How much weight on your tacoma is too much weight for overlanding?

Exactly!







(So... in other words, Overlanding)

 

Most people will always fall victim to CAPATALISM!

 

^^^this.

Over the last 12 years I only add stuff if I had issues before. Curb weight with 2 people and gear is just under 6k lbs. Lots of armor, winch extra gas. Spare in the back and no cot. Cold weather is bad for cots. Unmaintained and rocky roads and very little rock crawling. I like my cvs unbroken

 

Pretty much this.

I fell into the overlanding hype when i first got my tacoma and had a surplus of money. Truck is way overbuilt for what I do with it (IE never drive it during the weekdays, take it on weekend camping trips/road trip adventures/offroading). Hell I could basically live out of it if I wanted to, provided I maintained a gym membership. If I could go back, I would have passed on many of my mods, only retaining a few. But here I am with an overloaded pig that I love to look at and drive, even if it hemorrhages money out of my bank account any time I need to use it.

for reference...here's my truck as it is daily, while empty. Bed gets fully loaded up for camping trips, also use the truck to haul my dirtbike to the track sometimes, or tow my sport bike.

33' Patagonia MTs, 16" method wheels and full size spare
full ARB skid package (front, mid, trans) as well as an RCI rear diff skid, LCA skids, and shmellfab sliders
Kings with RRs all around, and Icon RXT pack at option 3
GFC V2 Camper
BAMF hybrid front, Brute force fab rear
ditch lights, light bar, fog pods, and winch

and a bunch of other small parts that add minimal, but incremental weight which adds up overall. Don't get me wrong, I love my truck and plan to keep it until it dies or kills me, but if I could go back and re-do it there's a lot of places I could have saved money.



For what it's worth, almost all these mods were put in a span of 6 months, about 3-4 years ago. The only things that weren't were the GFC (purchase almost 2 years ago to upgrade the camping experience for the ex-gf), AlphaRex tail lights since the old OEMs went out, and the awning since I got a dirtbike. I haven't really wanted to or needed to change anything since I did everything to it at once, or even before really. The only mods I've installed that have really saved my ass or someone elses are the skids and winch (for pulling other people out...it's never saved me but maybe because my truck is so overbuilt lol)

The only things I would consider adding from here are a second battery, fridge, and some sort of solar. But I won't waste the money to do that unless I find a girl or group of friends that is ready to camp at that level...since becoming single all my camping trips got a lot shorter lol.

Oh one more caveat...a large part of the reason I blew that much money on overbuilding my truck is because I'd gotten it pretty smashed up in the desert my first time out offroading. So it was a mix of the fear plus insurance being willing to pay out for an exorbitant amount of damage and giving me the freedom to choose my repairs. If not for that, my truck would have been much more sensibly built

 

I couldn't agree more! Like you, I have ran the gauntlet from just sleeping the the back, several different RTT's. All kinds of different sleeping setups. The pop up topper is where comfort and ease of setup peaked. I don't live in my truck, but I do spend around 60 nights a year in it. I enjoy being outdoors, but comfort is a must. I sleep good at night and still run black diamond trails.

The hate never gets old. Even though I hate the overuse of the term, I find it funny when people think you can only do that in Africa lol. They clearly haven't spent much time exploring the western half of the US.

 

a place to sleep, and a case of Rainier beer... all set, just need a blanket!

 

Okay, I need more info on that awning and how you attach it to the softopper. That looks like it would come in handy.

 

That pic, i was jus screwing around first time had cot in there & Theres always box’s of beer in there. I do have other camping equipment & put mattress pad on top of cot. Im still tinkering around with setup. Im 6ft so one of many reasons I went long bed.

 

The OL rigs look cool and probably make many things easier and/or more comfortable. I manage pretty well with the conventional camping gear I pack in the bed inc fuel water basic recovery gear, it's not overloaded and drives like it. I've got some basic suspension mods so I keep my use within their capability. If I want to go on a particularly difficult trail I do it on a motorcycle and pass through it quite a bit faster than crawling over stuff at 4mph. Right tool for the job. ​

 

Magic… I mean Magnets ha.. it’s called Moon Shade, you can mount it anywhere I wanted awning that had versatility & gave me different options. Another reason I’m building slowly, didn’t know these existed till I stumbled on a YouTube “Overlanding” video.. see there not All bad.

 

Ok here we go haha

I just came back from a 3000mile trip from socal to Moab then to denver and few places in between. All remote camping out in the boonies.

I have had several suspension set ups and camping set ups from a tiny tent to a truck bed tent to a big tent with a huge air mattress/cot and now an RTT.

My truck currently has:
AG shock relocation and hammer hangers
Icon rxt leaf pack (level 3)
Fox 2.5x12” rears and 2.5 DSC Fronts
Full RCI skids
Sliders
Decked drawers
Leitner rack and pods/gas/shower
Ikamper RTT
Rear seat delete to fit fridge, platform, drawer, power station, dog…ect
lights and other misc BS
255/80/17 pizza cutters
No Regear

This trip was my longest yet and I learned a lot.
First, set your truck up such that you aren’t afraid to use it. What I mean is I have a few friends who when we go wheelin are so stressed about busting a factory bumper, parking sensor, getting pin stripping it starts to ruin the fun of it all.

next, keep the weight low and reasonable.
I don’t run aftermarket front or rear bumpers because my trailer hitch takes all the abuse and never bends. The front rarely takes a hit and when it does it’s fixable…ish. The RCI skids have saved me twice now after a few poorly chosen lines in the rocks.

Third, a good night sleep on the trail is AMAZING. The RTT and some melatonin are a game changer. I’m never going back to a ground tent. Keep the RTT to only what you need. my RTT is 119lbs and makes the truck noticeably more top heavy. I can’t imaging the bigger 200lb tents.

lastly to your point about over loading the truck.
yes it’s overloaded and I drive it like a grandma because of that. At most I go 70mph on the highway. Usually just chilling in the semi truck lane. I keep a lot of extra space for stopping. I don’t feel the truck is unsafe to drive at all. You just need to be aware that the truck is not a Honda civic. I do however wheel it just as hard as if it had no extra weight.

Do what makes you happy and if that’s a pavement queen that looks cool and never goes more than 10 miles on the dirt, do it!

 

Of all the things on your list, which would you leave off if you were to do it again?

 

Oh man, that list I gave is just a fraction of all the stuff I've done, but the biggest ticket items lol.

Of those items listed above, I would go without the front and rear bumpers, 33" tires (specifically in E load, not necessarily the 33" size), would have gone for a cheaper suspension setup without clickers, and winch. Maybe the RCI Diff skid as well, that thing hasn't taken one hit yet in 3 years of ownership lol.

That said, I'm glad to have it all because now when I take it out, i have virtually no worries. So it's a trade off. But I'll agree with everyone that lots of these mods are not necessary, mine included.

 

Damn, I've been thinking of 33" pizza cutters in about 40k miles... lol
Considering a Robinson suspension eventually, the mid range option IMS?

 

To be fair, mine are 285's, so not pizza cutters. I'm actually getting close to needing to swap so i might go pizza cutters next...unfortunately I've kinda shoehorned myself into sticking with 33's since I have a HC rear and the hybrid front, my truck would look disproportional af if I dropped back down to 31's which would bug the hell out of me lol. Hence, if I went without the front and rear bumpers, i'd also stick with the factory 31"

really it's not the 33" that's the issue, it's the E load tires. So I guess I'll edit for that lol

unfortunately I don't know much about the Robinson suspensions. Going back I'd probably just go with Bilstein over kings. The kings are great...just more than i need.

Wait I think you meant Dobinsons? lol. They're good and reputable. Can't go wrong with em, though I've heard reports the leafs be squeaky. then again, my icon RXT can be squeaky too, it doesn't bother me. Costs about half what my kings/RXT/Icon UCA setup cost me

 

& it’s 7x9 the magnet thing i came up with on my own.. went to homedepot & found there magnets, MoonShade has there own (cost extra) but there nice have rubber on them protect paint. There was HD girl by the Mag. She asked if she could help, I had one with me & when I stuck them to gather couldn’t barely get them apart. So there’s goes on top Topper & others in side. Hope that makes sense

 

Carry what you need to Live, survive, and escape / Recovery.
No more.

 

I mean that's true but means totally different things to different people.

 

If I were to camp again, I'd pull a minimalist trailer. I'd rather have the truck empty so I could go on day trips (and hope nobody steals my camper)...

Like the OP mentioned, it's too much weight, and it's too top heavy.

 

I don't know "over landing" but this is what my truck looks like coming back from a triathlon. Not sure if this counts.