[xtremewlr]

Originally Posted by LTDSC

IDK why my CDL doesnt come on either. I need to check it again because i notice i can slip and slide with it off and if i roll up on something and back down itll vibrate like VSC does. So maybe something for me to look in to. Its an easy fix at least if so.

Rolling backward isn't the VSC activating, that's the hill assist where it applies the brakes if you start rolling backwards down hill. Supposed to help with hill starts when towing and shit.

[benztech82]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

I also recently did the VSC Off mod

I followed @LTDSC 's method - here's a link to his write up (basically exactly what mine says, but if mine is confusing or doesn't make sense, be sure to check his out): https://www.toyota-4runner.org/2266263-post872.html

+========================+



The wiring diagram shows that the red w/ blue stripe wire coming out of pin 22 on the 4WD ECU connector is the center diff lock sensor wire

The purpose of this mod is to trick the skid control ECU into thinking the center diff is locked, because that is the only condition that disables VSC for us 03-05 v6's

When the center diff is locked, this wire is grounded, so that is what this mod does - grounds this wire on command with the push of a button



That is the wire you want to tap into. The wire you use to tap into it with will be run back to the driver side panel - or wherever your switch is

You DO NOT want to break this wire's circuit as it still needs to sense when the center diff is actually locked - so only tap into it via a T-Tap connector or just stripping the wire back and adding your wire to make a 'Y'



This is the switch I used - Amazon.com: CH4X4 Push Switch for Toyota - VSC Symbol - Red Led: Automotive

Here is it's wiring diagram



For the backlight power, I stole the wire from the 115W switch connector since I don't have that switch

The outside green wire is the dash light circuit, so I connected that factory green wire the to the red 2 wire on the switch (excuse the bad electrical tape job - I was doing it solo)



Then, since I want to ground the red/blue CDL wire, I tied the green and black wires of the switch together and grounded them - because in this instance, my "power source" and "ground" are the same thing

Lastly, I connected the wire I used to tap into red/blue wire to the red 1 wire of the switch.

So know you have:
-Green and Black switch wires running to ground
-Red 1 switch wire running to red w/ blue CDL wire
-Red 2 switch wire connected to green factory switch wire
-And the ability to turn VSC off at anytime

And this results in the CDL and VSC Off lights coming on (No clue why LTDSC's CDL light doesn't come on)

View post on imgur.com

I can push this button at anytime - 2wd, 4wd, driving down the road, etc - and the lights come on as they should

The odd thing I found about this setup with my switch, is that the light in the switch that is supposed to come on when you push the switch in is reversed - so the "activated" light is always on, and turns off when I push the switch in -I actually honestly kinda like this too, because it looks better that way in the dark when the dash lights are on

Is this a momentary switch or 2 position switch ?

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[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by benztech82

Is this a momentary switch or 2 position switch?

It is a 2 position switch. You can use a momentary, but it involves wiring relays into the circuit

Here's the link for the switch again in case you want or need it: Amazon.com: CH4X4 Push Switch for Toyota - VSC Symbol - Red Led: Automotive

[LTDSC]

Originally Posted by xtremewlr

Rolling backward isn't the VSC activating, that's the hill assist where it applies the brakes if you start rolling backwards down hill. Supposed to help with hill starts when towing and shit.

good to know

[benztech82]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

It is a 2 position switch. You can use a momentary, but it involves wiring relays into the circuit

Here's the link for the switch again in case you want or need it: Amazon.com: CH4X4 Push Switch for Toyota - VSC Symbol - Red Led: Automotive

Thank you a ton! I ordered a switch. I will get that done next weekend.

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[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by benztech82

Thank you a ton! I ordered a switch. I will get that done next weekend.

That's great! No problem, I'm happy to help!

[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

Coastal Offroad Front Bumper

I'm super proud of how the bumper turned out. It was a ton of work, and it's definitely not perfect, but it sure does look good!

+=====================================+
The Build:

The bumper has a pretty straight forward assembly, and the instructions contain diagrams that really help. Since the website only offers up to a 2" body lift, I emailed Brandon and talked with him about making my kit with a 3" body lift correction. He was super helpful and said it would be no problem at all.

This is what I started with:









And this is what I finished with:



This was my first welding project ever, and it surprisingly wasn't terrible. I did a bit of practice with some scrap metal beforehand, and I had some help from my brother and dad who have welded before, but I also did a bunch of it on my own too.

In hindsight, I went too crazy on the grinder, and not crazy enough on the welder. There were a few spots I had to reweld because I took too much off with the flap disk and you could see the crack of the joint - not to mention the playdoh marks all over the thing too. Also, I got impatient and ground the outside welds before welding the inside - HUGE rookie mistake right there, it led to a lot of heat warping and joint cracks on the outside. Overall though, it still looks great. Once it was powder coated and I got it muddy, the thing looked b-e-a-utiful



However, as easy as the bumper was - we weren't prepared for the amount of work it would be to get the hoops on. We knew it would be difficult, but just underestimated how difficult. It took a few days of work, 1 extra tube, a tube notcher, more cuts than I can count, and even more grinding to get the tubes where they needed to be

The first tube we cut with a saw was too short, so we had to email Brandon again to order a new one. He was super helpful once again and had no problem at all shipping us one replacement tube (we also went ahead and bought their skid plate kit though to make the price of shipping the tube from Canada worth it). We also bought a tube notcher from good ol' Harbor Freight to help in the tube nothing proccess. Part of our struggle was being inexperienced - we had never actually notched tubing before - but there's also just so many angles that have to be taken into account so it fits right

The best way we found to cut the hoops with our gear and experience - was to cut them long and just grind the crap out of them. We notched it to be sorta close, but still a little long, then held it on the bumper to see what touched, ground that part back some, held it back up there and repeated. It was really tedious work, but it worked and resulted in some pretty nice fitting notches

If you're reading this for tips on doing your own bumper, I recommend LOTS of practice welding tubes if you want them to look good. I practiced a little before doing mine, but tube welds are hard to make look good. Mine are good enough to hold it together and be strong, but you just can't look too close cause they're kinda ugly

+=====================================+
Powdercoating:

I see a lot of people saying "don't powder coat your bumpers if you plan to actually use them" - but I disagree. A proper powder coat is highly durable. Unless you plan to rake the bumper on every rock you see while doing some extreme rock climbing, the powder coat should hold up just fine. From personal experience - my brother and I combined having three powdercoated bumpers - and each bumper getting put to use (just not as rock crawlers) - they are just fine and powdercoat holds up. If you somehow happen to get a chip, it can easily be fixed with black nail polish - yes, that's right, nail polish - works great, can be applied with high accuracy, and matches that gloss look of a flat black powder coat enough to be unnoticeable

+=====================================+
Blinkers/DRL's:

The blinkers can just be wired directly into the stock wiring:



The blinkers/DRL's required some modification to install though. I'm just using the ones recommended by Coastal for now. Because they are LED's, but the stock relay is for the current of an incandescent, they result in a hyperflash. Unfortunately, the best "official" fix for that is buying a new relay designed for LED's - but there isn't one designed specifically for my truck, so we had to go the DIY route. To fix the hyperflash, you can grind the resistor in the relay down to require less current - so that's what we did:




+=====================================+
Offroad Lights:

I went with 4 RoughCountry 2" flood pods that run at 18w per pod (so 72w total). Here's a link to those: 2-inch Square Cree LED Lights (Black Series) | Rough Country

I decided to wire those into the factory fog light circuit so I wouldn't have to run a bunch of wires through the firewall and stuff. This was easy enough, I just cut the end of the wiring harness off and spliced it into the fog light wiring. Since I'm running 4 lights, each fog light circuit is running 2 lights - I haven't run into any problems with fuses or anything so far, so this is fine:



+=====================================+
Winch:

I got a 10,000lb Gen2 X20 winch with steel cable from Smittybuilt. Here's a link to it: Smittybilt X2O 10K Waterproof 10000lb Wireless Winch Gen2 - 97510

Unfortunately, the holes precut in the bumper for the winch and fairlead were too small for the hardware provided with the winch, and we didn't find that out until after we got it back from the powdercoat shop, so we had to drill them out some more. After that though, everything bolted up just fine
+=====================================+
Shackles:

Because of the thickness of the bumper where the shackles mount, typical isolators aren't thick enough to actually isolate anything, so I purchased some isolators similar to these, and they are just the right thickness to hold the shackles steady: Amazon.com: Red Hound Auto D-Ring Shackle Isolator Compatible with Jeep Towing Off Road Kit 3/4 Inches Silencer Clevis 4pc Set: Automotive

[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

OEM Radiator replacement @ ~315,274mi (cause I smashed into a sheet of ice)

Well this is embarrassing... I always say it won't be me who does something ridiculously stupid and breaks his truck - but here I am

+=====================+

So here's what happened:

My friend and I thought it would be good idea to go out camping and trail riding after a big snow storm (Here in Arkansas, we never get snow, and over 12" is a lot)

The first day actually went great. We saw a really neat sunset, and didn't have too much trouble on our way out there - though we did slip down into a ditch and got stuck 3 times, but hey, we made it out





The trouble started on the second day though. After going down some cool trails, I made the mistake of trying to go through a mud puddle that was frozen over. Now this really wouldn't have been too much of a problem, except using the stock bumper with my 3" body lift leaves the bottom portion of my radiator exposed - so I ended up sending a 2" sheet of ice straight into my radiator (even with a friend spotting me through it). To help express our stupidity - we thought there were slabs of rock surrounding this small pond, but they were actually large, brown chunks of what would soon be my radiator's killer








And yes, we were dumb enough to record it too - so enjoy this clip

View post on imgur.com

We tried to limp it home, or at least back to the highway, by stopping to add water every now and then, but the water would just pour out almost as fast as we could put it in. So we ended up having to leave it there overnight. Luckily, and I thank the Lord for this, there was a radiator in stock near where we live. So we ran by Advance Auto Parts the next morning, picked up a new radiator, and went back out there to swap it in. And thankfully, a radiator swap is fairly easy, so we were able to get it done quick and drove it home with no problems

Moral of the story is - know your vehicle and its weaknesses, and be smart. I knew my radiator was exposed, I just wasn't thinking about it being a problem at the time - and that was my biggest mistake

[AuSeeker]

If it wasn't for your right headlight being burned out you would of been able to see more clearly and not do what you clearly shouldn't of done!

[montijo505]

Ah yes, you’re spirit animal is apparently @y=mx+b


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[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by montijo505

Ah yes, you’re spirit animal is apparently y=mx+b

lol Funny you mention that Seeing his write-up is actually what reminded me to post about this. Ice is apparently a more common killer than I thought

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3642157-post14.html

[y=mx+b]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

lol Funny you mention that Seeing his write-up is actually what reminded me to post about this. Ice is apparently a more common killer than I thought

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3642157-post14.html

Lol, looks like yours got caught pretty good. Mine didn't deform as much, but some of the ice did make it all the way through

[montijo505]

Twinsies!! I jest, but that would actually suck.


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[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by y=mx+b

Lol, looks like yours got caught pretty good. Mine didn't deform as much, but some of the ice did make it all the way through

Wow! Yeah, yours definitely took a stab. It's really interesting how the piece that stabbed yours managed to slip through all the right cracks and stay intact like it did

Looks like yours was unlucky, and mine was just stupidity

[P_nlsn]

Originally Posted by P_nlsn

Custom Packed First-aid Kit - MyFAK Bag
OrangeBoxx Center Console Molle Panel
OrangeBoxx Rear Window Molle Panels

Not much to "write-up" about for the Molle Panels (except the customer service part), but just wanted to showcase them here



+=====================================+
Customer Service:

I have to say, my experiece with OrangeBoxx's customer service was... interesting. It's like it was good and bad at the same time...

Our order got missed or something like that, so around two months after it was ordered, we got a very apologetic call explaining what happened and that we would be refunded everything except the base price (so were basically refunded the shipping price). Then the rear racks came, and it was another two-ish months until the console rack came. I was never given any updates on delays or expected shipping times unless I specifically asked about my order, although they were at least very quick to respond once I made an inquiry.

The design guy also basically told me he didn't want to design my idea because it was gonna be a lot of work - but was also super willing to work with me to make it work, and was really accepting to the idea of me making it myself and sending it to him.

+=====================================+
Console Panel Cutout:

For the center panel, I wasn't satisfied with the proofs I was sent of the cut-out, and basically got told by the design guy that he didn't want to do all the work it would take to create what I had in mind, so I hopped in Adobe Illustrator and made it myself using a vector file of the official 4runner logo as a reference/starting point. I just cut off the "4" and manipulated the other letters to create the "Toto". I'd say it came out pretty good having little to no design experience




+=====================================+
The Panels:

I don't currently have much stuff on the racks, but I plan to add more things as time goes on. While I may not have much weight on them yet, they feel pretty sturdy and don't have to much play to them. The only play I can see wobbling is the top corner toward the seats on the rear racks, but it doesn't make any noise, so who cares