MattJakob's 'Everything but a Tacoma' Thread

that's correct.

 

A big project I want to get done before the spring is a better storage solution for tools, spare parts, and camping/cooking goodies. Right now, I have a drawer system that is comprised of two drawers and a flip storage section right behind the rear seats. I also have a drop in storage area on the passenger side of the vehicle. In the back seat, I have my Dometic Fridge. This all works well when I'm alone but the lady friend comes on pretty much every trip, and our dog too. After our last trip, it had me thinking a lot about a better storage solution and this is pretty much the start of it.
Current:
.411 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr
Had a local guy build me up a flat roof rack
.412 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr
During this, I also added solar power. I picked up a few goodies from Renogy over Black Friday. I'll touch on this more on a later post.
.413 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr
Two 52" Plano Rifle cases
.414 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr
I've only started to fill one so far. I'll also throw a few more ratchets and misc. small tools in here. One will contain a large amount of the tools I'll carry, the other will contain spare parts and recovery gear. I haven't collected all the spare parts I want to carry so the layout of that one hasn't happened yet.
.410 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

My ultimate goal with this is to have the fridge on a slide in the rear truck space to give the dog the whole back seat instead of being crammed in the backseat with the fridge. Next to the fridge, I'll have one drawer that'll house a pass through socket kit, cooking supplies, camping gear, and other misc. items that I want to be readily available.

 

New wheels and tires mounted up. Finally decided on something and happy with what I ended up with. 17x8.5 Stealth Custom Series Stealth 6s in Matte Gunmetal paired with 315/70/17 Cooper STT Pros.

.415 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.416 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.417 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.418 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

Next up is 5.29s, front and rear ARB lockers, some gussets all around, and a new storage system for the back of the 4Runner. Once all that's done, I should be ready for some good wheeling in 2020.

 

Hopefully throwing this stuff on this weekend.

5.29s with F&R ARB Air Lockers

$592 ARB CKMTA12 '12V' On-Board Twin High Performance Air Compressor, Ideal for Air Lockers Locking Differentials, Tire Inflator, Air Horn, Air Tools and Pneumatic Tools.

ARB CKMTA12 Dual Compressor

Hopefully finishing up getting my solar situated. Upon hook up, I didn’t have any read on my charge controller so going to run a multimeter to it to see what’s going on

Have some misc. lights I want to add and take away. I’m sort of but not really in the market for a new front bumper since I want something new with a little better approach angle. I was going to wait to add these lights till then but I might wait for a Black Friday deal on the front bumper and add a winch with it. Probably won’t be that patient and will end up with a new bumper and winch sooner rather than later

 

Officially on 5.29s. Still need to hook the lockers up and find a home for the compressor.

About 100 miles on the break in and already happy with them. Stop and go driving feels much better with more throttle response from the start. Haven't gotten a good highway feel yet since you can't hold speeds for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.

Going to work on finding a home for the compressor and wiring up the lockers sometime this week.

 

Thanks @MattJakobs

 

Small update. Finally finished my solar how I want it. I went with a Renogy 100 Watt 12 Volt Monocrystalline Solar Panel paired with a Renogy Voyager 20A PWM Charge Controller. Pretty stoked with how everything went in. Very easy install and overall great products. Should help with the fridge and misc. accessories.
.419 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.420 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

Oh yeah, and I also remounted my ARB awning.

Hopefully some more updates soon...

 

Glad it went to a good home. Your stove looks to fit pretty damn perfectly in there.

 

.421 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

 

My work firewall isn't letting me see your build pics...damnit.

 

Wanna do this but the damn subs are in the way

 

nothing to see here

I'm sure you can figure something out. I have a sub built into a side storage compartment with those drawers and it worked fine. The drawer's I'm currently working on will also have the same sub built in

 

(Mostly) Finished up my new drawer project.
Story time... When we moved, the lady friend and I got a dog. Our old set up consisted of the fridge in the back seat with the dog,and two side by side drawers in the back with misc. supplies and gear stacked on top. This sort of worked but I felt bad for only giving the dog half of the back row when we went wheeling and/or camping. Well, quarantine hit and we got another dog. We had been talking about getting another dog within the next year but with the two of us working from home, we figured what better time than now. Having a second dog really made me get my ass in gear as far as building a new storage set up since I knew there was no way in hell our two dogs can split have the back row.
There's a few things I wanted to incorporate with this new makeover.
- A deeper drawer the same amount of items in one drawer
- Fridge Slide
- Locking Drawer Slides
- Compressor Mount
- Ability to make it a sleeping platform
- Box for subwoofer

And this is what I came up with...
.422 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.423 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.424 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.425 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

I think I was able to achieve everything I set out for with this build.
- The drawer is the perfect size to carry all my more commonly used tools, as well as my hammock, misc. parts I want readily available, misc. camping gear, first aid kit, small axe, etc.
- My new compressor for filling up tires, and the front and rear air lockers is mounted on the forward facing part of the drawer box.
- I can easily add an extension from the back of the drawer box and over the compressor, into the back seat if I ever want to make a sleeping platform.
- Subwoofer box is in progress and will be mounted on the backside of the fridge

I still have a few things to do with cable management but really excited with how everything turned out. Ready to go put it to some use.

 

IMGP3499 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

Time for a mustache and wheeling again...

 

Couple random updates. New skids and some new lighting. Both to replace the old.
My old skids were 1/8" and had seen better days. I wanted something thicker with better coverage so I opted for some Savage Offroad Full Skids. The fitment is great and they're definitely beefy.
I also ditched my old Caliraised 3x2 Amber Pods for some Rigid D2 Series Driving Pattern Amber Pods and my old Anzo HIDs for some VisionX Light Cannons. What a difference on both fronts. The Rigid's outshine the Caliraised, no problem - and the VisionX's are really nice since I don't have to wait for the HIDs to warm up anymore.
.427 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.426 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

 

Made some last minute plans to get out of the area this weekend and get some hiking and camping in. Went to a new area near Bass Lake and there just so happened to be some wheeling involved. We were alone so no real difficult lines were taken but we'll definitely be back to get in on some of that. Here's some scenic pictures of the 4Runner and a dog picture because dogs are cool.

This was my first run with the new tires, gears, and lockers. Happy to say everything performed as it should - and nothing broke. Have some more clearancing to do for the tires but that was expected.
.428 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.429 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

.430 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

 

No real wheeling per se, but got some offroad driving in over last weekend. Had a great time with some new friends, saw some beautiful views, and ready to get out and do it again. Oh yeah, and got a new stove so insert obligatory food on stove picture.

IMG_1064 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1069 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1140 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1143 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1157 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1167 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1174 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

IMG_1147 by Matthew Jakobowski, on Flickr

 

With the Solo LCAs, how much clearancing did you have to do for the 35's? Any tubbing?

 

So I haven't finished clearancing yet. Seems like every time I think I'm clear, I still rub. Most of that seems to be on the fender liner and window washer reservoir (which needs to be removed and replaced with something smaller).

I really need to remove the coil over and clearance at full bump and full lock but I haven't found the time to, yet.

Based on what I have done and see, I don't think I'll need to tub anything at the firewall. If you're clear on 33s and stock LCAs on the firewall, I think you'll be good there with 35s and Solo LCAs. Hopefully I can confirm sooner rather than later.

 

Gotcha. Yea I did that for when I clearanced things for my 33's. Had to take a BFH to the firewall on the passenger side a bit for when it was at full lock and full stuff.

I've been eyeing those solo LCA's for quite some time. Would be worth the money alone if I could run 35's and not have to tub any firewall. Most people I've seen that have them had already tubbed by the time they got the solo's though.

I'll be curious what your outcome will be.