Build: "Moxie" 2007 LX470 Limited

[zimcruza]

Thanks for the Teyes CC3 info, been attempting that today and got totally confused with the wiring….. too many wires and plugs, not enough sockets . When you inserted the SIM card, did you use the holder on the fly lead or the one in the bottom of the head unit? Don’t want to get this wrong so I have to take it all apart again! Thanks!

 

[cryptyk]

Thanks for the Teyes CC3 info, been attempting that today and got totally confused with the wiring….. too many wires and plugs, not enough sockets . When you inserted the SIM card, did you use the holder on the fly lead or the one in the bottom of the head unit? Don’t want to get this wrong so I have to take it all apart again! Thanks!

I used the external one. I ran that and the three USB cables into the glove box so I could access them without taking anything apart. Here's a picture:

Left to right:
External sim
Usb 1, 2, and 3 (last one is kind of hidden behind)
Usb-c lines that run to the dual usb-c plugs in the old lighter location.

I ran the USB and usb-c here just for convenience, but two of the headunit USB cables here just get plugged into the two usb-c cables shown (with an adapter not shown)

Even though those cables route to the glovebox then back to the lighter, I still thought it would be good to be able to access them easily and the cables were long enough, so why not.

Here's a picture of the lighter plugs:

It's kind of hard to explain so I'll draw a quick picture in a sec to make it super clear.

 

[GTV]

That's a bummer about your RTT. I bought the ARB Esperance last year, which I found out afterwards is the same tent as the Roofnest Condor with some small detail differences. Definitely built in the same factory but it was about $400 less at the time and about a grand less than the iKamper Mini. For the money spent I'm satisfied with it. If I was spending a lot of nights up there I'd probably justify the extra cost and quality of the iKamper. I did immediately swap out the mattress for an ExPed and I'm glad that I did. It adds a little time to put up/take down but it is 100% worth it.

 

[cryptyk]

@zimcruza
Here's how I laid it out:

 

[cryptyk]

That's a bummer about your RTT. I bought the ARB Esperance last year, which I found out afterwards is the same tent as the Roofnest Condor with some small detail differences. Definitely built in the same factory but it was about $400 less at the time and about a grand less than the iKamper Mini. For the money spent I'm satisfied with it. If I was spending a lot of nights up there I'd probably justify the extra cost and quality of the iKamper. I did immediately swap out the mattress for an ExPed and I'm glad that I did. It adds a little time to put up/take down but it is 100% worth it.

Thanks. I've decided to try to "salvage" it. I have the following planned:

1) Remove all hardware and replace with stainless steel. It's already rusting in areas.
2) Paint the inner channels and the unpainted steel that's rusting in places after cleaning it up
3) Have a local canvas awning store cut out the top plastic window and replace it with a clear plastic window. I'll take this opportunity to have them put it on a waterproof zipper so I can actually open the panel when it's nice out (and be able to stand up in the tent)
4) Replace the mattress with an exped max duo 15.
5) Add padding to the ladder where it rubs against the tent while it's folded up. I've noticed it's already (after maybe 10 open/closes) work through the plastic ceiling panel and worn a hole in it.

I think at that point, the tent will be killer. Just disappointing that all that needs to be done at all. I feel like I bought a discard. I'm confident CVT would replace it if I drove to Oregon, but that's not realistic with my work right now. I just wish it didn't have these issues to begin with.

 

[cryptyk]

This next one is a pretty key upgrade (har har)

Thanks to @suprarx7nut . These new titanium key shells are awesome.

One of my key shells was actually cracked and got worse each time I twisted it in the ignition. With the new titanium frame, that will never happen again. Seriously, the twisting motion is so reinforced with titanium that I suspect the key metal would twist before the shell cracked.

One note: I really liked the idea of "safety orange" because it's high visibility at camp and I tend to put my key in weird places. Easier to find under the seat, etc. One thing I've noticed is that while driving, my eye gets drawn to it every few minutes. It's like my brain sees the color out of the corner of my eye and things "WARNING LIGHT" and I glance down out of reflex. I've actually stopped using that one as my primary key because of it. I'd recommend less eye-catching colors if this sounds like something you might do!

Highly recommended upgrade! Would definitely do it again on my next truck.

 

[cryptyk]

Installed a Ram Mount today. There isn't much room for a wireless charging mount that doesn't make the interior feel like a cop car with devices hanging everywhere. I'm trying to keep everything pretty clean without wires and mounts. I debated a couple of locations and finally landed on the center console area.

Location Selection
- Tape deck install: I don't feel like taking apart the tape deck and don't love how it will stick out in front of those buttons (even though I rarely use them).
- Airbag light location (right side of tape deck): Not bad, but a little further away than I want from the driver side and encroaches on the passenger knee area.
- Top of dash using t-bar rail: Super flexible location and can mount multiple devices. I might do this in the future, but want to maintain a more stock look if I can while I only have one device. Also don't like anything that can obstruct the driving view.
- Inside center console: Very secure, but I want to be able to see notifications on the screen
- Driver-side a-pillar handle: Don't want it between me and the airbag.
- Center console between seat heaters and transfer case lever: This is where I ended up installing. Mostly out of the way of everyone. Low enough to not be distracting. Easy to reach for both driver and passenger. Easy access to power.

Installation
Removing the trim
Unscrew the transfer case knob, put the truck in neutral, and grab the trim by reaching "under" the transfer case leather. Pull it up carefully. The cup holders come with it. Note that switches are plugged in, so unclip them as you slowly lift the trim out of the way.

Finding Power
I had already replaced the cigarette lighter with USB ports connected to the headunit, so those power cables were just dangling. I fished them out to the front of the console area. It's REALLY tight and you can only get a few inches of them down here. I cut the wires as long as possible and stripped them very carefully. No room for do-overs here. Multimeter to verify positive and negative and to ensure it's switched 12V power.

Wiring to the harness
Easy, but very tight space. I twisted the harness together with the Ram wireless charging wires, soldered them, heat-shrinked them, and now they're very solid.

Verify it works before buttoning up

POWERRRRRR!

Reassemble and mount
I chose to run the wires under the trim by the passenger seat (between the trim and the carpet). I also chose an adhesive mount. Once I verify this is where I want it permanently, I'll install a bolt-down mount and a grommet for the power cable through the center console for a cleaner look.
Note that I had to trim the cicular mount a bit so it didn't overlap the seat heaters or transfer case lever.

That's it! Super solid, charges quickly, and there's NO way the phone is bouncing out of that mount off-road.

 

[cryptyk]

Removed the Whale Tail from the rear door. It was very much in the way of both the tent and the canopy. Pretty easy to remove. Just remove the two plastic caps, remove two screws, run a piece of thin wire to cut the glue, then slide up to remove from the clips.

After the removal, I used a 5/8" rubber plug to seal the wiring hole. I painted the two original screws gloss black and used an o-ring to seal those holes. Now I just need to figure out how to handle the clips. Also ordered an OEM third-brake light to get back into compliance.

 

[cryptyk]

Finally wheeled around with my custom wheel caps for long enough to feel good about mounting the original method caps.

The short story is that the method 703 wheels fit on the LC/LX hubs but the wheel cap doesn't because the hub sticks out. Many folks are cutting a hole in the middle of the original cap, but I wanted to keep it looking a little cleaner. I 3d printed some wheel cap extensions out of PETG plastic. PETG is UV resistant, chemically resistant, and pretty tough when it gets banged around. I think it turned out pretty good.

Here's a picture of the back for comparison

 

[cryptyk]

Just installed a new set of interior LEDs thanks to @FullyLitLED !

Pretty basic. I went with a combination of red and warm white. All of the "automatic" lights are red, so opening car doors while camping doesn't attract any bugs. All of the "manual" lights are warm white and provide WAY more light than stock.
Red:
- Door puddle lights (4x)
- Front dome light (1x)

Warm White:
- Front map lights (2x)
- Rear map lights (2x)
- Rear dome light (1x) (which I leave on off unless I need it to see in the tailgate area)

All cameras are different so don't judge too much based on the pics!

Red dome light and puddle lights on

Front Map Lights on

All lights on

 

[FullyLitLED]

These pics are awesome!!!! You mind if I use them?

Glad you like the lights @cryptyk

 

[cryptyk]

These pics are awesome!!!! You mind if I use them?

Glad you like the lights @cryptyk

Go ahead! I just replaced a few of the pics with clearer shots.

 

[OEMGUY0720]

Interested to know more about your T’Eyes CC3, I have an 06LX and been looking at various options to replace the antiquated screen. Did you also replace the backup camera?

 

[cryptyk]

Interested to know more about your T’Eyes CC3, I have an 06LX and been looking at various options to replace the antiquated screen. Did you also replace the backup camera?

I dug very, very deep into headunit options and did a ton of research. To be clear, there's no great option. Because of the terrible decision by Toyota/Lexus to integrate climate and stereo, we are stuck choosing the best of bad options.
1) Keep it stock. The nav is useless and there's no factory bluetooth. I couldn't handle it
2) Get a bluetooth adapter and wire it in. Not bad, but I wanted maps and such.
3) Get a Grom Vline2. Better, because you have carplay and android auto. I used this for a month, but it made it obvious how terrible the screen is. The resolution is bad and the touch sensitivity is worse.
4) Get a Tesla style or Teyes CC3 screen. I can't talk to the tesla style much because I didn't like that look and never really considered it. (I'm on my 4th tesla and love the cars, but the screen looks ugly in the LX, in my opinion). I chose the CC3.

On the CC3, you'll be ok becuase you have an LX. It basically doesn't work in an LC, but all the major bugs have been worked out on the LX. The only real bug left is that the CD player doesn't work and the radio antenna doesn't automatically go up when the radio is turned on. There's a hardware fix to make the antenna go up and I'm working on reverse engineering the Teyes firmware to enable a software fix, but that's been a journey.

Also, I got the CC3 360 that allows for 4 cameras in a 360 degree setup. I'm waiting for dissent to send my bumpers before I mount those cameras, though.

I really like the CC3 in my rig. I plan on replacing the factory amp and speakers; nothing crazy, but the factory speakers are old paper cones and the 8 ohm system doesn't really allow you to choose good speakers without replacing the amp. The CC3 has RCA outs for 5.1 channels, so it should be an easy replacement of the factory amp/speaker system.

 

[cryptyk]

Tonight I installed some LED High Beams from @Luke111 !

Pretty simple job:
1) Remove the old high beam resistor and replace with the one provided by Luke. This was really easy. I used some m3 bolts and nuts to mount the new resistor to the mounting tray.

2) Remove and replace the high beam/DRL bulbs with the ones from Luke's kit. They plug right into the stock locations.

3) Plug in the harness, which is labeled. Mine was unfortunately mislabeled, but then it "clicked" that the ends were for the stock high beam harness to plug into, then the middle sections were each a pair of LED connections and HID connections. Simple from there.

Passenger side:

Driver's side:

You'll need to remove the batter and the wiper fluid fill cap to get the driver's side bulb in, but no big deal.

Then zip tie the harness into the truck and it's ready!

It's impossible to tell the difference from someone else's camera, but the difference is substantial! It seems like it's maybe 3x brighter, 1.5x wider, and throws 2.5x farther.

Thanks @Luke111 !!!

 

[cryptyk]

Had to do some work in the fuse boxes lately and realized there's not a great reference if I were to be out of cell coverage. Made a printable sheet with the fuses. One page if you print front and back. I believe it also works for the 2006 LX470 and 2006-2007 LC100. Got the info from fuse-box.info and formatted it a bit.

2007 LX470 Fuses​

 

[Soonerfan]

I used the external one. I ran that and the three USB cables into the glove box so I could access them without taking anything apart. Here's a picture:
View attachment 3220000

Left to right:
External sim
Usb 1, 2, and 3 (last one is kind of hidden behind)
Usb-c lines that run to the dual usb-c plugs in the old lighter location.

I ran the USB and usb-c here just for convenience, but two of the headunit USB cables here just get plugged into the two usb-c cables shown (with an adapter not shown)

Even though those cables route to the glovebox then back to the lighter, I still thought it would be good to be able to access them easily and the cables were long enough, so why not.

Here's a picture of the lighter plugs:
View attachment 3220004

It's kind of hard to explain so I'll draw a quick picture in a sec to make it super clear.

Hey, thanks for the great information on the Teyes install and fixes. Been in the 470 world for so long living with an old stereo, then went to a 570, game changer on sound etc.. But back to an 06 Lx470. Need to upgrade with the Teyes, going to purchase one this week. Dumb question, for the sim card, do I just contact my carrier and say I need a sim card added to my plan? This will eliminate me from having to use my hotspot for all the music streaming online? Thanks!

 

[cryptyk]

Hey, thanks for the great information on the Teyes install and fixes. Been in the 470 world for so long living with an old stereo, then went to a 570, game changer on sound etc.. But back to an 06 Lx470. Need to upgrade with the Teyes, going to purchase one this week. Dumb question, for the sim card, do I just contact my carrier and say I need a sim card added to my plan? This will eliminate me from having to use my hotspot for all the music streaming online? Thanks!

Basically yes. You want to ask them for a "data only sim card" because you don't need a separate phone number for this one. The details depend on the carrier. I have Google Fi and I was able to order it online and had a new activated sim in a few days in the mail.

 

[Soonerfan]

Basically yes. You want to ask them for a "data only sim card" because you don't need a separate phone number for this one. The details depend on the carrier. I have Google Fi and I was able to order it online and had a new activated sim in a few days in the mail.

Thanks so much!

 

[cryptyk]

I finally finished a replacement for the Teyes CC3 climate control app. There were a couple of things I wanted to accomplish:
1) Make it prettier. I wasn't a fan of the interface.
2) Make it work in split-screen mode (still working on this)
3) Make it launchable as a normal app rather than the floating button or vehicle settings, then a separate tap
4) Get rid of all the buttons that don't actually work
5) Make the temperature on Auto accurate. (Hint: It's not even close)

The result is Climate 100. You can see the build progress and download the app by checking the thread dedicated to it. Here's a teaser video: