PsiMan's Overland build

Sooooo this is the build log of my 2015 Tacoma TRD Off Road, 6 speed manual (and my 1st post!)

The plan is to make the truck a vacationing machine. The short term goal is to enhances the travel-bility of truck. Adding the second battery for always on charging of devices and backing up the main. Adding the radios for communication outside of cell coverage, and adding winch for self recovery.

At the end of June, my Gf, her daughter and I will be driving from Sacramento California to the Florida keys on a road trip, about 8500 miles round trip.

some of these pic are from when I started the project back in November 2015

Installed

Custom bed rack
ARB Bumper
Bird Dawg Tech Deck​

Waiting to install

Off-Grid Engineering Battery trays
Bussmann RTMR
Blue Seas ML-ACR
all ways on usb charging ports
Cobra 75 WX CB radio
Yaesu FT-8900 ham radio
CBI Ditch light, antenna bracket
Warn XD-9000
IPF bumper Lights​

As it sits now (yeah yeah it needs a lift lol)

 

I used to work at a fab shop and I have stayed friends with the owner who lets me use his shop.. I didnt care much for the bed rack available for roof top tents. so I built my own.

Designed in Solidworks 1st



Cut out the pieces on my old bosses 5 axis plasma cutter


deburred them:


The legs are tapered in 2 directions which is sorta pain in the a$$ to do with out a fixture or a fancy press break... I added tabs, so it bent parallel to the back gauge, later I cut the tabs off


All bent up and ready to go

 

Ohhhh Ive gotten spoiled.. I cut all the box tubing on a programmable band saw..


Tacked up and attempting to keep it flat

 

Very nice. Welcome to TW!

 

I tig welded the box tube section together then weld the legs on.. Next I bolted the bed rail piece on.. then spent forever aligning the top half..


I ended up not using the round tube, It was a idea that got scraped


tacked it in place, then took it off and finished welding it up.. luckily it stayed flat

 

Here she is before our first trip.. I painted gray just because I wanted to use it first before I had it powder coated.. The roof top tent is a CVT Mt. Shasta (you can see where the tabs got cut off)








Joshua tree thanksgiving week 2015

 

lol not even 5k miles on the truck when I cut the bumper valance in half


got the ARB bumper and fogs installed


I hacked off the stock fog light harness connector and replaced it with a metripack connector to the arb fogs

 

I had those horrendous "pin strips" removed

*pic out of order lol*

 

I really like the Piranha Dual battery system, but far as I can tell its no longer made so I tried to build my own with a group 34 battery.
after messing around and building a prototype I really wasn't happy with the location.. There probably isn't 3/16 to spare between both side. In my opinion that's way to close to something as vital as the radiator


after pondering this conundrum for a while I found Off Grid Engineering's battery tray.. and quickly bought them....
they fit awesome.. I did have to add a few more degrees of bend to the fuel resistor tab.. but the fit is pretty amazing

I painted them white to blend.


I decided to build a little bracket to hold the grounding bus bar.. to hide the mess of grounding wires



the battery trays were not designed for the Optima 34's but I had I already had 2 brand new ones and wasn't going to replace them. The battery hold downs that Off Grid Engineering makes looks nice, but a little to wide for the 34's battery post. I wanted to run the fuse there anyways for the bluesea's ACR. I made new hold downs with the fuse.


The wiring ended up a little messier than I wanted but it will work, and is safe




I put the Bluesea's ACR switch and Peak DBI voltage gage in the stock dummy switch slots. I had to file out the spot for the ACR switch a little, then put a spot of epoxy so it wouldn't rattle.

The Peak DBI voltage gage as no stock way of mounting, so I drilled a hole thru the dummy plug and epoxied it on. I added a on/off switch, in case I get tired of it aways being on

 

My plan is to install Bussmann RTMR in the engine compartment, with relays and fuse for offroad lights, bed lights, house aux and air compressor but with the road trip impending in a few weeks, I have to put that on hold..

I've been planing on running a separate fuse panel for the interior, its easier to run 2 heavy wires than a whole bunch of little ones. I decided on a Bussmann RTMR fuse only box because they are cheapish, I have the crimpers, they have 2 banks, in case I want to make one "always on" or "engine running" and its similar parts.

I looked all over for a good place to install it... I figured the center consol was good.. since its a central location
Made this panel out of .090 aluminum


Had to figure out out to drill thru the plastic...



there is some 1 by 1/4 aluminum epoxied other side of the plastic

a very important item for me on this roadtrip is to keep my GF's daughter entertained driving... its going to be rough to spend 7000 miles in the back of a Access cab, providing power for her devices is the least I can do.

I went old school building the trim panel, cut it out on my dads scroll saw.. Normally I would have machined it (its my trade) but its nice to remember not everything requires a $40k piece of machinery


the 120v receptacle will be wired to the stock inverter, middle is bluesea's 12v receptacle, right is bluesea's dual usb charging port. The two end "protectors" are 2 inch drawer pulls from McMaster Carr