cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

Believe it or not, I actually never meant to build my truck. It's kinda a happy accident. I was going to daily it until I had all the part for SAS, then buy another daily and go from there. I grew up on the Rubicon Trail so it's only natural I return to my playground

 

What axle are you planning on using?

 

Won Tons

Most likely a Super Duty Dana 60 Front and a Sterling 10.5 Full Float Rear

 

Omg we can be twins except you will have a clean body!

 

Now we just need to make @Fernando commit to Tons and 40s and we could be triplets

 

I don’t think is wife would approve.

 

Some day my truck will get these. But since its only at 85k. Its gonna be a few years before anything major will happen.

 

I'm probably a couple years out from probably starting to gather parts. Looking at buying a new daily first, so depending on what I buy it might be pushed back a couple more years.

 

Recently I decided to relocated my battery to the bed of my truck. Went way overkill for normal use, but I figured with the winch it would kinda justifiable.


IMG_20190410_142818 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Went with 4/0 to span the distance from the engine bay to the bed. 4/0 welding cable vs 2 gauge welding cable that I still had leftover from when I wired my winch.


IMG_20190410_142822 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Also went with some 1.5" expandable wire loom. Gotta say I love this stuff over normal wire loom.


IMG_20190411_155759 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

The original plan was to use these Noco battery boxes, but I ended up changing that out to a dual battery cage from Chassis Unlimited. Picture of that later.


IMG_20190413_135339 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Bent a piece of 16 gauge steel to use as the base. Also picked up some 3/8" studs from Fastronix and some 3/8" tinned copper cable lugs for the 4/0 and a few other cables.


IMG_4554 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Here's that Chassis Unlimited battery cage I mentioned. You can check it out on their site HERE. The battery terminals are also from Fastronix.

I should note there is practically 0 drop in voltage from the studs in the engine bay and the battery.

Currently I'm looking into building a sheet metal box to enclose the batteries and help keep them protected from the elements as well as keep them out of sight from thieves, but that's for another day.

 

I also fabbed up a simple rack for my Action Packers. Totally stole the idea from @thegame


IMG_20190420_140824 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_20190420_151214 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_20190420_155801 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

This should do very nicely for camping. It also takes only a few minutes to pull off and I store it practically anywhere thanks to the low profile. The Action Packers also clear the battery by a good few inches.

 

That brings us to present day. Truck is almost ready for Base Camp Truck Meet this weekend, but I've still got a list of stuff to get to before Summer. Really digging the new setup. Should be a lot more trail friendly for a lot of the harder trails here in NorCal.


IMG_4514 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4520 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4524 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4526 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4530 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4537 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4550 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

 

Thanks for the pictures!! Looks awesome

 

Awesome work, Cory! I’ll be doing dual batteries in the bed like you eventually, so it’s cool to see it all come together.

 

No problem man! Wish I could get a shot from above the bumper, but I'd need a drone for that. Best I can do for now with a telephoto lens.

Thanks Jason! I'll eventually get around to dual batteries. Just wasn't in the budget at the moment.

 

What's the reasoning for relocating the main battery to the bed? I have been thinking about how I'd want to do a dual battery setup in the engine bay but space sure seems limited.

Kinda funny you went from a rack/rtt setup to a instant pop up tent right as I just did the opposite with my truck lol. Albeit my instant pop up tent was a huge piece of shit compared to what you got. I definitely under estimated the weight of the RTT and rack setup and it's something I'm currently having to change the truck up to accommodate...

 

Weight, space and future proofing. I have no where to put a compressor under the hood, so moving the battery became the obviously choice. Plus putting 100lbs of battery in the corner of the engine bay is a big no no. The weight will end up starting to fatigue the sheet metal that helps hold up the batteries. Plenty of people have stress cracks from just the weight a lot and with my truck getting all twisted up on the trail, it would happen a lot sooner. Reason I say future proofing is because when I SAS, I'm going to have to rip off ton of stuff out of the engine bay to make room for the shock towers.

Hopefully the RTT work out better for you man. I'll miss it for sure, but the ground it where's it at on a wheeled rig. The weight was definitely something you get use to, but I hated it on anything off camber or technical.

 

Looks good man! Don't know how much roof top tents weigh but I love my Coleman instant tent and it takes up a whole lot less space and weight. Ready for Rubicon now

 

Thanks Brian! My RTT was just shy of 130lbs and my rack was almost 90lbs. Throw the shovel, axle and Maxtrax on it and it's a good 230lbs all together. Not quite ideal, especially given how high up it was. Definitely very excited about the new tent!

Hopefully I get my Inchworm crawler in before Rubicon, but I'll still send it if I don't.

 

Cory, just ordered my Relentless Fab Predator front bumper for my truck. They had 1 already built at the shop (a guy backed out of his order), just needed to weld the hoops on and ship it. I ordered it today, and they shipped it today!! WOW!!. Also I was talking to Eric, and took 10% off the price of it also. Should be here 5-7 days. Just thought I would let you know as I was asking a lot of questions about your's.

 

So this happened today. Cant wait to get them on !