Tiny Truck Build

Greetings!

Been wanting to start one of these, great place for me to keep track of everything I have done to my truck and lets all you folk tell me everything I'm doing wrong! I'm writing this in bits and pieces when I find the time. Forgive me as I know I have forgotten things and still need to compile and upload all the photos of the build process.

Here is the baby taco w/ extra toppings:


I'll start with a little background. My name is Ryan, I am Park Ranger with the BLM. I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I have a girlfriend who I met while going to school at Oregon State University in Corvallis. She is currently getting her masters in counseling from the University of Montana. Our most recent addition to the family is our 1 year old lab mix, Clark. You can follow my shenanigans more closely via my Instagram, @ryfox0276

I bought the truck in June of 2017, and soon after my savings disappeared. If anyone has any leads as to where I can find it I promise a reward.

The truck is a 2013 regular cab base model with the 2.7 and a 5 speed manual transmission. Had a 1994 Saab 900 before this - my first set of wheels. Poor car was so old and sad when we finally parted ways. Had nearly 300,000 miles on her. Last I heard the guy got her running again.
The truck came pretty stock- the only thing the previous owner had done was add some Thule racks on the bed. The tailgate had a pop 'n lock on it, but he didn't know anything about it - he bought the truck that way. And it had a backup camera. I am still not sure if that came stock or was a dealer add on - again he didn't know anything about it, came that way.
Skip to here if you don't want to ready my ramblings - I'm not offended.

So without further adieu, I give you my great mod list:

Exterior

Suspension

Front: Bilstein 5100's with OME 884 coils
Rear: Bilstein 5125's with OME HD Dakars, Headstrong Offroad extended SS brake lines
4xInnovations Shackle Flip (have yet to install - debating on if I should or not)​

Armor

SOS Concepts bolt-on rock sliders
SOS Concepts ifs skid plate
Pelfreybilt Front Bumper
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Wheels/ Tires

General Grabber AT2's in 235/85r16 on stock steelies. Love this tire and will go with General's new ATX when they wear out.
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Comms

Relentless Fabrication CB ditch bracket
2' Firestick (I found that when the truck is fully loaded with the high camper shell/ roof box I can't hear or be heard by anyone behind me, so ill be picking up a 4' antennae in the future to run on the trails.)
Cheapo ebay antenna for my Baofeng HAM radio
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Lights

CBI Offroad ditch light brackets with 1up than cheapest ebay light pods
Amazon Special 24" lightbar in the grill with an ryfox0276 garage special bracket
Cheapest ebay flush mount lights in the rear bumper
In full expo mode, I have 4 Amazon Special pods I mount on the camper shell for camp lighting/ sasquatch spotting
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Other

At the Helm Fabrication Bed stiffeners
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Interior

Entertainment

Kenwood DDX-595 headunit
Alpine S-S65C Speakers
Future plans to build boxes/ install some small 3.5" Pioneer TS-A878 I have lying around
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Comfort

Bench seat to bucket seat swap
Seat heaters
Noico sound deadening on doors, floor, rear firewall
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Comms

Old - Midland 75-822.
Current - Midland 1001LWX.
Pair of Motorola walkie talkies (these usually get used, not the CB)
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Organization/ Other

Iggy's center console switch panel - love this thing, holds my switches for my lights, OBA and dual battery setup
Emergency duffel - goes between the seats. Essential survival kit (will list this later in the thread)
Basic tool kit - again will list this later
At least one 1 gallon jug of water
Paper maps, stargazer guide, clif bars, pens, pencils, paper and whatever the hell crap my girlfriend stuffs in those door pockets
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Bed/ Camping Setup

So a big part of my life has always been camping. The truck totally revolutionized this whole experience for me. I had heard of the concept of "glamping" but never really looked into it until I had a truck that could take me places I could never go before AND carry the kitchen sink there.
The truck came with Thule racks on the bed. While these were nice, and we certainly toyed with the idea of a RTT to throw on them, in reality it just didn't fit our style, was a SIGNIFICANT investment when I already have a perfectly good ground tent, and it really doesn't save any time in the setup/teardown over a conventional ground tent (pretty sure I can assemble my backpacking REI tent in half the time my friend gets his cascadia RTT up).
Onward to craigslist to find a canopy. Took me over two months, but someone posted one that fit my needs exactly. High rise top, windoors on the sides with a folding front window. Yakima roof rack already on it, and only set me back $400! While it was made for an extended cab and is white, the fit is 'good enough' and I actually really like the color contrast.


Thus began my never-ending quest to build that perfect camping bed platform. I think I'm on version 3.3 now, and am in no way finished.
I poured over the "show us your bed platforms!" thread, pinterest and youtube for inspiration on the platform.
The first one was simple, 2 2x6's and a sheet of plywood. Yeah, it worked but I kept drooling over the fancy setups I saw here and elsewhere. Back to the drawing board and grandpa's woodshop.
Version 2.0 was a little more built up, with cubbies on the sides and room in the middle for two plastic totes I used in version 1.0
Version 3.0 I ditched the cubby system for a modular system that also housed all the "glamping" crap I seemed to have accumulated.

• room for a second house battery
• room for a 13 gallon freshwater tank
• room for my OBA pump and tank
• room for my recovery equipment
• two drawer slides - one a traditional drawer, the second a platform for my fridge

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What's in those bags?

Emergency Bag

This is normally kept in the cab in between the seats (I don't have a center console, and don't really plan on adding one as I prefer to stick this here). In this bag I carry an essential survival kit for two people to survive for at least two days and two nights. I looked at other poeple's bags of this sort on this site, and took a heavy influence from Andrew St. Pierre White's emergency bag he keeps in his truck.

• 2 sets of clothes, one for me and one for the gf (2 pairs socks, 2 pairs underwear, 1 pair zip off pants, 1 pair stretch pants, 2 shirts, 2 sweaters, 2 rain jackets)
• survival tarp
• paracord, maybe 50 feet?
• two emergency blankets
• flashlight and headlamp
• firestarters (2 lighters, matches, flint)
• notepad, pencil, magic marker
• deck of cards
• sunscreen and bugspray
• lifestraw, water purification tablets, empty nalgene
• 2 cans tuna, 4 packs dehydrated food
• small backpacking stove and fuel
• small shovel, pocket knife, grandpa's old boy scout hatchet
• Duct tape, flagging tape, zip ties
• Ruger 10/22 takedown and .22 ammo

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Tool kit in cab

• Toyota bottle jack
• Toyota bar things and lug wrench
• Two road flares
• Foldable plastic orange triangle thing
• Philips/ Flathead screwdrivers
• Harbor Freight folding metric hex keys and torx keys
• Duct tape, electrical tape, zip ties
• razor blade

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Tool Kit in bed

• Foldable 4 way lug wrench
• Metric wrenches
• Metric & SAE 1/4" sockets and wrench
• Handful of popular 1/2" sockets and wrench
• 8 ton bottle jack
• Lineman pliers
• Large channel lock pliers
• Vice grip pliers
• Needlenose pliers
• Two large C clamps
• Two ratchet straps
• Tire repair kit

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Recovery bag

• 35,000 lb recovery strap
• Two 7,000 lb tow straps
• 8,000 lb come along
• Two 3/4 shackles
• recovery thing for my hitch

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And that's it folks! Follow along as I post my weekend projects and shenanigans as time goes by.