Project: big Tacoma

[edgear]

Since this is my first time posting on these boards, I'll give a brief introduction. I've been a proud Tacoma owner for about 3.5 years, upgrading from an extended cab TRD Prerunner to a doublecab TRD 4WD about 1.5 years ago. I've definitely been excited about offroading since day one, but found that the 2WD just didn't cut it on steep terrain (although that rear locker sure did come in handy!). I've done a few minor modifications, with plans on some big ones in the near future. Current mods include:

• 265/75 R16 BFG A/T's
• custom rock sliders
• LineX bed liner
• canvas camper shell
• rock lights
• custom mudflaps (actually, I just took scissors to the stock flaps & cut them down about 2-3")

After doing much research, I ordered a suspension lift kit from Demello offroading (inspiration: Expedition West's Tacoma). It just arrived last week, and I can't wait to put it on this Friday!! I went with the Donahoe coilovers w/ Camburg upper arms for the front, and the Deaver 8-leaf springs w/ Bilstein shocks for the rear. I also ordered up some 255/85 R16 BFG M/T's, which I will have put on after the lift. I'll include some photos in my next post.

I'm still deciding on whether or not to re-gear right away. I didn't re-gear for the 31" tires, and I didn't notice much of a difference from the stock 29" tires. But I'm sure I'll notice quite a difference when I run 33" and still have the stock 3.91:1 gears. I'm looking at getting the cryo'd gears from Longfield (Yukon 4.88:1). They quoted me $435 for the front & rear, which seems like a pretty good price for some great gears. Although I still need to get a quote from a shop to install them. Any advice?

 

[erin]

Welcome to the forum, nice to see someone from Tucson.
Whether or not you have a manual or auto trans, you will probably want to regear pretty soon after those tires go on. I pretty mucj couldn't use 5th gear unless I hit 70mph. After the 4.88's went in difference was dramatic. I can now crawl down hills without using alot of brakes and go up w/o alot of clutch.
Sounds like you are on your way to a nice truck. If you ever want to go out and get the trucks dirty, send me a message.:jumping: :jumping:

 

[Scott Brady]

Great to see you on the forum

It is likely that you will want to regear, though much of that will be affected by the load you carry too. When I first installed the 255's the truck was tolerable, as it was lightly loaded, but when I started adding all of the bumpers, fuel tanks, tent, platform, etc. It was too much, and OD could not be used.

For the typical DD, I would recommend the 4.88 gears. I chose 5.29's and have no regrets, but my cruising speed is limited to 75mph.

 

[edgear]

Thank you both for the input on the re-gearing. I will definitely take the 4.88's into consideration. My Tacoma is an automatic, so I don't think the stock gears will be too much of a problem for now. Down the road, if I get into any of the "heavier" mods (custom bumpers, camper shell, etc.), then I will probably re-gear. The current canvas shell I have on there only weighs about 35lbs. The new lift & tires should be on by this weekend, so I'll find out soon enough....

Sounds like you are on your way to a nice truck. If you ever want to go out and get the trucks dirty, send me a message.

Erin -- we should definitely go out wheeling sometime. I'm getting married in 2 months, and I'm sure the next several weekends will be filled with last-minute wedding plans. But after March, I'll be down for dirtying up the trucks!!

 

[erin]

:victory:

Congrats on the wedding, let me know when you have time after and we will get together and do some exploring.

 

[Justin]

Welcome and congratulations on the wedding. Very nice truck also. I like your mods you have listed. The Line-X rules...I just got mine done a few months ago. Also, the mudflap idea...great one. It always throws me off when I hear the mudflaps scraping the ground when articulating, yet I don't want to remove them altogether.

 

[edgear]

The lift was quite a success! The truck looks awesome now, and I can't wait to test everything out. We ran into a bit of trouble replacing the upper a-arm without a hydroulic press, but we were able to improvise with a table vice.

I was always impressed with how the stock Tacoma handled offroad, but I can't wait to see how the new suspension performs on the trail. I included several side-by-side photos of the stock vs. new suspension:

<img src="http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=957&stc=1&d=1138401190" border="0" alt="" />

<img src="http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=958&stc=1&d=1138401739" border="0" alt="" />

<img src="http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=959&stc=1&d=1138401739" border="0" alt="" />

<img src="http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=960&stc=1&d=1138401739" border="0" alt="" />

(this is my first time posting pictures, so I might need to take a Picture Posting 101 class and brush up on my html skills)

I'm very pleased with the 255/85 R16 BFG M/T's, but I quite a bit of fender trimming ahead of me....

I'll provide some better exploring photos later on.

 

[Scott Brady]

Sweet! Looks great... You will be amazed of the difference in ride quality and high speed performance.

 

[CLynn85]

Wow, very nice, changes the whole attitude of the truck.


How do you like the canvas camper, does it seal well?

 

[kcowyo]

Looks really good!

How about a product review on the Softtopper? That looks like the model that collapses forward...?

Nice job! :clapsmile

 

[edgear]

i'm back

kcowyo -- I'll definitely do a product review on the SoftTopper. I'll put some photos together, as soon as I transfer all of the honeymoon photos off my camera. I'll post the review over in the General Vehicle Modifications section, since it's not really a Toyota-specific mod. I've put it on & taken it off a few times in the 5 months that I've owned it, and I've been quite pleased with it. It's only rained maybe twice here in these past 5 months but it seems to be rather water-tight. And it especially keeps the dust out when wheeling in the Southern Arizona desert!

When I checked my mail yesterday morning, I was excited to finally receive my first issue of 4WD Toyota Owner magazine. I spent all morning reading through it. And it was good to see some familar faces from these forums in there (Scott Brady & Jonathan Hanson). I think it would be awesome to get something of my own published in that magazine someday.

The wedding & honeymoon were amazing. We spent a week down on the Mayan Riviera in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. One exciting thing was to go snorkeling in a cenote (underground river / cave). But bouncing down a backroad in Quintana Roo in our guide's stock Ford Ranger with soggy suspension made me wish that I was driving my own truck. Next time I go down there I definitely need to drive instead of fly!!


The next modification that I plan to do is the U-bolt flip kit that I purchased from Demello offroading back in January. Jason said mine was the first one he shipped out. He had just finished designing it for that model of Tacoma. It should provide for a little bit extra ground clearance in that area, and possibly more travel with the rear shocks mounted in a different place. I'll report back on how that mod turns out...

 

[Scott Brady]

With the 5.29's, I am in the same boat. Sustained cruising at 75 mph, which is just fine in my book. But in the mountains, or when fully loaded, the truck is just awesome. It pulls strong out of overdrive in the mountains, and has good compression braking in lo-lo off-road.

 

[flyingwil]

With the 5.29's, I am in the same boat. Sustained cruising at 75 mph, which is just fine in my book. But in the mountains, or when fully loaded, the truck is just awesome. It pulls strong out of overdrive in the mountains, and has good compression braking in lo-lo off-road.

After test driving Scott's truck, in comparison to other trucks with 4.88's the 5.29's seemed to perform great on Scott's 6,000# truck. They performed outstandingly well, keeping the truck in the power curve, and the truck did not want to downshift irregularly during inclines and the as he mentioned the compression braking during a decent is outstanding. With my recent tire change, the gears might be next on my list.

 

[edgear]

originally posted by kcowyo:
How about a product review on the Softtopper? That looks like the model that collapses forward...?

as promised, I finally created a thread for the product review of the good 'ol Softopper:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=18179&posted=1#post18179