Trekking Tacoma “Rebuild” - A 2000 Solid Axle Swapped Toyota Tacoma

THE TREKKING TACOMA
2000 Toyota Tacoma
3.4 V6



Suspension
Trail Gear Solid Axle Swap Kit C
Trail Gear 3” front springs
Trail Gear 4” rear springs
Bilstein 5100’s

Front Axle
Rock Assault Housing
Dirty30 Chromoly shafts
Six shooter knuckles
Trail Gear High Steer Kit
ARB Air Locker
4:88 gears

Rear Axle
Rock Assault housing
Trail Gear chromoly shafts
Toyota e-locker
4:88 gears

Armor
Addicted OffRoad front bumper
Trail Gear sliders
Trail Gear transfer case skid
(coming soon) Custom swingout rear bumper
Bed sliders

Wheels/Tires
37x13.50r17 Cooper STT Pros
17x9 Vision Steel wheels
Total Metal Innovations DIY beadlocks

Interior/Comms
Scion tC seats
Pioneer Bluetooth stereo
Kicker CS speakers
President Andy CB radio
TYT 9800 quadband radio
IPad mini w/ram mount

Other
Warn m8000 winch w/synthetic line
ARB Safari snorkel
Half doors​

 

This truck was built back in 2013 by Ian on Extreme4x4. Since then, it’s been passed around, daily driven, slightly neglected, and finally ended up in my hands back in 2018. Since then, I’ve done my part to fix, upgrade, replace what needs to be replaced, and wheel it hard as much as I can.

2020 is shaping up to be a fun and eventful year. I’m gonna do my best to keep things updated on here as well. For those that have social media outlets and want to follow along with the story there, the links are in my signature (or search Trekking Tacoma anywhere).

 

Half Door Build​

I had a set of half doors on my 4Runner, and never really got to use them before I traded for the Tacoma. So naturally, I had to build another set.

I picked up these doors off a buddy for $60 for the pair. Looking back, I probably should have sold these and made some money on them.


Next was time to get cutting. This was more tedious of a process than with other doors, just from the contour of the interior of the doors. Nothing in there is straight. Cut the outer skin, and lined up the inside as much as possible to make it straight. Did a pretty decent job with it.



Got some steel cut from a friend at his shop, and went to another buddies and got them bent up and welded in. Did most of the welding myself, once we got the settings set. Nothing to brag about, but it holds! 1” stitch welds all the way down then lots of grinding! Also had a few 1” steel scraps that we used to brace the inside of the doors.



Got them home and got the speakers wired back in and threw them on the truck, just to check and make sure everything was good. Good to go!



Sprayed some black on them, threw the mirrors on, and called it good! Still have a few things I need to finish on them:
- finish the inside of the doors
- cup holders
- add some rubber finish on the rough edges

After that, they’ll be good to go, but they’ve made it through one wheeling season so far with no issues. Just some fine tuning and they’ll be finished.

 

What can you tell about the exterior bed handle?
How was it mounted in the bed?

 

The “bed sliders”. Outside bar, with a bar mirrored on the inside. Cut through the the bed and connected there. Welded front and rear directly to the floor of the bed.

Originally, it was built as a full bed rack, but the PO cut it down to fit a camper top. Not a fan of that...

Eventually, when we cage it, the bars will all be redone and cut through and tied into the frame in the rear and up by the cab as well.

Best picture I have on hand to show you...

 

I remember watching Ian build this truck years ago when I was a kid

 

Yea it’s been fun to cut it up and make it mine.

 

Crawlbox?

 

Not yet. Still the factory box. Piecing together a dual case setup that will hopefully go in this year.

 

My favorite wheel/tire package I ever ran.

37” Maxxis Trepadors with 17” Black Rhino Rift Beadlocks

 

Bobbed the bed 12” and dovetailed it 11” and absolutely love how it turned out!

 

How it currently sits. Getting it prepped to go away.
35” Mickey Thompson MTZ’s with 15” wheels.

 

How do you like the 4.88s and 37s?

 

it wasn’t bad with the Automatic. If I was going to do it, I would have gone 5.29’s since it’s just a trail truck only, but I could run 65 down the highway without screaming RPMs with the 4.88’s.

 

That's one of my concerns. I have 5.29s to install but I'm concerned about losing all the freeway speed.