Ovrlandtaco's build

Been on Tacoma World for a while now and decided it's about time I make a build thread.
So here it goes.

2006 Tacoma TRD Offroad 4x4
Double Cab
Short Bed

Armor:

• RCI sliders with kick out
• Plan on Bamf single hoop front bumper
• Plan on dual swingout high clearance rear
• Plan on full skids

Lighting:

• Baja Designs S2 Pro work scene lights for side lighting
• Baja Designs S2 Pro work scene flush mount lights for reverse lights
• Baja Designs amber SAE fogs
• 4wdking 40" Amazon lightbar
• Tacomabeast projector headlights
• Lux lights as bed lights and engine bay lights

Suspension/Tires/Wheels:

• Icon Vehicle Dynamics stage 4 system
• Icon RXT multi rate leaf pack set on option 3
• BFG KO2 285/70/17
• Fuel Throttle wheels

Engine:

• ARB Safari Snorkel

Misc Exterior:

• CVT Mt.Shasta extended RTT
• Relentless fabrication bed bars
• Hi-lift extreme 48" jack
• ARB twin air compressor
• Frontrunner outfitters roof rack
• x2 Pelican 1750 long rifle cases
• Maxtrax mk2

Interior:

• Blue gauge cluster light swap
• Led interior lights
• Blue ridge overland gear passenger seat molle panel

Comms:

• Yaesu FTM-400xd
• Larsen glass mount antenna

I'm sure I am probably forgetting some stuff but I can fix that later.

So I got the truck the summer of 2016 right before I turned 16. The truck was in Oklahoma so it was driven down to texas to my grandparents where we would pick it up and road trip that summer to Cali so we could ship it back to Guam. First things first had to put some new tires on it, bed bars and a rooftop tent.It finally made it to Guam and knew I needed to start building it out over the next couple of years before I headed off to college. At the time I owned my own lawn care business which I had since I was 10 years old. I took care of over 30 lawns and had one employee, and living in Guam it is summer year-round. So while other kids my age were out partying or hanging out on the weekends, I was busting my butt so I could build my dream rig. The first mod on Guam was the frontrunner roof rack.pretty much 3 days later my dad convinced me to get a pelican case for the rack and I found one at the hardware store on the island.
Then I saw a sale on Icon suspension around Thanksgiving and knew I had to hop on it so I ordered the stage 4 system. If I were to do it again I would have gotten the stage 5 with the cdcv.
The truck stayed like that for a while so it was pretty much just my work truck and used to haul camping gear for my Boy Scout Troop. Funny how when your family has two trucks y'all are always voluntold to haul the gear. But have to say mine and my dad's truck look good next to each other.
I was getting tired of the chrome headlights but didn't want to spend the money to buy retrofit lights. So instead I did the BHLM and looked really good.

At the same time I was tired of the amber gauge cluster so swapped to blue LEDs.

This was about the point the build slowed down and stayed the same for about a year. Then I saw there was another Safari snorkel group buy going on and after nearly participating in the last one but my dad talking me out of it and being bummed I didn't get one for about a year I decided I'm not missing out on it again so went ahead and got one.

Somewhere along this timeline, I added Baja designs s2 pros to the rack and bumper along with a SPOD touch screen. I wanted to know how bright the lights were so I drove a friend to a cliffside and dropped him off, drove about 3.2 miles away and he said he could see the lights. So I was pleased, I could also now see when going in reverse since I tapped them into my reverse lights.

My senior year in high school I didn't do to much to the truck even though I wanted to, all I added was maxtrax and a Yaesu ham radio. I figured I would add a few last-minute things before I headed off to college when we moved back to the mainland. Before I left the Island I had to get a few photos with at the time was the only other overland kind of set up on the Island. None other than @TX_Taco88 himself. It was so cool to finally see his set up in person up close and hear his plans for it. I highly recommend y'all go look at and follow his build as I know he's got some awesome things planned for it and can't wait!

A few days after those photos the truck was on a boat back to the mainland, along with my mom's 4runner. We road tripped and camped for about 4 days camping along the way to Wyoming for my freshman school orientation then it was go time as we had to get to our new home asap so we just stayed in hotels.
I then knew I needed to really hustle and get a few more last-minute items before heading off to college. So after talking to @Matmo215 (who has another sweet build I highly suggest checking out) also had two cases up top and after seeing how much he liked having two, the second pelican case came, hi-lift, and panavice mount for the radio and a few other miscellaneous items for the truck.
Then I headed off to college, made a bunch of new friends, and met some other people with rad Toyotas. All my friends nicknamed my truck the "Tactical Tacoma" and would always introduce me to people as the kid with the black Tacoma that is decked out. I had so many people that would get so excited that they have finally met me and would geek out over my Tacoma, Id always offer them a ride in it and got to see the joy it brought to other people. I loved every minute of that being able to bring joy to other people by just doing that. I got super lucky and a kid two dorm rooms down had the only other real built Toyota on campus.


I loved it so much, being so close to so many outdoor activities and finally being able to use the Tacoma for what I was building it for, for so many years. Spring break was coming up and there was no way I was staying in my dorm for a week, so a friend and I made plans for a 3 day trip to MOAB but he had to cancel when we found out we were getting two weeks and his parents wanted to come home. So I decided I would drive down to Texas to see my grandparents for a week then go on a solo week-long road trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado on my way back up to Wyoming. Well... Corona messed that all up and I found out my school was moving online and I needed to get my stuff from my dorm ASAP. So my grandfather and I took his truck and travel trailer to Wyoming to get my stuff and spent several days camping on the way back to Texas. I was able to stay at their place until I finished the semester. Well, I went ahead and bought a lightbar and headlights and that's where we are now.

 

reserved

 

You have done a great job! Awesome truck!

 

Thank you! I've worked super hard to be able to build it out to where it is today! Still have a lot of plans for it.

 

Subd to the mediocre build

 

Oh, I see how it is then.

 

Almost finished with my flag mount for the 4th of July. I just need to paint the pole black and it will be all complete.

 

Epic build, but it appears something is missing...

 

You're right! I’d absolutely love to get one to store gear during winter time but I have to pay for college so not a whole lot of funds left for truck mods.

 

Fair enough! Check out our ambassador program as we are always looking for great people to work with and that is just about the only avenue available for discounted products. https://decked.com/pages/become-an-ambassador

 

Thank you! I will definitely look into it.

 

Well yesterday I took everything out of the Tacoma to re-organize my gear. I was getting tired of thinking what I needed was on one side of the truck and it end up being on the other side. I decided I would dedicate each of the Pelican cases for a specific purpose. The driver side case would be for tools and other miscellaneous items and the passenger case would only be for recovery gear. I like this system better so I’m recovery situations I’m not walking from one side of the truck to the other. I then worked on packing my gear behind the rear seats. In the end I’m happy with the new layout of everything and it’s in a much more efficient system now.

 

A little update on the Taco. I went down to Toytec the other day to have the Icon RXT multi rate leaf pack set on option 3 put on the truck and had my shocks taken off to get rebuilt. I’m currently on Toytec loaner suspension but the truck is lifted taller now. Sitting at 3” of lift over stock in the front and 2” of lift over stock in the rear with one inch of rake. I’m really liking the red contrast of the coil overs though.

 

Did a short day and a half road trip out to The Great Sand Dunes National Park with my roommates and friends over the weekend. It was a blast, truck got a lot better gas Mileage than I was expecting and woke up to a nice campground with mountains in the background!