DIY Tacoma Specific "Trail tool kit"

Skip the ratcheting wrenches. That can be a point of failure, and if you need to double up a wrench to loosen a big bolt the ratcheting part will fail.

A jumper pack of some kind. The small lithium ones are nice, I suggest finding something that is LiFePo4 for its much less volitile nature vs LiPo or LiIon.

I personally carry a standard style sealed lead acid battery type jumper park for 2 reasons. 1. WAY less volitile compared to lithium ones, and mainly 2. IF needed I can swap out my main battery completely and run solely off the lead acid battery just as if it was a car battery.

Out of my tools i have in my truck over the 8 years i have had it. The things have been used the most:
Jumper pack (on other peoples cars)
Multi Meter
Pliers
Air Compressor
Tow strap
First Aid kit
Flash Lights

 

1. Upper rear shock bolt
2. Lower rear shock bolt
3. Front lower coilover bolt
4. LCA spindle bolts
5. UCA spindle bolts

Just thought I'd add them to the OP so others can have the info!

 

I carry a jumper as well, used it many many times on my truck and others!
Thx for reminding me - added tp the second post.

 

I'll look into the Bauer ones too! HF has a $25 off deal rn for impacts, battery, & charger if bought together in-store.

 

20$ for bauer line, 25$ for hercules line (only reason why i know is im eyeing a small compact 3/8ths impact wrench and the Hercules is pretty nice)

 

I carry one of these in my truck. very good quality for the price. I actually have one in all my vehicles. Because inevitably you will use your tools on other peoples vehicles more then your own.

Crescent 180 Piece Professional Tool Set in Tool Storage Case - CTK180

https://www.amazon.com/Crescent-Professional-Tool-Storage-Case/dp/B08BJCQ663

Funny thing is it does not have a crescent brand crescent wrench in it, it's got a crappy no name one.

 

Going off memory and some quick searches - need verification:

1. Upper rear shock: 3mm or 6mm hex to keep rod from spinning, 13mm or 14mm nut for OE/equivalent. Depends on what shocks you run.
2. Lower rear shock: 17mm and 19mm.
3. Front lower coilover: Also 17mm and 19mm I think.

UCA and LCA "spindle bolts" would be the balljoints? I don't have that info, haven't done mine yet. Someone else should know. Should be something fairly common. If you've got metric wrenches and sockets it should be do-able.

 

Cool ty.
Yeah, I don't quite remember how the OEM stuff is, but I was thinking of the two bolts that connect the LCA ball joint to the bottom of the spindle near the hub, and the nut that holds the UCA ball joint to the top of the spindle.

 

Lower balljoints are either small 14mm bolts (2 or 4 total each side I think), or the 24mm nut on balljoint itself. Depends on year and if 2wd or 4wd. I am not the expert on these either.

Upper is probably the same 24mm nut like the bottom but I dont know for sure and can't find it quickly. At work, not much time to verify.

Might also include outer tie rod end which is 19mm (again from memory).

Basically don't trust me and verify but this should get you in the ballpark for making a list.

 

It may be a bit of overkill, but there is a guy on YT who goes by the handle of "trail mater". He does off-road recoveries/repairs in the Moab, UT area. He has an old Chevy PU converted to a combo recovery/wrecker/off-road vehicle. You'll have to search through his videos (not many) for one where he shows all the contingency equipment he carries on that truck. It is mind-blowing. He can recover or fix just about any thing on wheels. As I recall, he has two of those videos. The older one he shows ALL the equipment he had on the truck before he flipped over on a recovery. The later video does not have all the stuff the first one did. He's still adding back his "tool inventory". And, his recovery/repair videos are great to watch.

 

I as well say forget the ratcheting wrenches. They never fit where you need them. The ratcheting head is ALWAYS to big. My set was useless to me on more than one occasion. I took them out of my truck tool kit because of this problem.

 

Thank you very much for this post. Exactly what I was looking for to start my Tacoma Tool build. I'm about to head out on a long road trip and having all or most of the tools specific to my truck is what I wanted to take with me.

 

There is a sticky at the top of the 2nd gen forum for most of the details already in this thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ckets-and-wrenches-for-2nd-gen-tacoma.158302/

 

Cool, somehow I missed that thread.