Not much Tacoma left.. 4500 koh build

No build updates besides grabbing more dom. My dad came down for a week and we started on adding a bathroom and living quarters in the new trailer. I ended up finding a ton of rust which took longer to fix than I thought but the framing and tanks and drains are all done and rust is fixed. I’ll finish the electrical and plumbing in time for koh hopefully but for now is getting ready for winter4x4 jamboree next week.

 

Trailers almost done. Plumbing and electrical all work. Few small things to finish up and get a mattress. Probably paint the hole inside and outside come spring

 

so this is a 2026-27 KOH build?

 

Hope to have it done this summer and ready to go for 2026

 

Koh was insane. Trip of a life time honestly when I look back at it with my dad which says something because we do a lot of trips together. Trailer worked great. We ran out of fresh water on the 3rd day but the camp next to use was leaving and let us take their extra since they where going home. Every racer we talked to and every car we looked at, everyone was super helpful and answered my million questions. I’ve been to koh a twice to watch but was years ago and once to wheel for thanksgiving but seeing the race now it’s pretty insane. The pace they are doing through the rocks is just fast. Got lots of ideas and lots of motivation to get working and spend some money lol.

We got there Wednesday. Walked the emc tech Thursday and watched some of the utv race. Watched the emc race from chocolate thunder and the 4400 race from the end of tach hammer.

We stayed till the following Tuesday and ran the race course from laser nut alley to the start of jackhammer. We attempted outer limits after finding remote pit 2 but it was so dug up and there wasn’t many people left. Monday we met up with some friends and ran sledge which was good. The trails are pretty insane. Different kind of hard than what I’m used to wheeling. Hoping to spend more time out there wheeling.

 

When I got metal for the trailer I picked up another stick of 2” dom. The cage main tube still bothered me so spent some time redoing that and extremely happy with it now. That pretty much used a hole stick so I’ll get some more material next week and work on something else in the meantime.

 

Thanks, but it looks like it’s going to be a bit before you finish your incredible project!
The saying must be true! Off-road racing is for the mentally insane!
I remember going to the Mint 400 before they enclosed the original strip.
Funny story is a good friend of my father moved to Vegas for a job inspecting construction jobs for a bank in Vegas during a big construction boom. Dale got a wild hair to enter the Mint 400 in a class with strict suspension rules but any thing goes for power or something to that effect? Dale got the bank to sponsor him for the race. He then purchased a sand rail with big HP VW 2180cc or some big VW motor. They proceeded to beef up the chassis with a new wider VW front end, disc brakes all around, purchased some high dollar shocks but they were only allowed a single shock on each corner. Beefed up the cage, cage in the engine in the back and all sorts of equipment to race. I remember that I was to ride shotgun on the 3rd lap of the 4 they had to run.
My father started the race with Dale riding shotgun. Dad or anyone else even had a chance to test drive the buggy other than drive it up & down the street in front of Dale’s house the night before tech. Somehow it passed tech???So dad started the race in some stadium on the North Side of town. He nailed the throttle into the first turn got it slowed down to make the turn then coming out of the turn nailed the throttle again and proceeded to loop out as the stadium interrupted. (I didn’t see this as I was in the first pit stop) They got out on the course and hit this big G out within the first five miles or so. Dad said the engine died he tried to restart the engine but nothing happened. He jumps out to see the engine and cage are missing and about 50 yards behind them as Dale yells at dad and pointing at the cage and engine. Spectators drug the engine and cage off the course.
Dad said it was crazy out there after they left the stadium you drove up on an abandoned road to where the road had been washed out and apparently the Mint course workers had set up a road construction sign with a arrow pointing to the left. Dad said he just caught a view of the sign off the side of the road out the corner of his eye. Someone must not have slowed enough to make the turn off the road and hit the sign. He said he saw 3 or 4 cars piled on top of each other in the bottom of the wash and could hear people screaming. That part was not funny but scary. If I’m not mistaken the race was shut down for a time but I honestly don’t know.
Sorry to get off topic!

 

I did some stuff for a buddy and some house projects so only got the c pillar done today and now I’m out of tubing. I’ll pick up some more this week after work and continue on the cage next week. Also slapped the headers on just cause and the driver clears but passenger v band gets into the motor mount. May have to find a different set.

 

Was just going to have a lazy day but reading forums and looking at pictures decided to go out and mess with the panhard for a little bit. I’ve been putting off adding bends to the panhard and ended up adding (2) 12 degree bends on either side where the ram ends as at full bump the panhard hits the ram. I then notched the passenger side from for the panhard bracket to go into and draglink to go into. Regret putting it off as it worked well and now everything clears. 12 degrees may have been a little much and I can probably get away with 6-10 which I’ll try later. But this will allow me to lower the axle side panhard some as well so it’s not a giant lever. The draglink just barely gets into the bolts on the ram so I either need to move the steering box forward a 1/4-1/2 inch or add a bend. Not sure adding a bend will solve my issue but I may try it just to see.

And the upper link ends up getting into the headers so I’ll have to do something about that.

What’s everyone’s thoughts on offsetting the frame side panhard mount back as right now my limiting factor is the frame side panhard heim is hitting the tie rod.

 

Picked up more dom and got the c pillar knocked out and made a dash bar. Posted some pictures on Instagram and had a guy message me asking what happened if I swapped the a pillars side to side to minimize the gap between the sheet metal. I ended up doing it and made a big difference. Good chance I got them mixed up when I had them out last so I swapped them and made a big difference. Ended up tacking them back in after swapping them but need to make a new dash bar.

I think I’m over complicating the cage with to many bends. I have plans probably after the roof and b and c pillars get beat to cut them off and maybe even just run a hood and fenders and bedsides. So to simplify the cage, try to do a flat roof “x” and minimal bends so it doesn’t look goofy with the roof off.

I also got a set of prp seats my parents got me for Christmas a few years ago installed in the other crawler. Think they turned out good. Just waiting on harnesses. The harness bar is against the rear wall under the window.

First picture is before. 2nd picture is after.

 

Spent the last 2 days messing with the cage. Wasn’t planning to add as many bends to the roof bars but it was needed to get the headroom and still be able to see. Still need to do one more bar down the middle in the back and the intrusion bars but I’ll wait till I screw up something and have some waste.

Next I want to get the seats mounted so I can do the b pillar. Plan is to run a bar between the an and b pillar and then run some tubes towards the trans but stop them short with some supports off the subframe. The trans needs to come out of the door so trying to make it easy ish to get out. Was originally going run tubes over the trans and atlas but my dad suggested just stopping them short.

Also ordered rhe shocks.. think I’ll order a rear housing so I can start on that while I wait for the shocks.

 

Seat mounts have been kicking my ass. Sadly this took me two days and still not done. Trying to find something functional, looks good and allows my head to clear the cage has been a challenge but think I finally got it. Literally as low as they can go with the atlas. Should have maybe lowered the subframe some more but it’s done.

 

Got the driver seat mounts in and adjusted the passenger a little more. Started making the harness bar till the hole saw stripped out on the arbor of the notcher so called it a night. Short day but happy to have the seats hopefully done.

 

Redid the seat mounts after a suggestion on irate

Alright redid the seat mounts again. Got them a little lower by another inch or so and moved the one bar between the b pillar. So the entire seat mount is out of 1x.120 wall dom and 3/16 tabs. Between the seat cushion settling some (I’ve been told it’ll settle between 2-3”) and the harnesses pulling you into the seat. Should be more than enough room. Not really interested in going to composite Seats for now.

 

Then messed with starting on the b pillar x. Was able to salvage the original cross bar I made by adding another 15 degree bend on each side. It probably only needed 10-12 degrees but the extra between the seat and bar will make getting to harnesses and any bags I put between easier. I got the top two bars of the x in as well. They look close but are no where near your head. Even if you got whiplash, your head won’t hit the bars because of the head rest. I may order the seats with +2 in height to just get the head rest a little higher. Pretty much copied this Cherokee build for the b pillar

 

Only made it outside for an hour or two and got the rest of the x knocked out. Pretty happy. Took measurements to make a file for the fuel cell to get That mounted next.

 

Got most the passenger compartment cage done minus the intrusion bars and door bars. Pretty happy with it.

I ran out of tubing so the bracing between b and c pillar still needs done as well. But that’s 3 more short ish tubes

 

I also worked on the fuel cell and am extremely stoked on how it came out. Drew it all in 2d cad and cut it all correctly the first time and with no screw ups from the cnc. Never would have thought I would be able to make something like this.

 

You could try to pull off the Evel Knievel stunt of jumping the Snake River Canyon and not worrying if you don’t make it and land on your lid‼️…….

 

Tons of parts on order and should start coming in next week or the week after. Just been focused up on finishing some stuff I left half done.

Fuel cell tabs. May do something off the top but I’ll wait to see if they’re needed.