Driving a Tacoma around the world

Hey Round The World, I don't know if you have watched much of 4Xoverland on YouTube but you might check out his channel. This guy literally wrote the book on 4wheeling and Overlanding. Lots of interesting content on his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/4xforum

 

I left my radar detector on in my 12 year old 911 and killed the battery and since the battery is under the hood and the hood only opens with a battery-operated release I was stuck. A tow truck driver used a lithium battery charger that fit in his front pocket and jump started it though the fuse box which is porsche’s backup location.

Very impressed with lithium batteries!

 

There’s the taco flaties!

 

I have not! Thank you. Aussies are so into overlanding

 

x2

definitely check him out

he’s also got a podcast if you are into that (Andrew st Pierre white)

 

Haha! I'm watching one now

 

He’s actually English, but lives in Australia now. Formerly he lived in South Africa. If you meet him, be sure to call him Australian.

 

Interesting, he thinks the Tacoma (and the new Hilux) is only lightly engineered for overlanding. Loves Toyota in general though.

 

He’s got a few cobwebs in his noggin at times, but yes, a land cruiser has a greater payload capacity than most trucks it’s size.

 

This youtube channel does a lot of interesting product comparisons. Here's his on jump packs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN8A2nIMUWA

 

i love it! I just ordered the NOCO model that he tested that was the second worst, couldn’t even start the car. So I ordered Audew as well and will send back the NOCO. Thanks!! It weighs about a pound

 

Never could figure out why Toyota put an inverter in the cab of the truck but not an AC receptacle. So I figured why not add one as it will probably come in handy charging a laptop, toothbrush, whatever while the truck is running.

Many thanks to @Grossomotto for his ideas on exactly what receptacle to use as well as how to do this on the manual transmission truck as the AT version is a bit different.

This thread was used to allow my outlet to have 400 watts of output even when the truck is running, overwise you’ll be limited to 100 watts. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-ac-outlet-in-cab-and-400w-anytime.505598/page-5

Here’s another good thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-ac-outlet-in-cab-400-watt-anytime-mod.322320/

 

Awesome! Looks like factory OEM

 

You lead the charge dude! I merely followed along

 

@Round the world

Have you considered steelies?

 

Thanks for asking. I did in fact try quite hard to find steel wheels. I liked the idea of pounding a bent rim back into shape with a hammer. But couldn't find any in the right size. I thought of OEM spare wheels but they say for temporary use only. The hard part was finding the right size that would fit over the brake calipers.

The other consideration is that steel wheels are quite a bit heavier than aluminum. I'm worrying about rotational mass affecting driveability.

In the end I went with a American Racing Wheel that has been highly rated, doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and weighs the same as the OEM rims. One highly rated rim I considered was going to cost $450 apiece and that's just ridiculous.

One good thing is that the Tacoma spacing/stud pattern is the same as the Toyota Hilux so if I break one then I should be able to find a similar rim fairly easily, I hope

 

Recently finished the install of Hellwig front and rear anti-sway bars. Took about three hours to figure it out/ install as the installation guide is not super clear. But the results are great. I now have little to no sway on corners. I’d highly recommend doing this if you’re carrying a bunch of weight. Cost was about $500 for both front and rear. Almost thinking that I don’t need the Hellwig front bar. Before there was a bit of side-to-side motion and now it’s eerily flat around corners.



And now the completed rear sway bar installed.



Basically the install is to make sure that the bar to the left of my hand is parallel to the ground and the vertical shaft is perpendicular to the ground.

Notice the 10 leaf Deaver springs in the background

THe front install was a bit more complicated because I had to remove the front splash guard, two bolt-on frame extensions, and the existing front sway bar.


Here’s the frame member that needed to be removed. Unfortunately the slightly larger sway bar was rubbing on the frame member where my finger is pointing so I had to remove it and grind on the sway bar.


Some bolts were a little challenging


Overall super happy with the sway bars but did add about 20 lbs of weight.

 

Recently added a Matt Gecko hood light. Took about an hour to install. Looks super clean and lights up the engine compartment really well.


It evenly lights up the entire engine compartment. With it mounted immediately behind the rubber gasket on the bottom part of the hood there’s no glare in your eyes.


I permanently mounted the supplied switch in the plastic cover. Works slick. I highly recommend the light


Here I’m holding the supplied fuse, my middle finger is pointing to the ground. mounted switch is off further to the right in the middle of the black plastic

 

Did some wheeling today with @Taco Roofer and @gemiv19 and had a great time in the hills west of Medford Oregon, snow and all.

Going through a small but pretty deep mud hole with the rear locker engaged.


This was the crux of the trail and i slipped in and was hung up for a couple of minutes. Thought both lockers would allow me to just crawl out gracefully but no had to give it a bit of gas.

Was partially dragging my rear diff in the dirt

After using the gas to power out i popped what i thought was the first of two pretty tall wheelies. The front driver tire felt like it must have been 18” off of the ground, just a bit of a pucker! This photo by @Taco Roofer is showing just the tail end of the wheelie.

Here’s @gemiv19 showing how it’s supposed to be done.


A good day.

 

Honestly you were getting closer to a 24" wheelie haha! I was saying nice job but thinking oh sh*t! Lol

Great build bud, can't wait to see what the future holds for you and your rig!