In reply to yupididit :
13 1/2 feet, it's a Bendpak HD7W. It's the tallest, widest 4 post lift they make. I would've gone with an HD9 instead but I don't have the garage depth to fit one
In reply to yupididit :
13 1/2 feet, it's a Bendpak HD7W. It's the tallest, widest 4 post lift they make. I would've gone with an HD9 instead but I don't have the garage depth to fit one
In reply to docwyte :
Thank you. My wife wanted to know lol.
I'll be following this, been thinking one of those would be a great do it all vehicle.
Got the TRD wheels on, it looks so much better! Managed to figure out which Pro Clip parts I needed by "chatting" with one of their reps, although it was very frustrating. I sent them a picture of what I wanted and had to ask them to look at it repeatedly as they tried to give me links to things I didn't want. Replaced the front wipers, struggling to replace the rear one.
Truck is loaded up for the ski trip, picking up my friend in 2.5 hours. Have to wait till right before we leave to install the ski rack, it won't fit underneath the lift with the ski scissor attachment installed.
Maiden voyage made! Made it up to Vail in the middle of a storm. Truck handled great, lots of traction and never had an issue. It's a total tank in the snow, happy with my tire choice for sure!
Nice truck! Does that a snorkel make a lot of noise and move around at highway speeds?
In reply to OHSCrifle :
Surprisingly, no. Doesn't move at all and can't really hear any wind noise. My ski roof rack makes more noise...
In reply to docwyte :
I'm going to say the black wheels seem to look better than the current wheels.
yupididit said:In reply to docwyte :
I'm going to say the black wheels seem to look better than the current wheels.
I concur, but not my vehicle so my opinion don't matter... 
I like the smaller wheels because sidewalls.
I'm not a fan of black wheels in general and especially on a black car. I don't like the "murdered" look, plus they're 18's with 70 series mud terrain tires. So they're the wrong tires for me and lift the truck some, which I don't want. I'm also not a fan of the lifted truck look...
I have the wheels/tires listed here, I'll make a GRMer a deal on them, they fit Tundra's and Land Cruisers...
In reply to docwyte :
I only like certain vehicles black on black. I think if the lips weren't lighter then the center then they'd work better for me.
Anyway, it's your truck and I'm happy that you're happy about it. It seems like you found exactly what you wanted and exactly what works for your needs. You've also made me more of a fan of these.
Well successful ski trip done! I got the 200 loaded with my stuff and my sons stuff, put the Thule roof rack with ski attachment on (no way it'll fit under the lift with the ski attachment on btw), loaded up the skis and drove out this past Tuesday to pick up my friend and his sons.
Their flight was on time but it took over an hour for their bags to come out, which stunk! Eventually they got their bags and I picked them up and loaded up all their stuff. The cargo area was totally full but the rear window wasn't obstructed at all, which was good. Once I remove the 3rd row seats there'll be even more space back there.
Had dinner, left Denver around 8pm ish and drove up to Vail in the storm. I prefer to not drive up there at night, but it went fine. Happy to report the Falken WildPeak AT3W's have *excellent* snow traction, every bit as good as other real snow tires I've used.
We woke up to ~6" of fresh snow Wednesday and had a powder day. Woke up to another 9" of fresh snow Thursday and had an even better powder day! Friday there was a dusting of fresh snow but still had an awesome time. Loaded it up Saturday morning and drove home.
I'm beginning to figure out what all the buttons do and am getting it set up the way I like. It got 13.5mpg going up the hill and probably closer to 20mpg coming back down the hill. To put that into perspective, the Golf R would get 22-23mpg going up and 30 coming down. The Cayenne Diesel gets about the same as the Golf R.
One nit picky complaint is you can't tap the turn signal and have it blink 3-4 times, like all my German cars have down for at least the last 15 years. I'd also would've LOVED to have the turbo diesel motor you can get these with everywhere else on the planet. Then it'd get around the same gas mileage as my Cayenne Diesel does.
Other than that it's an extremely comfortable SUV that easily held 5 people and all their ski gear, kicked butt in inclement road conditions and does everything I want/need it to do. It barely fits in the garage, so I ordered one of those "ball on a rope" things that I'm going to hang from the drip pan on my lift. That should get me lined up where I need to be. I really wish my garage was 2-3 feet longer....
I busted out the pressure washer today, since the weather is nice, and sprayed all the road grime and mag chloride off. It cleans up pretty well but I will get it detailed/ceramic coated this spring, that should make cleaning it up much easier. I'm also going to get the front windows tinted, it's just too damn hot here in the summer time without it.
Next up is the phone mount (I had to order more parts) and get the Apple Car Play module.
So I needed to figure out a way to position the 200 in the garage spot properly. As I've mentioned, my garage isn't very deep, the 200 basically fills the entire spot and if I pull up too much it's basically impossible to walk between it and the lift posts or walk in front of it. I really, really wish the garage was 2-3 feet deeper!
Anyways, because of the lift I can't use one of those laser things, so time to go old school. I thought about the old tennis ball on a string thing, maybe attach it to the lift's drip tray. Turns out you can buy these off Amazon for under $10 for two, so I did. I also went to the hardware store and picked up this goofy carabiner thing to attach to my drip tray.
Then it was just a matter of attaching the tennis ball to the carabiner, positioning the truck where I want it and then the drip tray...
Here you can see the tape I used to mark the position of the drip tray, so if I remove it while working on a car I know where to put it back
And the 200 in the garage. As much space as possible in front of it, maybe 1-2" between the rear bumper and the garage door...
So moderately annoyed at Pro Clip USA right now. I ordered two parts to complete my phone mount, their website doesn't show stock levels. Got an email a few days later saying something on my order was backordered (they didn't say what) and gave a vague answer for when it'd ship. Today, a week and a half later I reach out to them to find out where it is. Get the same answer until I push them, then they tell me one of the parts has no ETA to ship.
Ok, so you were just going to let me wait indefinitely then? WTF?! So I cancelled the order. Went down to my basement to dig through my bag of RAM parts and unfortunately don't have what I need to make it work. However I've found this online that I think will work and it's all of $19.
So I'll buy it, attach it to the console mount with 3M body tape, stick my magnet to the top part of it and should be in business
Ordered the platform, already have a tracking number. Finally going to be able to get a phone mount in this thing next week.
Also found a complete set of WeatherTech floor mats and some Equip seat covers from another local 200 guy for a good price. Will pick them up this afternoon.
Then I just need to decide if I want to spend the $750 (!!) for the Beat Sonic Apple Car Play stuff.
Took off the airbox to inspect the air filter, I was curious to see what that snorkel has sucked up. Nothing really, a few bugs. Filter was really clean so I just shook it out, cleaned up the inside of the air box, tightened up the clamp going to the snorkel hose (installer got glue on it was it wasn't able to be tightened) and that's good to go.
I'll go get some oil filters and the cabin air filter today and do those, then it should be good to go for a long time.
Picked up some parts today! Oil filters and cabin air filter from the dealer, weathertech floor mats and Escape gear seat covers from a local Toyota forum member.
Yeah, the cabin air filter was a little dirty...
Took me a bit to figure out the releases on the glove box shelf and air filter surround...
Next up weathertech mats, I love these! They cover all the carpet areas, which is nice since my dog gets car sick and cleaning vomit out of the carpet really blows.
Next up are these Escape gear seat covers. They're based in S. Africa and everyone says their stuff is the best. It's the only seat cover that allows you to use the center rear seat shoulder belt, so that good. Fitment is nice, well almost...
I can't seem to figure out how this seat cover can come up over the center armrest enough to line up with the head rest holes...
Anyways, that knocked out the interior protection I wanted to do. I'll do an oil change in a bit, then install my phone mount and debate about the Apple CarPlay unit.
Filled up today, got ~15mpg mixed out of 85 octane, which is our 87 octane. So that's honestly not bad mpg, my old GX470 was getting maybe 16mpg and my old Cayenne Turbo S got a whopping 12-13mpg.
So I noticed that the auto/rain sensing wipers don't work. I'm sure the seller didn't know as I bet he never used the wipers, given that he lives in San Diego. Anyways, a little googling shows that the little gasket that goes between the sensor and windshield has a tendency to go bad and that causes the sensor to not sit close enough to the windshield to work.
Today it was crappy out, so while I was driving to the base I tapped the sensor with my finger and the wipers worked. Ok, that looks like the problem then. Now I have to figure out if this is a dealer visit or something my windshield glass company can handle. Hopefully they can, as they'll come to my house to do it vs me going to the dealer...
People seem to be mixed over the functunality of it, some say it works great, others say not so much. Apparently I can just unplug the sensor and then it'll revert to "normal" intermittent function, so I may try that first...
So my windshield company is coming over to the office today to look at that rain sensor. I'm also going to ask them to tighten up the rear view mirror, which is a little loose. If they can't fix the rain sensing wipers I'll either unplug them entirely or take the truck to the dealer and probably pay several hundred dollars to get it fixed.
Yesterday I got the last part of the phone mount I ordered. My setup is a ProClip console mount bracket, which supposedly fits up to '18 200's, but doesn't seem to fit my '18 all that well, a Panavise arm and a Schosche magnet. I had to layer up some 3M double sided tape on the top of the ProClip mount, then used some more of it to attach the Panavise arm to the Proclip mount.
It seems to work really well, puts my phone right where I want it and is stable. So win. I've now got all the little interior stuff I wanted done. Next up are larger purchases like the Beat Sonic Apple Car Play unit and the Bilstein 6112/5160's, when they get off intergalactic back order...
Glass guys were just at my office, got good news! The rain sensor wasn't properly clipped to the windshield and they tightened up the loose rear view mirror too. Cost? Nothing! Sweet!
This is a bit of a head scratcher tho, as the truck is super low mileage, the windshield has the "Toyota" etching and seems to be original. So there's no apparent reason that someone was working around there but it's clear that someone was...
I wish I could find seat covers that fit my second row seats and fold down with them.
In reply to yupididit :
Yep, I'm really happy with these. No loss in functionality at all, can still use the center passenger seat belt, fold the seats down, etc
In reply to docwyte :
I checked their site and nothing for 2015 Expeditions.
In reply to yupididit :
Yeah, I think they just do Land Cruisers. Their covers aren't cheap and take several months to receive but seem well made and are great fitment
So all my parts needed to remove the 3rd row came in. Today it was nice, so I had at it.
First remove the plastic trim covers covering the bolts. There are 2 14mm bolts on each bracket
I used my fingers to pry apart the plastic, happily it popped off and no tabs were broken. From here remove the bolts and pull the seats out.
Put the two bolts in the rear spot back in along with the bottom bolt on the front spot. The upper bolt on the front spot gets reused for the plastic trim part with D ring that I bought from a dude in Australia. It fits great! Then drop in the 5 passenger OEM Heritage Edition cargo mat and you're done
Here's the part number for the cargo mat in case anyone is interested
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