Builds indycole's 2016 200 Series Build and Retrospective (1 Viewer)

[Markuson]

Just curious how much do you have totally in your 200?

Scary question bc it makes me think about the total on my own beast!

 

[TonyP]

I learned several project cars ago to not keep track of spending.
It's just depressing.

 

[Markuson]

I learned several project cars ago to not keep track of spending.
It's just depressing.

Ya, I tend to just think in terms of how much I need for... "NEXT?"

Cuz there's ALWAYS a NEXT.

 

[indycole]

Just curious how much do you have totally in your 200?

What I actually spent on it or what I tell my wife? Heh, you could probably add stuff up easily enough from my signature. It's true that it's been a major expense but not something we think about too hard given that in 2017 alone we were fortunate enough to visit Death Valley five times, enjoy Moab and Breck with the fine folks from this forum, explore random forest roads in Wyoming and Montana, and countless trips to the local Orchard Supply Hardware in comfort, piece of mind, and crystal clear loud music to drown out all the gear bouncing around in the back.

The things we look back and consider expensive are the items that we've had to redo — we've gone through a couple types of wheels, I've replaced six KO2s this year, two roof racks, multiple roof top tents, and a few versions of rear springs as the truck got fatter... and that's not even getting into the camping gear and organization.

 

[RET2]

I'd venture the $ cost is up there but the wealth of the expeirences ... PRICELESS

 

[indycole]

I finally put my original front and rear bumper covers out of their misery after 18 months of abuse. On my first trip in the truck in 2016 I wasn't paying attention and some Tahoe trail overgrowth stabbed the front bumper in just the right places to ruin a parking sensor, headlight washer, and deliver a deep gouge in the plastic. There was also some light scratching from Moab.

The rear is a different story. I've covered most of the damage in this thread. Why replace the plastic covers? Well, the rear was damaged badly enough (way more than was even visible) that it would need to be replaced for pretty much any off-the-shelf or custom rear bumper and the truck is going in after the first of the year for a custom rear from Trail Tailor. I'm also planning on moving forward with a hidden winch mount up front (I may eventually do a bumper but am going this direction first) and it quite simply it was cost effective to have them both painted at the same time as the cover itself isn't that pricey.

Here are some notes on replacing the stock bumpers for anyone else who takes on the task.

• The bumper cover parts don't include any hardware and you'll need to transplant some parts (headlight washers, sensors, fog lights for the front, reflectors in the rear, wiring harnesses and mounts etc.) from the old cover to the new. The transplant takes as much time as removing the bumpers.
• Don't forget to clamp off the headlight washer hose.
• If you've damaged your rear bumper before you may need new side moldings to attach the bumper to the vehicle. I've replaced my side molding twice.
• I don't know if this is the right way to disassemble the parking sensors, but I pushed them through the hole and then unclipped the mount from the sensor using a tiny flat screwdriver and then shimmy'd the sensor out. This is probably useless advice in the abstract. Is there a better way to do this?
• Unscrew the front camera from the grill instead of trying to unplug it. The other wiring harness has a special connector that requires "pinching" a release near the connector itself and then you rotate the white housing upward. I also found it helpful to remove the grill after removing the front cover.
• The 2016 has some chrome that needed to be removed below the headlights. This was surprisingly difficult to remove and one of the chrome molding bracket mounts actually broke off from the headlight. In hindsight, this was one of the unusual cases where I actually don't think I did anything wrong. Fortunately, it was a simple enough fix with a slightly longer plastic screw.

On a completely unrelated note, the driver side door handle seems to be wearing more aggressively than I'd expect. It's a $25 part from Toyota but I may see if it's covered under warranty... doubt it.

 

[NC237]

Rings on fingers, watch clasp on wrist, and keys in hand when grabbing things on the interior equals scratches and wear. Little doggy nails too. I'll see folks get in their car in the morning while juggling keys, coffee, and a bag. With both hands full the keys usually get rubbled against door handles or steeling wheels. Or tossed onto/into the center console. If not keys then jewelry. Ditto while exiting.

Most pay no attention and don't really care. Typically it's chalked up to normal wear/tear. Door handles, steering wheel, shift lever, parking break handle, trim by window switches... If you look closely at any places where hands go you'll see the wear and the scratches.

But Toyota is paying some attention to this. i.e. Inside the exterior door handles - used to be a finger nail and wedding ring scratch magnet - now Toyota has placed a sticker/film there to combat some of it.

Also in 2016+ Toyota has changed the texture on the grab handle and door handle to help hide the typical wear/scratches.

 

[WillW]

Love your rig! I'm in SJ too and would love to check it out sometime in 2018!

Do your drawers rattle at all?

I'm also thinking about that 15 aux tank. I couldn't find it in the other thread, but is it going to be CA carb compliant? I'm curious what will happen when it comes time to smog.

 

[indycole]

Rings on fingers, watch clasp on wrist, and keys in hand when grabbing things on the interior equals scratches and wear. Little doggy nails too. I'll see folks get in their car in the morning while juggling keys, coffee, and a bag. With both hands full the keys usually get rubbled against door handles or steeling wheels. Or tossed onto/into the center console. If not keys then jewelry. Ditto while exiting.

Most pay no attention and don't really care. Typically it's chalked up to normal wear/tear. Door handles, steering wheel, shift lever, parking break handle, trim by window switches... If you look closely at any places where hands go you'll see the wear and the scratches.

But Toyota is paying some attention to this. i.e. Inside the exterior door handles - used to be a finger nail and wedding ring scratch magnet - now Toyota has placed a sticker/film there to combat some of it.

Also in 2016+ Toyota has changed the texture on the grab handle and door handle to help hide the typical wear/scratches.

Yeah, it's a minor thing but one of the reasons I posted about it is that the wear pattern seems unusual. This is mostly a weekend vehicle and I'm seldom driving without my better half. She's the one with the rings, keys, nails, etc. yet her door handle doesn't look a day old. I've been monitoring it for a while, as well as my interactions with the handle, and it's hard to come up with any time where there's anything more than my plain hand on the handle. It's not part of any typical driving positions, either. Either way, not a huge deal. I'll replace the part and see if it happens again. I'm mainly curious as to whether it was caused from normal wear or an isolated event.

Love your rig! I'm in SJ too and would love to check it out sometime in 2018!

Do your drawers rattle at all?

I'm also thinking about that 15 aux tank. I couldn't find it in the other thread, but is it going to be CA carb compliant? I'm curious what will happen when it comes time to smog.

Thanks! I'd be happy to show it anytime.

There's a lot of stuff in the cargo area so I can't solely blame the drawers. I actually think the setup is pretty quiet all things considered. I did end up using some JB Weld on all the drawer-top nutserts and loctite on screws as those had been a constant source of squeaking.

My expectation is that the aux tank will be CA carb compliant. I know many others will be still be interested in it if it doesn't play out that way, but the Valley Hybrids / Cruiser Brothers team is dedicated to making that aspect work. We'll see... I'm optimistic.

 

[WillW]

Thanks! I'd be happy to show it anytime.

There's a lot of stuff in the cargo area so I can't solely blame the drawers. I actually think the setup is pretty quiet all things considered. I did end up using some JB Weld on all the drawer-top nutserts and loctite on screws as those had been a constant source of squeaking.

My expectation is that the aux tank will be CA carb compliant. I know many others will be still be interested in it if it doesn't play out that way, but the Valley Hybrids / Cruiser Brothers team is dedicated to making that aspect work. We'll see... I'm optimistic.

Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply. Excited to see how it all turns out.

 

[NC237]

I'm with you on that one. It doesn't look like scratching. It almost looks like the texture is wearing away or didn't get finished completely around the edge. As you said the other doors don't look like that.

It's one of those things that bug me too. I've got a box of parts to replace the handles on mine - just waiting for snow or a rainy weekend to get it done.

 

[M1911]

Just curious how much do you have totally in your 200?

That would be like me adding up the cost of all of my guns or camera equipment. I’m not going to do that because I really don’t want to know.

 

[SWUtah]

Just wondering if before you started the build on the interior if you considered building your own trailer camper to carry all the stuff and sleep in and just mod the land cruiser suspension, armor, sliders, bumpers.

 

[DirtNap]

What I actually spent on it or what I tell my wife?

A woodworker's "worst nightmare," is that when they die, their spouse will sell all their tools for what they said they paid for them. That might have parallels here.

 

[indycole]

Just wondering if before you started the build on the interior if you considered building your own trailer camper to carry all the stuff and sleep in and just mod the land cruiser suspension, armor, sliders, bumpers.

Yeah, I go back-and-forth on the trailer thing. It feels like the times that the trailer would be most useful for reducing weight would be the same times that it would be annoying to drag it around. Thus far weight has been more of a constraint than space. I'm fairly confident that the truck will handle the weight, but that's not the same as saying it does so without a cost. LCs are nice but they're not invincible and I'm probably shortening the lifespan of whatever components are most stressed.

I'm eager to see where things stand weight-wise after the next phase of mods (fuel tank, winch, rear bumper, new RTT). If I'm much over 7800 lbs then I'm going to try to optimize. Maybe I can swap out steel skids for aluminum, replace both my compressor and CO2 systems with a better OBA system that would serve both purposes, go from steel to aluminum on the roof rack, replace my crappy 40" light bar with a lighter, brighter lights, etc. Thinking about it I could probably knock out 200-400 lbs through optimization, if it's even necessary.

It'd certainly be terrible to "finish" a build and yet have a truck so heavy that it's not safe to do the kind of stuff you bought it for in the first place.

A woodworker's "worst nightmare," is that when they die, their spouse will sell all their tools for what they said they paid for them. That might have parallels here.

The trick is to warm-up your significant other with less expensive hobbies over time.

 

[Markuson]

Just wondering if before you started the build on the interior if you considered building your own trailer camper to carry all the stuff and sleep in and just mod the land cruiser suspension, armor, sliders, bumpers.

Trailers are great for camping at a location and...then wheeling nearby & returning to camp. But if you wheel hard on your way to camping and BETWEEN camps? -Wheeling with a trailer attached just ain’t much fun.

 

[pcut]

I don't have a trailer, but an considering one very seriously. AFA capability, I have gone into the Dollhouse in the Maze with a friend in a new 4 runner towing a Moby and we made it fairly easily with a little maneuvering at the Z turn. Wheeling harder than the Maze would not be on my agenda anyway. LCs aren't really for real wheeling anyway. I base that on my experiences in Kane Creek Cyn, Mary Ellen Gulch etc. Great for overlanding, not wheeling.

 

[RET2]

From my perspective trailers can be a bit of an anchor because you always have to back track to pick them up if you unhook and go wheeling. Some trails/routes don't lend themselves to this not being a loop.

 

[indycole]

I finally buckled down and completed an electrical clean up project and also swapped my single ARB compressor for the dual unit. The output pressure is close to my CO2 setup and I’m hoping to eliminate CO2 from my kit with this upgrade.

In terms of electrical, I added some more cable ties to the 0/1 battery cables though I’m still looking for a route with more reinforcement that doesn’t stress othe components. I also consolidated my two fuse blocks to one and had to lengthen some wires to do so. Most exposed wires received a split loom wrap. Finally, I organized all extra slack into a couple of service loops below the compressor.

There was a bit of surprise with the compressor mounting bracket — it places the compressor too low and the fuse box clip is in the way of the filter. To remedy, I used some nuts as spacers.

Luckily, everything worked perfectly after hooking stuff back up. What’s next in electrical land? Well, I’m out of switch blanks and also have to figure out where to mount the LRA fuel switch. The ARB Linx comes out in early 2018 so I’ll probably give that or the Spod a try. I’m hoping to clean up the battery when that happens as well.

 

[indycole]

Minor Stuff:

I added the manifold for the ARB compressor as the inflation fitting didn't have enough clearance. In other electrical news, I ran wiring for a dome light for the engine bay and rock lights for the front, sides, and rear undercarriage. The lights should arrive this week so hopefully I'll have them installed this weekend.

One issue, however, is that I'm officially out of switch blanks in the cab so I decided to take the plunge on the SPOD system. I'm hoping to install that over the weekend as well though it kind of depends on where I end up mounting the switch panel. I'm also getting back into the RTT game with an Eezi-Awn Stealth as a replacement for the gigantic, much loved, and somewhat frustrating James Baroud. I hate to sell the Kodiak as it's such a well-made tent but I won't have much use for it.

Aside from those items, I'm waiting on word from the shop on fitting the new LRA prototype. More to come soon. In the meantime, we're heading to Death Valley for the extended MLK weekend.