Deekyn’s build of Kevin the 2015 TRD Off Road Tacoma

bumper looks solid, cuts appear level to me! Nice

 

Sound Deadening: Suicide Doors​

Seems like poor Kevin gets louder and louder as she ages. That coupled with the roof rack and the aging tires (soon to be mud tires, maybe). It’s all too much. She’s noisy AF. Music has to be turned way up. Which doesn’t really help with the shitty stock sound system. Driving in my wife’s 2008 Xterra is like a dream it’s so quiet (compared to my truck).

So it’s time to sound deaden.

I did the roof a year or so ago with dynamat extreme and closed cell foam. The rest of the truck will be that plus mass loaded vinyl. It’s a pain taking apart the interior and rolling on the dynamat so I might as well do it right while I’m in there.


I did put dynamat on the outer door skin as well.

I also added closed cell foam on top of the MLV but forgot to snap a pic

The two doors close with a satisfying thump, but on their own didn’t seem to affect the over all sound.

 

Sound Deadening: floor and back wall.​

​

To continue the sound deadening odyssey...

I sound proofed the floor and back wall over two afternoon. Tedious something fierce.

Taking apart the interior was pretty easy actually. Especially with my new impact wrench. That thing is a dream. Worth it’s weight in gold. It has really changed the way I work on my truck.

Once the interior was apart, I vacuumed the floor and tapped around to feel what seemed hollow, ie where I needed to add dynamat. Everywhere. Jesus our trucks a made like tin cans.

So I added a combination of dynamat and noico to the floors and back wall.


On the floor the the plan was to put down noico Red 315 closed cell foam, then MLV.


The added thickness of the foam and MKV didn’t really affect the carpet going on. A little extra smoothing out and wriggling the seats to get them to fit. Over all the floor was super easy all around.

The back wall was MLV, then closed cell foam. I tried to just do big sheets of mLV and cut holes where the back panel attached to the back wall.Though it looks nice in this pic, it took an hour to keep trimming the MLV holes and trimming plastic off of the back of the panel itself to get it to fit while in the truck, trying over and over to get it to fit.

 

Bed Mounted Spare ​

Because running a full size spare in the stock location is a little silly with my new (To me) rear HC bumper... And I didn’t want the hassle of always having to open and close swing outs every time I wanted into the back of the truck...

I followed EatSleepTacos lead and mounted it on the back wall of the bed.
However, I wanted a little more bounce protection. So besides the added D-rings in bed rack mounts

I also added L-track to the floor with rivnuts
So I can have it wrapped bidirectionally with ratchet straps.

 

Did you add any reinforcement to the bed on the underside of the riv nut like a washer?

 

No, that’s not a bad idea! I wanted rivnuts because I thought (falsely), that the gas tank was in the way and I wouldn’t be able to have easy access to reach nuts or washers under the bed where I wanted the spare mounted. I do think the weak point in this set up is actually the rivnuts in the composite bed. They are holding a mostly static load though so there’s no real risk. The point of the L tracks was redundancy in the mounting from the back wall. If they give later, I will just cut the rivnuts out and use the screws that are in the L tracks already with fender washers and nylock nut from the underside. Turns out where the little pieces of L track are specifically for this location is easily accessible under the truck.

 

Yesterday and today was replacing rear brake shoes and hardware, replacing the cylinders, getting the drums turned, stripping and painting the drums, and bleeding the brakes. 1st brake took up took 2 hours... second one was much faster.



Used this video
https://youtu.be/3ru8E9iw7nM

And this TW thread
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/changing-rear-brake-shoes-with-mediocre-pics.287617/

 

So clean and shiny!
New LCAs and cam sleeves. My cam bolts were not rusty but the sleeves were rusted into the bushing. Sawzall to the rescue.

 

Wife and I just had an awesome weekend in the CO San Juan’s for a run of Black Bear and Imogene Passes Before they get snowed in for the season. It’s so nice to have such amazing scenery so close to home.

Black Bear was interesting and super scenic on the way down to Telluride. But hot damn was that trail crowded. Hardly got any pics and no pics of my truck.


Imogene was much more scenic and a lot quieter on a Sunday Morning.

 

what rack is that on your camper?? did you have to drill holes?

 

Front Runner Slimline II Roof Rack
1255x1560mm.

https://www.frontrunneroutfitters.c...kits-by-front-runner.html#315=&316=&317=&328=

I ordered a tall to match the height of the cab rack.

Yep, had to drill holes. Almost all roof racks for shells need holes drilled I imagine. It’s totally worth it though. I use the shit out of my two roof racks. See the 5th post in my build thread for more pics and an install video I found on YouTube.

 

Thanks brotha! Keep up the good work!!

 

Had a fun backroad/off-road Northern New Mexico adventure yesterday. Following part of the NMBDR and other backroads. 240 miles total, with ~60 miles of dirt.




El Rito to Abiquiu via FS 122 and 23 was fun. Roads were unmarked (man I love my Gaia map app), muddy deeply rutted and rocky. Proper off-roading, even had to use 4wd a some.




FS 172 and 103 south from near Coyote were really cool, teakettle rock was really neat. I’d never been to that part of the Sante Fe NF. I will be exploring there again.


now it’s time for a wash!

 

Spent some time under the truck making sparkles!


Installed ARCHIVE Garage Hammer Hangers and glorifiedwelder crossbar. A match made in heaven? I think so.

(beef)

 

Your nine leaf pack reminds me of Egg Shin's Six Demon Bag.

 

Well thanks to multiple comments on TW, I now am sure of what already suspected, but already wasted my money on, that All-Pro sucks. Bye bye more money

 

It looks like you've been having fun! Those are some beautiful places!

If I'm not mistaken, you're on 295's and stock gears, correct? I'm thinking of getting a second set of tires, just for summer/wheeling/mall crawler shows. I'm thinking 285/75/17 (34.1") or 295/70/17 (33.5") and am just curious if you're still satisfied with acceleration and overall performance. I know you drive the doors off that Taco, so I figure you have some thoughts on this.

I am already on 285/70/17's (32.8") and still happy with performance.

 

There is a decided lack of acceleration and constant gear hunting on the highway. More of an issue for me is the rubbing, since I have 3.5” BS wheels. I have an aggressive CMC, removed my flairs, and trimmed my actual fender near the door, and still I rub some. And it irritates the shit out of me. I can’t cut muc more off the cab mount. I was actually thinking about getting 285s myself soon. Because I hope the 1/3 - 1/2” less will stop the rubbing and I want MT tires which don’t come in 295s anyways.

it’s up to you if the lack of gusto and more frequent gear hunting matters. I don’t love it. Though I want 35’s I doubt I’ll ever actually cut into my firewall or pay someone to do it, and the $2k for regearing feels prohibitive.

I suspect you won’t have the rubbing issues with lesser BS wheels. But since I’m planning to upgrade my rear suspension anyways I need it. So it’s a catch 22.

 

Thank you! I'm torn, but have plenty of time to think about it. Your input helps. I plan on running 0 offset wheels as I think it's my best shot at minimal work for clearance.

One advantage to the 285/75 over the 295/70 is that they're nearly an inch narrower, according to the specs.

I actually have more backspace than you. But, the rubbing seems to come from the outside of the tire. My current wheels are 17×9, -6mm offset, 4.75 BS.

I'm used to the gear hunting. I frequently drive in S4 if it's hilly or there's a headwind. I could always go through Discount tire and exchange them if it really sucks.

Which MT's are you looking at?

 

Yeah, more wheel BS means the wheel is in the wheel well further. My wheels stick out an 1 1/4” further than yours. Which means when I turn they interact more with the firewall and fenders.

Which I now regret buying. I mulled over and over what I’d need for 35s down the road and missed the mark. Seems like 4” BS is about optimal for a balance between clearance for shocks/UCAs and turn radius.

I am planning to upgrade my rear suspension with a shock relocate and longer shocks, which requires more clearance. So my wheels are perfect because they have more space. If I had your wheels I’d need spacers fo run that set up. But I have more issues with the wider turning radius in the wheel well. So it’s a toss up. I retrospect I would have bought different wheels had I known better. But I’m sure not dropping another grand on different wheels.

My BFG KO2s have 83k miles and off road pretty successfully still and are fine in the rain, despite all the internet trash talking. So I think I will likely spend the extra and get BFG KM3s.