Casper's Broken Down old Grumpy Assed Build

CHAPTER 2: A fesh start

So for some of you who have been on here the last couple of pages this will be repetitive but I had to figure out how to start this.

Hello everybody! Well as many of you know my wife and I decided to start a new venture in our lives and kinda get invloved in the overlanding life in our own little way. With the purchase of our micro off road camper we are looking forward to many cool adventures. Last weekend we took it on it's maiden voyage/ shake down run and other than a couple of small hiccups it performed flawlessly. Part of this was to also test the truck and it's abillity to pull the camper where we need to go so we picked a campground , yes campgrounds for now, that was relatively close to home yet we had to take it over a fairly steep mtn to get there. The truck did ok just through the hills although it had to down shift quite a bit to keep up but fell flat on it's face getting up and over the mtn both coming and going. I loved my little truck make no mistake! It was cleaned and pampered almost daily. I never got tired of looking at it and loved driving it, however, as the saying goes "If the dog won't hunt it's time to go!" We want the freedom to travel anywhere we want to go and didn't want to be concerned all the time with if we were going to make it or not or if we would hurt the truck so we felt it prudent to, I'm not going to say upgrade, but get a truck that better suited our needs.

It may sound rediculous but I already miss the old truck may it serve somebody well and i hope it continues to be treated well.


I sadly spent the whole of last week removing almost all the mods to the old truck alone in the garage and returned it almost completely to stock. So, right now I have a mtn of parts and mods to go on the new truck some of which will wait until the lift goes in. I kinda figured I may as well just start at the beginning with this one.

What we purchased is a 2015 TRD Sport DCSB manual trans. 4.0l truck we found at a dealer the next town over. It has about the same miles on it as the other one but obviously 2 years newer. Besides the V6 we liked some of the other options like the factory tow package and the outlet in the bed which may be handy with our camping. It's white of course and as part of the deal I had them transfer my floor liners and wheels and tires. It was kinda funny they were all scared the wheels and tires weren't going to fit until I finally told them to just put them on and let me worry about it. Of course they fit fine like I knew they would.

Here are some pics to get things rolling. These were as soon as we got it home.







Yes the light bar will be gone quickly! First will be a good detailing and waxing tomorrow and then probably a debadge!
Thanks see ya later!

LET THE MODS BEGIN!
Pg 40 Unifilter mod
Pg 40 Debadge
Pg 41 Front bumper
Pg 41 Lighting
Pg 42 Tool and Hilift mounts
Pg 43 Seat covers
Pg 44 AC drain rlocate
Pg 49. Lift, CB drop, rear diff breather
relocate, tail pipe chop
Pg 50 Best Top
Pg. 51. SOS ifs skid
Pg. 52 All pro sliders
Pg. 52 TRD short throw shifter
Pg. 52. Under hood lighting
Pg. 55. SOS Skid plates
Pg. 56 DIY paint repair
Pg. 69 CB install
Pg. 71 Ultragauge EM Plus
Pg. 80 CMC
Pg. 94 ADD W1 catch can
Pg: 101 Frame reinforcing plates
Pg: 101 Frame tie in brackets for front bumper
Pg: 111 winch
Pg: 113 Rear Suspension
Pg: 114 'Dat Ass! rear bumper install
Pg: 118 Grill mounted pod lights
Pg: 123 BHLM
Pg: 129 Roof Rack
Pg: 129 Time to Dorkle up Airflow snorkel install
Pg: 134 Roof rack lighting
Pg: 134 Archive garage Hammer Hangers
Pg: 152 ARB Twinn compressor with Slee mount

Interior:
CH 4x4 small Toyota push switches in the consloe below heater controls
Ultragauge EM Plus
Extreme duty Tech Dech
Ram phone mount
Ram gps mount
Carhart custom fit seat covers full set

Communications:
Cobra 75 WX ST
4' Firefly antenna
Radio Shack hand held CB

Navigation:
Magellan TR7 on road/ off road gps

Exterior:
Debadge
Custom fabbed light brackets for rear bed corners DIY (REMOVED)
Rago fabrication ditch light brackets
Custom fabbed DIY relay bracket in engine compartment
Plasti dipped the grill emblem White
Tool mounts on bed rail DIY
Hilft mounts on bed rail DIY
Tail pipe chop
Best Top soft camper shell
Red Line hood struts
Fire extinguisher mount DIY
Cab Mount Chop/ full chop DIY
Lock n Roll trailer hitch
Reese 11" drop hitch
Weather Tech window vent visors
@bullaculla trailer harness relocate bracket (REMOVED)
KB Voodoo bed rail reinforcement plates
DIY frame reinforcing plates
Tie in brackets for front bumper
BHLM
Hooke Rd roof rack
Custom 3D printed grill emblem
LED strip light for third brake light on Best Top


Engine and performance:
Unifilter/ Secondary airpump mod
AC Drain relocate
TRD short throw shifter
Fumoto oil drain valve
ADD W1 oil catch can
Airflow snorkel
ARB TwinnCompressor with a Slee mount

Drivetrain and Suspension:
2004 Tundra wheels and lugs
Cooper STT Maxx 255/80/17's

Front:
Bilstein 5100's set at "0"
Toytec/ Eibach 521600 coils 3" lift
3/8 top plate spacer driver's side
1/4" top plate spacer passenger side
Wheeler's Super bumps
Camburg ball joint uca's

Rear:
Wheeler's 3 leaf progressive AAL (REMOVED)
OME 5mm shim for D side leafs (REMOVED)
Icon Remote Resi 2.0 shocks (REMOVED)
Deaver Stage III progressive 9 leaf packs with 2 overloads
Bilstein B110's
All Pro Ubolt flip kit
Wheeler's Super bumps
Archve Garage Hammer Hangers
Archive Garage Polly shackle bushings

Suspension Misc:
Rear diff breather relocate
OME carrier bearing drop
+4 rear brake lines

Lighting:
Caliraised 18w amber pods for fogs
Caliraised18w LED pod for rear lighting
Caliraised 27w LED side projecting ditch lights
Caliraised 18w spot pods in the grill
Flush mount LED pods in rear bumper
4 18w LED pods on roof rack
Under hood led lighting
Grill or "Raptor" lights Super Bright LED
LED light upgrade dome, vanity, and map light

Armor:
SOS Concepts aluminum plate front bumper with full hoops
SOS Concepts IFS skid (steel)
SOS Concepts transmission skid
SOS Concepts transfer case skid
SOS Concepts standard rear bumper with dual swingouts
All Pro sliders (modified)

RECOVERY / TOOLS
48" Hilift jack
Masterflow tsounami compressor
4 3/4" shackles
2 hitch mounted shackles
Axe
Shovel
Hatchet
Machete
2 ton come a long
Skill craft emergency kit
Auto power jumper pack
Craftsman tool set
Torque wrench
Metric wrench set
Tire plug kit
First aide kit
2 C clamps
Jumper cables
12v/110w LED work light
ARB recovery strap
Engo E9000 winch with synthetic line
Haws fairlead
16,000lb snatch block
traction boards
ARB recovery blanket for winch line
ARB deflator
Rhino USA tree strap

MAINTENANCE:
60k service complete 57,234 miles Pg. 60
61,392 miles oil change and cleaned air filter
66,150 miles tire rotation
66,659 miles oil change, cabin air filter, cleaned air filter, topped off fluids, cleaned MAF
71,768 miles: oil, filter, rotate tires, fuel treatment, empty catch can
76,000 miles: Rotate tires
76,700 miles: oil & filter, clean air filter, empty the catch can
82,364 miles: oil & filter, air filter, empty and clean catch can, clean MAF
87,400 miles: oil & filter, cleaned air filter, spark plugs, pcv valve, catch can, & maf
8/13/22. New tires just replaced with same tire and size
ON THE WORK BENCH:

ABS kill switch
Slee compressor mount
ARB twin compressor


ON ORDER:





IN THE WORKS:

 

I see ya there sneakin

 

Congrats man. You picked a good year. Those smiley faces belong on a Jeep not a Tacoma

 

Which mud flaps did you need?

 

Cool beans.
That truck will tow better. Let me know if you design a backseat box instead of a seat.

 

I don't know him...


... the scoop really enhances the stormtrooper theme IMGOBO ... that never occurred to me before ... must be the wheels.

 

Just scrolled back up to look again ... that's a great lookin' truck.

EDIT: If they'd had a 2015 like that, specifically with the manual trans, left on the lot up here Aug to Oct 2015, I'd likely be driving it today versus deciding to go full size as I did.

Good choice Chris.

 

Good move Chris

 

Glad you found one quick! And an m/t! That's going to be a lot of fun!!! And great looking truck too! And its cool that the new one is white too! Wheels fit perfect! Sad that you had to let the 2.7 go but the 4.0 is will be way more useful!

Now to see all the mods you'll do to it!

 

One question Chris , why did they think the tires/wheels wouldn't fit?

... not a Toyota dealer?

 

When I bought my 2015, it did not have front mud flaps. I would like to have front mud flaps but I suspect the previous owner removed them after doing the lift and adding the bigger tires because of tire rub.

What I was hoping to do was borrow a set from someone so I could "try them on" to see if they do indeed rub before going out and buying a set of my own. I don't want to spend the money to buy a set if they are not going to work.

 

Yeah. They are so 1970s.

 

Yeah I understood haha I was just saying im glad u did haha I would have done the same thing. I have a tendency to keep the oem parts that I have replaced with after market parts just in case i need to remove everything and convert the truck back to oem.

 

Thanks Rob

 

They're a Toyota dealer. The tires are 33's and they thought too big with nonlift on it. Wrong

 

Interesting... again, happy for ya'll.

 

Somewhat busy morning today piddling with the truck. I got an early start and just kept on going until I had to get ready for us to go to a cook out in a little while. So for taday I got done:
1. Removed the stock spare
2. Removed the KC lights and associated wiring harness
3. Put all my crap back in the truck from the other one
4. Removed and repositioned the wheels and tires as they put them on in the wrong places
5. While in the engine bay I went ahead and knocked out the uni-filter mod



6. Debadged except for the TRD decals because my wife likes them and I'm not arguing with her about it (maybe later if I get some custom ones)





7. Cleaned up some scratches in the paint there's still a few small chips but hell I'll probably put more on it anyway, then gave it a good waxing with Mother's cleaner carnuba wax. Note: when waxing a white truck your applicator shouldn't come back black that's how dirty the paint was after a good scrubbing with detergent not car wash soap.



When we get back this evening I'll probably have Christie help me bring the bumper in maybe a good job for tomorrow

 

Sub'd for Chapter 2.0

Congrats on the new wheels my friend. She is looking sexier by the day.

 

Thanks buddy it'll get alot done this week but the heavier armor will wait until post lift