Power Wagon to Tacoma Off Road

Greetings from Snowy Upstate NY,

Well I just joined the Tacoma family and from my recent search results I figured I had better sign up for this forum. Not to blow smoke, but the amount of info I've already gathered from this forum is nothing short of amazing... So thank you ALL in advance for your continued help!!

A little about me... Well I've been a die hard RAM trucks (Chrysler) fan for as long as I can remember. I LOVE vehicles and off-roading and adventure travel. Most recently I've owned a 2008 RAM 1500, a 2011 RAM Power Wagon, a 2012 Cummins Diesel 2500, a 2013 Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited 10th Anniversary, a 2015 RAM Power Wagon Tradesman... Well my eternal search for the perfect vehicle has (Hopefully) ended and I just purchased a 2017 Double Cab short bed Off-Road Automatic in Magnetic Grey.

My reasoning for this choice, well I plan I building this into an adventure/ over-landing Rig similar to my previous trucks, albeit I'm going to go all in with this one. I had thought my 2015 PW was the perfect truck, until I grew up a little and realized that a full size, crew cab, gas truck riding on 35's was FAR to big to really adventure through the tight stuff we have here on the east coast and the gas mileage I was getting (10.6 MPG this winter) was just a little stupid.

Well Toyota... Your 0.9% financing convinced me, I made the leap to (hopefully) the most reliable and capable midsize adventure vehicle base I could find. So far it's been great mileage is nearly double the old truck, though still not that impressive, I figure I'm saving roughly $150 a month just in Fuel.

I plan I building this truck up this Spring/ Summer for Adirondack camping/ fishing trips, and later this fall I plan on 2 weeks in the North Maine wilderness completely off grid catching the end of trout season and the beginning of upland hunting season. I have a lot of plans for this truck and plan on asking some questions before I make any real big investments.

My short list..
1) Moderate lift (increase load carrying capacity)
2) Wheels and tires (no bigger than 33" or metric equivalent)
3) LOCKABLE, watertight rear storage (tonneau/ cap/ or other??)
4) Rear Rack preferably well below cab height for fuel mileage benefits
5) Light Low Pro Roof Top Tent (easily removable) as this will still be a daily driver for now
6) Dual Battery under hood setup
7) Switch Pro system
8) Lighting (Ditch lights, single row LED up front maybe, and some Aux lighting for camping
9) Someday I'd love an ARB fridge and slide (these actually fit under a Tonneau on the Gen 3's)
10) Recovery gear, Maxtraxx, perhaps a winch, awning, the list goes on...

Anyway I hope that this isn't too long of a first post but I've been LIVING on this forum this past 2 weeks so needless to say I'm pretty excited to get this going.

The biggest thing for me with this build is I'd like most everything to be semi-removable or STAINLESS to be able to be hold up during winter when everything here is bathed in SALT.

Thank you all for all your future help.

-YOTA

OH and for what it's worth I'm NOT totally new to the Toyota Family, I have a beautiful 1978 FJ 40 in my garage but well to be honest she mostly only comes out when the sun is shining.

Here's a couple pictures of the new Truck, and the old Girl "Ruby", as you can see the Taco doesn't quite fill my carport like the Power Wagon.

Ready to come home? Power Wagon in Background.
Big Shoes to fill.
Ruby up on Lake Ontario.

 

Welcome to TW and congratulations on the new Taco. Your FJ is beautiful. TW is definitely THE source for Tacomas.

 

Welcome! If you are looking for a simple, reliable lift with less worry about the salt I would recommend a full Old Man Emu kit by ARB with the HD Dakar pack and if a front bumper and winch are in your future I'd go ahead and get 887 coils up front. Match that with a set or JBA or SPC Light Racing Upper control arms and you should be good to go in the suspension department. Wheels and tires are a personal preference, go with what you like/want. I'd recommend a camper topper with windoors over a bed cover just for the fact that you can store and more stuff, still mount a RTT and it would be more aerodynamic than a bed rack. With a bed cover and fridge there is gonna be a good chunk of your bed that will be hard to get to. Best of luck! That 40 got me way to excited at 0600...

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Welcome! Beautiful fj! Cant wait to see upgrades on the taco!

 

Welcome!

 

Swing by Umbagog lake and say hello on your way to Maine this year. Going up to "the dam"?

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Howdy

 

Ruby is beautiful! have fun with your build!

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome aboard,awesome vehicles

 

welcome to TW !!

I own this Power Wagon..............

(in my dreams only) .......badd azz 'eh ?

>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<

 

You're from the Finger lakes region? Nice area.
I think you're really going to like your Tacoma after you get over the power differences.
I'd say before you go modifying your truck (LIFT/TIRES/WHEELS); really try it out the way it is with stock equipment. Get to know it's capabilities and limitations before you throw money at : LIFT/TIRES/WHEELS. Of course this is just my $.02 but enjoy what you have the truck is VERY capable for the ADK's just the way it is.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome

 

Welcome! First off beautiful old Girl Ruby. Many of us over at Adventure Ready have a soft spot for FJ 40.

As far as your list goes it looks like a great start to your planned build. Here is a link to some of our recent builds:

https://adventure-ready.com/2017-tacoma-receives-board-dual-batteries-alu-cab-canopy/

https://adventure-ready.com/shooters-truck-toyota-tacoma-becomes-photographers-base-camp/

https://adventure-ready.com/total-transformation-2017-toyota-tacoma-trd-pro/

Your short list..
1) Moderate lift (increase load carrying capacity)
2) Wheels and tires (no bigger than 33" or metric equivalent)
3) LOCKABLE, watertight rear storage (tonneau/ cap/ or other??) - Recommend looking into the Alu Cab Canopy. Extremely weather proof and stout. https://adventure-ready.com/store/alu-cab-explorer-canopy/
4) Rear Rack preferably well below cab height for fuel mileage benefits - Couple of options there for sure.
5) Light Low Pro Roof Top Tent (easily removable) as this will still be a daily driver for now. Matching Alu Cab roof top tent would be a great option for quick pitch and it allows to to load stuff on top of it with optional cross bars. Another good option would be the James Baroud. https://adventure-ready.com/product-category/rooftop-tents/
6) Dual Battery under hood setup - We are well known for our electrical systems. We offer many different systems to meet each persons needs and wants for dual battery system. There are a couple different examples in the blog post.
7) Switch Pro system - Switch Pro makes a great kit as well as Spod so check them out as well: https://adventure-ready.com/product-category/vehicle-equipment/electrical/spod-source-systems/
8) Lighting (Ditch lights, single row LED up front maybe, and some Aux lighting for camping - Many options there... we like Baja Designs and Rigid industries here for quality build and excellent optics.
9) Someday I'd love an ARB fridge and slide (these actually fit under a Tonneau on the Gen 3's)
10) Recovery gear, Maxtraxx, perhaps a winch, awning, the list goes on... Maxtraxx good choice! Saved me a few times and winch can be a life line out there. Awning well its no secret that this is one of my favorite piece of equipment we sell: https://adventure-ready.com/store/alu-cab-shadow-awning/ I am always nerding out how fast it opens up and closes.

If there is anything we can do to assist in you build don't hesitate to reach out! Look forward to seeing it transform.

- Lance at Adventure Ready

 

Welcome to TW! Awesome FJ!

 

Welcome to TW!!