Capture Colorado 01 TRD Taco - GOAE build

Couldn't stop changing my mind on the truck, truck sold, thanks for playing.

_____________________________________________________

Long story short: Had a gold truck with softopper, armored front-to-back, custom rear bumper w/ swingout, tan softopper... it was perfect, I was happy with it. Then after a week of maintenance (brakes all around, fresh fluids, rear axle bearings & seals, etc) I was heading out for some night wheeling, and was run off the road. Flipped.
Insurance wouldn't touch it, had no options. Bought a cab from a yota yard and swapped cabs. Rather than attempting to repair the damage to the gold bed, I decided to ditch it and build a flatbed. It was a fun project, I lived with the flatbed for nearly a year, and realized it wasn't for me.
Posted up an ad on CL to trade my flatbed for a stock white bed, got a local kid who was interested, so we took a Saturday and swapped everything over. So I'm starting over (over again).
Within the course of a few weeks, I went from a flatbed Taco, to having an entirely white truck with topper, new rear bumper (no swingout) and roof rack.

Camping with bikes + gear on the flatbed, was difficult. I missed having the security and weather resistance of the topper, I loved the look of the flatbed, but it's impractical for my lifestyle.

Currently:













Was:





Before that:




After that:


Cab swap details here, here, and here.

Took matters into my own hands.


And fixed it.




Rather than buying a new bed, I decided to start from scratch, sold the rear bumper and topper to fund a new project.




Specs:

Driveline:
- Stocker than stocky stockerton.
- 3.4l V6
- Manual tranny
- Stock 4.10 gears
- E-locker rear
- Grey wire mod'd
- 13wl Tundra brakes
- Amazon snorkel for Hilux

Suspension:
- ICON 2.5" Internal Resi coilovers, set to 3" lift
- All-Pro Uniball UCA
- BAMF BPV relocation doohickey
- Stainless extended rear brake line
- Eventually extended front brake lines (when I get around to putting them on)
- All-Pro expedition leaf springs
- OME diff drop
- ICON 2.0 Aluminum Shocks w/ rear shock relocation
- ToyTec adjustable lift shackles - set at 2", damn saggy AllPro springs
- No swaybar

Wheels / tires:
- 285/75r16 Nitto Terra Grappler AT w/ Treadwright Guard Dog spare
- ProComp 7069 16x8 w/ 4" BS, flat black.
- Spidertrax 1.25" wheel spacers

Armor / steel bits:
- Relentless DIY front bumper
- Homemade high-clearance rear bumper TacoAss mk.4
- Trail-Gear sliders, welded
- Flatbed, no more
Eventually:
- Full skids

Interior:
- Cheapo digital head unit w/ built-in amp, FM/AM and Aux only
- 6-position in-dash switch panel... Fully outfitted with switches
- RAM mount for phone / offroad nav
- Cobra WX-ST 75
- Custom TruckVault / Bedslide -- TacoVault!

Exterior, etc.:
- Hilux 167 Snorkel
- $40 CL Raven Topper w/ reinforced roof, carpet lined
- RockyMounts BrassKnuckles bike rack on the topper
- RockyMounts Driveshaft locking bike mount on topper
- Plano rifle case bolted to the roof rack for recovery gear/tools/etc.
- Rhino Rack Sunseeker 2500 awning

Lighting / Electrical:
- Stock headlights, assisted by Hella Micro DE fogs.
- Auxiliary fuse/relay panel
- 2 - RUN-D 35w flood LED lights CBI Offroad ditch light brackets
- 2 - 9" 111w LED ARB-knockoffs
- 2 LED flush pod lights as reverse lights
- 6 - 6" LED flood lights mounted to roof rack.
- $20 LED bed lighting. Write-up here

Recovery / misc.:
- The usual, recovery straps, shackles, etc.
- 15lb CO2 tank
- (2) 2-gallon water Rotopax
- (2) 2-gallon gas Rotopax

 

General intro to this dickweed from Colorado...

My previous vehicle, and only 4x4 so far, was a 2000 Jeep XJ that I built in the theme of a 4" lift, 31's, built some bumpers for it, had some fun with it, and then grew tired of the complete and utter lack of cargo space when you have 2-3 people, a dog, and then try to cram photography and bike gear in the back. My goals with this Tacoma are to utilize the bed to its full capacity. In the past, whenever I've gone on a mountain bike trip, it's been a challenge to get everyone's gear and bikes loaded up, let alone food and water. The Taco will serve well with what I have planned in providing a platform for self-sustained single vehicle travel on similar trips... No more relying on other vehicles in the group to store all the food and water (in the big shop van, crammed with coolers and bikes).

When I bought the truck it had a Leer above-cab topper, which was great if you're into that sort of thing, but one of my primary complaints with the XJ was that if I did have space for everything, getting access to something at the front of the pile, under everything, was a PITA. A topper makes this truck a larger capacity SUV...do not want (personally).

Plans for the truck include (in no particular order):
- Lift
- Front winch bumper
- Rear bumper build w/ tire carrier
- Bed rack build w/ custom canvas top (maybe)
- OBA with two 2.5-gallon air tanks hooked together
- Lighting... lots of it. 2-per-side LED alley lights on the rack, reverse lights, and aux. driving lights.








________________________________________________

These came tonight. Part #1 of the new suspension, Swayaway's with 650# Eibachs. If there's time in my day tomorrow, these might be finding their way under the truck.

 

subbed for pics. First one WOO!!

 

This afternoon, I bolted the coilovers in... Turns out ordering the long travel ones made it a bit interesting to bolt in, but once I figured out to disconnect the lower ball joint from the knuckle, bolt the coilover in, then jack the LCA up so I could mate the ball joint and knuckle back together, everything went pretty smoothly.

Before...


After.


Old vs. new. The long travel has about 2" longer stroke over the non-LT version for greater droop.


I've only driven these to the auto parts store so far, but I'm quite surprised that for having a 650# spring rate, they don't ride harsh at all, very smooth and well damped. Granted, I haven't upped the preload to give me the 3" lift that I'll ultimately end up at, I'm assuming that the 650# coils and Expo springs will balance out pretty well in ride quality with each other.

Also, f*ck the stupid swaybar bolts. I was about to cut the stupid thing in half and get rid of it all together.

 

This morning I got an early start to the day with a pile of parts, and a plan.

Well, at least a pile of parts.



After some grunting, and some cutting of the main leaf spring bolts, the truck started looking a lot more nekkid.



Then, as if by magic (and the whole day later, a trip to Yota Jim's for a shackle, a trip to pick up a new hard line for the brake, and some lunch).... leaf springs, shocks, etc. appeared under the truck.



Slee gave me some black die-cut stickers. Black stickers don't belong on tinted windows, and I don't want to put stickers on the sheetmetal.

Clearly this was the wisest placement of sticker.



Then I moved on to the front. I didn't feel like dealing with the UCA's today, so I didn't. I'll get around to that eventually. But until then, the coilovers are going to look just as good without the new UCA's.



From the short test drive I took (up to 80mph) I don't have any vibration coming from the front end, which I'm fairly pleased about... considering I wasn't able to break the bolts free to install the diff drop kit.

Otherwise, I'm really happy with the way it's turned out. The handling is on point, body roll is significantly reduced, the ride is smooth but firm and controlled. I also put on some Spidertrax wheel adapters/spacers to kick the track width out a bit, which added nicely to the aesthetic of the truck being lifted and sitting on 31's

I'll get pictures of the truck tomorrow after work.

 

Got the chance to get some updated pictures of the truck tonight.



It's really not as raked out as I thought it would look. The coils are cranked to do 3" lift, and the expos are supposed to give 4" lift when unloaded. I think it looks good like this.

 

While I was at the alignment shop this morning, I had some time to kill.

So I killed time. Killed it good.

This design uses simple dimensions (all 3/16" wall), 2x6" tube for the top, 4" plate for the large bevel, and 2" plate for the small bevels. The large portion will be supported by multiple 3"x3" gussets, and the sides will be supported by 1.5"x1.5" gussets. I'm also ordering tire carrier parts tonight, dual sheer spindle, latch, pop pin, etc. I'm thinking about doing something rather unusual with the tailgate, as well. With my XJ I grew tired of having to deal with bikes on the rack, swingout tire carrier, and the hatch. Too damn many processes to deal with. I'm contemplating unbolting the hinge pieces from the tailgate, and bolting the tailgate to the swingout itself - think tiregate, but more useful. I'd still be able to detach it and use the tailgate as a tailgate if I need to, but as long as the tire carrier is there, the tailgate will be useless to have open downward. It would attach easily via bolts and spacers through the sheet metal to tabs on the swingarm, pretty straight forward and non-permanent.


I also convinced the guys to throw their impact wrench on the seized front diff bolts, and help me throw the diff drop kit in. Cost me nothing, too

 

I've been stockpiling parts for a couple of weeks now for a few projects...

Rear bumper - I have everything I need to get started on that, except enough time to go through and start doing everything. I need to trim the bed a little bit before I can fully start on the project.
- 800# latch
- pop pin
- dual-sheer tire carrier spindle
- tire carrier plate
- 2" receiver
- two Ballistic shackle mounts
- miscellaneous tabs, which I'm probably not going to end up using, but they're here.
- 2x6, 2x2, 2", 3", and 4" rectangular tube and plate steel, all 3/16" thick.



Then today, I picked up some shiny for the front bumper that may or may not be on its way here... If UPS could pull their heads out of their asses and figure out where it is, I can get started on some stuff. Basically I decided to get a Trail-gear low profile front bumper, if I end up not liking the tube I'll just scrap the tubing and build off of the existing foundation. But I think I'll like the tube.

I decided to start working on my lighting situation. I wanted to do it right this time... With my Jeep, while it worked just fine, it was kind of a chaotic system, not as well organized as I had hoped it would be, and a challenge to add anything. Also no labels, so if I had to change a relay or fuse, it wasn't clear which was which. So in addition to shiny bright things, I've got a sheet of HDPE to use as the base for my fuse/relay panel, aaaand a bunch of other parts to replicate this to a degree. I'll pre-cut, and wrap together signal wires to go from the switches to the relays, which will all connect via terminal block, and a 6-way plug at the switch panel for easy reworking of the wiring. Each system that connects to the panel will connect with a weatherpack connector, so I can completely remove the wiring for an individual set of lights. Everything will be LED, so the current draw on the system will be pretty low overall; I'll probably never have ALL the lights on at once (1-2 10" bars on the bumper, 4 forward-facing pods, two small flood pods on either side of the rack, and aux. reverse/loading lights).



New shiny... 4x 16w pods, and 1 50w 10" bar from local guys Olympus Offroad, they're also going to hook it up with some of their 18w bolt rock lights that should prove very useful for illuminating the bed, and obviously for rock lights. I'm not sure if the rock lights will project enough to act as alley lights, but that would be pretty rad.




On a side note, if you're in the market for some really well-built LEDs for not the price of Rigid, these guys are worth checking out. And Daniel is a really cool dude, I might have the opportunity to do some photography for those guys coming up, and look forward to working with them some more. They also have some great LED headlight upgrades that I've been running for a little white that work great.
olympusoffroad.com

 

Looks like a very good start to me. Awesome build so far

 

Looks great man!

Want to build a second rear bumper while your at it?

 

Thanks!

Thank you! I can build a second one (it'll be easier then), I've priced out what it'd cost for building with/without tire carrier, if you're interested PM me...it ain't cheap, but it's cheaper than commercial bumpers

 

Very interested in this build.

Awesome so far.

 

Here's the latest version of the rear bumper.



Also thinking about throwing a 4runner hood scoop into the taco hood and mounting the light bar in it, to get the light about 8" above the headlights.

 

That's a really cool idea. Normally I'd think "ricer" but I have a feeling you'll pull it off nicely and give your truck a mean look.

 

ha! That's exactly what I thought when the thought first crossed my mind to do a scoop. But something like this (minus the huge, albeit awesome truck) is how I'd hope it'll look. I might need to dig a little deeper for a taller scoop that the light bar will actually fit in.





This guy sourced a 2011 scoop...







Ah screw it, I'm gonna do this.

 

Got started on a few projects today. First, started the rear bumper; today was pretty much running errands and removing the stock bumper/hitch, and trimming the bed for the new bumper.

I'm no stranger to cutting sheet metal off of a vehicle, so this didn't particularly phase me. But the ridiculous amount of metal you've got to cut through on the corners is a headache.


Also, all I had today was my camera phone, so these pictures are teh suck.


Once everything was removed and I had clear access to the frame, I got started with some bumper mounts.


I'm going to make a "template" mount, that way if I ever want/need to build another bumper for anyone in the future I'll have the basis on which to do so easily. I also decided I'm going to add at least one additional bolt to the mounting plates on the frame rail, potentially two. I might also get some extra material and weld a crossmember in between the frame rails on the back end. Dunno yet. Either way, the 'template' will have some 3/32" or 1/4" holes drilled in it at the locations of the bolts, and the outer dimensions needed for the mounts, that way I can line it up with the new material in the future and punch the holes through, then enlarge with the step bit to the required size.

The truck looks a little weird without an ass. A little later in the afternoon I went to another parts store and picked up some door edge guard for the cut edge; it cleaned up the look substantially.


I may have mentioned this before, but while the wiring of aftermarket crap on my jeep worked, it didn't look good, nor was it organized in any sense of the word (ok, it was, but no where near what I would expect of myself). In ordering lights, etc., I've also ordered parts to build a proper relay and fuse panel, so everything is in one location, easily organized, serviced, and diagnosed for issues.

Getting started on the panel with a 12" square piece of 3/8" HDPE. I chose HDPE because it's non-conductive, corrosion-resistant/proof, and extremely easy to work with. But mostly because it's non-conductive. All the hardware on this is stainless steel, as well.


All it needs now is some wires. Input will be fused 150a into the fuse panel, signal wires from the switches in the cab to the relays on the right, power from the relay to the device is on the left, with a group ground adjacent to the fuse panel. All the relays' grounds will be looped together in a row to keep things clean, and each relay is held on securely with a wing nut on a carriage bolt which is jammed into the HDPE, so there's a non-permanent way of mounting the relays so they can be replaced without the need of tools in the field.


That's all for now. Tomorrow I'm going back to my parents garage to continue working on the bumper, and will be picking up additional material to make a second bumper for one penguin who squeaks.

 

FUUUUUSED....!

Looking good so far.

 

Got a chance to pretty much wrap up the panel tonight. I've decided that I'm going to wire in an additional relay going to all the forward-facing lights (total of 3 switches), and have that relay triggered by the high beam signal, so that I can have all the front lights on w/ high beams, and quickly switched off when the highs are turned off in the cab - that way I can have one, two, or all the lights on at once on a highway or back road, then quickly off as needed without fumbling to hit several switches.

So there's that.

And there's this:

All laid out, with the ground wires looped together to a ground stud (black, duh, 16awg).


Added the fused lines into the relays (red 16awg).


Signal wires from in-cab switches (yellow 18awg).


And finally, the signal out, once the switch is turned on and the current connects via the yellow, fused power exits via the white wires to the lights. (white 16awg).


The current draw on these LEDs is so low, that I think the 16awg wires should suffice for these short distances... not to mention, the lights all came with 16awg wire making up the harnesses, and I'll ultimately be using 10awg, mostly for having a more robust cabling; but also because I plan on running all 4 bumper pods from 1 relay and fuse over a potentially long span of wire, so I wanted to be able to take into account current loss over that distance.

And Amazon had red/black mated 10awg speaker wire for cheap

 

So.. a fair amount has happened in the last couple of weeks.

I got some 285/75r16's on CL for a solid deal. Even more, they're TreadWright Guard Dog's on BFG casings, just like the 265/70's I already had, plus brand new full size spare. I'm happy with it. Truck looks good, handles great, could possibly use a regear, but not sure how much I care. MPG dropped maaayybe by 1mpg too.

I also finished the rear bumper prototype, and I'm very happy with the design, it completely changes the look of the truck. Today I started working on the final versions, tomorrow I expect to get the plating done, as well as the spindles welded in for the tire carriers, once that's all set, I should be able to get the swingarms wrapped up pretty promptly.

Also ordered a Relentless Fab DIY front bumper kit, it looks like it should blend well with the lines of my rear bumper

Anywho, picture time. Because let's face it, none of you internet folk really care what I say, it's all about the pretty pictures.







Little dusty...


My trim line was nice and straight at first, then I had to trim it down some more.

 

You've done an awesome job! Looks great! I love the color of the truck as well... Keep up the good work!