Thanks Terry. Yeah the 302 has been really reliable, I'm pretty happy over all with this swap.

I can't wait to finish this trailer, it always seems to be a lack of money/time. I can never have enough of either one, lol.

I hope the weather starts getting nicer for you, it'll be nice cruising with the top off!

 

Thanks Mark! You should totally build one!

When I sold my 83' Toyota pickup I came pretty close to buying a rooftop tent for my trailer (man they're expensive) but opted to get Allpro rear lift for my 4runner instead. Hopefully I can get one next year, ill have to build a hard tonneau cover for it first. Man, now that I'm truckless again I need to get this thing done, lol.

 

I'm really considering making one as a "school project" this year. I have been trying I get more kids to learn how to weld, but it's tough with out a designated project that requires a lot of welding. Something like this would be perfect.

I picked up a nice metal chop saw at the end of the last school year to make things easier on us.

Who knows. See what kind of kids I get this upcoming year

 

That would be cool building one as school project! Using all their tools, plus not having it taking up space at your house would be a plus, My trailer has been stealing my 4runners spot in my side of the carport for almost 2 years, lol. A metal chop saw would make life a lot easier, I've built 2 flatbeds, and now my trailer using a 4" angle grinder to make all the cuts, so much more time consuming!

 

Well I had planned to work on my trailer today, but a thunderstorm came rolling through, and stop me from making any progress. I don't have very good lighting in my carport, rely mostly on sunlight, but it was so dark with the thunder clouds that I gave up, lol.


I was looking at the instructions for my new Glow Shift gauges I bought awhile back. The brightness is supposed to dim by 50% when you turn on your headlights. Does anyone know a easy way to tie into the headlight circuit without hacking it up?

 

Hey rustED! I took the orange wire (I believe it is the orange wire) and just pushed the end of it into the fuse connection for the dash lights (there might be a separate fuse for the dimmer, can't remember, my factory manual showed all the fuses, if there is a dimmer fuse that is the one I used), just ended up with the orange wire pinched in between the fuse and the housing where the fuse connects to, works perfect.


I hope you get your trailer done soon too! Need to get on the trail and start having fun with it.

 

hey ed, there's a dash-light wire in the stock radio harness, since the factory radio had lights that came on with the dash lights. I used that wire to power the lights on my inclinometer and my SR5 cigarette lighter since mine didn't come with either. if yours did, you could also tap into either of those wires. just use a volt-meter to find which one it is, strip back a little of the insulation w/o cutting the wire, and solder on the new wire.

 

Thanks guys, I didn't even think about doing it that way, I was over thinking it, thought I'd have to tap into the headlight switch wiring or something, lol.

Before I install my oil pressure gauge it looks like I will have to find the right NPT fitting to extend the new sending unit out further to avoid interference with the mechanical fuel pump and the oil filter. On my water temp gauge I'll probably just buy Glow Shifts adapter to mount the sending unit, its only $14, they suggest mounting it before the thermostat otherwise you have to wait for the t-stat to open before the temp gauge will start reading. I shouldn't have any problems installing the Volts gauge.

 

I am always worried about cutting into the right wire as needed. Sounds easy but it is just finding the right wire. One of these days I would like to have guages that you actually know what the readings are. The factory guages are not the best. Toyotas electrical is not the best as well.

 

I hear ya Terry, wiring isn't my favorite thing, but like you said, it will be nice to have some accurate gauges that you can actually tell whats going on. I would still like to get an SR5 instrument cluster someday so I have a tach.






Well, like I mentioned I bought some Glow Shift gauges, I just been trying to figure out how to mount them. I spent around $150 on the oil pressure, water temp and volts gauges, so I didn't have the money to buy a A-pillar gauge pod (there around $75) so I cheaped out and bought a universal pod with the intentions of mounting it on the dash where the inclinometer would normally go. Well the contour of the dash complicated things a bit, the universal pod didn't really sit right, so this is what I came up with.



^^^ I built a little base to make the pod sit level and to fill in the contour part of the dash pad. I used some 14 gauge scrap sheetmetal.





What do you guys think, do you think it looks better in the above pics without the face shield thingys or below with them...don't know what they're actually called, lol.

 

I can't tell a difference but I like the gauges.

 

Very cool build! Having a complete vehicle to steal parts off of make everything so much easier! Rig looks great man.

 

Thanks, I think I'll be pretty happy with them once they're installed, they have seven different illumination colors to chose from.





this is what I was talking about in the pics in my last post, the top 2 pics didn't have these little covers around the gauges, the last pic did, not sure if I like them or not...

 

Thanks man! Yeah having a complete parts rig definitely made it a lot easier, plus I made back some money parting out the stuff I didn't need, and bought the hi steer and other parts to finish my SAS!

 

I personally like them better with the covers off. That being said, are you still able to read them with out glare blocking the numbers or can you see them at night or even the light from the gauges a distraction. If the covers help in some way, I would use them.

 

I agree, I think I like them better with them off, but can always add them if they help cut glare, or help make the gauges easier to read.

On another note, the more I look at the size and the shape of the gauge pod, the more it makes me want to build one, it just seems to tall, and the shape is too rounded, especially sitting right next to the square factory speedo/instrument cluster housing. I'm thinking I can use the base I already built and maybe try to copy the shape of the speedo housing. Any opinions or comments are always welcome!

 

This is a winter project I have been steadily working on for dash pads. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f123...repair-230891/ It is fairly cheap to do and just takes a little practice. I am slowly learing it. Possiblities are endless.

 

^^^That would be a cool project Terry, I've done a small amount of fiberglass work about 15 yrs ago, after seeing the dash pad you were working on, it's got me thinking of possibly trying something like that in the future to fix the cracks in my dash pad.

 

Small update




^^^I put my stock rear 4runner leaf springs on Craigslist for sale or trade for a front Toyota driveline, and ended up trading straight across for this front driveline. The double Cardan joint seems in great shape, so now I just need to remove it and add it to my rear driveline!

 

That's an awesome trade!!