Carl's 2007 Tacoma Buildup

[Tucson T4R]

I thought about if you tee-d them together, the one thing that I wondered is whether a sudden weight transfer would be an issue. If the weight suddenly shifts to one side, would all the air shift from the loaded side to the now-unloaded side, creating a really bad moment?

An update on my Airlift with the Tee'd air lines. I went out last weekend and drove over 30+ miles of dirt roads towing a trailer that was about 2200 LBS, tounge weight of about 300 lbs. A few sections of the road definitley put me into twisted positions that would push the articulation. I felt no diefference with the air bags as far as wieght shifting from side to side. The air line is small enough to not allow much of an air surge between sides. Seems to work great.....so far. :sombrero:

 

[Davids90toy]

very nice taco. Not much to say other then that. whats next on your list of mods?

 

[CLynn85]

Wow, seems like such a long time since my last update.

The truck and camper performed flawlessly for 8000 miles across the country and back. I've since sold the four-wheel camper. I loved it but it's just overkill for weekend trips that've become few and far between.

Photo courtesy of 7wt

I did pickup some new mods, courtesy of Anza Borrego. Due to the shape of the rock, sliders would've protected the rocker, but the door would've still been SOL. $600 to fix this put mods on the backburner for a while.

After getting back into the swing of things at work, and saving up for a bit, I finally bit the bullet and got a nice little palletized package from a far away land, thanks to Sierra Expeditions.

Looks like it's time to break out the chop saw and welder. Can't wait to go :camping:

I've put a total of 23K on the truck as of last weekend's OBX trip, in less than 8 months.

 

[Schattenjager]

Well, you certainly put your truck through the paces lately. I too have piled on a ton of miles lately. It is so nice to have a dependable, comfortable truck to travel in! Oh what a feeling!


sorry...

 

[7wt]

Congrats on the Eezi Awn. How are you going to mount it? Are you putting it on a shell or a metal frame?

 

[adventureduo]

Dang i liked the camper! Oh well, we need pics of the new tent setup.. please keep us posted. Sorry for the damage in Anza.. but i guess that means you were wheelin hard!

 

[CLynn85]

Well I hate driveway shots, but since you insist....

I fabbed up a set of cross-bars utilizing the factory installed bed rails. I used some scrap 1-1/4"x1/8" angle and some leftover 1" Box tube. The box tubing is only .060" but it's what I had laying around left over from my jeep box. It flexes a little bit when fully loaded but the dynamic load is only the 120lb tent, so I figured I'd give it a go. I need to go back and substitute everything with locking fastners as well.

And here's how I modified some standard Uni-strut spring nuts to work with the stock toyota rails. I just ripped off the spring and ground them down to fit. Seems to do a pretty good job and involved minimal fab time/cost.

 

[erod]

Carl, awesome rtt! thanks for the pics...i will be really curious to hear how it compared to the fwc (rest in peace)! let us know!

 

[cell4soul]

It looks great, I just used mine for the first time this weekend. I absolutely loved it. Just a suggestion, but I don't think the tie down rails alone are going to hold that kind of weight with people in the tent over extended periods of time. I would bring the angle iron over the top of the bed side so the weight is supported by the top of the bed.

 

[CLynn85]

Thanks, can't wait to try it out in a couple weeks.

Cell4soul, I too have some concerns about the stock struts. I tried to keep the cross bars as close to the mounting points as possible and I'm planning to add a hinged "leg" in the middle of each that can swing up while the tent is not in use and swing down to provide extra support when the tent is loaded with 2 people.

You mention your tent, how do you have yours mounted?

The lack of "normal" bedsides and top bed rails is the one thing I think that annoys me most about this truck.

Ideally, can-back would release a product for the 05-07 trucks that I would purchase the day after it was released and install on my truck immediately. I love those tops and they seem to be an almost ideal solution for my needs.

I'm sure going to miss the FWC, but it's nice not having an extra 1000lbs on the back of the truck too....

 

[HMR]

Just a suggestion, but I don't think the tie down rails alone are going to hold that kind of weight with people in the tent over extended periods of time. I would bring the angle iron over the top of the bed side so the weight is supported by the top of the bed.

I was thinking the same thing. There's no way the tiedown rails will hold up. I'm going through a similar deal with designing a better RTT rack for the top of my fiberglass shell.

The hinged leg is a good idea but I still think you'll need to extend the bars over the rails. If nothing else, get on Craigslist and find a used set of 58" Thule load bars. You can fab up some brackets fairly easily to fit into the tiedown rails to keep the cross bars from moving fore and aft but use the top of the bed as the load bearing structure. The Thule bars wouldn't require a center support which would free up more bed space under the tent.

PS- GREAT looking setup!!!

 

[jim65wagon]

Love the tent Carl. Should fit through the woods very well mounted down low like that. I've now got future plans to extend my rack to full length to mount an RTT. How was the beach? Get to play on the sand at all?

 

[CLynn85]

No reports on longevity yet. But with 2 people in the tent the rails are holding pretty well so far, except for getting overzealous and over-tightening a couple of the strut-nuts and smashing the lip a little......

Planning to go to Shenandoah Valley next weekend for a good test, hopefully the leaves will be changing. If the weather out that way sucks I'll switch directions and head up to Chincoteague/Assateague.

Jim, the beach was great, nice little getaway, did a lot of little stuff that we'd never done before, Wright memorial, Jockey ridge, Frisco Native American Museum, Bodie lighthouse, just to mention a few. Got to play on the sand around Avon and been trying to map out all the good sound access points off of 12. I want to go down in the spring and just concentrate on the area north of Corolla.

 

[CLynn85]

Just for an update we had our first weekend of camping with the Eezi-awn this weekend. Wanted to try it out so we went to Shenandoah national park to do Skyline Drive.

As far as the tent and my current mount goes... PERFECT. The tent worked flawlessly. Despite 30+mph wind gusts and the temperature being 38*F when we got up this morning, we were nice and comfy. The stock rails using my mounts held up fine, no deformation that I can tell. I'm working on a universal mounting system to replace the stock rail mounts eventually, but for now these work fine with ~420lbs of weight on them, so it's time to coat them with POR-15.

I also picked up a "Contico" brand storage trunk at walmart. The edges have a nice lip so they're not water tight, but under simulated rain tests it stayed dry inside. I slid all my gear (cooler, stove, storage box) up agains the back of the truck under the tent, then closed the gate and locked the pop'n'lock, and it made for a moderately secure setup. To get anything out you would've had to crawl between the tent and the front of the bed and back under the tent to get to it. After I get my toolbox mounted in the front of the bed, there'll be no way to get anything out without unbolting/breaking something.

Here's the box (except mine doesn't have the wheels), it was only $17 at my local walmart. It's not the best box when compared to pelican and hardigg cases and I'm still looking for something nicer, but you can't beat it for bang-for-the-buck.

 

[jim65wagon]

That's the boxes we currently use for our kitchen kit, backpacks, and the offroad kit. Three boxes hold a lot of kit. On the rack in a rain storm everything stays dry, cheap and a little flimsy but they work. Some day we'll get to "upgrade" to something more, um, better; but till then...