iK0NiK's 2015 TRD OR "Mostly Modest" Build

Yes, sir I do.

Here's FSR 163 (the gpx download link is right below the map):
http://gps.motionx.com/maps/9d5e23bc8ad7ae75397a1fa828ad542c

Here's Charlie's Creek:
http://gps.motionx.com/maps/a1ee515fae6e8ac73a476eaff5e90d19

Here's Tray Mountain:
http://gps.motionx.com/maps/a1ee515fae6e8ac73a476eaff5e949dd

FYI, you can connect from Tray to FSR163 very easily via Popcorn Rd. off of Hwy76. There's a small water crossing that will connect you close to the trail head. You can link all 3 trails together without having to double back on your route.

 

Thank you sir.

Next time you make a trip up north let me know. I'll make the trip up from Savannah and I know a guy with a new ZR2 who is always down for some weekend trial rides.

 

Will do! I've got quite a few guys who are also interested in a trip. Maybe we need to just collab together and plan a north GA meet/trail ride after the holidays.

 

Agreed. Make it into a weekend event. With a bunch of Tacos and 1 ZR2 lol

 

Glassy Mtn

That’s like 2 miles (as the crow flies) from my parents house.

Loving the build man. Seems like we have similar ‘end goals’ with our trucks.

Would you mind measuring how far those non kickout sliders stick off your frame at the drivers door? I’m working with Eddy on a custom set for my truck. I’m undecided at the moment on kickout or no kickout.

 

Thanks, really appreciate it! My plans changed a lot once I found Tacomaworld, but I'm loving where it's ending up.

And yeah, not a problem. So you want from the frame to the outside edge of the slider, right?

 

Yes sir!

Yea I had no idea what I’d stumble on many moons ago when I first discovered TW. I was only looking for a cheap way to fix the compass/temp thing that was dead in the 2nd gen I’d just purchased. Lots of money/mods and a passion later, I’m still here

 

Here ya go!

 

Grazie!

 

I’m in if you guys plan something. Might be heading up there Saturday.

 

Check this out if you haven't seen it yet! https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/georgia-tw-early-2019-camping-trip.582471/#post-19375924

 

Well, Talladega Traverse in the bag. Awesome trip. Got a lot of cleaning to do but had an awesome time.

Trail report inbound in the next few days.

 

Trip Report: Talladega National Forest (Alabama) 12/22/2018

Planned route: https://goo.gl/maps/J2Gx1oU9BZK2

I think it's best to preface this trail report with a shout out to SwellRunner, who sparked my interest in a trip to the Talladega National Forest. After watching his two series on his Talladega Forest trips, I reached out to him and was able to get a .gpx file of his trail ride. Once I had that, the gears started turning and a couple months later we had the trip planned.

Saturday morning, my wife and I teamed up with @taco_bach & his fiance for the journey. We met in Columbus & started out towards Talladega. Halfway there we stopped in Alexander City, AL for fuel & lunch. After getting back on the road, we arrived at the Talladega FSR600-1 trail head at the southernmost section of the forest around 1PM.

Hitting the dirt, we were surprised at the mildness of the trail. Truth be told we weren't sure what to expect, we just knew that at some point along our route we would hit some fairly difficult terrain. There were a few very small washes, but overall the first half of 600-1 is very mild. After a few miles we decided to make our first stop and enjoy the outdoors with friends and pups.






Once again on the move after our short break, we'd gained quite a bit of elevation and the views through the trees were beginning to open up. We were finally hitting something more than washboards on the trail. Again, we weren't sure all of what to expect, so we took our time and snapped pictures every chance we had for the first couple of hours worth of riding.









Continuing on, we were awarded with some really breathtaking views. The 600-1 trail is high atop the Cheaha Mountain ridge and offers some gorgeous scenery for miles away.





The remainder of 600-1 was also smooth sailing. As we started a mild descent, the pace picked up and we were able to cruise 20+mph along the service roads headed to 600-2. After crossing AL209, a couple bridges, and a train track, we were finally at the 600-2 trail head.

Less than a mile in on 600-2, progress had slowed to a crawl. We were encountering mud, switchbacks, limbs across the road, but nothing that would be challenging enough to stop us. A trail report from @BamaTaco56 mentioned that 600-2 had recently been graded, and that proved to be accurate for the most part. There were no longer 3' deep ruts and exposed pipes across the road, but weeks of rain had already started taken a toll on the trail.

Finally, after around 4 miles, we were getting to the good stuff. The trail got steeper, rocky, and rutted. With the sun tipping over towards 3PM, we were crawling through off-camber sections with slow progress.






With our wives behind the wheel, Michael and I guided & photographed this really fun stretch of 600-2. The highly eroded trail had numerous exposed rocks that required careful, slow navigation to keep the frame and diffs off of rocks. His 3rd Gen PreRunner was a spectacle to witness, showing that 33" MT's and good lines almost completely negates the need for 4WD on these off-camber trails. Despite some doubts, we were consistently amazed at how well the 2WD handled the terrain with literally no issues that a little skinny pedal motivation couldn't fix. Once through this section, 600-2 calmed down and leveled out with muddy sections being the only thing slowing us down.






As the time eased towards 430 and the sun already starting to set behind the highest hilltops we made a judgement call to stop at the first campsite we came across, as opposed to continuing into the night to our pre-planned site. Luckily, about 30 minutes before dark, we found an awesome (but wet) site under the power line to set up camp for the night. A few hotdogs, drinks, and campfire stories later, we were out for the night.






Surviving the brisk ~38* night, I was the first out of the tent with our pup, Lily, to check out the camp and plan for the day ahead. The CVT Mount Shasta proved once again to be invaluable for the cold weather camping. My wife, Lily, and I stayed warm and toasty inside the tent. Michael & his fiance had some difficulties with their ground sleeper and swore off ground camping for the rest of their lives (we'll be welcoming them to the RTT club soon!).

After breaking camp and a quick breakfast, we decided to make attempts to complete the planned loop & try to make it to DeSoto caverns later in the day.

With morale mostly high, we finished 600-2, 637, 637C without issue on smooth gravel, dodging hunters and waving at fellow Toyotas. Unfortunately the progress stopped somewhere around 4 miles from us completing the Talladega loop. The mud was getting deeper and thicker from the 2 days of previous rain. Unsure of what else was in store and not wanting to risk getting stuck in the middle of no where in thick mud, we decided to double back & take Gunters Rd. to the 600-2 trail. We finished out the day on 600-2 running the reverse route south on the descent.




After another hour of rough terrain, we finished the reverse 600-2 and stopped for a break. DeSoto wouldn't be open for another couple of hours, and wasn't pet friendly. We decided to call the trip after a huge success and instead make our way back home ahead of schedule.

After 5 hours and 70 miles worth of trails, we'd had a blast and couldn't have had a better time. The Talladega Forest was an awesome experience that we were all able to learn from. I suspect that as the rainy winter continues, the trails will only get funner and more challenging with time. We'll definitely be back.

 

Looks like you had a good time! Glad everything worked out.

 

Great trip. Love seeing the 2wds do great out there

 

Thanks man. Appreciate the help with planning and campsite locations.

It surprised the heck out of us how capable it was. Really opened my eyes to the capabilities of a good set of tires.

 

What were the rear measurements before you put on the AAL? Have you sagged much since putting the RTT on there?

 

Unfortunately I forgot to take rear measurements before we put the AAL on, but it was something around 21" - 21.5".

The 3-leaf kit doesn't help with the weight hardly at all. When I'm loaded down with camping gear and have the RTT on, I'm nose high again. The factory springs just don't like weight, and an AAL doesn't really help that problem.

I remove the RTT when not in use, so I haven't upgraded, but if you plan to leave your bed rack and RTT on full time, skip the AAL and go straight to a leaf pack. Save yourself the headache.

 

Warning: Blog Post

So not a lot of substantial updates to post, but I have been able to get a lot of maintenance items out of the way.

50k maintenance was due in November 2018. Swapped the plugs to all new Denso at 50k. The NGK / Denso combo that's installed from the factory still looked fine at 50k miles. The gap was only slightly off by .01. The Denso's looked better than the NGK's though. After the swap noticed no improvement in gas mileage or engine performance.

Also topped off coolant, swapped cabin air filter, and converted to Valvoline 5w-30 Full Synthetic at 50k. Will continue to run full synthetic from now on.

55k maintenance this week. Oil change with 5w-30 Synthetic again. Greased all 5 zerks on the driveshafts. By the way that zerk on the front shaft beside the T-case is a royal pain. Swapped to a new primary air filter, old one wasn't too clogged, just brown from 25k miles of road dust. Hope to tackle at least the rear differential oil change this weekend. Will still need to get the t-case and front diff oil changed as well.

For what it's worth, I've been able to source the cabin air filters and primary air filters for cheap on Amazon. Much cheaper than Fram and readily available:

Primary Air Filter:

$16 EPAuto GP683 (17801-0P010 / CA9683) V6 Engine Air Filter Replacement for Toyota V6 4Runner (2003-2009), FJ Cruiser (2007-2009), Tacoma (2005-2015), Tundra (2005-2011)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GGQUR1S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cabin Air Filter:

$13 EPAuto CP374 (CF10374) Cabin Air Filter includes Activated Carbon Replacement for Toyota Tacoma (2005-2021), Dodge Dart (2013-2016), Pontiac Vibe (2003-2008)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY5YMJJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


So for now, Remaining Maintenance To-Do List:

• Front / Rear / T-Case Oil Change - Done 6/2
• New wiper blades. - Done 5/29
• Secondary air filter swap. - Done 5/25
• Re-treat seat covers with UV protectant - Done 5/19

Diff Fluid Update 6/2/19:
Front / Tcase / Rear diff fluid changes completed today. Piece of cake. Dropped the 2nd skid & used a 10mm allen socket for the plugs on the front diff. 1.6qt of 75w-90. Fluid was very dark, definitely the worst of the 3. T-case was an absolute breeze, fluid was super clean. Rear was also easy, no problems at all with any of them.

Levels:
Front Diff: 1.6qt
T-Case: 1.1qt
Rear Diff: 3.1qt

Items Used:

Gaskets:

$14 GENUINE TOYOTA GASKET KIT FOR TRANSFER AND DIFFERENTIAL SERVICE

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017V4BAXI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Diff Fluid: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Te...MIkdri-pr44gIVCttkCh0IPglCEAQYASABEgK8QPD_BwE

Diff Fluid Pump: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Attwood-...MIv_Glh5v44gIVgfhkCh2pzAWAEAYYAyABEgJsW_D_BwE


Future Plans:
Also, sort of an aside mention... the Tacoma has officially been retired as a daily for me which will keep the yearly mileage down much lower and I won't have to be so concerned about trying everything in my power to maintain a good MPG rating. My near-sighted plans to hopefully be completed before the end of the year are as follows:

• Dakar Medium full leaf pack. The factory pack + Icon AAL just doesn't cut it when the truck is fully loaded with the RTT. I lose a decent bit of travel carrying that weight offroad because the rear sags so much. These will be the next major purchase for the rig.
• Goodyear Duratracs in 265/75/R16 Load C. At the end of the day, it'll really come down to what's the best deal, but the Duratrac's are at the top of my list due to their C load rating in the 16" wheel size. I'm also eyeballing the Cooper STT Pros and the Hankook Dynapro MT's. All of these tires are heavier than my current set, but I'll be maintaining the same size so hopefully MPG losses won't be overly significant.
• JBA 3.0 Caster UCA's + Raise the 6112's to the #4 lift setting. This is definitely planned for AFTER the Dakars. Depending on how high the rear sits with the new leafs, I may decide to increase 1 notch on the 6112's and go ahead with the UCA swap while I'm at it. We'll see.

 

Secondary Air Injection Filter mod complete. (~56,253 on the ODO)

SUPER simple, 5 minute mod. Requires a T25 Torx head bit & a 1" UNI (UP-107) air filter.

Pop the cover off of the pump (it just snaps off) then remove the SINGLE T25 Torx head screw from the top of the pump. Pop the top off and you've found the culprit to everyone's failure problems.



Remove the foam filter & plastic pre-filter (also just snaps off). Install and tighten the Uni filter. Re-install everything, tighten the Torx screw back down.



Pop the plastic cover back on and it's done.

UNI filter used:

$19 Uni Filter UP-107 1" Clamp-On Breather

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CJOTSA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1