Right now, everything about this site revolves around one man's experiences with one vehicle. My 2003 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Double Cab. I first purchased the truck in 2004 to use for house work and carrying my bicycles from my house to the trailhead. Then, one day this strategy changed dramatically.
It all started with a bicycling trip to Downieville (DV) for the DV Classic several years ago. During the trip, we decided to head up past Gold Lake to do some pre-riding before the big race. The key here was that we decided to get there by way of dirt road. Now, not too long before this, I had purchased the stock vehicle (shown below) to transport bikes and haul general junk to the dump.
This vision promptly ended when I had to drive my stock truck over a large scary obstacle, or at least it seemed that way at the time. Conquering the obstacle and the rush of adrenaline to do so was an immediate fixation of mine and what follows will likely only end in a tragic life spending countless dollars and hours whittling away at the quest to build a bigger and badder rock crawler.
The first step was to see if this was just another curiosity or if it was the real deal obsession. So it began with bolt on modifications. 33” BFG ATs, a Donahoe Stage 3 Suspension package from Demello Off-Road, armor plating all around from Bent-Up, Budbuilt and Skidrow and a Warn 9.5ti winch and I was off to the races.
I told myself at the time that I would wheel the truck for at least a year until I decided to do any further extreme modifications. During the next 2 years I went to Gold Lake, did the Rubicon, Moonrocks, Moab, Arizona Rocks, Deer Valley, Slickrock, Strawberry Pass & Hollister Hills. This resulted only in the craving to do more! But after all that, I made the decision to go all the way and perform a solid axle swap. The result of which can be seen below and consists of the following parts…
Build List
 |
2003 Toyota Tacoma TRD SR5 DoubleCab 4x4 |
|
37" x 15" x 12.5" Goodyear MTR Tires |
|
Black 15" Steel Wheels |
|
5.29 Gears |
|
Diamond Front Axle Housing |
|
8.4 Toyota 3rd Member w ARB Air locker |
|
Longfield SuperAxle 30 spline front axles/birfields |
|
Aisin Manual Hubs |
|
Hand crafted front 3-link SAS |
|
14" Walker Evans 700 Series Coilover Shocks w/ remote reservoir & dampening control |
|
Hypercoil springs 125/350# 14"/16" |
|
PSC Hydraulic Assist Steering System |
|
GM 1-ton Steering Setup |
|
4x4 Labs Custom Steering arms with 1/2" drop |
|
TRD Rear e-locker on 8" 3rd member |
|
14" Bilstein 7100 Series rear shocks mounted thru the bed |
|
Currie Enterprises Anti-Rock Sway Bar system mounted on rear axle |
|
4Crawler 2" Body Lift |
|
Warn 9.5ti Winch |
|
Hand built front bumper |
|
Bentup.com sliders and rear bumper with water/gas can swing-outs |
|
Marlin Crawler TacoBox 2.28:1 with 10° clock |
|
Front Range Off Road Fabrication t-case cross member with 10° clock |
|
Leer High Visibility Camper Shell |
|
Cobra 75 Internal CB w/ 3' Firestik II Antena |
|
Garmin 76CSx GPS Handheld System |
|
Stock Taco Alternator re-spun by Boyle Futuretech to 150Amp output |
|
Yellow-top Optima Gel Battery |
|
PIAA Driving Lights w/ HID Conversion |