BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

This always scared me when watching people off road in land rovers. The automated system needs to gauge the situation and lock things, brake wheels, or fiddle with power, and the driver's job becomes to punch throttle in any situation so the computer can "work it out".

 

I really wish there was a waiver you could sign to get a truck without all the safety and nanny crap on it.

 

June 9, 2016: Comradery Continues

I came out from a hardware store and this white 3rd gen had parked next to me. I was pretty excited; There was plenty of other parking this guy could have used. This sort of stuff is still exciting me because my daily driver is a Supercharged MR2, which is one of the least sold Toyota cars in history so I get crazy-excited whenever I see someone driving the same vehicle as me.



That weekend a local customer and long time family friend parked next to my Taco at church. Was cool to see em side-by-side



This 4Runner has a 3.4-liter Tacoma V6 conversion with a Dual Ultimate Marlin Crawler (217:1 final drive / Crawl Ratio).



June 16, 2016: Paint issue

The next week I found paint wearing off on the corner of my bed. What in the world--I don't ever remember anything rubbing here and I've yet to drive with the tailgate down. The paint on the tailgate is immaculate. It's almost like they didn't paint it correctly and a trip or two through a car wash was enough for it to rub off?? The other side is perfect.

 

At this point guys I have to share the sad news that before I knew it the summer had taken off and got away from me. My wife and I celebrated our 10 yr anniversary in Hawaii, I returned to southern Japan to visit relatives for the first time since the largest earthquake disaster in recorded Kyuushuu history, I upgraded the entire content management system (backend) of our Marlin Crawler website (replacing the prior system I built 8 yrs ago), restructured both our sales and warehouse crews, and my wife and I started the process of purchasing our first house.

As for community outreach, between May and October Marlin Crawler both sponsored and attended 32 different 4WD events, Forest Service CPR/chainsaw classes/trail work parties, and led three Adopt-A-Highway clean-ups. Members of 11 different 4WD clubs, it's no secret as to how serious we consider community involvement and it takes time to get things setup/prepared. This is a core, fundamental difference that separates Marlin Crawler from other companies in that this was first a hobby that grew into a company; Supporting the community is where our heart is.

I was so busy that other than the Moab trip I posted earlier, I only went to one other event the remainder of 2016: Our 15th annual Marlin Crawler Round-Up at the Rubicon........in my 1981 Hilux......where we eclipsed the $100,000 dollar mark in total donations to the Rubicon Trail(!).

I went from a "3rd Gen Tacoma forum pro-lurcher" to a complete off-site ghost. But at least I made our Round-Up, which since 2004 my Hilux has never missed a single one. After I got home I remember telling the truck how this will be her last Rubicon trip for a while...



I actually almost missed this one because I couldn't get my internal/company work done until Saturday morning the day of the event. I drove straight up to Rubicon, wheeled in solo, made it to the Springs Campground in time to oversee the dinner & raffle, and returned home the next day.

Check out this 35-year old Toyota Rock Crawler with 19 times more torque than a 2016 V10 Dodge Viper and still get'n it done overloaded up Cadillac Hill in the partial wet.
"I Love What You Do For Me, Marlin Crawler!"



Fast forward to November, and with both our annual Round-Up event (photo gallery) and the October Off-Road Expo (photo gallery) out of the way, it was time to finally get crack'n on the Tacoma!!!

 

@BigMike

In case you haven't researched this yet.

Tacoma Hilux 2.4L/2.8L
RC62F ratios. RC61F ratios.
1)3.98:1 1)4.78:1
2)2.02:1 2)2.42:1
3)1.32:1 3)1.44:1
4)1.00:1 4)1.00:1
5)0.85:1 5)0.78/0.82:1
7)0.71:1 6)0.64:1
R)3.39:1 R)4.06:1

I think the RC61F behind the 3.5L would be a much better fit than the RC62F. For my use at least.

 

@RedBeard1

Hmmmmmmmm most interesting. I've been to the Wiki page and have both seen them listed and never considered this. This is highly appealing to me because I am going to run into a bit of an on-road gearing issue with this truck soon. More on that soon hopefully

I forgot to mention on May 25, 2016 I took my Tacoma in to a local dealer for it's first check-up (hit 5K miles on my way back from Moab, see previous page) and had a horrible experience. I am done with dealer service. The jerks removed items from my center console and left them on the passenger's seat (what in the hell were they doing in there?), left my AC on full blast (I rarely use AC), changed my radio station and left the volume up, didn't move my seat back, rear-view mirror was pointing up at the headliner, the floormat's yellow safety warning tag that is a mile long was unraveled (I had it neatly tucked under the mat), and they left my Qi charger on (I don't have a Qi-device). To top it off, they lowered my tire pressure from my setting of 40 PSI (mfg max rating is 44) to 28 PSI (door sticker says 29) (this is probably federally mandated or something dumb like that).

I've slowly been learning that dealerships are worthless and my standards have been too high for them. I expect them to be Toyota experts (are they not specially trained by Toyota?) and to provide the highest quality of work (do they not charge the highest labor rate?). But that's it, I'm not taking the Tacoma back in. Especially since it is going to be modified, all I need is some inconsiderate dealership junkie to mess around with my gearing and roll the truck in the parking lot. Screw that. And it's not just the Tacoma; Other dealers have done similar things to my wife's 2013 Yaris such as left oil plainly drizzled clear across our plastic engine cover. If you want something done right you'd better do it yourself so from here out I will.

Speakings of which, I don't know if I've shared pics of our 2013 Yaris SE and my 1987 Supercharged MR2 so here come a couple:

We've driven the Yaris all over and it's a fantastic car. Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc. Have done a bunch of road trips averaging just over 20K/year.



I have a long history with this MR2. My father bought it for me my senior year in H.S. with a blown engine for only $300 and a week later I had it running with an engine pulled from the wrecking yard. Have owned this car for 18 yrs and counting, and it has almost 350K miles now. I know this car inside and out, have done a ton of track-specific mods, and currently have it up to 265-HP (166 HP/liter!). It is both quick and fast: As fast as a brand new 5-liter V8 Mustang. I even have my own lil MR2 website: If you're bored check it out: http://bigmike.marlincrawler.com.



Here was my original "blow it up big-time" plan with this truck:
August
1. Order the Tacoma August 2015

November: "Stage I"
2. As promised by the first dealer, take ownership no later than November (as we know this didn't happen)
3. Install All Pro's upper control arm kit + rear leafs for a 3" lift
4. Install 33" tires
5. Get our new MC11/TacoBox installed (redesigned if necessary) so I'll have the World's First Dual Case 3rd Gen Tacoma
6. Install Rock Sliders

January 2016: Attend basic events
This should be enough to get me through the basic/easy events such as CVC's New Year's snow run, Cal4WD's Winter Fun Festival, be the first and only 3rd gen on display at the King Of The Hammers, Kingsburg snow Poker run, TLCA's Mud-N-Yer-Eye frolic at Hollister, Cal4WD's Molina Ghost Run, our local Fresno 4WD Club's Blue Canyon Poker run, and Cal4WD's Hi Desert Round-Up. (Reality: I didn't get the truck until after most of these events.)

Late May 2016: "Stage II"
7. Upgrade All Pro's basic front kit to their long travel kit
8. Do a ton of fender trimming and install 37" or 39" tires
9. By this time hopefully ARB would have a new rear Air Locker ready and I'd be able to have some actual lockers
10. Come up with something for F & R bumpers, most important being the rear (Still on the fence about what to do for bumpers as nothing on the market has really excited me yet).

June 25, 2016
Be the first 3rd gen Tacoma to conquer the Rubicon trail for TLCA's annual "Rubithon" event!

It's painful to look back as there were many missed opportunities. Time to get this ball roll'n!

 

Nov 1, 2016: The Start of "Stage 1"

On the 1st of Nov I started on what I call "Stage 1". The plan is to start with 33" tires & our Dual Ultimate TacoBox Marlin Crawler.

It was finally feeling like progress when these showed up:



285 / 70 R17 BFG All-Terrain T/A KO2. According to a random online calculator, they measure 32.7 X 11.2 in inches. Here is what they look like next to my stock 265 / 65 R17 (30.6" x 10.4"):

 

Nov 1, 2016: The Start of "Stage 1" (continued)

We also had some 35" x 12.5" (proper 35") BFG Mud-Terrains KM2 in stock so whynot



30.6" vs 32.7" vs 35"

 

Finally just the 35"

 

Nov 2, 2016: "Stage 1" - Suspension and Differential Gearing

The next day the Tacoma **finally** made it up on our lift

 

How about a short throw shifter for us

 

I need more! Thanks for the updates.

 

Hahah. What a tease with your last post!

 

Solid airline. Good choice nice truck too!

 

We will definitely be looking into this. We've got some other short throw projects in the works that will hopefully be coming out later this year.

Thank you SoupaSoup!

Nov 2, 2016: "Stage 1" - Differential Gearing

Out came this hunk of junk for regearing!





Also yanked out this all-new rear diff! This puppy is huge -- Nice work Toyota!



Despite the fact that things didn't go as planned, it turns out it took more than one year for the first aftermarket gear set to be built. So having waited through the entire year, I was able to get a new R&P gear set from the very first batch of gears from Nitro!



A few things to note here...

-- Because my truck is a manual, it already came with 4.30:1 gearing (vs 3.901:1 for 6cyl autos). So the drop to 4.88:1, which is a staple Hilux/minitruck gear ratio with history dating back to the late 80s and rice paddy use in Brazil, will only net a 13.5% reduction meaning any tire size larger than 34.7" (30.6" + 13.5%) will cause the truck to become overgeared. There is another common aftermarket Toyota ratio, the 5.29:1, but Nitro has no interest in making this ratio for the 3rd gen. Their reasoning is that anyone who needs that low of gearing would ditch IFS anyway. I agree. Here we have another negative strike against keeping the truck IFS.

-- ARB was behind further, not having a rear air locker available yet. I did get the front installed which had not changed from the 2nd gen Tacoma, but I'll have to wait for a rear locker now. Ohh man. So I guess I wouldn't have been able to do (or would have struggled to do) Rubicon/Fordyce/Hammers/etc even had I been on schedule. Bitter sweet. Installing an ARB later once available wouldn't be the end of the world so I decided to just get this stuff done now to get working on other projects.

Here we have the new Nitro R&P installed and setup using Marlin's industry-leading set-up procedure!

 

Nov 14, 2016: "Stage 1" - All Pro Off Road F&R Suspension

Next was time to get this baby lifted a bit for the 33s. I went with All Pro Off Road's upper control arm kit plus Fox shocks. I have to admit I am partial to All Pro, after all they were the first to join Marlin in his quest to "get respect for Toyota's" in a world previously dominated by Jeeps.



Nevertheless, I do believe they offer the best upper control arms on the market primarily because they feature oversized 1-1/4" uniballs that are also recessed for even more clearance for the misalignment spacers. I'd wager they allow the most amount of droop on the market. Not that I'm going to run up the shocks for too much lift as I still have factory a-arms, but on the trail having as much movement without binding is very important to maintain good tire-to-ground pressure/traction. Combine that with high quality Factory Series Fox Shocks and I'm very hopefully for a better ride than the really tiny Hitachi TRD Sport shocks.

Upper arms and new shocks fitted!!



Got the rear setup with All Pro's rear leaf spring and U-Bolt flip kit. I also like their rear kit because their springs are born from their Hilux/minitruck springs which I already know are proven plus Marlin runs them on the Crawler Truck. All the same Hilux spring features I'm familiar with are carried over to the Tacoma springs which is cool.

 

Nov 15, 2016: "Stage 1" - New 33" rubbers!

Off to the tire/alignment shop! The stock wheels will be sufficient for Stage I.



WOOHOO! Man just driving this thing with even a modest lift already makes me feel 1,000% better. The front shocks came pre-adjusted from All Pro but as you can see they definitely sat too low.



So we cranked em up a lil and got the truck re-aligned the same day for free (nice)



Look'n better!





Ride quality:
So at this point I've only driven the truck around town a bit but WOW it is seriously so much better than stock. Granted, I never had the nice Bilstein you TRD Off Road guys have, but compared to the overly bouncy and under dampened Hitachi shocks this is a night and day difference. The ride quality has been drastically increased. Definitely looking forward to seeing how this does off road!

 

Nov 17, 2016: Convinced my Dentist to get a new Tacoma!

I've got an awesome dentist who is an avid outdoorsman and he was so intrigued by my Epic Journey that after reading this Build Thread he went out and found a new White Double Cab Automatic (lol) SR5 V6.

It was cool showing up to his office with the new lift and tires only after a few days since he bought his. He was crawling all over mine asking 101 questions for what I've got planned for it. Ohh man it's so cool owning a truck that is so new to the world!

Sorry for the overexposed picture, I wanted to get em both in the same shot despite him parked in the shade. My front end could probably still go up a bit more but I do prefer a slight rake when unloaded...



If I make a sharp and aggressive entrance to a driveway I will have front tire to fender rubbing. I'll have to get this addressed before I go wheel'n. It is contacting the rear leading edge of both front inner wheel wells.

I discovered he has this AWESOME feature that I'm lacking: Rear cargo light. What. The. Heck. Toyota?! I've got a higher grade TRD Sport and yet my center light is only a one piece red unit with no cargo light feature. I'll have to get this factory option installed...



Random November pic

 

Dec 7, 2016: Can't believe I never noticed this

The title says it all: I can't believe I never noticed this before. I'm driving to work on a chilly December morning and both mirrors are fogged. I think to myself, if this truck has heated seats then it better have heated mirrors and sure enough I found one of the most obvious buttons for this that I have not noticed before I'm still like a kid in a candy store over here!



Ahh much better



Jan 22, 2017: Drove up to a snowy Shaver Lake

Marlin and I both missed the Central Valley Crawler's Annual New Year's Day Snow Run so I was itch'n to get back up to the mountains in this thing.

Wife and I finally had some time to run away so we took a quick spin up to Shaver Lake. Nothing special, just mainly stayed on the pavement and enjoyed some quiet time together for a change.

Took a quick stop at Cressman's



Wife taking some pics of the pretty snow-covered pine trees. I remember noticing that was the first water exposure to the inner door panels.



Haven't seen Shaver Lake this high in a good five years. I hope we can get out of this 7+ yr long drout!

 

Jan 30, 2017: Finally no more hood scoop!

The next week I was leaving a Starbucks when a white TRD Off Road pulls up. I immediately walk over, introduce myself, and ask if the guy is interested in a hood with a fake plastic hood scoop? He got all excited and so did I so I had him meet me back at our shop and we both couldn't have been happier!!

I have to give a shout-out to @bowzerdoo77 who originally contacted me way back in April of last year requesting a hood swap. We tried to meet up once in Barstow, but it didn't work out, and in the end I think I was too busy with other things to follow through and ended up backing out of the exchange. Brody, thanks again for the offer and hope you've found a hood scoop hood by now!

LET'S DO THIS! Death to fake hood scoops that limit overthehood trail visibility!



The donor (a DoubleCab Automatic of course ): Hey Ruben if you're an active member here, thanks man!



The patient:



Hood off! Still have that sweet Moab red dust



My old hood on Ruben's Tacoma. Man, Ruben was super happy!



My new hood! YES, now I was super happy!! Haha we were both so impressed with ourselves



Interestingly, when performing the swap I noticed his hood was made at the Mexico plant. Well....... my Tacoma was made at the Texas plant so I can't spoil it, right..... but come to find out my hood is also made in Mexico.

I also noticed Ruben had the same switch/option as my dentist.



I really like this clear lens cover. Mine is 100% full red straight across with no cargo/utility light (see second pic up from the bottom of my previous post). I'll be happy to get this swapped in-