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

Right. Believe me, I know all about backspace and offset. I was confused because you said I'd be fine with less BS. I can see why you'd mention that, though, since most people don't seem to know what those things mean.

Looking at mine, I have a good amount of clearance to the suspension. So, a narrower wheel and 0 offset should be better than I am now.

Let me know how you like the KM3's. I have a coworker who seems really happy with them. The Yokohama Geolander MT is at the top of my list right now. But, I probably won't buy until spring, so I'll likely change my mind several times.

I agree about KO2's. Great tires! I could see them hydroplaning due to the tread pattern, but never had an issue. I put 29K on mine and only used 20% of the tread. They look new still. They're going to good use on my buddy's Ranger. I have 15K on the Toyo AT3's now, and they're nice too.

Thanks for the input!

 

Wife and I just finished a fun little 4 day social distance, backroads and dirt road camping trip through NM, AZ, and UT.

1223 miles, including 259 miles of dirt! All easy dirt, but really neat scenery in out of the way places. All B-list type places. No busy cities, no National Parks. But all surprisingly interesting. (Except the NM piece... coincidentally)

Zuni Canyon and SR 42, outside of Grants, 48 miles of dirt. To be honest it was a little boring. Though we didn’t have time to drive high clearance roads to the lava tubes that may have been more fun.

Mogollon Rim, AZ: 15 years ago I ran an ultramarathon on the Highline Trail below the rim, so I thought it would be fun to drive the rim to look down on trail. We drove 57 miles of dirt following the rim FS 300, and going out to Bear Canyon Lake. lot of potential for camping and exploring up there for sure.


Cinder Hills OHV area and Coconino NF outside Flagstaff: 36 miles of deep ground pumice and rocky dirt. We tried to incorporate some dirt in our trip to Sunset crater and Wupatki. The OHV area was cool. Deep and soft, I could see getting stuck out there. The tracks on some of those hills are bananas, like hundreds of feet tall at 30+ degrees that seem mind boggling that someone could make it up or down without killing themselves.


Valley of the Gods and the Moki Dugway, UT. 20 miles of dirt. Pretty scenic little trip, not quite as dramatic as Monument Valley, which was closed due to Covid, but fun. I look forward to exploring more of the Cedar Mesa area.


Between the Bears Ears, UT. 55 miles of possibly the smoothest dirt road I’ve ever been on. Most of the miles were at 8000’ and all the shady areas had a couple inches of snow. Aspens and towering evergreens, hidden views of the canyons miles below, elk herds. And so damn much potential for exploring, including access to Canyonlands NP. We will be coming back there for sure.


Montezuma Canyon, outside of Blanding UT. 44 miles of dirt. My favorite part of the trip I think. Neat sandstone canyon, that had so many ruins and petroglyphs, that you could just walk up to. No tours, no rangers, just history in a pretty setting.

 

Got her weighed today. She’s a chunky butt. This is DD weight. Tools, recovery, etc that always live in the truck.

I have been in contact with Accutune about a shock revalve and rebuild. Their response to the weight “Wow! Definitely heavier than I expected...”

 

Geez, what a pig! That's about 1300-1400 lbs above curb weight, if I'm not mistaken. I seem to recall the DCSB was 42××. That's a lot of gear!

Where did you go to weigh it? Been thinking about doing the same.

 

And that’s “empty”. Camping probably adds 3-4 hundred lbs.

MPG be damned!


To be fair I always have a very full tool kit with me and recovery gear. And a pretty thorough bug out bag. And have used every piece of my heavy ass armor (Worth it!)

 

Weigh it at any truck stop, like the love's on ryan rd.

 

Agreed about the armor! It really allows you to do more stuff. Worth every LB.

One of these days I'll have to do it. Maybe after new roof rack.

 

I had mine weighed at a truck stop with a Cat certified scale. It was 12 bucks. I had to have it done for a shock revalve.

 

Nice! That is what I would want to do if I went with high end suspension; get it tuned specifically for my truck. I can't wait to hear how you like the new setup. I imagine it will be awhile?

 

Just make sure to split plates on the scale for front & rear axles.

 

Yeah like two months or more

I will ship the coilovers off for rebuild, next week. I expect 3-4 weeks total for that. I’ll be rocking stock coilovers with a spacer lift for that time.

The rear shock relocate will be two plus months. The relocate is a 6 week wait. The king shocks are 7-12 weeks, or some bullshit. Plus the revalving and shipping time.

 

I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Is the tuning based on the weight of the truck (per axle) only? Or, are there other specific parameters? Like, tuned for high speed vs low speed?

You gonna go wheeling on them spacers?

 

Accutune tunes based on weight and other parameters. Rock crawling vs desert vs DD etc. I sent them a long winded convo about how I will use the truck. From all accounts they seem to be the best in the business.

As for wheeling... Doubt it. She’s too heavy for stock coilovers without taking her out and wheeling

 

That sounds pretty sweet! I eventually want to do Kings or Radflo, or whatever sounds good in a few years. This is definitely the route I want to go, with something specific for my exact build.

Hopefully lead times are better than projected for you. I'm sure you must be excited!

 

Had an awesome weekend in SE Utah around Blanding and Bluff. Off-roading, a big dinosaur bone in situ, dinosaur tracks, 6 ruin sites, 10? Petroglyph/pictograph sites, about 500 shards of pottery across different locations (which we did not keep of course). And perfect sunny warm weather. Mid 50s during the day. We didn’t camp cause we thought it would be too cold at night, it wasn’t and we should have.

Large dino bone S of Blanding

Butler Wash dino tracks

Target Ruin

Old Highway between Cottonwood Wash road and county road 263 rated 3.0 of 5.0 on the jeeper off-roading scale. Rocky but not bad.

Tower House ruin
Old Highway petroglyphs

House on Fire ruin

Moon House ruin - really cool place

Cool breakfast spot along the San Juan river

River House ruin and pictographs


Butler Wash petroglyphs (Kachina panel)

Wolfman panel and ruins

So so many pottery shards.

Goosenecks S.P. For a lazy sunset on lawn chairs


Cottonwood Horse Panel

 

Looks like a great trip! This looks like an area I would really enjoy exploring. Every time I check in here, I'm inspired to travel more!

Did you get the Kings back on?

 

Sorta.

The coilovers got new shafts, one new spring, both got rebuilt and revalved. I put those back on. However....

There’s some sort of noise in the front suspension after this trip that I couldn’t chase down while in the field, after laying under the truck on dirt roads checking and rechecking every bolt. So I will be tearing the front apart tomorrow to see what the hell it is.

My rear shocks are leaking like a son of a bitch. I suspect to the point of causing internal damage. But they need new (custom length) shafts and a rebuild revalve. Cost almost as much as new ones. So I ordered new ones.

Actually I ordered an Archive Garage shock relocate kit (that’s in the mail as we speak!) and have a pair of King 12” smoothies on the way. So the next
week or two I should have the relocate kit and new shocks on!

 

Did a little arts and crafts project today!


After a wheeling trip to Utah a while back I realized that with my wheel/tire combo (295/75r16s on 3.5 BS SCS F5s) I rubbed bad. So I pulled the flares on the trip and shittily trimmed the actual fenders...

I’ve been driving the truck around like that for a year and a half. Turns out that cutting wasn’t enough and I still rub the fenders at times at full bump and lock. So today I cut that shit more. Front only for now.

 

Found this today while trying to chase down a mystery metal on metal sort of squeak/clunk. This is what I get for using my TRD Off-road off road.

6” tear in the core support above the radiator bushing.

Fuck.

 

I fucking hate spray painting...



But. The rusty rock chips on my front bumper were pissing me off. So it was time.