Truck Done, New Pics

[ocjesse]

I did a few unique things to my tundra, so I though I would share some photos and details...

The front bumper is from Expedition One Expedition One Off-Road Equipment, according to James at exp-one, mine is the third one they have made. I'm not sure what everyone is waiting for, the quality is superb, the fit is excellent, and I'm really happy with how it looks on the truck.

The front lights are supper ralley 800 HID's, the center is a 135watt hallogen. The winch is a 9,500lb superwinch with synthetic rope.




I wanted a spot in the back to mount a high-lift jack, shovel, antennas, lighting, and weather instruments. I used a wilderness rack and mounted it to a Lazer Lite tonneau cover. The cover is very strong and can hold more than 1000 pounds. The entire setup is very sturdy, you can easily climb on the rack and there's lots of area to tie down gear. The entire thing lifts up, however I still need to switch the gas lift assists with stronger ones to compensate for the weight of the cage rack.

The pictures didn't do the rack justice, in person it's really rugged looking and gives the rear of the truck a purposefull look. It barely blocks rear visibility at all and dosen't whistle in the wind like racks mounted to the roof's of suv's do.






On the rack is a mount for a shovel and ax, a 60" high lift jack (I store the heavy base and lifting mechanism in the bed). Reverse lighting (side lighting is yet to be installed). The antennas are for a scanner, mobile broadband card, and xm radio. The black cylynder is a davis vantage pro weather station. There is also an anemometer witch raises up and down with a switch in the center console.





The scanner is a gps enabled uniden which is mounted in the center console with a remote head mounted under the climate controls. The center console also has the davis weather panel which is linked to the tablet pc. The tablet pc uses a broadband wireless card, runs google earth with GPS tracking, Interfaces with the weather station, and is linked to a front camera and two side view cameras. The tablet is touchscreen, however there is also a mini bluetooth mouse and keyboard which can be used instead.

Not seen in the photos is an integrated cobra radar detector with GPS support which warns you of known speed cameras.

I must applaud the trundra for an amazing amount of space in that center console and underneith it (once removed) as well. This setup took a ton of wires and control boxes, but it all fit easily.













Here it is next to my wifes full size Mercedes GL450 sport utility. The tundra makes it look small!




I also added TRD dual exaust, the TRD big brake kit, and a rear sway bar. Yet to be installed is a set of deaver 11pack rear leaf springs.

The lift is camburg front coil-overs with upper control arms, diff drop and a 1" block with OME springs in the back. Wheels are 20" KMC monsters with Mickey Thompson 35"x12.5" ATZ's.

[choco]

Wow, very tastefully done. Amazing

[zpaul]

wow!
That is a really sharp looking beast
Please post another photo with radar mount

[zzzpro]

Good Gawd! So where is the barbecue and plasma tv? Looks really good but I would hate to pull that beautiful truck through a narrow rock opening with zero clearance. But really, NICE JOB!

[RIjon]

Nice truck man!

[cliff clavin]

very cool....do you use the weather stuff for work or is it all for play? the front bumper is pretty sweet.....

[minezmine]

there has been many posts about the questionable fit and finish to the E1 bumpers. Would you mind post many picutres of how the bumper follows the conture lines of the grill/lights,fenders, etc??

[Frag Master]

Sweet! You must be a storm chaser.

[ThirdHorseman]

JESSE!!! THANK YOU!!! This is the bumper for me!

I haven't found anything I thought was cleaner and more attractive than the stock bumper. You just proved me wrong. This Expedition One is everything the other winch bumpers aren't. It doesn't make the truck look like Darth Vader - I'm sold. I can't find pricing on the page, can you help?

Your rig looks great

[ocjesse]

Originally Posted by minezmine

there has been many posts about the questionable fit and finish to the E1 bumpers. Would you mind post many picutres of how the bumper follows the conture lines of the grill/lights,fenders, etc??

I'm no expert, but this is the third winch bumper I've put on a vehicle (ARB on a land cruiser, and one on an f250, cant remeber the manufacturer's name anymore though). In my opinion the fit and finish is excellent and better than the ARB bumper I had. It also follows the contours of the truck exactly. Of course you can tweak and need some gap between the bumper and the body to accommodate frame / body flex, but this is adjustable to your preference. One side is a bit lower, maybe 1/8 inch, than the other on mine, I struggled a bit with this because I didn't have a helper to install it, with a helper it could be adjusted spot on. I'm not worried about it though, nobody would notice except me.

It took a long time to get the bumper (close to 4 months) because it had to be made and was the first tundra bumper they had shipped. It was incredebly well packed (much better than the Fab Fours bumper was on the rear of my truck). Everything lined up without modyfing anything and bolted in easily, the finish is superb, nice welds, flawless powdercoating.

The only complaints I have is that the light bezel mounting points are a bit off which causes the PIAA lights to appear crocked. The mounting point at the frame of the trundra also seems undersized. James at expedition one is going to send me additional brackets he is developing to beef this up. It's not so much exp-one's fault, the tundra dosent give a good beefy mounting point without using some sort of crazy bracket. For now I will try to minimize the amount of pulling force during winching. My last complaint would be that the customer service was horrible, I was told the bumper would ship right out, but it took 4 months before I got one. I was given exuse after exuse untill I got annoyed and let them know it. The owner James called to smooth things over, and once I got the bumper I forgot all about the delays and am very satisifed with it.

I'll try to take additional photos showing more angles over the weekend.

[ballin]

nice job with all the accessories, tough looking truck

[ThirdHorseman]

$1,500 before shipping AND powdercoat? Yeesh, I would have thought the coating would be included!

[ocjesse]

Originally Posted by ThirdHorseman

$1,500 before shipping AND powdercoat? Yeesh, I would have thought the coating would be included!

Mine was $2000 even with the shipping. But don't forget the PIAA's will add another $200, without them you will have funny looking holes where lights should be.

I agree it's expensive, however I don't think they are price gouging, this is a very low volume item for them and they must recoup R&D expenses somehow. I doubt they have profited yet from the product, and I doubt a lower price point would help move units as I don't see very many people buying anyone's bumpers for the tundras.

[mhollack]

quite the truck man

[ocjesse]

Originally Posted by cliff clavin

very cool....do you use the weather stuff for work or is it all for play? the front bumper is pretty sweet.....

It's for play I'm a wannabe storm chaser, although we do get some pretty strong wind storms here on the Oregon coast. If I get the opportunity, I'll take my truck to tornado or hurricane alley and track some real severe weather with my new equipment.