I have a new horse in the stable - I couldn't pull a brand new custom mountain sled with an old Jeep. So�I took advantage of the $3500 Cash for Clunkers, our Toyota employee discount and an additional incentive of $1200 for left-over 09' and turned the Grand Cherokee in.
I�tore all the Alpine stereo equipment out of the old Jeep, put junky tires on it, pulling my 4.6L stroker motor out, the scoops and rear spoiler and then turning her in for $3500 on a new Tacoma 4X4 Double Cab short-box.
It has a camera of the trailer hitch, 115V outlet in the bed, bed liner, XM radio, V6 w/tow package and the TRD Sport package - in addition, I had�a 3"�RevTech lift kit, 18" XD Series Addict rims with LT285/65R18 Nitto Terra Grappler off-road tires, running boards and I am having a toneau cover installed.
My only problem is going to be keeping Sheila from stealing it. She absolutely loves it.
Here are the pictures from the day I picked it up at the dealer:
In true Maize fashion, and my wife saying, "I told you so" I have some things to update the truck, I am adding a Randy Ellis Design front light bar with 2 PIAA 520 series lights, a tonneau cover and I putting in the XM radio. All this stuff is with the deal, but since I am a Toyota employee AND and ASE mechanic, I can order the stuff at cost and put it in myself. SWEEEEEEEEET!!!
I got the tonneau cover installed, the XM receiver installed, the TRD cat-back system installed, the light bar installed and the PIAA 525 series lights mounted. I only have the wiring left. I am waiting on the new PIAA wiring harness. That won't take very long.
Here is the tonneau cover. I don't really like the snap kind, but it was only $139 off EBay.
Here is the Cat-back system:
Here is the new�Randy Ellis Design light bar w/the PIAA 525 series lights. These lights tie in with your regular headlamps. They also have a high beam and low beam of their own. When you have the running lights on, they have an LED that has a light glow to the light.
There is also a chrome grill insert in place in these pictures also.
Well. It's time to bring everyone up to date with the truck. The new truck has 4000 miles on it, and I can't stand the factory stereo system.
So................
Here are the new speakers I got for it:
I have two sets of component speaker systems. One set is a Z6 series set of Boston Acoustics, those will be going in the front doors. The rear doors are getting a set of Boston Acoustics RM6 series. I also have a set of JL Audio components. The sub is a 1" JL Audio unit.
All the wiring is from Tsumani and Monster, including a Tsumani ANL digital fuse holder.
The amp is an Alpine V-12 5 channel amp. I am also adding in my old Alpine 12 Disc changer.
These are the things I have in hand. What I am still waiting to get in the mail is the Alpine CDA-9887 head unit, Alpine KCE-300BT BlueTooth module, Alpine KCE-422i IPOD controller, Alpine IVA-W200 steering wheel interface, Alpine KTX-100EQ IMPRINT calibration kit, Q-Forms kick panel speaker housing (for the JL Audio component speakers), a 6" JL Audio subwoofer, TacoTunes' door speaker adapters and a Scosche Radio install kit.
Once everything is here, I will be making a custom fiberglass unit to go behind the back seats. It will house the 10" and 6" JL Audio subs, the amp, the crossovers and the 12 disc changer. It will all fit behind the seats.
Once everything is complete, the only thing showing will be the head unit and the Q-Forms kick panels. I will be reusing the XM unit from the factory.
I got the Q-Forms kick panels today, along with the rest of my Tsunami 4 gauge power lead. The 4 gauge is a little over kill for the amp I am running. But I plan on adding a much larger amp down the road. I am just wiring it all up to handle the larger amp now, rather than tear the interior apart twice to route the wiring properly.
I also got the sub wiring today, as well.
The Q-Forms are much sturdier than I thought. I thought they would be similar to the factory, but they are much thicker and much stiffer.
There should be more component stuff rolling in this week.
I need to call around to junk yards to see if any have the panels that go behind the seats. I want to use the outside of those as the frame work. That way I am assured everything will fit behind the seats.
I opted for another route on the amps. While I love the old Punch series amps, the do not have any adjustability built into them, just and in/out.
In order for my new scheme to work, I need all channels adjustable.
I am going to leave the Ohms the way they are in the door speakers.
I just bought this amp, it is a smaller version of the one I already have and is a 2 channel 75watts per channel at 14.4v @ 4 ohms. And is fully adjustable, and I don't have run any resistors.
I will be running the kick panel speakers and rear door speakers at 4 ohms each and the first 4 channels of my big amp, and the subs on the 5th channel at 2 ohms.
I will split the feed for the front speakers and run the amp through the front door speakers at 3 ohms.
I also like the front biased mids and highs, this should do it nicely. I still have full adjustablity of every channel.
Getting close to having everything I need to get started, still need some key components.
I got the 6" JL Audio sub, the BlueTooth module, the XM module, the turn on wire, the dash plate, the head unit, the rest of the 4 gauge power wire, the 100a ANL fuse and wire harness adapter.
I also got the left side low-oxygen speaker wiring, the steering wheel adapter and sub box wiring housing:
I just order the remote car start, the security interface module and the T-Harness today, too. That will be the first thing to go in before any of this starts.
I got some more stuff in over the weekend. I just ordered the Crime Stoppers remote car start, w/ security interface this last Friday. It should be here shortley. That is going in first.
I am still trying to figure out if the adapter for shark fin Lexus IS XM antenna will work with my Tacoma. I am trying to find the connector ends in the Toyota/Lexus manuals. I think they are the same, that will save me having to mount a different antenna.
I got the 8 guage wires that will go from the 4 gauge splitter to the two amps, the IPOD connector, the steering wheel module and the BlueTooth module.
I also got the new killer tweets from JL Audio:
The speaker mounts (I had made) also came in. I had them made from 1" Cordite (sp?) except for the tweeter mounts, the stuff that they make kitchen cutting boards from. They won't deteriorate like MDF will with moisture, and they will hold the speaker just fine. I had them made to replace the factory 6X9" front door speakers, and the rear doors. They were cut to fit my specific speakers. They turned out VERY nice.
The new JL Audio tweeters will be expoxied into place, and the mids will be screwed in place.
These are the fronts w/tweeter mountings:
These are the rear mounts:
I got the head unit in yesterday. It is an Alpine CDA-9887 w/IMPRINT capabilities.
Here are some shots (albeit bad shots) of the head unit as I will have it installed in the Tacoma. I have it set to match the red interior lights of the truck.
I just got done speaking with Droo at USS Radio. He confirmed that the adapter will fit my rig. So I don't have to tear the headliner out.....YEAH!!!
All I have left to buy is the IMPRINT equipment, and I am ready to go.
Most of the stuff is purchased. I am just waiting on the 1.5 and 2.0 farad Volfenhag capacitors.
Last night, I had one of my Toyota techs come over to assist with the Crime Stoppers remote car starts. He is an electrical specialists. He knew where all the plugs were that we needed. There are no scotch locks in it, and all joints had the plugs pulled, the pins pulled from the plugs, the wires stripped an soldered with shrink wraped before the pins were put back into the plugs.
All unused wires were removed from the plugs to avoid clutter (like there isn't enough under the dash already.)
The days are getting colder and I decided to put this in before the stereo stuff as I will have to make the fiberglass piece for behind the seat and that may take a while.
I still have to finish up the wife's sled, I found the rear axle was frozen. I had to put it on my press to get it out. So I cleaned that up, put on the BC3 spacers, the new center shock I made, new rear springs, new slides and greased all the remaining shafts. That is ready to go back in. I have the chaincase cover over being machined to fit. Once that is all back, I can get that back together this weekend.
Today, I am tearing out the wall between two bedrooms (with closets) for my wife's new sewing room. She needs a place for her "toys". It is only fair that she has a 25' X 11' sewing room. I have a 30' x 40 garage. LOL.
Anyway, here are some shots of the install of the Crime Stoppers remote car start:
I got the caps in the mail yesterday. They are much larger than ones I have had in the past. But they should keep voltage on a an even keel to the amps.
The 1.5 will be mounted behind the seat, and the amp it feeds will be under the seat. That is further than I would like, but it would be hitting hard as it is only driving the component speakers in the Q-Forms panel. The 2.2 will be mount about 10" away from its amp. So that should be perfect.
That is all for right now.� As soon as the sled season (for shocks) slows down, I will have further updates.
