Dirt Road Adventure Build

First off, WELCOME!

This is my obligatory "build" thread, I figured it would be a great spot to document the mods/maintenance items I do to the truck. Sometimes I might post some adventure pictures as well.

This Tacoma is currently my daily driver and won't be used for much more than dirt roads, light hauling, towing small trailers, and road trips.

As picked up September, 30th 2020 the same truck you've seen 300 times:​

As of right now:
​

 

Now I've owned this thing for just over 3 months and a few things have lightly changed/added, so I'll try and keep this in order.

The first thing I noticed on the truck was it's terrible halogen bulbs, dare I say, it was nearly embarrassing!

After my journey home from the dealership, I logged on to Amazon and ordered my nice bright white LED lights and wow, bright is an understatement, sometimes I really feel bad for the small car in front of me (not if they cut me off though).

Sticking with the overland/clout chasing activities, I also chose yellow LED Fog lights...but not the expensive Diode Dynamics ones....just a simple yellow light you can only see when turned on. To be real, I kind of regret that now but that's why you start with a cheap Amazon bulb and work your way up!

Camera doesn't do it full justice of course.





In that same order I included some LED reverse lights to increase the reverse camera quality at night and some LED interior lights to give a more "premium" feel to the truck. All of these lights are Amazon-grade and I do not have any issues with errors/flickering, dimming still works on the interior too.

 

Removed
Worked well for the shovel, but it was in the way when I wanted to haul longer items

Next up, not even a mod. A lame small project when I got bored and was thinking of various things I could do with the bed of the truck. I liked the idea of a platform for organizational purposes.

I got a small piece of plywood and some pieces of wood laying around and made a small "shelf" to put a shovel on top of and whatever other small things. It is way overbuilt and can likely support the weight of two people.



I purchased a small outdoor carpet from home depot for 15$ and glued it on top to make it look a little nicer.



To hold said shovel I put some nails in the plywood to stop it from sliding around.

 

Sheeesh this build is getting serious for sure

To get some quick things out of the way cause no one will care anyhow:

I installed floor mats and a shitty Amazon tonneau cover (actually works very good for 300 CAD).

AND the ol' Subaru tweeter swap. One thing I will mention is the attention to detail and how the kicker logo faces the driver/passenger when installed, Not like you'll ever see it but it's the small things that count.

 

subbed

 

Hooke Road rook rack install!

Other things I bought for install:
-3M Marine Silicone Sealant in the roof holes. Important to get Marine for those in northern areas as it is developed to be salt resistant.
-12x48 clear bra for the first section of the roof
-Amazon-grade weather stripping, for under the fairing (cuts the noise DRASTICALLY, it went from howling @40km/h to only hearing some wind noise at ~80+)

Pros: Looks cool, sturdy (300lbs advertised), good quality/price ratio

Cons: Can be considered loud (no louder than the roof racks I had on my VW Golf after weatherstripping), adds 57lbs (without lights, bathroom scale verified), no T-slots like higher end racks.

Struggles:

- I did a terrible job on the clear bra, as you will notice in the pics

-One of the mounting brackets was a little close to the paint for comfort, it might rub if it flexes at all, so I added silicone between the paint and metal just in case.

-I followed instructions and went to tighten everything after it was fully assembled on the roof...big mistake, you can't tighten the roof brackets once the side bars are on unless you have a very narrow torx bit, I had to disassemble the whole thing and restart.

-I did do this alone and its a PITA - employ a friend.

Fuel mileage? Hasn't been on long enough to tell an accurate number.

Pictures:






I put a slit in the roof weather stripping for the bracket for it to fit back in place.










Do you know how much real-estate is on the roof of a double cab? nearly the same amount as an entire short bed box. For proof:

 

With all the dirt roads I've been driving to go camping, brining my dirt bike out to he bush or even short areas under construction - I was getting a lot of chips on my rocker panels, and the quarter panel was getting beat up.

In an effort to save my paint from disintegrating before I even hit 10,000kms. I wanted ones that sat high up and didn't make the truck look so grampa isn't. Low an behold I check out the TW buy & sell and see exactly what I want.

some hours later, these are the results:

 

Likely the most important mod - wheels and tires - was to come eventually. Although the OEM package was great for my usage, I had a great deal fall onto my lap for some FN FX Pro wheels with General Grabber ATX. this setup will be a great year-round tire that will save me from my previous atrocious steel wheels, and add to my neutral colour scheme.

Some test drives have shown that the tires are barley any louder than stock (or maybe the wind noise from my roof rack hides it all lol).

Wheel Spec - 17x8 ET 0
Tire Spec - 265/70 R17
Weight increase of 7lbs per wheel.

Much beefier than what I expected, and I'm more than happy with the outcome despite having to do some plastic trimming.

For my own records - added on at 9,276 km