Aday at the beach - sun, sand, surf, tunes, and a laptop connected to a network via a cellular modem. That may sound odd, but to the network administrator of one of the hottest online vehicle enthusiast sites on the web (tundrasolutions.com) it's par for the course. Lon Vennard loves his job and he's got the site and the ride to prove it.
Lon's story starts in 1999 when he started shopping for a new vehicle to replace his competition ready '99 Cobra Mustang. His previous ride had a 1300 watt system he used for listening to favorite artist, Dennis DeYoung, as well as jazz and country artists. He was excited by the hot new 4 x 4 from Toyota. To find out about the truck he naturally turned to the Internet. He typed "tundra" into a search engine; unfortunately only images of the frozen wastelands of North America came up, a far cry from sunny Deerfield Beach, Florida, Lon's stomping grounds, and further still from the truck he was dreaming about.
A few months later Lon had done his research and found the ride he wanted in the form of a black, four-door, four-wheel drive Toyota Tundra. The truck was great, but had room for some "personal improvements." Plans were made for a few tweaks here and there but, as is the case with many custom vehicles, once the ball got rolling it was hard to stop.
Lon's first trip was to the custom body and paint shop Mad Mods in Hollywood, Florida. There Lon hooked up with Bob Bauman and Seth Paton. They got to talking and before he knew it Lon was opting for an intensive tear down of the vehicle and an entirely new color. Mad Mods mixed up gallons of a custom color and the stunning Indigo Pearl Blue truck that graces these pages is the result of that conversation. Every inch of the truck was disassembled and transformed. To complement the new paint all factory logos were dropped and a billet grill was installed. To enhance the new look 18-inch Colorado Customs Yuma Wheels wrapped in 285/55/18 Pirelli Scorpions replaced the stock rolling gear. For more go Lon added a Borla cat back exhaust system and a custom Ron Miller sport intake.
The truck now looked and drove great and Lon was ready to return to the Web. Instead of searching for info Lon was there to do some posting. To show off his vehicle Lon put up a small Web site about his Tundra. It quickly had some serious traffic and people were asking questions and posting replies. This was the birth of tundrasolutions.com. The site has grown into an online community of current and prospective Toyota owners and enthusiasts who like sharing their thoughts, ideas, plans, and vehicles. "We have over 3000 registered members and get more than 4.5 million hits per month. People can upload images of their vehicles to their own homepage and share their enthusiasm. Most of the members have been there from the very beginning," says Lon.
Lon was happy with the vehicle for a while, but then decided to make a few more upgrades; this time to the audio system. For this Lon turned to Terry Wolf a friend who just happens to be the Florida representative for Soundstream Technologies, Inc. and has the right connections. First, extensive amounts of Dynamat Super, Dynamat Premium, and DynaShield were laid everywhere in the truck to keep things quiet. Then Terry helped Lon install an Alpine CVA-1005 mobile multimedia station and DVA-5205 DVD player in the dash. To help Lon get around, an Alpine NVA-N851A navigation system was stashed under the passenger seat; for protecting the blue beauty an Alpine SEC-8081 alarm was put on board. It controls remote engine start, power windows, door locks, and flashing strobe lights at all corners. Lon knew he wanted dual DVD drives in the truck: "Being a self proclaimed 'computer geek' I love having the latest technology in my cars. I am also an avid home theater nut so I wanted to combine my passions."