All Entries in the "TundraHeadquarters.com" Category

TundraNetwork.com $500 New Member Giveaway

It’s the beginning of May, so it’s time to announce the TundraNetwork.com new member contest!

In exchange for joining TundraNetwork and letting us know what you think, we’re going to give you a cup or two of coffee for your time. The first 100 people to join TundraNetwork.com will each get a $5 Starbucks gift card – here’s how it works.

1. Join TundraNetwork.com. For the month of May, the first 100 people who join TundraNetwork.com, fill out a complete profile, and upload a photo of either themselves or their Tundra will get a $5 Starbucks gift card.

2. Participate. Get involved – comment on other people’s photos, participate in a forum discussion, start a new blog topic, it’s up to you.

3. Watch for an email. We’ll confirm your email address and send you instructions for getting your gift card.

4. Start enjoying TundraNetwork.com. Here’s what you can do as a TundraNetwork member:

• Share photos and videos of your truck with friends and family, whether they’re members or not.

• Network with other Tundra owners, just like you would on Myspace or Facebook.

• Blog about parts you’ve installed on your truck, mods you’ve made, or your future plans for your Tundra.

• NEW! Post in our brand new forums. We’ve got a forum feature that’s great for asking and answering questions.

Our goal is to create a complete community for Tundra owners. Join TundraNetwork.com and let us know what you think, and you’ll get a free cup of coffee for your trouble.

A Parable About Poor Management

Thanks to David for sending us this…it’s a great story about poor management at your typical American automaker.

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford/GM/Chrysler, take your pick) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was, the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing. Feeling a deeper study was in order;

Ten Thousand Spam Comments? Come on!

So a little news about TundraHeadquarters.com. First of all, our 1 year anniversary is coming up on Sunday. Thank you to everyone that has visited, commented, and emailed. This has been a great experience for both of us here at TundraHQ. We hope the site will continue to grow, and we hope we can continue to provide news, reviews, and information that people will find interesting and useful.

Second of all, Jason, our admin, is moving to NYC in the next few months. While it’s a good move for him personally (that won’t take away from his ability to contribute to TundraHQ), it means parting with quite a few possessions (those NYC apartments are notoriously small). One of those possessions included a tricked out 07 Tundra. Bummer. The good news – we’re looking for people to help contribute content (like videos, reviews, installation instructions, etc.). If you feel like you can write a good review (and include a video and some pictures), contact us. We might be able to work out something where you get some free parts as long as you’re willing to do a little show and tell…

Third, the title of this post. It’s unbelievable. It’s crazy. It’s ridiculous. But, as of today at midnight eastern time, the blog at TundraHeadquarters.com has received 9,558 spam comments. That’s approximately 26 spam comments a day. For all of you who aren’t exactly sure what comprises a “spam comment”, they typically say “Wow. Great article. Really like your site.” followed by “Pharma link. Adult link. Gambling link….etc.” Thank goodness the blog software does 99% of this for us. Here’s a screen shot:

So, we got that goin’ for us.

We’ll try and complete the redesign this weekend. Thanks to everyone that voted on the new design – it seems to be a successful upgrade.

2007 Toyota Tundra – The Year In Review

The newest version of the Toyota Tundra, assembled in Texas and Indiana, debuted in February 2007, and it was easily Toyota’s best effort at making a full-size truck. Comparisons of the Tundra vs F150 and Tundra vs Ram both showed Toyota offered a superior product in terms of design, value, and performance.

However, Toyota didn’t understand the truck market. The launch of the Tundra was worse than expected because Toyota over-estimated the demand for the “fleet” version of the truck, resulting in quite a few base Tundras on lots that needed incentives to sell. Toyota also had to deal with rumors of a 5.7L engine recall that were dramatically overstated (by both the mass media and this website).

Toyota corrected their oversight and debuted the CrewMax, resulting in a big sales boost and increase in popularity. The popularity of the Tundra was demonstrated by the number of people modifying their trucks – take a look at our featured Tundras for 2007, and read about a bullet-proof Tundra custom built by a firm in Texas.

The debut of a new truck also led to the debut of a collection of new after market parts – Tundra lift kits, Tundra cold air intakes, Tundra exhaust systems, and a slew of accessories. Of course, all the excitement was about the new Tundra supercharger from TRD (that’s still pending release).

The Tundra release was rocky – there were quite a few problems reported, and Consumer Reports didn’t recommend the Tundra – a first. But the negative news didn’t dampen enthusiasm for the Tundra, nor should it have. The truck is still an excellent product and competitive with every full-size on the market.

What will the future hold? We’ve found evidence that both a hybrid version of the Tundra and a Diesel Tundra will both debut in 2009/2010. We also expect TundraHeadquarters.com to grow — we’ve launched TundraNetwork, a social network for Tundra owners, and we’ve started to build a marketplace for Tundra after market parts.

Thanks for reading our site, and we look forward to bringing you news, information, product reviews, and tips during 2008.

Possible Bed Bounce CURE

Great news! One of our readers, Matthew Davis, has come up with a way to dampen and CURE the Tundra’s bed bounce cheaply and simply — check out his full explanation and PICTURES below:

Hello everyone. I am the owner of a 2007 Tundra double cab 4X4 with the 5.7 engine. I have noticed the bed vibration since shortly after purchasing the truck in July. I had some time on my hands the other day, so I got up under the truck to see if I could identify the source of the vibration. Those of you who own this truck can go and grab the rear bumper and shake it up and down vigorously and you will observe independent motions of the bed and the cab. I began to realize that the frame of this truck has a harmonic frequency with a pivot point between the engine/transmission area and the rear axle area of the frame. (Visualize a guitar string.) You can get into the bed of the truck and stand directly over the rear axle and jump up and down, and you will find that it is almost impossible to make the same vibration that you can easily achieve by applying pulsating pressure to the bumper or open tailgate.

I thought about the idea of attaching some sort of weight to the rear bumper area, but as I considered the idea, I realized that this would only change the frequency of the vibration, but would not necessarily dampen it. It might even make the vibration more intense in the cab. So I thought about the idea of somehow canceling out the harmonics of the frame by creating a dampening device with a slightly different harmonic frequency attached to the area of the frame behind the rear axle as close to the bumper as possible. The logic here is that if you could CAUSE the frame to vibrate from this point, then it should be possible to DAMPEN the vibration from the same point.

I decided to use the spare tire for this purpose so as not to increase the weight of the vehicle. I lowered the spare tire a few inches from the frame, and I cut out two pieces of high density rubber foam and placed them in between the tire and the part of the frame that the tire is pressed against. (I used one of those kneeling pads that you use for working on hard surfaces on your knees.)

The pad:

(Click for larger view)

(Click for larger view)

There are four points at which the tire contacts the frame. I placed the foam on the rear points and let the front portion of the tire remain in its original position against the brackets that prevent the tire from moving forward. I then re-tightened the tire to where the foam was snug between the tire and the frame. (The tire should be tight enough that it does not rattle.) The tire holder at the end of the cable is spring loaded so it will accommodate some slight movement. This setup allowed the tire to