GrandiOdyssey: Circumnavigating the Globe in a '19 Tacoma Build Thread

Not sure what you are getting at here...the case is only about 20 lbs empty and will be almost completely full of gear. We will be able to save quite a bit of weight by putting the case in place of the rear seats while still having space in front for our camp chairs/ addiitonal tools, above for sleeping bags, and behind in the cubby for the air jack.

 

A set of sliders is the same weight as another passenger. If you look at the trucks the locals use, in undeveloped parts of the world, with very poor roads, they don’t have Rock sliders.

Anyways........there was a huge 3G build on this site by Hodakaguy. Super great craftsman, but another case where the overland shopping list and weight-adding modifications were started before getting any serious time in the vehicle. He ended up with an amazing looking, but bloated rig that he sold before taking a single trip in it. At the time he mentioned he got a deal he couldn’t refuse, but in later threads he mentioned how gutless the trucks was after mods, and OV Tune, and gears, and now he’s keeping his new 2nd gen Taco build much lighter.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hodakaguys-overland-tacoma-builds-on-to-new-adventures.528480/

Not trying to discourage you, just trying to help you have a successful, and enjoyable trip.

Good luck.

 

Everything in life is a tradeoff and for us avoiding any severe damage while in remote areas is a high priority. We did a shakedown with 1000lbs of gear and while noticeable I wouldn't say the truck was there was any big issue with drivability given these trucks can tow ~6500lbs. Note that we are only running 32s and have a MT truck it isn't going to be as sluggish and hunting for gears like the AT trucks on 33in+ tire. If we really need more power we will run the 91 octane OV tune.

 

Clean fuel world wide at US specs isn’t a guarantee, given where you are headed. Stay away from tune and keep the engine running on the Cheap stuff lol.

 

The OV flash includes tunes for 87 octane as well and we can always go back to stock is we have any issues since we will have our MacBook Pro running parallels.

 

Update 7/22/19

Got a sneak peak of our Swift Four Wheel Camper that has arrived in Oregon and is ready for pickup! We can't wait to head up north to have it installed later this week.

 

Subbed! That's a crazy journey

 

Considering everyone is so worried about the Tacoma being robust enough to handle a loaded trip like this, thought I'd suggest this as a way to beef up the IFS. Weld them on without removing the LCA if need be, seems like cheap insurance for a more durable LCA mount.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/marlin-crawlers-upcoming-hd-lca-frame-brace-kit.610921/

Should I post this in @Round the world 's thread?

 

Excited for you. Hope the camper is what you hoped for. Hope you get to French Glen in the Steen Mt area - it's beautiful

 

You should get a taco attic, it works way better than that bungee thing. I’ve had mine in for over a year now and I use it all the time

https://www.blueridgeoverlandgear.com/products/toyota-tacoma-attic

 

Update 7/28/19

After loads of planning and waiting, we finally picked up our Swift Four Wheel Camper this past week from 10/40 Overland in Portland, OR! The guys at 10/40 did a great job with the installation and walking through all of the features of the Four Wheel Campers. The key parts of the install we are bed pad, mounting brackets, turn buckles (for internal mounting), Blue Sea relay on truck main battery, and supporting wiring.

To recap our Swift model is equipped with thermal pack, propane forced air furnace, 6 gallon water heater with outdoor shower, dual powered vents, smooth aluminum siding in Charcoal, and 2 way 65L Dometic fridge. We are very happy with the current setup as is but will also be adding a 160W solar panel with MPPT controller and second 12V AGM battery in the camper in order to manage our electricity demand when we are parked for more than a few days.

Our shakedown trip took us through Eastern Oregon and then into the Sierra mountains before heading back to Santa Cruz via Truckee. We were fortunate enough to find some excellent 4x4 trails as well as a pristine campsite right on a lake.
Overall we are extremely satisfied with our initial setup. The addition of the camper doesn’t seem to compromise the Tacoma’s docile on road manners while also still allowing the truck to be very capable on the trails. From a driving perspective slightly more clutch slipping is required to get the truck off the line compared to running without the camper and one needs to increase the normal shift points to ~3000RPM, but the extra weight is less noticeable that I would have guessed. We even averaged 18 MPG with the camper on the way home!

Camping in our Swift is almost cheating compared traditional camping setups and is nearly on par with an RV or small apartment in terms of comfort and utility. Being able to cook a nice meal inside or outside, take a hot shower, store large amounts of refrigerated/ frozen food, have a comfy bed, and a well insulated cabin are massive benefits that cannot be understated, especially for the journey that we plan to take.

 

Very nice! You have quite a lift on the truck even with the camper on board. Are you thinking of doing re-gearing? It might be interesting to see how much the truck weighs. I'm waiting at Mule Expedition Outfitters to pick up our truck.

 

Yes I would guess it sits around a 1 -1.5 inches up front and 2.- 2.5 in the rear above stock. After adding more weight to the camper (solar panel, 2nd battery, water, jerry, can, more gear, etc) and winch/ bumpers it should sit roughly even around 1-1.5 inches above stock. Given that my truck is a MT I think the gearing is fine as is however I may eventually add the OV tune and run 91 octane in countries where I can get it in order to improve power/tq/ responsiveness under the 4500rpm. Be sure to post lots of pictures of your rig when you pick it up!

 

I'd guess you'll be adding another 400 lbs or so of gear so over doing the suspension is smart. Pictures are coming of our truck, if the truck is ever finished...4 hours late and waiting. Ours is a MT as well. The shop says that first gear is almost like a granny low gear. It will be interesting to see what the fuel economy is on the ride down Interstate-5. Not sure about the OV tune, not sure how it will work with the world's low octane fuel. I suppose one could revert back to the stock tune.

 

Update 10/10

We have made some encouraging progress towards our 'round the world build over the past few months!

Our Swift four wheel camper came with a single 79aH 12v AGM battery and was pre wired for solar. We added a Renogy 160W solar panel to the Yakima track on the roof of the camper in between the two air vents. Then, in the battery box under the couch we added a second 79aH 12V AGM battery wired in parallel. Next we mounted a

$80 Renogy 20A 12V/24V Auto DC Input MPPT Solar Charge Controller Parameter Adjustable LCD Display Solar Panel Regulator fit for Gel Sealed Flooded and Lithium Battery, Rover 20A,black

Renogy 20A MPPT controller in order to properly charge the batteries and a bluetooth module so that monitor the state of charge from our iPad or iPhones. We used marine shrink wrapped connectors with in line fuses in order to protect against moisture and current surges. If necessary there is another power connection on the back of the camper if we need to add an additional solar panel if we find 160watts (realistically 120-140w in direct sunlight) unsatisfactory.

After looking around at many other builds, we decided the best place to mount our pair of Maxtrax were out of the way on top of the camper. In order to do this we made used two pieces of aluminum square bar stock and both these directly to the Yakima tracks. Then we use threaded screw caps in order to quickly release the Maxtrax when they are needed for get the rig unstuck to simply level it out when making camp.

Given the ambition of our trip and our plan to go into remote areas, we needed to extend the range of the stock Tacoma. We first considered a long range fuel tank, but this was relatively expensive, not sold in the state of California, and won't pass our CA smog tests. Instead, we went for a more simple solution of making a mount out of aluminum that is bolted to the steel jack supports that holds a 5 gallon NATO jerry can in a front loading Wavian holder. The mount is fairly sturdy but should allow the can to move around enough to prevent it from breaking (time will tell). We will likely make another mount for the driver side to hold an extra 5 gallon jerry but still need to make measure to make sure that the access to the propane storage area is not impeded by doing so.

Next on the install list was the ARB awning (2x2.5m) which we directly bolt to the side of the camper with 6 M6 bolts and fender washers along with camper sealing foam between the aluminum awning mount and the side of the camper. Drilling holes into the side of our brand new camper was nerve racking by the result came out great and the awning only stick out about as much as the passenger side mirror so be more protected from branches compared to other mounting bracket options. The awning strikes a nice balance between weight, size, and durability and stand by our choice as opposed to something like a 270 degree bat wing style shade. Note in order to install the awning we had to relocate one of the latches that secures the roof of the camper to the body when in the collapsed position and uses copious amounts of RTV around all of the mounting holes to prevent water leakage.

Some of the last big items still on the to do list are:
-Install Southern Style Off Road bumper with 20in Caliraised LED and XP9500 Warn Winch
-Wire up 1-2 Rigid LED flood lights on the side of the camper
-Fabricate mounting brackets for the Pelican case (bolt from the inside) in place of the rear 60 split bench seat
-Install Front/ Rear dash cam
-Purchase water purification system
-Anything else that we decide that we need after our first large scale shakedown trip in November

Til next time
-GrandiOdyssey

 

What an awesome journey you have planned! If it were me I would add some mountain bikes to the top so you can shred in some cool places and have a form of transportation if a truck becomes immobile.
Speaking of water filtration systems I have one that I have never used and has just been taking up garage space for the last 2 years. Had a long distance journey planned that didn’t work out. Here’s a link:
https://www.ecogeekliving.com/products/12v-portable-survivor-pro-water-purification-system-180-gph
Pm me if you’re interested

 

From my years of sailboat cruising foreign countries, and military, keep it simple as possible. Things break. Any little sensor or connector that can, will come apart in the worst spot. Carry a spare for anything that will “sink” you or leave you to walk. Carry a rebuild kit for everything else. Because it will not be available at Walmart “out there”. No FEDEX. There’s a reason in every overland guide the number one rule is “kiss”.
One thing we did in the military on down time and also did on my boat and buddy’s is train. We “screwed” with each other’s boats in the marina at home. Setting up some kind of fault/problem in the others boat. Then try to find the cause.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen out there,”

 

We want to keep weight and exterior size to a minimum so we don't plan on bringing any bikes with us. In places with great biking we will just rent them instead. Cool that filtration systems is one of the ones we was looking at, we will let you know if we are interested.

Exactly, thats the plan. I have already been collecting spare fuses, connectors, wire, brake lines etc. I will put together a more comprehensive list closer to our departure.

 

After a long hiatus thanks to COVID 19, our 'round the world Tacoma build has finally resumed! We began by fitting the Souther Style Off Road bumper with Warn 9.5XP winch and Caliraised 20" LED bar. I really like how the setup looks relatively stock yet provides excellent protection for the radiator and engine compartment in the case of an animal strike or minor accident. The 20" LED bar from Caliraised didn't quite fit in the allotted space as we had hoped, but we were still able to mount it using 1" aluminum bar stock as a spacer. We may modify the mounting setup further depending on how it holds up but so far so good. Next we added a second jerry can mount on the back of the camper, installed ARB drive carrier bearing spaces to address out vibration issue after the suspension lift, added Anytimebackup Camera front cam, added large ratchet steps to reinforce the attachment points between the camper and the truck bed, and took off on a shakedown trip over 4th of July weekend though the Texas Hill Country.

The Hill Country dirt roads provided a great mid to high speed testing ground for our setup and helped us quickly discover that we needed to make a few changes:
1. The truck was too heavy for our taste in its current iteration, showing up mainly in poor fuel consumption and lack luster handling performance
2. Our dual 79aH AGM battery bank as in 100+ degree F weather our fridge alone draws upwards of 30ah in a day
3. There was still a minor vibration under take off in first gear due to drive shaft mis alignment
4. Clutch modulation is difficult on hill starts
5. Hitting the OEM bump stops with such a load is a sensationally jarring experience
6. Even with a 1.5" light memory foam topper, our the mattress in our Four Wheel Camper still felt like sleeping on a 2x4

Immediately upon our return, we made some changes in an attempt to further refine our rig. We removed the heavy steel BAMF IFS skid plate and rock sliders and replaced them with only an aluminum RCI front skid plate. The steel cable and roller that comes with the Warn XP 9.5 winch was replaced with a synthetic 85ft rope with Factor 55 flatlink. And lastly we replaced our 1.5" light memory foam topper with a 2" 3lb memory foam topper which is much kinder to our backs and makes sleeping in the camper a pleasurable experience for once.

Next on the to list is:
1. Install Dobinson's snorkel (for cleaner intake air and to avoid hydrolock during water crossings)
2. Replace dual 79 aH AGM camper batteries with single Battleborn 100aH Lithium Iron Phosphate camper battery (will increase energy storage capacity by ~25% and save roughly 75lbs!
3. Complete mounting SafH20 water filtration system in Pelican Case in the back seat of the cab
4. Wheeler's Off Road Axle Shim Kit to further reduce driveline vibration
5. Complete additional weight reduction (remove rear sliding window mechanism, unused rear seat belts, camper AC converter, camper bed slide out tray, etc)
6. Install front and rear DuroBump bump stops to soft the hit when the suspension bottoms out
7. Install SDHQ ABS guards to prevent ABS sensors from being damaged during off road use
8. Install clutch accumulator delete kit
9. Further organize camper for more efficient storage of commonly used items
10. Add rear seat attic organizer

Until next time
-GrandiOdyssey

 

Hi Guys,
Truck, camper, and website look really good! Have you considered getting the truck regeared? We have 5.29s which really helps. We also have a aluminum skid plate, 100 amp-hour lithium battery, synthetic winch line, and an aluminum bumper for weight savings but we still weigh 6,800 lbs with 33 gallons of gas and our recovery gear but otherwise empty. We’re averaging 13 mpg even while driving conservatively.

We were supposed to put our truck on a ship to England in June but are now debating whether to ship it in October or stick it out in the SW US deserts. You still planning on heading south this fall?