Recent content by DeMontbrun

  1. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    About a year ago I bought all the parts to add an auxiliary battery and then never got around to doing it. I wanted to put all the aftermarket electrical on a separate system so it wouldn’t kill my starting battery and could even use it to jump myself if I ever needed to. I bought an Optima...
  2. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    This project was born out of unfortunate necessity. I recently bought a foam cannon to attach to my pressure washer to help with washing the truck (I hate car washes and the damage they do to paint). While spraying down the roof though, I realized the clear coat was starting to burn. Working in...
  3. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    My back end sagged. Sometimes a lot. If I got anywhere near the truck's load capacity it had some serious squat. The picture below was with the back filled with bricks, but even just with camping gear it would drop a lot. The owner of the company I work for has a small fleet of Land...
  4. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    After a taking the truck out a few times the alignment had gotten off so I took it in and they commented on some leaks in the CV boot and bushings on the control arms that looked like they should be addressed. Most of the work didn’t sound like fun except for one piece: upper control arms. The...
  5. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    I didn't love the sound quality of the factory speakers. I've always owned sports cars before (Celica, MR2, Mustang, etc.) and adding subwoofers was always one of the first things I'd do. After 15 years, the original speakers were pretty lackluster so I replaced them all with Pioneers instead...
  6. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    This project was pretty easy but has saved be more than once. When I was first looking into trucks/overlanding I came across pictures of under hood lighting which seemed pretty useful. All that's involved is an LED strip along the front of the inside of the hood and a switch or two. First I...
  7. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    I’ve been fighting with my grill since day one. I did a chrome delete early in 2019 and blacked out the chrome on the grill. It looked pretty good but I had something else in mind that I wanted to do. Honeycomb grill is all the rage and I had seen a video on how to make a Satoshi grill for the...
  8. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    The original seats that came in the Tundra were cloth and manual. They had no heaters or any of the other fancy things that came on the Sequoia. And after almost 15 years, they were showing signs of wear. Fortunately, those fancy Sequoia bucket seats are a straight swap for the Tundra seats. I...
  9. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    At one point I had installed ditch lights, but water ended up getting in the housing and then on Halloween one of them went missing. I decided to take the opportunity to fix some of the wiring and replace the pods with something better. The lights themselves were mounted on FireStik channel...
  10. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    As soon as the larger tires were on the truck rubbing became an obvious issue. I was hitting the plastic fender well, the mud flaps, the pinch joint, and the upper control arm. Basically, unless I was going in a straight line there was some sort of awful noise. The plastic inside the fender was...
  11. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    I'm way behind on posting so I'll start with the most recent and back fill as I have time. I ordered a front bumper from Move at the end of November. Things got busy and didn't get to welding until the end of January. We got it all pieced together and took it for a test run in Ocatillo Wells...
  12. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    Our Zion trip back in April was originally supposed to be a Yosemite trip but there was still too much snow. So instead we went with the much cheaper Zion. The cost difference was the better part of the ARE Overland shell I had been looking at. And a shell is like a mobile hotel so we'd save...
  13. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    A coworker has an ARB bumper with a brake light and turn signal built in. I got jealous and started looking for a way I could do something similar. I found these Rough Country DRL Flushmounts that had a secondary amber light. They're supposed to be DRLs but I figured they'd work as a turn...
  14. DeMontbrun

    DeMontbrun's 2006 DC SR5 Tundra Build

    After the extra miles from the Zion trip, the tires were at the end of their days. And if I was going to replace the tires, I figure I might as well replace them with the ones I wanted. Which meant new suspension too. So off with the originals and on went the Bilstein 5100's. I went up 2" in...
Top