What have you done to your 200 Series this week? (16 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Took a drive around Flathead Lake visiting Lakeside, Polson and BigFork. Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. It is 30 miles long, 16 miles wide and has 180 miles of shoreline.

20220522_120838.jpg


20220522_122246.jpg


20220522_122302.jpg


20220522_122505.jpg


20220522_131857.jpg
 
We took off for a few days to visit Assateague Island National Seashore. Got a campsite right on the beach – it was awesome but wish it was a bit warmer. It was also the first test of our Springbar Traveller 10ft x10ft tent which performed beautifully in high wind. Here’s some pics!
20220522_185814s.jpg
20220522_151317s.jpg

20220522_153309s.jpg
 
Got my Diode Dynamics SS3 pods mounted in the foglight pockets in my Ironman bumper. I thought it was going to be easy peasy but required modification of the light housing and bumper to get them sitting centered and properly recessed. Very happy to have them back on the rig though, LOVE these fogs.

60BC5BED-11CA-43F4-B906-B5E56ADEAD9E.jpeg


C09218D0-339F-4C14-962A-39AA21F59BF2.jpeg
 
And since I wasn’t really in the mood to do real work today, I went ahead and got my ARB Baserack installed. Previous owner dropped a couple of the roof rack brackets into the headliner and just squirted a glob of JB Weld into the hole and ran the bolt into that so that’s what half my mounting points for the rack have been since I bought the truck. Decided to go ahead and fix that with the rack install. Was able to fish them out without dropping the headliner, just pulled it back enough to access. Very tight but doable.

075B4918-67C4-4DBB-AAA4-74792EBDFBF2.jpeg


29BE605B-9D83-4796-8A6B-8F99923C0C26.jpeg

Wedged these needle nose in there to hold the bracket from the bottom while I thread the bolts in from the top.

97C693AE-A96B-4C60-8B5A-27DCD6C2CDF1.jpeg

63A19ECD-B854-48C9-AC7F-20DCB9F14CC8.jpeg

Really digging the rack. Very stout. Clever mounting system. Haven’t had it on the highway yet but around town with the sunroof tilted or open it’s great.
 
Crazy that the PO thought that a glob of JB Weld in the cavity was an acceptable alternative. I am surprised that it didn't stick to the side curtain air bags.
 
Replaced a broken fuel door spring. Part number 77360-35040.

Anyone watching me go back and forth 3-4 times between the gas pump and drivers door attempting to pop the fuel door might have assumed I was high.
Any tips for the replacement? Mine just broke and I need a new spring.
 
Crazy that the PO thought that a glob of JB Weld in the cavity was an acceptable alternative. I am surprised that it didn't stick to the side curtain air bags.

Ageed. The vehicle is an interesting mix of amazingly clean installs (passport 9500 integrated radar and laser detector) and baffling sloppy half measures. Luckily the JB Weld were mostly just globs sitting on top and barely secured in any way so it didn’t damage anything inside and was easily removed.

The rack was the last of my list of fixes, happy to clear that hurdle.
 
And since I wasn’t really in the mood to do real work today, I went ahead and got my ARB Baserack installed. Previous owner dropped a couple of the roof rack brackets into the headliner and just squirted a glob of JB Weld into the hole and ran the bolt into that so that’s what half my mounting points for the rack have been since I bought the truck. Decided to go ahead and fix that with the rack install. Was able to fish them out without dropping the headliner, just pulled it back enough to access. Very tight but doable.

View attachment 3018301

View attachment 3018302
Wedged these needle nose in there to hold the bracket from the bottom while I thread the bolts in from the top.

View attachment 3018303
View attachment 3018304
Really digging the rack. Very stout. Clever mounting system. Haven’t had it on the highway yet but around town with the sunroof tilted or open it’s great.
Pics of the back of the light install please. Very interested in doing this myself.
 
Any tips for the replacement? Mine just broke and I need a new spring.
I think I ended up using needle nose pliers to pull out the old, and really easy to insert the new plastic spring. Many Toyota vehicles have similar design - lots of videos on youtube.
 
Pics of the back of the light install please. Very interested in doing this myself.
Sure, the install did not go at all how I imagined. I planned to re-use the Tacoma bracket from Diode Dynamics and essentially use that as a spacer to make the SS3 pod wide enough to fit into the Ironman fog bracket. This would have worked but it pushed the front of the light about 1cm farther forward than I wanted it so I scrapped that plan.

I realized to get it far enough back the light housing would have to sit flush to the mounting tab on the bumper itself. This also presented the challenge of the wiring harness interfering with this tab as it sticks up from the bottom and the harness is on the bottom of the light housing.

To address this I simply flipped the light upside down so the harness is at the top and clears the bumper mounting tab. This now means my light cut off is on the bottom and I have a nice spread of light right up into oncoming drivers eyes. So I needed to disassembled the lamps again and flip the lenses. The glass portion has a notch and the housing has a tab cast into it so you cannot install the lens upside down. I used a set of needle nose pliers to snap the tab off and this allowed me to install the lens upside down.

Now I discovered that the rear of the SS3 housing does not fully fit into the fog opening so a little trimming of the bumper was needed as you can see here.

471BE8E7-B16B-42AD-AAE7-237C3EF08581.jpeg


The light would sit flush back against the tab now and sat in the pocket perfectly.

A84D8CC3-C7FF-4CF3-B037-78423B7C0DF1.jpeg


The challenge was now keeping it in place. I couldn’t add a bracket to the rear as it would push things forward. I didn’t really have any room on the sides so I decided to get out the tap and die set and tap the cooling spires on the rear of the SS3 housing and run an M6 bolt right into the back of the housing material.

ED72D62C-A821-4E0F-BD21-BBD62057DA47.jpeg


The only bolts I had on hand were too long so I just made some spacers with washers.

04A87E86-D680-4558-8D51-A7ADD5C78362.jpeg


Here is the rear of the housing with the bolt through the Ironman bumper’s fog light mounting tab directly into the SS3 housing. I took my time trimming the opening and test fitting so the light actually fits in there snug enough that unless I was blasting through the desert it would probably stay in place in on it’s own. With the bolt in the rear as well I don’t think it’s going anywhere and with it fitting snug the beam does not bounce. Not the super elegant solution I had originally envisioned but from the front it looks perfect so I’m happy with the outcome.
 
Last edited:
So 37s fit in the rear. You MUST drop your bump stop though. This is taken at full articulation with 37 actually on the wheel well. Axle is 3.5” from bottom frame rail. Good news is cutting is minor!

Edit: full articulation is sway bar disconnected, coil springs removed, shocks totally discharged, and no silly bump stops.

007FEA24-17C9-4878-B03B-E1215F2752AE.jpeg

76B5FAB4-D0A7-44DA-8751-4DCC88ABA467.jpeg

D82C3074-4D40-414D-9CD8-28AF917E62B0.jpeg

976CD93F-86A2-419E-98CC-90E3FC438F63.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Had an extra set of light bars from the Subie and was tired of them taking up space in the garage. Made a quick trip to Home Depot and found some brackets and was able to get these suckers mounted quite nicely behind the grill. I am diggin the look! Not sure how the light output will be, had to angle them downward to mount. It’ll be dark here in a few hours and will get test in the dark. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

View attachment 2969006

View attachment 2969008

View attachment 2969010
Would you be able to provide a link to the ditch light brackets you used?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom