"Uno" the 2015 Tacoma

I made a plate out of aluminum for the plunger to ride on. I need to work it a little more - my finish disk for aluminum is worn out, and I don't have any more.

Now to finish the gas can carrier. I am going to cut up the one I made for the Ranger, and weld it to the horizontal bar of the right side swing out. Not looking forward to all that cutting...
 
New plate lights came in. Good news is they're flat, bad news is they don't fit the cutouts on the bumper. I briefly thought about carving away at the bumper but then remembered I own a 3d printer. A few iterations later I had this:

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It'll sit between the lights and the bumper allowing everything to mount up nicely.

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When it's not 26 degrees and raining outside I'll get them mounted up and run them for a bit to make sure everything is good. If everything is good then I'll have the parts printed in PETG or ASA.
 
If these work for me we can see if they'll fit your bumper. If not we can modify them and print something a little different.

I appreciate that.

I'm not sure they will work as is - my bumper cutouts are different than yours.

We'll figure it out.
 
Much warmer today.

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Coated the PLA prints with bedlinder. I've been reading about some folks that are having luck with this method to provide both heat and UV resistance to PLA prints. We'll see how it holds up. I haven't had any luck sending things out to be printed in another material yet...the quality of the items being returned to me is poor at best and the customer service for the printing companies is horrible (or nonexistent) when I've run into problems. For example here's a comparison between my PLA print (bottom) and an ABS print I paid $25 for:

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The company that printed the ABS version saw no problems with the print. o_O

Might be time to build a printer enclosure so I can print in some other materials...
 
So this design was working:

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And it allowed me to run all the components to ensure that everything was going to operate the way I wanted, but....it just wasn't sexy. Upgraded to version 2.0 today:

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Need to tidy up the wiring behind the LCD screens (it's fed through a blank switch location behind the screens), but all in all I'm happy with this. Much cleaner than the big ol' box that was floating in mid air. I'm going to reuse the ram ball in the center console as a tablet mount for navigation when needed. The switches for the heated seats are mounted in a 3D printed insert that fits in the cupholder and then is screwed into place from underneath.

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The lcds are inside a printed enclosure that attaches to a bracket that's screwed into the dash.

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Where's your Tech Deck?

I was dead set against one because I didn't care for how they looked in photos. After seeing yours I was more accepting of the idea as it wasn't nearly as in the way as I thought it would be. But it boils down to I just don't want to mount that many things there. There's an Alpine Halo9 in the truck's future and between that and my phone there's not much else I need in the dash.

When I went and picked up my rear bumper from SOS I began asking Eddy about his slimline front bumpers. I liked the form factor, the weight, and the styling. Eddy was nice enough to let me know that he had one sitting in the shop that another customer had backed out of and he'd make me a deal on it. Long story short I brought home a front bumper I wasn't planning on buying. :rolleyes:

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In order to do things once (bumper install) I'm now shopping for a winch I wasn't planning on buying this soon and trying to be thorough in my research. Here's what I'm looking at thus far:

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Tough to find extended information or reviews of some of those. The Ironman Monster winch has me intrigued though. Some great premium features, a fully sealed motor housing with breather hose to prevent moisture and dirt ingress, completely sealed gearboxes and specifically called out Dyneema rope. I've found a few Aussies that are giving them positive reviews and a couple stateside folks that mirroring those sentiments. Other Ironman products seem to be of good quality and their customer service (from what I can find) seems on the level...
 
I thought Superwinch went out of business?

As for your table mount nav station - mounting a map in a low position means you will have to look down - eyes away from the road - to see your map. If you are stopped, obviously not a problem, but when driving, it could be an issue.

I wanted my iPad low - I could rest my arm on the arm rest and (more or less) touch the screen where I intended. Now that mine is high, I like it better for driving while map reading. Of course, touching the screen is an issue....

Something to think about.
 
I thought Superwinch went out of business?

As for your table mount nav station - mounting a map in a low position means you will have to look down - eyes away from the road - to see your map. If you are stopped, obviously not a problem, but when driving, it could be an issue.

I wanted my iPad low - I could rest my arm on the arm rest and (more or less) touch the screen where I intended. Now that mine is high, I like it better for driving while map reading. Of course, touching the screen is an issue....

Something to think about.

Westin Automotive Products acquired Superwinch a couple years back. I'm not sure what this means for their overall quality.

I typically use the tablet for BackCountry Navigator and, at least for me, it functions more like a paper atlas. I look at it when I'm stopped, figure out the next couple of turns I want to make, or the best way to connect to where I want to go vs using it as a turn by turn navigator.

Aluminum or Steel Slimline?

Steel. I was going to shop around for aluminum, but he had this one sitting there ready and it was a great deal. Somehow that made up for the extra weight in my mind. :D Considering my original plan was a full ARB front bumper I figure I'm still saving weight.
 
How much does the swing out block your taillights?

Addressed this yesterday by adding a Mictuning tailgate light to the swingout. Went with this one because it wasn't just a peel and stick LED tape kit, but an actual circuit board mounted inside aluminum extrusion and then coated in epoxy for protection from the elements. This allowed me to screw it to the swing out instead of relying on 3M adhesive tape.

Gives me running and brake lights:

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Reverse. More for indication than usable light.

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And progressive turn signals:

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Uses 3 rows of single color leds rather than multi color addressable leds so it can perform multiple functions at once (brake and turn signal for example).

Very happy with the results, and reasonably satisfied with the product. My only complaint is that the wires for the lights exit the end of the aluminum extrusion exactly over where the screw goes to mount them:

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Even taking my time and being careful I managed to mangle the wire insulation a bit. I hit both with some flexible spray on electrical sealant and hopefully they'll be fine.

Ran the rest of the wiring along the back of the swing out and under the rear bumper where I tied into the 7 on connector harness.

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My only other complaint is that the lights use a standard 4 pin trailer connector to plug in. They include another connector with a good length of wire so that you can tie into a 7 on harness or the taillight wiring. However, despite the wires coming in green, white, brown and yellow, they don't follow the standard wire colors for trailer wiring. Of course neither did Toyota when they created the harness for the 7 pin connector. I found this post from Tacomaworld helpful:

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