Wombat and The Wanderer builds/BS/my insane ramblings.

Ok so I finally decided to do a build thread even though I swore this truck wasn't going to become a project.....

Meet the Wombat:
2016 Quicksand TRD OR 6MTThe day he finally arrived at the dealer after a 6 month wait.. Got to the dealer on 4-4-16 crappy part is I had to wait to pick it up for another 4 days.
Home at last with my new truck moving all my gear out of my Dodge into the Taco. It was hard to retire the old Dodge but it was time.

First mod was to get rid of that horrid shift knob. Upgraded to the grey TRD 6speed knob.

Few dys later I installed my brake control and did a write up on here on the install.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/brake-control-install-write-up.428999/

Picked up my new car hauler and gave it a test tow to make for sure I hadn't made a huge mistake in getting rid of my trusty old Cummins. Turns out that the Tacoma is a bad ass!

Memorial Day weekend my little island girl needed some toes in the water ass in the sand time so we took off on a flying trip to the Third Coast's greatest beach IMHO. Padre Island National Seashore. I'd live here if they allowed it just miles and miles of wild.
Uprights for the cross bars 2" channel iron. The actual cross bars are 1 5/8" unistrut.
Testing the load bars and getting the shower squared away.
Selling Clifford my old Dodge I lost several things that I had built over the years. One of them was my fresh water system/shower. I had a frame mounted unit with custom fiberglass tanks and a heat exchanger on it. I rarely used the heat exchanger on it but the shower was a great thing to have. This time I decided not to carry my tanks with me all the time and went the easy route and picked up a pre made sprayer tank. 65 gallons of tank to be exact. I based the tank size off of past camping trips and the Tacoma's load capacity. 65 gallons fell right in the middle and It fit the bed perfect. While I was building the shower system I built som cross bars for the bed to make up for the lost bed space.
The mandatory PINS pic I take every time I camp there. Mine and my son's trucks at Doc's in Corpus Christi. Yeah I parked in the compact car spot.

4th of July weekend!!! Loaded up and ready to roll out. This is what all the prep work on the shower and cross bars was about. Multi day trip to the Third Coast for some camping.

Added some grip tape to the door sills today and took it in for the 10k service even though I only had 8500 miles on it. I have put the truck through its paces so I wanted it done early. I also changed the oil my self at 1k just to give me some peace of mind. The grip tape I got from the local skate board shop and had a friend cut to fit on their vinyl cutter. Works great for washing the roof sense I don't have steps or sliders yet... Yet! Note to self watch out for the grip tape while wearing shorts. Ouch!

That should about have things caught up for now.

Stay tune, more to come!

 

Currently working on because I don't buy what I can build/design my self.

Mesh grille: currently in planning stages, template cut out.

Sliders: parts waiting to be cut at the laser cutter, on the space available list at a production shop. Could be tomorrow could be next month. Cheaper to wait...

Cab height bed rack: working on CAD files still.

Suspension: up in the air still.

 

Neat build ! Do you miss your Cummins lol? I had a 12 valve with a mild build. Damn that truck pulled anything with ease and ate ricers for breakfast.

Keep posting pics!

 

Nice build!

How did you modify the shift boot to work with the trd knob? It looks like you removed the chrome ring and secured it lower some how.

OA

 

There are times I miss the cummins for sure but the Tacoma has proved to be quite the little work horse itself. Will it tow 30k like the Cummins? No but it is s great truck for its size.

What I did was pretty simple... Pulled the upper half of the console. Turned the boot wrong side out and cut the zip tie holding the chrome ring off then removed the ring. With the boot still wrong side out I set the console over the shifter and slid it down the shifter where I wanted it and put another zip tie around it then wrapped some heavy duty black duct tape around it. Then just snapped the console back down and installed the shift knob.

 

Thanks! Thats a great idea. That odd interface between the boot and knob was keeping me from getting something nicer.

OA

 

It is like a 20 minute $0.50 mod and I have had no issues with it moving around .

 

Rear suspension extended bump stops. research for my thoughts and yours.

SumoSprings

$280 SSR-610-40 | SumoSprings Rear for Toyota Tundra, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, Nissan Titan

SSR-610-40 constant contact with frame progressive rate advertised 1k capacity. I like the u bolt captive mount.

$220 Timbren TORTUN4 Suspension Enhancement System

Timbren TORTUN4 these have 0 to 1/2" unloaded air gap to the frame advertised 6k capacity.

$270 Timbren TORTUN4L Suspension Enhancement System

Timbren TORTUN4L these have a 1"- 1 1/2" air gap to the frame. Advertised 3k capacity.
Both of the Timbren use the same bump stop the only difference is the height of the steel base one is 5/8" thick the other is 1 1/8" thick. Timbren springs are great used them on my Dodge after getting sick of blown air bags but they ride like crap unloaded.

 

Red Beard, have you thought about a standard tow bag set up? the money isn't all that much greater and id think you may benefit from it in the future?

you mentioned blowing airbags, how did that happen? Ive had air suspension on my trucks for the last 20 years without that issue.

 

Yeah I thought about it but after my past experience with them, pretty sure it is 8 that I have blown over the last 15-20 years I'm going to go with what I found to for sure work and not let me down.
One of the last ones that blew on me. This one took a tire with it with 25k on the trailer.

 

I believe @smugly has the SumoSprings on his truck, he might be able to give you some more information on how they handle.

Edit: I love your truck! I was really town between the Quicksand and the White.

 

Yeah we run them on some of our trucks at work that carry constant loads. That's why they are on my insane rambling list of rear suspension upgrades.

 

Love my Super Springs !Constant load and progressive Load when load is applied.and install was stupid easy!

 

Yeah these are what I am leaning toward even after I swap to the Dakar rears I will keep them on there just to soak up some of the bumps.

Did your's settle out after a while or are they still giving you about 1/2" lift in the rear?

 

The rear suspension does great on this truck when trailering but when loaded on the chassis/bed only it doesn't work the way I would like it to.

I also drove a 1 ton for the last 15 years so I am a little used to its load capacity still. I have had 8500 lbs on the flat bed of that thing and not a whimper out of it.

 

They ended up about a quarter inch higher, but more leveling the truck out

 

Like you, I weeded through the options of what to do with the ever failing Tacoma rear leaf springs, and came across the sumo springs. After looking at all of them? I chose the sumo's because of course of, the ease of install and the fact that they were progressive and all the experiences I had with airbags , I knew the truck would ride stiff because of how lite it was compared to a full size truck .

 

Nice Build Red

 

Picked up my little wife a TRD PRO 4Runner today. She was extatic! She had no idea what we were going into town for. She was looking hard at the runners when I got my truck so I decided to suprize her with one. Was going to get a quick sand one but she wanted another white vehicle so Super White it is.

 

Little update... rock slider frame plates are being cut and I ordered my Prinsu cab rack.