bet u have some good advice for me...

[Stick Figure]

How do you figure ... first and foremost you have a bright LED hopefully mounted in plain site to warn them that there is an alarm. This isn't always enough but generally thieves are lazy (or they wouldn't be thieves) and will drive down the street to a vehicle that isn't as much work/risk.

Second I personally hate the lame aftermarket alarm sirens so mine is tied into my factory horn. It is rather annoying in the pattern it makes, and rather loud being next to the vehicle. This would be more than enough to draw my attention to it when it goes off. Possibly other peoples as well.

If you think you can saw a cat off of the truck with out setting off the alarm, I have my doubts.

 

[the great him]

welcome to the group!

so for your antenna issue, id go to toyota and get a tacoma whip antenna - http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/70865-non-power-antenna-tacoma-whip.html that is all the info you should need to get the parts and maybe have a local T4R guy install it for you for cheap like a 6 pack...

as far as tires go, yeah id get a set of 4, that way they will all wear the same and you wont run into any issues with the 4wd binding. probably wouldnt be a big risk if all the tires are the same size... but even in a given size say like 265 70 16, a good year might be a little bit different than a michelin(just throwing out names as an example) in overall actual size and say if the "smaller" ones are worn down to 30% and you buy new tires from the other manufacture that are a bit bigger, you could potentially run into some issues, so yeah its best to get all 4 the same, at the same time. -hope that made sense.

you might want to look at getting the radiator replaced soon and or adding an external trans cooler... do a search for pink milkshake. dont want to scare you, but also dont want you to lose your new toy to something that is preventable either.

also if your steering ever feels lose, sloppy, or vague stop driving it immediately and have you lower ball joints inspected. this is not something you want to play with either... do a search here on LBJ failures and read up on them. most people will say in the days/weeks prior to the failure that their steering went to hell and got sloppy.

good luck and again welcome to the sickness