F/R Locked TRD Sport DCLB Build & Colorado Wheeling

Nice Build!! Have fun in Moab

 

Thanks for heads up man! I appreciated reading this prior to running the trail. It’s always nice to hear how someone with a similar setup handled it.

I had an incredibly similar experience. Trail was super fun - a couple challenging sections which required the rear locker. I even tossed the front locker on one time during one of the off camber hill climbs. Overall, I loved the trail. Great scenery and just challenging enough. I’ll be writing a more detailed recap of the weekend here soon.

 

Thank you!! Had a great time down in Moab this weekend. I’ll post pics from it here soon. Stay posted!

 

2024 Easter Jeep Safari Recap
Had an incredible couple weekends down in Moab participating in Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) 2024. Overall, EJS was a great experience and I really encourage folks to check it at out at some point in their lives. It's put on by the Red Rocks 4 Wheelers, which is an awesome group of 4-wheel enthusiasts who help maintain & support the trail networks in Moab. You can thank them for keeping the directional signage & paint marks on many trails throughout Moab.

Weekend 1 Recap:
Did a solo run down to Moab for the first weekend of Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) 2024 and ran Fins & Things, which is rated as a 5/10 on the Red Rocks 4 Wheelers scale. Had an incredible time running the trail & and generally just enjoying the Moab scenery, camping, and even catching some March Madness (my chosen campsite surprisingly had enough signal to stream the games at night ).

If you're reading along w/ this thread, you'll see @aturk's very accurate depiction of Fins & Things, but I'll do a quick recap of my experience here as well. I think that this trail is the great introduction to Moab offroading & a perfect challenge for the Tacoma. There are a few tough obstacles strung throughout the trail & there are plenty of steep hill climbs & descents, but overall a very doable trail if you have a rear locker. I think a stock TRD Offroad or TRD Pro would conquer this trail without an issue. Trucks that are fully open may struggle in parts of the trail. Having some protection (like sliders & a rear bumper or hitch guard) is also a good idea too. Not necessarily required modifications to run Fins, but they certainly help with peace of mind. Unfortunately, I had a tough time taking good pictures this go around since I was by myself, but here are some of main highlights from the first weekend.

Arrived at camp around 7:30 pm, just before sunset


Camp setup & Theo digging holes & chompin’ sticks


Beautiful sunrise the next morning


Airing down


Following steep descent pictured in the background


Scenes from Fins & Things


I know, I know… it’s a jeep, but this thing was sick
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Weekend 2 Recap:
For the second weekend of EJS, I headed down with @LunarTaco13 (Ryan) & his wife to hit the Wipe-Out Hill trail, another 5/10 rated trail according to Red Rock 4 Wheelers. I arrived in Moab on Friday afternoon, hit the vendor fair, and then swung by Moab Brewery to meet up with Ryan & his wife. We played some pool & then headed over to Proper Brewing for some dinner & some March Madness. After watching a couple of the games, we headed back to camp & enjoyed some time around the campfire before calling it a night.

We woke up bright & early Saturday, had some breakfast, cleaned up camp and headed off the the meetup location where we'd depart for Wipe-Out Hill. For context, this trail tours a region south of Canyonlands Airport and west of Highway 191. It uses portions of Bartlett Wash, Tusher Canyon, Courthouse Pasture, the south cliff base of Big Mesa. It's a very diverse trail, including a wide range of scenery and trail surface and a couple of challenging hills.

HUGE shoutout to Ryan's wife, Molly, who took these incredible photos. So freaking cool having some taking professional-looking photographs of the truck. Wayyy better than my iPhone shots, haha.

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Overall, the Wipe-Out Hill trail was an easy outing (besides the unmarked obstacle & the Wipe-Out Hill obstacle portions) and an absolutely BEAUTIFUL trail. I really enjoyed all the the scenery, exploring Tusher Tunnel, seeing the Determination Towers, and obviously running the obstacles. I'd definitely recommend this trail!

 

Dropping the video of the truck climbing & descending Wipe-Out Hill last weekend. Shoutout to @LunarTaco13 for recording!

https://youtu.be/jiPrykU5DGQ?si=1fiY8IvFv8ns6Cgq

 

hell yeah dude! still trying to plan an early October trip

 

Thanks brother! Keep me posted on your October trip. I’d be down to come wheel with you if I don’t have stuff going on that weekend!

 

Yeah most definitely, feel free to message on either platform any time! I have a pretty solid group I wheel with and we go on trail runs pretty often.

 

Hell yeah man - let’s definitely wheel together soon. Looks like you guys got out this weekend?

 

I recently discovered Bilstein’s Shock Talk podcast. I absolutely love it. They delve into various categories of their suspension catalog (e.g., 5100s, 6112s, 8100s, etc.), talk about optimal pairings, why/how the pairings are designed to work together, and provide a lot of details on suspension design and engineering. They’ve got some great Toyota specific content. Here’s a few of my favorites so far:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4g3OLQZt1HrtcM3qY6tpk5?si=41n8KqCrT3moYVAXUZZQvA
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tphIbNGc1fCd4DKHqPeFX?si=nR-ClZJ5QEKBQZxM_kUeZg

 

Did some quick, routine maintenance yesterday. Got the JBA UCA’s bushings and ball joints greased after about 4,500 miles of use. I love these UCAs so far. Specifically, I love that the bushings are greaseable (and that you can see when you've got enough grease applied - it starts extruding out of the bushing channels) and that the ball joint covers don't leak grease. The SPC ball join covers leaked like crazy, which was just a mess.

 

Got some more routine maintenance done this weekend. Got her all washed up, tires rotated, and a full visual inspection done.



Overall, the truck is looking great. It’s got 114,000 miles on the clock and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s performing.

I believe a replacement of the lower control arms may be in order, though. The ball joints look to have leaked a tiny bit of grease from their boots and therefore there’s some build up around them. I also noticed some clicking (from what I think is the driver side LCA) when going over the big whoops down in Moab and I feel like it may be coming the from the joint. I tested both for play using a pry bar and they seem totally fine, but I still may replace them just to be safe.

I have been thinking a lot about the next steps on my build, and have kinda switched up my goals. After listening to the Bilstein Shock Talk Podcast, I’ve become completely sold on the 8100 series zone control shocks. I have also been learning more about suspension dynamics, unsprung weight, and also have a better understanding clearance issues with 35s when maxing out up travel. From all these learnings & ponderings, I think I’m going to stick with 33s, upgrade my 6112/5100 setup to 8112/8100s, and do some beefing up of suspension components. I’d like to get spindles gusseted, cam tab reinforcements, and maybe even upgrade to @TOTAL CHAOS stock length single shock lower control arms.

This is all a bit tbd still, but that’s my latest thoughts at the moment.

 

Been a minute since I’ve updated the build thread. Life’s been busy, but great recently. I’ve been preoccupied with a lot of things besides wheeling & truck stuff, but I did get around to a small, fun addition to the truck.

I received a gift card to Amazon from work & decided to pull the trigger on a Factor 55 Ultrahook. I was so tired of the hook that came with my smittybilt hanging down in front of the truck & I didn’t want to clip it to the recovery point mounted to the frame, so a new hook was my solution. I bought the red Factor 55 hook because I figured it’d give the front a little pop of color, but I think I’m going to exchange for black instead to keep it more clean. Let me know what you think about red vs. black.

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Here’s a reel I made of the install. I was incredibly surprised and overwhelmingly excited when Factor 55 accepted my collaboration invite. By far my most popular reel to date thanks to the awesome folks at Factor 55!!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6PwjFZpDjM/?igsh=MTYyOTJpcmE2ZTk5dw==​

 

Is the collab invite something you do through IG itself? When posting?

I normally think red is the way to go, but with your color matched front cover I think that black will look a lot more at home on the front end.

Excellent purchase for sure.

 

Thanks Mike!

Yessir, you do it through Instagram itself. When you’re on the last page before posting your content, you can hit the “Tag People” button and it’ll pull up the below screen where you can invite accounts to collaborate with you on your post. They have to accept, but if they do, it’ll also post that content on their IG page.



Thank you for the feedback on the color! I agree that the black will look more at home.

Hope you and Stacy are doing well & enjoying your AZ hikes still! Been following along on IG!

 

Heading down to Moab for a long Memorial Day weekend with @LunarTaco13. I'll be down there from Friday through Monday. The plan right now (pending Ryan's approval; I don't wanna be a planning dictator for the trip, haha) will be to run Poison Spider and Top of World and maybe one easier, more scenic trail on Monday before rolling out of town. Here are some fun pictures from our last trip down to Moab during EJS 2024.

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Enjoy Top of the World!

Top of the World by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

 

Dude, incredible pic! Is that your old rig? Love the first gen!

 

It is not. It is owned by a good friend who was courteous enough to drive out to the very edge for that photo opportunity. My Tacoma at the time did not have a bull bar to hold on to like his does.

 

That's awesome. Putting the bull bar to good use! You are a braver man than I!