I should be paying off my student loan build & trip reports

Alright, well. I have a bad habit. It's spending money.

I got into the Automotive scene 8 years agoish, I bought my first car which was a 2010 Genesis Coupe. I also got into the world of Autobody while in school because I wanted money to mod my car, no I was not a tech. I just didn't feel like working my body away until I retired. I entered in as a Customer Service rep, slowly made my way up the ladder and now a Manager at a large body shop.

This is my Rice Rocket, Widebody, big turbo, full bolt-on's - made 330whp 315ft and painted a very secret mint green that everyone and their mother has tried to get off me. Everything was done by myself, which was my intro to anything car related and what allows me to afford to modify my vehicles.



Then there's 4 months ago, I was kind of looking for a new daily to replace my 1998 Pathfinder. Just something more comfortable with at least some technology. I was looking for a 2008-2012 Subaru STI hatch, but then I wouldn't really have a vehicle to go camping with. One day at work, I was just browsing my local Toyota Dealership and stumbled upon a 2019 Calvary Blue DCSB Sport Upgrade mt and just knew that it was meant to be. There was no photos of it nor did I ever driven a tacoma, especially a manual one. I called in, put a deposit and drove that night to the dealership to sign papers. After discount I paid $40,500 cad/$30,500 usd which I thought was a great deal.

This is currently how she sits. I'll be updating with most up to date photo's.



Armor
BCC Hybrid front bumper
- Smittybilt Gen3 9.5k Comp Winch
- Diode Dynamic SS3 Pro sae fogs
BCC 20 degree sliders w/ kick out
Coming soon - BCC HC Rear bumper w/ dual swing out

Suspension
Front Bilstein 6112
Rear Fox 2.0 Resi
OME HD Leafs
Dirty Life 9301 17x9 -12
Bfgoodrich Ko2 275/70/17

Exterior
OEM TRD Pro grill
AVS in channel Visor
Custom Bed Rack
Doghouse Badlands 3 roof top tent


Interior
Sound Deadening on Floor and Back firewall
DIY Accessory mount w/ Ram balls
- Baofeng radio Mount
- Quadlock wireless charging head

Engine
N/A

Future Mods in exact order as of now
Ok Expedition Skid Plate(s)
Diode Dynamic ss2 Pro Ditch Lights

 

Current Mod Photos

 

After picking it up from the dealership, I took it straight to the off road park to try it out. At this moment I knew I was gonna pull the mudguards and air deflectors off.



Day 3 of ownership, we took it on a camping trip up near Stave Lake.

 

The week after, my friends - who were already 4x4ing before I ever was - invited me to do some wheeling up near Harrison. This was also where I knew I really wanted sliders and better tires.

I scratched up my right side real good. Everyone at work was not happy about it, not their truck so

I did end up getting most of the scratches off the next work day.

 

Middle of September we planned a camping trip up to Clear Creek Hotspring's. I went up on Thursday with a buddy in a 2nd gen Tacoma to scout the area, gate was closed until Friday because of active logging.

Notes. First time using a chainsaw, a skill and tool I will be acquiring for future overland trips. Check out the hydro powered rotisserie we made, we spent an hour redirecting the flow of the river close enough to the fire to power the rotisserie.

 

First week of October, my friend's and I decided we should go on a road trip down to Cali because we we're bored. We planned 6 days, all we knew was we were going to LA > Vegas and anywhere in between. 5200km in 6 days was over kill for a vacation, we covered 27 hours of it on the first day, the last 3 days of driving was LA > Mojave Desert > Las Vegas > Valley of Fire > Twin Falls, ID > Home. When we finally got to the border at the end of the trip, the border agent gave us the worst look, 3 Asian kids covering the west coast in 6 days.

First day, I drove 14 hours straight - 2pm to 4am - from Vancouver, BC only stopping for gas, had to switch out as we were entering the California border because I was getting tired. We got to San Fran @ 9am and decided we were going straight to LA after we checked out the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is me with the signature fly like a bird move signifying how tired and happy I was to be in California after being on the road for 20 hours. Little did I know we had another 7 hour drive ahead of us to LA.



11pm, we had just arrived in LA checked into our hotel in Santa Monica and looked for a restaurant still open, to Chinatown it was. We Stayed in LA for 3 day's then started heading back home.



First 4x4ing was taking a detour on the way to Vegas, going through the Mojave Desert. Can anyone say Joshua Trees? We got to this cave, and literally no one was around, I had second thoughts about entering as we could not see inside, nor did we knew if there was any life inside. But, we drove 1 hr into this place and I wasn't gonna let it go to waste so I went in first.




We got to Vegas, pushing our limit with time as we had reservations at Hells kitchen. Worst 600usd we ever spent on food, the beef wellington wasn't even that good. 9/10 would not go back, we only went for the experience. Next morning we left for Twin Fall Idaho aka our last stop before home (22hours away at this point). We took a detour through Nevada to hit up the Valley of Fire, got lost in there for a couple hours including getting stuck in sand, did I mention this was a week day and we literally saw 1 car while out there.

 

Went mudding, well kinda. I hate mudding, participation was minimal.

 

I've been looking into tires since I got my truck. I had my eyes on Wildpeaks due to cost and good reviews compared to the Ko2s. As much as I wanted 285/70/17s I just couldn't justify doing a cmc or running the extra thicc tires so I compromised with 275/70/R17. When I went to purchase them, they were on B/O till after christmas. I asked my guy to just get me the 265s then and he refused to let me run 265s on the taco so he gave me 275 Ko2 e load for the same price as the Wildpeaks.

Couldn't wait to try them out so we hit up the trails the next morning. We went to Squamish Valley to explore a bit, ran into a friend there and decided to go look for the ice fields 60km up. I was running low on gas and didn't bring extra so I had to turn around.

These tires look so good!!

 

Are you lifted at all or just running the 275/70 17's? Truck looks great.

 

I waited till I had raised my front at least 1" before I went to 275. If you want tires first, I don't see 275 being a big problem for on road and mild offroad(no crawling/stuffing), although you'll still rub.

 

After going on a trail with some nasty cross ditches and damaging the lower corner of my bumper real good, I decided to do one of those chops. Still planning on getting a hybrid bumper sometime this year so I can run a winch, will give me peace of mind when wheeling by my self.