New TRD Off-Road Owner - interested in Overlanding

Howdy folks! Glad to find such a thriving forum! I'm the proud new owner of a 3rd Gen 2016 TRD Off-Road. Picked it up gently used after coming home from about a year mobilized to Africa. I fell in love with our Hilux's and Land Cruisers out there, and nearly bought a used import diesel LC but decided I wanted airbags after all. Wish this thing came in diesel, but c'est la vie.

I'm interested in kitting this beast out for overland expeditions. Roommates run an 80 series Land Cruiser, a Land Rover LR3, an FJ Cruiser and a Ford Raptor. Next planned trip, tentatively scheduled for mid June, will be a five week journey to Alaska.

Only two mods so far - the original owner painted the grille matte black, but the spraypaint's flaking off so I'm tempted to replace it entirely. Also installed a Kenwood TM-V71A ham radio.
(Edit - and a sh... oddy lift kit. Thanks for noticing that!)

Mods I'm interested in, more or less in order: Camper shells, bumpers/bars, lights, winch, rock sliders. Any off-road pros got other suggestions?

Hasty "glamour shots" of the truck, taken at the local semi-abandoned Navy yard:

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to TW! What part of NorCal are you in OP?

 

First mod needs to be fixing that Cali-bro Lean.

 

Glad you found us. I've got two thoughts... move the sliders up your list. They're important and reasonably inexpensive.

Also:

If you're going to kit out the bed with a shell, gear, bumper, (maybe an RTT?), then I'd make sure your rear suspension is addressed in light of the weight you'll be regularly carrying. I didn't and had to re-do rear suspension after the original lift. Poor planning on my part makes my wallet cry.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Congrats on your new Tacoma and welcome!

 

Thanks folks! I'm currently local to the north end of the SF Bay.

Fortunately, that's just a visual effect of sloping ground; the truck hasn't had its suspension modified and it sits level.

I'll definitely look into sliders, see if there are any manufacturers in my area. For weight though, is this something I should be concerned about with stock suspension? Is a lift something I should seriously consider? I don't intend to do much rock crawling proper, and hoped the stock rear end would support a fair amount of weight.

 

I run 3 cross bars, an RTT and a swing out hitch mounted tire carrier plus trip loads. That was enough to run my factory leafs and add-a-leafs flat. The rear was noticeably dropped after 12,000 miles. Now I run Deaver Expedition II leafs. Sits right, rides right, looks right.

 

Welcome.

I recommened looking in the build thread area and checking out what other overlanders are doing.

That said, I recommend planning your rig out first like you are doing and adjust as needed. You will need to upgrade the suspension, not necessarily to run bigger tires but with added weight and diverse trails your suspension will be exceeded. Additionally with added weight from overlanding like truck caps, rear bumpers, etc you will exceed your rear leaf load capacity. The problem with stock suspension is that they are prone to shock fade and stock coils and leafs struggle with added weight.

After adding sliders, bumpers and skid plates, I added about 700 pounds of steel. Weight is really bad in some cases so get a suspension that can handle it.

Are far as companies there are a ton for suspension you can talk to.

@JT@Bajakits
@HeadStrong Off-Road

and for skids and sliders I recommend

@Mobtown Offroad

also check out the 3rd gen section but be careful that forum is a but crazy.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/3rd-gen-builds-2016.196/

 

Unless there's some serious trickery going on with the way that photo was taken that suspension look fubar'd. I'd love to see a pic of the truck on level ground.

The best thing you can do to prepare your truck is pack a tent and some food and hit the trails. You're in norcal which is one of the best places in the country for this, you've got the coastal ranges (Mendocino, Shasta Trinity NFs) and the Sierras (Plumas, Tahoe, El Dorado, Stanislaus, Sierra NFs) and many more with enough trails to last you a lifetime. Go here https://www.nationalforestmapstore.com/ and start your map collection. Also get your hands on a copy of

$30 Backcountry Adventures: Northern California

this. Get in some weekend trips and make lists of things you need as you go.

First thing I'd do if I were you is decide if you want to sleep in the truck bed under a camper shell, or in a roof top tent on top of a camper shell or bed rack. I went with a sleeping platform and bed under a camper shell so I can go back there for a nap anytime I want without any setup.

 

As requested:

The driveway isn't perfectly level, but this gives you a much less exaggerated picture. Am I incorrect in thinking this is the stock setup?

 

That is a stock suspension but you have a block in the front raising the front up, probably to "level" it.

I'd remove it before going overlanding.

EDIT: Looks like front and rear block lift. Remove when you have a chance.

 

lol, truth. So many new-to-cars and new-to-internet people there.

OP - Just plastidip the grill. You can probably spray the dip right over the current paint without it coming off. I didn't even wash my grill before I dipped it; just wiped it down and sprayed about 5 coats. It's been well over a year and no chips or peeling from the plastidip.

Definitely look into upgrading your suspension if you're going to be running a lot of gear; but you don't need to go too wild since you're probably not going to be prerunning or going through sketchy technical trails. Maybe even bilstein 5100 or OMEs with dakars in the back should suffice.

 

There is one in the rear as well.

 

Good Call I just noticed the brick under the leafs.

 

Yup, take a look at this picture of completely stock suspension and your front coilovers. There's a spacer up top.

 

Welcome to the TW, nice rig. Do your research here on TW before you spend money, buy once -cry once. This is a great place to learn about your truck and how to modify it.

 

Looks like your truck has been lifted, I can't tell what's going on in the front but there's definitely lift blocks in the rear. Fyi this is kind of lifts people do when they only care about aesthetics and don't want to add any real function. You can treat it like it's stock. You may eventually want to actually upgrade the suspension but wait until you feel like you need to.

On second thought that is a lot of lift in front. If it was my truck I'd at least entertain the idea of returning it to stock before driving to Alaska (thinking about my CV joints and ball joints). But I'm probably in the minority here on that.

 

Bay Area Metal Fabrication.