New Build: T100 SAR and expedition rig

[Arclight]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum so I wanted to introduce myself and start getting some input on this project. I live in Southern California, and I picked up a 97 T100 about 3 weeks ago. My last 4x4 was a 78 Ford Bronco that I had for about 15 years.

Vehicle needs:

I volunteer with San Bernardino Sheriff's Search & Rescue. This is a strictly unpaid thing, and we have to provide our own personal gear. We have 2 vehicles that the sheriff maintains - a 4WD Suburban and a Chevy Truck. Since those are based in Rialto, the people from O.C. and points further often take their own cars/trucks when we get a callout. And callouts typically happen during the most obnoxious weather/conditions possible, such as last weekend on Mt. Baldy during a snow storm, or Summer in the Mojave Desert.

As an aside, I also do a lot of desert exploring on bad roads, and sometimes visit Sequoia, Yosemite, etc in the Winter on 5+ day trips. The old Bronco had a 400cid engine, 33x12.50s, Detroit Locker, dual shocks, crawler gears and short wheelbase and could go just about anywhere. It would also beat the snot out of you on 300 mile trips.

In this vehicle, I'm looking for better on-road comfort (most off-roading here is preceded by 2+ hours of driving), better fuel economy and being able to sleep in the back.

What I have so far:

I did quite a bit of research, and decided on the T100 because: 1. Decent used Tacomas with a V6 and 4WD seem to have a huge premium here. 2. The Tundra is nice but a bit too big to fit in my garage and 3. The "in between size" T100 seemed to be plenty large for my camping/gear hauling needs but small enough for 90% of the trails I might want to visit.

The new truck is a white 97 T100 with:

• 4WD
• P265x75R16 Kelly Safaris with about 50% tread
• 3.4l V6 with TRD supercharger.
• XtraCab extended cab
• Snug Top camper shell with carpet
• SR5 package

This is the first one I drove that hadn't been beat to crap, so I snatched it up. It's got 200K on the clock, but the compression is strong (185-195 on all) and it doesn't leak anything.


Pic:



I have done the following since buying it:

-Replaced all fluids
-Tune-up including OEM plugs and NGK wires
-New starting battery
-Replaced driver-side CV axle with rebuilt
-Replaced upper/lower radiator hoses and heater valve, flushed system.
-New sway bar end links
-New Bilstein HD shocks all around
-New steering stabilizer
-Reupholstered door panels and fixed power locks
-Got the factory alarm working and wired up to the camper shell
-Wired up a 6-circuit, 40A fuse box from the battery for radios/etc.
-Installed NMO antenna mount for HAM radio
-Installed hard-wired USB chargers on dash (GPS) and center console
-Ran power to camper shell and installed cig. lighter and Power Pole sockets.
-Fixed miscellaneous small issues

My next steps are going to be:
-Timing belt and water pump change, since I have no service records
-Rebuild idler arm and check out rest of steering/suspension
-Mount my Yaesu FT8900 (4-band ham radio) in a custom console
-Install 300W Samlex pure sine-wave inverter I have on order
-Install laptop mount
-Put in some LED lighting for the camper shell
-Low-voltage battery disconnect or dual batteries
-Install pop & lock power mechanism on shell
-Better exterior lighting (back and sides). LED?
-Find a way to mount my recovery gear (high-lift, shovel, etc).
-Look into some type of grille guard or bumper to protect radiatior/etc

Planning and advice:

1. I'd also like to look at a locker or LSD. Since I sometimes drive on snow and ice, I'm thinking I don't want to get another standard Detroit. Would a True Trac work well in this truck?

2. Do Jeep clubs/etc still use CBs on off-road trips? My current radio can do HAM, FRS GMRS and MURS.

3. Any advice on Toyota stuff that breaks that I should stock spares for?

4. Advice on other recommendations on mods/etc would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

John

 

[OndrejT100]

Cool. You got a nice list of upgrades planned. I've had my T100 for two years now and love it. My first truck and loving the offroading aspect of it. Conveniently located in the heart of the rocky mountains gives me plenty of places to go.

1) I've been wanting a locker but big $$. Kinda want to do on board air so i'm leaning towards ARB.

2) Pretty sure offroad clubs still use CBs.

4) Manual hubs is a nice upgrade.

I'll be fallowing this thread. I'm sure you've seen mine over on Toyota Nation.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/60-t-100/373392-my-t-so-far-manual-hubs-brakes-steering-questions-inside-long-13.html

 

[89s rule]

Nice truck! I've had my T for about 5 months. Sounds like you found a nice one for all the right reasons, similar to why I chose the same model. Only thing you did not mentioned that swayed me was the ability to carry 6 people in a pinch, where a comparable Taco could handle 4 and even a DC can only handle 5 and they have air bags on pass side so kids up front won't fly.

Depends on how hard you wheel and how far out you go, good maintenance goes a really long way. As mentioned above, manual hubs from an toyota pickup or 4runner 86-95 bolt right on and are an easy upgrade.

Looking forward to your updates.

 

[stioc]

Nice truck and wow that's a lot of work you've done already in just 3 weeks of owning it. I can't answer any specific T related questions but yes CB radios are still very popular with the offroading groups. It's typically the lowest common denominator in a group, doesn't require a license, decent range and cheap to buy.

As for the lockers unless there was a locker available from the factory and you swap the axle in typically a ARB air locker (selectable) in the rear is what most people prefer. It's a bit spendy but it's said to be worth it by every owner I've met.

How long have you been doing the SAR stuff? At one point I really wanted to do it and I even looked into doing it for the Orange County Sheriff's dept but didn't find a whole lot of info on their website and it didn't seem very active.

 

[Arclight]

It looks like there's no electric locker available for the Toyota 8.4 diff, so I'll probably price out both the ARB and the Truetrac and see where it goes.

I've been doing SAR for about 8 years. If you live in SoCal, I'd definitely look at joining one of the San Bernardino teams. There's a lot of different terrain (literally everything from 11,000' peaks to the Colorado River) and they make extensive use of volunteer help for searches, evacuations during fire season, and all kinds of rescues. O.C. is a smaller county in terms of geography and I believe the fire department does much of the rescue work. I don't have a lot of direct experience with them. Feel free to PM if you'd like more info.

Since I've been traveling this week, I haven't done much with the truck, other than installing 5m of LED rope light in the camper shell.The cool thing about the strip I bought from is that it's RGB, so I should be able to program it to be come on with either white light or red light for driving/etc. Hopefully, my new Bluetooth stereo, Samlex inverter, and other bits will have arrived when I get home.


Arclight

Nice truck and wow that's a lot of work you've done already in just 3 weeks of owning it. I can't answer any specific T related questions but yes CB radios are still very popular with the offroading groups. It's typically the lowest common denominator in a group, doesn't require a license, decent range and cheap to buy.

As for the lockers unless there was a locker available from the factory and you swap the axle in typically a ARB air locker (selectable) in the rear is what most people prefer. It's a bit spendy but it's said to be worth it by every owner I've met.

How long have you been doing the SAR stuff? At one point I really wanted to do it and I even looked into doing it for the Orange County Sheriff's dept but didn't find a whole lot of info on their website and it didn't seem very active.

 

[Mrknowitall]

The big item is the timing belt, although AFAIK, the 5VZ is not an interference engine.
The T100 is basically like a Hilux with a wider frame and body. No much to wrong, once any maintenance neglect is shaken out.
There is another thread up right now about a GM alternator swap on the 5VZ, so give that a look.
If you felt confident driving a Detroited Bronco on snow, you'll love a Truetrac in this truck. You'll never now its there, until the truck just keeps scooting along. If it gets dicey, you can preload it with the parking brake a little.

 

[Arclight]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. The wife and I did a bunch of traveling around the holidays. When I got back, there was a bunch of stuff I had ordered waiting:



This included:

• New Kenwood Bluetooth car stereo
• RAM laptop mount
• 7w Cree LED backup lights
• Low-voltage battery disconnect
• 300W Samlex inverter

I spent a day moving all of my HAM radio and other stuff out of the old Bronco and getting it ready to sell. Once I had this out of the way, it was time to have fun.

First off, the new HD radio got installed. The original AM/FM radio in the T100 came with a small power amp mounted behind the center console. This ended up being a great place to mount my Yaesu 8900 HAM radio. I fabricated an L-shaped bracket, threaded it in through the double-DIN slot and bolted it in place with some metric hardware. It is very sturdy.



The remote-mounting option for the head is just a 6-pin, RJ12 phone cable so I crimped one with a custom length and built a console for it. I also wired up the Scangauge 2 and relocated the OBD-II connector 90 degrees so that it's out of the way of my foot when driving. With everything buttoned up, the HAM radio is totally out of view and I still have use of the DIN pocket in the dash.







I'm not quite done with the console yet, but so far I like the angle and location of everything.

Arclight

 

[Arclight]

Next up is the wiring. I went with a 6-circuit blade fuse box from Blue Sea. I ran a dedicated #10 cable to the battery and fused both terminals. I used a step drill to re-do the previous owner's hole in the firewall and installed a nice grommet. There's a tiny storage compartment under the jump seat on the driver's side, so I decided to use that for my electrical area.
View attachment 140721

I also took the opportunity to install two hard-wired USB chargers I found on Amazon, and a 300W Samlex pure sine wave inverter with remote control. I mounted the inverter under the passenger seat and grounded its bonding lug to the body so that the GFI outlet will work properly. This inverter should run chargers and small motors such as an angle grinder on the trail.
View attachment 140716

I installed two water-tight bulkhead connectors from the boat store, and connected up another #10 wire pair and some misc. cabling between the cab and the bed. I fabbed up an Aluminum plate and mounted a 12V cigarette lighter plug and a bunch of Anderson Power Pole outlets. The boat store also had a nice 6-terminal wiring bus, so I cabled everything up that way.
View attachment 140722

The RAM Mount laptop mount got bolted in an adjusted next. On the advice of the Toyota Nation forum, I went with the mounting kit designed for the Toyota Sienna minivan. The holes were _almost_ right. I had to file the mounting holes out about 1/8" each to make it bolt up. I installed a USB GPS on the dashboard and ran the cabling through the tiny gap between dashboard trim and glass. The fit-up on these Toyota trucks makes slipping anything into a crack a major chore!

View attachment 140720

I will be running Maptech Pro for most of my SAR and exploration stuff. The screenshot above is a nice free app called "VisualGPS."

Finally, I installed the "Priority Start" low voltage disconnect. This device goes between the battery and positive cable, and will disconnect the battery if its voltage drops below some pre-set threshold. You can reconnect it by flipping the headlights on and off. I didn't like the rubber strap that came with it, so I supplemented it with a large, removable zip tie.

View attachment 140723

Arclight

 

[Arclight]

This week, I took the truck into an alignment shop and got a lug-centric balance done and a simple alignment. Most of the front-end shimmy I was experiencing is now gone, but it looks like the tires are pretty misshapen from being driven with bad shocks.

I'm thinking about Nitto Tera Grapplers and BFG KOs for the replacements. I'll probably go with 265/75R16 again, as they don't seem to rub and offer good clearance. Any suggestions?

Arclight

 

[Derek24]

Looks good! I have a 12 blade bluesea fuse box and dual battery install waiting in the garage. For tires I would also check out Cooper Stmaxx, a little more aggressive than the tires your listed, but not as aggressive as an MT.

 

[wingysataday]

BFG all terrains are the best all around tires ever made. They are quiet, last a long time, excellent off road, durable, and decently priced.

 

[seanpistol]

I've experienced a lot of sliding around in the snow with BFG ATs. I think there are much better tires out there. I love my current Hankook ATMs, but I believe my next tire will be a set of Duratracs.

Have you looked into a selectable ARB air locker for the rear?

 

[shmabs]

If you are considering bfg at's, you need to look at the duratracs as well. I have had 4 sets of bfg at's and was very happy with them, i would however argue that my duratracs in a 265/75/16 load range c, are an all around better tire. I can't yet speak to their longevity, but so far, they have been stellar in everything from 2 feet of sugar snow, ice, slush, lots of rain, sand and of course lots of pavement.

I was always a huge fan of the BFG, but given their price now, and all of the new all terrains out there, there need to be other considerations.

Mike

 

[Arclight]

Got the camper shell done

This week, I finished up the lighting for the camper shell. I had bought a 5m long strip of RED/GREEN/BLUE 5050-size LEDs, and wanted to turn them into a nice, customizable interior setup.

The board I built has 4 inputs and 4x1A outputs, each of which can be turned on/off or have its brightness controlled. I have it programmed to respond to a button push (change color/brightness), a switch on the camper shell (comes on when opened) and a 60-minute timer. It's based on the "Arduino" microcontroller and an automotive chip from TI.




Since the interior is carpeted, I purchased a roll of 1" hook-side Velcro, slit it in half, and attached it to the back of the LED strip. The hook-side sticks well to the furry interior carpet. I ran the wires down the corner of the shell and hooked up the switches and buttons.





We also got a package in the mail from my mother-in-law, containing some nice blackout curtains she made us for X-Mas. The lights are in "white" mode in this pic.



Here are some of the other color modes you can choose. With the RGB LEDs, you can basically mix any color you want.




If there is interest, I might be willing to make up a run of these boards.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!


Arclight

 

[Arclight]

I made some more progress this week. I sold my old 78 Bronco (which ended up being a royal pain) and bought tires.

After weighing everyone's opinions, I ended up getting a set of Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armors in P265/75R16. I was looking at either these or the MT/R tire. Both have Kevlar reinforcement, but I went with these due to better road manners and performance on icy roads. In case anyone is interested, there is a nice comparison chart here:

http://www.goodyear.com/truck/pdf/product_brochures/DataBook_LTRUK_P.pdf

I also picked up a Con-Ferr roof rack on Craigslist which I'm going to start customizing shortly.

Question: Can anyone recommend a bright LED light fixture I can use as a backup/work light? I might also want to add side/alley lights to the roof rack as well.


Thanks!


John