Dave Bennett
Adventurist
Looks great, cant wait to see it in person! :friday:
Starting Over... Taco Style!
- Thread starter viatierra
- Start date
viatierra
Explorer
Busy January!!
I've had a great month playing with the new configuration of the Tacoma:
My esteemed brother and I took a Daddy & Daughter day and ran Montana Mountain together. It was a gorgeous day after rain so Mark snapped one of his insane pictures that ended up in the 2008 Expedition Portal Calander!
Next I headed off to Death Valley with the girlfriend and had an increadible time. I hadn't spent multiple days in the Maggiolina before. I'm always up at first light when camping, but this tent is so comfortable I was shocked at waking up late each day...
Last I did a portion of the Great Western Trail and camped with Samantha:
I've had a great month playing with the new configuration of the Tacoma:
My esteemed brother and I took a Daddy & Daughter day and ran Montana Mountain together. It was a gorgeous day after rain so Mark snapped one of his insane pictures that ended up in the 2008 Expedition Portal Calander!
Next I headed off to Death Valley with the girlfriend and had an increadible time. I hadn't spent multiple days in the Maggiolina before. I'm always up at first light when camping, but this tent is so comfortable I was shocked at waking up late each day...
Last I did a portion of the Great Western Trail and camped with Samantha:
Overland Hadley
on a journey
The truck looks great!
viatierra
Explorer
More Electrical details on the Platform
Here are a couple of more electrical mods that I've finally finished up. It has taken many more hours to get this done than I'd anticipated. I'm still thinking about adding rock lights, but that will mostly be a bling item so it's on hold. I don't want to look at another piece of electrical tape for awhile...
Okay for starters I ran a main fused line directly off the battery, through the firewall, under the plastic thresholds of both driver's side doors and into the compartment behind the rear left seat. In that compartment I installed a Blue Seas Marine fuse block, the main unit for my Yeseau 7800 and two relays for my lights on top of the cab. Yeah, I know that relays are supposed outside, but the wires were there and it was just too convenient. We'll see what happens when one of 'em blows. I've cleaned up this area quite a bit, but still looks abit like spaghetti. Everything is labled and pretty clean. Any ideas on how to make this look any better?
From here I have one set of wires running back up my center console where I have all my new light switches. The left two are for the the lights on top of the cab. On the right side I have my new LEDs for lighting up the bed and an empty switch for the coming rock lights.
The rest of the wires run outside to the bed/rack. When you remove all the plastic panels there were aready 2 1/2 inch holes in cab filled with rubber plugs. I poped out the plugs and put in a couple of Ace Hardware rubber gromets. Through one I passed my CB and 2m antenea cables. The other handled all the power wires. From there everything ran up the gap between the cab and bed. I drilled holes in the tubing of my rack and ran everything inside. Drilling all the holes and fishing the wires around was tricky, but I'm digging how it came out.
Over the cab I strung up the antenea's and the 55w lights.
Here are a couple of more electrical mods that I've finally finished up. It has taken many more hours to get this done than I'd anticipated. I'm still thinking about adding rock lights, but that will mostly be a bling item so it's on hold. I don't want to look at another piece of electrical tape for awhile...
Okay for starters I ran a main fused line directly off the battery, through the firewall, under the plastic thresholds of both driver's side doors and into the compartment behind the rear left seat. In that compartment I installed a Blue Seas Marine fuse block, the main unit for my Yeseau 7800 and two relays for my lights on top of the cab. Yeah, I know that relays are supposed outside, but the wires were there and it was just too convenient. We'll see what happens when one of 'em blows. I've cleaned up this area quite a bit, but still looks abit like spaghetti. Everything is labled and pretty clean. Any ideas on how to make this look any better?
From here I have one set of wires running back up my center console where I have all my new light switches. The left two are for the the lights on top of the cab. On the right side I have my new LEDs for lighting up the bed and an empty switch for the coming rock lights.
The rest of the wires run outside to the bed/rack. When you remove all the plastic panels there were aready 2 1/2 inch holes in cab filled with rubber plugs. I poped out the plugs and put in a couple of Ace Hardware rubber gromets. Through one I passed my CB and 2m antenea cables. The other handled all the power wires. From there everything ran up the gap between the cab and bed. I drilled holes in the tubing of my rack and ran everything inside. Drilling all the holes and fishing the wires around was tricky, but I'm digging how it came out.
Over the cab I strung up the antenea's and the 55w lights.
viatierra
Explorer
2 12v power outlets!
Through the help of some good folks on the forum, I learned what a potted enclosure was: a little plastic box! Google is worthless if you don't know little bits of jargon like that. Well thanks again... Radio Shack had what became a little junction box where I installed 2 12v outlets.
The box has a screw top and seals up quite nicely. Not waterproof but a bit of silicone fixed that. At 2" x 2" x 4" it was the perfect size to install 2 outlets. I put one on each end. The Maggiolina has a dome light that I will plug in one side. The other side I can plug in a fan, electric blanket, laptop... whatever. It is even a convient place to plug in my dorky air compressor.
Through the help of some good folks on the forum, I learned what a potted enclosure was: a little plastic box! Google is worthless if you don't know little bits of jargon like that. Well thanks again... Radio Shack had what became a little junction box where I installed 2 12v outlets.
The box has a screw top and seals up quite nicely. Not waterproof but a bit of silicone fixed that. At 2" x 2" x 4" it was the perfect size to install 2 outlets. I put one on each end. The Maggiolina has a dome light that I will plug in one side. The other side I can plug in a fan, electric blanket, laptop... whatever. It is even a convient place to plug in my dorky air compressor.
Last edited:
viatierra
Explorer
Gotta love LEDs
I've been looking for a long time to locate bright LEDs that will work to light up the bed of the truck. Now I can easily locate gear at night and not sweat the load on the battery. Here's what I installed from KMT Trailer.
For some reason, I was really stuck on using something stealthy...
I've been looking for a long time to locate bright LEDs that will work to light up the bed of the truck. Now I can easily locate gear at night and not sweat the load on the battery. Here's what I installed from KMT Trailer.
For some reason, I was really stuck on using something stealthy...
Dave Bennett
Adventurist
eepwall: Nice job!
maxama10
Welcome to Nevadafornia
Hey, Great looking truck! As for that fuse box, heatshrink and zipties. Thats what I would do anyways.viatierra said:
Here are a couple of more electrical mods that I've finally finished up. It has taken many more hours to get this done than I'd anticipated. I'm still thinking about adding rock lights, but that will mostly be a bling item so it's on hold. I don't want to look at another piece of electrical tape for awhile...
Okay for starters I ran a main fused line directly off the battery, through the firewall, under the plastic thresholds of both driver's side doors and into the compartment behind the rear left seat. In that compartment I installed a Blue Seas Marine fuse block, the main unit for my Yeseau 7800 and two relays for my lights on top of the cab. Yeah, I know that relays are supposed outside, but the wires were there and it was just too convenient. We'll see what happens when one of 'em blows. I've cleaned up this area quite a bit, but still looks abit like spaghetti. Everything is labled and pretty clean. Any ideas on how to make this look any better?
Carry on :wavey: