Spud the Truckadora

Howdy folks! I wanted to start a thread on my Taco build. I picked up this truck last summer with over 250,000 hard miles. It’s a 4wd,V6, 5 Spd, extended cab SR5.

When I first drove her, it had been sitting in a guys yard for months with the back window knocked out, a carport had collapsed on it after the carport got hit by a drunk driver, the tires were so bad they weren’t hardly round and couldn’t go over 50mph, the clutch master cylinder barely worked, and she was all around beaten on.... but the AC worked, which is a must living in here SC. I knew the previous owner and I believe I paid a fair price for both of us. Ever since I’ve been fixing and cleaning it up.

This is basically how she looked when I got her, although this is with new tires and bilstein 5100 lift.


The tires are Tire Recappers 285/75/16, the recaps run about 1”-1.5” large. I’d estimate they’re about the equivalent of 34” tires. They’re significantly bigger than 33’s, but smaller than 35’s. I had to install 1.5” wheel spacers to keep the fronts from rubbing the frame rail.


Much more to come, we built front and rear bumpers, gonna build rock rails, paint it with some kind of bed liner material and keep playing with it.

Years ago I was a huge gear head, I haven’t driven anything this unreliable in years, and I’m loving every minute of it!

I’ve got a lot more pics, I just need to find and organize them, but I thought this was a good starting post.

 

Welcome.
1st gen, best gen.

 

Custom front bumper we built with a harbor freight 9000 lb winch.


That’s not me in the pic, it’s my cousin Sam, he’s the master bumper fabricater in the family

Just in case no one believes we made it....






I love this bumper. Changes the whole look of the truck, improved the entry angle, and got rid of all the junk hanging off the factory bumper that got in the way of my tires

 

Nice and welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to TW.
What size tire you running?

 

They’re recapped 285/75/16, which run big, they’re considerable bigger than 33’s, but smaller than 35’s, so I’ll guess about a 34”

 

Cool. That's why I asked, I read somewhere else you wrote 34s. Recapped = retread I assume

 

Yep, it’s not my daily driver so I tried the cheap tires, only about $100/tire delivered to my door. I still haven’t completely decided what I think of them. Definitely not good for a daily driver, good for a dedicated off road rig, alright for the inbetween

 

Here’s the rear bumper we made. I really like the functionality of this thing. It weighs less than the factory bumper, and we eliminated the class IV receiver hitch. We probably saved over 100 lbs, and greatly improved the departure angle.

 

Finished product on the truck.

 

If anyone is curious, I posted a video walk around of my truck. This is how she looked with the front and rear bumpers, I’ve since built rock rails and a few other goodies that I’ll post shortly.

https://youtu.be/qjMJQk3HEc0

 

Digging it, man. Solid choice.

 

Thanks, it’s such a fun truck to play with and work on!

 

You're the Emiril Lagasse of bumper building! Nice

 

You say you've saved 100 lbs with the back bumper alone or both bumpers?

 

Back bumper alone.

with the winch I bet the front added 150-200lbs. The front suspension squated a fair amount. That beast was HEAVY to put on. It took three of us, two holding while the third put in the bolts in.

 

I’ve got some videos coming building a stinger and rock rails, but I thought I’d share my video of wheeling Spud last weekend:

https://youtu.be/ses33w1rCqs

 

I finally got together a video for building my rock rails. It took me over a month to get around to editing it. They work great, I already put them through their paces, even pivoted on them.

https://youtu.be/gwSs74E2vII

 

I’ve been lazy with updating this thread, I’ve made a few more changes to the truck, some small, some not so small. I put a roof rack on my camper shell, then I painted the entire thing with LinerExtreeme spray on bedliner, then I painted the wheels black just using rustoluem rattle cans.

https://youtu.be/ZPQjjN6Rn1Y

https://youtu.be/RD5zPMd8XYM

 

I’m gonna be a sour puss and say I liked the silver wheels better but good job!