One Man Trail - Solo Adventure Build

Hello all, I guess I need a place to park my build so here we go.

On February 20th 2018 I purchased my 2018 TRD off road long bed with the intention of building a vehicle that will comfortably take me on long road trips all around the country doing photography, which I do semi-professionally on the side but mainly for my own pleasure.

I have no intentions of building a rock crawling beast, I have a built 2006 Jeep Rubicon on 40's for that. (Yes, I love Jeeps and Yotas, I even love Subarus. If it gets you outside on the trail, have fun with whatever you drive) This is more a mobile base camp on wheels type build.

I have 4 major trips planned so far. First, I will be doing a 2,000 mile road trip this June encircling the Sierra Nevada range, hitting national parks (Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite) and monuments/photo stops along the way. Second, I will hit the Big 5 parks in Utah. Third, driving the Continental Divide Route from Mexico to Canada and back, mostly off road. Fourth, driving the Trans America Trail from Atlantic to Pacific.

The truck sits stock right now, except for a tint and a set of Method 16x8 wheels.



I ordered from Filthy Motorsports a full King OEM replacement setup with compression adjusters. They are custom valved and sprung for the type of driving I'll be doing and all the extra weight I'll be driving around with. Also I ordered stage II Deavers rated for 300-600lbs over stock which I'll be carrying all the time with my setup. Threw in the King rear hydraulic bump stops and TC mounts as well because...Kings. The front gets Camburg UCAs.

I ordered a James Baroud Evasion hardshell RTT from Tactical Application Vehicles in Albuquerque, NM. I'll be picking it up in June before my Yosemite trip.




The tent will be mounted on a Leitner Designs ACS bedrack like this example:



I'll update as new stuff gets added. I'm in Afghanistan for a couple more months so all the build pics will be in June. Right now I'm just buying parts and shipping them to my dad's house. He's worried he will run out of space haha.

 

Sub for the cool stuff

 

Jelly.

 

Interesting tent...looking forward to pics of it on the truck

 

Hell yeah! Sounds like you have some badass trips planned. Also, you might want to keep the idea open for a camper shell with a bed/sleeping platform? it might be more "road trip" friendly, you can literally pull off anywhere, have a sense of security, they hold up in windy/bad weather. You could also put more camera equipment and/or lock up gear in the shell. However RTT's and what you have pictured have their great pro's too.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...eping-platform-drawer-storage-systems.424709/

 

I have other plans that I haven’t shared yet that will handle storage concerns. My camera gear lives in my camera backpacks in the back seat so thats not an issue. The bed will have a GargoGlide 100% extension. On top of it I’ll fab a box that holds the fridge, pots and pans, stove, shower, etc. Leitner Designs is going to be releasing a new larger storage box for their ACS rack soon and I'll be getting a couple of those.

 

Ordered the Leitner Designs ACS rack today. Ordered a third load bar to support the middle of the tent just for the peace of mind, and Leitner's special RTT brackets because I think the design is good and they look nice even though I could fab up some brackets really easy. Oh yeah, they make bed stiffeners like some of the other companies but these fit with their bed rack so I added those. Now we wait.

 

Here's what my first big road trip with the Tacoma looks like. Roughly 2,000 miles. Sequoia Natl Park, Kings Canyon Natl Park, Yosemite Natl Park, The Racetrack playa in Death Valley Natl Park, Devil's Post Pile Natl Monument, Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, and a hand full of other monuments and places to visit. About 3 weeks planned.

 

nice truck man, i don't miss Afghanistan AT ALL... thank you for your service...i've been to most of the places you set up for your trip man its a fantastic trip, if you plan on solo-ing the whole time have a great trip if you want to hangout or see places most never will i'm sure theres a ton of people around where you're going who'd show you around..either way take care man and be safe

 

Thanks for the kind words. I don't miss this place when I'm home either

 

great truck and adventure plans!

did you use a program to map road trip? i assume those numbers are flagged locations?

 

Yeah, super cool website called www.myscenicdrives.com
At first it’s a little confusing but you’ll catch on quick and it’s free.

 

Nice build! So, have you done much research on the Continental Divide route yet? I would like to maybe do it this summer. Found this website about it with an ominous section along the route in Colorado: https://thefrenchieescapes.com/blog/2017/02/15/extreme-road-trip-american-great-continental-divide

 

Yes, I have done quite a bit of research on the Continental Divide Route. I have the entire route mapped out in Google Earth. You definitely want to try it in about August for the best chance of getting through the upper elevations without snow blocking the roads, but theres a chance of snow really all year if the weather acts up. You just gotta try it and have a plan for an alternate route.

 

Did you plot out the route or buy one of those commercial route guides? If you plotted it, mind sharing your KMZ file? If so, I’ll PM my contact email...

 

The JB tents are awesome. But you owe it to yourself to at least consider....

https://www.gofastcampers.com/
Or
http://vagabondoutdoors.com/

May give you quite a bit more livable space and it’ll be lighter (probably less expensive too) but either way at least take a few mins to watch the video.

There are a few other Wedge Style campers on here as well that may be worth looking at.

Anyway, thank you for your service and safe travels. Looking forward to following this build whichever way you go.

-Yota

 

Sub'd b/c I have the same DCLB and I ultimately want to build my overland rig. Obviously mine will be done long after yours but you will definitely give me insight into things I may not have considered.

One day I will be like this...one day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2eN2pn7wxM

 

I hand made the route in GE, click by click over about 6 weeks. I believe its the most detailed KMZ route you can find, I put a lot of effort into it. My personal route is a bit different because I have some side trips planned, but I have a baseline route as well. Here's a link to where you can find the route KMZ.

https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...-overland-planning.165744/page-2#post-2204732

 

Thanks for the insight on options. I've looked at those before but they don't fit the goals for my build. I think you will see as the build progresses, how each of the parts I chose will come together as a complete build. Plus I just swiped my card on the JB a couple days ago, lol.

 

Thanks for following along. Good luck with your build!