Free Dominion

Well, I bought a 2012 tacoma DC SB TRD sport a little over a month ago, with the specific purpose of building an overland camping truck. This weekend I'm leaving on a 3-week overland trip through parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming (and a small part of Utah), the only particular destination and schedule is to be in Wyoming on August 21st, to be in the center of the path of totality during the solar eclipse, and being back home sometime in the first week of September. I figured I should post what I've spent the past 3 weeks doing to the truck. I'll spread it out through a few posts, because I don't have time for it all right now. I welcome suggestions, comments, constructive criticism, praise, and pledges of undying loyalty and servitude to my cause.
When I bought the truck, it was bone stock, other than the TRD sport stickers being removed, and riding on Texas edition wheels. When I say bone stock, I actually mean, stock including a ton of factory accessories and accessory packages; my favorite being, the premium & technology package with JBL audio and touch-screen.

I currently have it mostly finished, other than the rock rails and secondary electrical system, so you'll see me post-bombing with lots of pics over the next few days. I've already sanded and coated the rock rails, I just need to install them.

Anyway, here's the truck when I bought it from a Jaguar dealership in Houston (yes, I'm aware I look like a doofus in this pic. oh well).

First thing I did was the Demello front bumper and Smittybilt X2O 10k winch with synthetic line, as well as a nice pair of aftermarket headlights. First thing I did with the headlights was inspect all the sealing points. The sealing looked great, so I installed them without adding my own sealant. I live in the desert, but this July, we received more rain than they've seen in over six years, including torrential downpours, hail, you name it. No fogging at all on these. The best part, they were aimed perfectly, right out of the box (by chance I'm sure, but it was still nice for me to not have to aim them).

Then the rear bumper. This one took a lot more work, because it came raw. I had to sand the entire thing, then coated it with spray-on bed-liner. At the ridiculous price for which I bought this, I didn't mind one bit! Aside from greatly improving my angle of departure, it also has a class IV hitch built in. Oh, and I debadged the rear.. mostly.

Then came suspension. Old Man Emu all around (2" lift), with Wheeler's add-a-leaf.


For weatherproof storage of all my gear, I chose a different route than most. More to come soon...

 

Nice set up

 

For equipment and gear storage, rather than choosing a roof rack and hard/soft bags, totes, a topper, etc, I went with a 48"x36"x13" JoBox Storall. Weatherproof, lockable and solid as hell, I'm sure I could park a utv on top of this box without a bit of deflection. It's significantly heavier-duty than I was expecting. I mounted it to the truck-bed with blind nuts, a little bit to the right of center to accommodate narrower and wider items on each side of the box. The storall can hold up to 650 lbs in the drawer while fully extended. While I was at it, I installed a Kobalt narrow diamond-plate tool box, which will be for my air compressor and secondary electrical system (to power the air compressor, water pump, accessory lights, and to be an emergency starting battery) on one side, extra storage on the other. The tool box is held down with j-brackets. Both boxes together equal 60" in length, so they do fit in the short-bed without interfering with the tailgate. Then I drilled holes in the top of the storall for mounting brackets for the hi-lift, shovel and axe. When mounting the brackets, I used silicone sealant to seal the bolt holes, so the box remains weatherproof and water-tight. The dividers within the storall are adjustable and removable (they just slide in and out of slots), so I can make custom storage spaces within the drawer. The handle of the storall has a latch you hold while moving the drawer. This can be released at any point, and the drawer will lock in place, wherever you release the latch.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I removed the front accessory rail from the bed, to give a little extra room for the boxes. Before that, the tailgate would close, but it was pressed against the storall.

 

Thanks!

 

The storage is well thought out. Have fun

 

Next up was the ARB awning 2000. I mounted 4 Yakima landing pad #11 on the roof, utilizing the factory bolt-down points and some silicone sealant. I have round bars already mounted on yakima control towers, which quick-release from the landing pads for 30-second removal from the truck (I also have the yakima lock cores installed, so they can't easily be stolen while on the truck). I drilled holes in the bars and mounted the awning brackets, mounted the awning, and mounted to the truck. I also have the ARB deluxe awning room, which we'll use as our tent because it quickly attaches onto the awning frame for an easy tent solution.

Then there's the lights. I bought inexpensive, but highly rated LED pods on Amazon for better backup floodlights, and a different set of LED pods that came with amber lenses for the fog lights. Before mounting, I disassembled all the pods and sealed the seams with silicone sealant. I know the sealant worked, because we had downpours several evenings in a row, beginning while I was finishing installing them. No fogging at all. The backup pods replace the factory backup lights, which are no longer wired. I didn't see the use in keeping them running as well.


More still to come...

 

Awesome!!! ​

 

Looks great. I love that front bumper.

 

Nice build. I need to do an awning setup like yours.

 

Yes, Demello makes a fantastic, well-designed product.

 

Oh yea, I designed my own vector image in photoshop and illustrator, sent it to carstickers.com to be printed and BLAM! here it is!
Free Dominion.

 

More stuff, just in time to leave on the trip through NM, CO and WY. DOM tube rock rails, finished the first stage of the secondary electrical circuit, added short lengths of safety chain to the side rails to use as hook points (for netting, ratchet straps, etc), mounted fire extinguisher to the driver side rear door, mounted a RAM mount to the driver side OS handle, replaced sway bar bushings and links with better stuff, PIAA lights (received for a test and review. review will be posted in the review section at some point), and of course, patches.


And loaded up for the trip!