"Uno" the 2015 Tacoma

I go out of town for a week and the UPS guy loses his mind...

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Lift install ran into a snag. Apparently some 2015 models have a different shock mount welded to the rear axle than every other Tacoma since 2005. Even though OME lists that their 90061 shock will work with 2005 and up models, some of us are lucky enough to have a truck with the oddball mount.

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Stock shocks are back on while I decide what to do with this. Looking around the ol' interwebs I've found the following solutions:

1. Clearance the shock mount with a grinder. By taking that sharp angle in the mount where the shock is hitting and turning it into more of a curve you can get enough clearance to mount the shock. Not real keen on this since I'm a believer that the mount was designed with that amount of material for a reason. I'm also concerned that as the suspension cycles there's a chance the shock could still hit if I don't clearance enough.

2. Take a big ol' hammer and bend the wings of the mount apart. This, again, creates enough clearance for the shock, but at what cost to the integrity of the mount?

3. Order a bilstein 5100 extended shock that has the body at the top and the piston at the bottom solving all the problems. Leaning toward this solution.

So here I sit with an angle grinder, a big hammer and two bilstein shocks in an online shopping cart...
 
That’s way I mixed OME and Bilstiens components together for the Mouser’s lift. I had a few friends that had the same issue with the OME rear shocks that you are having. Just buy the 5100s and call it done.
 
Pulled out that pesky lawn mower filter from the air injection pump and added the Uni filter. My lawn mower filter was in good shape and hadn't started to degrade yet. Spun the impeller around and verified all the fins were in good shape with no foreign materials present.

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Lift install ran into a snag. Apparently some 2015 models have a different shock mount welded to the rear axle than every other Tacoma since 2005. Even though OME lists that their 90061 shock will work with 2005 and up models, some of us are lucky enough to have a truck with the oddball mount.

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Stock shocks are back on while I decide what to do with this. Looking around the ol' interwebs I've found the following solutions:

1. Clearance the shock mount with a grinder. By taking that sharp angle in the mount where the shock is hitting and turning it into more of a curve you can get enough clearance to mount the shock. Not real keen on this since I'm a believer that the mount was designed with that amount of material for a reason. I'm also concerned that as the suspension cycles there's a chance the shock could still hit if I don't clearance enough.

2. Take a big ol' hammer and bend the wings of the mount apart. This, again, creates enough clearance for the shock, but at what cost to the integrity of the mount?

3. Order a bilstein 5100 extended shock that has the body at the top and the piston at the bottom solving all the problems. Leaning toward this solution.

So here I sit with an angle grinder, a big hammer and two bilstein shocks in an online shopping cart...

Bilsteins.

Oh, and I am working on an idea for a new/improved/better upper shock mount. :p
 
Bilsteins.

Oh, and I am working on an idea for a new/improved/better upper shock mount. :p

In looking at some of the Bilsteins I'm not sure that they're going to solve my problem, the bodies appear the same. The smaller diameter versions appear to be inverted.

I've moved from having the grinder ready to actually plugging it in....
 
In looking at some of the Bilsteins I'm not sure that they're going to solve my problem, the bodies appear the same. The smaller diameter versions appear to be inverted.

I've moved from having the grinder ready to actually plugging it in....

You really want the shock body up - reducing unsprung weight and all that.
 
Pulled out that pesky lawn mower filter from the air injection pump and added the Uni filter. My lawn mower filter was in good shape and hadn't started to degrade yet. Spun the impeller around and verified all the fins were in good shape with no foreign materials present.

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On my to do list.
 
I have a slight vibration when taking off from a dead stop. Crawling up under the truck and measuring the working angles of the rear drive shaft ujoints I've come up with the fact that they're 3 degrees off from one another. Going to need to pick up a set of leaf pack shims tomorrow to correct this.
 
Lower shock mounts clearanced and repainted where they were cut. OME Shocks mounted. Adjustments were made to the rear springs and the carrier bearing. There's now just a hint of a vibration between 5 and 10 mph and not consistently. Any weight in the bed removed the vibration completely. I'm going to leave it as is until the sliders and camper top go on and then see if it needs any other adjustments. Rides fantastic!
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I assume you fully cycled the suspension, to ensure the shock clears throughout the axle travel. :p

Did you have to pry the lower mount open any to get the shocks to fit? On one set of my Billies I had to spread the flanges a little. Silly me - I thought all shock mounts were the same size.
 
I assume you fully cycled the suspension, to ensure the shock clears throughout the axle travel. :p

Did you have to pry the lower mount open any to get the shocks to fit? On one set of my Billies I had to spread the flanges a little. Silly me - I thought all shock mounts were the same size.

Shocks should be good through full movement of the suspension. One of the mounts as a little "snug" and needed to be "motivated".
 
BTW, your u-bolts are not long enough. You should have upwards of an inch of bolt past the nut. But, I'm sure you know that.

I might have a spare, new, unused set that is longer than stock. I will check.
 
BTW, your u-bolts are not long enough. You should have upwards of an inch of bolt past the nut. But, I'm sure you know that.

I might have a spare, new, unused set that is longer than stock. I will check.

Thanks, I'm not sure why OME supplies these as being the proper size. I was just looking for replacements earlier.
 
Tackled one of those common Toyota modifications today by swapping one of the driver's side grab handle bolts with a longer one that runs through a RAM mount ball. In doing so I also tapped into the stock 12v power outlet fuse location to add a dual usb stepdown converter behind the A-pillar trim. I'm not a huge fan of tapping into factory wiring, but in this case it's the equivalent of plugging a USB cell phone charger into the stock 12v outlet so I was ok with it.

There's plenty of examples of this all over the web, but here's my take on it.

Step 1: Pull the lower door trim by starting at the rear of the panel and pulling up. Slowly work your way forward until it pulls free from the driver's side kick panel. No tools required as it's all just molded plastic tabs holding it in place.

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Step 2: Pull the foot rest. Get under it and pull it away from the floor. There are two retaining clips that are pretty strong so this might take a bit of persuasion. Just make sure you're pulling straight away from the floor and try not to twist or rock it.

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Step 3: Unscrew this cap from the screw that you've exposed under the foot rest. This is the only mechanical fastener that's holding the kick panel in place.

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Step 4: Work your fingers behind the kick panel on the door side and pull it straight back toward the tailgate. There are two plastic retaining clips holding it in place. Might need a good tug.

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Now you've exposed this mess!

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But we're only after a factory grounding point in here. There are several screws here that would work, but I went for the factory mount. It's the white terminating clip with all the white w/ black stripe wires running into it. You know, the hardest one to get to.

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Step 5: Pull the fuse panel and find the top row of fuses. In the cluster of three to the right the middle one should be 15A. It's the fuse for the 2 factory 12v plugs in the dash under the A/C controls. Pull it and add a circuit tap with the appropriate size fuses.

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Step 6: Loosen the oh so easy to get to bolt that's holding that factory grounding point from earlier:

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Step 6: Connect the positive wire from the step down converter to the add a circuit thing and then terminate the ground wire into a connector that you can slip behind the factory ground bolt that we loosened earlier.

Step 7: Route the cables with the USB connectors up along the A-pillar BEHIND THE AIRBAG and tie them off to a factory wire harness. I positioned mine so they'd fall in about the middle of the grab handle.

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Now assemble all the parts I didn't take photos of:

1. RAM Handlebar Clamp Base (RAM-B-367BU)
2. M6 1.0 x 50mm socket head cap screw
3. (2) 6mm nuts

Here's a picture of said parts that I "borrowed" from somewhere else. I didn't use the lock washer as it made the combination just short enough the bolt wouldn't engage the threads on the factory mount.

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This setup worked ok for me, but I think I might try to track down a 55mm or 60mm screw. Using this, and probably a third nut or an appropriately sized metal collar, you could push the RAM ball out of the hole in the grab handle a little further. This would allow more adjustments to be made to the angle of whatever RAM arm you attach.

Any way, I used those three parts to replace the lower bolt on the grab handle and put everything back together. In the end I had this:

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The phone is out of the way, but still easy to get to and easy to see without taking the road out of my line of sight. One benefit of tapping into the fuse for the 12v outlets is that you bypass the circuitry that turns the factory 12v outlets off with the ACC circuit. The step down converter will stay on even with the truck off allowing your device to continue charging. I plan on 3d printing a couple of clips to hold the two USB connectors flush against the A-pillar.
 
Ya know, Blue Sea makes a nice, round, panel-mount USB charger.

Don't know if one would fit in the A-pillar cover - but they do look really nice.
 
Ya know, Blue Sea makes a nice, round, panel-mount USB charger.

Don't know if one would fit in the A-pillar cover - but they do look really nice.

I have a couple of those in my parts bin downstairs in the shop. Unfortunately they won't fit in the pillar. I'm probably going to swap one of the stock 12v outlets for one.
 
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