Box Rocket
Well-known member
Had a fantastic weekend in the San Rafael Swell and Moab with my family. Spent two days with our club in the Swell and two more days in Moab with the family.
Box Rocket '03 DC Tacoma Build
- Thread starter Box Rocket
- Start date
Box Rocket
Well-known member
Prepping for Cruise Moab next week. I'll be leading the Tepui Tents sponsored run on Golden Spike on Thursday. Fitting since I just started officially selling Tepui products. Seriously looking forward to a few days in the rocks. I've got 85 hours in the office this week and could really use a change of scenery!
Here's where I'll be, anybody going that has a similar plan?
Thursday: Lead: Golden Spike
Friday: Wipe Out Hill
Saturday: Tail Gunner: Moab Rim
Here's where I'll be, anybody going that has a similar plan?
Thursday: Lead: Golden Spike
Friday: Wipe Out Hill
Saturday: Tail Gunner: Moab Rim
Box Rocket
Well-known member
Forgot to post some photos from Cruise Moab in here. Ended up being a great trip. I had a small mishap the day I was leading Golden Spike. About halfway into the trail I snapped an inner tie rod in my new steering rack from Safari LTD. Honestly I was surprised by the break and wasn't anticipating it so I didn't have a spare with me. Poor planning on my part I guess. Unfortunately it meant leaving the truck on the trail. My wife and I rode out with others in the group. I was able to get a hold of a buddy who was able to pick up the part in town for me. We got back into town and two friends from our club Wasatch Cruisers took me back out to my truck. We got back to the truck at about 9:30pm and we were driving back out by 9:45. A lot of effort for a 15 min fix. But it did make for a fun night run on Gold Bar Rim with some good friends.
Took it easy on Friday and just relaxed with my wife and did some work for Tepui with a couple local businesses.
Saturday we ran Moab Rim. Such a fun trail. Fun challenges, great scenery and not too long.
Here's some photos from Golden Spike.
Busted
The culprit
the break looks a little suspect to me like it was cracked/fatigued already but the whole thing was new in February.
Tepui Tents HQ at Cruise Moab
Had a couple super cool JDM mid-90s double cabs from Canada with us on Moab Rim. I drolled over these trucks all day.
Took it easy on Friday and just relaxed with my wife and did some work for Tepui with a couple local businesses.
Saturday we ran Moab Rim. Such a fun trail. Fun challenges, great scenery and not too long.
Here's some photos from Golden Spike.
Busted
The culprit
the break looks a little suspect to me like it was cracked/fatigued already but the whole thing was new in February.
Tepui Tents HQ at Cruise Moab
Had a couple super cool JDM mid-90s double cabs from Canada with us on Moab Rim. I drolled over these trucks all day.
Box Rocket
Well-known member
More from Moab Rim
Box Rocket
Well-known member
moar
How bout a little flex? For you guys with OME Dakar springs, you can get excellent travel out of these springs with the right shock setup. I'm stuff running the 9" travel OME shocks but relocated them to allow full travel of the leaves. Works out really well.
How bout a little flex? For you guys with OME Dakar springs, you can get excellent travel out of these springs with the right shock setup. I'm stuff running the 9" travel OME shocks but relocated them to allow full travel of the leaves. Works out really well.
Box Rocket
Well-known member
I actually think the rack in fine. It's still tight and doesn't leak. I truly suspect a defect on that tie rod that contributed to the failure. I haven't spoken with Safari about it yet. This rack replaced the original OEM rack. I had 160K miles on the original rack before it started leaking. The tie rods on the original rack were a little loose at that point too.
bagelsjustbagels
Adventurer
These pictures! New phone backgrounds! Awesome rig man
Box Rocket
Well-known member
The FJ did quite well. The lack of low gearing was apparent and he was working the clutch and using momentum more than the other trucks. He got hung up on a couple rocks that he couldn't clear like the other trucks but overall it did really well.
Can't argue either point.
Cool. thanks
Box Rocket
Well-known member
they were the 1KZ 4cyl turbo diesel.
Box Rocket
Well-known member
Of course I've considered it, but it won't happen with this truck. A little background. I cut my teeth rockcrawling in my FJ40 and it was pretty built and I ran some gnarly trails in it. I had an '85 pickup with a solid front axle at the same time that got some trail use. A little later I had a very built '93 pickup with a solid axle swap and dual t-cases etc. That entire time I've also had my FZJ80 Land Cruiser. So I definitely know all the benefits (and drawbacks) of having a solid axle up front. For this truck and how I use it a solid axle would be the wrong choice. I don't need a better rock crawler. I still have the FZJ80 and it can handle all that stuff until I build another FJ40. This Tacoma is the truck I want to use for exploration and higher speed dirt tracks. It still rockcrawls surprisingly well IMO with the IFS. In fact it does well enough that I really see no need for a solid axle. It already handles some of the difficult trails in Moab. If I wanted to run the most extreme trails in Moab or elsewhere I wouldn't do it with this truck anyway even if it did have a SAS. It too long, not great departure angle for the extreme stuff unless I got it a lot taller and did some extensive body modification. Frankly, your 1st gen truck would be a better candidate to build up for that type of use. This Tacoma is miles better at the exploration and desert road type travel than any other truck I've had.
.
So that's a long-winded response. Short answer is this truck would not benefit from SAS. If anything changes with the front end it will be a move to a long travel IFS setup so I can go faster in the desert.