MFing Tundra

[Mullen]

Whos shackles are they?

They are mine. I originally designed them for 88-98 Chevy C1500, but they work perfect for the Tundra hangers and Deavers too.

 

[Orbot]

They are mine. I originally designed them for 88-98 Chevy C1500, but they work perfect for the Tundra hangers and Deavers too.

Pmed you

 

[Cleandezert]

I cleaned everything up and got the reservoirs mounted before the New Years Afton trip. I shortened the hoses to get the reservoirs where I wanted them. I actually mocked everything up this time so I didn’t run into another tweaked hose issue. After I got the hose length dialed and the shocks reassembled, I charged them and let them sit for a few hours to make sure I didn’t have any leaks. Sure enough, one hose was leaking at the reservoir. I realized when I assembled that fitting I didn’t put any oil on the tapered portion, which I did on the second shock after the first fitting was a pain the tighten. The lack of oil on the fitting ended up tearing the hose within the fitting. I pulled the shock apart yet again and cut 1” off the hose and oiled the fitting - success this time. I was going to paint the shocks and reservoirs, but was running out of time. Maybe during the next prep I’ll make that happen.


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Previously the reservoirs only had a single hose clamp holding them against two rubber mounts on the frame and they hung down low, all done by the previous owner. I ran them like that for seven years with the only issue being that the upper uniball bolt would kiss the hose. They are now more protected and nothing hits the hoses, plus I used two weld-on reservoir mounts with hose clamps.

I made it out to Afton Canyon for New Year’s. The truck did great and I put ~40 dirt miles on it. I was the only one with a truck and also brought my bike out, hence the lower miles. It was still a good time, despite raining most of day two. My passenger front bedside mount (done by previous owner) DNF’d yet again. I’m going to finally solve the problem as it fails every other trip.

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Overall I’m happy with the truck and just need to put some time and money into it to dial in the lighting, tool box mounting, and other odds and ends that I didn’t do when I did the cage. Despite the little shit to do, the truck is ready to rock on any given day.

all this work is really making me feel like a slacker on my truck. I love the blue as well.

 

[Mullen]

I really suck at updates, but here we go...

I took the truck to one of the IG desert meets at Slash-X in March 2024. I truck pooled with these guys. The meet was cool with a couple of super built BMS trucks and many others. It was cold and windy and I really didn't play with the truck much. I won a decent medical kit at the raffle, so I'll chalk this trip up to a win.



Unfortunately, that would be the only win in 2024. I took the truck out with some buddies on Cinco de Mayo 2024. We met in Barstow, hit Rainbow Basin, Tonka Town, the hieroglyphs, the Husky memorial, then planned to stop in Randsberg for a beer before heading home. The trip started out fun.





Shortly after the hieroglyphs, shit went sideways. While going about 40 mph, I ran out of talent. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, but my buddy who was riding passenger and I believe I hit a rock with the front driver's tire, which proceeded to yank the steering wheel full left, taking my right shoulder with it. The hit dislocated my right shoulder, so I yell at my buddy that I need help and to radio the group. I had dislocated my left shoulder many times in the past, but my right has been solid for at least 20 years. I hop out of the truck, the group assembles, and I'm trying to calm down. We're 3 hours into the desert and the last thing I want to do is go into shock. After a few minutes, I relax and roll my shoulder backwards, which put it back in place - the best feeling in the world. We assessed the truck and short of a whining sound that we thought was coming from the AC (it turned out to be the PS pump which I discovered back home), it was good. My buddy finished the drive, but we decided to ditch Randsberg and head home. It was a painful 6 hours after the shoulder fuckery until I was home.

We still stopped at the Huskey Memorial and found my buddy Brett's memorial. He crashed at Glen Helen in 2007 and never made it home.



I'm not the doctor seeing type, but my right shoulder still felt as though it might be slightly out of place, subluxation as it's called. I went to urgent care a couple of days later and they said it was in place, just needed to stay in the sling. I ended up seeing an ortho about it a couple of weeks later, which assigned me 8 weeks of PT after 5 weeks of immobilization. After those 5 weeks I could barely raise my right arm parallel to the ground. The PT was awesome and helped me get back to normal mobility. I was able to get back to the gym a few weeks later and have been good since. My strength is the same as it was before, though in the mornings my shoulder still feels odd. I'm sure something tore, but I'll just keep building muscle around it for support.

After the truck hurt me, I was demotivated to do anything to it until January 2025. It turns out that when I hit the rock, it broke something in the steering pump and it was not happy. I decided to tackle some maintenance and do a full steering rebuild. This work included Aisin (OE Toyota) timing belt, water pump, bearings, etc, new rack, new PS pump, added a PS cooler and filter, TC uniball lower conversion, and OE Toyota tie rod ends. I also tore out all of my aux wiring in preparation for the new lighting package.




I debated on getting OE Toyota ball joints, but I decided that going with the TC uniball conversion was a way to keep me committed to the current setup and on 35s. I've been toying around the idea of either building a big a-arm kit with billet hubs, big shocks, etc. or going to beams, but that would put the truck down for far too long. Then I'd also have to link it, get a bigger engine, and go to 40s - it was $1100 for the TC parts or $50k for all the big boy shit so I chose the former.



I took the truck out last Sunday 12/21/25 for the first time since my shoulder dislocation. I was nervous but eventually settled back into the truck and had a great time with some buddies. I put more miles on the truck on Sunday than I have since May 2024.

I cleaned the truck up just before the trip, since it had been driven only 60 miles in 1.5 years.




After the successful trip, I'm motivated to finish the next round of updates...well after I finish sorting out the new garage. We bought a new house this year and the garage organization has been put on the back burner. More on that in a future post.

The next round of updates includes the following:

• Change to a 4-seater. I have mini GT3 seats from PRP that match my front ones. The kids will be able to sit behind the front seats based on my measurements. If needed, I'll sell my front seats and switch to Alpha-Q from PRP. Either way, this will require deleting some of the tubing between the B- and C-pillars, building a new harness tube for the front seats, and likely more.
• I have dual AGM Costco batteries that will be mounted under the bed, flanking the spare tire. This project will include all new wiring for all aux components, legit cab pass-throughs, a Blue Sea switch, double din radio, back up camera, and more. I'm looking forward to it as I love seeing the super clean wiring that some of you fellas do.
• Inland Driveline carrier bearing. I need to build a new mount for it, but I have the bearing and just need some new u-joints for the rebuild.
• Bonus: convert the front brakes to 2015+ 4Runner.
• Bonus #2: new front bumper, get a new dash and delete the V-bars, and delete the down tubes to the bedcage, but we'll see.

The next update will likely be my garage organization, as I want that to be dialed before cutting into the truck.

Thanks for reading the long post fellas.

 

[badlinesgoodtimes]

ooof the should dislocation sounds lovely. Glad you are good now.

Keep the updates coming... hope to see ya in the dirt soon