the receiver shackle, looks like it should serve me faithfully when I undoubtedly get stuck.

20150210-P1010337 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I also, taking the queue from Zidaro's build thread, decided to put some shock boots on my Icons. Even though the exposed shafts look cool, they were getting super dirty and I was worried about them pitting or chipping from debris. No matter, a pair of shocks boots later and they should hopefully be good to go for a while!

20150212-P1010342 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

 

[tgreening]

Dont know the weather in your area, but keep an eye on whats going on under those shock boots. Any time I've ever used those they trapped moisture and the shock shafts would rust.

 

[Adventurous]

Dont know the weather in your area, but keep an eye on whats going on under those shock boots. Any time I've ever used those they trapped moisture and the shock shafts would rust.

It's typically pretty dry out here in the Denver area, but I will keep an eye on it. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Adventurous]

So my work schedule flip flopped for a few days to the graveyard shift, so I had a few hours today to play around with the truck and get a few things accomplished.

First off I was able to install the ARB fog lights I had ordered up after my experiment to find a cheap alternative failed. The ARBs feel like a quality light and as to be expected, they were more or less plug and play. Owing to my getting an aftermarket fog light harness, it was as simple as splicing a few wires and plugging into the stock harness. The toughest part was having melting snow dripping down into my face as I was under the truck getting everything back on the bumper.

20150217-P1010344 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Second task for the day was to clean up the wiring to my auxiliary fuse block. Having what felt like a billion wires coming to and fro was messy and unacceptable. Thankfully they practically give away 100 feet of wiring loom through Amazon so I went to town with that and some electrical wire and have everything tucked away safely.

20150217-P1010343 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Finally I completed the yellow wire mod I referenced a few pages ago. For those who are unaware, it essentially gives the truck TRAC in 4Lo as it tricks it into thinking it is in 4Hi. I have yet to try it out off road but can confirm that it works.

20150217-P1010345 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

As you can see, I chose to unplug the wire rather than switch or snip it. This way it is all perfectly reversible if I decide for some reason that I want to plug things back in. That being said, getting the wire out was a bit of a pain. I tried a myriad of things to stuff down in the connector to depress the catch holding it in to no avail. Finally I chopped up the cap of a beer bottle into a rectangular piece that was thin enough to slide down and it came out easily. Just an FYI for those who intend to do the same mod and don't want to cut.

 

[Yulli]

You mentioned you lost some MPG with the new tires. Did you have to regear at all in your rear end or plan to do later down the road?

Plus, was your tire size a special or something? I can't find a single tire in a 255/85/16. Was that size discontinued? (nevermind that, found the tread about that size)

 

[Adventurous]

You mentioned you lost some MPG with the new tires. Did you have to regear at all in your rear end or plan to do later down the road?

Plus, was your tire size a special or something? I can't find a single tire in a 255/85/16. Was that size discontinued? (nevermind that, found the tread about that size)

Unfortunately I put the tires on at the same time as the lift and bumper, so it's hard to tell you what the impact to the MPG was as a result of just the tires. All told though between the tires, lift, and ARB, it worked out to be ~2mpg. I went from ~20mpg to ~18mpg after the switch. I wouldn't mind regearing at some point to get some of the oomph back. Granted I haven't driven it up into the hills yet but I anticipate wanting some more grunt out of the truck when I do.

 

[Adventurous]

So my AllPro sliders arrived on Wednesday and I spent the past few days getting them on the truck. Luckily (or not luckily depending on your point of view), I had flip flopped shifts at work and was working graveyards. That gave me the majority of the day to work uninterrupted on the installation.

First task was to mock the sliders up to the frame and figure out where I needed to drill holes. Each slider requires 4 holes to be drilled in the bottom of the frame for installation. The mock up was fairly straightforward as the holes in the L-brackets match up extremely well to the holes on the frame. After using a hammer and center punch to mark the hole locations I whisked the sliders off to my makeshift paint booth and started hitting them with primer and paint.

Meanwhile I drilled the holes in the frame. Although some people have reported having difficulty with this process I must have had good luck as I used progressively larger cobalt drill bits (starting at 7/32 and moving up to 3/8") and had all 8 done in fairly quick order. To protect myself from a potentially expensive mistake, I clamped a 2x4 on top of the frame rail on the drivers side to prevent punch through of the bit from destroying the brake/fuel lines in that area. All holes were chamfered, primed, and painted.

20150220-P1010346 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The sliders were painted with Rustoleum glossy enamel auto paint. I have found this to be very durable and it did a good job matching the ARB bumper.

20150220-P1010347 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

After patiently waiting 24 hours for the paint to dry, I set about installing the sliders on the truck. Although AllPro has tech documents on their site outlining the installation procedure, they are a bit outdated and don't do a great job at going over all of the steps in the process. Hopefully my experiences can save people a significant amount of trouble.

I did the passenger side first as I knew from prior experience that it would be the easiest. Using a floor jack I raised the sliders into place and maneuvered them around with a dead blow until everything lined up properly. Mistake #1 was not putting one of the nut plates into the cross member for that mounting leg. Oops. I discovered this mistake after I had installed most of the other bolts and had to remove everything, lower the slider, and put that in. Just a word to the wise.

20150220-P1010348 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I installed the 4 flat head cap screws first using a washer, lock washer, and nut on the back side. Next came the un-fun part; the 2 bolts that go inside the boxed part of the frame. The first one isn't too bad to access, I was able to reach my arm into the frame and get that one together. The forward one on the other hand was significantly more difficult and after ~10 minutes of cursing, going elbow deep in the frame, and jockeying things around I got the second nut plate on. The rest of the bolts kind of fall into place and I gave everything a good turn with the wrench to tighten it up.

The driver's side poses some additional challenges with the presence of the brake lines and hardware. This made it impossible for me to reach my arm into the frame like on the passenger side to get those forward brackets together. After scratching my head for a bit and trying various solutions I used a magnetic pick up to ferry the nut plates into the boxed portion of the frame. It went beautifully and I had things together in fairly short order.

20150220-P1010350 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The other challenge is dealing with the brake lines. It's easiest to pop the clips out and put them back into place after, though one of the nut plates interferes with the brake lines in the back. I used a combination of finessing it in there, gently bending the brake line, and protecting them with some tubing to get everything settled again. Once again, tighten everything up and you are good to go.

All installed!

20150220-P1010351 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Now I need to get out and do some glamour shots with the truck. It's been a while since I've taken anything other than install pics.

 

[brianjwilson]

I didn't think all pro sold DCLB sliders in that bolt on style. I was looking at relentless for that reason but maybe I have a few options after all.

Edit: I see the double cab long bed sliders added on their site now. These are the heavy duty (not apex) version right?

 

[sfsmedic]

I didn't think all pro sold DCLB sliders in that bolt on style. I was looking at relentless for that reason but maybe I have a few options after all.

Edit: I see the double cab long bed sliders added on their site now. These are the heavy duty (not apex) version right?

I have dc apex bolt ons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[brianjwilson]

Apparently my computer erased my post yet again.

The allpro website sucks and doesn't clearly show the difference between the different versions. I'm looking at the double cab long bed. I want the full L shaped brace that mates to the frame (as pictured) instead of the basic square plates. I assume this is the "heavy duty" version I'm just trying to clarify.

 

[Adventurous]

Apparently my computer erased my post yet again.

The allpro website sucks and doesn't clearly show the difference between the different versions. I'm looking at the double cab long bed. I want the full L shaped brace that mates to the frame (as pictured) instead of the basic square plates. I assume this is the "heavy duty" version I'm just trying to clarify.

These are indeed the "Heavy Duty" version and are intended for the DCLB configuration. From my research I found that CBI in addition to AllPro and Relentless offer a bolt-on version for the DCLB with the L-bracket mounting.

 

[Adventurous]

Just a quick update: After a few days of riding around with the sliders on it appears I will have to drop them and massage the pinch seam a bit with a BFH to get a little more clearance with the legs. AllPro recommends 1/4" at the slider legs and it is evident that clearance is inadequate on the driver's side for sure, but I'll also do the passenger side at the same time. C'est la vie. I guess sometimes the variations and stack-ups don't work in your favor.

 

[brianjwilson]

Good deal, thanks!

What are your thoughts on power and driveability with stock gearing and 255s, after having them for a few months? Realizing that everything is relatively slow at your elevation....

I've been trying to locate a DCLB SR5 with navigation and they are very hard to find. I also didn't want to pay another $1000 for a fake hood scoop and 17" wheels. I wanted white or silver, there was 1 white one in the region (enroute to the region actually) but it was a sold order. Ironically the only one I found locally was gray, exactly like yours.