Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
Just wanted to share my latest progress. What I'm trying to do is build my 04 Taco to be a comfortable and reliable camping vehicle for excursions of up to a week in the Rocky Mountain West and Southwest. Hoping to talk the GF into taking a long trip sometime this Summer...
Anyway, my first chore was to find a shell for the truck so we could use it as a sleeping platform. Neither one of us is crazy about sleeping on the ground and I've owned a few trucks before with shells and they were great camping platforms.
I'm starting to think I should name this truck the "Craigslist Special" since that seems to be where I'm doing most of my buying and selling (except for the truck itself - I found that on Autotrader.com!)
Anyway, when I got the truck it had a nice aluminum cross-bed toolbox and an over-the-rail bedliner. I managed to sell both of those items (though in retrospect I should have kept the tailgate cover from the bedliner - oh well, live and learn) for $170 and the next day, also through CL, I discovered a Leer Topper in my favorite color, forest green (just the thing to liven up the truck, since I find white to be boring.) The shell had no rear window, so I had to buy that separately, where I found it's smart to shop around: The Leer topper store near my home wanted almost $400 to replace the window. :Wow1: But a shop 35 miles away in another town offered to do the job for less than $225 :luxhello: so needless to say that's the one I went with.
Then I needed some way to be able to sleep in it. I had used the commercial carpet kits before, but didn't feel like shelling out the $500 cost for a new one (remember, cheapskate!) I toyed with the idea of building my own setup (which would be more functional than a commercial carpet kit) but the drawbacks to that were (a) no tools or workshop (I live in an apartment) (b) time constraints (I was hoping to have something camp-ready by the middle of April) and (c) I'm just not that mechanically inclined. So, I started shopping around for a used carpet kit, finally found one on - yes, you guessed - Craigslist, for only $50. It wasn't quite the right size (it was made for a "pre-Tacoma", i.e. the 89-94 Toyota PU) but it was close enough. (BTW, the same guy still had his Wildernest for sale, if anyone's interested.)
Last night my brother Bruce and I trimmed the corners so it would fit around the rim of the Leer topper and - voila! - it fits! Unfortunately, it's filthy and needs cleaning, so if the sun ever comes out this weekend, that will be my first chore.
For the final part, I mounted the Yakima Rack to the existing channels in the shell. This will be used to carry a 17' Grumman Aluminum canoe, hopefully to some cool river and lake destinations!
Photos from Left to Right: 1. Truck right after I bought it in January. 2. The shell when I got it, notice the missing rear window. 3. The new window is on, notice the "Colorado paint job" on the side of the bed from fishing at Deckers. 4. Carpet kit in "travel configuration." 5. Carpet kit in "sleep configuration." 6. Yakima Rack mounted.
Anyway, my first chore was to find a shell for the truck so we could use it as a sleeping platform. Neither one of us is crazy about sleeping on the ground and I've owned a few trucks before with shells and they were great camping platforms.
I'm starting to think I should name this truck the "Craigslist Special" since that seems to be where I'm doing most of my buying and selling (except for the truck itself - I found that on Autotrader.com!)
Anyway, when I got the truck it had a nice aluminum cross-bed toolbox and an over-the-rail bedliner. I managed to sell both of those items (though in retrospect I should have kept the tailgate cover from the bedliner - oh well, live and learn) for $170 and the next day, also through CL, I discovered a Leer Topper in my favorite color, forest green (just the thing to liven up the truck, since I find white to be boring.) The shell had no rear window, so I had to buy that separately, where I found it's smart to shop around: The Leer topper store near my home wanted almost $400 to replace the window. :Wow1: But a shop 35 miles away in another town offered to do the job for less than $225 :luxhello: so needless to say that's the one I went with.
Then I needed some way to be able to sleep in it. I had used the commercial carpet kits before, but didn't feel like shelling out the $500 cost for a new one (remember, cheapskate!) I toyed with the idea of building my own setup (which would be more functional than a commercial carpet kit) but the drawbacks to that were (a) no tools or workshop (I live in an apartment) (b) time constraints (I was hoping to have something camp-ready by the middle of April) and (c) I'm just not that mechanically inclined. So, I started shopping around for a used carpet kit, finally found one on - yes, you guessed - Craigslist, for only $50. It wasn't quite the right size (it was made for a "pre-Tacoma", i.e. the 89-94 Toyota PU) but it was close enough. (BTW, the same guy still had his Wildernest for sale, if anyone's interested.)
Last night my brother Bruce and I trimmed the corners so it would fit around the rim of the Leer topper and - voila! - it fits! Unfortunately, it's filthy and needs cleaning, so if the sun ever comes out this weekend, that will be my first chore.
For the final part, I mounted the Yakima Rack to the existing channels in the shell. This will be used to carry a 17' Grumman Aluminum canoe, hopefully to some cool river and lake destinations!
Photos from Left to Right: 1. Truck right after I bought it in January. 2. The shell when I got it, notice the missing rear window. 3. The new window is on, notice the "Colorado paint job" on the side of the bed from fishing at Deckers. 4. Carpet kit in "travel configuration." 5. Carpet kit in "sleep configuration." 6. Yakima Rack mounted.
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