Build a truck for $20k

If you had $20k to dump into your tacoma, and your goal was to make it comfortable and capable to run any trail do-able on 33's, but still drive it across country if you wanted, what would you do?

Truck: 2020 TRD OR longboi with 17k miles
Here's what I'm thinking:

Low profile bumper and winch ($3k)
2" Lift (King's or equivalent ($2k ish)
Control arms ($1k)
Upgrade steering components? axles, tie rods, etc ($3k?)
I already have 32's and wheels, so no need for tires until these wear out
On board air (already have)
Sliders ($1k)
Recovery gear (already have)
Some LED lighting ($1k?)
Front locker ($1.5k)
Desert air intake, aka dorkle (I live in the dust) ($1k?)
Re-gear with the 33's ($2.5k)
Supercharger ($12k)



What else?

 

Buy stonks instead

 

I already have lots of those though. Now is the time for taco

 

I'm at around 12.5k in useless mods. getting certain parts used and installing yourself can save a lot of money.
PFB bumper - $1300

Front kings - $1850

JD UCAs - $530

KP offroad tabs - $50

Icon RXT - $700

5.29 Gears and ARB front locker $4000 (install included)

Tires - $800

Roof rack - $550

Front end swap - $400

URD Spec U headers - $700

Rear bumper - $1000 (includes welder and steel and bearings)

Snorkel - $550

PFB skids - free

Exhaust chop - free

Wheels and sliders were already on truck


to get to 20k id wait until a used supercharger comes up for sale in the $4500ish range, get a set of new kings for 1200ish for the rear to replace the bilstiens, maybe a used soft topper (found one for $500), and last would be hammer hangers and a rear diff skid. I think that would get me to 20K

 

That's a good solid build pretty close to what I'm after. What's the "front end swap"? Just the grille?

You paid a lot for gears and front locker. I can do that myself (provided it's not too terribly different from doing a D44. I know how to set the backlash and all that and I've installed an ARB in my garage)

 

my truck is a 2006, but hood, headlights, grille are from a 2015. looks a lot newer and better but was definitely a waste of money

 

Given that your truck is roughly equivalent to what I'm after, have you ever busted any of your front steering components? I come from owning lots of jeeps that had solid front axles, and haven't built an IFS rig yet. That's my biggest fear, being somewhere in the middle of fuckall nowhere desert and some shitty IFS part pops that you can't fix with a hi-lift handle and a welder like you can on a SFA truck.

Like, I'm sure the Toyota OEM equipment is fine durability wise, but when you look at it, it looks like it's made of recycled coke cans that'll bend if you bind a tire on a rock

 

Nothing has snapped or left me stranded. but after 200k miles on 33s and then 35k miles on 35s almost every bushing in the suspension was disintegrated, and every balljoint had a crazy amount of play. I'm lucky nothing broke on me as I was young and dumb, drove the thing as if it was an ultra 4 truck in rough places all over eastern CA and CO

this was with an old man emu lift being the only suspension mod

 

That assuages my concerns. I put about 4k miles a year on my truck, and my young and dumb drive it like you stole it years are long behind me.

I've blown up several differentials doing stupid shit, and don't really have the time or patience for those shenanigans anymore

rip '79 F150 front D44
rip '82 CJ7 rear D44 (off an IH Scout)
rip '95 XJ front D30
rip '95 XJ front D30 35sp chromolly axle shaft (no idea how I managed that)

 

you'll be good then and probably won't have problems for years, maybe just a u joint here and there and steering fluid might start to weep from the boots someday years from now

 

Maybe some day Toyota will respond to my repeated emails and build me a single cab, short bed pickup with a small diesel powerplant, solid front and rear axles with lockers, enough wheel well to put 35's on stock, and no unnecessary electronics other than what's required to make the engine run. I can dream, right? They could charge $60k for it and I'd write them a check tomorrow.

BUILD A RUBICON TRIM JEEP GLADIATOR TOYOTA, WITHOUT US HAVING TO BUY A FUCKING MODERN JEEP

 

I'd take that 20k and drop it onto my house note...

Truck is mostly stock and looks good as is and drives good as is.

 

My house is almost paid off. I want to build my truck so I don't do something stupid with my midlife crisis like buy a boat or an airplane

 

toyota makes me angry on a regular basis. they will read that email, and have a meeting about it. "lets make a short wheel base diesel or v8 capable of 37s with no trimming" and then sell it but not in the US or Canada

 

yellow or red corvette convertible with an automatic

 

Wise move. I'm closing in on paying mine off.
Then I wanna upgrade the camper to a Scamp 16 or Casita and just go..... anywhere, anytime.
My new motto will be: Have Camera Will Travel

 

Sell your 3rd gen, buy my supercharged, upgraded 2nd gen. Come out ahead with more budget to add all the heavy steel stuff you “need”…

 

I bought my brother's 2012 for $11k and kept it for a while with full intentions of making that my offroad rig. Then some idiots from southern UT offered me $23k for it and I was like, "SOLD!"

 

If I was gonna do something that stupid, I'd buy one of those new Miatas that has the power to weight of a fighter jet

 

my whole life is a mid life crisis. I plan how im going to make it worse daily