Backroad Explorer Build Questions

Hey Guys,

It's finally time to start buying stuff for my Tacoma so now I need some help figuring out stuff. Looking to mildly lift my truck and upgrade it to carry stuff for photography work and vacation stuff while maintaining a daily drivable Taco. Wife and I do lots of backroad exploration and random "let's see where this road goes" trips that have been leading us to more complicated situations that are testing the limits of my stock truck. At most, looking to carry two kayaks, two mountain bikes, and 100lbs of gear for vacation stuff. Key is to make it to more remote locations around New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Comfort is key (happy wife=happy life) as is gas mileage since I can't seem to pass a gas station.

Here's what I need opinions on:

I have done a lot of TW searching and decided that a 1.5" - 2" lift would be more than enough lift for our needs. Lift choices reside between the TRD Pro lift with an AAL in the rear to get rid of bro-lean or the Ironman 4x4 2" lift with the uber confusing choice between foam-cell and other shocks (if I can still get one in the states). Looking to not have to change upper control arms, keep good suspension geometry, and still keep a very slightly raked/level truck. Not sure if this height would affect rear drive line or much else. Looking mainly more for articulation and comfort not just height and load capability.

265 75 16 tires on TRD Pro Sim Beadlock rims. Wanting to keep tires inside of fenders/mudflaps as much as possible and I think the backspacing of these wheels will give me what I want.

Softtopper bed top with an AllPro rack surrounding it (will give me the opportunity to carry fuel packs/maxtrax and potentially a RTT later if I want to).

Hidden winch system for peace of mind (I just don't like the look or extra weight of a full winch bumper). So far Pelfreybilt has my vote...

Some way to mount a few lights on the front to give more light while running a trail at night. I am not a fan of roof mounted light bars, looking for any alternate options to that.

Toyota/Factory roof rack bar system for kayaks. Not sure if this is a good option, no need for a full blown metal rack, just need something there when I need it.
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Thanks in advance for any input! Feel free to mention anything I am missing that might help the build!

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Mainly looking for lift kit opinions....

 

Sounds like you have a good plan. A bunch of us did a group buy last year for the OME 3" lift and the people who stayed with the 885 springs said they didn't need new UCA's. I recommend the kit but I am still tweaking my slight driveline vibes.

 

Trd pro lift is expensive for what you get. If you purchase a pro the lift is covered by warranty but few people choose to purchase this lift for a non pro truck. Ironman is not well known in the USA and foam cell Tech isn't highly regarded. If you want to see some configurations in popular brands go to one of the vendors shown on the front page. Headstrong offroad seems to get good reviews.

 

Call Marie @HeadStrong Off-Road

Done.

PS, I admire your reasonable goals. There are folks around that want more lift/tire who never leave the mall parking lot.

 

Since I have a 2015 I have read that the rear shocks from OME don't work well for me. Not sure why and what changed on the '15s. OME was at the top of my list until I saw that note on the Toytec Website. Wanting just 2" at most too so not sure if I can get only that much.

I've read a lot of people stating that it is expensive, not many who have actually purchased it. I cannot find a parts list of what is included. I am assuming it literally is just shocks?

I will hunt around their site and give Marie a call.

I've been off-roading for a number of years, sometimes moderation in the lift/tire size combo and good driving skills gets you where you want to go. Of course I want bragging rights, but my truck stock is still beautiful and I get compliments on it everywhere I go.

 

Thanks for your replies guys!

 

Mine is also a 2015. I don't think the driveline vibes are exclusive to this year. Other than that I have zero issues with the lift. I love it.

 

Another to consider is Mobtown Offroad.

Their hidden recovery bar allows you to add the winch when/if needed. You could also then use the same winch in the rear if that was better.

You can use the front receiver to mount a hitch and steer trailers into tight spots, mount a bike rack up front, or even use a bed extender in vertical mode to support the nose of kayaks.

 

Why a softopper and a rack? Why not skip the weight and just run a regular canopy any boat racks? More secure and less weight.

 

I am a big proponent of the Eibach 1.6" lift springs sold by Toytec. They are a 620lb spring rate, which is more than stock(540lb) or OME(590lb) but paired with the 5100's the ride is awesome. The truck feels more planted but also more comfortable on and off road. You will still get acceptable alignment numbers with the 1.6" springs. The AAL is more of a short term bandaid than a long term solution. If you have the scratch get a full leaf pack. When I installed my kit I realized my truck was just level without anything in the bed besides the canopy. It leans with a full load. I'll be buying a set of new leafs this summer.

 

I was talking shock fitment not the driveline.

That's another good option! I was thinking with the hidden winch mounts that it keeps the winch inside and harder to steal (where I live everything it seems is being stolen) and allows me keep it from bouncing around unlike a winch mount system that I have to secure or tie down in the bed when not used.

A few reasons: It is foldable so when I need to carry stuff like furniture or random impulse purchases I can get it out of the way. Canopy like a contractor bar set up or a camper shell? I also like th elook of the Softtopper and the rack set up, plus read that AllPros rack holds 1000lbs.

I will definitely look into these with the 5100s. Sounds right about what I need. I'm hesitant about full leaf packs simply because I want a nice ride, most look very stiff. Any suggestions?

 

I've been nose first in a ditch so I vote front receiver hitch with winch in cradle.

 

I'd look at Bilstein 6112 for the front similar to the pro but way less. You could get a dakar leaf pack and remove the 3rd leaf for a softer ride.

 

Is it worth it to get a resivoir shock?

 

Thank you @Clearwater Bill , I hope you are having a nice weekend

 

Sub'd I'm looking for the same setup.

 

You are effectively going to get less useful articulation with a 2" lift and stock UCA. A coilover lift just changes where the truck rests in the existing articulation so when you add lift you lose droop. The classic annoying case of this is an OME Nitrocharger lift in which the shocks have identical travel to stock (so you can use a stock UCA) and so 2" of lift means 2" less droop. Result is knocks and bangs going over speed bumps as the suspension drops onto the internal limiter in the shock instead of actually reaching the road.

I'm not saying a new UCA is required but since you mentioned more articulation realize lift + stock UCA means less droop which is not a good thing for off-road ride.

I see you have a Sport so you've got stock 17" wheels. Moving to 16" for off-road travel is sensible. Personally if I was taking the truck off-road I'd just sell my stock Sport rims and pickup a used set of stock OR rims. If you go off road you are going to get some rock-rash on the rims anyway. Might as well save a buck, almost zero mile OR rims show up for sale all the time.

A front mount winch should really give you zero peace of mind. It is most useful for extracting other vehicles and is not particularly useful for self extraction.

Front mount winches are great for travel in groups. If someone gets stuck one of the vehicles with a winch can maneuver into the best position available for extraction and acts as its own anchor. Have any two vehicles in a group with front mount winches and you are pretty well prepared for anyone in the group getting stuck.

Problem with solo travel (which it sounds like is what you are planning) is relatively low odds that when you get stuck your front mounted winch is oriented at all in a useful position to extract. For this reason for solo travel a manual come-along is much more useful since you can use it from whatever orientation is best. It is also way less expensive and way lighter than a power winch.

Second winch problem you have is where you are traveling. Deserts don't have many anchors available. Again a front bumper winch is great for extracting other vehicles since the winching vehicle is the anchor. But for self extraction you need some anchor to pull on. In forests trees make good anchors and there are plenty of them. In deserts you are usually SOL. So you'll need to bring your own anchor most likely. In sand you can bury your spare which is a pain. Good luck digging deep enough on any other surface. Something like a Pull Pal works good but is quite heavy and large.

Again though the come-along works a bit better in this case. Even if you have no anchor all you need for an anchor in the desert is for some other vehicle to happen by to be your anchor. Again if you have a bumper mounted winch you'd have to be lucky enough for your winch to be pointed the right way to make use of another vehicle as an anchor. With a come-along you have far more options to work with.

You can mount a very bright light bar in the lower grill of the stock bumper. A number of vendors make brackets to do exactly that with their products. CaliRaised is probably the medium cost and quality option right now but there are plenty of options to choose from.

You get the biggest gain in performance and dealing with long travel on washboard roads just from going to a monotube shock from a twin-tube shock. Another reason I think the OME Nitrocharger is not a worthwhile upgrade. Going with the Bilstein monotube options seems much more sensible to me.

As to going to a res shock they do offer increased performance in certain ways but they are often misunderstood. Consider one trade-off in reliability is all the extra connections that can leak in a res shock. Again I'd say if you avoid twin-tube shocks you've won most of the battle right there. I ended up going with res shocks on the rear of my vehicle simply because for what I was getting the cost difference was pretty low but honestly not clear to me I need them in my application (similar to yours).

Good luck with your mods, let us all know what you decide!

 

So what kind of lift are we talking about? Is there a good low budget option?

 

Wow! Thank you for all this information!

I am looking for the best suspension for exploration I guess. We do a lot of outdoor photography and random impromptu travels to far away places. I was hoping to find a suspension system that would be great on-road and more than just "good" off-road. I was hoping to keep suspension costs down, but realize I need to find a balance between purchasing a name and actually getting performance. I don't drive very fast off-road and I don't beat my truck up, she's my pride and joy. I was hoping to get articulation simply to improve the ride both on and off-road.

I've realized that I could use a winch for removing debris on the road during my last trip. There are lots of downed trees, rocks, and random stuff that I could hook up to the winch and move. I considered using just a shackle and pull strap, but I feel like the winch would offer me more control and maneuverability. Winching while alone and off-road is more difficult, but not impossible I have found. I was just personally wanting a clean way to add a winch without it being an off-road steel/aluminum bumper for weight or cost reasons right now. I simply like the look of my trucks front-end. As far as the winch system goes, I carry a good amount of equipment in the back and wanted to keep something that big and heavy out of the bed. Having it for the rear does have me thinking.

I had to be vain about the wheels. I think the bronze and the red will look good and I like the rock ring on it the TRD pro rims. I also like that they are 16s (most aftermarket bronze are 17s) and the backspacing is close to or maybe stock. Keeps the wheels inside the fenders. I did recognize that I like a bigger tire and smaller rim offroad, if I could use a 15 wheel I would.

Monotube shocks are exactly what I think I need. I'm really just looking for the best one (articulation, comfort, lift-wise). I have worked mostly with Jeeps up to this point so the coil-over front end is new to me.

Currently I am leaning towards a Bilstein 5100 shock system with OME coils (maybe those Eibach that were mentioned earlier) with a progressive add-a-leaf rear, looking for 1.75-2".

With that lift do I need a transfer-case drop system and sway-bar bracket relocators?

Thanks guys! I will start listing parts that I'm gathering for the Taco!