All - this is my second post, but I never properly introduced myself in the first one, so here we go:
The first and only truck I have ever owned (and certainly the first vehicle I ever purchased new) is my 2005 Tacoma 4 door / short bed with the off road package.
I live in an extreme environment (Brooklyn, NY) and I talked my wife into the purchase by making a number of arguments. First, we actually needed a vehicle that could tow, as one of my hobbies is road racing motorcycles. Second, the more SUVs we looked at, the less impressed I was at how little practical space there was in them despite their size (and cost). Anyone who has watched someone struggle to fit a stroller and groceries into a BMW X5 will understand this. This led to point three, which was that the '05 Tacoma with four doors was a pretty big small truck where it mattered - the inside, and could fit four adults and their living room furniture comfortably. On to four, which was that IF we ever had kids they would fit just fine.
Point five sealed the deal: the thing actually looked great and when she drove around in the dealer's demo model, she couldn't believe how comfortable / easy the thing was to maneuver in an urban environment. She parallel parked the truck in traffic, no drama, on her first try.
Sold - one metallic red Tacoma.
A year later I was getting burned out at work and my wife and I had a long talk about it. She essentially told me that I was worth more to her broke and sane than liquid and crazy, so we decided that we would sell whatever wasn't nailed down and drive the truck down to the Panama Canal and back.
Surreptitiously I began my research. Thanks to dumb luck, it turned out that the Taco was an ideal expedition platform.
Further, my father in law lives in Arizona not too far away from one Mr. Scott Brady, and after bumping in to him online a number of times I simply called him up when I was going to be in his neighborhood to see if he would take me out for a day of introductory off-roading.
He took both my father in law and I out for a full day of rocks, gravel and sand and finished it up by turning his Trooper over to me and having me run Broken Arrow in Sedona, which was just an incredible time.
Hooked, I returned to Brooklyn and advanced my plans. As Christmas of 2006 approached, packages and crates started arriving. Sliders, a winch, tires, wheels, an onboard air compressor, an onboard shower, jerry cans, an axe, custom suspension components, auxiliary lights, a hi lift... all of this stuff was crossed off my list of things to get and tucked away in a corner of my garage.
And then... a baby. Simultaneously, a friend of mine offered me a job that was pretty tough to turn down. All of a sudden, the idea of heading down to Panama purely for the hell of it seemed a little less obvious.
So I took the job, had the baby (girl, gorgeous) and stayed in Brooklyn. Then another one showed up (girl, gorgeous) and we found ourselves pretty busy.
Both my wife and I are voyagers. We travel a lot, we spend vacations backcountry camping in Montana and Wyoming and California, we have road-tripped on our fantastic BMW K1200 about six different ways across and up and down this country, and we took our first daughter canoe camping with us in the Adirondacks for a week when she was 16 months old (can't recommend it enough - you can fit a ton of stuff in a canoe, and the rowing/rocking action of the boat put our girl to sleep in a heartbeat on most days).
This summer we threw both of the monkeys in the (still stock) Taco and spent two weeks camping in Maine (beyond great). One night with the ladies passed out in the tent we sat by the fire and talked about how much fun this was, and chastised ourselves for not getting away more often.
That stuck in my head.
So, just this weekend I tasked myself with organizing the garage with a friend of mine (bribed him with cocktails). We pulled out all this stuff and neither of us could believe I had resisted the temptation to pimp the truck.
There, before us, lay:
* new in box Donahoe front coil-overs
* new in box custom Deaver 10 leaf packs
* new in box Donahoe custom rear reservoir shocks
* Demello sliders
* Shrockworks front bumper
* T-Max winch (9000 lbs)
* Extreme Air 3 compressor
* A new Alpine head unit (iPod compatible)
* 285/16 Toyo mud terrain tires mounted and balanced on lovely forged aluminum wheels
* Etc. etc. etc.
We looked at each other, and took the sacred man vow of Damn It, This Shall Finally Get Done Soon.
Here is where I want your help: in terms of the order of operations, what is the right way to tackle the build?
I'm handy and I have tools and friends, but time is a factor here - I need to be smart about it because I just don't have a ton of it thanks to the girls.
My plan is to ultimately have a Taco with storage built into the bed, a roof top tent (not purchased yet, but now it's got to sleep all four of us so guessing EZ Awn), and a suspension / tire combo up to just about anything.
Do I do the suspension and then add the sliders and the bumper?
Or, do I do the second battery first, so that the stuff that will come (lights, winch, stereo, fridge) is properly fed? (I fear this stage, as wiring is probably my weak link).
Or, do I do something else that is not yet obvious to me?
In return for all your good advice (and there appears to be plenty of it here) I promise to provide reasonably detailed posts about the build, and photographic evidence of the madness.
Regards,
R.
The first and only truck I have ever owned (and certainly the first vehicle I ever purchased new) is my 2005 Tacoma 4 door / short bed with the off road package.
I live in an extreme environment (Brooklyn, NY) and I talked my wife into the purchase by making a number of arguments. First, we actually needed a vehicle that could tow, as one of my hobbies is road racing motorcycles. Second, the more SUVs we looked at, the less impressed I was at how little practical space there was in them despite their size (and cost). Anyone who has watched someone struggle to fit a stroller and groceries into a BMW X5 will understand this. This led to point three, which was that the '05 Tacoma with four doors was a pretty big small truck where it mattered - the inside, and could fit four adults and their living room furniture comfortably. On to four, which was that IF we ever had kids they would fit just fine.
Point five sealed the deal: the thing actually looked great and when she drove around in the dealer's demo model, she couldn't believe how comfortable / easy the thing was to maneuver in an urban environment. She parallel parked the truck in traffic, no drama, on her first try.
Sold - one metallic red Tacoma.
A year later I was getting burned out at work and my wife and I had a long talk about it. She essentially told me that I was worth more to her broke and sane than liquid and crazy, so we decided that we would sell whatever wasn't nailed down and drive the truck down to the Panama Canal and back.
Surreptitiously I began my research. Thanks to dumb luck, it turned out that the Taco was an ideal expedition platform.
Further, my father in law lives in Arizona not too far away from one Mr. Scott Brady, and after bumping in to him online a number of times I simply called him up when I was going to be in his neighborhood to see if he would take me out for a day of introductory off-roading.
He took both my father in law and I out for a full day of rocks, gravel and sand and finished it up by turning his Trooper over to me and having me run Broken Arrow in Sedona, which was just an incredible time.
Hooked, I returned to Brooklyn and advanced my plans. As Christmas of 2006 approached, packages and crates started arriving. Sliders, a winch, tires, wheels, an onboard air compressor, an onboard shower, jerry cans, an axe, custom suspension components, auxiliary lights, a hi lift... all of this stuff was crossed off my list of things to get and tucked away in a corner of my garage.
And then... a baby. Simultaneously, a friend of mine offered me a job that was pretty tough to turn down. All of a sudden, the idea of heading down to Panama purely for the hell of it seemed a little less obvious.
So I took the job, had the baby (girl, gorgeous) and stayed in Brooklyn. Then another one showed up (girl, gorgeous) and we found ourselves pretty busy.
Both my wife and I are voyagers. We travel a lot, we spend vacations backcountry camping in Montana and Wyoming and California, we have road-tripped on our fantastic BMW K1200 about six different ways across and up and down this country, and we took our first daughter canoe camping with us in the Adirondacks for a week when she was 16 months old (can't recommend it enough - you can fit a ton of stuff in a canoe, and the rowing/rocking action of the boat put our girl to sleep in a heartbeat on most days).
This summer we threw both of the monkeys in the (still stock) Taco and spent two weeks camping in Maine (beyond great). One night with the ladies passed out in the tent we sat by the fire and talked about how much fun this was, and chastised ourselves for not getting away more often.
That stuck in my head.
So, just this weekend I tasked myself with organizing the garage with a friend of mine (bribed him with cocktails). We pulled out all this stuff and neither of us could believe I had resisted the temptation to pimp the truck.
There, before us, lay:
* new in box Donahoe front coil-overs
* new in box custom Deaver 10 leaf packs
* new in box Donahoe custom rear reservoir shocks
* Demello sliders
* Shrockworks front bumper
* T-Max winch (9000 lbs)
* Extreme Air 3 compressor
* A new Alpine head unit (iPod compatible)
* 285/16 Toyo mud terrain tires mounted and balanced on lovely forged aluminum wheels
* Etc. etc. etc.
We looked at each other, and took the sacred man vow of Damn It, This Shall Finally Get Done Soon.
Here is where I want your help: in terms of the order of operations, what is the right way to tackle the build?
I'm handy and I have tools and friends, but time is a factor here - I need to be smart about it because I just don't have a ton of it thanks to the girls.
My plan is to ultimately have a Taco with storage built into the bed, a roof top tent (not purchased yet, but now it's got to sleep all four of us so guessing EZ Awn), and a suspension / tire combo up to just about anything.
Do I do the suspension and then add the sliders and the bumper?
Or, do I do the second battery first, so that the stuff that will come (lights, winch, stereo, fridge) is properly fed? (I fear this stage, as wiring is probably my weak link).
Or, do I do something else that is not yet obvious to me?
In return for all your good advice (and there appears to be plenty of it here) I promise to provide reasonably detailed posts about the build, and photographic evidence of the madness.
Regards,
R.
