Building the Alu-Cab USA Demo Tacoma

[Adventure Ready]

Hey all. Thought I'd post up a big project we have going at the shop. We are excited to announce our partnership with Alu-Cab USA as the West Coast distributor for all their amazing gear. We recently purchased a 2017 TRD Off-Road to build as one of two Alu-Cab USA demo vehicles. This will be a multi-stage build as the Alu-Cab equipment will be changing over time but the initial build has gotta be done in time for the scheduled Overland Expo West debut. Send the good thoughts coming because the shop is crazy busy and there's much work to be done all around!

We'll detail the initial build here and keep you all updated as things evolve. We've been lucky to partner with several top-notch manufacturers for this build including Baja Designs, ICON Vehicle Dynamics, ARB, Leitner Designs, Falken Tires, sPOD, White Knuckle Off-Road, Off-Grid Engineering, Wilco Offroad, Flexopower, and others.

First things first - meet our new truck. This was the night of delivery. It is a double-cab short bed TRD Off-Road with tech package. Props to Lake City Toyota for such amazing customer service. We've been buying parts from them for years and it just made sense to go there for our new truck too.

We played a guessing game with people on Instagram and most people thought it was a RAM. Honestly, the front ends do look pretty similar...

We started out with the Leitner Designs ACS system and accessories so we could get our Alu-Cab Expedition Series 3 rooftop tent and 270-degree Shadow Awning mounted.

We've installed many of the Leitner Designs systems at the shop and I have to say it's a pretty ingenious set up. Installation is less than an hour and requires only basic hand tools (actually, basically just a 13mm ratchet, torque wrench, an 11mm wrench, and a provided giant Torx wrench. It's an extremely stable and strong system and the modular accessories allow you to attach pretty much anything you want directly to the rack. We opted for a couple of Leitner's storage pods, the Rotopax carrier, and a MaxTrax mount kit (which we modified slightly to mount on the inside of the rack behind the Rotopax (pics to come).

Next we moved on to the Safari Snorkel from ARB. I gotta admit - the gen 3 Tacoma snorkel is big. Like real big. But as with most of the Safari snorkels we've dealt with it's also designed to fit the Tacoma perfectly. Install as a normal 2-3 hours, including the mandatory last 5th measurement before cutting a giant hole in a brand new $40,000 truck. We've seen a couple of A-pillar leaks before so the only additional step we add to snorkel installs is some seam sealant over those mounting holes and on the threads of those bolts.

Next up is electrical, and we've got some pretty cool stuff going in this truck. If you follow us on social media or read our blog you'll probably see that we do A LOT of electrical work at the shop. It's kind of our specialty. Here's a sneak preview - more to come soon...

 

[Adventure Ready]

Photos are working but then not working. Can you see them?

 

[VCeXpedition]

Nope. Red x's.

 

[Adventure Ready]

Nope. Red x's.

Gahhhhh. I don't get it.
I'll try again...

 

[Adventure Ready]

Working?

 

[Scott Murray]

Working for me.

 

[GTJeeper]

Photos work for me as well, that's going to be a great looking truck!

 

[VCeXpedition]

Yep, see them now.

 

[transworldmoto]

Very cool! Sub'd


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[Adventure Ready]

We got the suspension, wheels and tires on only a few days before we had to leave for Overland Expo so didn't have time to update the thread.. But we definitely got the chance to test it all out while we were on our trip.

We started with the Icon Stage 6 kit with billet aluminum upper control arms. Icon also sent us a set of their Six Speed wheels in Gunmetal/Black. We had mixed feelings about this color at the shop (some wanted all black) but damn it looks good after we got them on the truck.

We wrapped the wheels in a new set of BF Goodrich All-terrain KO2's (our go-to tire here at the shop).

We also got a set of rock sliders from our friends at White Knuckle Off-road and got those on only hours before leaving. I'm personally a huge fan of the White Knuckle design. I've used these on multiple Land Cruisers over the years and they always fit perfectly and hold up to serious abuse. If anyone out there is looking for a good slider for the 3rd Gen Tacoma I urge you to consider the White Knuckle set.

We always add grip tape to sliders here because I've gotten way too many bruised shins after sliding off a wet slider in our muddy PNW climate.

 

[Adventure Ready]

After that base work was completed we add the first stage of the Alu-Cab we are demo'ing on this truck. We bolted on the Alu-Cab Expedition Series III rooftop tent and Shadow awning.

Here's a shot of the tent and awning set up in the backcountry area of the Navajo Reservation during our trip back home.

More pics to come soon!

 

[Adventure Ready]

Oops! Looks like we missed the electrical work update here before we left!

Crunch time here at the shop! We just got all the electrical work (for now) finished late this week and below are some of the mods we've made so far. This is only the first stage of this build and the next phase (probably in July) will involve bringing a substantial amount of power to the rear of the truck for the prototype expedition Khaya camper Alu-Cab is sending over. At that point we will be adding a lot more lighting as well.
Sneak pics of the Khaya camper:

We partnered with Off-Grid Engineering for their very swanky battery trays but modified the hold down bars to accept our Blue Sea circuit breakers. The main battery tray is a side-by-side and the hold down carries the two breakers for the 200-amp REDARC dual battery control system. This is overkill for now (Tacomas with the tow package only put out 130 amps at peak) but we are going to be upgrading to a high-output alternator in the future so we're planning ahead. We then added a third battery in the remote position at the rear passenger side of the engine bay.

The main battery is an Odyssey Extreme Group 34 and the two auxiliary batteries (wired in parallel) are group 24 Full River deep cycle AGMs providing a combined 170 amp hour of reserve power. One thing to note here is that the group 24 batteries are about 1.75" taller than the group 34, so we had to add a spacer under the Odyssey to bring it to the same height as the Full River in the side-by-side setup in order for them to hold down safely together. We also had to get longer threaded posts here as the ones that come with the Off-Grid kit are not long enough to mount a group 24 battery. Either way, the auxiliary battery on the side-by-side platform is a very tight fit if you're using a group 24 or 34 auxiliary battery, but it does work. Just be prepared for about 2mm clearance behind the headlight adjuster and the battery. We then tapped the Off-Grid hold down bar and mounted a plate that carries the two circuit breakers.

We located the REDARC isolator on the fender and it just so happens there are two unused threaded holes in the body that align perfectly with the mounting tabs on the 200-amp DBI212D isolator.

We then ran power to the second auxiliary battery and wired to that for the sPOD SE Source box mounted on top of the factory fuse block cover. We tapped the auxiliary battery hold down and tabbed up a plate for another Blue Sea Breaker that will protect the system when we run power to the bed (phase II electrical as mentioned above).

We ran the supplied ethernet-type cable from sPOD to the new HD control pad in the cabin. The location for mounting the control pad was a no-brainer. There is a totally useless little cubby on the left side of the steering wheel on the Gen 3 Tacoma, directly above the bed light switch (side note - this cubby is absurd, it isn't even angled so anything you might put in it will fall right out when you go up even a slight incline). We removed this interior panel and mounted the provided bracket to carry the sPOD HD control pad. This involved a little bit of extra trimming of the plastic cubby to get it to fit, but it worked perfectly and looks great in that blank area.

 

[Adventure Ready]

We then moved on to actually connecting things to the sPOD

First up was out set of Baja Designs XL80 combo driving lights. These things are almost made to be mounted behind the Gen 3 Tacoma grill. It's like a mansion behind there. I don't know exactly why Toyota designed about 16" between the grill and the radiator, but it sure does make for a lot of room to mount things back there. We have ideas for a compressor mount back there but for now we just did the lights (we had changed the grill to a more open billet aluminum one a little while back in preparation for this). We were originally just going to mount the lights to the support beam that holds the grill assembly, but after playing with that a little it is far too lightweight to carry a larger light safely, so we created a bracket that ties into the body's main support beam directly in front of the radiator and them bolted down a 3.5" stand off through that support bracket and the factory bar to create an incredibly strong (and rigid) mount for the lights. This required quite a bit of time because getting bolts and nuts back behind that rear most beam is a real chore on the drivers side as the open back of the beam turns into an enclosed bar at the end, and the angles are insanely awkward. But with some patience and an assistant's skinny fingers it's possible. Side note - if you're interested we are happy to replicate this bracket and light mount kit for you).

With those mounts done and the lights installed we put the grill assembly back on and it cleared perfectly (but it's a tight fit - next time we'll add a little relief in front of the lights).

We then moved to the fog lights. Baja Designs offers a kit for the 3rd gen Tacoma that allows you to mount their Squadron lights in the factory location and even tap into the factory wiring for a super simple install. We used the brackets but opted to wire to the sPOD instead as the factory harness doesn't allow you to activate the fogs with the high beams on, but we want all the lighting independently controlled. This was a crazy simple install and I highly recommend this upgrade! You don't even need to remove the grill or fender liner as the suggest might be necessary. Simply unclid the factory fog light surrounds and reach back into the (gigantic) open space behind the grill assembly and undo the single phillips head that secures the fog light to the front end (on the outside of the lights). There are two tabs that mount to the bumper to hold the inside side of the light in place, meaning you can just slide the light out after removing that one screw. The mounting brackets Baja Design offers mount right into the factory location and also allow you vertical adjustment of the new fogs. All in all, if you just want to wire this to the factory wiring it might be a 45 minute job at the most.

Then we opted to experiment a little and swap the weak factory halogen headlight bulbs for LEDs. After a little research we found a kit by Opt7 (not a project partner, just what we found). For whatever reason they don't list a kit for the gen 3 Tacoma but they do have a generic H11 kit. This was the most crazy simple upgrade on the face of the planet and makes for a really nice upgrade. Tools required: snips and two zip ties. It's completely plug and play. Good so far but well see how they perform off-road under severe dust and vibration.

Front end lighting done for now...

 

[transworldmoto]

@adventureready You'll enjoy the OPT7 led's. I've been running them for a bit over 18k/1 year now, with multiple desert trips through dust and over washboards with no issues whatsoever. Great build! Might have to pull the trigger on the SPOD finally


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[SLO Rob]

This is one of the coolest builds. Love this.

 

[Murphy Slaw]

Wow...