nvnv's Weekend camp/explorer + daily driver 2016 TRD OR

Ham radio installed.

-Kenwood TM-D710GA
-Larsen 2/70 NMO antenna
-Relentless passenger hood mount (drilled out to 3/4” for NMO mount)
-Custom A pillar Ram Mount for the face plate

The body of the radio is installed under the driver’s seat. I ran the wiring down to the frame and into a rubber grommet right under the driver seat. For all the wiring I used braided loom. I still need to run a mic extension, which I ordered a short piece of Cat 6 and a coupler for. I also have a small speaker coming since the built in is hard to hear when driving.

 

Pretty fancy

 

Sub

 

Weather has been on point for some hot spring exploration lately.

 

Hey dude, I just swapped out all my suspension and have a Headstrong 1/4” spacer for taco lean if you want it!

Hope all is well

 

Yeah I've been following along on Insta. Looks really good man. I still have the stock coils so no need for a spacer but thanks for the offer.

 

Bringing this back from the dead. After using my setup for the last couple years I found all the things I did and didn't like. This has ended up with me switching up some things in big and expensive ways.

Did like:

• Roof top tent- I camp at least 2 weekends a month in the summer so this gets a lot of use
• Ability to lock up things in the bed with the tonneau cover and keep my crap out of the weather

Didn't like:

• Tuff Stuff tent was extremely loud in the wind. I camp a lot in the desert where there is usually wind and it kept me from going out or staying out longer if there was a lot of wind.
• Tent was fairly easy to setup and take down but I wanted something easier. I don't usually stay in the same place longer than a night.
• I wanted to be able to store more things in the tent like sleeping bags and pillows. I could get one or two thin bags in my Tuff Stuff tent but any more than that and it was hard to close.
• Tonneau cover limited what I could store in the bed with the KB Voodoo bars and was hard to access things in the back since I couldn't fold it back. A lot of times I would take it off altogether leaving my stuff out in the open for crackheads or the weather.
• No options to mount an awning. Again, I camp a lot in the desert and not having an easy to setup awning or shade structure sucks when it's summer and the last tree you saw was 100 miles down the road.

So I sold my Tuff Stuff tent, bed bars and tonneau cover and ordered an Alu-Cab Explorer canopy and an Autohome Maggiolina Extreme hardshell tent. I also bought a 6' ARB awning to throw up next to the tent. So far I really like the setup and it takes care of all of the "didn't like" items above. I can now store and lock all my gear in the bed while still being able to easily access everything through fully opening side doors. The canopy is also really light which goes towards my goal of keeping the weight down as much as possible.

The Autohome tent sets up in less than a minute and take down is about 2 minutes. It also is super quiet in the wind since it doesn't have any loose material to flap around. It was hard to throw down so much money on the tent but the quality and craftsmanship is worth it.

Alu Cab before I got the tent and awning mounted:


After I got everything mounted up in the driveway:





"Cabana mode" as the GFC guys call it:


The maiden voyage:

 

One thing I noticed after I got the tent, canopy, awning and all my camping gear loaded up was the back end got lowwwww. The rear leafs had a definite negative arch. The canopy is only 115 lbs, the tent is about 140 lbs and the awning is 50 lbs plus another 100ish for all my gear so about 400-500 all loaded up. The stock leaf pack on these things suck. It is definitely catered more to ride quality than payload. I ordered Wheeler's 1.5" 3 leaf progressive AAL to get the ass back up to where it should be.

I considered getting a full replacement leaf pack but at this point I didn't really want to spend that much and I think it would have given me too much lift. After installing the AAL and driving around for a couple days I'm pretty impressed. It firmed up the rear suspension but in a good way and restored the factory rake. It is in no way harsh and I think may even ride better than stock. The leaf pack also now is back to a positive arch. I will be going out again this weekend for some camping and offroading so I'll see how it does then.

Here is a pic after the AAL was installed and an empty bed.

 

Next up I have a bunch of electronic goodies sitting in my garage to install, probably next week:

• Switch Pro 9100 w/SDHQ panel
• Baja Designs S8 20" (finally fill that hole in the front bumper)
• Baja Designs Squadron Sport Amber fog light replacements
• Powertray with all the extras that go along with it like Blue Sea aux fuse block, ground buss bar and terminal block.

 

Busy with electrical the last couple weeks. I got the Switch Pro and PowerTrays all wired up and installed along with the Baja Designs Squadron fog light replacements and S8 20” light bar.

PowerTrays:

I did a little trimming to the left side of the tray to make it easier to remove and reinstall the stock fuse box lid. It was almost impossible to remove before trimming.

I used the SDHQ mount for the switch panel on the inside. Looks factory.



S8 light bar:

I used Ancor 12ga marine wire and the weatherpack connector that came with the light. I did have to buy a weatherpack crimping tool, I tried with pliers and solder but it didn’t work. Also all the wiring is covered with braided loom.



Here’s the amber backlight on the S8 at night. I wired this to a separate switch on the Switch Pro and have it set to power up whenever the truck is running.


Squadron sport amber fog replacements:

Again used Ancor 14ga marine wire with the weatherpack connectors. The kit comes with adapters to tap into the stock fog lights harness but I opted to wire directly to the Switch Pro so I can use them with the high beams. With the Switch Pro I can set them to come on with the headlights just like stock, however I don’t like running them on the streets because they are really bright and don’t have a cutoff. If I do run them on the street I dim them to 10 or 30%. I actually find dimming to 30% brightness is about equal with the stock fog lights.



Since I was in the wiring groove I also wired up the LED in the Alu Cab. I ended up running it all the way up the Blue Sea fuse box in the front so it always has power. It has two brightness settings and puts out a really nice even light that covers the entire bed and the tailgate. Great for camping.

 

I was able to get out Friday night for a quick overnighter and did some exploring the next day. I found a great spot on the river which I marked on the GPS and then continued looking around since I still had a couple hours of daylight left. Of course when I came back someone was there. I settled for this spot which was still nice and was only 50ft away from the river.

I am still really liking the Autohome.



The next day out exploring. 3 weeks ago this area was covered in snow and inaccessible. Now it’s dry and dusty and the only snow left is on the peaks.



My current camp setup that I have almost dialed in. 2 Front Runner boxes, a small Yeti knockoff cooler, a chair, Waterport, and recovery gear/tools.

 

Quick overnighter last week. Planned to hit up one of my favorite spots on a little lake but the gate was still closed to get back there due to snow. Retreated back to lower elevation and found this nice little overlook spot at the end of a trail.

 

Also added a Blue Sea below deck panel to the small cubby in the bed. Wiring shit up is super easy now with the Powertray and Switch Pro/Blue Sea fuse block combo.

 

I need to stop buying lights from @memario1214

Threw some amber S2 sports on the back of the Alu-Cab. I’m not in love with how the wire runs along the back. May try to figure something else out for that.

 

Loved my S2s, probably my favorite lighting of the truck for camp and what not. Check out some hollow bolts and take the wires inside like @MJonaGS32 did on his build.

 

wow love the set up with the alu-cab and the Maggiolina. What I would shoot for when I decide to spend money on my truck. What load bars do you have, they don't look like the one alu-cab makes?

 

They are the wide Alu-Cab bars but I made my own mounts out of square tube. I got the bars with their low profile mounts but they are way too low to get the brackets for the tent bolted on. Plus with the square tube it makes it really hard to get to the bolts so everything is fairly theft proof the way I have it.

 

Some more camping and wheeling pics from the summer and fall. Also picked up a Dometic fridge which I should have done a while ago. Still messing around with how to best mount it. I don’t really want a slide and it’s not necessary with the easy side access on the shell. Probably will stick with straps but maybe clean it up a bit.

 

The rig looks sweet and these shots are amazing. Well done! Subbing so I can see the new PRO wheels when ya get em

 

Added some of the new(er) Baja Designs S1 lights to ditch brackets. Got these in spot pattern and have them aimed out slightly to the sides. They give a really nice beam and give me some distance out to the sides where the S8 bar was lacking a bit.

I also swapped out the stock H11 low beam bulbs for H9 bulbs. It made a pretty big difference in output for only $10.