Border Taco - Build Page

April 2019
Purchased 2015 Tacoma 4wd Sport Dbl Cab with 75K miles for my son's (16) first vehicle. One owner with no accident history. Color is Barcelona Red appears to be bone stock except for a basic spacer lift on front and rear and window tint.

Picture of my Border Taco as purchased from dealer




LET THE MODS BEGIN......3 days after purchase

First mod was new wheels, replaced the factor sport 17" rims with American Outlaw Lonestar 17x9 with -10 offset and 275-70-17 KO2's. Spacing was tight but they seemed to fit ok given the spacer lift installed.

New Shoes installed.


Net up about a week later it was time to add some steps for mom and a bull bar to accommodate a light bar in the future. Installed the GoRhino Charger RC2 Bull Bar and GoRhino and Dominator D2 side steps. Given we don't have much of place to off road in our slice of heaven in South Texas I opted for steps instead of rock sliders.



A few interior mods included in the build
- replaced the factory control knobs with backlit knobs - Amazon
- replaced interior lights and license plate lights with and LED kit - Amazon. NOTE: The lighting was an improvement over factory however one of the bulbs from the map lights would not work no matter which direction it was installed. I ordered a replacement set of map bulbs from SIRIUS LED (also on Amazon) and holy amaze balls these things were insanely bright!! So I quickly ordered additional bulbs to replace the original set. I highly recommend them if anyone is in the market :

SIRIUSLED Extremely Bright 18W 3014 Chipset SMD LED Bulbs for Car Interior Lights License Plate Dome Map Side Marker Door Courtesy T10 168 192 194 2825 W5W Xenon White

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z08MJ6K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



May 2019
Wheels - Began to notice some slight rub on passenger front when a full lock in reverse, damn. But then again YEAH new suspension upgrade in the future. I also begin to notice I am driving "my son's" truck a lot more than my 2019 Sierra AT4, lol, and future mods considerations are becoming more substantial....thinking over-landing would be perfect for the hunting lease this winter.

June 2019
Exhaustive research on suspension upgrade options - thanks Tacoma World for the insane amount of information and dis-information on the topic, lol. I would like to say hours but it was literally days of research on the topic.

July 2019
As much as I wanted and tried to justify an Icon Stage 3 lift I kew it was something that we would likely never use so I decided on the Toytech 3" Bilstein 5100 with 600lb spring in the front and Boss rear shocks lift with AAL spring, new bump stops and SPC Control arms. The delta in savings over the ICON 3 will be directed to future mods.

Local shop installed the parts on the 24th. The much anticipated unveiling (seeing it for the 1st time after the install) was not disappointing.

My initial impressions:
Front Suspension: The front was slightly, though noticeably, higher and my hopes were high that the rub at full lock would be eliminated.

Rear Suspension: Damn that's tall, had no idea the AAL made such a difference, looks like the original factory stance has returned. Will it settle? Will it level with the rack and tent?




Curious about the effect of the lift when comporting to where the truck was with the spacer lift and what it would be original factor heights I compiled the following measurements. The stock height I found on Tacoma World, assuming they are correct.

Measurements are center of hub to fender

Stock Spacer Toytec Stock Delta Spacer Delta
FL 20.00 21.50 22.50 2.50 1.00
FR 20.50 22.00 23.00 2.50 1.00
RL 21.75 23.50 25.00 3.25 1.50
RR 21.75 23.50 25.00 3.25 1.50

The 3"+ inch lift in the rear seemed odd based on all the research so I went under the truck to look at the suspension.....

The front



The rear Boss shocks and bump stop



The AAL spring.....wait is that spacer still in place? shouldn't it have been removed when installing the rear AAL? It would definitely explain the gain in height on the rear suspension.



Overall - the ride is excellent and could not be happier at this point, the improvement in ride quality over the spacer lift is substantial. However I have concerns about the rear suspension:

1) Are there potential drive shaft alignment issues? Vibrations? Undue wear? I have read about vibrations but have not yet experienced the phenomenon. Perhaps I will at highway speed this weekend, to be continued....

2) Are there potential brake line issues? Brake lines are stock, is there risk of catastrophic failure in a full extension/compression (flex situation)?

August 2019
Installed WeatherTech in channel Window Deflectors
Installed Husky Floor liners
Replaced headlights with Spyderco lights from Tacomabeast

 

First.

 

Where in McAllen are ye from mate? I'm down in Hidalgo... South McColl road to be exact

 

North McAllen by Bill Schuup Park

 

Yessss! Your son go to McHi or Memorial? I'm on my senior year of HS at Hidalgo HS.

 

McHi a sophomore this fall. Go Bulldogs.

 

Nice truck Greg.

 

WOW! When my daughter (17) got her first car, I wanted her in a 72 Coupe de Ville (lots of metal, front and rear - a land yacht), but she had to settle for a late 90's Blazer, which she totaled within a year. Her next car was a Chrysler sedan which got her trough college, but looked like a bag of walnuts when she traded it in for HER first car with a payment book - she was finally off my payroll. Nice truck and cool mods....would be interested to see a followup up post in a couple years.........LOL

 

Yes sir, I share the concern and the likelihood the truck will make it unscathed before getting passed to little brother is narrow at best. Hoping we never experience the airbags!

 

Jul 27, 2019

Blacked out the lettering. Used plasti-dip as I could not find any OEM black badging, curious how long it will last.

 

Truck is looking nice. How y'all liking that bull bar?

 

It is "OK" in my opinion, mainly for looks. There is good separation between the bar and the fender so no chance of rubbing. I noticed their is a little bit of rust at the rivet that hold screen on the front face, which is disappointing after only 2 months. I will likely change it to a slimline version like the one by SSO that has a winch option.

 

Those Slimline bumpers are very cool!

 

Ebay is where i got mine whole set for I think $30

 

Yo my man, we’d appreciate you and your boy to come out and enjoy a cup of joe with us

 

Thanks for the invite. I think we are at the Island for that weekend, the last before school starts, but if we are here we will be there. We have trip through hill country on labor day weekend, planning on going to Hidden Falls...on the more gentle trails.

 

Sounds good my man. We will have a meet every month, and on certain months, we will just go wheel at the mud pit behind the airport instead

Hope y’all have a blast at the Island

 

Your truck is sharp man

 

12/29/2019 Build Update:

Replaced the tail lights with Spyder Lights to match front, purchased from Tacomabeast.com.





Replaced grill with a TRD Pro Style Grill with Raptor's lights, purchased from runnin4tacos.com.
Installed Cali Raised led ditch lights w/brackets, purchased from caliraisedled.com.




installed the ColorTree A8 HUD unit just for fun, purchased from Amazon.com.





Installed a Switch Pros 9100, purchased from sdhqoffroad.com, used the Expedition Essentials, purchased from expeditionessentials.com, mounting bracket for the SP-9100 under the hood and the bracket to install the controller unit in the sunglass compartment.... pics to follow.

 

Looking great