liveoffroad

haha thanks ed, ya i'm very happy with the wheels/tires, black on red is best

ya i agree, i'm going to ad some sort of lighting to help with backing up, just havent found anything i like yet.

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Glad to see you were able to get the doors swapped out. That's the one thing I dislike about my runner! No AC!!!

Your rig looks mean. Always makes me want to put more lift and tires on mine. I always feel like it's inferior with just 33's!!!

liveoffroad

Well i agree, bigger tires look much better but you lose a lot of driveability. when mine was on 33's i still DD it, not really an option now...something is always vibrating or out of balance etc....
33's are awesome for a DD with mild/med offroad capability

liveoffroad

wanting to put some 6-3/4" components in my doors, anyone have a good writeup/experience with getting them to fit?

rustED

iTrader: (2)

I've been contemplating doing this too, look forward to seeing what you come up with so I can copy you, lol.

What have you been up to buddy!?

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

I would love to do this also. I have seen some clean installations, and it always makes me want to give it a shot.

88ECToy

iTrader: (1)

the ol' Runner looks good! Any opinion on the insulation yet?

liveoffroad

Thanks man! are you talking about the insulation under the carpet? i really like it! its non-toxic, unlike the roofing material people use and seems to help a lot with road noise as well as keeping the floorboard cool. i'd highly recommend it!

well i've been back and forth on this. The problem is, i'm well aware that components are superior in every way, but i also really like the fact that i have no wires going to my doors at all (manual windows) so i can pull my doors off really easily. also, if i did mount the speakers in the door, i'd be worried about them getting stolen back at camp, especially if they were expensive, not to mention that i'd lose most of my sound system with the doors off. so i'm back to wondering what i can do with the stock speaker location. After running at least 3 major brands of 4" speakers, i've given up on the idea that a 4" speaker can produce a decent sound, especially amplified. however, making the small jump to a 5.25 opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. i snapped this picture of the passenger side speaker area to play with, and i really think with some modification i can get a 5.25" speaker in there..... what do you guys think? has anyone done it?

88ECToy

iTrader: (1)

I've wrestled with this one, too and wound up settling on the smaller, easy to mount lesser quality speakers. Hope your come up with another great idea I can use!

Les

rustED

iTrader: (2)

Seems like I saw a thread somewhere that they upgraded from the 4" speaker to a bigger speaker, but I can't remember where I saw it...

The main thing I struggle with is not wanting to cut holes in the doors and door panels to mount the speaker. I wonder if anyone makes a universal speaker pod that can be mounted to the door? I was thinking of mounting some 5-1/2 or 6-1/2" speakers in the side cubbys in the side panels on each side of the rear bench seat.

liveoffroad

Ed, i have some 6x9's mounted where the cubby's would be (mine doesn't have them) at the rear seat. it works pretty well. Kinda blows away anyone who sits back there, but its better IMO than having them in the cargo area since they'd always be covered up. I don't think i have a picture of my install, but its similar to this:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f96/...nstall-242249/

rustED

iTrader: (2)

That's a good idea, thanks for the link! I'm thinking of making new side panels for my cargo area, mine are cracked and brittle, the storage compartment doors are thrashed. That would be a good time to do the speaker upgrade.

liveoffroad

small update: I bought a 10" jl-audio sub (10w1) on c-list and it sounds amazing! i have an alpine mrv-v60 (5 channel amp) so adding a sub just involved running 1 wire to the back. i went with the 10w1 because it has a pretty shallow mounting depth and i want to build a box into the side someday.
Adding the sub has somewhat changed my direction with the sound system. before, my rear 6x9's were providing all of the bass for the system and in-turn, the whole system sounded muddy and distorted. now that i have a sub, i was able to adjust the HP filters on the rest of the speakers to clean up the sound and its amazing how much difference that makes! my front mb-quart 4" components actually sound decent now, and the 6x9's add some mid-bass to really fill things out. i think i'm still going to experiment with getting some 5-1/4's up front, but overall i'm extremely happy with the whole system.

liveoffroad

I guess its been several months since an update, i have a few. The stereo has some updates, but i'll get to that later.
I blew up my transmission on the way to moab in april. And when i say "blew up", thats the truth. the input gear is missing about 1/3 of the teeth! (Side note, if you notice i said it happened on the way to moab, so you can imagine how that trip went for me) so after a whole lot of drama installing a used w-56 and discovering that it had bearing noise (jerk on FB sold me a lemon) and trying decently hard to sell the truck for about a month, i've decided to start building a totaly new driveline.
I've had 2 g-52's and a w56 in the truck now, and none have impressed me on reliability, though i know most guys say they run forever that has not been my experience. thanks to fellow yotatech'er "egesledder" (https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f161...e-swap-255991/) for doing all the leg-work on how to get an R150 behind the 7m, i decided to go for an R150. This also gives me the added benefit of an easy 3.4 swap down the road if i ever decide i'm through with the 7mge. Due to the drama i went through with the used w56, i ruled out another used transmission so i began looking at rebuild options. I found a local shop that would source me an R150 core and rebuild it for a very reasonable cost so i pulled the trigger.
This also meant that i needed a 23-spline input shaft and a top-shift conversion for my t-case, so i decided to just sell my current 4.7 t-case and build a new one. luckily, i had a buddy with a top-shift case ready to go. and so it begins.

Volcom

That's too bad about the transmission blowing up on the way to Moab. That sucks. I'm surprised to hear the W56 didn't hold up that well behind the 7M. You'll be happy with the R150. You running a single 4.7 case? Jambo this year! Aug 11-14th!!

liveoffroad

yea i'm going to continue running a single 4.7 case, keeps the driveline from being crazy long and i also like that i can get 18-20 mpg in my truck by not having extra gears to rotate all the time.
Ya I was surprised to have this much transmission trouble, the original g-52 lasted for 8 years behind this motor, but this last one was in there about a year and was supposed to be "low mileage" but who knows with used stuff. Ive become a believer in new or rebuilt parts through this experience. a rebuilt w56 probably would have been sufficient but it was the exact same price to rebuild an r150 and i like the option of being able to throw a 3.4 in there someday. Besides, even though I know lots of guys are running v8's in front of a w56 realize that toyota thought the 3.slow needed the R150...thats enough evidence for me that i'm making the right choice

I'd love to make Jambo but its harder to get away these days with the baby and all. I'll try my best!

liveoffroad

got the t-case back together, got the r150 back from the shop and everything painted and bolted together.

R150 with R154 bellhousing and top-shift 4.7 t-case ready to drop in:


Installed:
transmission shifter lines up about where the t-case shifter was before, i'll have to cut a hole about 6" back for the t-case shifter

chrishf12

Looking good. I need to install my 4.7s for future use.

liveoffroad

thanks, yea 4.7's are awesome for technical stuff. i love the single 4.7 t-case setup

coryc85

For my 22re, the single 4.7 case is eye opening. It is so nice to be able to gently climb a steep hill or a rock, go very slow without killing the engine, and go down steep trails without having to use the brakes. Definitely makes the truck way more capable. I did lose a bit of speed on those easy parts of the trail, found that I was using 5th gear in low quite a bit and that still was not enough. Easy remedy, just shift out of 4WD lo, but then I needed to stop for a second to do that. Still extremely happy that I have the 4.7 case.

Nice job on the R150. I had a lot of bearing noise after this last wheeling trip, kindof wondering if my tranny is on it's way out.