2021 Tundra, aka lazy brolander.

[Downytide]

I have very much enjoyed reading this forum, with many member's adventures and builds on their vehicles, I would like to share the journey of a truck that I never thought I would like it this much, we call it Luna (yea, real original!) , a quick background, the wife had camping her whole life, where I didn't, as kids grown we go hey, let's do some adventure on our own.

We very quickly found out that sleeping in her 4runner or RTT wasn't for us, maybe if we were 20 years younger, it's called a lazy brolander project because we overland the lazy way, with a travel trailer in tow, we would arrive at a spot/provincial park, then venture out in the truck, this truck is a non-stopping evolution, I try to do something every year.

Currently the truck has:

Engine:
- Stainless works long tube headers, custom mid pipe with factory cats, custom equal length exhaust, Borla XP Pro muffler, x pipe, 3" all the way baby.
- Snivspeedshop HPtuner tune
- Magnuson 1900 Supercharger kit
- Snivspeedshop 2.30 Modular Pulley
- 750cc injectors
- Deatschwerk 340lph fuel pump
- SDHQ secondary pump breather kit
- SDHQ battery terminal kit
- billet battery tie down

Drivetrain:
- Genuine Cooling System Transmission cooler kit
- B&M Transmission pan
- IPT Valve body
- Nitro 5.29 gears front & rear
- Powertrax grip pro rear lsd
- DIY diff breather

Suspension:
- Stoptech ST60 front brake kit
- TRD Sway bars
- Bilstein 8112 front
- Bilstein 8100 bypass rear
- Icon Billet UCA
- Deaver U748 springs
- Firestone airbags and Daystar cradles
- SDHQ traction bars

Wheels/tires:
- Fifteen52 Turbomac HD Classic 17x8.5 ET0
- BFG KO2 37x12.5r17 C-load

Interior:
- CF TRD shifter
- CF handle and steering wheel inlays
- ESP underseat storage
- Desert Recon seat riser
- Tech12Volts Hertz door speakers
- Tech12Volts JBL 8 channel amp
- Tech12Volts dual JBL 10" ported sub
- Sound proofed
- Meso Interior kit


Various little things:
- Trail edition tool boxes
- Hi-Rev taillights
- billet tie downs.
- coach builder bumper shim
- BMC
- Caliraised bumper light bar
- AMP research Powerstep XL
- Honeyseal treatment.

I bought the truck at the beginning of Covid, I wanted the last v8 of Tundra and the trade in value of my Ram Rebel was incredibly high, so I made the jump.


This post is progression I made in the first year of ownership.


Before picking up the truck, I had dealer installed 285/75r18 Geolandar ATX:

One thing I missed was rambox, and I found out Trail Edition in USA had these cool boxes, so took some effort but I was able to get a set up here.

I like exhaust, (it'll be evident in a bit), so one thing I wanted was Stainless Works long tube headers, keep in mind this was fall of 2020, so tuning was not yet available yet for 2020+ trucks, so I couldn't pull the trigger on Magnuson supercharger, so I wanted as much power as I could N/A, and headers has proven up to 40hp+ of gain.

The differences!

The install was a pain to say the least:

4 OEM cats were retained, x-pipe, then retain OEM TRD pipes.


I was able to scored a set of ST60 calipers meant for OEM size rotors, it needed a rebuild, but I was able to get it look like this:

Re-gearing, I'd like to stay N/A as long as I can keep the supercharger desire away, re-gearing a Tundra is not commonly done in Ontario, I had dropped off the truck at dealership in hope it can be done, but they ran out of couple specialized tools that's currently back order until end of the year, so I decided to send the front clamshell and the 3rd member to Zuk/Ken.

I also had my gears REM polished and cryo treated by Jamie @ https://www.racegearbox.com/

My experience from Ken has been one of the most amazing one so far in terms of automotive workmanship, he had filled me in during every step, include how to properly pack the parts, I would not hestitate to send more diffs to him, you can read up more on his wisdom here:

http://gearinstalls.com/

He filled me in on when they arrive, and what he received with photos

The process and shims he used

How he was able to get the proper contact patch

And his recommendation of proper OEM seal (right) vs one came with the kit (left)

I tow a lot, so a transmisison cooler was no brainer.

Then I was told Toyota Canada was doing clearance on TRD sway bars due to new models, it was $300 for front + rear,

at this point, I was very happy, I would constantly get 16-17mpg, when towing utility trailer I'd get around low teens.

 

[Downytide]

Year 2:
Took the truck to a nice trail ride with local Toyota club.

Added more skid plates:

It was around this time 3rd gen Raptor was introduced, someone I knew had his delivered and I was pretty wow'd by the suspension, so I wanted more, even as time progress, it probably would've made more financial sense to just go a solid mid-travel kit from the beginning, but then I'd be left nothing to upgrade except long travel, which I'm trying to refrain from (there's nothing to jump.

So I went with Fox 2.5 DSC and Icon Billet UCA, I liked how the Billet UCA made truck handle, the 2.5 was an improvement, but it was nothing close to a 3rd gen Raptor.

I should also mentioned that at work we used to buy a lot of FCA products, so when TRX was introduced we were one of first to get to touch it in Canada, the power was intoxicating, I almost pulled the trigger but I just liked the Tundra more, this was at the end of 2021 so I said what the hell, I'll buy the supercharger kit and find someone to figure out how to tune it, took a while but it was up and running.

 

[MR E30]

Zuk does great work, had him do my regear as he is very local to me. Glad to see his reach extends up north!

ZUK Gears Round 2 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

 

[Downytide]

Year 3:

During year 3, nothing much happened with the truck beside normal maintenance, it was this time I began talking to Toby @ snivspeed ( https://www.snivspeedshop.com/ ) , he became my go to for tuning via HPtuner, it solved a lot of issue I had with previous tuners, the truck pulls hard and would consistently hit mid 13s in 1/4 mile while weighting in at about 7k lbs with me in it.

One thing did change was tires, I had issue with the Yokohama in terms of balancing, it would wear funny, and progressively got worse, changed to same size tires but Falken At3w, I really liked the tires, only thing was it was heavy, I'm very conscious on rotating mass, the Yoko was around 65lbs while the At3w was almost 70lbs, but Falken was smooth and easy to balance, so there was that.

Now comes the important part of our lazy part, this is (was) our travel trailer, a 2022 Winnebago Micro Minnie FLX 2108TB (that was a mouthful), we wanted a proper travel trailer for a while, sleeping in tent gets old quick when your body wake up sore, we didn't really see "off-grid" trailer in Canada until around this time, and yes, this was Covid craze, but I was blown away by the fact I could turn a/c on without plugging in, it has a 320ah Lithionic battery stock, it was easy to tow, and we fitted into a lot of places.

It's a 21ft box, head to toe is just under 23ft, it's a 7ft wide.

It had its fair share of problems, and we learned a lot during this time, but we loved every trip we've taken it out.

 

[Downytide]

Zuk does great work, had him do my regear as he is very local to me. Glad to see his reach extends up north!

ZUK Gears Round 2 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I called around the whole of North America and the few that I trust said he's the best, and he IS the best, I've never had such high quality of workmanship anywhere, if he builds a whole truck, I'd ship my truck to him tomorrow.

 

[Downytide]

Year 4

The Fox 2.5 DSC has one huge downside, corrosion, living in Ontario, we get lot of salt/de-icer on the road, and I also felt like the suspension at times is way too firm, so decided to try Bilstein 8100/8112 combo

It was this time the 37 bugs just won't leave me alone! by now I realize what I'm tryin got build is a my version of Raptor R, except that can tow, so 37 Ko2s in c-load and Fifteen52 wheels went on, the wheels clear the big calipers and the ride was nice, also put on deaver u748s.

I bought some rock sliders, but then realize I don't really do any of the rock crawling stuff, what I can really use was better steps, long and behold, Powerstep XL, I lost some street creds, but again, this is a lazy brolander, it made day to day life easier

Rode well, but I think I still want more, so probably going with a dual shocks set up front and camburg relocation kit rear next.

Back to the exhaust side of things, I wanted better sounding exhaust, if it was up to me I'd make it sound like a F1 car, but that'll get old quick when towing, I had Mike @ GTcustom to fab me up proper equal length exhaust that go into my headers.

It sounds incredible, it was lot of fab work and the best description is a Corvette C8 Z06 at WOT, and an IS-F when driving normally.

To show better exhaust work, this also leads to Honeyseal, I have my truck Krown treated annually since new, but I noticed they've been cutting their solution with something, so surface rust start showing, I intent to keep this truck for as long as possible so I went with the dry-ice/acid blasting and the coating, I was very happy with the work, and you can see the exhaust in these photos.

Before:

After dry-ice/acid spray

after Honeyseal coating:

 

[Downytide]

Year 4 part 2:
So you saw the trailer, we called it Razorcrest, it was small, but pack of features.

I don't have many photos, but during year 3, the trailer had electrical issue, as in it almost caught fire 2x, in short, Winnebago didn't spend enough time developing their electrical system, there was no kill switch in their solar controller, and it caused a surge that blew up bunch of things, include slide out controller, the inverter, and solar charger controller.

If you own a travel trailer, you know getting selling dealer to perform repair is like pulling nails out of their fingers, so I was able to get a third party to more or less re-wire the complete trailer, install proper switches, shunts, breakers.

I figure during this time, what else I should do at the same time? how about expand the batteries capacity, one more? no, why not two more? is 960aH/11.5kwh an overkill? possibly, but I didn't want to bother with 1kw of solar panels so it works.

We converted the twin beds into a king size.

We went camping, it was also the first camping season we didn't have our fur child, bear with us, he lived a good life, 17.5yrs, 2007-2024, we miss him every day:

But boy, did we go places.

 

[Downytide]

This truck is the most personified vehicle I've ever had, there are times she would literately tells me "no, that is good, do this"

I had new injectors/fuel pump, pulley set up installed, during tuning, there was a set up that seemed to work the best, but decided to push for further refinery, the truck didn't like it, it almost brick the ECU and I almost ******** a brick.

AFRs is good, she's humming along.

I don't think I'll touch the engine for a while until it's time to have a fully built engine, I do not know power level, but estimate is around 600-ish , the injectors are 750cc but flow test shows 700cc across, she'll break 37s loose on dry pavement in 2nd gear.

One additional that got dialed in was SDHQ traction bars, it made a very big difference in how the truck rides in a positive way, on very rough surface it's much more dialed in, I was worry the front mount would hang lower than I'd like, but the powerstep housing sits at same level.

I bought this because I want to minimize axle hop during 1/4 mile runs, but the ride improvement was unexpected.

Next up is RazorCrest's replacement, will post pix once the trailer is picked up.

 

[rruff]

Year 3:

....changed to same size tires but Falken At3w, I really liked the tires, only thing was it was heavy, I'm very conscious on rotating mass, the Yoko was around 65lbs while the At3w was almost 70lbs, but Falken was smooth and easy to balance, so there was that.

Nah, don't worry about the weight, it's a pittance in the grand scheme... a tiny % of your total momentum.

Wow! So much good info and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post!

I have a tire clearance question. Your recent wheels are 17" with 0 offset (60mm more outboard than stock), with 37x12.5 KO2s. I would expect those to be hard to fit and still prevent fore-aft rub when turning and compressed, but it looks very stock. How did you make that work?

 

[Downytide]

Nah, don't worry about the weight, it's a pittance in the grand scheme... a tiny % of your total momentum.

Wow! So much good info and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post!

I have a tire clearance question. Your recent wheels are 17" with 0 offset (60mm more outboard than stock), with 37x12.5 KO2s. I would expect those to be hard to fit and still prevent fore-aft rub when turning and compressed, but it looks very stock. How did you make that work?

For tire clearance, BFGs KO2s/KM3s run small, so clearance was easy.

I can do lock to lock and full compression without rubbing.

Here's a comparison of 285/75r18 on left, measured 34.9" inflated, right is 37" KO2, measures about 36.4" , I actually mount the skinny 35s as spare, if needed it can go on the front.

 

[Crooked Beat]

Great photos and build.

"Give us a place to stand and a truck to grow"!

 

[Downytide]

Great photos and build.

"Give us a place to stand and a truck to grow"!

For me it's a truck to tow lol......

The day finally came to pick up the new "project", Winnebago Voyage 2730RL bought the trailer back in December but couldn't pick up until today, the project side is this time we are building the off grid battery system from ground up, 960AH of batteries, and everything will be Victron this time, I bought everything minus the batteries from Explorist, they had been terrific in helping out planning out and the components, https://explorist.life/

She towed better than the 21ft Micro Minnie.

 

[Downytide]

And Project Voyager begins, first stage is the power, I went with the 50amp kit from Explorists, the batteries are from previous trailer, I may have under-estimate how much battery we are putting in, all together should be at almost 1160ah.

 

[Downytide]

It's getting close, compare to Xantrex, the Victron components are 10x better built, possibly overkill for a travel trailer, but Victron inverter was CHEAPER than Xantrex.

The space above the batteries will host the Cerbo and Orion DC-DC, so the trailer will be able to charge via alternator during transit.

 

[Downytide]

She powered up, everything works includes A/C, I have to say the Victron Touch comes with the shortest harness ever, they need to update this:

Maiden voyage is in 2 weeks, just tidying up the wires