adrstout
Adventurer
THE GREEN CHIMP
Hey everyone. Been lurking here for a while. Here is my introduction/build thread. My goal is to turn my daily driver into a capable backcountry explorer on a low budget. Overland trips over a week will be minimal but my wife and I are avid trail runners/campers/sportspeople, etc. so we spend a LOT of time in rough areas-especially while training for trail races. Also, this rig will still be my daily driver so the mods can't be too detrimental in that area. Also, my budget is limited so mods will be cheap and slow.
Personal introduction: I work for Indiana University in an administrative office. My wife is a graduate student. Hobbies include ultrarunning, shooting, camping, guitar, and photography.
Fun fact: I spent about a year in western Uganda studying chimps with my wife (she's the primatologist). We lived in a remote, permanent camp most of the time but did get the chance to travel. Since we lived in a camp, we stayed in hotels and hostels while traveling.
This was home in Uganda (unfortunately I don't have a pic of our tent on this computer):
Our camp vehicle was a mid-90s Pajero Jr. We lived about 4 miles from any road. We got to our camp via two track through the savannah. This tiny little POS was tough in the mud but had a number of engine problems.
We did a couple trips across Uganda-one in an early RAV4 and once in a 80 series LC with the 4.2l turbodiesel. I loved that LC but the RAV4 was pretty darn capable in its own right.
My rig/build:
Day I brought it home:
Just about how it sits today:
***I'm working on a better pic since I put the topper on.
I have a 2012 Toyota Tacoma with the 2.7l I4. It is an access cab 4x4 SR5. My mods so far have been minimal and mostly cosmetic. The way it has been used for back country camping so far is to throw waterproof crates of gear in the bed. Then I bought a tonneau which only lasted a month because I found a gem top camper top on CL. It was a little beat up but some bed liner made it look pretty good. Flat black matches the spruce mica paint pretty well.
Functional mods: 265/75r16 Cooper AT3s, hitch receiver w/ Toyota cap, tonneau cover (removed), gem top bed topper, relocated diff breather, yellow wire mod (trac in 4LO), deleted secondary air filter, removed mud flaps, added d ring to front recovery point
The cosmetic mods include debadging, painting wheel centercaps black, painting grille emblem red, stubby antenna, blacking out all chrome. There's more specifics but there is no sense in listing it all.
I am pretty darn happy with the stock off road performance-the AT3s were the best thing I ever did. It has easily handled the back country driving I've thrown at it.
My plans to increase my confidence in pushing this truck come in three basic stages (with other random items thrown into each): 1.) additional recovery gear (COMING VERY SOON) 2.) Basic armor (COMING BY END OF YEAR) 3.) Suspension-mild ~2 inch lift (COMING BY SPRING ‘15) 4.) Keep building  The first three stages will be done in a way that I think will cover all my absolute NEEDS-stage 4 is where I improve areas that are weak and add more stuff that I WANT.
Here's a BUNCH OF PICS of my truck/camping:
10/24/2014
Bought a gem top topper on CL. In decent shape but beat up from commercial use. It was in commercial white so I bed lined the whole thing. I probably should do the roof again at some point because it didn't come out perfectly even in texture. I live in an apartment complex so the conditions are less than ideal for perfect rattle can usage. It looks ok, though.
11/16/2014
Created a pooch platform! She loves it.
Also, I painted my Toyota emblem red to add a little color to a otherwise understated truck.
I tried to chop my exhaust over the rear axle today using harbor freight's exhaust pipe cutter. What a worthless POS!!!! Ordered a cutting disk for my cordless drill so that should work better.
Hey everyone. Been lurking here for a while. Here is my introduction/build thread. My goal is to turn my daily driver into a capable backcountry explorer on a low budget. Overland trips over a week will be minimal but my wife and I are avid trail runners/campers/sportspeople, etc. so we spend a LOT of time in rough areas-especially while training for trail races. Also, this rig will still be my daily driver so the mods can't be too detrimental in that area. Also, my budget is limited so mods will be cheap and slow.
Personal introduction: I work for Indiana University in an administrative office. My wife is a graduate student. Hobbies include ultrarunning, shooting, camping, guitar, and photography.
Fun fact: I spent about a year in western Uganda studying chimps with my wife (she's the primatologist). We lived in a remote, permanent camp most of the time but did get the chance to travel. Since we lived in a camp, we stayed in hotels and hostels while traveling.
This was home in Uganda (unfortunately I don't have a pic of our tent on this computer):
Our camp vehicle was a mid-90s Pajero Jr. We lived about 4 miles from any road. We got to our camp via two track through the savannah. This tiny little POS was tough in the mud but had a number of engine problems.
We did a couple trips across Uganda-one in an early RAV4 and once in a 80 series LC with the 4.2l turbodiesel. I loved that LC but the RAV4 was pretty darn capable in its own right.
My rig/build:
Day I brought it home:
Just about how it sits today:
***I'm working on a better pic since I put the topper on.
I have a 2012 Toyota Tacoma with the 2.7l I4. It is an access cab 4x4 SR5. My mods so far have been minimal and mostly cosmetic. The way it has been used for back country camping so far is to throw waterproof crates of gear in the bed. Then I bought a tonneau which only lasted a month because I found a gem top camper top on CL. It was a little beat up but some bed liner made it look pretty good. Flat black matches the spruce mica paint pretty well.
Functional mods: 265/75r16 Cooper AT3s, hitch receiver w/ Toyota cap, tonneau cover (removed), gem top bed topper, relocated diff breather, yellow wire mod (trac in 4LO), deleted secondary air filter, removed mud flaps, added d ring to front recovery point
The cosmetic mods include debadging, painting wheel centercaps black, painting grille emblem red, stubby antenna, blacking out all chrome. There's more specifics but there is no sense in listing it all.
I am pretty darn happy with the stock off road performance-the AT3s were the best thing I ever did. It has easily handled the back country driving I've thrown at it.
My plans to increase my confidence in pushing this truck come in three basic stages (with other random items thrown into each): 1.) additional recovery gear (COMING VERY SOON) 2.) Basic armor (COMING BY END OF YEAR) 3.) Suspension-mild ~2 inch lift (COMING BY SPRING ‘15) 4.) Keep building  The first three stages will be done in a way that I think will cover all my absolute NEEDS-stage 4 is where I improve areas that are weak and add more stuff that I WANT.
Here's a BUNCH OF PICS of my truck/camping:
10/24/2014
Bought a gem top topper on CL. In decent shape but beat up from commercial use. It was in commercial white so I bed lined the whole thing. I probably should do the roof again at some point because it didn't come out perfectly even in texture. I live in an apartment complex so the conditions are less than ideal for perfect rattle can usage. It looks ok, though.
11/16/2014
Created a pooch platform! She loves it.
Also, I painted my Toyota emblem red to add a little color to a otherwise understated truck.
I tried to chop my exhaust over the rear axle today using harbor freight's exhaust pipe cutter. What a worthless POS!!!! Ordered a cutting disk for my cordless drill so that should work better.
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