The Prodigal Son Returns - Build

Oh yeah it's a lot better having it on the A-pillar so its not in your way
Glad it helped a ton

 

OP, curious to hear your thoughts on tires. I am looking at either a set of Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs in 285/17R16, a set of General Grabber A/Txs in the same size, or a set of Cooper ST Maxxs in 255/85R16. Given that you have run 2 out of my three choices, I am curious to hear your thoughts? on the Goodyears as a whole and how they compare to the coopers, as well as the differences between the 255s and 285s. are the 255s worth the massive increase in price? Thx.

 

If you dont mind another opinion, I have the duratrac in a 265/75 on my 4runner and the Maxx's in the 255/85 on the Tacoma. The 4runner is a pavement pounder with fire road duty, but gets driven a lot in the winter time. I think the duratrac is one of the best A/Ts in the winter time, but the 2 ply sidewall is the biggest drawback for me. I think the Maxx's outperform as an all around tire, and can take sharp rocks better, I got 45-50k on my last set.
The 255s also track down the road better, and perform very well in the snow offroad.

 

the 285s i was looking at are load range E. I was under the impression that carrying the E load rating meant the sidewall was around an 8ply? is this correct or not? on a side note, so as not to thread jack, perhaps we could move this conversation over to a designated tire thread that i created? https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/anyone-run-295-75r16-on-a-first-gen.662894/#post-23220546. just want to be respectful of the OP

 

They were both really good tires. I think if you drive, or have the chance of driving in snow more, then the Duratracs are a solid choice. I live around you (in Shoreline) so I chose the St Maxx's since I do a lot of highway driving and the tall and skinnies would not only give me a taller stance, but they would also be better for fuel economy. Plus the Duratracs have so many reports of weak side walls that it pushed me away for a second set. I really like the St Maxx’s and have had a good experience with em, and will likely be getting another set after I burn through these

Also no worries on chatting about tires here, it’s what the build thread is for, the build and BSing about truck stuff

 

yeah, i'm going to be needing a tire that's capable in snow as i'm planning on moving to Bozeman MT this summer. the only things that have steered me away from the Duratracs are the sidewall and from what i've heard they turn to crap after about 50% tread life. I would go with the ST Maxxs but i cant swing the higher price of them right now. currently i'm looking at a set of General Grabber ATxs, but we'll see. they seem to offer a nice balance of all around performance and a good price to boot. i'm still a week or so away from ordering (most likely) so i'm certianly going to be amping up my research. finishing up my sliders and then the wheels and tires are next.

great looking build BTW! I'd love to see it in person sometime if these restrictions ever loosen up. i've used your current truck and your '99 as inspiration for what i want to do with mine multiple times.

 

Yeah I didn’t own my Duratracs long enough to see the tread life fall below 50%, or even close to it. If you aren’t doing serious rock crawling I’d say they might be a good option cause their winters are a lot harsher than ours

I don’t know what kind of deals you’re able to get on tires but Discount Tire price matches, even online so all my tires I’ve found the same type and size from the cheapest online retailer (which usually is a site that I would NEVER order from lol). Discount Tire doesn’t care, all they need to see is the same tire and same size and they’ll match. I don’t know off the top of my head but I got my 255s for significantly cheaper than what they originally had them priced at in the tire shop.

I appreciate it! I kinda mirrored this build off the last one with some slight tweaking usually dropping stuff I didn’t use or find helpful, like the big ass Light Force 240s from my 99 build haha. Would love to link up eventually

 

Similar background. I started with an 05, had a 12, now building a 99. Looks good.

What front bumper did you have on your 99?

 

Nice. I had a 2015 in between my old 99 and my current 02 Taco, but she got totaled.

The front bumper on my 99 was an Elite Off Road... I barely got mine during the time that Tim hosed A LOT of people out of their bumpers who had already paid. Really shitty and now looking back, very similar to what Pelfreybilt did with their customers a few years back (I thankfully had PayPal get me my money for a rear bumper I ordered through them)

 

That's really unfortunate - I had a lot of Pelfreybilt armor on my previous build but have been off the forums for a while so I wasn't really up to speed. Plus deployments, as I'm sure you know, eat up a ton of time. Glad you were able to get your money back out of a bad situation!

 

Hmm, i'll do some digging on the pricing. any ideas on where to look? i have done some light searching but all the prices are the same as what discount tire is offering. probably my only gripe with google is that that they have gotten a lot better at filtering out "seedy" websites. not the best for stuff like this. the prices that i've seen from Discount tire are around 265/tire. since my budget is 1500ish for wheels and tires, that means they're out (when i put them in the cart they were about 1500 before wheels). if you've got any leads i'd really like to go with the ST MAXXs (l don't mind the pizza cutter look and they tend to track better, dig better in deep stuff and etc.) but as of now, the price is a barrier.

 

Could always look into the eBay Discount Tire deal where you spend $X amount and you get $X amount off. They tend to do it twice a year. The deal I had was spend $400 and get $100 off so with 2 tires being over $400 I used the deal twice. I paid about $800 shipped for all 4 of my 285 STT Pros with it.

 

Walmart, Costco, Samsclub, tirerack, tirebuyer.com. I worked for them for quite awhile, that's what we saw the most. If you can wait a bit longer, they should have a memorial day sale, usually 10% back on your total purchase including labor. Also Goodyear usually has rebates going on year round any where from $50-150. I would call and ask about that.

 

yup, checked all those and nothing...oh well. i think that the 285s will still be great... and for $75 cheaper per tire i think it's worth the trade off. Think i'm going with the general Grabber A/Tx in 285/75R16 but i'm waiting till Memorial day.

 

Building a sleeping platform & drawer system. Mimicking Third Coast Craftsman's video off of Youtube - CLICK HERE -

I'm building this in mind with dimensions from a 3rd Gen DCLB since that's likely what I'll be getting when this Tacoma is replaced years down the road.

The bed with everything taken out:


All of the building materials:
(2) 1/2" plywood for top and bottoms
(1) 1/4" plywood for drawer bottoms + front face
(4) 2x10 for back/outter/middle frame supports
(2) 1x10 that I'll cut down for exact drawer sides



Test fit for the bottom. Snug as a rug:


Measuring & cutting the 2x8's for the back/outer/middle framing:



The frame put together:



Drawers will be built sometime next week.

 

An update on the bed drawers that I finished.

I left off with the framing, but eventually built the drawers out of 1x10 board, cut to height. They have 4x4s that are cut in half diagonally to reinforce the sides and help with weight bearing when putting things on top of the platform:


Here's the locking mechanism. It's 1/4" steel flat bar that I bent to hold and turn the rolled steel that I cut and bent to fit on the square end of the handle:


I wasn't sure how I wanted to do the drawer fronts, I ended up burning the wood with a torch and really like how that turned out:


The drawers slide flawlessly on UHMW plastic that I cut into 1" strips for the outer edges, middle, and little blocks on either side to help guide each drawer


The drawers done:


Used 1/2" plywood and the same carpet on top that I used for the drawer bottoms. I also stained the sides with dark walnut finish:


The platform all finished, time to put it into the bed:


All in the bed and snug as a bug against the sides:

 

Girlfriend got me a CVT Mt Rainier rooftop tent! Test fitting below:

 

How's the RTT feel on top of the camper shell? Do you think you need to reinforce?

Been wanting an RTT but also don't want to part ways with my camper shell just yet.

 

I’m not sure. I only put it up there to open it up and set it up since there was more involved with the initial set up than I had anticipated. I didn’t bolt it to the roof racks so I didn’t climb up there

 

you could look into a ladder rack. Not the sexiest option but it should be plenty strong for a RTT. the other thing is that Expedition Overland had an RTT on their 2nd gen and it only had a standard camper shell instead of the habitat system that their 3rd gen has. they might've had a special roof rack to distribute the load better than a standard Yakima or Thule rack might but it's certainly doable with a camper shell.