Leppz Overland Build and Trip Reports

2014 Double Cab Long Box TRD Sport Premium

I've been thinking about creating a build thread for my truck for quite some time now. I've been receiving a lot of PM's lately asking questions about some of the things I've done to my truck. So I guess that means its time for my own build thread!

While it still sits fairly stock at the moment I think I've done enough to my truck to want to keep track of it all in one thread. I have tons of plans for this truck and whether or not those plans are happening in the near future or years from now I'd still like to keep everything organized in this one thread instead of scattered throughout this forum. While the ultimate goal is an expo style build for lack of a better name and how my truck currently looks I'll call it the "Stealth Camper" for now. While being able to stealth camp is nice and something that is not possible with a ground tent or a RTT setup it really isn't my main purpose of this build. The main purpose of this build is to outfit my truck to be self sufficient while on long trips and camping. Because I live in British Columbia, Canada I regularly camp in some very wild and remote areas. I enjoy the safety of being inside a hard sided shell during the night where no animal will bother me. This is also known as the rain or wet coast and it is nice not having to air out and dry a tent when I return home. The stealth and security offered by a canopy is the main reason I have chosen a 6' bed and outfitted a canopy my canopy to sleep in.

Moving forward with this thread expect this to be a slow build with me building and modding my truck to suite my ever changing needs as my budget allows.


As it sits today (02-19-2018)





Exterior Mods:
ARE MX Series with sliding screened windoors, fold down front sliding window, carpet interior, Yakima tracks and Yakima 58" crossbars.
Mobtown Offroad DCLB Bolt-on Rock Sliders - Angled up and Kickout
EGR In-channel Rain Gaurds
Toyota OEM Bug Deflector
TRD Skid Plate
Goodyear Duratracs 265/70/17
@bullaculla Trailer Pin Relocation Bracket
Trimmed front mudflaps
Frontrunner CabRack
2x50W Solar Panels on Tilt Mount
Solar Roadshower
270 Degree Awning by Boulder Outdoor Products

Cab Interior Mods:
@ImMrYo Rear-view Mirror Relocation Bracket
Rear Passenger Seat Removal - Fridge Slide
12V Auxiliary Fridge outlet

Camping Shell Interior Mods:
Hinged Sleeping Platform
Black Out/Security Curtains
105AH Deep Cycle Auxiliary Battery
LED Strip Lighting - Windoors, interior, back glass hatch
Custom 12V load centre/fuse/control box - Write up coming soon!

General Camping Mods:
Solar shower/shower curtain/water carrier - See write up in post #2
12V 2x50W Panels
CTEK Dual D250S
105Ah Deep Cycle AGM Aux Battery.
Indel B TB51A Fridge and custom slide

Future Mods (Coming Soon)
- Damaged ARB Bumper repair and install
- Rear drivers side passenger seat removal, custom hinged base install.
- Rear drivers side behind seat storage removal
- Sound deadening and painted plywood covering on back cab wall. Mounts for fire extinguisher, axe, recovery gear, first aid, etc.
- Yellow Wire 4-Lo TRAC mod
- Rear Diff Breather Extension
- Hi-Lift mount (back wall of cab or Yakima crossbars)

Future Mods (in order of importance)
OME/Bilstein 3" suspension lift
Aftermarket UCA's
33" Tires
Skids plates
Rear bumper


I'll start out by posting a few pics of how my truck progressed to where to is today.

Picking it up from the dealer


Wasted no time and drove it right from the dealer to the tire shop to get new tires put on.


Drove it home, threw on my Weather Guard Tool Box that I had from my old truck then drove out to a random parking lot at a local lake (Pitt Lake) to take a few photos.


First camping trip, first weekend of ownership - Harrison Lake (east side)


A few more camping pics with the truck before the Canopy.

Peter Hope Lake Summer 2014


Sloquet Hot Springs Easter 2015


Skookumchuck Hot Springs May 2015



Pulling out my buddy who got a little drift happy on a FSR and ended up doing some unintentional rock crawling.

Luckily after we got it out of the ditch it was able to drive away on its own power.



Shortly after this trip I put an order in for an ARE MX Series Canopy with sliding windoors, fold down front window, carpet interior, and Yakima Tracks and 58" crossbars.

Picking it up from the dealer


Post install photos.




This is where I began the transformation into the "Stealth Camper".

With the canopy installed I started work on building my sleeping platform. I played around with the idea of a drawer system but ultimately decided against it because of how heavy it would be and how it would limit some of the camping gear I store below my platform.
I downloaded "sketchup" and quickly got to work designing my platform.

Materials Needed:
2 x 4x8 sheets of 1 side sanded 5/8 Pine Plywood
2 x 2x10's
4 x 4' 1x1 aluminum bars
2 x 4' Piano hinges
2 x L brackets
Misc. screws



As I began building I modified my plans slightly to incorporate 4 hatches instead of 3.

The Aluminum crossbars worked great clamped down as a saw guide for the straight cuts I needed.


Base and side supports cut. I ripped down a 2x10 for each side. It sits at the same level as the notch that goes around the bed.


Center hatches cut.


I used a hole saw and then cut out the center with a jigsaw to create a clean looking handle in all of the hatches.

I then routered the edges on both sides of each handle to make it smooth

Notches for aluminum 1x1 crossbarrs to sit added. Extra L bracket support also added.
The center section of my platform sits snugly between the wheel wells. There is no need to bolt anything down.


Hinges and top removable planks added.



Because of the angle of the wheel wells, and actually being short on plywood I ended up hinging the plank that goes over the wheel well. This creates a little pocket where the wheel well arch is.


Test fit with camping gear

I ended up buying a rolling under bed storage bin. Its the perfect height for under my platform and is a nice compromise for an actual drawers system.

 

Some camping photos right after I built my new platform

Sloquet Hot Springs May 2015


Peter Hope Lake June 2015



Because of the new canopy I needed a new way to take my dirt bike with me camping. Not wanting to have to tow a trailer this was my solution.

Versahaul Motorcycle Hitch Carrier.


This Hitch carrier is pretty pricey but it gets great reviews. I didn't want to cheap out and end up with my bike falling off the back and causing damage to my bike, other vehicles or my own. It is sturdy as hell and I'm very confident driving with it even on washboard gravel. My only complaint with it is that it dramatically decreases my departure angle. This is to be expected and isn't a huge concern to me because when I bring my bike I usually do most of the hard trails with the bike and stick to the FSR's and my base camp with my truck. I'm also eventually going to need to replace my rear leaf springs to handle the additional weight. One thing that I also really liked about this brand of hitch carrier is that is also has a 2" hitch receiver at the back. I'm not sure of the capacity of it but it allows me to use my boat totem pole which makes unloading the boat a breeze.



Auxiliary Battery Electrical setup

With that all sorted out my next project was the auxiliary electrical setup. My main goal was to provide some camp LED Lighting with switches/dimmer, USB Ports for charging devices, 12V socket for Fan-tastic Crate Fan, Inverter and 12V sockets for a fridge/freezer. I needed some way to control, fuse and contain all of this. My first step in this project was creating a custom control/fuse box that would get mounted to the side rails in my bed. I would feed this from a 105AH Deep Cycle Battery mounted at the front of my sleeping platform. My ultimate goal is to hook this battery up to a CTEK Dual D250s which is a DC-DC charger and a solar regulator. The CTEK Dual isn't cheap and at the time of building this setup I did not have a 12V fridge. Because of this, I opted for just a cheap solar regulator and a 30W panel to keep my battery topped up on longer trips. By leaving my house with a fully charged battery and supplementing it with my 30W panel whenever I was setup camping I was able to keep my battery fully charged during a 2 week trip last summer. With the additional load of my new fridge I will need the CTEK to help charge my battery off my alternator. I'd also like to create a mount for my solar panel to charge while driving or just parked without having to set anything up.


Lets start with the Fuse/control box
Sadly I didn't take many photos while I was building this. But the concept is pretty straight forward.
I ordered a ABS Plastic Project Box, 3.23" x 8.54" x 5.43" from Alltronics.com



This box is just large enough to Blue Sea 10cct Fuse Block with Negative Bus


There was no need to use the front cover as it will all be contained in its own box anyway.

I also ordered some 12V Sockets and USB Sockets from Carchet. They have been great and appear to be the same as what Blue Sea offers but a fraction of the cost.


I also ordered a 12V Volt/Amp meter (with shunt) and a LED Dimmer switch.
Here is everything contained inside the box.

The volt/amp meter requires its own power source to work properly, I added a 9V battery shown here to the loose black and red wires.



And here's another angle showing some dust. Right now I have my platform and battery removed. Snapped a quick photo cause I didn't have any at this angle. I think I'm going to add an Anderson plug to this eventually to be able to quickly disconnect and reconnect it.


The dimmer drives all 4 LED strip lights. The 4 toggle switches switch each independent light on and off. The center push button turns the volt/amp meter on and off.

Here is some photos with the newly installed setup.


Black out/Privacy/Security Curtains.
Sleeping in the canopy was great but me and my GF quickly discovered that we needed to do something about privacy and the sun in the early morning. I convinced my GF to create some curtains for the truck. These are held in place with velcro. She doesn't have much experience sewing and she nearly had a meltdown when the machine kept malfunctioning on her. Because of her struggles with the machine shes vowed never to sew anything again in her life. I think the curtains turned out great. Besides the back window we segmented each window into three portions. This was done so that we could open the window without rolling up the entire window. It was also done so that we could add a fan to any window of our choosing. The curtains are great at blocking out the light and also providing privacy. It just looks like a tinted out window from the outside with the curtains down. This is great for stealth camping and also great if I have anything of value in the back of the truck. I just drop the curtains and no one can tell that I have anything in the bed. We also added on at the rear glass and it is great when we are camped with the tailgate and glass hatch open. It keeps the bugs out of our bed, especially with the LED Lights on.

Here are some pictures.



Solar Shower/Water Can Carrier/12V Solar Setup

For longer off-grid trips during the summer time I and more importantly the GF wanted the ability to take a shower. I really like the "Road Shower" but I figured I could build something similar for a lot less than what it cost to buy one.

One of the things I didn't like about the Road Shower product was that you either had to lift a heavy water jug up to it to fill it up or you needed to be by a pressurized water source. My solution was to get some black MWC (Military water cans) and pressurize them. I'd then build something to hold them on my Yakima crossbars and also support a shower rod and shower nozzle. This way you would only need to lift the jug up once onto the top of the truck and then forget about it. This is what I ended up building.

Drilled out the caps on two black MWC and added a schrader air valve. This allows me to pump up the cans with either a small bike pump or my 12V compressor



Built the holder/rack for the cans out of some 5/8 plywood. Bolted some Yakima mighty mounts to bolt it down to the rack.


The front is designed to be aerodynamic and hold the shower nozzle and the bungee that keeps the can in place during a shower.


Pressure test. Works great! You do have to keep pumping it up after it drains about a 1/4 of the can though.


The shower curtain rod is a U bent piece of 3/4 EMT (electrical conduit) that slides into a piece of 1" EMT. I simply zip tie a tarp to it for a shower curtain.

I screwed another peice of 1" EMT to the side of the rack and bolt a piece of 3/4" EMT to my solar panel. This allows me to track with my solar panel setup.

 

Reserved as well

 

Very nice build.

 

Awesome!!!

 

Thanks, glad you showed up! I've taken a lot of inspiration from your build. Stay tuned, I've got lots more content to be added.

 

Rear Passenger Door Fridge Slide.



I was recently apart of the Indel B group buy on TW. It was a great deal and I'm very happy with my purchase.

Because we will be sleeping in the back of the truck there is no room to mount our fridge like most guys do in the bed. I was willing to sacrifice 2 of my rear passenger side seats to build a platform and slide for our fridge. It is usually only me and my GF in my truck when we go camping or on trips so loosing the seats isn't that big of a deal. If anything I could use the weight savings and I actually plan on removing the driver side rear seat as well just to gain more room for gear.

The steps for this build were pretty simple.

Materials needed:
- 130 Pound rated Entertainment Slides
- 5/8 plywood
- 3/8 bolts + spring nuts
- Deep unistrut
- 4 x D rings
- Fridge mounting plate (optional)
- 5/16 bolt + nut + washers for seat hinges
- Misc screws (#8 and #10) bolts/washers


The first step was removing the passenger side rear seats, which was actually a lot easier and faster than I thought. All it takes is 5 bolts.

2 on the seat bottoms.

You will also need to remove the passenger side seatbelt bucket.


Pop off the little retainer washer, take off the buckle and put the bolt back in. Otherwise you will have a hole in the bottom of your truck that water can get into.
With that out of the way you can remove the bottom seat cushion.

Next step is the back cushion.
Remove plastic covers on seat backs.

undo bolts

Remove seats.

I also removed the back storage compartment behind the seats. I believe there are 4 bolts and one screw that needs to be removed. The clips that hold the storage compartment to the drivers side storage compartment can be a pain. For better results and to avoid breaking any clips you may want to remove the drivers side compartment first. However it is not necessary. I plan on removing both sides down the road and doing some sound deadening and building a custom storage area. For now, I just removed the passenger side storage compartment.

With the passenger side seats and back storage compartment removed you gain a much better view of what you are working with.


If you pull back the carpet you will find a grommet that can be used to run electrical accessories behind the seat. I will be using this grommet to add a 12v socket for the fridge.


Because the Hinges for the seats sits higher than the back you will need something to level the base of your platform. I got the idea of using a peice of deep unistrut to level it out and provide something to bolt the platform down into. Thanks @DoorDing for the idea (who seems to be MIA right now ).

There's no need to drill holes in your floor to bolt the strut down. If you are okay with it sitting on a slight angle you can use two of the factory holes to bolt it down. The only issue with this is that it will angle the peice of strut right over the grommet hole. There is enough room to sneak some small wire underneath, otherwise you will need to drill the strut out where it covers the grommet.


With the piece of unistrut in place you can use some Spring nuts anywhere along it to bolt your base down into it.

I cut my base and used the two seat hinges to bolt down the front. I still need to add some spring nuts and bolts to the back.


I also cut the base for the slide and painted them


With both the base and slide base cut out and painted, time to assemble.

Slides screwed and bolted to base plate.


D rings and mounting plate bolted and screwed.

With the sliding portion built I bolted down the base that sits on the strut and seat hinges.
I then screwed the slide into the base.

And that's it.



Before I take it out on its maiden voyage I still need to add some bolts down into the unistrut and I also plan on adding a locking T handle to hold the fridge in place. The slides do "lock" in the closed position but I went for a test drive the fridge will still slide forward on a sharp corner.

 

nice Detailed Build! Subbed




Now say i wanted to do exactly what you did except i wanna put it in the bed, what all would i need to not purchase(got a trip coming up next week wanna get this all together).

EDIT: all i'd need are the slides, the base(which i'll have to fab) and some d-rings to strap the fridge down to, but since it'll be in the bed, i dont need that extra part you built as a platform right?

 

Did you buy the mounting plate with your fridge? You could build the sliding portion exactly like mine with the plate and D rings on a plywood base. You could alternatively just screw the mounting plate to the top of the slides and be done with it. All you'd need for that is the slides and some mounting hardware (bolts/nuts/washers,screws etc)
Add some d rings, some plywood and paint if you want to build it like I have.

 

Damn, i didnt get the mounting plates, i think they were sold out by the time i ordered. Is there another way i could still run it?

 

Definitely. The mounting plate isn't really necessary. The way I built mine is slightly overkill.
You'll just need to grab some plywood for a base and some D rings or eyebolts to strap it down. What sucks is most places won't let you buy anything smaller than a 4x8 sheet of plywood and you really only need a small piece (mine is cut at 13"x26").

All you would need to build is the actual slide portion. Pretty basic.

Top side


Bottom side.

 

Ahhh so all i need to do it

1. Get a piece of material to fit the fridge/slides/d-rings into.
2.Bolt the slides into the bed
3.Secure the fridge with some straps and that's it?

 

Great looking build! I'm planning on building a similiar setup with either a leer 180 or ARE MX. How do you find the temperature when sleeping?
Where do you store the extra gas for your bike?

 

That's it. It's way less complicated with a slide that is top/bottom mount (like mine) rather then the typical side mount.

Although I should mention that depending on the slide that you end up getting you may need some way to lock the fridge/slide in place. My slides sort of click and lock into the closed position but around sharp turns it will come loose. I'm planning on using a T handle locking pin. Just haven't had the time to source one yet.

Something like this.

 

I just ordered the same slides you used (~80$ so it wasnt too bad) and ive wondered about how i'd lock it into place.

How exactly will that locking pin work?

 

It needs a receptacle for it to lock into.

 

Where'd you put it? im a noob to this type of project so im asking alot of questions haha.

 

I run a 12v fan in one of the sliding screened windoors. I open up the other side to get a good cross breeze going.

The fan I use is made by Fan-Tastic Vent. Which is a well know brand in the RV world for rooftop vent fans. It is called an Endless Breeze. It uses 1.2 - 2.6 amps (low, med, and hi settings)
It is super quiet, fits perfectly in my window and moves a ton of air even on the low setting. I highly recommend this fan to anyone who wants to sleep in their canopy during the summer.




Besides running the fan when it is super hot out I throw a Silvicool Tarp over my truck. Basically a tarp with the same reflectiveness as tin foil or an emergency blanket.



The difference it makes is incredible.

As far as the gas, it goes in the back. The bed gets rolled up during transport. I mainly only use MFC (military fuel cans) and I've yet to have one leak on me. When camped it goes on the ground outside the truck. If I'm afraid of someone ripping it off during the night or while out on a ride then I just run my cable that I lock my bike up with through the handle on the gas cans and lock them to the truck. Eventually I'd like to put the gas on the roof once I get a rack over the cab.

 

A hole will get drilled in the plywood sliding base at the front of the slide between the two D rings with the receptacle mounted below screwed into the actual base. A short lanyard will also get screwed to the front side of the slide attached to the T handle to ensure I don't loose the thing.

 

sick build page man, I've been wondering about your set up as of late (only saw your slide in the fridge GB).

My wife and i just got back yesterday from a weekend at Sloquet. was awesome, we were the only ones there! we did the full loop, from Pemberton to Mission and back home to New West.

We should do a camping run sometime, get the vancouver tacoma guys together!