college kid tow rig

2009 TRD Sport DCLB
As it sits today


Mods:

Suspension:
Bds 2.5" strut spacer removed
bilstein 6112 on 5th notch
light racing uca
bilstein 5125 rear
Bds 2" block
Firestone ride rite air bag

Drivetrain:
4.30 gears
front arb locker
rear arb locker

Armor
Pelfreybilt aluminum single hoop
4xinnovation ifs, mid, rear skids
4xinnovations rear bumper
4xinnovations bolt on slider

Recovery
Warn vr10

Lighting
Rigid 20" sr midnight edition in bumper
rigid duallys ( with amber covers) as fog lights
rigid dually flush mount reverse lights


Communication:

uniden 520 cb
2-3' firestiks

Audio:

Alpine IVE530 radio
Alpine type r 8" sub
Alpine MRv500 amp

Cargo:

4xinnovations bed rack

MISC:

Prodigy P2 brake controller
cobra radar detector
mossy oak steering wheel cover
mossy oak seat covers

Future:

maybe a sunroof.
roof rack

Dreams

Tundra 5.7 swap

The day my dad and I picked up the truck in Michigan. 2009 Trd sport DCLB with 35k miles (April 25,2015)



Bought the tacoma to replace my 2003 Sport Trac. The ford was a good truck but in the end i really needed the bigger bed but my dad didnt want to get me a full size. Knowing no fullsize the tacoma was a no brainer. My dad had a 4runner that was bulletproof so i knew what to expect from a tacoma. I was okay with no full size as the parking spots at school are pretty small. I knew when i got it that i would want to lift but being college knew that a nice coilover setup wasn't in the cards. Plus the main purpose of the truck isn't to off road. I use my truck as a tow vehicle all summer with our boat and jet ski.

The first weekend i was back from school i used the tacoma tow the jet ski which really wasnt much of anything.





first time i had it off pavement but it was just overflow parking at a local concert.(no i dont count this as actually off road)




I always hated not being able to see around my boat very well with my old truck so the first real mod i did was pro efx mirrors



Next up was communications i have two 3' firestiks bolted onto the inside of the bed with a uniden 520 cb radio.



For my birthday my parents bought me an alpine ive530 radio and paid for my subwoofer and amp to be moved from my old truck to the Tacoma ( no pictures of that)

Hauled around 500lbs of freshly cut wood. It sagged the truck around 1.5" which annoyed me. Trucks sagging and riding nose high is one of my pet peeves.


Took a roadtrip from my house in des moines iowa to the suburbs of chicago to visit a friend from school. Towed the jet ski all the way and still got 17mpg. Got there and figured out her dad also drove a tacoma. His was a 2010 sport dcsb.


I had a little trouble deciding what to do for a lift kit. Money no issue i would have been running a full coilover setup with dakar leafs. But being in college compromises had to be made. A little over two months of owning the truck I'd already put another 5k miles on it and the stock tires were about ready to go. Knowing my dad would buy tires for me i decided i would just do a spacer lift BUT its just till i am out of school. I ended up going with the Bds 2.5" kit and used their 2" block in the back. Took me an afternoon to get everything installed but it all went well and i was very happy with the result.


wheels took me a while to decide on but i ended up choosing ultra gauntlet 237 in 17x9 with a -12 offset. The tires are 285/70r17 goodyear duratracs which were a no brainer for me. My grandpa worked for goodyear for 30 years so i always put goodyear tires on my trucks.

.
Right off the bat everything rubbed pretty bad so i trimmed everything the following day and got rid of most of it. Just rubs if turned and on an incline ( like my driveway)



just a pic of my college roommate and his dogs when he was in town. We rode in the back with them to make sure they didnt try anything while back there


was in uhaul getting a ball put on a new drop hitch and came out to this guy parked next to me.


Also installed firestone air bags that day but didn't take any pictures that day as i was hurrying to finish while it was light out.

Had a real busy finish to summer which included a lot of towing and miles on the truck.
Pulled my boat about 2 hours each way to a different lake where a lot of family meets every year. Got 12mpg at 73mph in 4th.



Had to tow this 16' trailer full of furniture to kansas to help move my older sister into her new apartment at grad school. This trip was an adventure to say the least. I had planned on using my 6" drop hitch but when i went to pick up the trailer saw that the coupler was for a 2 5/16 so i had to use another hitch which was only a 2" drop. This left the trailer riding nose high. Out of the 650 mile trip only about 100 mile of trip was it not raining and extremly windy. There were high wind warnings all through kansas and missouri that day which killed my mpg. I ended up filling up 6 times that trip and ended with a low of 7.15 and a high of 8.49. Truck never touched 5th gear all day. Rode mostly in 4th but dropped into 3rd on almost all inclines. Was doing 65+ all day to make the window my sister had to check in. Truck could maintain the speed but it definitely worked its ass off on the steeper hills. Stopping the trailer was no issue as i have a p2 brake controller.




Had a pretty good excuse to wash the truck after all the driving last week when my parents brought home a 2015 grand cherokee overland. That thing is definitely nice but a little too many bells and whistles for me.




Just a random moose pic with my buddies cummins

 

If you put a diesel engine in it. I bet the mileage would improve when hauling.

 

Id love to have a diesel but with only 44k on the 4.0 i dont have a good enough reason to attempt something like that.

 

Went on a pretty easy trail today after class with my roommate


Been working all week to get the "squad" parked together at school. Funny how small the wranglers look compared to my taco

 

How does the spacer lift ride?

 

It rode a little rougher than stock right away. Nothing that i was overly concerned with, I'm used to riding in 3/4 and 1 ton trucks so a rough ride is nothing new. I didn't put new shocks on the rear yet so that could also make a big difference. It is rougher but in the end its a truck so i don't worry about it a whole lot.

 

Finally got the first snow of the year here in Iowa. To say i was impressed with how the tacoma and duratracs did would be a huge understatement. I live in an extremely hilly area and i never needed to touch 4wd, something i wouldnt have even considered last year in my old truck. Official totals were around 11" of snow. I used 2wd and just pushed the lsd button once ( had "auto lsd" lit on the dash)

 

Ordered a bumper over the weekend! Got the aluminum pelfreybilt with center hoop

 

Pelfreybilt came in early last week. Had it installed on Friday. Very happy with the results. Ill have to give my mom a big hug when i see her next as the bumper was my christmas/birthday present

 

Had a little fun out by the farm my mom grew up on.

 

After using my truck for all sorts trips over the past year I quickly realized i need more room for stuff on the truck. Ultimately i decided i wanted a bed rack over a roof rack. The big drawback to the bed rack is i hadnt seen a company that made them to work with a roll up tonneau. I got into contact with 4xinnovations and they made me a one off bed rack. I am pretty close to them so it just took a quick trip up there for some measurements of the bed and tonneau mounts and they were good to go. My initial plans for the rack are to put bike and kayak racks on it and then expand from there as money allows.

 

With all the recent flooding in northeast iowa I took my truck up to my grandmas so we could go out to the farm and see if there was any damage. All the ground off the gravel was extremely soft so we did our best to stay on the road.
z

 

Picture from the first snow storm in Iowa this year. Went out in the taco and the girlfriend brought her jeep.


Got a little festive with the rack. The lights get a lot of looks and thumbs up ( mostly from soccer moms in minivans).

 

Nice ride!
you should name your truck "the great white moose"... watch this for context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ic3xNfEP_o

 

Thanks man appreciate it. Haha thats pretty fitting! My girlfriend and roommate both love to have the mirrors up and put it in moose mode.

 

Got my christmas present from mom and dad installed. Rigid Sr 20 midnight edition. Switch from air on board.

 

This past week my dad decided to add another toyota to the family. He picked up a 2017 trd offroad premium 4runner. So far we love it! I'm pretty jealous of the power rear window and sunroof.

 

Had the opportunity to visit the farm my mom grew up on this past weekend. They only wanted one vehicle driving around though so I argued we could fit the most with mine by people standing in the bed. The bed rack actually came in really useful for people to hold onto while we were driving.

 

Nice truck

 

Thanks man