BigSkyBob's DCSB Off Road Build - Camping, Off Road and DD

Hello Tacomaworld!

I’ve been immersed in my truck since purchase. I love the platform that I can build upon and keep improving, customizing, and using with my family and friends.. The purpose of this post is to keep track of the changes I’m doing, the changes I’m planning, and to help inspire other Tacoma owners to try things themselves, too. I’ll keep editing this top post with updates as they occur, and follow with individual posts (and maybe even separate ones) for each project I’m attempting. Feel free to reply, encourage and ask questions inline with my post here.

 

Purchase Decision

My first car was a 1st generation 4Runner. Red, 1987, SR5 4x4 w/ 5 Speed. AC never worked and neither did the cruise control. Neither really bothered me enough to fix them. Sure… the first real paycheck I got went into a stereo for it, instead. Teenage mentality can only explain those decisions. I was in a head-on collision the summer before my Senior year and the truck was totaled. It had nearly 290K miles on it and seemed to be running like a champ. I had driven it pretty darn hard through those formative years…up and down mountain roads, driving faster than necessary. Still it worked and worked and worked. At one point, the hydraulic clutch had gone out… and I could still drive it (and I did for a day or so)… getting the car going with the starter and clutch override button. The car was gone and for years I’ve wanted something similar to replace it. You’ll see pictures of my car’s spirit animal where we can get good light and views.


I drove a Mazda B4000LE (ford ranger) through college and it was fairly durable, but I never thought I could count on it for long distances or to actually commute far distances frequently. I was moving to California and sold the truck, months later, buying my 05 Honda Accord v6 Coupe which was more appropriate for California – Bay Area living.

Few years later… married now, bought a house, doing a fair amount of camping. It was time to look again for something I could use for home projects, family camping adventures, as well as a reliable and decent DD. I thought I’d find some cheap late 2nd generation models or earlier 3rd generations for a good price, but everything I was looking at was still way into the mid 10,000s. Those models didn’t have the features I wanted in my truck… backup cam being one of the biggest for me. The ones that DID have those, were all approaching the mid 20,000s and they still had high mileage for those. 4Runners seemed out of my range, and I think the Double-Cab Tacoma is a closer relative to the 1st gen 4Runner, than any of the newer models of 4Runner. Started looking at newer and newer trucks when… I found the one I wanted. 1700 Miles on a practically new 2015 Tacoma TRD Off Road 4x4 V6. Someone decided they wanted a full size pickup and returned it. Toyota Certification gave it the best of both a brand new Toyota w/ ToyotaCare (still hadn’t had its first service when I bought it) and it got the upgraded 7 year/100,000 Mile powertrain warranty due to the Certified Used. Off to Montana I was!!


Odd story about selling the car, and why I drove to Montana to do it… but I purchased it online, drove out there, sold my car… got the other stuff I had left there years earlier, and towed back the 280ZX I had waited for a garage to bring it to.

 

Camper Shell –

I got an education on toppers in the first days of owning the truck. I assumed I’d be able to pick up the truck in Montana and easily find a matching topper for it before I drove it back. MT has no sales tax and I wanted some better cargo coverage for the ride home. Turns out you pretty much have to order your topper custom for each truck. Home to California I went, shell-less. Walked into a local dealer in the Bay Area and they happened to have one in stock size and color matching. I got the SnugTop Rebel. It’s carpeted on the inside, side sliding windows, front window has slider opening and a way to open it completely by folding it downwards inside. An hour and a few tacos from down the street later, shell on! It was around here that I realized it made no more sense to call it a topper, rather the shell on my Taco.

 

Exterior Aesthetics –

TRD Logo on the Front grille
Black 60’s Vanity PlatePlate

Looked into a number of the de-badge and rebadge threads on TW and decided on this:

Removed TRD Off Road stickers from sides
Removed snugtop logo and all rear badges and replaced with Small Black TRD Badge

Side Before and AfterFar
Removed and Painted 3Ring Toyota Logo as well as Tacoma badges from doors

ALSO:
Replaced license plate bulbs with LEDs
Sylvania XtraVision Headlights

 

Cabin Functionality ==

Not too much changed inside yet. I don’t plan on changing any stereo components for quite some time. Perhaps just new speakers at some point? I don’t have the JBL unit and I'm glad for the space savings. I added the plastic insert dividers for the glove box and center console. The added utility of these things is amazing! Big Big Fan.j



The GPS unit isn’t QUITE enough info, and I like to use my Mini Ipad as a secondary GPS. I use MotionX GPS and PDFMaps on that in offline mode. Both work very well. I added a strip of Velcro to the small display on the dash next to the hazards. The rear of my mini ipad case has another strip of Velcro (and so does one of my iPhone cases) on the rear to attach there.


I wanted to keep a fair set of tools in the truck for its own repair or helping others. I like the behind-the-seat spots and have filled them up in an organized fashion. One more of tools and the smaller side with “recovery/survival” gear. I replaced the interior bulbs with LEDs all from a single set.

I leave a 64GB Thumb Drive pretty much permanently installed in the USB port. It’s full of music and is how I got the BTTF pics into the startup screen.

 

GPS / Dashcam

We did some real off-roading pretty quickly after I got the truck. My wife’s family had camped around Union Valley Reservoir for years and we ended up there for the first camping trip in the truck. I had downloaded a couple maps from the Forest Service into Evernote and realized we were nearby once up there. Lots of good interpretation and some road signs, we found our way up towards Loon Lake. We drove up wentworth springs and found our way eventually to the very top of McKinstry Peak. Down and up again, and not entirely sure where we were headed, I wanted a GPS unit for the truck. I was hoping for something I could mount permanently and take portable. I wanted traffic updates, turn-by-turn directions, and a dashcam if available in a single unit. Ended up purchasing the Garmin NuviCam HD. I like the device and for almost everything but real “off” off road. Doesn’t have true topo maps, but the roads stay accurate so far I’ve seen. Even down to small Forest Service ones. I like the Dashcam feature a lot. There’s a button on the top to record/save the video. It keeps a buffer of however large your SD card is, but if you press this button, or the unit senses a crash, video and picture is saved to a separate “saved” folder on the SD card. There’s a noticeable issue with “creative” driving and right-of-ways in our area, so I’ve been saving footage for an eventual youtube video.


Mounted it first mid-window and connected it via mini-usb to my Anker USB charging block. For some reason I could never get the Traffic to work unless it was actually using the original power cable. Really annoying to have this large, stiff cable dangling from the windshield and using a 12v plug constantly. I needed another option. Add-A-Fuse added to Fuse Box in Driver side door. Ran cable through handle and headliner to near the mirror.


Tried on the Driver’s side for a few months, then eventually moved it to the passenger side.

 

Bed Platform

I've wanted to try using the rear cargo space better and try to make a spot to sleep, if possible. I knew the short bed wouldn't be long enough for me to sleep in, as I'm about 6 Feet tall.

1.0 First stage was really just a platform. I made the boards that cover the entirety of the bed out of 7ply birch ply and then covering with carpet. I made supports out of 2x4s. Cutting and chiseling the ends thin enough to sit flush in the OEM bed supports.

2.0 Second design was the true camping mod and made the truck SO much more useful. My goals were to keep as much useable space as possible under the platform and to have drawers that would slide out as support for an extension of the platform top. I found another plan on Pinterest for a Tacoma bed platform that was pretty similar. The guy had made drawers himself and used skateboard bearings to guide them along. I thought the design was nice and measurements were close to what mine would look like. Designed it once in SketchUp, then again by hand a couple more times, just to really get how it all worked together. In the end, I still didn't account for drawer clearance against the cross-supports and needed to disassemble the pieces, cut off an inch from each, and reassemble. Angle-steel and lots of bolts to put it all together. The parts list for Home Depot was impressive. The flaw in my construction was my lack of drill press. The holes for the nuts w/ skateboard bearings needed to be very accurate, and my cordless drill wasn't as precise as it should have been. A few re-drills and movements helped everything fit smoothly in minutes. My friend helped out the evening I was finishing up the whole thing and helped me slide it into the bed. The cross-supports fit well, and even without being screwed in keep everything nice and snug. Topper back on and a few hours of sleep later, we were on the road to try it out near Yosemite. Had to rip the drawer covers the next morning once it was appropriate to use a table saw in a residential area.

Think the squareness of the relatively new bed along with the “Lincoln log” supports helped mine keep rigidity. I’m attaching the Sketchup file here for others to play with or use themselves.

Napier SUV Tent



In my very first thoughts on how this could come together, I'd use canvas or a pre-made aluminum tent, or fashion something to cover the open bed. Finding this tent secured my decision to build out the drawers and actually camp in it. The ARB kits and other more “over lander” aftermarket truck tents for trucks w/shells were super expensive and I could try this tent for a fraction of that price. Amazon prime and it took a few days to arrive. We set it up first in the driveway to see how it assembled, and that took maybe 15 minutes. Now it's a 5 minute process for us with tarp and straps done, too. We set up a small living space that's really comfortable for us. I can stand up fully inside and get dressed in private, or open the flaps as awnings if we want. We filled the drawer with clothes, towels, toiletries and other things we use often when set up, instead of on the road. When the LED lights are on, the whole room stays well lit.

 

IKEA bed lighting


I bought a set of IKEA LED strip lights a ways back for tinkering with in the kitchen. I realized that the lights connected to an adapter that was 120v to 12V output. If you just cut off the plug, the lights work perfectly with your car’s electric system. Started off with a single strip wired into the topper plug, then added these 12V power blocks to the interior, removed the Snugtop’s light, added a second strip of white LEDs, and a pair of color-changing ones along the top of the interior windows. 3M adhesive tape to the base and it's stuck very well.

 

Shell-Evator

I've had a truck with topper before, and know that you pretty much always need a second hand to take off and put on the shell. The open roof joists in our garage were perfect for mounting the block and tackle system that would lift the topper. Purchased a small block and tackle from Harbor Freight specifically for field dressing deer with the intention of modifying for this use w/ the braces. Had to ultimately swap out the block and tackle for something more efficient, but the hardware put to good use for helping spread out the support.


The topper rests on 2x6 boards. Each slides under the detached topper and connect to a pair of braided paracord loops from the brace above on each corner. I can back under the lift and raise the topper off, then drive away.

 

awesome job man! ive wanted to do something similar for a long time. very interested to see whats next!

 

Added a short youtube video demonstrating the shell lifter and drawer system removal. See here:

 

You have a picture of the tent all packed up? Like the general size of it. Build is looking good

 

Here's the tent all packed up in its storage bag. There's a cinch up zipper on the base that would snug it up further...but we usually leave it undone. Fits in easily with poles and rainfly in bag no problem. Actual dimensions are 14"x14"x28" It's about the same as a medium sized cooler.

 

Really nice build so far

 

Carpeted the drawer interiors. Padded and carpeted the drawer-tops. Went camping this weekend and all worked very well. Hadn't had the shell on for a couple months for bulk soil/compost purchases. Summer is on!!

 

Also rebuilt the drawers using pocket screws instead of the corner braces. Much much better.

 

VEry nice. Thanks for your reply on Amazon about the tent. Still researching what I want to buy...

 

Fitted some 265 75R16 BFG KO2 to the truck. A little taller, a lot sturdier, a pretty big hit on MPG. Love these tires, though.

 

Added a Firestone Ride-rite system to the rear suspension. Gives a huge stability boost for towing and love the adjustable height you get with it. Also Bilstein 5100s at all 4 corners. Will add spacers to the front, soon. Put 65K miles on the first set of BFG KO2s and absolutely love those tires. Re-upped this spring for another set. 265/75/16

 

Also... A fun little toy to tow behind it. Jayco SLX 195RB Baja. Super tall trailer, so I'm mostly dealing with wind resistance. Tacoma tows it just fine. Get about 8-9 mpg while towing .. maybe 10 if I keep it around 55