God Bless the Rains

Hey Tacoma World hivemind.

In came the 2016 Tacoma TRD Off-Road with Tech Package.





This is how it sits as of right now. Really the only thing I have done since delivery is plasti-dip the front grill (what were you thinking Toyota?).

The Build:

I've got about 6 months to get this all together. Really, this is my first pass at the build list. I'm absolutely open to any suggestions or critiques to end up with a better build. Below I've linked all the pieces that I am thinking to bring all together. I'm going to attach costs to all of this so if you are interested yourself you can have an idea of what putting this all together, or just part of it, would run.

The ultimate goal of all of this is a vehicle that can self-recover under normal circumstances and smash my way out of stuff in exigent circumstances.

That said, here's what I have so far:

Old Man Emu BP-51 Suspension - $3,014

ARB Summit Front Bumper - $1,444

C4 Fab Overland Series Rear Bumper with Spare Tire Mount + BSM Cutouts + Parking Sensor Cutouts + Dual Jerry Can Holder - $1,804

Rocky Road Super Sliders - $429

$130 Maxsa 20333 Heavy-Duty Escaper Buddy Traction Mats for Off-Road Mud, Sand, & Snow Vehicle Extraction and Recovery, Bendable, Unbreakable, Orange, 2 Pack

Max Trax x 2 - $250

Leer 100R - $1500ish installed

Off-Road Engineering Dual Battery System with Switch Pro 8100 - $1,098

ARB Compressor - $290

ARB Recovery Point - $240

Yet to figure out (and would love suggestions):

Winch to mount within the bumper: all I really know about these is 1.5x vehicle weight in pulling power and Warn makes good ones?

Skid Plates: Looking for good protection but not a huge amount of weight.

Maintenance Items: Any likely to break parts. Anything under 200 lbs I can get in country relatively easily after the fact but it'll have a 2-4 week lead time for it to arrive.

Tires: Good for wet, unimproved roads. Size and brand? OME Should give me 2.5 inches of lift, what can I clear with that?

Lighting: I am looking to light all directions, well, but not sure where to draw the line between $1000 light bar and $250 "pod" light.

Anything else you'd suggest?

My plan is to acquire all the pieces over the next several months and use this thread to document the challenges and the adventures to come in photo form and video. We hope you enjoy following along!

 

Excited to see where this goes; also welcome from a fellow Virginian! Congrats on your marriage!

One thing I think you didn't address is how long do you plan on being in Africa? Also, if you haven't, join ExPo. Those guys legit do this sort of thing regularly and can speak to it much better than the theoretical stuff I'm going to address below.

Some things you may want to consider are:

• While I'm sure the ARB bumper has great support in other parts of the world, it doesn't have it's own recovery points. Consider adding the ARB recovery points to your list or a different bumper that can accommodate those.
• Aluminum skids are popular to save weight but can be of questionable strength depending on who you talk to.
• Consider DOM (steel type, not brand) sliders, I have no idea what those rocky road sliders are made from.
• Consider a solar set up to keep your batteries at proper charge, our stock alternators won't cut it for deep cycles (or at least didn't in the 4runner world).
• Plan for carrying fuel?
• You should probably consider 33"s in some sort of heavy weight Mud Terrain. Check to see what sizes can easily be sourced there - that may be your driving factor.
• Maintenance items at minimum should consist of everything you need to replace a CV axle - in heavy real world use, they're probably gonna go, and in order to get to them you'll go through a lot of common tools that would be useful in other repairs.

OA

 

@Omar RVA

Thanks for your response. I've update the main post to reflect the gaps you point out but I will also address them here.

Are there any sliders / skids in particular you'd recommend?

RS

 

Most of what I've seen used around here is BudBuilt - they have a good reputation in this area and NC, but are not by far the only manufacturer. Pelfreybilt and RCI are probably some of the more popular manufacturers on this forum.

OA

 

I'll contribute to the tire discussion. I'm going to recommend you get the absolute biggest sized Goodyear wrangler Duratracs you can fit with that lift. I can attest to the duratracs being fantastic in every condition from deep mud bogs, fine grain sandy beaches, and rocky mountain roads. I've had mine in just about every condition you could throw at them and I've never had problems with grip. they're also a butter smooth tire on the pavement, I've never experience any lane wandering or steering wheel shake. compared to other mud terrain tires they are pretty quiet in my opinion. they're also tough as nails, I've had mine aired down to about 10 psi and crawled over sharp rocks, roots, and sticks and never had anything cut into them. The wildest part about these tires is I've put over 10,000 miles on them (80% on road, 20% offroad) and they are at the exact same tread depth as when I bought them. I've driven 10+ hour road trips and trekked through an entire national forest and never saw pavement for 7 days and they came through everytime and show little to no wear. You can ask people on here and they'll tell you that these things don't wear down. One thing to consider is that your vehicle, once fully outfitted, will be significantly heavier than my access cab with little gear. so you will probably see faster wear, albeit it'll probably not be an issue at all in my opinion.

also, I've had Ko2's and yes they are good when it comes to being durable, but they also wear down quicker than the duratracs and the offroad performance is no match for the duratracs. I found the Ko2's to be abysmal in any sort of mud. the tread pattern is too close and mud gets caked between the lugs and they become just about as useless as drag strip slicks in a bounty hole. The Duratracs have these little bumps in between the (further spaced apart lugs) that sling the mud, sand, rocks, and snow out as you drive and allow the tread maximum grip. the duratracs also have much bigger sidewall shoulder blocks which come in handy much more than you would think.

My 2¢

good luck with all this. Sounds like it's going to be an awesome adventure

 

No way I'd let everything ride on a 2016 Tacoma. You'd be smarter to buy another 4Runner.

 

But there is hella room in the bed and rear seats compared to an SUV? Especially if he put a hard topper on.

 

I'd be concerned about the availability of parts for a 16 anything. Plus if you are in a part of Africa without decent roads, having a new truck will stand out like a sore thumb. You're gonna get robbed.

Get a land cruiser or 4runner!

 

Good point. I hope your going to be packing man

 

Very jealous.

So following.

No real advice except don't let people on this forum make you think your truck can't handle the trip. A spare cps just in case and you won't have any other issues.

 

Which is more important, cubic inches of storage or reliability?

 

Get steel wheels; they can be abused a lot more heavily than cast aluminum (off-road and by tire shops).

 

What's the report on the third gens as far as reliability?

 

What part of Africa? I've been to quite a few places over there. The places I've been, your old 4Runner would fit in much better. We used old Land Cruisers. Like, beat all to he'll. Not because we couldn't afford better, just to fit in better.
But, if you are dead set on taking your truck, take a bunch of spare parts like CV joints, etc. I would recommend the same for a 4th gen 4runner too. I didn't see one Pep Boys or NAPA lol.

 

FUCK YEAH!

I think you are definitely on the right track.

• ARB Summit Bar should be subbed for something like a CBI or Pelfreybilt Aluminum Bumper and pair it with Aluminum skids and a Warn Zeon 10S Platinum
• CV/Axle, filters, spark plugs, fuses, All fluids and a good tool kit should be carried.
• Tires, Cooper is awesome, KO2s are a staple, go for an all AT tire in 265/75r16 or 285/75r16
• Baja Designs Lights, Replaces your fogs with their pods and put an Onyx-6 hi-power on a prinsu rack.

 

it'll go for ever, this forum just bring out the worst in people....

 

I have a friend who's doing contract work in Africa as well (Western). He built up a J200 landcruiser since there are only dirt/sand roads where he lives and he brought his family as well. I believe he's running full armor (front/rear bumper/winch/sliders), lighting, 285 BFG KO2s and OME suspension. Nothing too hardcore and it's doing well.

He has a build thread on ihatemud.com that I can point out to you if you're interested.

 

I hope you are right. But if it were me, I'd take my 4Runner.

 

There's something to love about both

 

Until the CPS fails