Gwarden's MT Build - 2004 AC TRD V6 4X4

Howdy TW!

This thread will probably be fairly pic and text heavy, as I am the type to over-document.

After riding in @mtnbike247 's taco last year, I realized I needed one. This summer I managed to buy one!

After months of searching craigslist, forums, autotrader, and so on, I found an ad for a 2004 Lunar Mist AC TRD 4wd Tacoma in Central California. The asking price was under $10k and the truck had a decent amount of fresh parts. It was also a one-owner truck which (as far as I can tell after thorough searching) seems to be accident free.

TRAVEL LOG:
Pozo 2015
Pismo 2015
Soda Lake 1/9/2016
Death Valley 1/16/2016

MOD LIST:
OME Dakars (Thanks Travis!)
LR UCAs
SAW 2.0 Extended Coilovers
5100's @ 2.5 (Thanks DSM!) FOR SALE
10" 5125s (Thanks DSM!)
BPV relocate
E-brake relocate
O'Reilly extended rear brake line (S/O to my boy Wade at Poway O'Reilly)
Tepui Kukenam Sky (S/O to the guy who didn't know what a RTT is, he gave me a good deal)
Harbor Freight tools + straps (S/O to China)
Swaybar relocated to my shed
Uniden 510XL w/ Firestik 3' and 90deg folding mount
2x 18W LED work pods
Custom Bedrack (Want one? I would be willing to either sell this rack or build a new one to your specs)
15lb propane setup for grilling

FUTURE MODS:
Bumpers and Armor
12V air compressor/20lb CO2 System
110V inverter
Diff breather relocate
Bumpstops front/rear
Winch
Recovery Kit
LED lighting on 4 sides
Bluetooth capable head unit
Custom Traction Boards
GPS
Rear shock mount relocation
Ubolt Flip


MAINTENANCE LOG:
Carrier Bearing - 190K
Clutch Master/Slave - 192k
Trans/diffs fluid change - 192k
Oil Change - Mobil 1 Synthetic w/ Wix filter 192K


CURRENT 1/29/2016


The day I bought it

Cheers!

 

looking good!

 

I managed to get out and get a quick camp/wheel session in with some friends last night. We got ourselves into some rowdy wheeling in the dark and found a great campsite!

I also removed my swaybar per @mtnbike247 s reccommendation and the difference was huge. After dropping some tire pressure the truck rode much more smoothly through the chatter.

One thing I wish I had done differently would be to leave the AAL in the pack and remove the upper overload. The rear end flexes well, but it's even harsh with ~300 pounds in the back.

 

Looks good! I think with a proper bed cage and all of your accessories we'll see how that rear end still feels! Better stiff than sorry if you ask me Get any noticeable trail striping?

 

The trail stripes are coming along nicely! Nothing that won't buff out though.

One thing I will say about the dakars in their current configuration is that they can carry an ungodly amount of weight. After wheeling around at pismo with ~650lbs in the cab and ~300lbs in the bed, I have determined that extended bumps won't be doing anything for me. These springs are so progressive I don't think I would ever be able to use full uptravel beyond a snail's pace.

 

The extended bumps are to keep you from bottoming out your shocks. With a 10" shock in stock location and dakars, I'm sure you've done so already.

 

I'm fully aware of the reason for extended bumps, and I haven't bottomed them while driving yet. That said, I haven't done any "prerunning" so to speak.

I'll still be installing some extended bumps any day now for peace of mind/for when I drive the truck a little harder.

 

@mtnbike247 and I went out to our college's 4x4 club meetup and did some duning.


Picked up some SAW Racerunners

Some flex pics to show improvement over stock, along with a shot of my temporary bump stop trying its best.

 

Looks good! My truck's twin.

 

Wow, you only paid $500 for yours? What was missing?

 

It was a complete stock truck, it had a blown motor due to a major oil leak that the po ignored. Po wasn't interested in making the repairs and mentioned that he would sell it to our local pick-n-pull junk yard. Of course i couldn't let that happen! I found a low mile 3.4 from a totaled 03 prerunner from a Arizona salvage yard. Toytec lift, wheels/tires, tundra brakes, ect... came shortly after i got it up & running. It's been a fun & rewarding project.

 

Looks good! One thing I'm super jealous of is dunes. None of those around here they look like a blast.

 

@68dave You can't argue with that deal. Nice work!

@RustyVT They are a blast. It's not something you want to put your truck through every weekend (for me, anyways) but it is fun. Great practice at feeling when the tires are actually hooking up. Who needs crawl control!

 

build.

 

As it is my truck is 90% pavement princess. That 10% although a blast makes me cringe every time I go off road.

 

It's probably about time for an update, I just got back from a camping trip and the mud is still wet.

Over my winter break I installed my Light Racing UCAs and Sway Away 2.0 Extended Travel Coilovers. The install went fairly smoothly with the exception of a few missing parts, and I took care of a few random other jobs along the way.

Some thoughts on the LR UCAs:

1. They are more than strong enough. I often read that they are much weaker than a TC/Camburg/Icon etc uniball arm. While that may be true there is absolutely NO WAY one of these arms would fail before an ungusseted spindle or lower control arm would fail. Since all these components have the same consequence under failure I would imagine they all have a similar factor of safety.

2. The balljoint design is quite handy. I don't believe I have an image, but during our outing these ball joints got completely smashed with mud. We're talking several pounds of peanut butter here. If these were uniballs they would have suffered quite a bit of contamination (not that they wouldn't be able to handle it) so it was nice to have.

3. They offer quite a bit more droop than stock. This is due to the flipped balljoint orientation compared to stock as well as more articulation at the balljoint itself.

Thoughts on the SAW Racerunner 2.0s

1. These shocks are very sensitive to preload. Once I add some more weight to the truck I will be moving to a longer and firmer spring, because the top out velocity is absolutely horrendous with the current setting ~ just under a 3 inch lift.

2. The difference between these shocks and the 5100s was noticeable at speed, even with the preload cranked far too high. I will do a long winded writeup on the 5100s at some point ... long story short is I think they are vastly over hyped because the people who buy them only care about lift and not ride characteristics.

@mtnbike247 took some great shots, many of which I will now steal.

 

Very cool shots. Curious, who's the black truck?

 

@DustStorm4x4 That would be @mtnbike247

 

`Cool pics! Where did you get the extended bump stops?

 

Thanks @68dave ! I bought those bumpstops from PolyPerformance here -> http://www.polyperformance.com/Daystar-Competition-Style-Bump-Stop-with-Single-Stud

Mine are the 4.5" size and they are very soft. I sized them almost 3" longer than I needed because they compress so much. I would recommend them to anybody running a 10" shock in stock locations while they wait to relocate their shocks - they perform well at speed and when flexing.