Lightweight

[dieck]

Hey guys, my truck is a lightweight compared to yours, but my needs aren't quite as drastic either. It is my daily driver and light needs trailhead vehicle. I also recently installed a TRD charger on it which gives it quite a bit more pep.

I also have super high res bandwidth hog images if interested.

I do have a few mods you might find interesting

This is the truck in looking as it usually does for daily driving

Here are some pics of the inverter install (notice the subtle plug below the auto tranny shifter)

Here are a couple of the Line-X bed and ammo cans

And finally here is one of the taco with the ocean kayak (sometimes also a water safari alumacraft goes up there for the Texas Water Safari 260Mile canoe race)

 

[Scott Brady]

ooooh supercharger....

I remember back in 2001. I went to Tempe Toyota and was looking at 4runners and Tacomas (I ended up buying a Land Rover). They had a regular cab prerunner V6 with the supercharger. It was incredible. You could chirp the tires in third gear... :smileeek:

 

[dieck]

Proof that I need some extraction gear even for trailhead type work. This resulted in a LONG hike out of a swamp when the fire road turned into quicksand.

But if it gets you out in the wild, it's always worth the trouble.

This is a nifty camping hammock from Hennesey. It rocks and I've never gone back to a tent since I got it. I can literally put it up in under a minute without the rain fly and under 5 min with the rain fly. Super light weight when I'm on foot and ooooh so useful in swamps and mountains when there's not dry or flat ground.

Me at the trail head... Cheesin

And of course my faithful companion... Plato.

 

[bluerunner]

wow, thats really clean.

What other mods do you have planned?

Oh yeah, welcome to the board! :lurk:

 

[dieck]

Next on my mod list are fuel mods and a tranny job to bullet proof the charger install.

I'm also real intersted in a removable topper or soft top for the bed similar to this:

Or maybe this:

And some protection, like this:

(Just kidding)

 

[lionsbreath]

Great looking truck! Welcome :victory:

 

[lionsbreath]

Is there any lift on your truck? How did you wire up the inverter? how much of a pain was it to put on the super charger did you do it yourself and did you install the 7th injector?

 

[The BN Guy]

I'm curious how you guys are mounting the ammo cans to the bed? Are you putting some sort of rubber bushing in between the two?

Clean looking truck. Lots of potential on the Taco's.

 

[dieck]

Is there any lift on your truck? How did you wire up the inverter? how much of a pain was it to put on the super charger did you do it yourself and did you install the 7th injector?

3 inch lift front and rear. Donahoe coilovers front deavers rear.

The charger install wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. The two hardest parts were removing all the belts from the accessories (with the tight engine compartment some of the adjustment bolts are hard to get to) and figuring out where all the vacuum connections go afterwards (the directions leave a little to be desired here).

I installed it on a friday night by myself. Started at 8:30 pm and finished completely at 2:00am. This time was really the whole job from opening the TRD box to re-bolting on the skid plate. Only tools needed were a screw driver (flat head), several metric socket wrenches, and a mechanics magnet for all the screws I dropped down into crevices.

I haven't done any fuel mods yet, and have had minimal knocking on this 02. I am probably running lean in the high rpms but I don't go there but once in a blue moon. I'm prepared to do some fuel mods from URD next if I think it's necessary but will probably not go with the 7th injector as I believe it's a bit of a hack sending fuel through the supercharger. Would rather go with more fuel pressure and larger injectors.

My favorite part about the supercharger is the engine has enough torque that it hardly ever downshifts on hills when on cruise control. Before it was shifting all over the place and felt very over taxed. As an interesting aside, if I drive like a grandpa in town I get 2 mpg better (19mpg) and 4mpg better on the highway (23 mpg). Not that this is a reason to do the charger, but it was a surprise. I think it is because the engine has so much more torque at low rpm that it doesn't rev as much under light accelleration.

The inverter install was pretty strait forward. Direct lead off the battery with a circuit breaker attached to the firewall. Wires pass through the gromet on the driver's side

I ran the wires in a loop in the engine bay to keep water from running down the wire in the engine bay and through the grommet.

Up under the dash. I could have gone with a larger inverter on the install but this one meets all my needs to date which are admittedly minor (no power tools)

This is the way it looks when getting in and out of the truck. You don't see anything.

 

[dieck]

I'm curious how you guys are mounting the ammo cans to the bed? Are you putting some sort of rubber bushing in between the two?

Clean looking truck. Lots of potential on the Taco's.

I used a trick that I learned from my grandfather to mount the ammo cans. He's an avid offroad guy and his daily driver is a 1960's vintage international harvester scout. (NICE).

The trick was initially non intuitive for me but made sense upon reflection.

Go to lowes and buy a big back of toilet bowl brass bolts. Toilet bowl bolts have to create a water tight seal because they sit underwater in the toilet. These come with a bunch of soft rubber washers.

Drill your holes then install the bolts with one washer between the ammo can and the head of the bolt and another washer between the can and the bed. Best to align the holes so they are in the raised part of the bed so water channels in the lower sections and rarely comes in contact with the bolt. Because the bolts are brass the never rust. Also the bolts are long enough and soft enough that you can trim off the excess length with a dremel or grinder and still thread the nut.

It has worked flawlessly and have never had an ounce of moisture get in. The ammocans have great waterproof seals, line-x seals any seams and the toilet bowl bolts and washers on the bottom keep things dry down there.

 

[dieck]

I'm curious how you guys are mounting the ammo cans to the bed? Are you putting some sort of rubber bushing in between the two?

Clean looking truck. Lots of potential on the Taco's.

Regarding the clean comment, other than rain, those clean pics (1.5 years ago) was the last time the truck was washed. It's a lot dirtier now...

 

[The BN Guy]

Excellent! I have the can just need to mount the compressor in it, mount the tank, and then mount the can in the bed.

As for the topper, I've heard some great things about the Softtopper and the Can-Back. But the Can-Back company seems to be having some production problems. So the softtopper is the plan for Stormy.

 

[kcowyo]

Nice truck and 'yak!

I use those 20MM ammo cans also, to store my recovery gear and air compressor but I never thought about using bedliner on them. Good tip on the brass bolts too!

When you say fuel mods, I'm assuming your talking about Gadget's stuff but what do you have in mind for the tranny? Did you add a transmission cooler with your SC? I know Austin is fairly close to sea level, are you having pinging or lean out issues with your SC?

I enjoyed your gallery too. Now I know I'm not the only one with a huge stash of Sportsmobile pics!

 

[dieck]

Nice truck and 'yak!

When you say fuel mods, I'm assuming your talking about Gadget's stuff but what do you have in mind for the tranny? Did you add a transmission cooler with your SC? I know Austin is fairly close to sea level, are you having pinging or lean out issues with your SC?

I've been running a HUGE hayden tranny cooler since I first bought the truck. They are cheap insurance and the taco trannys run hot, especially in stop and go traffic as I sometimes get here in Austin.

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll probably go URD (Gadget) for the fuel mods. I don't ping much except right before tranny kickdown in heavily loaded situations. However I do believe the trucks run lean above 3500rpm without the mods so I'll probably do em.

For the tranny I'm thinking of IPT although level 10 has a good reputation too. Most of the guys running charger either have their valvebody reworked by one of these two companies or end up having to buy a new tranny.

You can check out Gadget's site for a play by play with level 10. Also the TTORA performance section has a bunch of posts on this.

IPT

 

[kcowyo]

I have a 2nd gen TRD supercharger on my '97 T100, with a tranny cooler too. No real complaints but I don't seem to have the initial throttle response like a couple of d'cab tacos with the SC that I've driven. Once it starts getting above 2800rpms, it does great, smooth through the whole power band. It just doesn't have that initial "snap", when you punch it like in the Tacomas.

Some of that I attribute to the T being heavier, by about 600lbs. It could be the gears, but I have stock 4.30's and I thought the d'cab tacomas did too? Also the Tacomas were new (less than 2K miles) at the time and the SC was installed when new. I have close to 50K on my SC now and some say the nose needs to be rebuilt around 60K.

On Yotatech.com, there is a member, Midiwall, who has done a ton of research and testing with Gadget on his SC. Some good reading and facts if you're still collecting info on fuel and tranny mods. It seems that there are varied performance results based on altitude as well, with regards to pinging and lean out. Owners in higher elevation areas like CO, report fewer problems than those closer to sea level. There are many variables, opinions and mixed results with the SC, but I've been very happy with mine.