Dr. Cornwallis' Poverty Gen Adventure Build and BS

So with the introduction of the 3rd gen, it is nonetheless official and I am not the proud owner of a poverty gen. I always wondered what it felt like to own a 1st gen, now I feel like I kind of know... except... The only other time I was this happy to own a 2nd gen was the day I brought it home. There is a certain attraction to owning an "old Toyota," sort of like having a really hot cougar girlfriend. Just like the truck, the girlfriend is a little older, but proven and still great looking, and definitely way better all around than those skanks in high waters, shaved heads and flat billed hats.

A little about the truck: I bought the truck new in 2012. I wanted a Spruce but there wasn't a single one in the US that was a 4x4, 6spd manual and access cab. I always liked MGM and the dealer was able to find me one up north. I thought about ordering a Spruce Mica but, my 94 ranger had just shit the bed and needed a truck sort of like, yesterday, so MGM it was. A long four days later I was picking up my first new vehicle, and probably last for a while, these things aren't cheap.

I run a small lawn care and landscaping business in addition to being a reserve firefighter and strength and conditioning coach. My truck is definitely used a lot as a truck. When I'm not working I love getting out and exploring places, so the truck needs to be able to do a lot of different things, it also can't be too extreme because it's a daily driver and work truck. While I would love to put kings in all four corners and go full retard, one it's not really in the budget and two, I see a lot of miles on the truck so rebuilding coil overs every 20k miles or so isn't really an option, it's also way over kill for what I'll be doing. I would call the truck... stock plus. It's going to be a capable adventure truck, able to take me and my lady friend where we desire at a moments notice.

As it sits now:
Weathertec floor mats
TRD Shift knob
BFG AT KO2 265-70-17

Future mods:
-All Pro 1.5in Wheel Spacers ( for now, possibly some bronze 17in Konig Countersteer Type X)
-Bilstein 5100 Shocks
-Wheelers 1.5in Progressive AAL

-Recovery Equipment
-4x Innovations rear bumper (option 2)
-ARE CX Camper Shell
-Bed Drawer system with water tank
-ARB Fridge
-ARB Compressor
-LED Lighting
-PrinSu Design roof rack
-Toyota TRD Pro Grill


This build will be slow as finances and time allow, so weel mostly BS in here about various things awesome... the outdoors, weight lifting, firefighting, overlanding, cougars, even skanks in flat bill hats have a place in this thread.

The above list may change a little, but that's the general idea. This build is supposed to be a reasonable, but quality build, it's everything I need and nothing I don't. I'd love to do a lot more and maybe one day I will, but I've had the truck for a few years now and I'm ready to get out and start using it for what I really bought it for, burning up gas seeing awesome places. In the future I'd really like to supercharge it, but it's really hard to swallow that pill. Also, with the TRD superchargers now gone and URD not offering anything, it's very dependent upon what the aftermarket comes up with.

 

The Weathertec mats were the first mod I did, a Christmas present from the parents. I will never own another vehicle without these, I should have bought them my self before I even picked up the truck.


The next thing I did is replace my stock brakes at around 45k miles. My truck tows 3k lbs of lawn equipment and trailer a few times a week and in the future will be hauling around a fair load of overlanding/camping equipment. The EBC yellowstuff pads and rotors are awesome. They're a little dirty but they stop the truck like no ones business. An easy mod worth every penny IMO.


I never liked the stock shifter much so when I found a good deal on a TRD shifter I snagged it up. It feels better, looks better and should add enough horsepower to offset the loss from the E Rated tires I was going to put on.


I wanted to go 285-70-17 but I don't have the money for a good lift yet and I also didn't want the problems associate with 285's so I opted for 265-70-17 instead. They look way better than I thought they would and I think I'll stick with this size. I want to lift the truck about 1.75 in the front and maybe 1.5 or 2 in the year as I don't want to have to mess with new UCA's and the associated problems. I love the E rated KO2's, they ridge great, do really well in the rain. A lot of people made it sound like the E rated tires would be too harsh, however I find them to ride really well. I went with the AT KO2 for it's quality, price, availability and longevity.

 

awesome pics and nice rig! what kind of camera did you use?

 

Doin werk

 

Thanks man! Being a daily driver and a work truck (lawn care at that) it can be tough keeping it clean. I'm religious about washing her at least once a week. If I wash her once a week it only takes a little over an hour. I was really busy a few months back and didn't wash for a little over a month and it took me the better part of half a day to get it looking good again. Some pics were taken with a D700, some with an older D3100. I also frequently shoot my girlfriends Canon 60D. I may actually be going to the dark side, finances permitting, my next camera may be a Canon 5DSR.

 

gotcha! I definitely need to clean my truck, it has been quite a while. What part of Florida are you in?

 

Tampa area

 

same here, you should make it out to one of our meets next time. big one was the Tamlando one back in July
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tamlando-tampa-orlando-meet-hooters-in-lakeland-fl.376097/

Tampa thread
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/where-are-all-the-tampa-bay-area-people-at.262544/page-135

 

Yea I've been wanting to make it out to a meet, just been scheduling conflicts. Hopefully next time.

 

Over the last year I've been spending a lot of time researching bed drawer/sleeping platform systems and I think I've been wrecking my brain trying to plan mine, I think the best solution is probably actually to not plan so much and just sort of let it come together as I build it a little bit at a time.

I want to keep everything modular, being able to assemble and disassemble everything in a couple hours to go between DD/work truck and adventure truck. What I'm planning to do is a dual battery system using the national Luna split charge kit. I'd like to build a small platform in place of the back seats and keep the fridge in the truck behind the drivers seat, I'll route 12V outlets to the back of the center console (for the fridge) and then I'll route a few more to the bed for the water pump, some LED lighting, small fan and for charging electronics. I'll also run some wire for the ARB compressor under the hood.

The bed drawer system is going to house one large drawer and a 30 gallon water tank with 12v pump, feeding a quick disconnect hose outlet at the rear of the bed for showering, washing dishes, drinking water etc... There will also be an on/off switch located next to the QD connection to manually turn the pump on and off.

My goal is for the bed drawer system to not only be functional but aesthetically pleasing. I'm planning on staining it black to go with the trucks colors and I'll also be picking up a router as I'd like to dovetail the drawer, and cut slots on the j side for making dividers to divide up the one large drawer for more organized storage.

This guy (http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/47516-LATEST-PROJECT-Truck-Drawers-Sleeping-Platform) on expo portal is my inspiration, my system will be modeled very closely after his.