Pongo, my 2016 TRDOR, it's life stages, and travels

Sub'd! I love the Rock Creek Overland Instagram page... you guys have some great pictures!

 

Thanks very much!

1. Yes, still running the Old Man Emu. I prefer the ride of the OME to factory. Just last week I drove my wife's 14' Trail Premium 4Runner w/KDSS about 400 miles
and was pleasantly surprised at how much I missed Pongo's ride.
2. I do still currently run the stock UCA's

Thanks for the compliment!

Thanks very much for the kind words.

 

I saw your pictures of how your HAM and phone are above the radio Maybe you mentioned it already, but how did you attach the HAM and phone bracket to the top? it looks like you drilled in? But I can't tell 100%. Thanks for having such a detailed build. It helps the rest of us who are still dreaming lol

 

Love following your build - such an awesome truck. Any chance you still have that AllPro rack? I just got a Softopper and am dying to get my hands on the AllPro rack to go over it. Talked to AllPro and they weren't going to make any until there were enough people wanting them.

 

I removed the bezel around the radio, and drilled to be able to mount it. I have since added an HF radio below it. I'll snap some pics and post them up.

I already sold it unfortunately.

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We have returned from our trip, and are getting settled back into our daily lives.


It was a blast! Every time we travel, we are fortunate enough to meet awesome people, and see amazing things.

We started out by making our way 35hrs from North Carolina to CBI Off Road Fab in Idaho Falls, ID where the 2 4runners in our team were up fitted
with their newly designed Gen 5.5 4Runner bumpers.




On the way to Idaho, we dispersed camp a couple hours outside of Denver for one night in the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest. The site was beautiful with
the mountains surrounding us, and a large stream nearby where we caught decent sized Rainbow trout. The one real negative about this site was the 2
footed animals that were in our camp at 2:15AM. Luckily my wife awoke with the sound of their truck idling, and they jumped in the waiting vehicle and
took off when we were exiting our tents. Since then, we have stopped being complacent with camp security, and have taken measures to ensure we're not
caught off guard like that again. My guess...meth heads or equivalent looking for generators or other goods of value being left out for easy pickings. We do a
pretty good job of keeping the trucks locked and anything of value not left out for sticky fingers, and they left with nothing.

I've got a ton of pics to go through, but in the meantime, I'll post some from the northern desert of Utah.

We were lucky enough to meet up with a friend who is familiar with the area, and showed us around.
We were treated to an amazingly clear night sky, where the milky way kind of blasted through the black emptiness.

 

Just a little input on wheeling with 4.88 gearing before/after:

Last year, we took our Tacoma on a 6k mile trip, where we wheeled in Idaho and Colorado.
Elevation + Steep climbs/technical trails left very little room for error as the truck struggled pretty hard fully
loaded down. Even when in low range, at elevations over 12k feet the throttle would be fully depressed and engine
RPMs would only raise to 1200-1500 RPMs when climbing from a standstill. On this engine there is almost no torque available at that point.
When encountering obstacles on the trails, this meant wheel speed was required to be able to climb over them.
I'm not a fan of hitting things at even a few MPH(or the damage/lack of precision control that is associate with said speed).

4.88s have basically eliminated that issue. The truck inspires much more off roading confidence, and it can actually make enough
power to accelerate from a stop on an incline. There are other off road related benefits that are a nice side effect of the improved
gearing, like cooler transmission fluid temps, and better engine braking on declines when off road, but the improved control itself
was worth the swap regardless of the much improved daily driving characteristics.

I like gear reduction very very much. I'm kinda spoiled after wheeling my 1st gen 4runner with a single 4.7 tcase, and plan on
going with a Marlin Crawler Tacobox Supreme like @BigMike describes here:
BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma
in his build thread on his awesome 3rd gen Tacoma(currently on 37's) setup here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bigmike’s-big-journey-new-2016-tacoma.427850/

BigMikes Taco in Telluride CO, while they were attending FJ Summit 2017

 

Ive said it before, my fav 3rd gen hands down! So sexy and you actually make that color look good! That CBI bumper helps so much too. The arb didnt look right

 

Might have to look into gears as well. I have noticed the same problem, and its a little concerning especially when there are bigger obstacles going up hill

 

Thanks for the compliment very much!! You've got a pretty sweet ride yourself.

Yeah, it was a little unnerving having to get a running start to get over some stuff that would be pie at lower elevation like us flatlanders here around 800ft. There was a
particular section I remember going up that wasn't super technical that required me keeping the throttle mashed for that was probably 100 yds long, and the truck
never got over 1500rpms. It wasn't that the cylinders were getting washed down with fuel. It just didn't have enough torque to let the torque converter do the work
it needed, and so the truck was never able to apply the power my foot was asking for.

PS. I spoke with Nitro Gears while at FJ Summit about the possibility of 5.XX gear ratios for the 3rd gen, and the answer was a NO.

 

Being in Colorado, and living in the western slope...there is no low elevation lol using sport mode and keeping it in 1st or 2nd has helped some, but I will ultimately do gears eventually.

Great build btw!

 

Thanks very much.

If I lived where you do, I would consider the regear mandatory.
Your day to day driving experience will be vastly improved.

 

I'm sure someone's already asked this but did you have to chop anything for going up to 33s?

 

Currently, the cab mount has not been chopped. I have the plates to do them, but I don't rub often enough that it is a priority for me.
Only trimming that has been done was done with a pocket knife, and very minimal to the flare only.

I am also still running factory upper control arms at this point.

 

Cause I really want to roll 33 when I come back from deployment but I'm pretty sure a cab chop would void the hell out of my warranty so I'm trying to avoid it as well

 

A cab mount chop will not effect your warranty, unless you have an issue with the cab mount itself per the Magnusun-Moss Act.
It was put into place to protect consumers from people doing not smart stuff like threatening your warranty over something
completely not related.

 

99% of the time when you move to 33s you will have to do some trimming unless you want to hear it rub when at full lock in reverse. Every suspension/wheel setup is a little bit different, but usually that is the case. It's definitely not a bad thing to plan for in terms of doing the work now vs later when it is really necessary.

 

I agree, it's good to plan for the worst.
I can tell you the individual times mine has rubbed in 54k miles with Cooper STT Pros 285/70r17s on both TRD Pro wheels and VTX Terras, and then
General Grabber X3 on the VTX Terras. So, it hasn't been often. At work, we regularly build trucks to sell new on the lot:

All of these are running Old Man Emu Nitrocharger setups(heavies) and different brands of wheels and tires, but they all are 285s(some 17s some 16s)
None have cab mount chops, none rub the cab mount, and all had stock uppers.

 

well I guess that makes me feel a little bit easier on a chop. now to just actually pull the trigger on some tires

 

I have a 3rd gen white A/C but when I get back from the desert I am trading in for a 3rd gen quicksand like the one above. That picture is eye candy for me lol. A lot of people don't like them but I actually think the ARB bumper looks really nice on the new ones. It's not the best for approach angles (compared to CBI, Pelfry, etc) but its a very clean looking stout bumper. Thanks for that

 

I wonder why those running ome don't need a mount chop but if I were to go icon, fox, or king I stand a chance of needing one.