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Well, I figured I would be absent from this place for a while but I had no idea be more than 12 years! I felt like I should re-introduce myself as I bet no one remembers I was here its been so long haha! Name: James Location: NorCal (Bay Area) Originally joined ORP back in 2010. I was only able to join a group ride one time, to the Mojave road where I had mechanical problems and had to limp back home. After that trip, wedding planning was in full swing and I quickly realized I needed cash. Truck payments, heavy gas bill and insurance was costing me $800 a month so the only option was to sell. The deal was I would sell, and after the wedding I could get a new truck. Well after the wedding, I got promoted at work. Moved to a new city and took on a huge project that took more hours of my day than I care to admit. There was no traveling or looking for a truck. Then my wife got pregnant, and then I got fired and lost my job, our home (part of my salary) and had to go stay with in-laws until I found work which took over a year. We all know where this goes after that, new baby, new job, bigger place more bills... New car for the wife since she was commuting and we needed a safe vehicle to transport the little one. Well, its 2025. My son is 8 and I had been throwing little bits of extra cash in a separate savings account to hopefully buy a new truck but the prices just kept going up and up and who the hell pays 50k for a Tacoma?? So I started looking for a used one. And luck was on my side as my brother in-law was ready to sell his 2012 TRD Sport since he was awaiting delivery on his Cybertruck... yea.. Well here she is. I got her in October. Immediately started making repairs. Correcting issues just due to age or neglect. Shes all stock but I got a stock pile of parts waiting to be installed but Ill save that for a new thread :) I apologize if I dont remember everyone. Its been a rollercoaster of a ride the last 12 years haha. Im wondering if @theksmith @dzJeepChic and @Number7 are still around? Hope to speak to yall again.

So almost 13 years ago, I sold my 2003 Supercharged Nissan Frontier to help pay off our wedding. Plan was to buy a new Tacoma after the wedding. That never happened, wife got a new car. We got a new baby. A new job and rented a huge new house. Almost moved out of state. Pandemic.. etc It seemed like I would never be able to get back into a 4x4. But thankfully my brother in-law decided he was buying a Cybertruck and wanted to sell me his Tacoma. It was an immediate yes. And I think I got a good deal. Purchased the truck in October of last year. Ive been real busy with work so since then I have just been making easy important upgrades, and repairing issues. 2012 TRD Sport 102,980 miles Purchase Price: $16,000 Single owner truck (purchased from brother in-law) All Stock - it did have a lift and TE37's but I get it as it came when he bought it. All services done at Toyota minus the later oil changes. Just took it for 100k service and inspection. Nothing bad to report. SAIS filter is in tact. Runs fine, shifts smooth. There is a small hard shift from 3rd when truck is cold. Interior is an 8.5/10 Exterior Id say is like 7. You'll see below but the roof paint is fading. Typical Toyota. Its got its positives and negatives like any used vehicle. Straight truck no damage. All the chrome was swapped out. However, he painted over the chrome emblem which you can see is chipping. I've got it sitting in paint stripper already and Ill repaint it. Not a fan of these tail lights at all. So hopefully something less "hey look at me" can be found. Brother in-law also painted the headlights so well see how that goes. First thing I do might be headlight mod. As long as these have no condensation I figure they look ok. Also if you couldn't tell, I am not a fan of chrome so these Chrome-Clad wheels are not exactly my favorite. Also 18's isn't ideal. Ill eventually save up some cash for something used. Sell these to get some money back. No rust besides these truck bed bolts. I thought these were galvanized so they wouldn't rust. I guess not. Looks good underneath. At least I think it does. Minus the lack of any protection. Clean under the hood. Paint is pretty good everywhere except the roof. Slightly annoying. I'm debating repainting it, or wrapping it to cover it up and prevent it from bubbling like my Highlander. Well, thats it for now. Wont see a whole lot of changes for a while. Just fixing what isn't right. But at least I am finally back in a decent 4x4. Future Plans? Just a good old fashioned trustworthy camping and family vehicle. Initially camping trips will hopefully be a few times a year, but hopefully that increases as we get everything sorted. My boy just turned 8, so he is primed and ready to learn how to enjoy the outdoors. He is also super excited to drive the truck haha. All those stories of me driving my uncles trucks at 9 has him expecting to be sitting in the drivers seat real soon.

Wow, great update. Thank you! That so cool you bought a frontier. I ALMOST bought a new one myself but I think the nightmares I had with mine, and the fact that most of my friend here drive Toyotas I opted not to. I still have the notebook you gave me on our shared birthday meet up before the Mojave Rd drive. I saved it all these years until I could get a new truck. So now it lives in the Tacoma as a maintenance log! I wish I would have came back here sooner. My truck is no where near Rubicon ready, but I would have tried to join just for fun. Once the truck is trail ready I will for sure be looking for some chances to meet with the group here again. Who knows, maybe we can run it back and do the Mojave Rd so I can redeem myself haha. Thank you! I never forgot how awesome the people were, and how much fun I had on the one meet up I went to. Hopefully I can do that again soon!

welcome back man, it's been a LONG time! sounds like life has been full of ups and downs for you but you've always had the important thing, family by your side. George & Diane sold their Jeeps and moved to the Alabama coast a few years ago to become beach bums, but I still hear from them regularly. congrats on the new truck, she's purdy! i look forward to seeing your mods. i sold my Grand Cherokee WJ in 2016 and now have a heavily modified 4-Door Wrangler JK for adventures. we just got a 2024 Nissan Frontier truck a few months ago, to have something more reliable for my daily driver. i actually thought of you when we first began test driving trucks - we started out looking for the same Gen 2 body style you used to have! a few of us just did the Rubicon last year, so we weren't too far from you then! hopefully we can meetup on a CA or NV adventure one day.

yes, i've finally joined in with the JK herd! ...and yes, Lafawnduh will be for sale in a few weeks once i get her shined up and in tip-top condition. i'll be selling her as a turn-key expo rig with everything intact except for my tools and the ham radio (nothing like starting completely fresh)! without further adieu, here's the new 2016 Wrangler (JK) Unlimited Rubicon in Granite Crystal Metallic Clearcoat, the morning after we picked her up: it happened the night that Brady and I came back from the Turkey Creek trip. Aimee and i went in to the dealership because we'd been talking about possibly getting one later in the year and we wanted to see #1, what was the cutoff date for ordering a 2016 before they changed over the assembly line for the new Wranglers? and #2, what exactly would the 1% below invoice price be (FCA affiliate program for Tread Lightly $100 members). like any dealer, they wanted to sell us something on the lot - but it turned out they really did have exactly what we were looking for with only 1 extra option (upgraded sound system). after a little haggling, we had the price below what the affiliate program would have given us if we ordered one and soon we were signing our lives away. it turns out that was Aimee's plan all along - a huge THANK YOU to her for making this possible! the real test drive... 3 days later was my birthday, so i took a couple hours to run Camp Creek Wash, trying out all the shiny new buttons and levers and letting that new car smell mix with some desert dust! i didn't even air down, but hey that push-button sway bar disconnect is kinda neat plans & why? this will be an epicly slow build thread. i will lift her eventually, but nothing much is happening for a while as we recover from the down-payment. i know i'm going to get a lot of "WHY WOULD YOU SELL YOUR HEAVILY MODDED WJ FOR A JK?" - let me just say i want to refocus on my career and so having a vehicle that doesn't consume as much of my time but can still do 75% of the trails i enjoy makes sense right now... as a used vehicle, the WJ of course requires a little more maintenance, but moreover it's always been a custom project vehicle. for example, there are only 3 or 4 production tire-carriers for the WJ, none of which i love - but for the JK there are probably 25+ variations available. i will miss the uniqueness of Lafawnduh, and one day i may have a really custom rig again (SAS'd 4 door Taco maybe?). of course i'll still be doing some custom projects, and trying to "make it mine" - but those will be mostly little afternoon endeavors instead of major fab work - at least that's the plan for now!

I had new rear air diff locker installed on my Land Cruiser 200 at “AZ Differential by Nate.” This will add a REAR diff locker plus the factory CENTER diff lock. I had front and rear E-lockers on my FJ and JL. The JL’s e-lockers were an ongoing problem. I’m hoping that this (air locker) is more reliable. I understand that I can engage it under load and there is no lag when engaging or disengaging. Toyota recommends that their advanced traction control will control front wheel spin and maintain full steering function. l’m not sure when I’ll need it, but “it can’t hurt.”

New tires for the old gal. OEM Yokohama Geolandar X-CV 265/60R20 Diameter 32.5” x Width 10.4” x Sidewall 6.3”. Weight 37.5 lbs. (What were they (Toyota) thinking?) Mickey Thompson, Baja Boss A/T 275/60R20 Diameter 33.4” x Width 10.8” x Sidewall 6.7”. Weight 47 lbs. On stock 20" wheels. Fits like hand in glove. No mods, no offset. Good balance between on & off road.

James!!!! Of course I remember you! I always wondered how everything worked out for you, as you were just about to be married when we saw you on the Mojave Road. So great to hear from you. Congrats on your marriage and having a boy, time sure flies! That's a super nice truck, can't wait to see all that you do with it. Welcome Back!!!

Welcome (back) to the club! I think it’s great this place left such a good impression as to draw you back after a decade. Congrats on the truck, kid, wife, and winning at life!

Current condition: 5/15/26 Current Upgrades: Suspension Drivetrain ECGS Bushing install 12/4/24 103K miles $340 (Parts/Labor) Interior WeatherTech molded floor mats front/rear $242 Center Console & Glove Box Organizer $34 12-15 Tacoma TRD factory full rubber carpet $432 Electrical Headlight Services Harness $160 Osram Super Bright 100/90w 2900 Lumen H4 Bulbs $20 Interior & License Plate LED bulbs $22 Engine UNI Filter Mod $20 Body/Chassis All-Pro Bed Supports $142 Meso Customs Gasshole $17 Beyond wraps Tacoma TRD Sport Hood Stamp (Stop glare on hood) $98 Spiker Engineering Hood Strut Kit $99 MiloGen Fab Cab Mount Chop $450 Wheels & Tires 17x8.5 Method NV (Set of 5) Used from forum member $750 M12x1.5 Open end bulge acorn black lug nuts $27 Gorilla Automotive 12x1.5 Black Chrome wheel locks $23 285/70/17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4W Load E tires $1360 Parts waiting to be installed PelfreyBilt Hybrid bumper $900 Fox Front coil overs 2.0 EXT Mid Travel with DSC Used $500 FOX 2.0 Performance Series Reservoir smooth body rear shocks as a kit with AP Exp Leaf pack, U-bolt flip kit and ext. brake lines $1,060 Wishlist Morimoto XB LED tail lights Respray of roof to correct damaged clear coat and top coat Total Cost (Including purchase price) $20,836

this week i got to really tear into the "new" engine, yay! it all started with a rattle... that i couldn't for the life of me identify exactly where was coming from. it kind of sounded like a really loose bearing on a pulley, but not quite. it was only on a cold start and then went away within about 15 to 20 minutes. using a mechanic's stethoscope, it seemed to come from the front lower passenger side of the engine - mostly, i think! but i was far from sure about that. so i took it to Joe at On Point for him and Vince to diagnose. he found that i had a lot of misfires on #5 and a fair amount on #2, and coupled with the rattle (that he also couldn't pin down the location of), he felt like i had the early stages of the common rockers-gone-bad issue. boo! i only have about 19k miles on this engine. i went ahead and bought 24 Mopar rockers and lifters and prepared to open both valve covers (yet again, i'd just done valve cover seals recently). i also planned to remove the timing cover while i was in there to address a minor oil seep on one side. i pulled the wheels and dropped the front to the ground to avoid having to use a stool the whole time - work smart not hard! as far as the rockers, every one of them seemed perfectly fine - no detectable looseness in the bearings, no unexpected dull areas on them or the cams. i went ahead and put the brand new ones in since i already bought them and since i didn't know if the ones from the reman place were Mopar or what. i also replaced the phaser on the passenger exhaust cam... remember those cam sensor DTCs i used to get but eliminated by using heavier weight oil? my hunch is the cause was a weak spring on that phaser. so next oil change i'll put normal weight oil back in and see if those codes return or not with this new exhaust phaser. i did double checked all the oil galley plugs too, and they were fine. so with the rockers looking good the question became, what was the actual rattle from? and why the misfires? i think i found the cause of the rattle. apparently when i put the reman engine in, i missed putting RTV on this one flat spot inside the timing cover that sits right up against one of the chain tensioners (the lower passenger side one). i think the tensioner was vibrating against the cover without the RTV in place, until all the metal warmed up and expanded enough to close the tiny air gap. anyway, that's my hypothesis which matches the symptoms. i made sure not to forget that bit of RTV when re-assembling this time, and the rattle is gone (for now)! with regard to the misfires - i replaced the plugs on those 2 cylinders that Joe saw misfires on (the old ones looked fine though). i also swapped the coil packs on #1 & #2 and #3 & #5 to see if the problem follows the coil pack. i still have to figure out if my scan tool or OBDJscan can show a misfire count or if i need to get on Joe's schedule for more diagnostic time. so in summary, i spent a couple days and hopefully fixed a minor leak, probably fixed a rattle, moved slightly forward with diagnosing some misfires, and slightly forward with diagnosing and/or fixing those old cam sensor codes. oh, and i accidentally broke one of the timing guides while prying a cam phaser off. it was only $40, but that delayed finishing everything by a bit. also, for the record, i really, really, hate cleaning up old RTV!