GarlicFart's "Let's make this truck useless for everything but camping or road trips" build

Figured I should start this up for fun, and to document all my crap.



List of modifications and accessories
(Anything struck through is no longer on the truck, has been sold or broken , or has been upgraded beyond the initial one, kept in rough order)

Bought truck in Dec 2019

1. Bought with truck - Bed Mat
2. Bought with truck - Door Sill Protectors
3. Bought with truck - Mud Guards
4. Bought with truck - Toyota all-season floor mats
5. N2 remote start w/ cell module
6. Meso tail stage 1 (amber turn signals!)
7. Opt7 HID conversion w/ 6000k bulbs
8. Internal LED lights (generic Amazon/Ebay)
9. LED License plate lights (generic Amazon/Ebay)
10. SOS Bolt on sliders - no fill plates, raw, bump out, rattlecanned myself
11. Soft Topper - Black
12. Replace rear bumper covers w/ plain black (generic from Rock Auto)
13. AVS wind deflectors on all 4 windows
14. H9 low beam pigtail conversion, w/ 3500k Hella H9
15. License plate light Delete in Reverse
16. $158 CMX760 Bearcat Off Road Series Compact Mobile CB Radio, 40-Channel Operation, Ultra-Compact for Easy Mounting, Large 7-Color Backlit LCD Display on Mic with Built-in Speaker Mic, Black
    CMX760 CB radio w/ CaliRaised LED rear-tailgate mount, 3' Firestick
17. Bed Mat (yes, I got another one - not Toyota OEM, got free from generous TW member!)
18. Soft Topper - Black (yes, I bought one again...yes.......I sold it again)
19. In-Cab sleeping platform
20. CarLinkIt Wireless car-play adapter
21. Traded my dumb chrome bezel tail lights for a set of 2019(?) sport tail lights without the chrome on them. (This was forgotten about but closer to the top of the list)
22. Center console stick on organizer thing from ebay.
23. Bed lights - truck was pre wired.
24. Bed Stiffeners
25. Ditch lights - generic, Amazon special kit
26. Harbor freight D rings installed on bed side cubby using stock bolts.
27. Cali Raised fog lights went back to stock fogs and bezels
28. Bed toolbox
29. Cali raised roof rack
30. Red LED map and dome lights (Amazon spec nothing special)
31. Home-built steel front plate hybrid bumper
32. Tri-fold soft tonneau (modular, easy on-off)
33. AVS Window vents
34. Chinesium Rear bumper w/ flush mount lights
35. Switch Panel
36. RTT
37. Bed cross bars for RTT - made with unistrut and utility rail clamps
38. Solar panel battery tender
    
39. JDub Fab Skidplate (This was done in about March 2021, but I just noticed it wasn't on my list here w/ links and whatnot)

Other insignificant things:

• Plasti Derp wheels, black
• Paint toyota emblems on center caps - red ("Farm equipment paint red")
• Dash cam (Viofo A129 Dual (front and rear) )
• Remove bed stickers and all the chrome badges
• Flag decals
• Plasti derp touch up on my sliders because I'm pretty abusive on them

To keep it in the somewhat normal format:

Suspension:
stock

Wheels and Tires:
stock

Armor:
SOS Sliders
JDub Fab IFS Skidplate
Home-brew front plate bumper
Flea bay special rear steel plate bumper

 

first!

Nice list so far!

 

Nice

 

@GarlicFarts , in-cab sleeping platform ?? pics por favor

 

working on getting this better. I’m on my phone now so everything gets all jacked up. Was going to write more about it later.

I ripped out the passenger seat and passenger side rear seat.

built a frame out of 1 inch pvc, using standard fittings and a ratcheting pvc cutter.

used plywood on top with an indoor/outdoor carpet from hone cheapo and stapled to plywood.

use couch cushions as the cushioning.

Pictures below. When I have time and technology I’ll get this written up way better and with way better pictures the right way up.

 

Couch cushions stolen and twin bed sheet used to wrap it all up. Setting off for LA tomorrow.

I will say - these cushions are 24 inches wide. I’ll be looking for some 22 inch wide ones depending how this goes. Glad I have these today but these sort of encroach the center stack and console. And the glove box is only infrequently used items now, had to rearrange a bit once I knew where these would end up.

but I’ll be sleeping comfortably in the cab which will be new since last time I was curled up like a fresh cooked lobster.

 

@GarlicFarts What is the length from the glovebox to the cab (tip to tail)? I’ve always wanted to see someone do this!

 

The platform itself is about 6 ft, however pretty the glove box bumps out right above the platform. So, it's about 4-5 inches lost for that. I am 5'10", and I lay flat and comfortable. I might be able to drop the platform a few inches down, but that would lose storage space underneath. Right now it's awesome, fits a 24 pack of waters or a water jug underneath the platform perfectly!

 

Here for the thread title and sidewayz pics.

 

Yanked out the CB radio. Yes it worked, but meh. I drove across the country, all I got out of it was truckers arguing about lane closures and merging habits, whether trucks stops are open or not, if there's a way around traffic for a truck, etc. I have google maps - I'm not towing a 53' trailer, I can go where google tells me to. It's kind of cool to hear that sometimes people around me are talking to each other about road conditions etc, but realistically, didn't add enough for the added complexity of it. So, it's out!

 

But, but, but....group trail rides....

 

I have only gone out a few rides with people with CB and even then they just don’t use it. Almost everyone is on frs or gmrs now.

that said - I will probably get a mag mount and handheld setup for CB in the future. But hard wired and fully done up etc just wasn’t worth it to keep it.

 

Any plans for a dedicated water pressure system?

 

nope. But I may consider a solar shower of some sort. I got by on a two week road trip with camp grounds and whatever, but after a day in the mud on a mountain bike, a quick hose down wouldn’t be the worst thing before getting into bed or the driver seat to get to a shower. Would probably do either a bag or a pvc tube and an air compressor.

 

Have you figured what resistors to install to avoid airbag lights so far after disconnecting the seat?

 

nope I’m just letting it shine on.

the plan was and still is to make it just as difficult to set up and break down including the seat install and airbag calibration through tech stream as having a rooftop tent come on and off.

the rears are probably just going to stay out. But so long as the seat goes in relatively easily, I haven’t done TS yet but I know the gist of what I need and what I need to do.

the drivers airbag should still work in the event of a collision. That’s not tied to the SOS like the passenger side is.

 

Number 20:

Added a carlinkit 2.0 wireless carplay adapter.

The white one was on sale on Amazon down to about 100 from 130 ish, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Original thought was - for 130, I would also need one if I went to an Android phone, which is about 100 (To be fair from my quick research, there's actually not one??), so for roughly 250 .... I could just get an aftermarket head unit with nav and a whole bunch more bells and whistles.

Might end up doing that in the future. But for now, this things awesome. Takes a few seconds to connect, but I don't need to touch my phone - auto connects and I can turn music on, even the bluetooth connection native to the head unit I would still need to turn on spotify/etc from my phone. Phone can stay in pocket now. Worth 100$? Probably not. But I like it.

Right now it's just kind of dangling in free space in the center stack, I'll probably do a media port relocate to the center console and leave it in there permanently.

 

Sliders back on. Didn’t paint them. They’ve been off for like 6 months and I put it off/blamed the weather long enough that - I’m going out this weekend and don’t have the chance to paint them while they’re off this time.

either will mask off the truck and paint them on there, do a roll on, or take them off again.

now that I have been under there and done the instal before, this time it took me 90 minutes soup to nuts. Didn’t even have the tools prepped or anything so that’s not bad if I need to take them down to paint them sometime. Happy to have them back on for protection, steps, and to have a giant piece of floor space back in my shed.

 

I'd vote to take them off again. That's one thing I hate about having welded on sliders. I'm gonna have to wrap the body of the truck in plastic to keep from getting overspray on it.

Oh the joys of the never ending projects...

 

yeah - the first time putting them on was a total mess. But now I know how to take them on and off they come off in an hour and back on in 90 minutes. That’s not too bad. But I also beat them pretty bad so might just do a roll on and call it good enough. The first coat was pretty bad to begin with (all me not the vendor).