BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

Early on I considered a Ford Raptor rack but dismissed it due to its specs. Did you know its TRE is only a 0.5mm larger radius than the stock Tacoma? Also the Raptor's tie rod-to-rack threaded connection is only margionally bigger than a 4th gen 4R. We can do better.

Edit: I'd like to mention that I have never seen one in person. This is based off of specifications I researched online.

 

February 18, 2018: Begin Tire to Body Clearancing

After finishing the "easy" part of getting the MarRack installed, I was waiting for alignment/geometry parts (time consuming work) and had moved on to Tire-to-Body Clearancing

Here is the 40" Cooper with 4.00" backspaced 17" wheels and +2" longer a-arms at as far up travel as it can go before, well, see the pics for yourself :-/



Oof.



Ooof.



Oooooooooooooof. Mind you this is only the tire pointing straight.

 

February 18, 2018 (continued): Begin Tire to Body Clearancing

Inward front tire clearancing: Commence!

Step 1: Increase room at wheel-well front:



Step2: Increase room at wheel-well upper-front:



Sharpie lines look good about here.



Good riddance windshield spray reservoir! Just kidding, however I did ditch the reservoir on both my MR2 and 1981 Hilux. But this truck is too nice & I'd like to keep things functional. As you can imagine it's quite the low priority, but I plan to cut the plastic, lower it's height, and glue it back together. Done.

Looking good, looooooking good

 

February 18, 2018 (continued): Begin Tire-to-Body Clearancing

Ok! Full frontal stuff achieved at full spindle steering lock! Woooooohooooooooo!

The tire rubs on the front bumper tube. Great to know; These are the things prototyping is meant for!



New Engine Bay Feature: 40" Tire Treads





And that was it for Day No.1

 

I'm not sure, there's still sheet metal that can be removed.

 

Put me down as another PS rack failure in the rocks on 315s.

 

Ya totally love whoring out pics lol. Well as of right now myself and a friend are headed down the last weekend in May provided the weather has cooperated and there's not a bunch of snow. I would love to come for an event unfortunately being the rookie on the crew i got last pic for time off so late May early June is all I could manage... anyways here's a few shots of the mighty 09 4cyl 4x4 5spd lol






I wont fill up too much space here. She might be slow but she gets the job done eventually

 

@Arcticelf

 

Noted, thank you. So about a 34-1/2" tire then. Mind me asking what you were doing when it failed? Thanks

Hey TYetti, cool pics! Also SLOW is the way to GO! So you've got the 2TR-FE, that's badass We have a member on our MC forum with a 1990s Daihatsu Rocky who swapped in your engine. He loves it!!

We run Rubicon twice annually: Third weekend of June for TLCA's Rubithon event (oldest Toyota Rubicon event in history: https://rubithon.com/) as well as our Round Up 2nd (or sometimes the 3rd) weekend of September.

This year for Rubithon I'm actually putting together a group specifically for Tacomas and would love to have ya join. It will be a slower paced two-day journey to main camp. Event details thread here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lin-crawler-this-june-rubithon-invite.543841/

 

February 23, 2018: Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.2

Next was to tackle clearance at the cab.

On older Hilux pickups and Hilux 4Runners, it's a pretty simple process, especially when the older trucks either don't have carpet or only have a vinyl floor covering. Very few wires or items to move. No insulation or sound deadening materials. Generally not too concerned with smoke in the cab or how hot things get. And so on.



We do have to trim quite far because with leaf springs the tire travels up and back, fortunately that doesn't apply to me because this was a pain to do on the Tacoma.

Interior carpet, insulation, and fuse box moved aside



Start cut'n!



Geeeeeeeez these newer trucks are a huge complicated sheetmetal mess!! I can see how they get such good crash test scores, have a nice quiet interior, and how they can be so dang heavy...

It. Was. Nasty. There was a lot of plastic pieces, and the seam sealer required between so many joints was a pain in the butt to remove and/or cut through

I originally planned to remove the entire body mount from the frame and make a new one with a new hole drilled in the cab, but actually thanks to my prototype lower A-Arms, the tire just barely clears the forward-facing mount bracket bolt and I decided to leave it be. I think once a plate goes over this it will contact the tire, but, this could be a good thing as it would keep the tire away from weaker sheetmetal parts.





But, can't let the small things get to me when I've got a clear vision for this Tacoma and know what has to be done to get there.

Here is the passenger tire at full up-travel and full right steering spindle lock

 

February 25, 2018: Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.3

Now that I had the cutting done on the passenger side, I just needed to replicate it on the driver's. Knowing where to cut made it so much easier and I ended up cutting less and doing a cleaner job the second time around

Here is where I cut to open up the front of the cab



Area beneath the factory battery tray. I wasn't too concerned with the battery tray because in early June I plan to relocate the battery off of the cab (a heavy item that contributes to cab cracks on older trucks) and under the bed, so I'll be drilling out the factory battery spot welds and removing the tray before summer. (I have to wait for a certain particular project scheduled for the last weekend of May to know where the battery will be relocated.)



Dealing with the fuse box and associated harnesses was a PITA. I am using a plasma cutter and imagine if I were to hit a harness; In the blink of an eye I'd have to replace the entire thing!!

 

February 25, 2018 (continued): Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.3

Starting on the interior. Was a bit more crowded in here due to a larger fuse box, and of course pedals & steering wheel

On both sides I was able to preserve the factory firewall studs that both hold plastic trim down as well as a styrofoam block that makes up the driver foot rest



What a difference it was knowing what and where to cut. Cut a lot less over here.



Now I can clear 40s while turning!

 

February 28, 2018: Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.4

All that was left was to plate everything up and do some weather proofing

I took way too many pictures and don't need to bore the thread with details. I'll just post a few up...

 

February 28, 2018 (continued): Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.4





Finally, I went ahead and trimmed regions about 11 & 2 o-clock above each tire. In my current setup, this was unnecessary, however, should I design more up-travel in future setups then I wouldn't have to revisit this process. Might as well get it out of the way now

 

March 1, 2018: Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.5

Seam sealer, paint, rubberized protective undercoating, and call it a wrap!

 

March 1, 2018 (continued): Tire-to Body-Clearancing Day No.5



(I did seal the area at both body mount bolts after these pics)



And wa-la!



Can't even tell!

 

March 1, 2018 (continued): Rear Fender Supports

Because I had to remove rear inner fender bracing (got lobbed off with the fenders), I needed to replace some support. I thought these stainless steel TIG welding rods turning out nicely

 

It had been slowly dying but the nail was trying to get up a frozen 2' ledge in a rock waterfall. It was 20 point turns for me the rest of the day