12 tx pro build

I can weld decent My sliders held up lol.
I will have to see how heavy they are. Was wanting to get my spare and some gas out on a swing out. The shortbed got real small packing up with the wife and kids. But worried about hanging that much weight off the back.

 

They offer a swingout for them. I’m not a huge fan of the swingout design after doing one for someone. But it’s a fairly priced kit if you can do the work yourself.

 

I’ve seen lately people not liking swingouts. What is your reasoning? I’m just trying to free up bed space.

 

I drive too fast for them and in too steep of terrain when crawling personally. For your overlanders, mid travel guys and guys doing medium difficulty crawling they are fine. But anything more extreme then there is just too much weight with too much leverage when bouncing around the desert, or you have to mount things so high up for departure angles in the rocks that it’s ridiculous. It’s hard because a short bed doesn’t have a ton of storage space, especially when you have big tires, but if you get creative with storage then you can still fit a ton of stuff.

Here’s my truck on the rubicon a few years ago. 315/75/16 spare tire, 2 coolers, all cooking and camping gear, chairs, beer, fire wood, water and spare tools and parts. It’s tight and a pain to pack and unpack each day, but it worked. Bedding and clothes stuffed in the back seat.

 

Ya we made it work but the back seat stays full with 2 boys. And there is no way to bring the dog like this. I wonder if anyone makes a removable swing out that you could lift off when you plan on going harder wheeling and put back on when your going just backwoods camping. Either that or it’s time for a roof rack.
@snowsk8air2 how do you have that spare mounted in your bed?

 

I’ve added a bunch of tie down points in the bed for all my gear. So the spare is up against my bed rack and then strapped up and over. All coolers and totes and what not are tied down to the bed as well. I should be able to at least flop on my side and not lose too much gear. But don’t want to test that theory lol.

I mean they make hitch mounted tire carriers that you could probably modify to hold some extra gear for family camping and then pull off when harder wheeling.

 

Threw up a few videos on Instagram not sure how to put them on here @541LML

What is everyone using for monitoring trans temps? And speedometer calibration? Is there one unit that can take care of both for the Tacoma?

 

Getting the winch installed. I wish my boys were older to lend a helpful hand. Instead balancing the bumper between the cherry picker and a floor jack. Getting it done either way

 

Got the fogs I won in a raffle and the light bar I found in a ditch installed. Can’t wait to get out to see how they work.

 

How did this turn out? Did you melt and reshape the reservoir?

 

Ugly but it fits and it hasn’t leaked yet. Ya I just heated it up and flexed it in until it fit with the modified inner fender

 

Parts are starting to come in. Hopefully the shocks come in soon.

 

Update: have the front almost all the way finished up. Going to start on the rear soon, been a slow go between work, kids and other projects to find time to work on it.

 

Coming along slowly. Setting pinion angle, glad I had some tractor weights

 

Truck is doing great with the JD 2.25 kit and sua. Had a blast at the dunes. Can’t wait for some rocks

 

Did pretty good in the rocks, need gears and front locker. And thinking about changing the tires up to something different

 

Spent a week in the desert with everything from rock crawling to blasting down 2 track and the truck did great.

 

What did you paint/seal that with?

 

I used a light behind to make sure there were no holes in my welded seams, then used pro-form European texture gravel gaurd. It worked really well and lasted nicely, no complaints

 

Auto body seam sealer, then spray paint