木 2009 Toyota Sequoia Build Thread 木

Pulled the side steps over the weekend and attempted a 3" lift only to discover that I need to buy a compressor and air tools. Going to take it to a local shop next week to have the lift kit put on. Looks so much better (and gained much needed clearance) with the side steps gone.

Thanks to @Sean Slavin I swapped out the worn out painted handles and mirror caps for some flat black ones. I like the contrast with the new handles/caps.


Before:

.jpg


After:

IMG_3373.JPG


Took her in for some maintenance at the dealer today and had to compare to the new 2018's:

IMG_3369.JPG


Looks like I could trade mine in, spend an additional $50,000 or so and end up with the same vehicle with a new bumper, grill and headlights. Window sticker was over $60,000...quickly approaching Land Cruiser money.
 
Last edited:
That looks like Cherokee County Toyota - where I bought mine!

I have a compressor and air tools, if you need help with your lift.
 
That looks like Cherokee County Toyota - where I bought mine!

I have a compressor and air tools, if you need help with your lift.

Milton Martin in Gainesville. I'll never buy from them again, but they're the closest service center without me driving all the way to Roswell. Their service department thus far has made up for their shady underhanded sales department (bought the '16 Tacoma from them).

A compressor and air tools you say? Let's talk at the Rendevous, I'd much rather put this lift on than pay a shop to muddle through it. Maybe we can work something out.
 
I talked to Milton Martin, and walked out with my checkbook in hand. They never called me back, either. Saved over $1000 going to Cherokee County.

It looks like I won't be heading up to ARV until Friday morning. :( We will be there for kayaking on Saturday though!
 
I talked to Milton Martin, and walked out with my checkbook in hand. They never called me back, either. Saved over $1000 going to Cherokee County.

It looks like I won't be heading up to ARV until Friday morning. :( We will be there for kayaking on Saturday though!

Sounds like them. We're looking at a house in Cherokee County (near Canton) right now. If that works out I'll have to give Cherokee Toyota a try. Sorry to hear about the change of plans for ARV, we'll look for you Friday morning!
 
Wow - you're going to move down into the city! It will be difficult to give up the mountains.

Just a short ride on the motorcycle. We're trying to get my wife closer to her parents (Woodstock), although the way things are going they might end up moving in with us...in which case we're building a house here, hopefully in the Sautee Nacoochee Valley.
 
Now an auxiliary fuse panel is only there to support fused legs running to new circuits. But what protects that fuse panel if something goes wrong? That's right, another big ol' fuse! It's always a good idea to fuse your fuse panel because of inconvenient things like electrical fires and short circuits. I once watched a rogue main wire fly around the inside of an engine bay causing burn marks every time it landed on a grounding point. Ever tried to grab a hot 12v wire flopping around like a coked up rattlesnake with tourettes? Not fun. I made use of a streetwires fuse holder I had left over from an audio install. My Blue Sea panel is rated at 125 amps, so I matched the fuse appropriately.

View attachment 31035

I used some 4 gauge wire, a copper battery connector and some zip ties to clean up the installation. Is 4 gauge overkill for this short of a connection? Yep. Do I care? Nope. It's like rebuilding your driveway as a 6 lane expressway, there's going to be a lot of room for those pixies to move! A quick test to ensure the pixies were flowing and we've got a finished install.

View attachment 31036

View attachment 31037

View attachment 31038

Now it's time to start slapping electrical goodies on the Sequoia!

I am getting ready to do this and wanted to sanity check a few things. I have the 6 circuit block with the negative bus. Blue Sea specs have it rated at 100a. I can't put it on top of the factory lid as that is where I have my SwitchPros mounted. It might have to go on the other side of the engine bay as it's pretty tight by the battery. Based on the wire gauge chart I have, I'll need 4ga since I'll have a 6-8' run at 100a. Yes?

Wire Gauge Chart.jpg


Matching fuses is where I get confused. 100a fuse to a 100a panel? Or something smaller?
 
I am getting ready to do this and wanted to sanity check a few things. I have the 6 circuit block with the negative bus. Blue Sea specs have it rated at 100a. I can't put it on top of the factory lid as that is where I have my SwitchPros mounted. It might have to go on the other side of the engine bay as it's pretty tight by the battery. Based on the wire gauge chart I have, I'll need 4ga since I'll have a 6-8' run at 100a. Yes?

View attachment 34082

Matching fuses is where I get confused. 100a fuse to a 100a panel? Or something smaller?

Short answer:

Run the 4ga wire in case you max out the 100a rating of the fuse box. Mount a 100a resettable breaker as close to the battery as possible and feed the 4ga wire from there across the bay to the panel.

There are some other options but this is what I'd do. Taking a pit stop on our way to Appalachian Rendezvous, I can go over the other options later if you'd like.
 
A 4 gauge wire is absolutely huge! Unless you plan on drawing 100 amps continuously, you can run a much smaller wire.

What devices are you planning on powering?

Every fuse box I have put in is supplied with a 10 gauge wire. I power an air compressor, lights and my fridge - most of which are not on at the same time.

There is more to this discussion, but I have to finish loading up for Appalachian Rendezvous myself.

Give us a list of the devices you want to power, and we will go from there after the weekend.
 
@Sean Slavin 4 guage wire is the way to go if you never want to swap that wire out as it will handle the full 100a load your fuse box is rated at. That being said as @Scott B. mentioned you won't need 4 guage wire if you're not approaching that 100a limit. 4 guage is a little large, but it's run in stereo installs all the time.

Now if this is for 6 circuits that will consist of things like radios, lights and maybe even a compressor you'll probably be struggling to break 50 amps or so. Even ARB's dual compressor is only pulling 28a I believe. If we get the list of accessories together and tally the total amps we can size that wire (and breaker) down appropriately.

Now if for some reason you see yourself adding additional fuse boxes, or moving to a larger one in the future it might be best to stick with the 4 guage wire and maybe even run it into a distribution box like this:

IMG_3380.JPG


Since you said real estate is tight near the battery running the 4 guage now allows you to upgrade components on the other side of the engine bay without re-pulling wire... Not that running wire across the engine bay is tough, but why redo it if you don't have to?

My problem when it comes to electrical installs is I always try to plan ahead for the future and then end up changing my mind anyway. Plus I like buying electrical goodies a little too much. :D
 
Thanks for the input. For me, all lighting goes through the SwitchPros. The compressor will as well but I'll run it through the Blue Sea block first. Really, what I'll have on it is the CB, HAM, fridge and compressor which will leave me 2 spots for future stuff.
 
The ARB twin compressor includes two fused positive wires for the compressor itself (1 for each plus the fan), and a low amp wire to trigger the built-in relay. I run the big fused wires in the harness (larger than 10, but smaller than 4) direct to the battery. The supplied fuses are 40A Maxis. In three years of pretty heavy use for two compressors, I have blown one of the the 40A maxi fuses twice. So it approaches, and occasionally spikes above, 40A. Depending on which fuse blows, you may still be able to use the compressor. The first time it shut down completely and would not run until the fuse was replaced. The second time I only realized there was a problem when I noticed it was taking longer to get the tires inflated. My theory is that one of the leads is controlling the fan and perhaps something else, but the wiring diagrams I have found don't show it.

The signal wire for the relay should go through the aux fuse box, but I wouldn't recommend running the big leads through an aux fuse box unless you really need to for some reason. If you do, then you will want BIG wire going to the aux box.
 
When out and about in public I receive quite a few questions about the ditch lights that are mounted over the hoood in front of the windshield. The most common questions are:

1. Are those lights?
2. What do you use them for?

My common answers are:

1. Yes, they're lights.
2. They provide additional lighting when traveling off road at night.

I'm usually met with a polite, "Huh, interesting". I then go on to explain that they help is spotting those pesky deer at night that love jumping out in front of the vehicle. This use usually get's most folks to buy in to seeing their usefulness. I was finally fast enough with the cell phone camera the other night to demonstrate this use.

Ditch lights make the world go from this single deer:

IMG_4027.JPG


To this family of front bumper destroying, jerky providing pests:

IMG_4028.JPG
 
When out and about in public I receive quite a few questions about the ditch lights that are mounted over the hoood in front of the windshield. The most common questions are:

1. Are those lights?
2. What do you use them for?

My common answers are:

1. Yes, they're lights.
2. They provide additional lighting when traveling off road at night.

I'm usually met with a polite, "Huh, interesting". I then go on to explain that they help is spotting those pesky deer at night that love jumping out in front of the vehicle. This use usually get's most folks to buy in to seeing their usefulness. I was finally fast enough with the cell phone camera the other night to demonstrate this use.

Ditch lights make the world go from this single deer:

View attachment 35953

To this family of front bumper destroying, jerky providing pests:

View attachment 35955
WOW!
 
Time for some preventative maintenance and soliciting some advice. The Sequoia is in need of the following:

1. New brakes. The front brakes pads are wearing at an odd angle, thin in the front and thick in the back. Either the pads aren't sliding on the pins or the rear pistons are frozen up on the calipers (This Sequoia shares the 4 piston calipers used on the Tundra). During braking there's a bit of a shimmy from the rear end so I'm assuming the rear rotors are warped. The parking brake is in need of adjustment/refreshing. I've decided that with 160,000 miles on the clock I'm just going to go for the peace of mind of replacing everything vs diagnosing and replacing parts piecemeal. I've ordered up replacement rotors, calipers and pads all the way around. Going to replace everything and bleed the brake system.

2. Wheel bearings. There's a bit of a grinding that has developed in the drivers side front wheel. I lifted the vehicle and spun the wheel and it appears that it's coming from the wheel bearing, sounds dry...no contact from the brake pads to cause the feeling/noise. A little play in the wheel 12 to 6 and all the suspension components seem ok. I've also recently had a wheel stud shear off so I'm in the mood to replace everything here just for peace of mind. I would like to use a complete hub assembly so that I don't have to worry about having parts pressed on. From what I can find there are a few options out there:

A. TRQ Hub Assembly $101 / pair
B. DORMAN 4110447 $140.95 each
C. DriveTech America NT515103G3 $113.00 each
D. Blue Pit Bearings $419 each


So those run the spectrum on pricing from $50 to $419 for a single assembly. I'm going to write off the TRQ as being garbage given it's price point. I can't find much online in the way of reviews for this specific product althought I've found some notes about failures of products they make for other vehicles. Right now I'm leaning toward the Dorman units. OEM quality and a decent reputation. I can't find much online about DriveTech America either. Blue Pit is out of their mind with that pricing...I'm hoping that includes lube and breakfast.

Anyone out there have suggestions on the above...or another option I haven't run across? I know someone is going to say just buy the bearing and take the assembly to a shop to have it removed / pressed on. My thought is by the time I buy new studs (for my peace of mind), buy the bearing and then pay for the labor to have everything disassembled / reassembled I could probably just buy the assemblies and do it myself.

There's also a coolant leak going on, but I think I've got that covered. If not you'll hear about it soon...




 
Back
Top Bottom