Eatpocky's 23' Taco Build

Sounds like we're very alike. Just swinging between 2 great options.

 

Had a spare shift knob laying around from either my WRX or Miata. Wanted to use that instead, but I realized that the OEM shifter clips onto the top of the shift boot. Searched what other members did and you either went the direction of purchasing a Shift boot collar/trim cover for $20 or slide the boot down. I had thought about 3d printing my own shift boot collar too, but loved how clean the it looked with the boot slid down.

Pop off the center trim panel. Super easy to do. Just becareful not to yank it


Cut off the minature ziptie holding the plastic ring for the top of the boot


Ring and ziptie removed.

Piece everything back together and walla! Looks way cleaner and best part, it's free.

 

One thing I hated from the start was these side steps. While it was nice having the side steps, the were just mounted too close to the body that there wasn't enough room to have a comfortable step and jam your foot between the step and the body. On top of that, I have sliders in my garage waiting to be installed, so might as well get these suckers off first.

Removal was super easy, but what delayed the delete was figuring out what to put back in the screw holes, since I was planning to sell the side step with the bolts. I thought about putting bolts back in, but felt like that was just a band-aid and not the right approach. Came across @Enchilada 's (massive thanks) post and knew where I needed to go next.

Grabbed 6 bags of these: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Push-Fasteners-for-Ford/3012764


Removing the side step was super easy. Just needed the jack to support it so it doesn't just fall down.


Fasteners replacing the bolts. Looks very OEM.


Now she looks even better!

 

Before looking into a Tonneau cover, I was considering a bed cap since both are quite an investment, and I'd rather air on the side of "buy once, cry once". However, after careful consideration, I ended up going the tonneau cover route. A few reasons why.
1. I love the fact that my stuff would be out of sight hidden under the cover for would-be thieves.
2. Even for week long camping trips, my load out has been optimized over the years to where my wife and I were able to car camp out of our Audi A5 (coupe).
3. Truck bed usage. For most of it's life, there won't be anything in the bed. When I have larger items that don't need the full bed, I can just fold up the tonneau. When I need the full bed for that? Well, the tonneau is super easy to remove. A cap can be removed, but not with ease and another system in place (pulley system in garage for example) to help you remove it.

Now jumping into tonneau covers, I was surprised that there were so many options on the market. Any soft tonneau cover was out of the question since I've heard of soft covers being cut up and wasn't willing to risk that, so that helped narrow down my options to just hard covers.

Breaking down hard covers I was interested in:
OEM Tonneau Cover - They're MSRP $1245. WTF? Also, I didn't like how thick it is.
Bakflip MX4 - Majority of my friends who have a truck go with the MX4 because they love the low profile of it. My problem with the MX4 on the tacoma's is that 1: it moves your factory bed rail down and 2: reduces the height of things that could fit in the bed when the cover is closed. With the bed already not being that tall, I wasn't willing to sacrifice the height.
Rough Country Hard cover - basically a Mx4 knock off, but much cheaper. Same issues as above. Questionable quality due to RC.
Diamondback cover - nearly $2k for a cover, basically putting me at a truck cap, and sits a bit too high off the truck bed for my liking.
Any retractable cover - very cool concept, but you're also losing a ton of space for the retracting mechanism at the head of the truck bed. In a 5ft bed, definitely not worth the sacrifice.

Which landed me at the Lomax. Loved that it was just around $1k MSRP, had an ultra thin profile, didn't move the bed rail and didn't compromise the truck beds storage height when closed.

I thought about spending some more money on the Lomax stance which was similar to the Bakflip Mx4, since I thought it was a cool feature to have the extra fold, but realized 2 things.
1: The Lomax is already stupid easy enough to remove that I could just remove it and store it in the garage before I need to pick up something large.
2: When will I really need to have that extra bit of space in the bed? Maybe once or twice a year if that.

Fast forward with some shopping around, I found out that Luke at @truckalter is a vendor on here and I asked for a quote. Got a very good price shipped that I couldn't say no. Got my package and was very happy with my purchase.

Between the Lomax Matte Black and Urethane, I opted for the urethane because I loved that powder coated look and in pictures online, the urethane looked like it matched the black trim on the truck.

Install was super easy. Build quality is amazing.

My only gripes are:
1. I'm not entirely sure if I've installed it correctly, so time will only tell. The brackets have some room to play with so I'm just not sure what a "proper" install entails. But spraying it with a garden hose, I only got a little bit of water when spraying towards the end of the bed where the tailgate meets. Super happy about that.
2. OEM bed cleats. Tried doing research on this prior, but seemed like no one has commented on this yet, so buyer be warned. The rear most bed cleat can come slide off, but the bed cleat in between the two forwardmost mounting brackets cannot come off the rail without loosening the tonneau cover rail.

Tonneau rail mounted

They give 2 long rolls of weather stripping. 1 was more than enough for both sides.

Immediately after install

 

Since I went the tonneau route, I definitely don't plan to get a cab any time in the future or bed rack, but I wanted these stiffeners to prevent damage that can occur from flexing the bed while offroading. I was contemplating quite a few different brands, but having been very happy with my previous RCI products (on my 4runner) and how sleek the RCI bed stiffeners looked, I bit the bullet for their bed stiffeners.

At the same time as install, I decided to upgrade my rear turn signal and reverse lights to LED.

Fresh out of the box with the LEDs


Drilling out the holes on the side of the bed. Admittedly it was difficult since she's still new, but whatever. It was going to happen now or later.


The top most bolt on both sides is a PITA to try to get the threads started and tighten down. I had to grab my wife to use her small hands to put the washer on and get the nut started. haha


Remaining bolts were easy to tighten down.


Installation complete. They look sexy.

 

Wife got me something for the truck...


Honestly wish 6th gear said "f*ckin slow"

 

OEM Powered Tailgate lock -

$237 PK3B6-35JS0 Toyota Genuine 2019 & Newer Tacoma Short Wheelbase Tailgate Lock (PK3B6-35JS0)

PK3B6-35JS0

Next was a "nice to have" mod, since it was a problem that bothered me when I utilized the bed. I needed to manually unlock the tailgate and then make damn sure I locked the tailgate. There are some cheaper kits out there compared to the OEM kit, but for the amount I was saving, I figured I'd just go with the Toyota Kit.

Install was much easier than expected. I did watch this video prior to the install just to make sure I wasn't going to miss anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-f-c7XHbM

Fresh out of the box!

Actuator installed.

This was really the hardest part of the install. Routing the wire from the inside of the cab to the exterior. There is a plug about 3" inward of the outermost edge of the passenger seat. I opted to use a fishing wire from the outside and then pull the connector once attached to the fishing wire. Made it super easy. Rest of it was just ziptie-ing the wire every feet or so all the way to the back of the bed.

 

Any thoughts on the dash cam you (OP) chose yet?

 

As far as the dashcam goes, if I had to complain about something, there is 1 minor complaint, but it seems to be a common issue with other dashcams. When you go to download a video clip from the dashcam, it's quite slow and you're forced to download the whole clip. The way around this is either to set the camera to record in 1min intervals or just pull the files off the SD card on a computer.

Other than that, no problems at all. It's sleek factor is super nice as I don't really notice it. Set up was super easy through the app.

As far as install goes, my only complaint is only apparent when hitting the emergency record button. If you noticed from my install pics, I installed it high up center next to the rear view mirror on the passenger side. Problem is that the rear view mirror blocks you from seeing the dashcam, so when I go to hit the emergency record button, I've had to either guess which button im hitting or lean over the center console and then hit it. It's a pick your poison kind of thing... Either easily have access to the dashcam and see it all the time or not have easy access and not be able to see the dashcam all the time. I'll continue to stick with the latter. If it bugs me enough, I'll probably 3d print some kind of larger button to double tape onto the emergency record button.

 

Huge thanks to Hotshot Offroad (@memario1214) for helping me get setup with this kit! Well. Finally comes the lift kit.

Was heavily debating a few suspension kits, and my use cases. Ultimately landed on the Bilstein 6112/5160 combo, and a Torch Offroad Add-a-leaf (I'll explain)

On my 4th gen 4runner, I had ran Bilstein 5100's and while they were great, there were a few times that I did get them hot while offroad, and they did feel a bit jarring at times.

Some other considerations.
- King 2.5's - absolutely beautiful, but for most of its life being on pavement, I feel like I'd be wasting a ton of money on an amazing suspension set up. Not to mention, the headache of getting it rebuilt later down the line when it's probably only seen dirt a few times...
- Eibach Stage 2.5R Pro Lift - This was a close runner up, but with reviews of some clunking issues, it wasn't something I wanted to gamble on.

Lift sizing. This was one of those lessons I got from my 4runner. As awesome as a 3" lift would look, I just couldn't bring myself to do that much lift again.
1. 3" was more than enough for most the trails I did. The trails that needed that 3" of lift... I probably definitely needed more lift or larger tires.
2. Additional costs/repairs/maintenance. Now you're talking about needing to update UCA's, where as a 2" could run the OEM arms. Alignment in which some shops upcharge for alignment even though it's non-adjustable. CV boots that would tear unless you did the boot slide mod or purchase the RCV boots. Worries of maxing out the CV angle etc.

Which lands me at the moderate 2" lift. As long as I'm not an idiot and go to the crazier trails like I did with my 4runner, the 2" lift will be more than adequate. And if it isn't, that's why hint hint armor will be going on the truck to compensate. Will go into detail about that in the armor post.

As far as the add a leaf goes, I was on the fence about getting the Icon RXT leaf pack since it would give me some flexibility to adjust the leaf packs based on what I would be hauling later down the line, but not much more would open up the options to other leaf packs. Since I wasn't 100% sure what I might store in the truck bed, I opted to cheap out for the time being and see how just a simple add a leaf would do. Originally was going to order the Headstrong Add a leaf, but I found these Amazon-special Torch Offroad Add a leaf unused off fb marketplace for $20 and I couldn't resist. For $20 to try and possibly just trash later on, was definitely worth it.

Factoriy Bilsteins are cute...




5160's in...


If you buy the torch offroad AAL, they do come with 2 new bolts per side. 1 is skinnier than the other one. Use the thicker one of the two.


Post install


Alignment numbers:
They're not terrible, and caster is a bit out of range. So far while driving on the freeway, the truck does wander if there's a cross wind or if there are grooves. With that said, I might just stick to the OEM UCA's and live with it. If it does bother me, I might try to find another alignment tech who can try to play around with the alignment to get some caster.

 

ECGS Clamshell Bushing
Installed at the same time as the lift. What looks like an easy job, turned into an extra 2hours.

For those that say "don't fix something that ain't broke", I opted to do this mod for a few reasons.
1) My 4th gen 4runner had this insane vibration at certain speeds almost immediately after my lift but I never figured out what it was. Coming onto tacomaworld, my belief is that it was because of this needle bearing
2) Even from factory, the driver side inner CV cup had some play and could only imagine it getting worse
3) Since I was already there, I figure I might as well just get it out of the way instead of kick myself for not having it done and encountering the vibrations soon after the lift as some members have experienced.

I ended up 3D printing the installation cup. Printed in PETG and worked out perfectly. I wanted it to print fast, so I ended up just butting up a socket to the back of it and hammering on that. If I were to change something on it, I would make a little tab so I can use pliers to pull it out.

For anyone who wants the STL: https://www.printables.com/model/841620-ecgs-bushing-install-tool





Post install havoc




But it's in!


Time to fill 'er back up!
PS: I love these squeeze bags for the diffs, make filling up super easy. I ended up needing a bit under 1/2 quart.

 

I know it's only been a few days, but what do you think about the Bilstein 6112/5160 combo? My 2023 OR has the stock Bilsteins, but I am considering 6112/5160s. I spend 90% of my time on pavement.

 

I've put about 300 miles on them and love them.

Compared to the stock shocks (Bilstein 4600), it's a night and day difference. The stock ride feels way too mushy and doesn't really give good road feedback. Bumps are quite jarring and throw you around with the stock setup. With the 6112/5160's, ride is much firmer, sporty, and hitting bumps feels smooth.

Compared to the 5100's I had on my 4th gen 4runner, it's quite a difference. While it isn't an apples to apples comparison, due to difference in mods, I feel like the 6112/5160's are much smoother, and its most likely due to the larger shock body.

That said, I have no doubts these will shine when I take these offroad.

 

Thanks for the feedback. My previous vehicle was a lowered Mustang GT with extremely limited suspension travel, and moving into a Tacoma Off Road with stock suspension is like swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum. I agree the stock Bilsteins are a little spongy/mushy, and I’d like something with less brake dive. During the original test drive, my salesman said the Bilsteins are more daily driver/pavement friendly, and Fox was better for heavy wheeling. This is my first 4X4, and I wasn’t planning on hardcore wheeling anytime soon, so I went with Bilstein. But after driving it for a couple of months, I think I want something a little firmer.

 

Oh I totally hear you on that.

I had a NA miata on coilovers and GR WRX hatch with Koni Yellow's that I autoX'd and they were harsh for daily driving, but planted whenever I threw them into corners. Moving to the 4runner/Tacoma was very weird in the beginning, but you get used to it.

Yea, I'd definitely say that the Bilstein's are decent for daily driving. They're comfortable, so long as you're on smooth pavement. Any potholes and the whole truck just feels like it wants to rattle apart. The 6112/5112 are so much better and do fix the brake dive (unless you're braking hard). I have read about other members upgrading the front spring on the 6112 to something stiffer, and I'd imagine that also helps with brake dive as well. I personally don't think i'll do the upgrade (yet) since I feel the springs included on the 6112's are perfect for my needs at the moment, but most likely need to be upgraded if I go with a bumper later on.

I've never ran or rode in a rig with Fox's, but I did quite a lot of digging for my rig and after a lot of debating of which suspension setup to go with, research just told me to avoid the Fox's. Apparently the 2.0's have a very rough ride, so the recommendation was to go with the 2.5's which weren't all that better, so then you're looking at King suspension at that price point. In my mind, I would've loved to have King's, but at the end of the day, I'd just be wasting money as 1) I wouldn't really use the shock to it's full potential for most of it's life, if at all 2) shock needs to be rebuilt somewhere around 30-50k miles based on offroad/onroad usage and I couldn't justify having my truck down + the additional costs to do it.

Maybe you can try talking to @memario1214 ? They're a vendor on here who helped me get setup with my suspension once I made up my mind up, but I recall a post from them comparing the differences between different suspension setups out there for the tacoma.

 

RCI Sliders Engine Skid and Transmission skids in steel

I know I know. I wanted to keep things light and close to stock... However, I feel the trade off for armor is well worth it's weight in gold. Not to mention, it's sprung weight vs unspring weight, so while I may add about 100lbs in skids to the truck, it'll have a very minimal, if at all, effect on mpgs. Yes, I could've gone aluminum to reduce the added weight, but I feel the weight difference would have a negligible effect on MPGs to the point that the price difference would just make up for the difference over the life of the truck.

On top of that, because I opted to go with a 2" lift instead of a 3" lift, I figure I could use the additional protection down under instead of dealing with the headaches that might be introduced going to the 3" lift. I may scratch up my skids, but that's what they're for and because they're in steel, I won't have as much of concerns as if I did it in aluminum.

Opted to go with the bolt on, RCI sliders with a 20 degree kick. I love how they hug the body more, but I also wish they stuck out a bit more for the urban adventure to the grocery store and to give a bit more headroom to prevent door dings.





Getting the front most bolt in the frame was the biggest PITA of this job. The trick that helped me was use painters tape to hold the washer against the socket and hope I could line up the hole to the bolt. In the end, I was able to get it first try after using tape.


Armor:
Painted that little corner since it flaked off in shipping




Cat clearly exposed...

 

Doing some house work.
10 bags of mulch wasn't too bad.


1000lbs of gravel. Calculated weight was just under payload. Handled it like a champ.

 

Now that the lift is on, I've been going through options in terms of wheels and tires since the stock ones really aren't cutting it and look like she missed leg day.

The biggest factor into the decision was that I wanted to go larger without having a huge hit on MPG's. After some digging it appears my 4runner set up was 88lbs per corner (29lbs (FJC Trail wheels) + 59lbs (AT3W 285/70/17 E-loads)).

Went through some digging to break down each wheel and tire combo, starting from the factory setup, which seems to be right at 73lbs...

 

Accumulator Delete mod (ADM)
Pre-accumulator delete, I was sort of getting a hang of the tacoma's clutch even though it was unpredictable. I thought I could just get used to it over time, but it got a bit annoying to deal with the unpredictability and having read up on the ADM, I was just tempted to pull the trigger on doing the mod.

Was initially tempted to do mod with the O'Riley special, but I also loved how OEM looking the Firn disk was. However, my reservations about the Firn disk was that it's not a direct like like the O'Riley mod. In any case, ended up with the Firn disk. It's a beautiful work of art.

Accumulator with OEM disk and firn disk


Bleeding the clutch was easy. But wow. Night and day difference. Shifts are super clean now because I'm not trying to guess/predict how the accumulator is going to react when releasing the clutch. Wish I just did this mod sooner.

 

Was tempted to go with the 35x10.5 setup, "cuz 35's", but felt it was overkill for what I needed. Ended up with the more civil 33" pizza cutters (255/80/17), mounted on SCS Ray10 17x8.5 -10mm in Dark Matte Bronze. This puts me just at roughly 78lbs per corner (AT4W's @ 53lbs and Ray10 @ 25lbs), with an increase of just 5lbs over stock.

Was thinking of a wider tire but ultimately went to the pizza cutter setup for a few reasons:
1. Had an opportunity to chat with Mike at All-terrain Family, he loved his pizza cutter setup, but then also suggested I check out a C range or even Standard Load tire instead of an LT. Having bad experiences with C range, I was a bit hesitant
2. Tinkerer's Adventure goes into depth about the pizza cutters setup and with his data and explanation, it was quite an easy choice to go with the pizza cutters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wAJAOxh8LE&t=8s
3. Wider = increased rolling resistance = hit on MPGs

My buddy highly suggested Klean Ridez in San Jose, so I hit them up. Few messages later, got the new setup mounted.

Some pics: