Badass Brunette Tacoma - Build & Adventures

Money comes and money goes. Maybe my spending is irresponsible but it brings me joy so I see the value in that. In the meantime we'll have some kick-ass memories from doing what we love.

 

Which is why I have no problem doing what we do!

But being in finance as a profession, dumping all my money to a landlord and not myself in equity still irritates me.

 

UGH! You may have just convinced me to go for Fox over Billys...

The shocks would match my bikes' rears too!

 

Yeah that's painfully true. If I add up the amount of money I've paid in rent over a decade of living on my own, I could have probably paid off half a mortgage by now. So I try not to think about that. So you definitely aren't wrong.

 

Awesome rig and landscape!

 

Thank you!

 

@cwhet10 Did I see you putting a locker up front in Dan's picture on FB?

 

Wow, I should take my wife and kiddo off-roading more often!

 

Subbed for the pictures and to stroke my flames of desire to move to the mainland

 

We have lobsters here...

Sorry, low blow.

 

Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

 

Over this past weekend I put my big girl pants on and successfully pulled the front diff all by myself. Well, with some helpful guidance from my good friend Dan, who also masterfully installed new 4.88 gears to the front. I'm so grateful for his help on this project and for allowing me to take up his shed space and use his tools, and then to let me crash out for the evening when we ran out of time and energy Saturday night. Roughly 17 hours total to pull, regear, and put the front back together. I was so exhausted but so satisfied with my accomplishment.

Plus, I'm also happy to report that ZERO bolts were left over.









Something is missing here....




I also replaced my brake pads while they were so easily accessible.





The rear axle is going to be swapped out entirely for one from a 2014 TRD offroad, which if you put two and two together means LOCKER TIME. (Does that make my TRD Sport some magical hybrid now???) While that's being swapped out, I will also be doing the 63" Chevy leaf spring conversion just like @dakotasyota did. (I'm still on the look-out for 12" or longer rear shocks so if anyone has leads, send em my way!) The 3rd member is currently being re-geared to 4.88's as well and HOPEFULLY this upcoming weekend everything will come together.

It's pretty damn exciting stuff in the works! My truck is about to be a whole different breed of beast.

 

Easier said then done. Gotta sell my house, sell all of our stuff, ship two vehicles at almost $4K, travel prior to find new house to buy. So right now I will be just be looking at the pictures lol.

 

You son of a bitch lol

 

I hear ya! I can't imagine shipping two vehicles across the ocean, especially one as precious as a Tacoma. I would suffer some serious anxiety over that. What is the going rate for houses in Hawaii anyway? Obviously dependent on where you live.

 

Median home price is over 750k. Three years (2015) ago I sold my 4 bed room house for 1.1m paid 650k for it 7 years (2009)prior. Downsized to a smaller three bedroom one story for 470k and it’s now worth 600k. Housing prices are terrible here. I mostly want to move because I know my daughter won’t be able to afford a home and to have a life here. Wasn’t bragging about making money I just wanted to show you how crazy home prices are here

 

I’m always looking at property on the mainland in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Montana. Another issue holding us back is, I am retired at 31 my wife is from Japan and works here for a Japanese company. So we worry about her finding work on the mainland. So we figured in 10-12 years she will be able to retire early (she is also 31) and then we can move.

 

Holy shit! Who knew the price of living in paradise could be so steep. For 470k you could find a decent chunk of land in any of those four states and build your dream home. You might be a little ways outside of any major city but I think that would be an awesome route to go. One of my coworkers is currently building his dream home, which includes a 10 car garage, for well under 500K which included the lot, right in the middle of the SLC valley (which is unheard of!). His house will immediately be worth over 1mil when its done.

 

Tell me about that’s why I keep looking. Being away from major cities is a huge plus for me.

 

Subbed! Great pics and documentation of your build!