My 2015 asada taco build

I’ll start with how I got here. I’ve built a few different vehicles over the past 14 years, the latest was a 2014 Jeep Wrangler jku. I had an awesome time with the Jeep. The problem was while it wheeled amazing it sucked to drive on the highway for any distance and it was a pain to haul my dirtbikes around with. I ride dirtbikes almost every week so I finally decided I needed to make a change. I’d been keeping my eye open for a 2nd gen Tacoma for quite some time. Almost two months ago one popped up not far from home that was exactly what I was looking for. A 2015 trd offroad with 62k miles. I decided that was the day I was moving on from the Jeep.

 

Heres the Tacoma the day I got it home.

 

I have literally no patience so the first night I ordered front and rear Bilstein 5100’s and an Icon 1.5” expansion pack for the rear. A few days later after a lot of research I ordered a hooke roof rack as well as some raceline 16” wheels with some toyo open country m/t’s 285/70/16. I quickly installed all that in preparation for a big trip I was about to set out on.

 

Big difference already. I’ve been trying to decide on wheels, but wasn’t sure about bronze on the silver truck but that looks awesome

 

With all that knocked out I was ready to set off on my trip. A solo six day 2k mile round trip through 6 states. California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada. The point of the trip was a motorcycle race in Kellogg Idaho. My cousin recently moved to Oregon so I met up with him the first night and camped on the river in Oregon. The next day I continued through Washington and into Idaho. I stayed there for a few days for the motorcycle race. I then drove through Montana, back into Idaho then into Nevada where I stayed the night. The last day was the rest of the way through Nevada and back to the Bay Area. The trip was awesome and the truck worked flawlessly. I did decided to throw my overload springs back on when I got home to help with the extra weight of the dirtbikes. It also leveled the truck out a bit as well.

 

Thank you. It was funny every time I showed some one a picture of the wheels while I was waiting on them they were like oh you got that color? Lol it actually made me start second guessing it but when they showed up and got thrown on I was super happy it turned out exactly how I was thinking.

 

Not long after I got home my kB voodoo bed rack showed up. I got it all mounted up and threw my tent on it. I also got my awning mounted up which I am going to swap out for a shorter one. This awning was on my Jeep and is just to long for this current set up. Having the rtt on the bed rack is really nice. I’m able to pull into my garage and put the tent on and off with a pulley. My Jeep was way to tall which made this a difficult task.

 

Yeah I’m in the same boat, I’ve been going back and forth between that, gunmetal and just matte black. Black always looks good but it’s kinda boring at this point.

What circuit you racing? Looks like a scramble

 

Exactly, you can’t go wrong with black but it’s becoming very common. This was a “extreme enduro”. It was at a ski resort it was really tough lol. Only 16 guys finished and I was NOT one of them haha.

 

Next up was the snorkel. I had to do it to fit in right? Haha the install was pretty easy. The stencil ended up being off a decent amount but I made it work. Could have just been installer error too haha seems like a lot of people get nervous to cut into the fender but it’s really not a big deal and I’ve never been one to be scared to cut some stuff up.

 

I have also gotten a water port set up in the bed as well as built a removable platform for the back seats which my fridge is mounted on as of now. Next up will most likely be bumpers but I’ve gotta give the wallet a rest at least for a few months. I’ve gotten the truck set up to be very capable of what I need out of it at the moment. I’m all set up for a 5 day trip which includes 150 miles of dirt next month so I’m sure that will help a lot to show me what I’m going to need for the truck next.

 

Nice truck and nice bike mate, love the wheel color. Makes me miss the aggressive look of my mud terrains.

 

badass.

 

Thank you. I was very pleasantly surprised by how quite these tires are, I was considering going with the a/t for a minute.

 

thanks dude

 

I almost forgot. I gave it a shot pulling the boat. It actually did great. I have a f150 single cab v6 work truck I usually pull it with and the taco did just as good.

 

Without the front valance on the hooke rack is there any wind noise in the cab or it it pretty quiet?

 

There is wind noise without it for sure, with it in you have to get the angle right so it doesn’t whistle too but with it on and angles right there’s hardly any wind noise

 

How come you decided to take it off? Just didnt like the look?

 

Looking at the pics you have to have some rubbing with them?