Vorkuta's disgruntled veteran build

I do not know why I have not yet submitted my progress so far. Back in April 2020 I bought a TRD ORLB. Since I am getting out of the military in about a year, I have decided to just build a non sponsored overland rig. I have done a lot since this April.


Wife loaded up my gs1200 and drove it up to WA state where I am at.

 

SO one of the first things I did was get rid of the stock rims and tires, went with SCS stealths in gunmetal, 17 inch rims, wrapped in coopers.

 

Next time I went , was an upgrade to the suspension , went with 5100s, stock coils for now, huge upgrade over stock.

 

Found a member with a body armor hiline, decided to make the cut and install it. looks nice! also came with a 20 inch RC lightbar.
Wrecklessabandon recommended metaltech4x4 down in newberg, Or. So I took the drive there to pickup some sliders. The install was pretty simple and straight forward.

 

I added a caliraised behind the grill 30 inch light bar as well as CR ditch light brackets and light, I was not too sure about keeping them but I eventually dumped them for Baja designs.

I dumped the front 20 inch bumper LED bar for a 20 inch BD onx6 amber light, great performance forever.
removed caliraised lightbar, and ditch lights, added SDHQ switchpros 9100 kit , easy install and works flawless! wires all my lights to them. more to come soon.
Added CVT shasta tent, with voodoo bed mounts for it, I needed some extra light for backing up now that my view was obscured. Added these DD I had lying around my parts bin and installed them using the fog light brackets on the crossbar mounts for the tent. ran the wires around the bed rails and between the cab and bed, through the frame up to the engine bay to be connected to SP. I ditched my caliraised ditch lights for some DD amber spots, they were great but I had an idea. There is a company in california that makes amazing motorcycles (clearwaterlights) I had them on my 2014 r1200gs, I removed them and wanted to make them work as ditch lights. the end result was amazing and the wiring was not too bad.

 

Those clearwater lights were very bright, photo above is when they were on my bike. They seem to work, and they are very bright, No need for further front lighting at the moment
I have been eyeballing this for some time now ever since I bought my sliders from MT4x4 in Oregon.
https://www.metaltech4x4.com/sd-metal-tech-2016-tacoma-voodoo-rear-bumper-stage-1/
the only issue was the trailer plug was cut on the wrong side, so, easy fix, either buy or make an extension for the harness. So this week I drove back down to newberg and picked up the that rear bumper. install took me a an hour. broke a few back up sensor retaining rings in the process. I ended up buying some from Amazon as a replacement but have been having issues still, cant get them to work right, keep gettin the "check sonar system", I will work it out later. I bought some DD flood lights that I will tie into the ones on the bed support crossbars. will be putting those in this weekend. I cut the previous OEM bumper lic plate lights and installed some LED bolts instead, (smaller and smaller load) the bolts produce a cool white color, not my fav, but it works for now. Might consider another bumper later on down the road. I have been looking into bed stiffiners for some time now, TC offers a nice gracious discount for military. Ended up going with them. I was in line to get a replacement tailgate insert but the lead times were going to be too long, and I did not like the drinking cup style, so Someone suggested snail armor, a small company out of northern california. Jim, the owner had one out to me in less than two weeks. very happy with it. I scuba dive alot and it takes a beating.











If anyone has any input, advice or suggestions I would love the feedback! more to come soon as the parts come in. Have some coming this weekend.

 

So far, this has been a good fun hobby of mine, but turned into something more. I did order this last month, should be here soon. https://sherpaequipmentco.com/shop/grandteton
I also ordered a baja designs S8 in amber. Should be here in a few weeks. I have plans to upgrade the suspension to coilovers as well as the front bumper. But more to come soon. I have been wanting to start this threat for my build a while ago just never got around to doing so. here are some videos of the lights while driving as well as them in "stobe"flash" mode using the sp9100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NiuWUFyfH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHCm6-Bsx-0
One last thing, added a gibbson muffler, with 3inch resonator I bought from a member here. Sounds good, more vids to come.

 

update 12/12, over last week I ended up purchasing another addition to the metaltech4x4 line, Ended up with their blackbird stage 1 front bumper. that can be found here https://www.metaltech4x4.com/metal-tech-2016-tacoma-blackbird-front-bumper-stage-3-1/ . The install PDF was very vague, I did run into a few issues They provide you with these predrilled "fins" one is supposed to go over the 1/2 bolt from the winch plate to the front bumper attaching it all. Well this did not work well , one side was higher than the other. For some reason the bumper did not want to line up right, leaving a huge gap even with the fins in place.
Sometimes it just is good to get another set of eyes on various projects. Sometimes you miss things. I took a drive over to @WrecklessAbandon place in north bend. We pulled it off again, took a look around. it is odd that these fins came with the hardware set, we removed them and remounted the bumper, this time WAAAA LAAA, worked and fit great. after a few minor adjustments we then had to figure out how to mount the Baja designs 20 inch onx6 lightbar. we ended up making a custom bracket that went to the frame out of aluminum stock. after drilling some holes and alignments it fit great. For some reason this bumper will NOT accommodate any baja designs lightbars, and nor will flush mount diode dynamics pods work, I will have to come up with another solution. Overall, I am happy. I just wish the MT had better clear and concise install directions.







like I said, overall I am happy, I will provide a video overview with everything. Winch to come soon as well as full ADS suspension kit.

 

First, thanks for taking the time to post your work. Second, I just ordered the same truck. Third, I have CWs on my 2010 GSA and they are a lifesaver - good thought on adding them to your truck. Fourth, your WIFE loaded your GS in the back of your Tacoma???? She's a keeper.

 

oh yeah! I LOVE CW. I have owned three GS bikes. two oilheads and one waterhead. Great bikes. CW makes the BEST AUX lights for bikes. they also started to get into the truck off roading real as well. hence why I put them on my truck, super bright

 

here is an overview with the newly installed bumper (the correct way)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlBGpAuPrC8

 

I am interested if you can get the sensors sorted out. The truck I ordered has all the driver assist stuff - I thought it was useless until I used my wife's, now I love it. Our rig will be used on loooong drives to get where we want to go, so I am not willing to chop my rear if it means losing all the sensors.

 

From what I have looked into so far, I need a "calibration" of the rear backup sensors which would be a wopping 268 from toyota direct. I wanted it more so my wife, request aka demand. but I am fine with just using my mirrors and putting my windows down. I replaced the sensor with a new china one. snapped right in with no issues. But until they get "calibrated" I choose not to use it.

 

New bumper setup is looking awesome!

 

Update. So went home in leave for 30 days and got some new goodies and upgrades while I was home.
Added the following
CBI off-road t3 adventure front bumper
Smitty xrc gen 3 winch synthetic line
Sherpa equipment co roof rack
Baja designs s8 in amber roof rack lightbar
Sherpa equipment co roof rack scene lights brackets
Baja designs rock lights all 4 areas to cover . I initially was trying to find something to flood the area with light but miraculously these Rock lights are very bright and they're suitable for my needs.
I got rid of my tonneau cover and KB voodoo bed support bars and replaced it with a kbudo Max mid height rack.
Also added ads 2.5 front coilovers with 600 lb spring initially with all my front nose weight it was sagging tremendously so I decided to swap for 700 lb coils.
Added
285-70-17 Mickey Thompson all-terrains
CMC
Max tracks recovery boards
Sherpa equipment co maxtrax board mounts
Relocated my dual band ham radio antenna to the rack as well and replaced antenna
I couldn't have done it without the help and inspiration of others and especially my homie @WrecklessAbandon and @Bertw192 letting me use the spc sprint compressors. I am very disappointed in metal tech 4x4 but I'm very very pleased with CBI off-road. Additionally for the rear for now I added an OME rear medium duty leaf pack and some toy tech boss 2.5 rear shocks it's a temporary solution until headstrong off-road is back in stock with ads rear. I also want to thank @memario1214 for great customer service/kick ass deals on baja lights. I will be starting my YT channel soon. It won't be long,strung out bullshit or intros, it will NOT be PC, it will just be me finding my common ground in this world while enjoying nature .

 

Another shot of the roof rack before I added everything

 

you wet?

 

Might be adding some lp9s soonnnn....