geekhouse23's "LIFE'S WAITING TO BEGIN" Overland & Home build and all the Adventures in between!

Bumper update:

Arrangements are made for next Sunday. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and it will finally be installed!!

 

Mini update:

Last weekend the wife and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. Crazy to think how fast the flew by!

Started off by visiting a family friend and meeting their newborn son. On the way, ran into an old for and had to explain to the wife how they con all the jeeps..parking lot was full of hard parked, Heep pavement queens; didn't stop to make nice:



When the wife is off work for the entire weekend, our house looks like a goddamn HGTV episode, but damn does it look good!











Delayed, misdelivered birthday present interrupted our work



Checked this place out:



10/10 would recommend.

That's it for now. Bumper install happening this weekend finally!!

Will also post coming changes and upgrades. Stay tuned!!

 

Photo dump:

















Finally earned this sticker!!

 

Looks good man! Glad you were finally able to get it on.

 

Only took 5 months

 

I was going to make a joke but I figure it's been enough fun for you already. lol

 

I was going to make jokes too, but I figured you suffered enough! LOL








































Looks good "finally" done

 

About damn time..what a shit show this has been.

 

Little life/truck update:

Got back from vacation Sunday night with the wife. Went to Cancun and had a blast. Loved it. Loved learning about my culture and heritage. The whole experience was truly awesome. Celebrated my wife's birthday while there too. Saw a LOT of Hilux's and some Tacomas too. Nothing really "post worthy" as they were typically all stock or just sporting a bumper guard. While there, we did an excursion where you whip around in side by side on some fun trails. Nothing crazy or life threatening, but the wife DEFINITELY had a blast. She hopes to have more weekends off and plans on joining me on some trips to the badlands and really see what this hobby is prepping the truck in the garage on weekends haha Stoked to bring her on and ease her into he world of overlanding/offroading. Hope to bring the dog along too finally and it will be MUCH easier with two people.

Wouldn't mind loading Caitlyn up and driving around Mexico/central America for a month or so and doing less touristy things. Maybe some time in the future.

Starting a brand new job today and really looking forward to this next chapter in life. This will start the process of potentially starting a family and possibly moving out of the city and be a burbs yuppie! Haha

Truck update:

Got in on 3 GBs currently being run on TW:

GB #1 - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...orage-panels-for-2nd-3rd-gen-dc-or-ac.410254/

Stoked to get in on this GB. Looking forward to really organizing the truck's storage system and having a BUNCH of room in the bed back for the solo sleeping system. Bummed that this mod will be hidden and not seen 99.99% of the time!

GB #2 - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2012-2015-tacoma-faux-pro-grill-group-buy.546406/

Caliraisedled is putting on a GB for their new faux pro grille. I have been looking into getting one for a long time. The price that these typically go for are just not ideal. $400 approximately is insane for a piece of plastic is RIDICULOUS. So thanks Caliraisedled for putting on this GB for such an AMAZING, wife friendly price!! If you want one, get in on this NOW!!

GB #3 - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/foxwing-awning-annex-gb-interest-gauge-round-3.542008/

Much like the TRD pro grille, I have been looking into a foxwing/270* awning for some time. I thought about another ARB 1250 awning, but for the price of this awning and the GB, Its too good to pass up! That said, my current 1250 and all the brackets I have to mount this to a prinsu rack (side mount or off the back/rear mount is for sale. PM me if interested. Hoping g for a local sale, but will ship on the buyer's dime. This should really make camping out, especially in the rain/snow much better keeping everyone and everything dry.

Plan is to still purchase ADS coilovers for the front soon, but that is delayed just a bit due to the GB's I went in on.

Very excited for the life changes happening now and coming in the future as well as the updates to the truck!

Getting everything where I want will be welcomed and just a huge weight off my shoulders.

Cheers everyone!!

 

Sounds like an awesome trip. Congrats on the new job!

 

Thanks man! The trip could not have come at a better time. Put in my resignation before we left and started a new job when we came back.

Just in orientation for a majority of today, if not the remainder of the week. Really loving it so far and it's leaps and bounds over where I was previously. Here's to new beginnings!

 

Congrats on the awesome sounding vacation and having the job lined up when you got back! Hope everything goes good!

 

Thanks man!

 

@Chux if you're still here and sub'd, where did you get the limb riser cables coated in black? Almost every hardware store around here has clear coated cabling.

Also, went to home Depot tonight and got plywood and carpeting for the bed platform. I have all the support pieces and everything else. Not sure what I did with the plywood but it must have gone to other projects.

There's a few trips coming up in the beginning of June that I would like to have this completed for so I can do a dry run or two. Hoping to start this weekend since the weather will be shitty

 

I got mine off Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0753FBF91?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title

 

Thanks guys.

I found that listing on Amazon the previous day, but just wanted to be sure. I ordered everything for the limb risers that I will need and don't already have from my v1 risers. I also ordered something else for the molle panel that will be going behind the rear seats. Been wanting one for a while now that will keep an item safe and secure, when necessary, without needing to spend one billion dollars on something similar. Hoping everything works out well for it.

 

With the weather being shit, there is not much that I can do on Caitlyn. It's cold and raining every day. So, I thought I would take the "opportunity" to layout and design the sleeping platform project.

Some regrets I have are that I did not take pictures and measurements of all the pieces I had before. Because the platform pieces I received were used for other things, I have no idea how things went together or were cut to fit. But that's alright since I have most of the important pieces left like the support pieces. Here is what I received and the ONLY pic I have of the deal I got on Craigslist two years ago:



I thought about making a cut out for the RTIC cooler since that is one of the key items for overnight trips and NOT because I learned that I didn't buy enough wood, I thought that this design was the best option:



This way, I can still sleep in the back, at an angle, and NOT because I didn't think to get more wood when my brother and I went to buy it.

These measurements are based on what I found online per he following links:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sleeping-platform.204799/page-2#post-5500683

http://www.truckbedsizes.com/tacoma/

Next is to confirm all the measurements, cut and test and hope I don't have buy more wood again.

There is a trip next weekend to Badlands and I'm not sure that I will have this done or be able to test, but I am hoping I can. Can't wait to get this done so I don't have to mount and deal with the RTT.

 

Sounds like you have a plan so that's a good start. I would just do it piece by piece that way you can picture how it's going to come together and not take the chance on cutting your wood wrong.