1999 Tacoma SR5 TRD Imperial Jade Build, Sweat and Tears

Had the exact same frame repair on my passenger side.
Heard a weird knocking noise, after inspection the top shock mount had completley rusted free and was swinging around.
after close inspection had the exact same frame rot
Patched it up the same and reattached the mount.
I think those 'fish eye" brackets are needed after a frame weld, but I don't know for .sure

 

Had the tank all in, bed on, shell on and when I went to fill the tank the pump kept clicking off. The breather is way too small. There was also a really tiny pin hole. I had to leave so I pulled it all out and put my old tank back.



When I had the new tires mounted one of the wheels was badly bent. Luckily I bought a whole set a little while ago, so I brought one of the wheels with me. It was still shaking so I found this place and had them remount the tire on a good rim.


Stuck in traffic








Slept at a rest stop

 

Stopped at a junkyard in Kansas City in search of a set of CV axles. They had a 4runner that was recently put out.


It had the CVs but both were toast


Just picked up the tire tool set, gas cap and the dingle berry counter weight that hangs off the transfer case. Ive never seen one of these before. I always looked at the 2 holes on my transfer case wonder what goes there. Well I guess this does. Whenever I would engage the clutch there was always a slight shutter, mounted this before I left the junkyard. It actually makes a big difference. The shutter is gone and shifts way better. Ill have to get a better pic later.

 

Stormy getting close to Denver


Stopped in Boulder for the night. Want to hit another junkyard on the way and got into town too late.


Stopped at Spyderco again on my way out.


Bought another knife that I dont need but the deal was too good, was $50 off because it was an open box.

 

Complete fucking disrespect. Why do people do this. Its hard enough finding Tacomas and this is what they do?






2 Tacomas and 4 4runners and all the CV axles were gone. Found some stuff ive been needing though. Since I cut up my old gas neck support I was happy to find another stock one.


My clutch pedal rubber was worn out and I bought 4 of these. Swapped mine out before I left.


Swapped out the filler neck support too. My cut one

 

After leaving I found a parts yard where they pull the parts. Pretty much locked up the brakes to make the turn into the parking lot. Finally lucked out.

I only had my phone on me, so the photos kinda suck these last couple post.

This Tacoma was insanely clean. The impearl jade immaculate, damn near showroom. The mechanic that pulled the parts for me told the guy rolled it. He must have been crazy heart broken. Every panel was damaged. I would of bought anything that wasnt.

Finally found a set of green CVs! and they are in good condition. Bought the sun visors, the later year ones are much better, but it seems the mounts are slightly different. Also bought the TRD fender flares.

The 3rd green axle was mine, I was just comparing the part number

 

While driving out of Denver, seen this guy riding. Always wanted to tour on one of these. Could never get any friends to do it. Maybe the next mission.


On the way to Moab I opted to take the back way this time though the 50. Still snow!

 

Made it

 

Last time I was in Moab a few months ago, I picked this magazine up out in front of the grocery store on the free rack. This for free is awesome! I can only imagine the time and work that went into making this. It has a ton of trails by rating and has a explanation for all of them and Im essentially using it as my Moab bible now.




My goal this trip is to check off all the trails with the 3 rating

 

On my way to do Secret Spire. Took off my top box and locked it up at the campground. I wanted to take some of the weight off. The bed area is still loaded down with most of my stuff though, you can see it sagging in the rear still.











Secret Spire Completed




It was insane!

 

On my way out I did the Dellenbaugh Tunnel too.














Dellenbaugh Tunnel Completed!

 

Camp setup. Solar panel is awesome. Bent wheel as my gate.

 

Deadman Point lets go.




DPT marker


Some decent wheeling on this one












Deadman Point completed! Was tempted to hit the tub on the way out but didnt. The low hanging 4runner radiator is given me anxiety anytime I have approach angle challenges. I gotta get that thing swapped out, bigger isnt always better I guess.

 

Right after Deadman Point I was down for Deadman Springs.

Here we go






Deadman Springs Completed! Didnt take many photos on this one. Was really tired. These 2 trails back to back is a lot of wheeling.

 

So the last time I was in Moab, I would lay in the back of truck at night looking at all the trails online. Top of the World was one that really stuck out to me and one I wanted to do some day. My goal was to get back to PA and get some sliders on and swap the low hanging 4runner radiator to a smaller one so that it would be protected. I didnt do either. My truck isnt that high either and Im on 31's.

Everything I read about Top of the World is how its much harder than it used to be and how you need big tires, etc, etc. My goal for this Moab trip was to knock out all the 3 rated trails listed for Easter Jeep Safari, essentially just have fun without pushing it too far, well I dont know how to do that so F it, 3 rated trails are cancelled and Top of the World it is. Fingers crossed.





Gate keeper was pretty nasty. The first step was high. I tried 3 times from different angles and hit my skid. The damn 4runner radiator was giving me too much anxiety. Its probably not even an inch away from the front of the skid and Im sure that plastic lower tank will break like nothing. I kicked out and took the bypass up.


I didnt take any photos after the gate keeper on the way up. I was just locked in. From this point on I took no bypasses and I didnt skirt the outside of the trail when possible. I fully went for it, picking the cleanest lines I could to try and just dance across the top of everything.

I gotta say from this point on, Im not listening to anything about tire size or lockers or you need this or that bs. I made it to the top clean. No spotting, no scraping, no banging, no locker, no spinning tires, no fighting, no breaking anything, factory bumpers, loaded down and on 31's! I was insanely happy when I got to the top. There was some modded Jeeps up there and for some reason they just kept staring at me, it was kinda weird. Maybe because my truck looks essentially stock, I dont know.

Was whipping wind up there so this was as close to the edge that I was going to get. After what happened last time, this is good enough for me.






Was still a little nervous coming down, I didn't want to celebrate too early.

Made it down clean too! Top of the World completed! When I got back down to the gatekeeper I thought about giving it one more try to get passed it now that my nerves were gone but I didnt want to push it. I really wish I could of unloaded all the stuff out of my truck. I still have 500+ pounds of stuff that Im traveling with. If I unloaded it would give me probably 1.5-2 inches more clearance in the rear. Ill be back again.


Stuck my burrito in the burrito heater pocket under the hood on the way back and just took the rest of the day off at the campsite to celebrate.

 

Todays trail is going to be 3D




Marker for 3D


The sandy washes were insane fun








Got lost across this area and exited a really sketchy way. Almost 30 degrees, my balls were definitely tingling.




Almost done


I think this was Mean Hill. Was definitely steep. Threw the locker on just in case.


Did the hill like a champ! No drama at all.


3D completed! Was crazy fun. Maybe my favorite to date. Has everything in one trail and it was pretty long. Sandy spots were awesome. After knowing what I know now about my truck, I regret not going to look at the Pickle which is on this trail. Its rated a 7 and out of my league but from the videos ive seen I would of love to at least given it a shot. I would of needed someone that could make it up and had winch just in case. I think people say once your in your in.

 

One of the tough things for me is I dont have any real detailed maps. I dont use onX or any of that other stuff. I just try and make it to the trail head and do the best I can. Its kinda easy to get lost. I turned on bread crump tracking on my street gps so I can start to make my own map an compare it to the Jeep Safari map and the more trails I did the more it was easy to see where I was.

Here was my bread crumb for 3D. I even drove backwards when I was done to complete a little part I missed.


And here is the Jeep map. Its number 3.

 

After 3D, Hell Roaming Rim was close by so I tried to go complete it. Hell is right, I got lost so many times. I didnt take any photos, I was nervous because I was running low on gas and I was really far out. I got off track so many times and the trails were no joke, way harder than Top of the World. I had no choice but to do them because I kept going in circles and that was the only way out. I had to do a massive ledge down. I didnt think I would even make it. I stacked whatever rocks I could find and made it down. I ended up making it out with very little gas and gave up for the day. It was too much wheeling for one day. I think at this point Im doing close to 80 miles offroading a day. I think doing 2 trails a day is bit much for these big ones.

 

So I did some research of what happened and tried to figure out a way to get the rest of Hell Roaring Rim down for my last day. I even went and bought this book for $40. Well, come to find out it doesnt really have many of these Jeep trails in it even though it does reference them, wtf. It got me close enough though. I seen Mineral Point trail was close enough and the bread crumb trails I made gave me enough to figure it out.


So here we go, last day. Down Mineral trail


I dont have many photos because this area is insane. There is so many off shoot trails and very little markings. I ended up doing a route that was very steep and was fully of high ledges, it made Top of the World look easy. So of these things are once youre in, you're committed, backing down would be the last thing I would ever attempt. If you go in this area be prepared or use some sort of off road GPS, its not easy and there are some serious spots it you take the wrong turn.

Finally made it to Mineral Point. Now off to finish Hell Roaring Rim


Finally made it to the Rim. This Hell Roaring Rim and Mineral point area is exhausting if you dont know where you are going. It doesnt seems super big on the map but this area is massive. Full of off shoots.






On the way out I was exhausted, I was wheeling for like 5-6 hours at this point and on my 5th day of doing that. I used my bread crumb map to help me cut across to get out in a short cut instead of driving really far around. I was once again running low on gas. The short cut I took ended up being crazy. I have no idea what the trail is by Mineral point that has a 1 marker on it but damn. This is the climb that made me regret not looking into doing the Pickle.

Photos never do this just, but you can see how small and far away my truck is


I have a video of me walking down it and each ledge is from my knee down and theres a ton of them


I went for it. Definitely the hardest thing Ive ever took this truck on and the next climb above this was not easy either. Locker on for sure! Not taking any chances. This first time I ever spun tires to fight to climb, she bucked a little but made it. No scraping. I was sweating bullets. The next part above this sucked too. I did my best to try and angle to get one tire to climb up first to give me clearance for my skid and I tired to stay up on the rocks but couldn't see over the hood and missed, I dragged the rear diff pretty good. I was prying hard that the rest of the trail was doable because there was no way I wanted to go back down. I ended up making it out undamaged. I was fully exhausted and I felt that completed the trip for me. That climb was way above my trucks pay grade and it did it and crushed all the other trails with ease. Was an epic journey. The next time Im going to go take a look at the Pickle.

Just a side note. The day before I ran into a guy that was also lost over at Hell Roaring Rim. He had first gen Tacoma TRD. He was looking for his friends and I seen him spotting a trial I had just come up. It was pretty steep and I could see he wasnt sure. I went over and talked to him and he asked if I could go down first and I told him yeah. I assured him it looks really steep but I know youll make it, just follow me. When we got down he said he owned that truck for 8 years that was the craziest thing hes ever done in it. He seemed super stoked. I told him that was nothing, you can do way crazier if you can believe it. I thought it was kind of crazy how many people have these trucks and never take em out for what they are meant. He asked me to go hang with him and his friends but I was like sorry dude, I gotta go complete Hell Roaring.

I meant to put up a post saying I was going to Moab but I was feeling off and just wanted to solo mission it and think about life. I may go back one more time at the start of June but I dont know right now.

The ultimate conclusion I came away with has pretty much what Ive been doing all along. You dont need all the expensive shit to go and have a good time. Your truck is way more capable than you imagine. You dont need 35's and all the fancy shit everyone says. I had anxiety the whole time on Top of the World from all the stuff I read and come to find out I ended up doing way harder after that. Just work on driver skill and making smart decisions, like not holding your steering at full lock while climbing and not mashing the gas pedal and youll go a long way.

Just get out there with what you have and have fun. If I would of listened to what people were saying on Youtube or magazines I never would of done Top of the World plus way more. Dont put off a trip because youre waiting on bead lock wheels, crazy lift, etc. I ran all these trails with 22psi, locker rarely on, Bilstein 5100 on the 3rd ring (one down from the top), worn out 4runner CV's that have been held together with electrical tape, zip ties and plastics bags for the last 5k miles, OME Dakar leafs (which dont really matter because my bed was fully loaded), spare tire still under the truck and the rest is stock. Just go, life is short.