@msoverland Taco 3.0 Expedition Build, Photos and Parts List

Watch the complete Tacoma 3.0 Build Series on YouTube >> Learn More…

The Vehicle

The vehicles we drive support every facet of our business and YouTube series. We choose the vehicles our guides use based on reliability, capability, cost effectiveness and parts availability. It’s extremely important that our vehicles meet our service standards and our trip clients’ expectations.

We’ve had the most success with mid-sized pickups for a few reasons. First, overall vehicle width is important in the East when navigating technical public roads in Vermont and sharing tracks with UTVs in southern WV. Second, the utility benefits of having a truck bed often outweigh SUV and similar platforms especially when lugging loads of recovery gear and camera equipment.

For our latest build, we’ve chosen a 2020 Toyota Tacoma 4DR Off-Road with a 5’ bed. The Toyota Tacoma continues to scores high in reliability, it’s never let us down and the sticker price continues to be more attractive than other comparable mid-size pickups at $40-45K.

Since this is now the third Tacoma we’ve built, we’ll be referring to this truck Tacoma 3.0 throughout this build.

Wanna know why we picked another Tacoma? Watch Now...



The Equipment

Suspension and payload management is easily one of the most important areas we focus on when modifying our vehicles to support our line of work. Lift height isn’t as crucial as managing the weight of the vehicle. We’ve equipped Tacoma 3.0 with bypass shocks from Bilstein, custom expedition leaf springs from Deaver and upper control arms from SPC. We opted to fit the front Bilstein 8112 shocks with their heavy spring option knowing a bumper, winch and dual batteries would come later.



Once we had the truck sitting at its new ride height, we cut back the body mount in the front fenders to allow for 34” tires and wheels. We’ve had good luck and wear life with the Cooper Tire Discoverer S/T MAXX so we mounted those to five (5) AEV Crestone Dualsport 17” rims. To fit the spare, we did have to chop the exhaust back a bit; otherwise it fits snug underneath and can require a bit of patience to fit it just right.

Curious where to buy a 34”? Look for a 285/75R17 and confirm the manufacturer diameter. In the past we had installed 285/70R17 tires and this is closer to a 33”.



With larger tires, you’ll see a step curve on power loss. It’s really not power loss as much as it is losing RPMs. With bigger tires, the engine can’t spin fast enough to rotate the tires at highway speeds to access the HP it needs. We had the team at OK4WD swap our stock 3.91 gears with 4.88s. Now we’re turning 2100 RPM in 6th gear at 70 MPH versus 1500 RPM on stock gears which allows us to hit the power band an eliminate excessive gear shifting at highway speeds.

Next on the list was trail protection. There are loads of safety features available with the Tacoma 3.0 and we wanted to ensure we had full access to all its sensors and cameras when it came time to building the truck. Also, overall vehicle weight was important. Any opportunity to explore aluminum without compromising protection would be a goal.



On the front of the truck, we mounted a Victory 4x4 Strike bumper and had it color matched to our cement Tacoma 3.0. Inside the Strike bumper is a Warn Zeon Platinum 10S winch, a Rigid Industries 20” single row LED light bar and two (2) DOT approved amber light pods from Rigid as well. We opted for a steel bumper for the front of the truck because 1) the weight savings weren’t enough to push us to aluminum and 2) we preferred steel for long term use since we spend a lot of time winching with our trucks.

Underneath the truck we covered everything from the front bumper all the way to the back with Victory 4x4 skids. We opted for aluminum front and gas tank skids and steel skids for the transfer case. Blitz sliders were mounted under the rocker panels with rock lights for night time wheeling trips.



We left the rear bumper stock for a couple reasons 1) blind spot sensors limit your options for aftermarket rear bumpers and 2) allow the bumper to crumple under rear impact. After Tacoma 2.0 was totaled in a rear impact collision, we decided that the rear of the truck was designed to be crumpled, not protected in an accident. The aftermarket rear bumper on Tacoma 2.0 absorbed the energy of the impact and displaced it laterally across the frame of the truck instead of down the length of the vehicle. The result was a twisted frame instead of a crumpled bumper.

Watch us install the suspension and trail protection >> Watch Now...



The Camper

On our Tacoma 2.0 build, we opted for to install an Alu-Cab Khaya Camper. It served us well and we really enjoyed the flexibility of removing/installing the camper on demand. Essentially, we could have the truck bed back in working order in just 15 minutes!

For Tacoma 3.0, we opted for a bit more weight savings and we wanted to build out a living space in the back of the truck with outlets, cabinets, drawers, fridges and even a furnace. A lightweight, customizable living solution like the Alu-Cab Canopy Camper would allow us to do that. It looks and feels a lot like a Khaya Camper and it’s more of a permanent install. Sure, you can remove it when you want, but if you plan dress it up, you’re probably going to want to leave it on the truck at least until you sell it.

The Canopy Camper gives you full access to every square inch in your truck bed and there’s loads of fun products companies like GP Factor and Goose Gear are building for it. We installed a black Canopy Camper and the model we have has a higher roof than the previous models allow for extra gear, clothes and pillows to be stored up top.



On the rear door of the camper, we installed a GP Factor Traction Board Mount holding four (4) Maxtrax, two (2) GP Factor stainless steel tables and two (2) GP Factor stainless steel molle panels. The mole panels hold up a DemerBox DB1 Bluetooth speaker and an Outer Limit Supply first aid kit. We opted to add an Alu-Cab jerry can holder to the driver rear mole panel of the camper so we could tote water easily on the road.

To keep the sun and weather off us at camp, we mounted an Alu-Cab Shadow Awn to the driver side of the camper. We included the awn gutter as an option to keep water away from our camper door in the event a strong storm passes over. The biggest advantage of the Shadow Awn beyond its 20 second setup time is the solar reflective material that provides the shelter. We’ve tested other awnings and have concluded that the Shadow Awn not only provides shelter form the rain, it also cools down your space on very sunny and hot days. Case in point - while in Arizona, we recorded temps under a Shadow Awn that were 7 degrees cooler than under awnings constructed with tan, green and other color fabrics.

Inside the camper we fit a complete Goose Gear storage solution with a baseplate, four drawers and two utility boxes. Before we installed the Goose Gear, we laid down a BedRug on the sides and removed the section that laid on the floor. We opted to take steps now to add insulation versus doing it later.

Between the two Goose Gear utility boxes we have two (2) Engel MT45 fridge/freezers anchored to the floor. That’s a combined 90L of fridge storage! We’ve got high demands for cold storage on our trips since we cook for the whole team on our expeditions.

To ensure complete visibility behind Tacoma 3.0, we integrated a Rostra Precisions Controls camera into our factory wire harness. It’s an easy install and the camera moves allowing you to fine tune the picture on your dash.

See what it takes to install a Canopy Camper >> Watch Now...



The Electrical

Since we’re running with cameras and we’re constantly charging equipment, we have a very high electrical power demand from our expedition vehicles. A dual battery system paired with solar charging can keep our lights on for many days stationary and on the road.



First, let’s look at our accessory power needs. Things like lights, radios, charging ports, inverters, fridges and compressors will be referred to as “house power” and things like the starter and stock harness power will be referred to as “starting power.” We separate add-on power because essentially, we’re adding power demand to an existing system. To eliminate premature failure, we need a separate power source.

We installed a Off-Grid Engineering dual battery kit under the hood of the 2020 Toyota 3.0 with two (2) Odyssey Extreme Group 35 batteries. We mounted a Power Tray to hold an sPod Bantam and a 100A circuit breaker. The circuit breaker would be the primary cutoff for all accessory power should we want to flip the switch at any given instance.



Other “house power” accessories installed included an air compressor held in place with a Slee Offroad compressor bracket; an Expedition Essentials TPAM to hold up our Garmin inReach and Overlander; and a Midland MXT400 GMRS Radio.

We ran heavy gauge wire to the rear of the truck with hopes to install a 2000 watt inverter and various other accessories later. Inside the Alu-Cab Canopy Camper, we have a Goose Gear electrical panel that has been fitted with two (2) 4.8V USB chargers, a switch board, and a temperature monitor. We installed a 180W Sunflare solar panel to the roof of the camper and are monitor the health of the panel and charge with a Victron Energy charge controller. The charge controller is Bluetooth enabled for those tech geeks that want to watch their truck consume or generate power.

Check out the complete build in this walk around video >> Watch Now...



Final Thoughts

Watch the Complete Tacoma 3.0 Build Series on YouTube >> Learn More…

This truck is amazing! Its lighter than Tacoma 2.0, it’s got cleaner lines and we appreciate the sleek stock look of it. Opting to color match the front bumper was something we’d considered on previous builds and we’re certainly happy it worked out for Tacoma 3.0. Will we scratch it? Yes, and it’ll look even better!

The overall ride quality is very quiet, comfortable and supple. We’ve logged about 5,000 miles on large stone roads, tight trails and off camber terrain w/o deflating tires and have no complaints. We haven’t dialed in the suspension settings in just yet because we haven’t needed to, it rides perfectly.



Sleeping in the camper is a dream and the added storage space up top when closed is so nice! Any upgrades? We recently added an Exped MegaMat to replace the factory mattress and found a small, yet powerful USB fan to add to our kit for those hot summer nights.

It’s been fun to stand at the back of the truck and cook on a camp stove. We’ve got the Alu-Cab table up top but its so easy to drop the tables on the back door and get working on dinner right away. This truck is truly a “camp anywhere - get up and go” type of adventure mobile.

Is it perfect? Yes, 98%! Once we have the inverter and furnace installed, we’ll be done. Tacoma 3.0 is an extremely functional expedition vehicle without loads of fluffy non-essential stuff.

There were lots of people involved to help us build this truck and without them, we’d still be chugging along. Thanks Rin, Ben, AJ and the shop team OK4WD – you all rock!



Mountain State Overland Tacoma 3.0 Build List

Truck

• 2020 Toyota Tacoma 4DR Short Bed TRD Offroad Premium

Suspension

• Bilstein 8112 Heavy Coilovers (front)
• Bilstein 8100 Shocks (rear)
• Deaver Custom Expedition Leaf Springs
• SPC Light Racing UCAs

Tires, Wheels and Gears

• Cooper Tire Discoverer S/T MAXX 285/75R/17
• AEV Crestone Dualsport 17” Wheels
• 4.88 Gears

Trail Protection

• Victory 4x4 Strike Front Bumper w/ Warn Zeon Platinum 10s Winch
• Victory 4x4 Blitz Sliders
• Victory 4x4 Front Skid Plates
• Victory 4x4 Transfer Skid Plate
• Victory 4x4 Gas Tank Skid Plate

Camping

• Alu-Cab Canopy Camper
• Alu-Cab Shadow Awn and Gutter
• Alu-Cab Camp Table
• Goose Gear Drawers
• Goose Gear Utility Boxes
• Goose Gear Base Plate
• BedRug
• GP Factor Traction Board Mounts
• (2) GP Factor Stainless Tables
• (2) GP Factor Stainless Molle Panels
• Outer Limit Supply First Aid Kit
• Rostra Precision Controls Backup Camera

Electrical Accessories and Equipment

• Off-Grid Engineering Dual Battery Kit
• Power Tray
• sPod Bantam
• 100A Breaker
• Slee Offroad Compressor Bracket w/ Compressor
• Expedition Essentials TPAM
• Garmin InReach Explorer
• Garmin Overlander
• Midland MXT400 GMRS Radio
• 180W Sunflare Solar Panel
• Victron Energy Charge Controller
• Blue Sea Temperature Monitor
• (2) Blue Sea 4.8V USB Chragers
• Blue Sea Switch Panel
• 30A Breaker

Other Options

• Safari Snorkel
• Blue Ridge Overland Gear Visor Panels
• Blue Ridge Overland Gear Seat Back Panels
• Relocated Mic Plug for the Midland MXT 400
• We Boost Fleet Cellular Antenna

 

This is a great breakdown, enjoyable read! It is an amazing truck, good inspiration!

 

Thank you! Hope to have more updates in the coming weeks. Cheers!

 

Cool channel. sorry about your last truck, but this one makes up for it!

 

Awesome build! I’m looking for an access cab to do a similar build and have a little more space in camper than in the cab

 

Another nice build guys. Love the minimal kit out on the interior. Just what’s needed.

Cheers,

B_C

 

What are you doing for water/shower?