Trifun Owners Website
A site for Comments and Resources for Trifun Vehicle Owners
Modifications
Any information posted on this site for modifications to the TriFun vehicles are at the owner's risk and may void your warranty.
Top speed so far is 83 miles per hour, verified on my GPS. No, it was not downhill, we don't have hills in Florida.
Check with your dealership if you have any questions.
1. We have tinted the windows. There is a lot of glass in
this little vehicle and the tint helps on the really hot days in
Florida.
2. Chime for the headlights on. In Florida the law says you need to have your headlights on while driving. The TriFun does not have a reminder chime if you turn the key off and leave the headlights on. We purchased a nice chime and a diode at Radio Shack and easily added it to a connector in the center dash area. I will provide some photos at a later date. Chime and diode were about $10.00. You could use a buzzer for about $3.00. Caution, mine is an early build and may have different wire colors than yours.
The radio shack chime module has three wires. Power, ground
and trigger (to ground).
The idea is to have the power to the chime from the headlamps “ON”
circuit. and ground to the chime at all times with the trigger using
switched 12v ignition as the ground when the key is off. Switched
Ignition acts like a ground when the key is off for very low loads.
Probably grounds thru some of the other circuits. The diode acts as
protection and the chime would probably work without the diode.
Key ON Headlamps OFF: no chime because it gets it power from
the headlamp circuit.
Key ON Headlamps ON: No chime because the key ON circuit keeps
the chime trigger from grounding.
Key OFF Headlamps ON: Chime works because trigger is
grounded thru switched ign.
Key OFF Headlamps OFF: No chime.
3. Power lift for bed. I am working on a mount for a power actuator for the bed. I found a nice self-contained electrical actuator with a 400 pound lift capacity. I am still working on a mount and lift mechanism for it. The Actuator is 12 volt and has built in limit switches for about $115.00. More on this as I move forward.
4. I have received a few emails about replacing the belt driven cooling fan with an electric fan kit. The initial feedback has been that the engine noise is greatly reduced with the electric fan. The electric fan kit has not been tested in the heat of summer yet. Caution! Overheating your engine is a very bad thing.
5. Door Noise. We took the plastic panels off of the inside of the doors and sprayed some 3M undercoating/soundproofing inside the door and on the backs of the plastic panels. This made a BIG difference in keeping the noise down.
6. We saw one TriFun with an electric door lock kit with remote control. They said it was about $160.00 for the kit from JC Whitney. It worked perfectly.
7. We are getting our front brake assembly powder coated bright yellow to match the rest of the vehicle.
8. We saw another TriFun that had added two more speakers to the front doors. It sounded great.
9. We had all three of our wheels high speed balanced. It made a noticeable improvement in the ride.
10. We filled the gaps inside the door hinges with spray expanding foam insulation. It cut down the outside air getting into the cabin. We painted the foam and it is barely noticeable.
11. Note. The headlamps can be a bit of a bear to change. We changed ours thru the square access panels from inside the cabin. We later talked to another guy that said he removed the sealant on the outside and removed two screws and replaced the bulbs from the outside. He said it was much easier.
12 Radio. The connection at the back of the radio is not
very secure. If you have some intermittent radio operation,
you might want to reach up under the dash behind the radio and make
sure the connector is plugged in tight. Also, with the removable
face plate on the radio you might accidentally hit the button to
remove the plate while reaching for one of the other buttons. If the
radio locks up and won't play, remove the face plate and push the
little RESET BUTTON for a couple of seconds)
13. Cool tip! Take one of your old camera SD memory
cards and put your mp3 music on it and plug it into the slot on the
radio. I had some on a USB drive but it stuck up too high and
I was afraid I would bend the USB. You can store hundreds of
mp3s on one SD chip and they are very inexpensive. If your
computer has a camera card reader, use it to drag your mp3 files
onto the card. The Stereo even displays the name and artist of
the song.
14. You will notice a white sticker on your ignition keys. Peel it off and stick it in your owner's manual. It is the key code to get a new key.
15. Using the stop watch in my phone, I can report an unofficial performance time of 17 seconds to go from 0 to 50 miles per hour.
16. Gas cap. After losing a gas cap, I now put the gas cap inside the bed when filling the tank. Also, when checking mileage, the amount of gas you can fill the tank changes with the angle of the truck and how each brand of pump shuts off.
17. I added a door jam switch to control the dome light. It took a little extra wiring since the dome light is switched to ground at the light. Most door jam switches just have one terminal and ground the circuit when the door is opened. I found a door jam switch with 2 terminals and routed the wire (hot) thru the switch. The light comes on when the door opens! The existing switch on the light can be used to turn the light off if you are going to leave the door open. Drawback: I can't turn the light on with the door closed.
18 New Wheels and Tires! A local tire shop found some
great chrome 14" x 5" chrome rims and some nice 14" low profile
tires (Falken 18/60/HR14). They are the exact same height as
the old 13" wheels and tires that I replaced. Both wheels
and Tires were about $360.00
19. Power Door Locks with Remote Keyless Entry. It even
turns to dome lamp on. $109.95
See:
http://www.a1electric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AEOS&Product_Code=W01F-712T
|
2 Door Power Door Lock & 712T Keyless Entry |
20. Screen in the Roof Vent. After sucking in several hundred
suprised assorted bugs as well as some very angry bees, I added some
screen to the roof vent. It was very easy to do.
Open the vent almost all the way.
Take the cotter pin and top fastener out that holds the roof vent to
the raising mechanism.
Pull the rubber gasket off.
Cut the screen larger than the hole and cut a small u shaped slice
in the center to fit over the raising mechanism.
Place the screen over the hole and reinstall the rubber gasket over
the screen (it will hold it tightly in place.
Carefully cut the excess screen around the outside of the rubber
gasket.
Reinstall the retainer and cotter pin. You can put some tape
or small rubber washers around the retainer if your vent rattles
when it is open.
21. CHMSL. Center High Mounted Stop Lamp. I bought a small red LED light at the auto parts store. Mounted the light on the headache rack and threaded the wire down the rack and under the bed to the rear of the bed and tied into the brake circuit. Run the wire along the bed so you can still tilt the bed up and down.
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22. Insulation. Tom and Lori found some heat and sound
insulation at a remarkably low price. They will let us know
how it works after they install it. It will go in the engine
compartment to reduce the heat and noise in the cabin. They are also
going to put some in their doors.
Link:
http://www.carinsulation.com/index.php
23. Shift Boot. My rubber one finally developed a few cracks. I found a vinyl leather looking grey one online. It took a round PVC fitting to attach it to the center hump.
sorry
about the sand, we were at the beach.
24. Dome lamp LED replacement. I added an LED strip across the edge of the roof vent (inside) and the LEDs were bright white. This made the dome lamp look yellow. I found a great replacement LED for the dome lamp that is bright white. I wired the strip of LEDs to the dome lamp that now turns on and off with the keyless entry.
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Note: LED Replacement lamps. The stop/tail lamp with the two contacts (looks like a 1/2 size 1157 bulb is hard to find. Dealers have them. If you replace yours with a regular 1157 bulb you may end up melting your tail lamp housing. I found an LED version that seems to have the same light output as the original bulb. I'll add more after some more testing.
25. New air filter from AutoZone. I put in one of those cone shaped racing filters, an off brand K&N. It seems to rev a little better and makes a nice whaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaaaa noise when I have my foot in it. It didn't seem to make much difference in the top end.
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Maintenance Information:
check your Parenting Guide for specifications.
Spark Plug Gap should be 1 - 1.2 mm (about .040 - .045)
make sure you change the Transmission oil after the break-in period.
Fram oil filter is PH4967
This is based on my own experience ONLY.
Vibration at road speeds seems to have several factors.
1.
Three wheel vehicles , in general, have a resonant speed at which
they magnify any vibrations. My TriFun seems to have the most
magnification at about 42 mph.
2.
Out of round tires or wheels. Depending on how bad you may
want to swap your spare for the front tire to see which one is best.
3.
Unbalanced wheels/tires. ALL three wheels must be balanced.
Yes, the back wheels make a difference.
4.
NEW DISCOVERY! Front Forks. Odd but very noticeable on my
TriFun. Once in a while my wheel vibration gets worse. I
found out that the top of the front forks/shocks were sticking.
Also noticeable as the sudden settling or popping up of the front
forks when you get in and out of the vehicle. When I sprayed
the top of the forks where they slide in and out of the shafts, 70%
OF THE VIBRATION WAS GONE.
Send us your mods!