I3uller's '14 AC Glamp Mobile

2014 Tacoma V6 Access Cab 4x4 TRD Off Road 6 Spd Manual

Current as of 8 July 2018








MODS:

Exterior:

-Derped badges, grill, bumper
-ARE CX shell w/ sliding windoors, roof tracks, LED strips and dome, auto LED switches on windows.
-Prinsu Design cap rack w/ prototype rear basket
-Thule Force Alpine roof box
-NATO Fuel/Water Cans
-Bushwhacker Pocket Style Flares

Armor:
-Pelfrybilt Aluminum Front Bumper with single hoop
-Pelfrybilt HC Rear Bumper with Swingout, NATO Can carrier, and fold down table
-4x Innovations Sliders

Suspension:
-Icon 2.5 Extended Travel Remote Reservoir CDCV coilovers w/ 700 # Icon springs
(650 # Icon springs removed)
-Icon 2.0 Remote Reservoir Rear Shocks
-Total Chaos Uniball Upper Control Arms
-OME Nitrocharger front shocks (removed)
-OME 885 coils (removed)
-OME Dakar leaf pack
-OME Add a leaf
-Wheeler's Super Bumps
-Wheeler's U-Bolt Flip

Lighting:
-Rigid SRQ backup LEDs
-Black Oak 20 inch single row LED bar
-Black Oak Fog Pod LEDs
-LED Map lights
-LED Dome lights
-LED Headlight bulbs
-LED Fog bulbs
-LED Rear plate bulbs
-Kustom54 retrofits w/ Bi-Xenon HIDs


Interior:
-Rear seat delete
-Rear headrest delete
-Bed Rug bed liner
-Salex organizers Center Console Organizer
-Custom home made bed organizer/sleeping platform

Wheels and Tires:
-SCS F5 Jet Black 16x8 3.5 BS
-Falken MT/01 315/75r16
-Cooper ST Maxx 255/85r16 (Removed)

Electrical
-Blue Sea Fuse Panel
-TJM Stealth 9000 Winch w/ cutoff


It all started with a Ford Ranger. It served me well and was a perfect college truck to get me to the places I wanted while (mostly) getting me back again. I am a big rock climber among other outdoor adventure sports so I needed a vehicle I could take out into nowhere, comfortably sleep in, and get back again. I had always wanted a Tacoma and after researching for a long time I finally found it. Finding an Access Cab in a manual was one of the hardest things for me and once I decided on Pyrite and in 4x4 TRD Off Road, it made the search even harder. I ended up finding one in the entire country in Oregon. I had no intentions of doing much modification but then I found TW and all is lost.


Original ad for the truck. I bought it over the phone and arranged for a truck transport several thousand miles to where I am currently living in southern Alabama.


The day it showed up, chrome and everything.


First things first was to get rid of all the chrome. I don't like chrome in general and though black on Pyrite looks really good. Many thanks to the forums for the nice write ups on this.


All badges, front grill and rear bumper all derped up.


I photoshopped the wheels in black and loved it so more derp was on its way to find out if I really did like it in person.




Really changed the whole look of the truck and I loved it. Still do.






One of the things that really changed my mind about a truck was the camper shell I got for my Ranger. I had always wanted more room for stuff that was easily able to be locked up and once I started car camping in there it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. So getting a camper this time around was a no brainer. But my last one was a very simple one. This one I wanted to be made for sleeping in and using as a driveable tent. I went full on with carpet lining, bed rug liner inside, LED strips above each sliding windoor and a LED dome light as well all on automatic switches when you open the windows. I am happy.


I'll add some more pictures of the bed setup later but here you can see the carpet setup with the bed rail mounted Rotopax water can.


Shortly after getting the shell on I contacted Zach of Prinsu Designs and we started chatting about getting a rack for my shell for an upcoming roadtrip. He was developing a sort of half bucket type modular add on piece for the racks and offered one to me free of charge for testing it out. Zach is great people and I highly recommend him and his product.


Took a few short camping trips and everything worked great.


Not long after I had a few weeks of time off so I ordered some Rotopax fuel cans, a Thule roof box and decided to trek across the country and visit a few of my favorite places.




This was an interesting road with stock flex about 35 miles into the backcountry from Escalante, Utah.










Christmas mod.



The stock height of the truck always bothered me and I wanted to finally dive into something that would get me some more ability off road and a better ride so I went with the full OME setup listed at the top. After trying an alignment I found I needed to go with some UCA's and those are on order. Looks a little bit funny still without the proper tire size on there but those are also coming soon.


This is right after installation and the rears hadn't settled at all.



Current as of 3/14. Tires and wheels coming soon as well as the UCAs. Heavily considering some ICON coilovers and rear shocks as well. We will see where it goes in the future!

3/28 Icon fronts are in. There was nothing really wrong with the OME setup but I noticed that they were just not as refined as I would have liked. Over some bumps they would rocket to full extension and shake the whole truck and when it came to bumps I just felt like it wasn't much of an improvement over the stock suspension. After getting just the fronts in on the Icon it was an enormous difference. Truck corners amazingly well on the street and off road the front just floats. It's a very interesting experience getting to feel the Icon fronts with the OME rears. At speed on trails there is a very noticeable difference between the smooth Icons in the front versus the OME in back. I would highly suggest to anyone to just save up and go Icon, I couldn't be happier with it. Still waiting on selling the old front setup to fund some tires now. Likely looking at ST Maxx 255/85/16.







4/2 Changed out the old TRD decal





Current as of 4/9

Went with the 255/85/16 ST Maxx and I'm pretty happy with them so far. The shop that mounted them took off a bunch of the plasti-dip around the edge (which I was expecting) but also managed to gouge the hell out of three of my wheels and break one of my TPMS's. 237 bucks to replace the TPMS and I'm getting a quote on how much to fix the wheels....definitely getting the shop to cover all of it. They also did my alignment and I'm not convinced it's right. They said it's 0 and 0 on camber and toe and 2.4 on caster but it seems a bit wobbly still. Best shop ever...anyways the tires are on and look amazing. No road noise at all over stock and aren't rougher riding at all. There is a noticeable difference with handling because of the wider sidewall I think but nothing that is unbearable.








BEFORE with 265/70/16 stock Rugged Trails at the wear bars:



AFTER:



Need to get some more real photos of it soon.

A lot of stuff has happened since I last updated...been lazy.

Got the Pelfrybilt rear swingout bumper in after months of waiting haha worth the wait. Only complaint I have is that the swingout mount could be a bit more stout, it tends to flex around a bit. To their credit they did say they would be sending out gussets to weld on and strengthen the mount. Looking forward to that. Sorry for the crap photos, I'll be taking some better ones within the week.


Also got some 4x Innovations sliders on right afterwards. Bad photo of them but oh well. More will come.


Then the latest project that took a few days to get done was my storage/sleeping platform. More work is needed on it for sure, needs to be cleaned up and I want to carpet it to match the rest of the back. The center section sits on rails and can be easily pulled out allowing the two wheel well boxes to also easily be pulled out so the whole system is removable. I didn't really have any idea what I was doing with all this cabinetry stuff so it's pretty amateur hour but it turned out alright all things considered. Very overbuilt so it shouldn't be breaking anytime soon. All the top doors are accessible from the windoors so there isn't even a need to open the rear gate. Was much more complicated to design and build than I anticipated though haha good learning process. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask. Total cost was about 125 bucks for materials.


Perfect fit for the first aid kit. Whoo!


Added a memory foam mattress topper today. Might have to get a little more cushion underneath too but we'll see.




Got the Rigid SRQ reverse lights installed today. These things are SO much better than the stock reverse lights. Bonus, if someone is tailgating me I can turn them on and blind people.




Hard to see but below is looking at my rear view mirror with stock reverse lights.



And the new Rigid lights




Front bumper is on order so I went out and found a little road down to the sound here in Washington. Probably the last photos before the bumper goes on.



Finally got around to finishing up the sleeping platform in the back. I had never done any woodworking like this or carpeting/upholstery either so the entire thing was a learning experience and I definitely would have done some things differently if I was to start all over. But for about 250 bucks and a few weekends of work I can't complain. Suits my needs and I learned a lot. Looking forward to testing it out this weekend!


Got the Blue Sea 12 box in. Happy to keep all the wiring clean and safe. Had to replace the stock positive cable from the starter as well but got it all done and astonishingly it worked the first time haha



Off with the standard rear and on with the HC rear. Same flavor just HC. I will add to everyone else's testament that chopping away at sheet metal was absolutely terrifying.



Added some bushwhacker fender flares and a TJM Stealth 9000 winch. Also finally took some photos of the front with the Pelfrybilt bumper.





Finally got back from an Afghanistan deployment and got around to getting a few things done after some significant distraction with this 80 percent lower pistol thing I made:



Added a leaf to the rear and replaced the 650 pound springs up front with 700s to balance out all the extra weight. Added Wheeler's superbumps and a U bolt flip while I was at it. Gained back a solid inch plus of lift from that alone and it rides much better now. No photos from that but I'm very happy I finally got around to that.

Then I finally got some retrofits in. Got a killer deal from Kustom54 lighting while I was in Afghanistan and I have to say this is one of my favorite mods both from a practical light output standpoint as well as the aesthetic. He makes a great product and stands by it, the couple questions I had about them he answered quick and helped me out.



Got the SCS F5 wheels on and am more than happy with them. I always thought the 255/85s on my stock 16s felt like they underslung the truck and looked super weird and felt super tippy. Got the 3.5 backspaced 16s and it drives much much more stable and looks great.











Feb 2018

With the awful gas mileage and getting tired of putting a ton of highway miles on the truck not using it for what I want, I decided to go with a daily driver mod. Picked up a 2014 WRX Hatchback and I'm pretty dang happy with it. Quit the shocking difference in performance coming from the truck. Ridiculously fast and handles like crazy and it still get's good gas mileage. Plus this means I'll have no issues going up to 35's now...

 

I see an RTT in your future Welcome and good looking truck

 

Oh roof top tent. Ya know I've thought about them but I really like how nice it is in the back. That's why I got the Thule, it can carry most of the stuff I normally put in my bed. Also thanks for the help with the suspension PM's! Decided to go with the OME, great suspension, just need to get some new UCA's to align it right and it'll be pretty great.

 

I like where you're going with this! I'll be following! Do you notice much of a decrease in MPG with the hardware on the roof?

 

You have a long bed so its better for you but I slept twice in the back of mine and decided it would be worth it, especially for winter camping. Are you looking for uniball or ball joint UCA's?

 

Not at all actually. I was worried about the roof box causing a decrease in MPG and a bunch of wind noise but because it's mounted back on the shell the wind flow from the windshield goes right up over it and it doesn't make any difference at all.

 

With the long bed I can sleep very comfortably back there and I'm 6'4. Even with my girlfriend back there with me it's really comfortable. And ball joints. Don't want the added maintenance and squeak of uniballs and I really don't think that extra tiny bit of travel will make much difference for me even if I get Icons down the road.

 

Yeah I bet thats nice, im 6'2 and the first time I slept in the bed I had the tailgate up and curled up, second time I had it down. I just feel more comfortable sleeping 7ft in the air away from animals that come across camp at night.

Honestly i don't know what squeak people have with uniballs, mine are silent. I think as long as you keep them greased up they will be quiet. The extra $$$ for them is the only downside in my opinion. Don't go with Light Racing UCA's, many people say they have them and have never had a problem but a lot also say they needed new ball joints after one trip. Supposedly LR fixed the problem but this is how I thought of it, If im spending that much money I want a guarantee they won't go bad quickly, so the extra money for my piece of mind is worth it.

 

Yea I'm eyeballing the Camburg Moog ball joint UCA's right now. I just feel like all I read about is squeaking uniballs and always having to keep them clean and lube them...just seems like more work than they're worth for me.

 

Go for what you decide, but Ive never really cleaned my uniballs yet, just greased them once when i put them on about a month ago. Been wheeling a few times and love them.

 

Truck looks sweet man. It's turning out really nice. I know exactly what you mean about finding a AC Pyrite mica. Took me a few months to find the exact model and options I wanted. Any more info on that hard shell like make/model and options. Keep it up.

Nate

 

Looks like a good start. You have come to the right place to spend all your money on an awesome truck. I love my 2014 4x4 trd offroad.

 

I had a very specific idea of what kind of Tacoma I wanted and it turned out that there happened to be 1 in the whole country like what I wanted. Had to ship it but hey, it's exactly what I wanted. The hard shell is an ARE CX series. I got it with the sliding front window, sliding windoors option, LED strips over each windoor and an LED dome light by the rear hatch. All the LED's have auto switches that turn on when you open any windows. I'm extremely happy with the hard shell so far. Spent more than a few nights in it already and coupled with the carpet option and the bed rug for the bottom it's great.

 

Ended up ordering the TC uniball UCA's with Icons. Should be here in about 4 days. I am very excited to get it all on and see what it can do.

 

you'll love them

 

Sweet setup

 

Nice build man! Truck looks great!
Love that color scheme!

 

Let us know how they do after taking them off some sweet jumps.

 

Got some photos of the new suspension setup. Alignment is spot on and man does the front feel so much better. Corners way better on the street and soaks up bumps really well. Took it down a really crappy construction road and it just floated over it.







Now I have to choose wheels and I honestly can not decide which size to get. I'm thinking 285 75 A/T but I would likely have to do a cab mount chop and I'd like to avoid that. 275 75 would probably be perfect but it doesn't exist haha any suggestions from you guys? I would like something decent on mileage and roads but with off road capability. Something balanced that would fill in the huge wheel well space currently here.

 

255/80/17

Edit: 255/85/16