Driving Cross Country in my Tacoma

Hi All,

In two weeks I will be embarking on a cross country road trip in my 13 tacoma. Will be heading from the East coast all the way to San Diego and back, hitting up many spots in between. It will be a 3 week long trip with my only for sure stops being some national parks (grand canyon, arches, yosemite, yellowstone) and spending a couple of days in Denver.

My point in posting this is to see if any of you guys have any experience doing this and/or tips/tricks to make my trip go better. My plan is to sleep in the cab (have a double cab) and keep my supplies in the bed. I installed a pop and lock locking tailgate handle to keep my stuff safe while on the road.

I plan on bringing some extra motor oil and antifreeze. Any other fluids i should bring?
Going to take the usual type supplies: Flashlight, multi-tool, solar phone charger, power bank, 1st aid kit, blanket, sleeping bag, gas can, LED camping lights (solar), tow straps, ratchet straps, backpack (the one with the water pouch), cooler, atlas, GPS, and some other stuff that escapes me at the moment as I don't have my list on hand.

So, has anyone done this in their Tacoma before? What was great about it? or bad about it? Any lesson learned that you wish you knew before the trip?

Thanks for reading and will appreciate any feedback...

 

unless you are a midget... sleeping in the back is going to SUCK.

Id recommend a small easy to setup tent you can just pop up where you want, or sleep in the bed of the truck.

As far as supplies, Unless you have ever needed fluids in the past for the truck, i wouldnt bother. Worst case you will already have drinking water that you can fill the radiator with.

 

I've done it several times in a 1st Gen. It would have been cramped if I would have slept in the truck. I cant say there was anything earthshattering I learned. I just wished I would have visited a few more places during the trips but time being what it is you have to pick and choose.

Have fun.

Edit: Bring a paper road atlas. I know this is the digital age but batteries die, etc.

 

I am not a midget and I do understand sleeping in the cab is way less then ideal. I thought about sleeping in the bed of truck but would feel as bit unsafe being back there. I feel like being locked in the cab would offer me a safer sleeping experience.

Sleeping is going to be my biggest issue, I am not a great sleeper in normal circumstances so sleeping on the road will prove to be difficult i think.

A trucker I work with, suggested sleeping at the big truck stops, as that is where he usually felt the safest.

 

Sounds like fun time !!!!

Should be comfortable sleeping in the cab as it's a double cab . Heck I'm 6'4" and I used to sleep comfortably in my 68 M38A1 Jeep

 

I guess it depends on where you are stopping to sleep. Does your truck have a shell on it?

 

Me and my wife did 12,500 miles over 40 days last summer in my ‘07 DCSB. No problems at all with the truck but I did pick up 10-12 nails/screws along the way.

I have a nice small air compressor that connects to the battery (not cig lighter!) and a good tire plug kit. That proved to be invaluable. We slept in on a crude sleeping platform I built the day before we left, camper shell on the back. Kept supplies under platform, left sleeping bags, yoga mats, and pillows set up on top.

Side note- I’m 5’9”, my wife is 5’0”, we slept in the back under the shell- it wasn’t super comfy with two back there but we made it work.

I brought tools, didn’t need them, brought extra oil and antifreeze, didn’t need any of that either.

We hit a lot of national parks along with a good majority of Route 66. We both quit good paying jobs to do it, and knowing what I know now, I’d do it all again. The trip was life changing.

Also hit Schnebly Hill Road in Sedona, AZ. Only thing non-stock about my truck is 265’s, it was slow but the views are breathtaking and it was totally worth it.

We used a paper atlas in conjunction with Google maps on our phones. The Atlas was used a LOT.

Bring a good phone charger, make sure 4x4 works properly, make sure you have good wipers.

 

Hit the road, Jack and post pics!

 

And a detailed printed road atlas will help plan out a route much more easily than one can do it online.

The best part of a road trip is taking the backroads IMO.

 

3 weeks there and back? Sounds like a rushed tiring trip. Can you add a week or 2 to the itinerary.

 

You shouldn't need to bring fluids unless you are constantly going to be off the beaten path or if your truck has leaks. You will always be within some distance of an AutoZone or WalMart or whatever.

 

I would definitely invest in a shell for such a trip.

 

A five gallon water container or two.

 

This^

I went from GA. to WA. State one time in four days, very little stopping and long days behind the wheel made for a tiring trip, not much seen beyond the windshield on that one.

 

I've moved across country several times in my Tacoma. Sleeping in it sucks unless you've got a shell/platform setup. As far as all the extras like tools and fluids...meh. Maybe just some form of towing/road assistance service through your auto insurance. It's cheap and doesn't take up space. I'll side with everyone else that says it sounds like a rushed trip. I've driven AL>OR in 5 days, and OR>NY in 5 days. Those were pretty full days with few sight seeing stops along the way. Having much experience in national parks, you should absolutely do it! Just don't underestimate the amount of time it will take you to travel through places like Yellowstone and the Tetons; probably other parks too. This is tourist season and there will be traffic and reduced speed limits. Just for perspective, you could easily spend a full 7 days in most of the national parks.

My strategy for lodging along the way was to be prepared to camp or get a motel/hotel room. Which ever is more attractive and available that day, do that! The west has much more opportunity to camp than places east of the MS river. Have fun, take as much time to do this trip as you possibly can. As others have indicated, you could spend MONTHS on the trip you're talking about and probably still wish you had more time.

 

This past November we did a shorter road trip. Being my first road trip I thought it was planned out very well. Didn’t find much along the trip that we should have brought and or brought and didn’t need.

Being November it was much colder than we anticipated so we found a local Walmart and bought the mr buddy little heaters. I have an rtt to sleep in and our friend slept in a tent. She was freezing and in the middle of the night slept in the cab of the truck. Said it was warmer but still froze haha

We hit Route 66, Grand Canyon, page Az, four corners, horseshoe bend, Las Vegas, and Zion.

 

Most people never get the chance to drive cross country.

Enjoy every mile of it.

 

Nothing particularly magical as far as the vehicle is concerned, assuming it's been reasonably maintained. My daughter/husband and 3 kids just went from mid Florida to an hour north of Halifax and back over a 40 day period in a Sienna with 130k on it.

More snacks and amusements for the kids than stuff for the van.

 

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. I too would love to take a longer trip but 3 weeks is the max i can get off work. I need to be in SD for a wedding, which is necessitating this trip. So that is the only thing i HAVE to be a certain place for. I will probably just do mostly driving until I get out west which is where most of the sites that interest me are and spend the free time i will have doing those things. Ideally i would spend months on the road but that is just not in the cards right now.

I do not have a shell, if i did that would be ideal for this trip, but do not want to buy one just for the trip. I am considering unbolting the back seat bottoms and leaving them at home and building a small platform for the back that went up to the back of the front seats so there was no gap there.

 

I'm a bit confused by why sleeping in your truck bed would be unsafe? It would seem to be similarly safe to sleeping in a tent, which is almost entirely safe.

If you're consistently staying at campgrounds and national parks, I wouldn't hesitate to lay a sleeping bag on the ground next to the truck and snooze away under the stars. Same goes for finding dispersed camping on a forest road- just plop a sleeping bag down and stow your food a good ways downwind.

Don't stay at a truck stop. The American West is far too beautiful for you to waste your time with lot lizards under sodium lamps. Get the hell out into the boonies!