BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

May 4, 2017: Fins & Things (continued)





Stopping for lunch.

 

I like the concerned girl looking up at my truck lol



Cool pic with Mr Crawler





With the front suspension loaded it seems the axle could have been designed forward a bit. No wonder 2nd and now 3rd gens have front tire to body mount interference



Got my very first low oil pressure warning light! Too cool!



And that was it for Fins & Things!

 

May 4, 2017: Vendor Night

Back in camp while setting up for the Vendor show Marlin and I helped a FJ40 who was having alternator issues. This doesn't exactly count as a rescue but I was proud of my little baby boy Tacoma



Ready to setup and meet a ton of people!



It was so cool having my World's First Dual Case'd 3rd Gen Tacoma in our booth.



Feeling better and better for the future of this Tacoma!

 

May 5, 2017: Flat Iron Mesa

Friday morning we ran Flat Iron Mesa. The event has a Trail Rating system that I forgot to mention. The prior day's trail, Fins & Things, is rated a 4 out of 10 and Flat Iron Mesa is rated a 5/10. Like the day before, I had never wheeled Flat Iron Mesa so I was eager to check it out. After gaining a lot of confidence from the TacoBox, I was eager for something more difficult.

Amazing weather, amazing turnout, gonna be another amazing day out wheel'n!





There is about a 20 min drive out of town for this trail. Here I am cruising on the highway with my nice 12 PSI tire warning lights on

 

The trail started out pretty mellow



Nice views here and there





After a while we finally got into some slickrock

 

May 5, 2017: Flat Iron Mesa (continued)

This was a tough line because you drop in from a sharp right turn. The reduced driver visibility of the Tacoma not helping here.







It was fate that brought these two AccessCabs together and fate both registered for the same two back-to-back trails



This was a nice little climb. I struggled at first but then found my footing by Crawling it very slowly in Dual low range.

 

On this drop off I was super tempted to run it hard driver because I love how the Crawler holds the vehicle back without using the brakes.



But because I'm still open-open, if one tire on each axle is able to unload, then you can still slide forward despite the engine maintaining a steady idle in gear.



That factor combined with the fact the front bumper sticks out a mile concerned me enough to stay a bit passenger.



It ended up being a very basic drop-off.

 

May 5, 2017: Flat Iron Mesa (continued)

This climb was pretty gnarly for open-open. I could have taken a simple dirt-road line to the far right but took the hard line up the middle.



I couldn't climb it without lockers so I shifted the T/Case in High Range and the TacoBox (Crawl Box) into Low to use our 4.7:1 T/Case ratio, and in 8th gear (2nd gear + single 4.70) I was able to get enough tire speed to trigger the Auto-LSD computer. This was the first time using the Auto-LSD. It did it's job, only had to bounce a few times and once I felt traction I let up in a smooth enough fashion to not lose forward momentum and was able to do the rest with just the single Marlin Crawler Crawl Box. Having lower than stock gearing seemed to help here.



This spot however was pretty nasty and I learned something I never knew before.



Because Auto-LSD worked well above, I decided to run the same gear here: 8th gear with my Marlin Crawler in Low and T/Case in 4-High. It was a struggle. I revved the crap out of the truck and was spinning the tires so much that I was literally getting white smoke from my tires. (Such a dumb system Toyota.) Our Trail Leader was spotting me and he asked what gear I was in.

Rear tire stuffs nicely.



According to our trail leader, whose 200-series Land Cruiser is equipped with ATRAC, the computer runs a more aggressive VVT-i programming in Low Range. (I am very curious to know if this is true for the Auto-LSD system.)



So I shifted out of the Marlin Crawler and put the T/C into Low Range and grabbed 11th gear (2nd gear + stock t/case). It still was not a pretty sight and at a higher final drive ratio I had more tire smoke and more bouncing. I probably should have given up but the Trail Leader was excited to see me make it and gave me the go ahead to keep trying



Whew! Finally made it! Sorry slickrock and sorry BFG tires. Man oh man this is so not my style of wheeling. I won't go out again without getting the ARBs plumbed in that's for dang sure.

 

Next there was an optional long steady, sort of a narrow v-grove climb that lead up to a steep and nasty ledge/waterfall. At the base of the waterfall there was a ditch-out route so I went up as high as I could and then bailed. A few people in our group tried the waterfall and only one guy made it. I'd love to return here next year and give it a go!

Here I am near the top of the v-grove section.



Here is a pic of Marlin in the Crawler Truck approaching the waterfall. Marlin couldn't get up it despite multiple attempts. I think his tires were over inflated for this sort of obstacle plus he carries by far more dead weight recovery equipment than anyone I know. I'll have to conquer it next year in the Taco for him



Stopping for lunch



Nice day for some wheel'n!

 

May 5, 2017: Flat Iron Mesa (continued)

At this point it was already close to 3pm and I had a mission that I was on and needed to get up to northern Utah for business. So a few of us took a fireroad back to the highway (including Marlin who needed to get back for the annual Raffle).

Man I jammed down that fire road. I almost hit redline in 6th gear stock low range a few times. When you open up this V6 and rev it out it's no joke; That sucka can move.

Here we are airing back up. I am using ARB's new Maximum twin-compressor which works "decently well". It isn't as good as a York and certainly not as good as a RV2 (which I've got mounted to my 3RZ in my Hilux). But for an electric compressor it did well for my lil 33" tires. (I'll be installing a similar setup with an under-the-bed aluminum air tank for on-board air + ARBs.)



Love that Moab red dust!



And that was it for me and Cruise Moab 2017!

 

May 5, 2017: Road trip up to northern Utah

Back at camp loaded up and ready to take off



This truck is such a delight to drive on the open road





I hit 10K miles! I'd normally be very excited but... man an entire year passed and it hit me that after such a strong start I only put in 10K my first year. I got a lot of catching up to do

 

May 15, 2017: Rubicon Preparation I

After Cruise Moab it was time to get serious. Thinking of what I'd like to get done before Rubithon, which has been postponed to the 3rd weekend of July thanks to an excellent amount of snow this year, I decided to get the most time consuming item checked off the list first.

On the road again!



This time heading to a customer's house who is a good family friend of ours and incredibly gifted with auto body and paint. He has built some of the cleanest rigs I've ever seen and has a great attention to detail, something Marlin and subsequently myself pride ourselves on. I can do many things well mechanical but I'm not so good when it comes to body repair or finishing. I leave that to the professionals and this customer is certainly as professional as they come!

Finally arrived!



Hmmm that looks pretty good

 

I hope those lines are cuts for bobbing the bed and not for painting

 

1st dual case 3rd Gen 1st bobbed you're making me feel lazy @BigMike

 

You guys got it! @kybluejeep I have much catching up to do with even the basic stuff Things will start coming together soon enough

May 18, 2017: Rubicon Preparation I: Bobbing the bed (continued)

The man I have doing the bob is also named Bob and three days later Bob (and his son helping) got to work on bobbing the bed!

First step was to remove the bedsides. I think it's pretty neat how the bed is designed in this respect.

Most trim and misc parts removed from bed





Bob had to move the bed back to access front bolts

 

May 22, 2017: Rubicon Preparation I: Bobbing the bed (continued)

Because I'll immediately drive the truck home, I'll need my rear license plate. One option is to place it in the back window but beings I'll need to do some custom work to the rear bumper anyway, Bob had the good idea of just leaving the frame at it's original length with the rear bumper attached for the drive home. It'll surely look funny but that is a great idea. Now I'll be able to modify the frame on my own and also know what modifications will be needed with whatever aftermarket rear bumper I go with.

So a few days later Bob sent me these pics of how they will trim the bottom trailing edge of the SMC bed (sheet-molded composite) to clear the frame rails.






May 23, 2017: Rubicon Preparation I: Bobbing the bed (continued)

The next day they had the bed sides off





Very cool!

 

Bob Labla's Bed Bob Job

 

I'm just hazarding a guess at how this is going to go:

1) Buy 3rd gen tacoma
2) Add crawler to drive-train
3) Add lockers
4) Remove back of truck
5) Remove front of truck
6) Replace middle of truck with hilux body

 

this is awesome