Battleship Jones: 2015 Tacoma DCLB Build Thread

[Adventurous]

Just a little update for today. So I have a serious issue with chrome and shiny stuffs. The chrome grill has always bothered me and I decided to do something about it the other day. I took everything off, cleaned it up real good, then hit it with a coat of Plastidip. IMO it looks much better.

20150626-P1010416 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

20150626-P1010417 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

20150628-P1010418 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The wheels are up next once I have an opportunity and the weather cooperates. Then all that's left is the giant chrome rear bumper!

 

[millerfish]

I find the 886's with the ARB bumper (sans winch) to be a bit harsh... Like "hit a speed bump too fast and the entire front end will hop off the ground" harsh.

I have to agree. I have the ARB with a winch and it is stiff. However it is not all that bad. I think once I install some skids and the springs completely wear in it should be about right. I hope...

 

[Adventurous]

I have to agree. I have the ARB with a winch and it is stiff. However it is not all that bad. I think once I install some skids and the springs completely wear in it should be about right. I hope...

With the skids the springs have definitely come more into their element. I'm willing to bet that once a winch is added they will be the bee's knees.

 

[Adventurous]

The other thing I managed to accomplish lately was to get an axe. It would have come in handy the last camping trip so I picked up an Estwing 26" camper's axe. Estwing products have never let me down so it was a natural choice to get one of their products.

I'll be mounting it to the roof rack via quickfists, but this poses a bit of a problem. The neck of the axe is significant narrower than either the handle or the shaft. For several reasons it behooved me to wrap something around there to allow it to engage with the quickfist as well as to provide additional comfort and control when choking up. The backpacker in me figured that with all that storage space, I might as well wrap some 550lb paracord around it. You never know when you can use a length of paracord and there must be a good 20' of the stuff wrapped around right now. All goals met!

Before:
20150703-P1010421 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

After:
20150703-P1010422 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

It took 3 wraps around the neck and 1 around the shaft. They are more or less the same circumference now.

 

[Adventurous]

About how much has your OME 886's in the front settled/lowered since having them installed?

A little bit of an update since I was monkeying around under the truck the other day and just happened to notice. After lift, at ride height, with the ARB, one of the fins on the inner CV boot would rub the adjacent fin. Over the 8K miles I put on with that setup it wore a groove in the boot (boot not compromised). Just yesterday I observed that the post-skid plate settling had eliminated that interference. All good to go now.

 

[ADVW/Liam]

Rubbing Boots

Mine have been rubbing for a little over a year. Probably about 20,000 miles, and no problems yet.

 

[brianjwilson]

A little bit of an update since I was monkeying around under the truck the other day and just happened to notice. After lift, at ride height, with the ARB, one of the fins on the inner CV boot would rub the adjacent fin. Over the 8K miles I put on with that setup it wore a groove in the boot (boot not compromised). Just yesterday I observed that the post-skid plate settling had eliminated that interference. All good to go now.

Great reminder. I have stainless hose clamps to adjust my boots if needed, but I keep forgetting!

 

[Adventurous]

So we've been using the platform in the back of the bed for a few camping trips now and I realized that I never shared the details of its construction.

This is the first iteration as my intentions are to build a full fledged drawer system this upcoming winter. Not wanting to sleep in a tent I cobbled together this system for the time being.

It is composed of 2 2x8s cut to 57" on the nose and tapered at each end to fit into the slots on the Tacoma bed sides. Nothing fancy, I just used whatever wood I had laying around. These form the main supports and are sufficient to support our ~300lbs combined weight with little discernible flexing.

20150709-P1010423 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Next up was the actual platform itself. While plywood would have been nice, budget drove me to choose some 23/64" OSB. There are two panels, each 72" L x 28 5/8" W AFTER carpeting. Their before measurements are probably more like 71.5 x 28 1/8". It took a little bit of playing around to get them properly contoured to fit the angle at the back of the bed as well as the metal bed supports. A little bit of time with a piece of cardboard template and the oscillating saw gave me something that was pretty darn good.

20150709-P1010425 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

I managed to snag some indoor/outdoor carpet from a friend for free. While using contact cement or some sort of spray adhesive would have been the best solution, especially on OSB, I didn't have that at my disposal. So I used a staple gun. It was difficult at times as I would hit harder and softer spots where sometimes the staples would bite, other times they would not. Eventually though I managed to get everything snugged down and it has yet to show any signs of weakness, so I'd say its going to hold up for the rest of the season.

20150709-P1010424 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

And installed...

20150709-P1010426 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

This has allowed us to fit a 6" Full size memory foam mattress in the back. The mattress is a few inches longer than the bed but all we have to do is give the tailgate a firm closing to compress the foot of the mattress and shut everything up as normal. It has so far proved to be very comfortable and a great temporary solution. If you go this route I highly suggest having the guys at Home Depot or Lowes cut your pieces of plywood on the panel saw. It made my life a ton easier since I don't have access to a table saw.

Total Investment = $75
Time = 4 hours

With this setup there is ~8.5" between the bottom of the 2x8 support and the top most section of bed. The largest bins I was able to find that would fit under there, and were weatherproof were these guys in the 41.2qt size.

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/storage/storageBoxes?productId=10026213

They are pretty perfect for up to 5 days worth of clothes and gear for the two of us. We have a 4 bin rotation right now, 2 with camping supplies and 1 each for clothes. As some need to be slid towards the forward part of the bed, I laid a piece of carpet down that we pull in and out to fetch those bins. Not a perfect system by any means but it works. Like I said before, it's all temporary until I find the time to put together a better system. This will at least allow me to figure out what our wants/needs/design constraints are for the drawer system before I embark on that project.

 

[aaen]

How are you protecting the memory foam mattress from the elements? Most guys I know who've done platforms use either cheap I air mattresses or Exped mega mats. Then they do not have to worry about dust/water etc.




Regards

Steve

I suffer from fat finger syndrome and a tiny keyboard on an iPhone. So I apologize for the typos and misspellings.

 

[Adventurous]

How are you protecting the memory foam mattress from the elements? Most guys I know who've done platforms use either cheap I air mattresses or Exped mega mats. Then they do not have to worry about dust/water etc.




Regards

Steve

I suffer from fat finger syndrome and a tiny keyboard on an iPhone. So I apologize for the typos and misspellings.

I bought a zip on vinyl mattress protector from Walmart for the time being. It is cheap and thin but it is waterproof and works. I'll probably get something a bit more durable once this one finally bites the dust.

 

[aaen]

Hmm, never knew that had such a thing. Makes sleeping in the back of the truck a lot easier.

My buddy kept the shirt capper instead of the higher one and put in a cargo slide for his mattress then he could get in and out very easy.


Regards

Steve

I suffer from fat finger syndrome and a tiny keyboard on an iPhone. So I apologize for the typos and misspellings.

 

[Adventurous]

The lady friend and I got out this past weekend to do a little bit of camping and exploring with some friends. We left Denver ~7pm on Friday night with the ultimate destination being Taylor Park. Along the way we were treated to a beautiful sunset (notice a general theme in this thread?).

20150710-IMG_0583 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

To get there we had to traverse Cottonwood Pass outside of Buena Vista (http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=338). Not a difficult road by any means but with a myriad of tight switchbacks and reduced visibility it was slow going. Always vigilant for deer, I only had one oh ******** moment when a buck wandered out in the road in front of me. I will say that the el cheapo light bar totally paid for itself on roads like this. I could drive with quite a bit more confidence with the extended reach lighting up not only the road but the sides of the road too.

We pulled into the Taylor Park area at 11:30 at night and more or less just pulled off the road to go to sleep. We were all tired and needed to crash before we literally crashed. After being rudely awakened by my dogs at 6am, I got out and went for an early morning hike. Managed to get 7 or so miles and saw plenty of deer. I really just wanted to find the trailhead for Taylor Pass as I contemplated doing it. That didn't work out but I ended up getting in another hike that afternoon. We followed F.S. road 742 to the very end, pulled off, and just started going on the first trail we saw.

20150711-DSC_0572 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The beginning of this trail of course required me to ford a river with the backpack on my front and my lady on my back. Needless to say with the swift water and semi-sketchy footing I managed to flood my boots and stopped to let everything dry out.

20150711-IMG_0610 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Wildflower season is starting up in the higher elevations and we marveled at the many different types and colors of flowers. We ended up turning around 2 miles later when the trail went back across the river and ended up running the last mile as some serious storm clouds had rolled in. We got back to the truck just before the skies opened and pitied the poor ATV riders we saw bundled up like Kenny from South Park.

We spent Saturday night with good food, good friends, and a nice warm camp fire to keep us cozy.

The intentions on Sunday were to take Tincup Pass over from Tincup into St. Elmo. Tincup was a pretty neat little town and we briefly stopped at the general store to check things out before pointing the truck uphill.

20150712-IMG_0609 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

20150712-IMG_0590 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

The road getting up to Mirror Lake was pretty tame and not at all indicative of what was to come. Things started to get a little bit rockier as we drove along the shore of the lake. Luckily I had my trust co-pilot along to ask the tough questions like, where does the trail go?!?!

20150712-IMG_0608 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

After driving through a small section of lake I put the truck in 4 low and started up the pass. It was quite a bit more rocky and rough than I had anticipated. The trusty co-pilot reclined her seat as it was getting a bit too much for her so I didn't get any pictures on the ascent, but I can only assume it was a bit rougher than advertised because of the heavy snowpack and runoff that was cascading down the trail. We got to the top without much to mention and stopped to admire the views.

20150712-IMG_0594 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

20150712-IMG_0598 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

Luckily the trip down the other side was much smoother and we cruised into St. Elmo uneventfully. The town was pretty busy as tourism season is upon us and being one of the more preserved ghost towns in CO it was pretty packed. We hung out for a little bit before heading out, grabbing some food and heading home. Another fun weekend of camping in the books!

 

[Adventurous]

Nothing to see here...

20150806-P1010427 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

:smiley_drive:

 

[Acerwin]

Getting tired of the 255's?

 

[Adventurous]

Getting tired of the 255's?

Yep, though to be perfectly honest with myself the decision is not entirely a performance based one. It has been a fine tire size for most things and the KM2 performance, outside of hard packed snow, has been quite good.

Unfortunately however they just never quite looked right to my eyes. The tall skinny profile just didn't balance out with the DCLB and made it look like it was propped up on stilts. In reality the proportions of a 37 appeal the most to me but I'm not willing to make the changes necessary to make that happen. So onto 35s we go!