Ahh this is fun stff. I designed and built this last box when I was just out of high school years ago. It has worked flawlessly and the surface area at the top was just enough to allow me to expand the power of my whole stereo just enough. SO since I have been increasing the offroad capability of my truck by 100x I now need to build a new stereo that can take the abuse.
The last time I was out racing around in the dunes the rear brackets (factory mounts for the factory bench seat that was removed) that was holding the box up simply pulled off the back wall and failed to support the box or hold it in place. So the box was basically free standing with only the front seats holding it back there, how annoying! So I finally removed it and I have no tunes for now
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What now? Well I need to build a rollcage to support the whole cab and also to connect the rear suspension with the front suspension so that the whole truck frame doesn't break in half. Believe me, those woops aren't easy on the middle of this truck. The suspension does an awesome job but the cab really takes a beating since it's only held on by 6 bolts/mounts. So I'm going to run some tubing from the frame up through the cab from the front to the rear. This will also serve as a nice sturdy frame to mount the seats and the new speaker and amp rack in the rear. Hell, I might as well make a mount for a center console or something. I was throwing around the idea of mounting the seats more in the center of the truck but I won't go into that here.
So my goals are to build:
- start the bottom half of the rollcage
- provide much stronger mounts for the PRP bucket seats
- to build a nice strong platform for a compact speaker box/ amp rack
- to also integrate some nice mounts for some racing harnesses
This will be a huge upgrade to the Tacoma. The cab is literally splitting inside around the transmission hump and along the back lower corner. Both of these areas are common places for deformation when Tacomas are pushed offroad.