2WD can off road, as a treat (pic heavy)

Long time lurker, first time poster.
Full time college student, so I took advantage of all the knowledge on here. Ultimately, decided I want my truck to look "meaner" than it is (its prerunner failings). but still do my best not to get stuck, WHILE on a budget. First time posting, so I apologize if the photos are massive.


05' dbcb sb pre-runner
TRD Sport
Stock truck and had been on the oem suspension till about 2 year ago, when i decided to lift.
here is how it turned out, with my takeaways from many thread searches.

285/75/16



295/75/16


315/75/16

This truck has taken me literally everywhere I've wanted with no problems. But I have experienced the short comings of a 2wd truck with an lsd. Either way, I can get most places I have no business being stuck. Took about 3 yrs to get to this point while being a full time student and working part-time/full time.

milage ~289,000
Exterior:
- ebay bumper
- no-name LED fogs in the bumper
- no-name LED light bar
- tailgate pad
- ebay projector headlights with morimoto bulbs and ddm tuning ballasts
- plasti-dip roof
- bestop supertop (purchased second hand from tacoma world!)
- super bright reverse light mod done and I highly recommend ( https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gy6-35-hir-921-reverse-light-upgrade-vs-high-power-leds.474996/ )
- fender flares removed
- cmc (courtesy of beast fab 4x4 socal)


Tires/Wheels:
- Dean Back Country All Terrain 295/75/16: removed
-Falken Rubitrek 315/75/16
- 3rd gen taco sr5 wheels:removed
-Renegade Wheels 16x8
- Amazon aluminum 1.5" wheel spacers x 4: removed
-1.25" spacers for proper backspacing on 35's

Engine:
- K&N cold air intake: removed
-ebay helix snorkel

Suspension:
- Bilstein 5100's x 4:removed
-Front: Rancho RS9000XL
-Rear: Bilstein B110 Extended Length
- OME 886x coils (headstrong 1/4 in lean spacer driver side)
- toytec aal + TSB 4 leaf + 1 chopped overload + 1 small leaf (from icon aal pack)
(I was able to put together a bastard pack courtesy of a TW member giving away an icon 3 aal)
- Freedom Off-Road UCA: removed
- JBA STD HC UCA: make alignment a breeze.

Truck was a daily driver and "adventure mobile" since I enjoy camping, climbing and just over all exploring some areas a typical car can not take you. Have since moved to SF to finish my bachelors.

Thanks to the abundance of knowledge on TW. I was able to do 99% of all the work with friends and family in my drive way with some tools and jack stands. (except for alignments / cmc).

 

Nice truck, and welcome to TW!

 

I dig the build man!!

Welcome m8888

 

Hey Eddie,

I'm in a similar boat as you re; prerunner short comings.

How much lift does your build have? I was curious what LSD you put on? Also, what's the mod you did on the tailgate or am seeing things? I'm trying to figure out how to make my Wildernest fit better.

Thanks, ben

 

hey Ben!
Honestly i’m not sure how much lift it has. I know it is supposed to be around 3 inches but i always feel like those OME 886s gave me more lift (with out the weight of a winch).

Truck is a TRD Sport, so it came with an LSD. Not as good as a rear locker tho.

Just a random Amazon “tail gate pad” on the tailgate for throwing my bikes in the bed.

 

I came across a post on offer up and ended up with some used 35's.
A set of renegade wheels on some Cooper All terrains.
They "cleared" for pavement driving and didn't rub lock to lock on flat ground. But otherwise, I could hear them rubbing up driveways, over speed bumps, etc. as to be expected.

These wheels are heavy and I could feel it in the suspension. I had about 3"+ of rear lift on stock length 5100's and they were definitely topping out.

Extended length 5100's fit well and the bump stop didn't need shimming.

Immediately went out to see MOar FleX BrO!

And also realizing how much I'll be needing to trim.

The front end was topping out noticeably if I went too quickly over speed bumps and I could hear my "self adjusting alignment" (lower control arm bushings worn). Alignments wouldn't hold with the 35's, but these are the stock lca with 300k miles on them.

 

I did some reading and it looked like it would be worth saving the time and replacing the whole lower arms with a Moog or OEM replacement.

So I got a shop press to install some Whiteline lower control arm bushings and some Mevotech TTX Lower Ball joints.

Used the press to get the old ball joint out and the torch + bottle jack worked perfectly on all 4 bushings.

Got the passenger arm cleaned up and painted, going to finish the drivers side and press everything back in today.

 

new shoes came in, so it was time to trim. which also meant, no wheel liners.


replaced the K&N cold air intake with an ebay snorkel. i was surprised with the thickness of the plastic. seems solid.



it also made sense to replace the uca with something that would get me proper caster numbers at the shop. so out with the Freedom Offroad Arms and in with some JBA Std’s!


threw some trail toys edge trim and done. the new rubber Falken Rubitrek 315/75/16.

 

What’s up Eddie,

Great post, I am looking at the 285/75/16

Rubitrek A/T tires. Interested to see how you like yours so far.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Hey Jeff,

I had the chance to take the tires off-road the past couple of days. They have been great. A little hum at highway speeds and traction has been solid.

The only other tire I was this happy with was the Falken Wildpeak AT3.

Hope that helps!
Eddie

 

Took a trip up the south west coast of Oregon. Definitely feel a loss in power, but not bad.

 

Nice truck man! Where in socal are you? I also had my cmc done by him. I’m also limited by 2wd also with a locker. Been trying to take the truck out more. Only been to anza borrego.

 

Thanks dude! sweet 3rd gen and tundra. I'm actually from the fontana area. But I live in norcal right now.

Lytle Creek has a lot of fire roads that are fun and there's yellow post campsites in that area for camping.
Big Bear and Idylwild also have yellow post sites, with some fun 2-wheel friendly trails.
There's also a bunch of trails around Holcomb Valley. I haven't had any problems being 2WD except in the winter.
Joshua Tree also has some cool trails in the area and a BLM area nearby to camp for free.
Oddly, I haven't actually gone to Anza Borrego yet.

Sorry if that's a lot of information. But I'm happy to share.

 

Sweet thanks man! I stay in rancho and work right in Fontana haha. Joshua tree been on my list forever. Want to get some traction boards so I’m less sketched out about venturing out alone.

 

Thanks Eddie for the update! I just took shipment of mine too! Now I am waiting on Toyota to ship my wheels.

 

Needed to carry a spare in the bed of the truck.
Kept the 17” spare steelie and mounted a Kenda Klever 35x10.5x17
This saved a couple inches in head space over the 315/75/16 counterpart.


OEM spare on the 17” and spacers placed under cross supports of sleeping platform.



Kenda Klever fit under the cross supports with about 1/4” to spare. Tied down the spare with a strap on some added D-rings.


with the spacers under the cross supports, milk crates fit perfectly under the sleeping platform. Tire acts as support for front cross bar and crates for the rear of the platform.
This platform has worked well over a year, but I do miss having more head space ( before the spare was under the platform).

 

small update. shortly after the 300k
milestone.

I got codes P0402 and P0403. Tried swapping 02 sensors (upstream and downstream) and the issue persisted.

Pulled the second set of cats (not attached to the exhaust manifolds) and replaced.

all good since and the truck gets better mpg.

 

after a few years with the camper and poor rear view visibility. I got an android head unit and wired in front and rear cameras. and added a manual locking pop and lock.

Thanks to the forums, i was also able to wire my own anytime back up camera switch too!

I got rid of the crappy depo “projector” headlights and did a bhlm and ulmtimate headlight upgrade. significantly improving visibility.


also added this voltage booster to the ALT-S fuse for the agm battery.

 

I was getting a lot of play and clunk going on in the front end. Found my radiator bushing were blown out, swapped for some energy suspension poly bushings and what a difference.

Still had some clunking and play. Especially on hard acceleration from a stop or getting back on the gas. Decided to try some PRG poly motor mounts. Also did spark plugs to see if that would help with vibes.

The new motor mounts helped fix some driveline vibes and got rid of slop in the drivetrain. There was quiet a bit of movement that I thought was axle wrap, but it seems like it was the motor mounts. Truck is way more responsive and accelerates quicker (even on stock gears and 35s) but vibrations at idle are significant. overall worth the trade off to me. of course this is all subjective.