R09sters Kinda Overland/First Taco (learning lots of stuff) Build

Just some more pictures






Also think i'm going to get one of these

https://www.usoffroad.us/store/bumpers/tacoma-05-11-winch-mount-bumper/

 

New addition, US Offroad winch mount bumper. no winch in it yet, but i like the look, recovery options, and protection it gives. supper easy, bolted straight on.
Before

After

Not sure if i'm going to leave all that black on the front or not...might peel off the plasti-dip on the center bumper and see how that looks? Any thoughts?

 

need a new IFS skid. I like that this bumper covers even more than the TRD skid plate, so i don't need that now, but the stock IFS "skid" is really not much more than a splash guard...

 

Forgot to add this one for one of our last camping trips in Alaska...sure was sad leaving there...


then just some playing around with my phone and enjoying my truck



Took my yoda in to get checked out for the new safety recall for the rear leafs. Looks like new leafs are just a few weeks away for me, but i'll have to do my AAL again because the dealership won't put it in the pack for me. Makes sense from their point, i guess. It's still a plus because i never got the TSB done before so i was rocking the stock 2006 2+1 pack. And this time i''m going to add an All pro u-bolt flip kit. Just came in the mail this afternoon so now i'm just waiting for the dealership to get my new leaf pack.

Looking to upgrade some tires next...I'm not even close to really NEEDing new ones...but the 265/70s are starting to look a little small. Maybe if i find some cheap ill pull the trigger.

 

Where was that last camping trip at?

 

Mowdy Ranch near Colgate, Oklahoma. They do a run there every year to help raise money for supporting mustangs. they had an ultra (50k), full and half marathons, and a 10 k and 5k i think too.

 

(Those specks int he back are horses...wild horses)

see

 

Oops I meant the one in Alaska with the four wheelers

 

oh, right. That was in one of the big parking lots at Knik River. We've done the beach by the bridge quite a few times, but it was too windy that day. so we drove in a little further. more by the race track

 

Ahh I know what you mean, It looked familiar!

 

Picture dump

Just a little camping in the winter here in OK by a local airport






showing off the stance with the .75" spacers up front.


No pictures because I forgot to take them, but my wife got me a Firestone Ride-Right airbag set for Christmas. Install was pretty simple and straightforward. it doesn't sit quite as clean as on a stock leaf pack with the stock u-bolts, but I've looked under there a few times and I don't think the lower bracket will bend or anything. I also added a Daystar lower cup so that the airbags aren't actually tied to the leaf springs (keeps from tearing them if they suspension droops too much. overall pretty happy with the results. I put the minimum 5psi in there and with the tent on it rides pretty nice and keeps the butt from sagging so much when I put anything in the bed.

I'm still a little torn...I like the adjustability of the airbags, but I'm not a huge fan of the new TSB leaf pack. They are stiff while also being really low riding. Probably should have just gone with some Dakars, but I didn't tell the wife about this. Honestly this should work great for what I usually use the truck for. We'll see how it works offroad if I get a chance to go anywhere around Oklahoma, lol.

Also added an ammo box to the bed to hold my ratchet straps. pretty happy with that mod too. Pictures to follow when I remember to take any.

 

I guess I never wrote this one up. I think I have other pictures better than this, but I added some canvas flaps for the sides of my bed rack to keep snow and some water off of my gear in the back. works pretty good for snow...rain, just ok.

in hind sight I should have just used one large single piece of canvas and just bolted the tent on top of it. It would have made a better seal and honestly probably would have been less work. Maybe when I get a new rack or redo this one. (it's not very level...and really heavy) I think an aluminum tube rack would be awesome. save some weight and mpgs and avoid some rusting.


That's with the flaps down.

Flaps tied up with some 550 cord.

 

trying to decide between a brute force fab rear bumper and an all pro. any thoughts?

 

Went camping this last weekend at Red Rock Canyon





You might notice the tent is open on the opposite side from all my other pictures. Due to the way my bed rack is slanted and not level, I swapped which side the tent opened. It ended up working perfectly and now the top sits completely level and the whole set up doesn't look so goofy. I don't know why it took me so many years to think of this...but it makes me happy to look back and see it sitting level, lol.

 

Tires and Rims update! So I finally found some method NVs on sale ($10 off on Amazon). So the wife let me pull the trigger. I was going to wait until my Nittos wore out to go up a size and get some Falken Wildpeak AT3W's, but when i got to Discount Tire, they found the temporary plug i put in one of my tires and refused to swap the tires...I didn't argue much and my wife is awesome, so I got an early upgrade.

I was worried about MPGs when going to 285 tires, but I think I found a compromise. The Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 285/70/17 only weighs about 50lbs, and the Method NVs weigh 28 lbs (78ish lbs overall). The XD cranks weigh 36lbs, and nitto terra grapplers in 265/70/17 are about 41lbs (77lbs overall). Haven't had time to check mpgs, but hopefully it doesn't make a huge difference.
Clearance and rubbing:
Currently sitting on 5100's (with stock sport coils) set at 1.75" of lift.
I was also worried about how much i would have to trim, but so far (for just regular driving) it's not much. Just a little bit off of the rear, inner corner of the fender flares. I'll have to do the pinch weld smash for offroading (maybe...probably... CMC) and we'll see how much of the fender flares, etc I'll have to chop when the suspension is cycled. Hopefully 175" of lift will be enough to keep from hitting the tires on the top of the fender well at full stuff. I haven't seen many people run a medium lift like this with 285s. Also had to use some zip ties to move the front splash guard up and out of he way, but i think that will work out nicely. I also found out Method NVs don't have the cavities cut out in the back for a less than 1" spacer...so I had to remove mine and I was worried about rubbing the UCA, but that doesn't seem to be a problem! yay!. on just the short drive home the noise didn't seem to be too bad, but i didn't get to highway speed or anything.
Here's the before.


And After (I'll take some better pictures with better light tomorrow hopefully)

 

Some better pics.




Close up =D

 

Got a new trailer and a new ATV for the wifey. All loaded up and ready to go.


getting ready to play


Some paddle boarding and kayaking adventures


Took the tent off for a while because we were doing a few long road trips back to back. Needed to save some MPGs and even with the new tires, I was hitting some 18MPGs (got 21 coming down from the mountains in Colorado!)
Here's what she looks like naked, lol.


Here's a shot in Colorado. You can see some mountain goats in the background if you look.


This was all the bugs I hit on the way back from Colorado....eww...


While I had the bed rack off, I did some work on it. Sanded off some rust and touched up some spots that needed it. I chopped of some spots on the corners so I could leave my mounts for my taneau cover. When I did this I realized that it had been pushing my bedsides out a little bit. I never noticed that the bedrails come back in a bit right by the tail gate.

I also bought some "T" nuts and drilled holes to mount the bed rack to the cargo rails. Should have done this years ago. Between putting my ATV in the bed a few times between the wheel wells, and the weight of the RTT, my bedsides were pushing out a bit and I have a crack up in the driveside front corner of my bed. By securing the bedrack to the cargo rails, it pulled everything in a lot nicer. I still need to do something about that crack tho...I'll put up some pictures of the finished work on my bed rack later if I remember to take some. took quite a bit longer than it should have, but I think it turned out nice.

I'm also not totally sold on my airbags...some of the big bumps are pretty rough. I might be ditching them and going to some darkars this summer or something...

 

This was just a beautiful day before my wife and I went flying.


This was just some fun.

I was reading on someone else's page how you can drill out the rivet and take the car apart. (don't know why I didn't think of that before). But this allowed me to use my color match spray paint and make it look a bunch better. Since I had it apart, I added a bit of a lift by cutting the groove deeper where the "axel" sits, lol. And I still need some black paint to finish the headlights and touch up a few things, but it was a fun little project.

Here's a picture of my air bags (deflated in this pic). Because of my ubolt flip, the bottom plate doesn't sit as low as it should. And after looking at some other builds, I should probably get some hydraulic bump stops and maybe that will take some of the jolt out of the harder bumps and potholes.


And this is what happens when you forget to change your spark plugs at 30K and do it at 45K miles instead...not much left for sparking...the gap was sitting at max, which is good I suppose, but they are pretty eaten up, lol.

 

How do you like the US offroad bumper. I've been looking at that ilo a full bumper.

 

I like it a lot. Strong and gives you the recovery points, but it's only half the weight. It was nice and easy to install. It also wasn't as expensive as a full bumper. I'd love a Brute Force Fab front, but this was a bit more reasonable for what I do with the truck, lol. Then you don't have to completely redo your suspension.