I basically used that black box as the mounting point. I added some metal straps around it and secure those to the back side of the interior panel to make it a bit more secure. I'm going to be revisiting it soon to check to make sure nothing is coming loose. I had to break off the plastic rivets that originally hold it to the back side of the interior panel and I'm afraid it could be coming apart after 2+ years of living back there. Might use some liquid nails or something similar (JB Weld, etc.).

I then opened up the inverter and pulled the controls, LCD, and dingus end of the guts out to mount on the piece of acrylic shown here:



I unfortunately didn't take any pics of the back side of it all mounted up behind the interior panel. I'll be in there again soon when I run an antenna wire for the CB I'll be putting in it, and will take some more photos then. Here are some picture I took when mocking it up (you can see I broke off the plastic tabs in the upper corners):

I like it, thanks!

Just an idea: if you need to glue something to the tan panel try Loctite plastics bonding system. It has a little primer pen you use first. It actually works really well on the PP/PE that the panels are made of. JB weld (epoxy) won't stick to it. I think the black box is ABS so most glues will stick to that fine.

Thanks for the tip!

I'll definitely do that. Currently the metal strap is screwed into where the plastic rivets were, which at the time seemed pretty secure. I need to take another look though to make sure it's still holding up.

That black box/tube is there for sound reduction of the cabin air exhaust (leads to the vent behind the bumper on that corner. Delete if you want...

And make sure you have the flap on the vent or you will be filling the cabin with dust offroad.

-Charlie

Hey @JZiggy , as promised, here are the photos on the backside of the panel with the inverter all lined up.

The strap is not connected to the "black box", it only holds it from moving in and out:



The strap is secured in the mounts where the plastic rivets used to be. The screws I'm using really bite into it:



Here's where the wires come out to the panel. I thought about putting the top part of the case back on, but it would still be fairly open to the outside:



Wires come out the bottom. The ground goes all the way back to the battery for a good solid connection:

I've got my rear all torn out for both setting up a CB antenna on one of @MStudt 's mounts. I'm doing it on the passenger side with the assumption that the swing-out will clear it.

Also, I've taken the other side apart as well in order to run a wire for the backup lighting that will be in the light buckets of the 4xInnovations rear bumper that's on the way. The plan is to have a SPDT switch that allows for those lights to be switched on, switched off, or on when backing up.

Here's a diagram, along with the location of the splice needed to tie into the reverse lights:



Driver's J/B:



Pin location on the driver's J/B:

Here's a quick update on things:

This showed up on my door step earlier in the month. It's off getting painted now as I don't have the space to do it right now.



In preparation, I've got wiring ready for the backup lights that go into the cutouts, license plate lights, and new flat-4 tow wiring. I'm going to swap out the old '96-00 style pressure vent for the new '01-02 version and run all the wiring out the factory hole there. I'll have plugs for everything to make it easy to remove if I ever need to (you're welcome future self).

In addition, while removing the factory tow hitch I encountered some of the first problematic rust on this rig (knock on wood). It seems on the passenger side that the nuts-on-a-stick that are used to get the two furthest forward nuts in place were rusted onto the bolts. I was able to get them about 4-5 turns before they broke the stick they are weld too. This caused the stick to break in half and then wrap around the bolt heads inside the frame.

Hard to see it here:



After the sawzall:



Not too big of a problem, and I got to buy more tools

Also, I wired up the rear window so I can roll it up with the key fob. I used the post @YourUncleFats created to order everything needed a as a guide for the wiring. For me, this is a really good mod because I somehow keep rolling down the back window accidentally when getting out of my truck.

"Factory"ish wiring diagram (see @YourUncleFats post for parts):



All wired and tidy:

More updates as I wait for the rear bumper to come back from paint:

Having the two hitch bolts rusted up had me a little worried about the condition of the frame back there. I got some Rustoleum chassis paint in order to clean things up a bit before putting the bumper on in the next week or so. Hit the whole area with a wire wheel on the angle grinder and spayed it down. Looks great now:





Oops, hit the exhaust a bit :-/



Also installed the updated rear pressure vent. And thanks to a post from @JZiggy (don't remember which thread it was) that I saw, I also picked up a Daystar Universal Firewall Boot. It fits perfectly in the pressure vent to seal out the weather. I'll end up having backup and license plate lights, trailer, and backup camera wiring all coming out of there:



While I was under there, I also changed out the rear diff gear oil since it is finally beyond the 500 mile break-in period for the 4.88's. Everything looked good on the magnet of the drain plug and I refilled with the recommended Lucas Oil 85w-140.





One gripe I have from ECGS (or at least my lack of noticing this) was that I didn't realize the diff housing wasn't painted when it came to me. Not a big deal, but I'll now need to wire wheel it and then paint it to stop this from getting worse:

Toyota doesn't always paint cast iron bits at the factory...



(rear diff from my Alltrac at around 30 years old)

Though, the 4Runner diffs are painted/coated from the factory.

-Charlie

Yeah, it just looks so funny with all the black stuff under there and then an orange diff

Got the 4xInnovations rear bumper back from paint and installed. I took the previous few weeks to get all the wiring ready (in addition to the rear frame prep on the previous post) so I could just get the bumper installed and wired all together in a day or so I was hoping.

As seen before, I installed one of the newer model pressure vents that have a hole specifically for trailer wiring (thank you @JZiggy for the Daystar firewall grommet idea). I used this to reroute my existing trailer wiring in addition to the license plate lighting, backup camera wiring, and in-bumper backup lights. Everything was wired to plugs inside the driver's side panel so in the event I need to remove the bumper in the future, I can just unplug stuff and not cut wires.

I used some foam from a projector case that I had at work instead of the plastic flap to seal up the pressure vent:







The wiring for license plate lighting (thank you @Drron for the idea!) also had plugs going out of the bumper and into the swing-out and out of the swing-out and into the license plate. Future me is already thanking past me:







I put the backup camera about a 8" to the driver's side of the hitch, which turns out to be just right. I used a Natika backup camera with all the little adjustment gaskets to get the view I wanted. This camera works perfect and has a pretty good image. Best of all, the slim connection wire is the perfect length to connect inside the cab behind the driver's side rear panel.



I did have any issue getting the swing-out installed. Turns out your really don't want to hammer the seals down against the bearings, but instead want to have them hover a little above. If you press them too far in like I did, the inboard lip of the seal will get pressed inward and prevent the bearing sleeve from being fully seated.

Seal is too far in:







This will then cause the hinge assembly to be too tall to fit inside of the mount on the bumper.

Hinge assembly measurement:



Mount measurement:



So, after emailing @traxman25 about the issue, I ordered a new bearing, seal, and race kit in order to have new seals to replace the ones I messed up. Thought it would be nice to have the extra bearings and races for the future as well, even though I would then need to source some seals. To my surprise, he included an extra set of seals at no charge with the kit. Now that's customer service!!

For installation of the replacement seals, I inserted the bearing spacers in the seals and then hammered the seals home with a socket. This ensured that the seals did not get pressed in too far.

Properly pressed seals measurements:



Lastly, I decided to get a different license plate light setup as opposed to the included lighted bolts that the kits comes with. The thing I didn't like about the included lights, is that it made it impossible to remove your license plate without having to cut the wires since they go through the license plate holes. I ended up going with a iJDMTOY Universal light that just uses the bolts that hold the license plate to the frame. This has wires coming off of the top and was easy to just add a plug to and subsequently connect to the plug coming out of the swing-out under the jerry can carrier.

So with the new bumper installed I wanted to get another matching wheel and tire to put on as a spare. I got American Outlaw Regulators about 3 and a half years ago when I up-sized to 33" Goodyear Duratracs. While searching around for a 5th wheel I quickly discovered that these wheels had been discontinued. So, after going back and forth between getting a cheap "spare" wheel, I ended up deciding on getting 5 new wheels all around.

Ended up with Vision Turbines mostly because the center cap is completely flat and will allow for me to cover them with vinyl stickers, which should be here in the next week or so:





Also got a security wire usually used for bicycles to secure my 5th wheel and jerry can onto the carrier. I'm not too concerned about where I live, but I daily this truck to the P&R during the work week and have been broken into once already there:

While waiting to get the bumper from FedEx between January and April I also installed a CB in place of the ash try under the radio. I went with a Uniden PRO505XL which was just slightly bigger than the ash tray, so I had to make some modifications to the center console. I also wired it directly to the auxillary battery so that I can have it on even with the car turned off.

Cutting a slot for the radio:



Left some ears for mounting the bracket:



Riveting the bracket in place:



Perfect fit:



Ended up running the antenna wire along the passenger side floor and out the passenger side taillight. Purchased a mount from @MStudt , which are really nice BTW, and painted it to match the accent color I've got going on the truck (safety red).

Also, I want to give props to @JZiggy who milled up a rear hatch bump stop for me and then sent it my way without charging me a dime. I assured him that I would pay it forward! His modified bump stop will allow for the hatch to close completely flush with the antenna mount.

Out the taillight:





@MStudt mount and @JZiggy hatch bump stop:

While I had the rear interior removed while wiring the new rear bumper and the CB, I took the time to extend the rear storage compartment. I used the same carpeting kit that I saw in @JZiggy 's build thread to make the new compartment somewhat "professional".

In addition, I created a floor for the compartment out of a sheet of aluminum that I had laying around. I drilled a couple of holes and riveted some 90 degree braces for the aluminum panel to sit on. The outboard side had a nice little ledge to sit on to that it's all pretty much level.

Riveted angle braces:



I covered that braces and the outboard edge with carpet to prevent rattling:



Aluminum panel:



All carpeted and floor panel in place (yes, my carpeting skills are severely lacking):



As everyone has found, this really increases the size of the storage compartment in the rear and having the floor panel gives me the potentially to have some hidden storage as well.

I've been eyeing CBs, that looks perfect in the ashtray spot, might need to steal that