The Go-Fast Campers Backcountry Access Build - With Opinions

So we're building these rad off-road campers (GFC Platform) and we decided to build a new truck to put them on.

The goal with the campers is to provide comfortable and easy living arrangements for folks who surf, climb, fish, hunt, ski, mountain bike, dirt bike, etc. Basically a comfortable place to crash when you're hundreds of miles in the backcountry doing your thing. So the accompanying truck should be built with the same goal in mind. When you're driving for two days off-road to reach some secluded Baja surf break, you don't want to be poking along at an excruciatingly turtle-like overlanding pace. But you also don't want to be stuck for days at some bone-dry ejido because your bitchin' LT kit wasn't as sorted as you thought. So the overarching build rule will be to maximize driving fun while keeping things relatively simple.

There will be a lot of opinions in this thread. Strong ones. But our rule on opinions around here is that they’re like drowning people: You want to hang on to them as strongly as you can, but let go of them before they pull you under. So if we end up changing our minds it’s encouraged to interpret that as an indication of good character

And there are no pictures in this first post so that we could post this:



But stay tuned.

 

Okay, so a starting point. The truck is a brand new 2017 SR5 Tacoma with the V6 and auto transmission. We picked it up from the dealership on Tuesday and took it out for a spin. We stopped at our favorite milkshake place and snapped this photo in the parking lot to show you what a stock Tacoma looks like:

 

This is gonna be good.

 

Obligatory Hondo Garage dash products install. A perfect Squeeze phone mount, Big Squeeze tablet mount, Two Un-Holey Dash Mounts, some cord clips, and some basic radio knobs. Shipping was super fast... under 30 seconds since I made them and there's a big bin of them upstairs.



Getting the ipad mount dialed. I usually run an ipad mini but we only had a full-sized ipad laying around the shop today. Big Squeeze holds a big ipad just fine. I'm tall so this position puts the ipad low enough it doesn't stick up above my sightline to the edge of the hood. Shorter folks will want to adjust it a bit lower.


Closeup of the two mounts installed as well as the best mod of all, the radio knobs. Knobs are great but this truck seems to have a weird bug that the radio in the SR doesn't have in that if you adjust the volume while the music is paused, it will start playing again. Not sure what's going on with that but it is super annoying.


All the bits installed. Got your maps, got your phone. Got the clinometer app in an homage to the old-school toyota clinometer. Someone should make an app that replicates the look of those old gauges. I actually don't use the clinometer while driving (it is very useful around the fab shop though) but I'd run a 4x4-themed tilt app just because it would amuse me a lot.


Got some Gucci gang queued up and ready to hit the trails.


Alright, now that that's out of the way we can move on to the interesting bits...suspension. Stay tuned:

 

Alright, a quick rundown of the planned suspension mods. Sounds like the parts will be in tomorrow and we'll be doing the install on Monday.

I have a generalized philosophy on modifying off-road oriented suspensions that goes like this:

Maximize wheel travel, maximize tire diameter, minimize vehicle height
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Since a lot of times these three objectives counteract one another, they are listed in order of importance. That is, don't maximize tire size if you have to minimize wheel travel. Basically it just means don't make the vehicle any higher than you have to to maximize tire size while maintaining all the wheel travel. Never drop bump stops down or run a tire so big that it limits compression travel. The other rule of thumb is that ride height should be set so that 1/3 to half of the total travel is compression, and 2/3 to half is droop travel. In the case of the limited Tacoma travel, I think I'd prefer a 50/50 just to get a little more compression travel.

So with those basic ideas, the plan as of this moment is:

• Shocks: OME BP-51s
• Leaf Springs: Deaver U402 Stage 1 (plan to run 300 lbs in the back, which includes the GFC camper)
• 255/75 R17 Yokohama Geolandar M/T G003
• A bit of trimming to get it all to fit

 

IN. AF

 

Uh, ur my neighbor. Can I visit yer shop? I'll sweep, clean the toilets, whatever. This is fantastic shika.

 

I’ve already got phase one of all the Hondo dash products installed and I’ve been pondering suspension upgrades to complete before spring when my GFC is ready.

 

Sub'd...

 

You're welcome to come by the shop. We've got quite a collection of folks out here now that Bomber Products moved in just across the parking lot. Between Hondo Garage, GFC, Aerocontinental, and Bomber, there should be lots of people to talk off-road stuff with

 

Cool! I'll stop by. Really cool and creative stuff you're doing. Viva la Taco!

 

Getting some new legs.

 

I love my BP51's.

 

I love Love LOVE my BP-51's!

 

Yesterday we installed the Old Man Emu BP-51s and some Deaver U402 Stage I leaf springs on the new Taco. I can't yet tell you how well this combo performs, more on that in a bit, but I can tell you what I found intriguing about them:

• They are an internal bypass shock, meaning the valving is both velocity AND position dependent
• The offer both compression AND rebound damping adjustability (without revalving the shock)
• They're kind of obscure, so hey, why not try something new?

I went the the Deaver U402s because the Dakar packs are just too stiff in my opinion. The Deaver J66 is too soft for the GFC camper, but the U402s are available in at least three load ratings. After talking with Scott at Deaver, he recommended the stage I U402 for our estimated 300 pound load. The issue with the Tacoma leaf spring mounting geometry is that it doesn't give you much bump travel before the top of the leaf pack hits the frame. So in order to get some more up travel, you have no choice but to lift the truck a bit. Not ideal but the only real solution would be to convert it to a spring under and longer shackles to get more arch, more travel, AND a lower ride height. Alas, the goal with this build was to keep it relatively simple, so going spring under is off the table (for now). The Stage I U402s should give about 1-1.5" of lift with 300 lbs in the back.

Read the instructions! So even though I have no plans at all to install a giant bumper, winch, etc, we installed the BP-51s with the 20mm preload setting they came with, knowing full well it would be way too much. But hey, why not see what it gets you.




And then the Deavers. They don't come with instructions but if you're confused, the side with the double eyelet wrap bolts to the non-shackle mounting point. That way if you break the main leaf, the rigid mount is the side trying to keep the axle attached.:




Adjustable rebound and compression. Nice. The included spanner is for adjusting the damping, not the ride height. In fact, the single most annoying thing about these coilovers is that you can't adjust ride height on the vehicle like you can with Kings or Foxes. Why? My guess is it's because the threaded body of the BP-51 is aluminum, vs the DOM steel tubes that King and Fox use (maybe icon as well... not sure.) The aluminum threads (even though they appear to be hard anodized) are much more easily damaged than steel threads, so that's my guess as to why they insist you compress the spring before adjusting.



And in fact, that's why I can't yet tell you how well the BP-51s perform. because we ran out of time and still have them set up at 20mm preload which gives a whopping 3.5" of lift at the front end without additional weight. WAY friggin too much. For one thing, since we're not running an aftermarket upper control arm, the thing can't be aligned properly at that height. Camber and tow are fine, but caster isn't. But the big problem with running that much lift is that it gives you almost no droop travel. On this truck we only have 1" of droop from ride height. One measly little inch. Why is that a problem? Because every time you hit a bump that's not up (sunken manhole covers, washboard, potholes, small whoop sections) the shock tops out, which means now your wheel is in the air where it's not doing anything to help your traction when it should be falling down into the hole to maintain contact with the ground. As a result the truck feels skatey and harsher than it would if it were set up properly. We'll try dialing it down to 10mm of preload next to give a real evaluation of the shock performance. The manual that comes with the BP-51s does have one line that says in order to get the best performance, set them up with at least 2.5" of droop travel. They're right.

The leaf spring choice does seem about right. With no load they gave 2.25' of lift over stock. With 300 pounds we ended up with 1.25' over stock. That gives us that much more bump travel without going all sky high, and the new springs droop out a little more as well. My eyeball says about 2.5" more droop than the stock leafs.

And in the spirit of the crazy 3.5" of lift, we went for a quick mall crawl:

 

Subbed!

 

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so I checked out the website and its awesome... quick question, if I reserve mine now for the price online is that for the whole system? pop up camper and all? or is it for just the platform supporting the pop up?