2014 Tacoma Build "The Sierra Nevada Edition"

Thank you for reading my build thread hope you can find inspiration from my build and learn from my mistakes. I'm available to answer all questions, I design/built or at the very least install everything you see on my truck, so I know my truck and this build front and back.



I bought this 2014 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-road V6 MT Access Cab brand new off the lot and got them to throw in the black camper shell and Thule roof rack as part of the deal, the dealer agreed as long as it would fit on the taco I bought. The camper shell and roof rack were taken off a used black 2012 Tacoma so I knew it would fit.

Below you will find a quick reference to what I have done to the truck in chronological order and the number associated to a more detailed description of the installation. Following the quick reference you will find a detailed description of the items which were put on the truck.

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1. Yakima Cargo Basket
2. Storage/Sleeping Platform
3. Relentless Fabrications Rock Sliders
4. Plastidip emblems, OEM rims, chrome grill, and chrome rear bumper
5. Roof rack and grill light bar as well as Light bar brackets for behind grill mount
6. Old Man Emu Suspension upgrade
7. Relentless Fabrications high clearance rear bumper
8. Raptor Line fender flares
9. Switch-Pro controller and control panel installation/ New Lighting
10. Bird Dawg Industries teck deck navigation accessories mounts
11. Relentless Fabrications "predator" front plate steel bumper with winch and lights

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1.

The first thing I bought was the Yakima cargo basket, figured it would act as a truck bed on top of the camper and allow me to put camping gear and anything over sized up there. I usually keep my dogs in the camper shell so I want to leave enough room back there for them as possible. Be careful there is a weight limit to Thule roof racks, I had a cooler up there and a friend jumped up on the top to help take the cooler down and the bar bowed pretty significantly. Still functions properly but it’s got an obvious bow in it.

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2.

Next I installed a sleeping and storage platform in the bed of the truck so that I can store all my camping, climbing, skiing gear in bins and also have a sleeping platform on top of everything. I'm 6'4" so I don't fit long ways in the truck bed and have to sleep diagonally, this is why I had to build a platform that covers the whole truck bed. The first time I built it I used 5/8" plywood for the top and 1/8" plywood for the "stringers" or vertical supports/dividers. I shopped for storage containers that would fill my truck bed best and spaced the dividers so that the storage bins fit. I used a nail gun and wood glue to secure the stringers to the platform the first time I built it. I put some hinged doors in the platform to access the whole passenger side where my climbing rope, shade poles and shade are stored and a small door on the driver side to access the battery and solar charger cables (see diagram below). Then I carpeted the top of the platform.

A couple years later I got a puppy and as I was potty training him he had several accidents in the bed of the truck on the sleeping platform so the plywood started to warp, when he was old enough and potty trained I decided to rebuild the whole thing. I rebuilt it with the same dimensions because the storage containers were still good. this Time I used 5/8" plywood for the platform and the stringers (vertical supports), I also used some metal L brackets to keep the vertical pieces in place along with the wood glue of course. I also installed a "bulk head" on the front of the bed under the platform using more L brackets to secure the stringers to the bulkhead to help keep the vertical members from drifting and bending (it worked and I would suggest doing this if you are trying to use plywood stringers for vertical supports).





I can fit my 100W solar panel under the platform just on top of the long storage bin with purple handles.





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3.

Next I installed some Relentless Fabrications bolt-on rock sliders. Not only do I really like their designs, style, and price, but I live in the Eastern Sierras, they are located in Reno so it’s not that bad of a drive to go pick up any parts from them. I purchased the rock sliders bare metal so I primed and painted them black. I can’t remember what primer nor the paint I used but it held up pretty well, over about 6 years of them being on the truck I would rub my legs on them getting in and out of my truck, the paint wore down to bare metal and so this summer (2020) I took them to Reno to get sandblasted and I primed and painted them again, this time I used etch primer and Raptor Liner, I followed all instruction minus wet sanding the primer before applying the raptor liner, I haven't started seeing the Raptor Liner chip off the rock sliders yet but I'm thinking I should have wet sanded the primer with a high grit sandpaper before I put the first coat of Raptor liner on them. Next time I'll either spend the time to not skip steps or just take them to a shop and pay for them to be professionally done.

The picture below is after I had raptor lined it.



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4.

Plastidipped the OEM rims, emblems, chrome grill, and chrome bumper. This process is extremely easy and quick to do. It produces some incredible results and would recommend this to anyone who wants to black out their emblems. If you spill gasoline on the plastidip it will come off, I learned this the hard way and a big part of my plastidipped bumper got stripped back to the chrome.



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5.

Designed and built a light bar bracket behind the grill, and a bracket for the roof rack. I also designed and built a new grill that framed the 20" light bar. I have a plasma cutter and welder at work and my employer lets me use it occasionally, so I designed the components on Auto CAD, cut them on the plasma cutter table and welded them together. Bolted on a Knock off brand 20" Light bar behind the grill and a 50" light bar to the brackets I made for the roof rack and wired both to some relays in the engine bay, and switches inside of the cab. I still have the Light bar and brackets behind the grill, but I have since removed the light on the roof rack and the switches and relays. I removed the 50" Light bar from the roof rack because I rarely used it and the SS bolts kept shearing at the threaded hole on the lights. I removed the switches recently because I purchased and installed a Switch-Pro solid state switch system (described in more detail below).





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NOTE: The truck sat this way for many years, it served its purposed to take me where I needed it to go and bring anything I really needed. I paid off the truck and also a dirt bike and now that I have some additional income because I don't have payments I've been able to add some things I have wanted for a long time. Below is everything I have done to her beginning in spring of 2020.

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6.

After driving the truck for 6 years through many backwoods and washboard roads it was time to replace the suspension. I installed the Old Man Emu suspension (OME), hard front and hard back. I knew I would be buying both front and back bumpers and adding a wench on the front bumper. I also have plans to build a camper in the back. I didn't want to spend more money on switching the springs and adding leaf's in the future so I installed the hard front and hard back from the beginning. Yes it ran really stiff and rough until I started to add weight to the front of the truck, the back is still a little stiff but we will see what happens when I add the camper. I bought all the parts and found out I needed a spring compressor because the shop I bought it from didn't do it for me (they often charge to do it and I didn’t have time or budget for that). I used the trucks weight to compress the spring instead of renting/buying a spring compressor. If you use this method it helps to have someone to assist you lining up the spring in the spring cradle of the coil over and also lining up the bolt holes through the top hat while someone lowers the truck onto the spring slowly. There are YouTube videos on how to do this.



The OME suspension is drastically beefier than the TRD Bilstein shocks the truck came with.



I really like the yellow look of the installed OME suspension





I didn't measure this but I think my truck got about a 2.5"-3" lift from this suspension upgrade.

Before:



After:



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7.

Paint and install Relentless Fabrications high clearance rear bumper. After picking up the bumper from the shop in Reno I took it to get sandblasted so that I didn’t have to spend time roughing up the bare metal, well worth the $100. I brought it home wiped off any dust and primed it with etch primer. I put 3 coats of Etch primer on and gave it several days to dry. First mistake, I didn’t wet sand the primer, nor did I wipe it down to get rid of any dust before applying the Raptor Liner product. I sprayed one coat of Raptor Liner on the bumper gave it about an hour to surface dry and then flipped it over to paint the other side, second mistake, Raptor liner is surface dry in an hour but not workable dry until 5-7 days. So when I flipped it over the paint stuck to my saw horses rather than the bumper, I didn’t know this until I flipped it back over and saw the paint didn’t stick to the bumper but the saw horses instead. I quickly put another coat on it and didn’t give it proper time to cure, so now I have pieces of Raptor liner that are chipping off either because I didn’t wet sand the primer before the first coat of Raptor Liner or because I didn't give enough time in between coats. What did I learn? Be patient when painting with raptor liner, always wet sand the primer with very fine grit sandpaper before applying raptor liner, and give the full 5-7 days for each coat to cure.







Once the Paint was dry came the scariest part of the whole project. Cutting sheet metal body so that you can fit the bumper. I measured 20 times before I cut and still I was a bit nervous I'd messed it up, but I had to eventually bite my lip and let the angle grinder rip. Relentless builds in some adjustment so that you can fit the bumper to about 1/4" clearance between bumper and body. I primed the cut sheet metal so that it didn’t rust and then used edge trim to make it look clean.





Fitting the bumper to the existing bolt holes and securing it was difficult by myself, I called a neighbor to help and we managed to do it with 2 people but would have been easier with 3. Like I mentioned above Relentless gives you some wiggle room to place it in the right position with the recommended clearances.









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8.

I had always wanted to complete the whole two tone thing I had going with the silver truck and black camper. I thought painting the fender flares black would be interesting. I had some Raptor Liner left over from the rear bumper and rather than buying new black fender flairs I would just take the ones I had and paint them with the raptor liner to match the black roughed look of the rear bumper. I removed them off the truck and used a wire brush wheel attached to a drill and I began to scratch off the surface paint of the fender flares to give the Raptor liner something to adhere to. I didn’t prime this because the plastic fender flairs were really scratched up and looked like they didn’t need it. I applied the Raptor Liner directly on the fender flares, gave them a couple days to dry and when the new fender flair button things came in the mail I installed the fenders and at first I wasn’t really impressed but its growing on me and I really like the look now.







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9.

Next on the list was installing a Switch-Pro controller and control panel and some new lighting. I used the Expedition Essentials sunglass holder mounting hardware to mount the control panel. I ran the control panel wires through the firewall, up the driver’s side A-pillar and then under the headliner to the roof consul where the control panel was installed in the sunglass holder using the expedition essentials mount mentioned above.



I used the SDHQ vertical controller mounting plate to mount the switch pro controller in the driver side of the engine bay. The manufacturer recommends that it be installed in a vertical orientation rather than horizontal so that if water gets into the connector it can drain easily. I have the pink wire wrapped around the brake fluid reservoir because it is a separate "trigger" for the switch pro system but I have not decided what I want that to trigger so for now it’s just sitting ready to be connected to something.



I know I didn’t have to, but I like the look and organization of the wiring with the bus bars and labeling everything that is connected. I know that if I get water in it, it could connect multiple accessories and short out the amp meter in the consul. I am ok with the trade off of having water short out some accessories for the cleanliness and organization of all the accessories controlled by the Switch-Pro. I rarely if ever do deep water crossings or puddle driving at night where I would need my lights, most of my driving is desert and mountain driving and water is not much of a concern.



The first lights I wired up to the Switch-Pro were the "reverse" lights in my high clearance rear bumper, they are Baja Designs Flush mount S2 Sport's I chose the S2 Sport's instead of the S2 Pro's because I didn’t think I needed the additional lumens in a reverse light. I replaced the lenses with a drive combo lens so that I can get a wide spread of light on the outsides and more of a beam on the inside.





The next lights I installed and connected to the Switch-Pro controller were a pair of Baja Designs S2 sport with wide cornering lens. This lens has a defracting lens on both LED's to help spread out the short distance lighting. Once again I opted for the Sport LED rather than the pro LED because these would be used as a sort of "ditch light" but mounted to my roof rack rather than above my hood. I liked this idea better because the lights are much higher and they don’t reflect off my hood and once again I didn’t need the additional lumens. I wired these lights independently so that if I wanted to use these lights as camp light I can turn on just the driver’s side or just the passenger side individually.



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10.

I installed a Bird Dawg Industries Xtreme-Duty Tech Deck just below the clock and emergency lights switch but above the air control dials (see picture below). This was a relatively easy installation and it is really secure. I installed a couple RAM diamond ball bases to the Tech Deck to hold my cell phone and IPAD for navigation.



I use GAIA GPS as my main navigation software, this program is incredible with all the layers you can view as well as the easy route planning techniques. I'm still new to this type of navigation but it has proven much much easier than my previous methods.

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11.

The front bumper with winch and all lighting is the last thing I have installed on this truck as of December 2020. This is the biggest/most expensive addition to the truck build to date. I bought a Relentless Fabrication "Predator" plate steel front bumper, in bare metal as I was planning on painting it using the Raptor Liner paint to match color and texture of the rear bumper, rock sliders, and fender flares. When I picked it up in Reno I took it to get sandblasted so that I didn’t have to rough it up myself before painting it ($100 well spent). When I brought it home I wiped it down to remove any dust or sand from the sand blasting process. I immediately primed it because it was really susceptible to rust in the "white steel" form from sand blasting. I think I put 3 coats of Etch primer on the bumper and gave it 3 days to dry. Next I did a quick wipe down after the primer was dry and started applying the first coat of Raptor Liner, Once again I didn’t wet sand the primer which is a step that I would recommend doing before applying the first coat of Raptor Liner. I waited 5 days in between coats, I think I put 3-4 coats of Raptor Liner on it because of all the weird angles and the tube headlight protectors made it hard to get an even coat. I let each coat sit for 5-7 days, due to this the painting process took about a month. While the last coat was drying I started to install the winch and all the lights.



I installed a Warn VR EVO 8-S winch with synthetic rope, it’s got a remote controller that can be plugged into the top of the winch if the wireless controls don’t work. The 8,000 lb. winch fit perfectly in the space allowed in the design of the Relentless Fabrications bumper, I think if I had bought the 10k or 12k winch I may have had to remove the controller on the top of the winch and attached controller somewhere separately.



The lights installed in the bumper are all Baja Designs LED lights. Relentless Fabrications has a perfect cut out in the bumper for a Baja Designs S8 20" light bar, and because I already have the white light bar in my grill I opted for the yellow driving combo lens for the Baja Designs S8 that went behind the bumper.



Relentless Fabrications has 2 cut outs for fog lights on each side so I put a set of clear and a set of yellow Baja Designs Squadron sport Square framed lights in those spots. They are super bright and occasionally I get a high beam flash from oncoming traffic. Once again I got the Sports rather than the Pros because I knew the lumens on the Pros was way too much for my needs.



All lights were run and connected to the Switch-Pro controller and I'm loving the controller and the whole system in general. It was a bit of a learning curve for how to install and wire everything, but the University of YouTube has tutorials for it all. The picture below is in Red Rocks State Park on HWY 14 heading from Los Angeles to the High Desert, it wasn’t fully dark so you can’t really understand how bright these lights are, but I assure you, they are as bright as you would ever need.



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Below I have added some more pictures of the "Sierra Nevada Edition" Tacoma.

Enjoy!!!

 

I wanted to follow up this original post with just a teaser of what I plan to add in the next year.

I've been wanting to buy an AT Habitat but after reading through @Ripcord DIY Go Fast Camper (GFC) build thread I've decided to fabricate the base "camper shell" portion of the AT habitat so that I can have open airy feel of the GFC but still have the standing headroom and sleeping platform when the AT habitat is deployed. I photo shopped the image on the Prinsu Design Studio website so you can understand what I'm talking about.



Also photos of the 3D design of the "camper shell" base. The blue members are 1.5" x 2" rectangular steel tubing, yellow are 1.5" x 1.5" square steel tubing and the red members are 1" x 1" square steel tubing.

 

Truck looks great. Fairly certain I've seen it around. Love the relentless bumper, they make good shit. Do you have skids from them too? With trailer do you have two sleeping set ups, one in trailer and one in the bed? What's the doggys name

 

@Buttermilker Thanks for reading through the whole write up. HAHA yes im sure you have seen me around the eastern sierras. And yes, I really like Relentless products and the people working there are pretty awesome too, i still need the skids, and some other minor items which i plan to pick up sometime after the camper is built. I have a "bedroom" set up in the trailer, and usually the dogs roam the bed of the truck with as much room as i can leave them with all the other gear. If i set up a base camp with the trailer ill put sleeping and eating/cooking supplies in the truck while i go out on day missions just in case i need to stay the night. I have two dogs, the one in the picture is Ritter.

 

Getting a camper next week and going to a 245/75/17 E rated. Curious what you are running. Wish I didn't have to give up my 255/75/17s but saving some weight. Great rig by the way.

 

Very cool Access Cab. Nice work!

 

I love break down posts like this, great stuff!! Inspires me to do the same once I get the ball rolling on mine haha

 

Thanks, I'm running Firestone Destination MT's in a LT 245/75/R16. These are my second set of Destination MT's the first set was the 265/70/R16. I highly recommend the Destination MT tires.

 

Thanks man. Getting the Toyo AT3's. If I could do more trail like you I'll definitely consider it.