Ease of use tips/tools

D

Don Drake

Well-Known Member
There are a number of things that one can do to make it easier to operate/maintain your Tacoma. Here are a few.

An electric jack, cordless impact for lugnuts, various sockets for the impact to accomplish other tasks. Hood struts, underhood lighting.
I have and electric tailgate light that mounts to the receiver hitch. It is removable and makes getting heavy items into the bed a breeze. I also have a set of ramps for rolling things into/out of the bed.

What ideas have you come up with?
 
Those are some nice tips Don!

Another tip - Lower your spare every other oil change and shoot some lubricant so that when you need your spare, it isn't seized up.
 
The spare on my taco, to the best of my knowledge, was not ever lowered for almost 22 years!
Believe it or believe it not
 
Jay, I can believe it. I do not think the spare on my truck has ever been down more than once, maybe twice, as the spare was nearly seized in place. I broke the extensions while attempting to lower my spare the other evening. What a fun job.
 
Check the tire pressures.....including the spare. Nothing like having a flat, installing the spare to discover another flat.

When you rotate the tires, spend a few minutes to clean the inside of the rim. You'd be surprised the amount of schmutz gathered on the inside of the rim.

<edit> As a follow up. Lower the spare and flip it so the valve stem points to the road. Set the stem's position as near to the rear as possible. This will make checking the spare's pressure fairly easy.
<endedit>
 
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JayQQ97 said:
The spare on my taco, to the best of my knowledge, was not ever lowered for almost 22 years!
Believe it or believe it not
Click to expand...
While I have the original spare for my '78 Ford LTDII Sports Touring Edition (fairly rare) and it has never been on the ground, I wouldn't trust it to drive a mile after that long. Tires age in a trunk, under a truck I can't imagine. Either carry a spare in your bed, I carry a useable spare in my trunk. Unless of course you never loose cell service and have some sort of roadside assistance. Even then, they will want you to have a good spare.
 
Rock62 said:
Check the tire pressures.....including the spare. Nothing like having a flat, installing the spare to discover another flat.

When you rotate the tires, spend a few minutes to clean the inside of the rim. You'd be surprised the amount of schmutz gathered on the inside of the rim.

<edit> As a follow up. Lower the spare and flip it so the valve stem points to the road. Set the stem's position as near to the rear as possible. This will make checking the spare's pressure fairly easy.
<endedit>
Click to expand...
Not sure flipping the tire is a good idea. I did that on my work Tundra for exactly that reason. Needed the spare, dropped it and found the valve stem torn. Since I lower my spare every couple of months to check the pressure, and as mentioned keep things moving.

About once a year I hit the raising and lowering parts with a pressure washer and spray on some lube. I've tried to help someone change a tire and the spare was rusted in place. I learn, slowly and sometimes from other's mistakes.
 
Don Drake said:
While I have the original spare for my '78 Ford LTDII Sports Touring Edition (fairly rare) and it has never been on the ground, I wouldn't trust it to drive a mile after that long. Tires age in a trunk, under a truck I can't imagine. Either carry a spare in your bed, I carry a useable spare in my trunk. Unless of course you never loose cell service and have some sort of roadside assistance. Even then, they will want you to have a good spare.
Click to expand...
My Father-in-law had one, either a 78 or 89, just before they went to the Fox chassis. It had the 400, 2-bbl in it.
 
Don Drake said:
Not sure flipping the tire is a good idea. I did that on my work Tundra for exactly that reason. Needed the spare, dropped it and found the valve stem torn. Since I lower my spare every couple of months to check the pressure, and as mentioned keep things moving.

About once a year I hit the raising and lowering parts with a pressure washer and spray on some lube. I've tried to help someone change a tire and the spare was rusted in place. I learn, slowly and sometimes from other's mistakes.
Click to expand...
I do the same every year lowering the spare, and soaking the chain with fluid flim. Learned to do that decades ago after not being able to lower spare. I'll rust up if neglected.
 
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tacojoel said:
I do the same every year lowering the spare, and soaking the chain with fluid flim. Learned to do that decades ago after not being able to lower spare. I'll rust up neglected.
Click to expand...
Dirt collected on FF won't cause issues in the mechanism?
 
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