Driving a Tacoma around the world

Holy fuck you need a personal fact checker.

Op-
Don’t bother with a “helix”. Nobody really likes the new versions of the hilux anyway. Don’t bother with turbo, you can find gasoline anywhere. I drove from Poland to Mongolia. MONGOLIA. Gasoline everywhere.

 

Yes, we'll being watching the conditions in northern Sudan (staying well away from the troubled south) as we get closer, either you blast through it in a convey or you ferry around it. I think tinted glass in the truck is needed

 

In a lot of places having dark tinted glass is just going to isolate you from the locals, might make you seem unapproachable , unfriendly. They can still see in the windshield if someone was planning something, I wouldn't get too paranoid, the whole point of this trip is to see the world and meet people.
Once your traveling you will meet people, get updates on areas to avoid.

 

Point taken. Definitely The Road Chose Me’s attitude towards traveling in Africa. Some people have said to put bars on your windows not thinking that’s a good idea

 

On a note with driving in west Africa. What they tend to do on the roads is instead of fixing them, they dig the obstacles out leaving pits In the road. Not a problem in the dry season come the wet season and you're driving through deep deep holes. I’ll see if i can find some of my old videos of driving in our local roads.

Also the clay is super high plastic, believe it is called laterite if I am
not mistaken. Same clays exist pretty much all along the equator. Anyways this clay doesn't absorb a lot of water easily and the top becomes like slim/oil on a firm surface, think of the old tv shows with bannanas and people
slipping and sliding. Everyone says maxtracs always, well they don’t work in this type of clay, they will shoot our from under the tyre and become a projectile. Definietely carry them, but make sure you have a damn good winch, avoid smitty bilt, get a warn or something better with synthetic line, if it breaks you can replace it with steal. You don’t want that sucker failing. My smitty bilt is dead after one water crossing and it suppose to be waterproof. Broke my own rule and went cheap.

Don’t bother with a snatch strap, nobody will know how to recover you properly with one or very few. Well you can carry one but the majority of the vehicles will not be suitable to hauling you out.

Make sure you have a snorkel, and your diff, tranny, etc are all routed to a breather. At the top if the engine or somewherr. Yes in africa you will be crossing deep rivers/ponds on the main roads.

Oh and timber bridges will be your daily fix. Yes get out and look at them. Lot of them and surprisingly well built. But a lot are in desperate need of repair. Around mining areas the roads will be amazing as they are maintain them for escape and evasion, one of my jobs was to drive the roads and do reports on what needed to be addressed and how we would go fix them.

West africa is where i cut my 4wd teeth. We had to take offroad courses to drive from ex british military drivers. Was a lot of fun, really learned what a vehicle is capable of especially in stock form, do some well thought out mods and a truck can go From Capable to being Nearly on stoppable. Really miss it to be honest. I’d love to go back if mining hadn’t taken a dump.

Looking for a second vehicle? Two Tacos has to be better than one!!

Enjoy the trip!!!!i’ll be sending you a pm with contact details. If you ever need a hand with anything i’ll do what I can. Also look up mining operations by expat companies (not the chinese ones) in the areas you will be visiting, most of the mines will help out.

Steve

 

Thanks for your comments. I Appreciate your experience and thank you for your service.

 

My vehicle goal for a trip like this would be to keep it as stock, simple and non-descript as possible. I would use a diesel land cruiser personally, but a Tacoma will definitely be a lot more comfortable. I had a Honda van stolen from our garage when we were in South Africa, because imported vehicles are targeted much more often.

However, sounds like you're committed to the Tacoma! So in that case, a comfortable, fast and easy to use camper is essential and priority #1. There isn't much space in a Tacoma, and to me none of the current options are very good for full time living. But an AT summit is probably the most suited. Then just do a light weight interior.

I would put the fridge in the cab to have access to food and drinks while driving. I would also weld a safe to the frame somewhere hidden for valuables and important documents. I wouldn't bother with tint, and would definitely avoid having a bunch of fancy electronics hanging all over the dash etc. Remove the rear seats and make the space useable for what you want to keep safest and most accessible while driving.

Long range fuel tank would be high on my list as well. Dual tanks would be great but hard to implement.

Sliders are a good idea, but front and rear bumpers are not necessary in my opinion. Skids would be smart as well and you could probably get away with aluminum. Suspension i would keep simple. For tires I would go with a very common A/T in a very common size. 265/75r16 or 265/70r17 would be a good choice. Ko2's, as much as I hate them, you could probably find anywhere.

If you're doing a winch, I would just go with a hidden mount in the stock bumper. Lighter and less attention. A Warn would be good. An awning with bug screen would be a great addition that I don't think would cause any unwanted attention.

Dual batteries are a must for sure. Keep all of your accessories running off that. Lights, fridge, etc.

There are a lot more great ideas that you will find, but I think the goals should be to keep it simple. It's always tempting to have a cool looking truck with all the gear and everything (X Overland comes to mind as people who have all the gear and rarely actually use it...) but in the end, the people who actually do these trips do it in old land cruisers, Land Rovers, vans or whatever. You don't want to invest a tonne of money into a vehicle that gets stolen. Everything should be somewhat easily replaced. Whatever you do, I hope it's amazing and you stay safe! I think the Tacoma will drive around the world without a problem.

 

Nice post Steve! Sorry had to add some pics

I totally get the timber bridges. Here's just one of what i crossed in Botswana, and this country is doing really well! They all have posted 10 ton limit, no kidding, these things were a pucker in loaded down Hilux. that's why i don't want anything bigger, the wet crossings around these bridges are deep, 2-5' scary. Don't know if they have a firm bottom and I'll be damned to walk them to find out with crocs and hippos potentially awaiting.

And yes I saw the huge holes seemingly dug into the roads, i was there in the dry season. i wondered how they got to be so big. the crazy thing is they were dug deep enough at an agle to almost tip you over if you put one tire in the wrong spot. You aren't going to see that in the wet season.




Sometimes you have to just go for it. this one was easy only 18". I love the no speeding on the bridge sign, like who's crazy enough to do that??


Finally right before getting stuck in deep sand. It was safe (shallow sand wise; who knows if there's critters laying in the bushes) to snap a photo of an old elephant skull. I aired down but was dragging the diffs, skidplates, and spare tire (which itself had 12-13" of clearance). One of the reasons why i was thinking of running 33" tires.


Definitely will be using/carrying snorkel/maxtracs and a Warn with a normal hook. I agree that the fancy tree saver straps, while appropriate here, after all I'm a forester, don't make sense in the 3rd world. Didn't know the tranny has a breather, but if so will definitely be using one.

Be happy to chat with you. Much safer with two Tacos!

 

What's your plan for building? I see you are in Oregon, mule expedition is in Seattle area and carries a lot of the stuff you're looking for. Aluminum flat beds, four wheel campers, cbi gear, etc. Excellent experience for advice and work for things like diffs.

 

Haven't read yet, but good luck and have fun, that's my goal as well, so lemme know how it goes!

 

I’m tempted to do it myself but have limited skills. I’m at the southern end of Oregon so it’s a long ways up there. Definitely need to find a shop I can trust

 

Payload is a key factor, I completely agree. Overlanding experience from the military is extremely relevant. Thank you for your service, as well.

I'd also suggest considering options for water storage. Whether it is a waterport or something much more basic, easily carrying several liters of water might be useful.

 

I'm just saying it doesnt hurt to do some short runs into medium to find out what works and issues you run into. Maybe a weekend here 4 days there a week to glacier national or maybe a 2 week to alaska. Work out some kinks get some miles in. Maybe show off your rig.

 

Sounds like a great trip!

Consider a PullPal self recovery land anchor too, it comes in handy where there are no other options for your winch, and the ground is too hard to bury your spare as a anchor.

Cheers!

 

Problem with Pullpall is the room they take up. Remember he is going with a four wheel camper. Better option would be a deadman anchor. As it is light and able to be packed up small.

Bumpers, well i would get steel bumpers, your going to be driving the 3rd work countries (cities), and it is not uncommon for cars to bump into you and push/etc, it is not like north america or many of the other countries, it is a very unique driving situation, can be a lot of fun.

Bull bar sorry roo bar(for kangaroos) on the front of the truck is probably a must for me when driving in dusk/dawn conditions when wildlife is all over the place. I've clipped one or two deer with my arb bull bar here in northern AB, and nothing happened to the truck/bumper in the last couple of months, up here it is not uncommon to be driving an an entire herd decide to cross the hwy at the sometime and your in the middle of a bunch of deer at 50mph.

 

six pages deep & no ones talked about firearms, weaponry or survival skills!!!

 

Probably cause it’s pretty hard to drive around through multiple foreign countries armed to the teeth legally, especially in Europe and Australia. It’s presumed he’d probably have some knives and such in the vehicle. Anyways, thanks for bringing it up!

Sounds like an awesome trip OP, good luck and have fun!

 

That will guarantee you will get killed. Pulling a gun on the bandidos is the last act of a fool.

The majority of humans on this planet are good people. The bad ones typically just want your money. Much better to lose a few dollars than start a gun fight, that will likely end with you dead, or in a foreign prison.

If you are the kind of paranoid person who needs to pack heat to go for a stroll, international travel is probably not a good fit.

 

15 mpg with that setup? Good luck!

 

I might consider getting a 4 cyl Tacoma for this, weight be damned.

That little workhorse of an engine (2TR-FE) has been put in all kinds of shit from trucks to buses to SUVs to delivery vans all over the world for 15+ years now. I have no idea what the parts network for the newer 3.5L V6 is but I bet most countries on Earth have mechanics that have worked on the Toyota 2TR and it's as proven as can be.