Dans wrecked Taco "Truckee"

After selling my 2008 tacoma TRD sport in 2017 for a used Civic. I owned a few cars in-between then and now, but I always missed owning a truck. At the beginning Covid I picked up a 98 Tacoma singlecab 4x4 base model manual everything with 280,000 on the clock for $3,000. (the blue truck on the left).

 

Thought it was the brown one on the right LOL

 

Hahah thankful not! I owned that truck for about 6 months and enjoyed how nimble it was it was stock and I had removed the sway bar. I never got stuck and wheeled it hard and wasn't worried about scratches or dents. If you haven't owned a cheap beater 4x4 I can't recommend it enough! here are a few pics of some places it took me

 

Although this truck was slower than anything I have ever driven I loved it! it was so simple and easy to work on I replaced the headers welded up a bull bar to mount lights and that was it it was so reliable. I took it to the dealership in San Luis Obispo for a valve adjustment and they ended up screwing up the tolerances and smoked the motor. I ended up selling the truck as is to a mechanic for $3,600 (gotta love tacoma resale value)

 

I was then able to get my hands on a 2014 DCSB 4x4 TRD Off Road with a salvage title and 79k miles for $14,000

 

I was able to buy this truck just in time for my move up to Washington. There were a few issues with the truck however. Since it was in a wreck it had some front end damage mostly to the front drivers side. Previous owner replaced the hood and quarter panel along with an eBay bumper. He attempted to paint the quarter panel but failed miserably lol.

 

The next thing I had to do was replace the bald tires and lame 18" wheels, I ended up getting a stock set of TRD Off Road wheels with fresh tires for cheap and selling the old wheels for about the same price.

 

some pics

 

Nice

 

Recent road trip before the fire season starts up and my lady goes back to work for Tesla! We drove from northern Washington through OR, CA,NV,AZ,NM,UT, and CO here are a few pics from the trip

 

Although the Short bed is short we were still able to sleep semi-comfortably in the bed I'm 5'10". Another issue made its self apparent on the endless dirt roads in Death Valley. The metal on the radiator support where the hood release is was torn from the previous accident so the hood release would flop around. I ended up throwing a strap that I found on the trail through the hood latch and secured it to the bumper.(Temporary fix)

 

When we were in Moab went to Gemini Bridges and saw this great big hole in the ground which we though lead out to a hiking trail below the bridges. We mistaked a slack line anchor for a repel anchor and ended up getting cliffed out in the bottom of an 80ft hole. This was definitely due to a lack of planning and overly excited egos lol won't make that mistake again! On the Bright side I found 2 drones and a GoPro at the bottom! The first pic was the trail we thought we could hike out on.

 

Moab highlights also congrats on leading brown banana 5.10b

 

After driving the truck more than 10,000 miles since I bought it 2.5 month earlier hundreds of which were off road I was ready to ditch the old stock suspension. I had put a $50 AAL kit in the rear and the previous owner had a block lift in the front. I decided to go with full OME suspension DAKAR leafs and the heavy springs in the front (plans to buy a winch). When taking out the stock struts I noticed that the nuts that secure the struts to the top of the strut buckets were finger tight... while I was in there I also replaced the drivers side CV axle Bearing with the ECGS one very happy with the result.

 

A few weeks later I decided to get some new tires I ended up getting BFG All Terrains in 265/75/R16 I chose this size because I do a lot of highway driving and didn't want to mess with the gear ratios and have to get a new spare tire

 

Work started up and now I have less time to travel but more time to do the projects I've been putting off I was my Roomate gave me a pair of hub centric wheel spacers for the front end now the front looks normal. I also have started the process of sanding and painting the quarter panel and fixing up the grill that the previous owner attacked with a can of Plasti Dip. Also Do you guys think I should notch out this part of the bumper to have more clearance for the AC line?

 

Surprised you guys were the only ones at the hot springs, at least from what I can tell from the picture. That place has gotten super popular over the past 10 years or so, damn Instagramers tagging locations! Hope you guys had a good time.

 

Looks like your 98 and now your 14 are being well traveled and enjoyed

 

Yeah we lucked out in the ones in Death Valley there were just a few old naked folks and a guy who worked for Harley he was designing and testing their new Adventure bike.

The Hot springs in NM on the other hand were super crowded we got there early and enjoyed them for a while but then the instagrammers brought a bunch of dogs and booze in the springs etc. We did meet some really nice girls at the springs and ended up staying with them for the night in Santa Fe. I would have to say that my favorite part of traveling is meeting new interesting people