New Tacoma Owner - Overland Build

First time Tacoma owner here!

So I have been into jeeps for the last 15 or so years, both rock crawlers and overland builds. I recently decided to sell my 2 Dr JK Rubicon as it was just to dang small to take camping for the weekend. I have wanted to be able to just take off after work on a Friday and head out for a few days for a while now, but without having a rig to do that has made my mind start spinning ideas.
My brother ended up buying my JK and I was able to now go shopping for the next rig. I kinda fell in love with the Inferno color but was finding it hard to find (must be popular), I found a dealer that had two a 16 TRD offroad and an 18 TRD offroad. While test driving one the used one ended up selling from under me, so to not lose the other I put a deposit down.

The next day I went back and signed my life away for the next 6 years.

My plan with the truck is to focus on mostly an overland build, hidden winch in the front bumper, rock sliders, rear steel bumper, bed rack with RTT, maybe a roof rack for an awning, some sort of slider system for the bed to hold gear and ARB fridge, and skid plates.

Inside I plan to keep it pretty basic, VHF radio, some sort of switch panel, and tablet mount should do everything I need.

Maybe a dual battery system later down the road.

I am stuck on the lift and tire options, for now, more research will be done as I don't plan to lift and change tires until next spring. Any suggestions are welcome!




My 86 Jeep Comanche is mostly set up as a rock crawler and will stay around for trail riding.

Funny that both trucks are about the same height despite the Comanche being lifted 6" and having 35" tires.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW!!

 

Welcome, both trucks look great and the height shows me why I don't need a lift on the 3rd gens. don't do any serious offroading tho

 

Welcome

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to the TW family!

 

Welcome to TW an nice rigs you got there.

 

Welcome! to TW nice rig there yes really nice looking - you listed all the exterior mods and as for "lift" that is depending on what size tires and how you want it to "look" when done however since I don't have the TRD Off road in the 3rd gen with stock running gear I'm not sure about tire size you can slap on em without issues but there are many here that do know. On my 2000 Trd off road I tossed Bf Goodrich KO2 standard size at on it and on the 2018 Trd pro I went up a size with the Bf Goodrich Km3 to 265/R7516 no issues both on and off road.

 

Well since I am still new to the Tacoma I was kinda thinking a 2-3" lift with probably 33"s. Not looking to go full on rock crawler since I got the Jeep for that, but would like to get some extra ground clearance and some larger tires.
It came stock with 265/70r16.

 

Personally I would keep as close to stock as I can doing only what is needed to do what I expect to do and when I run into a need then I will upgrade to that - now this is just my opinion and seeing that you already fully understand the "Mod" thing and what direction it can go "lift" only as much as you need to do what you really will be doing yeah I know the school of thought for the what if? however one thing I have learned from all the messing around with all the mods I have done in the past is be realistic about it technical running.. are you really going to do that all the time? worth the extra $$? is it worth the extra wear and tear on the truck? I had a FJ Cruiser and I did the Icon lift system only to find out that the cost of care for the thing went way up and the Mpg? I don't want to talk about how bad that was however I basically "ruined" my Fj Cruiser dumping a ton of money into it for all the extra stuff only to take half of it back off and sell at a loss.

 

Welcome!

 

Well I kinda agree with that, I do plan to keep it stock besides the armor and other mods until next year. I want to drive it some stock to see how it performs, and how I end up actually using the rig. They seem fairly capable out of the factory, so with the armor and skid plates I might be perfectly happy with it the way it is.
I might not even lift it and just go up a little with the tires. No mater what I do ride quality and performance is top of the list, looks will always come second.

And I do understand how mod one thing you gotta upgrade other parts, the entire suspension under the Jeep I designed and built mostly from scratch and it was all designed for that use it performs amazing on and offroad. Being new to the Tacomas I wont touch the suspension until I do a lot (months) of research.

 

Sweet Comanche man. Things a beaut.

 

Shhhhh don't talk about those things! make me Lust for Something I don't have!

 

Like you, I formerly had a Jeep rock crawler. After 10 years, I'm back into this stuff but decided to go more "overland" than rock crawl and purchased a Tacoma with that type of build in mind. Take the time to read the specific threads on tire sizes, bed racks, RTT models, etc. There's a wealth of info on this forum. It not only gave me a lot of ideas, it prevented me from making mistakes and save a lot of money. Welcome to the group!

 

Welcome! This just about sums it up! With the experience you already have there's no doubt in the end you will do what's best for your intent. My 2 cents....32" tires & 5100's with an aal will get ya just about anywhere...

 

I have another one in stock form that will be up for sale soon. Just sayin...