Driving a Tacoma around the world

Good question!

Pounds

Truck empty stock 4,270

Permanent truck additions - build 200

Camper with options 1,480

Norweld Flatbed instead of pickup box 100

Us, this is mostly me, my wife is skinny 350

Other – equipment & clothing 100

Minimum total payload 6,500

Maximum payload (1) 6,975


Max vehicle rating 5,600

Max combined axle rating 6,190


(1) Provisions in pounds – food 50, water 175, fuel 250 475 lbs

There inlies the Tacoma challenge. Call it on average 1,200 lbs over GVWR. The way I see it there are three risks; Mechanical, Regulatory, Legal.

Mechanical
This is what I would call the risk of the excess weight causing truck breakdowns. Bottom line is I think the truck can handle it with my modifications and with driving like a retiree (that sounds scary). Since the truck and tow up to 6500 pounds I don’t think the engine, transmission, clutch, brakes, or drivetrain will be strained. With upgrading the tires and suspension, it leaves the axles and the frame whether they can handle the additional weight. Since the 2019 TRD sport now comes with the same rear axle (8.75”) as the Hilux, which have payloads ranging from 2,000 lbs to 2,200 lbs I feel like that’s covered. It leaves the frame as the final unresolved question. When the bed is off I will look at reinforcing the C channel frame aft of the rear axle.

Regulatory
This is the risk of authorities causing us hassle for being above the GVWR. I’ve heard of authorities in the province of British Columbia and Australia checking vehicles weights. But I doubt they will do it to a foreigner. There is a tiny risk in Europe but if there’s a problem I will simply put it on a flatbed and ship it out of country and drive around the offending country. I’m not too worried about this.

Legal
I call this the risk of being sued if we were involved in some motor vehicle accident and somehow the weight of the vehicle was implicated. There’s been several forums threads talking about this with lawyers involved. Even in the United States it is not clear that there is a big risk. Has no one to point to a specific incident. I will be driving conservatively.

 

The gear shelf above the his head is a nice addition. But that LC has more headroom than my tacoma, so a shelf would probably block my view like my rear view mirror does.

 

Eek, do not listen to spraying fix fix a flat in the tyres. It will dry out in there and. Be useless especially in Africa with all. The airing up and down you will do. Plus if you get a puncture and go to get it properly repaired most shops will not touch it. Carry the can with you. This is not a mountain bike tyre with thin walled tyres getting punctures all the time. Plus that shit will/can f up the pressure sensors.

 

Congrats on making your selection! We've also been leaning towards the FWC Flatbed Fleet or a slide in on a flat bed.. the idea being we would add some good sized external storage on the flatbed for our recovery gear and other things that we don't want to store in the camper or cab. This has us once again reconsidering the truck with the added weight of the flatbed option. Thanks for posting your breakdown of the weights and risks.. helpful considerations.

 

Yes congrats on your selection! Yes thanks, the breakdown of the weights was useful. It seems so permanent when you go with the flatbed, I like the idea of having the ability to take the camper out and drive the pick up but I can imagine there are a lot of pros to having that added space without really changing the overall size that much. Looking forward to hearing why you choose this over the other options you were considering. Thanks for taking the time to put this on paper it's very useful.

 

Personally i’ve Never had a vehicle weighed in BC, have heard of one and he was being an idiot. The easiest way avoid this is to avoid doing anything illegal/stupid in the areas you are in to avoid drawing attention to yourself. Ie, have mud flaps, don’t have your wheels sticking out past fender andnd drive normal and courteous. Usually they leave us alone, be an idiot and they will do everythingthey can to find something wrong with your vehicle and ticket you for it, which is what happened to the guy I know.

 

We chose the Fleet flatbed due to the interior room being night and day difference between that of the Fleet slide-in model. One of us can be cooking dinner while the other one is completely away while the other is sitting at the rear table. While we plan to be outside as much as possible there will be bugs and extremely curious locals so we need a place to go and sit by ourselves.

The removal of the flatbed model is only a bit more complicated to take off than a slide-in model. Both of them use camper jacks to lift either camper. Remounting it requires lining up of bolts which would be more nit picky than a slide-in which use turnbuckles and carabiners. For long-distance, bumpy travel I would prefer a more secure bolt mounted system. We will not be carrying jacks, too heavy.

The storage boxes below the flatbed should be very useful as they are supposed to be dust proof but we must be mindful of the weight especially in the rear boxes.

Our Hi lift jack and the maxx tracs will still need to be mounted on the rear of the camper using the camper jack plates. There is an option of a sliding drawer 4’ in length in front of the rear license plate but it weighs close to 50 pounds and can only store items that are only about 4, maybe 5 inches high.

 

Good to know!! Thanks

 

Awesome opportunity, stoked to follow.

Thoughts on an anchor for the winch? West coast has a lot of trees, especially on public lands (ie Nat'l Forests). Not sure about Africa. You can always bury a deadman, but a sand anchor might save a ton of time in the sloppy stuff. I have a set of TredPro (Maxtrax), but I'd go 4 in the sketchy parts of the world. Also, I carry 2 spare tires when I'm in places like Death Valley or any other sharp rock geology. Driving offroad on your last tire is puckering.

Closer to stock suspension geometry is ideal, and improved bumps and limiting devices should be incorporated to take the abuse limits.

Looks like a ton of good conversation is happening here! Makes my weekend trips feel realllllyyyy small

 

I am glad to see I am not the only one doing this! I will also be getting a 4WC but likely the Swift model, not the flatbed... I look forward to seeing how your build progresses and sharing insights!
-GrandiOdyssey

 

I wasn't planning on bringing a dedicated anchor. I was going to bury my Hi lift in the desert when stuck in the sand. Most of the time when it's muddy it seems like it there will be trees around, hopefully!

I'm hoping that new load range E tires will allow me to avoid flats. Also will be carrying an ARB plug kit.

This truck will be definitely a different type of build because it will be constantly carrying a very heavy load over very long distances but not at a high rate of speed. IMHO, most high end suspensions are designed primarily for high speed desert racing which is not really what I need or want to do

 

Cool! I think a Swift would be great for one person or 2 people for a few weeks a year. The flatbed definitely adds about 400 pounds over the Swift.

 

I have a buddy who retired from the Navy and did this very thing. He bought a truck with a diesel motor though for the very reasons a lot of people have mentioned about availability. He is still traveling the world and they go wherever they want. He surfs and his lady does yoga. It's an absolute dream to do a trip like that.

 

Awesome! I’m hoping we can live off of $2,000 to $4,000 a month. My son who’s single and is quite frugle could do it for half of that.

 

Something else you might want to consider is joining couchsurfing.com I was reading the blog of another overlander and it was one of the sites that he recommended. I joined and put the city that I live in in British Columbia (100K people) and was shocked to see there was over 500 people from the area that had joined. You wouldn't need to sleep on the couch but if you're in a city it might be nice to park in the driveway, use the shower etc., meet new people and get some informed recommendations as to the best places to eat etc., something to think about.

 

Agree! The spatial difference between the flatbed and slide-in model is a game changer for daily, long-term use.

We are debating on whether or not we want to carry the jacks as well... what are your thoughts regarding how you'll remove the camper on the road, if necessary?

Also.. don't recall if you mentioned this already -- are you carrying one or two spare tires?

 

That is a great idea! I would love to be able to take a real shower some place

 

We will not be carrying the jacks as they weigh too much. If I have to take it off then we will Jerry rig something; a bracket put on the jack location that can be lifted with a forklift?? We will be carrying only one spare but all 5 tires will be brand new, 10 ply rated. We will also carry a tire repair kit and a twin compressor. Once all 5 tires are down to a third left (hopefully after 45,000 miles), we'll replace all 5 with new.

 

When choosing your tire size make sure you account for global availability of that size. Carrying an extra spare is weight and money put to good use.

 

Just an idea for removal of the camper would be to use your trucks jack (IE floor jack) to raise the whole back of the truck and to place the footing at required height and then lower the truck which would seprate the camper from the truck.