2015 Tacoma Build ideas

[Turner Family Adventures]

OB gang,
I have a 2015 Tacoma TRD off road. I have recently discovered the overland "world". My Tacoma has a LEER topper on the back and a Thule rack on the topper. I am going to be doing mostly gravel roads and some "light" off road traveling. I am at a loss as to what to do first! Should I get a lift, dual battery system, bumpers? I do have a RTT from CVT that is awesome so I want to get out more. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for what to do first. I will post pics and updates as we go.
Thanks and look forward to hearing from everyone.

 

[Michael Kinnett]

I'm not sure what you consider light, but tires before the rest. Skid plates as your Taco has none stock (that's a splash guard, no protection really), and recovery gear next. Honestly one of the most needed items early in my overlanding experience was an awning. Having shade or rain protection to cook or deal with other things was very much needed.

When you break it down, you're going to spend time in only a few ways overlanding; Driving, sleeping, or doing other things relative to eating. Make those three things safe and comfortable and the rest is small fries.

Side note: Check which Leer cap you have, not all are weight rated like you might want/need. I have the 100XL and it's useless for mounting more than mountain bikes, skis, or a couple kayaks on. Pretty disappointed, I got bed bars for overlanding.

 

[Turner Family Adventures]

Thanks for the info. I have BFG's rugged trails on now. I have looked into skid plates as well as awnings....I like the awning idea only because it seems to make camp life easier in good or bad weather. As for the topper, it will hold the RTT, we have been in it several times. My only concern is on rough roads. I have looked into a roof platform from the cab of the truck and moving the RTT to that or the bed bars. What type of recovery gear is good? All I know is Warn winches and maxxtrax. I am so new and novice! Also I am looking into a compressor for airing up/down the tires. Thanks again!

 

[000]

X2 on the tires. The rugged trails are pretty weak compared to the sidewalls of the bfg ko2s. You can fit 265/75r16 with no lift on stock wheels. I have the same truck and that size works well with my lift. I did icon extended travel coilovers and icon delta joint ucas with old man emu Dakar springs with the extra leaf and custom length icon rear shocks, all pro u bolt flip, extended brake lines and wheelers super bump bump stops. It’s been a great set up, but I haul a fair amount of weight and am off-road a lot. I started with an add a leaf then went to air bags to deal with the camping weight before adding sliders, winch etc... then built the suspension set up as it is now. It was an inexpensive way to deal with the weak Tacoma leafs and a lot of camping weight. I decided to go with the us off-road hidden winch mount for weight savings and a low profile look, but will eventually get a full bumper as I’ve been getting into some more technical rougher wheeling in the Sierras and have scraped the bumper corners a couple times. You can build your own dual battery set up using the blue sea acr charging relay cheap, and there’s a ton of info on it if you’re adding a fridge. A bonus to the trd off-road is there is a big empty spot above the passenger wheel well that is perfect for a second battery tray. The other models have a bunch of abs stuff there. I made my battery tray from scrap angle iron. If you are doing a fridge, I found my edgestar 43 qt on open box direct for $250- half price because it had a ding in it. It’s worked great for the last two years. I mounted it on a dometic slide that is also awesome and only $200ish on amazon which is a lot cheaper than other ones I’ve seen. Just a few ideas to get started without spending a fortune.


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