SeekingZero - Adventure Build

Man I need to install my headers. I just know its gonna be a pain...

 

The worst part is the removal of the stock system...from what I'm told. Good luck!

 

Months ago, I made the decision to move back to sunny California. I decided this time that I would not take everything with me. What I would take would be decided by what would fit in my truck and trailer. If it wouldn't fit, it wouldn't come; simple as that. Of course, I would be taking as many of my motorcycles as possible, and 3 of the 4 made the cut. The DR650 will stay with my friend as the rest come with me.

Given the weight calculations of the 3 motorcycles, plus the limited amount of essentials that would also fill the truck and trailer, I needed to give the Tacoma and the trailer their final round of modifications to prepare for the journey.

The first modification...and the last one to the trailer...was to replace to wobbly cheap steel motorcycle wheels chocks with more sturdy successors. This had been planned for months when Harbor Freight had their 'self-locking' motorcycle wheel chock on sale and marked down further in a coupon. I picked two up for half price and left them waiting to be installed. That time had arrived and it took no time at all to replace.

Out with the old...



And in with the new...





The new wheel chocks are a stark contrast to the old wheel hoops that always made me wary. I am much more confident hauling my bikes now. I also mounted my little trailer shopvac to the center workbench post and removed the wheels to my roller cabinet bottom and loaded that in place to make the journey with me.

With the trailer finished, I moved on to the mountain of mods to finish on the truck. I had already gone on an Amazon rampage to acquire the bits I didn't already have. With all the parts present and accounted for, I needed to accomplish the following refinements: install add-a-leaf springs, replace the current hitch, replace floor mats, install Yakima tracks, install Rola roof basket, mount bicycle track, mount hi-lift jack, replace OEM Toyota badges, wax truck, and wash trailer.


First on the list is the additional payload springs. The Tacoma already sagged a little more than I wanted it to with the trailer hooked up and loaded with the additional weight I was planning on adding. Adding in the extra leafs was a fairly simple job made slightly more complicated by the fact that the alignment holes on the extra leafs were not the right diameter and had to be drilled out before installing.





Given the unsettled lift on the rear now, I knew that the already maxed drop on my current hitch wasn't going to be enough. I gave my dad my old drop/lift hitch and purchased a 12" adjustable locking drop hitch from Trimax. So far, this hitch is amazing and well worth the money. I also made the most of my Tacomaworld.com forum membership and got a discount on WeatherTech floor mats. Again, well worth the money.




Next on the list was the addition of a roof basket on my topper for increased storage capacity. I wasn't looking for anything fancy or expensive and so Rola's product was perfect. At just under $200, its a relatively cheap mod. However, I didn't want to bolt the basket directly to my topper and make permanent. I wanted the modification to be modular and so I decided to buy top tracks as well. The basket, as with most, is designed to mount to crossbars but I didn't want to spend the extra money on those, nor did I like how much they would have increased the height of the load. I came across a hack in my research of using 5/16" carriage bolts to mount baskets to the track directly since they would slide into the track threaded side up.

With that design in mind, I first mounted the tracks in place and used additional stainless hardware to attach the roof basket.






With the roof basket mounted, I added the RockyMounts Pitchfork bike rail. It is also meant to mount to a crossbar or thicker gauge bar so I had to get some vinyl walkdoor weatherstripping to add the thickness I needed to the bars of the basket.



Next was the hi-lift jack that I definitely needed now that the truck is so jacked up. I didn't buy any mounts specifically to mount it to the basket so I spent a couple evenings prior to mounting it looking for ideas of DIY mounts. I finally decided upon using electrical conduit clamps with carriage bolts and rubber bumpers to secure the jack in the basket.





Finally, I took the time to wax the truck (probably for the first time in its lifetime) and wash the trailer (also a first since I bought it). With a clean truck, I then went to work removing the chrome Toyota badges signifying its make, model, and feature information and applying the black vinyl decals that I got from Ryan here on TW. He does great work and I highly recommend him I am thoroughly pleased with the result!







With all the modifications done, the truck was loaded up on the rainy, wet morning of April 2nd for the start of the journey.







Six days on the road, two days spent skiing in Colorado, and I finally made it back out to California the evening of April 7th!

 

Wow everything looks so good! Love the basket, and also love the decals. The "supercharged" so badass!! Very envious

 

Thanks man! Now that I'm in the Bay, it would be great to get together. Your truck has been an inspiration for mine and it would be great to see that big beauty in person!

 

Definitely, see if you can make this trip at the end of June...


http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/no...90-norcal-camping-trip-6-26-15-6-28-15-a.html

 

I have no plans that far out so that sounds great! Thanks for the heads up/invite!

Now to tackle the maintenance I need to do: replace CV axles, replace S/C belt, replace air filter, replace LCA's, upgrade brakes/replace pads...

 

Sounds like a long weekend!

 

I think I'll be splitting that all up over a few weekends, unless I can coax some assistance with beers. And reading through the trip thread, I may want to pull the trigger on the diff breather mod.

 

Nice! What sliders are those?


And I really liked your vinyl stickers I had to do it myself!

 

That's awesome! The black vinyl looks so killer with on the Lunar Mist, very classy sir. The sliders are Trail Gear since I had an Amazon gift card and they were on Amazon with free shipping, I couldn't pass it up. I've seen horror stories about the install of the TG sliders, so I hope I don't have to endure the pain others have expressed.

 

Awesome! I hope your slider install goes good then. When are you putting them on?

 

Thanks. I'm not sure yet, maybe this weekend. I need to see about finishing the last addition to the rear bumper as well. I would also like to install my new CV axles this weekend.

 

New CV axles installed! The worst part was trying to get the dust cover off of the hub.



The bane of my existence...the other side looks much better.


How to hold the hub from spinning...


Out with the old...


I greased up the boots really well, just as preventative maintenance against drying out and tearing again.



Lost a bit of gear oil...


I ended up having to sacrifice a flathead screwdriver to the grinder gods to make the right kind of chisel. Oh well.


I thought about installing my sliders today, but I think I'll leave that for another weekend. I did line one side up to the frame to see what I would need to do and now I'm a bit confused. The TG sliders have bottom tabs on 3 of the 4 legs but since my frame is boxed, what the hell are they for? I'm not going to be able to get a nut on a bolt inside the frame, and the frame is to thin to tap. Does anyone have any experience or insight into mounting TG sliders? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

Last weekend I went to start on mounting the sliders and ran into a problem...I have two of the same side.


So I decided to do the diff breather mod and start on the CB install. The diff breather mod was as simple as everyone has been saying and was completed in about 15 minutes. The CB install isn't finished yet, but I hope to finish it this weekend.

The old breather...


The new wrapped with teflon tape, just because.


Ran the hose up and zip tied it in place with some extra slack.


Drill the hold for the new breather.




Completed.


I just need to run the antenna cable, mount the external speaker, and button up the dash and the CB install will be finished. Then on to tuning it.



This is the bit of the dash I cut out so that the CB can sit more recessed and flush.




More to come.

 

Today was incredibly productive for me as I got everything done that I had wanted to and more!

I got to work on finishing the CB install. I mounted it in place then put the dash back together. This actually was a lot more involved than it sounds since I had to run the external speaker wire and antenna coax out and then tidy up the rest of the wiring, since I'm a bit anal, then snap the dash in before anything moved...

I think I got the CB in a good place and just barely sticking out.




I ran the external speaker over to the passenger's side originally and I was going to mount it behind the glove box.



However, upon putting the glovebox back on, I discovered that the hinges covered one of my bracket mounting spots, so back to the drawing board. I finally settled on moving it over to the driver's side just under the floor vent.





We'll see if it remains there. Its really not as intrusive as it may look in that shot. I drove all over tonight to run errands and completely forgot it was there. With the external speaker mounted, I finished running the antenna coax back to the rear of the truck where a BAMF CB mount will hold the antenna. I ran the coax along the outside of the cab, down into the storage box next to the rear seat belt, and through this little hole which I made sure to seal up with silicon when I was finished.


And here is the finished product. Tuning will have to wait till my antenna mount and SWR tuner arrive.


After all that, I topped off my front diff with some Lucas oil to replace what spilled out last weekend, replaced my supercharger belt, and then gave her a bath. It was a good day.

 

I finally finished the CB install. BAMF Antenna mount arrived as did my 4' Firestick. The 3' that I had did give me enough height about the roof. I spliced the power into the 12v outlet.


And grounded the radio here.

 

Here are some pictures of the recent trip to Eagle Lakes.