Outskirts Overland Podcast
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Outskirts Overland Podcast
Transforming My Tacoma: The Journey from Stock to Overland Excellence, Functional Upgrades, and ECU Tuning
Ever wondered what it takes to transform a stock vehicle into an off-road warrior? My 2020 Toyota Tacoma SR5 embarked on a journey from showroom standard to a trail-blazing beast, and I'm taking you under the hood of every upgrade and misadventure. From self-installed storage solutions to choosing the perfect rooftop tent, I've tailored my rig for the raw thrills of overlanding. The grit of DIY and strategic selection of gear - like All Pro Off-Road bumpers and a trusty Smittybilt winch - have shaped my ride into the ultimate outdoor companion.
The art of overlanding isn't just about the gear; it's a ballet of balance, function, and innovation. I tackle the woes of weight distribution with an Alucab tilt fridge slide, and how the deck system revolutionized my cluttered chaos into an organizer's dream. But it's not all about storage – I delve into the mastery of ECU tuning, transforming my Tacoma's performance to tackle challenging terrain with gusto. The magic of a well-tuned engine can't be overstated, whether it's managing power-hungry accessories or conquering steep gradients with ease.
To cap off this rugged ride, I get real about the transformative power of tuning without the technical jargon. I share how a strategic ECU tune can redefine even a humble SR5, touching on the importance of selecting a reputable tuner and debunking myths about warranty woes. Upgrades are a costly affair, but tuning stands out as a cost-effective way to amp up your vehicle's performance – it's like unlocking a hidden superpower. Join me on this episode for an insight-packed overland odyssey, and don't forget to follow my Instagram escapades and upcoming YouTube gear reviews for more overlanding inspiration.
You so. So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to week 14 of Outskirts Overland. Girls, welcome to week 14 of Outskirts Overland. This week we're going to talk about my truck. It's a hot topic. It seems to be something people want to go over. I did make an Instagram live, but I'm finding my Instagram and my podcast aren't like you guys aren't intermingling. So you can go watch that on Instagram if you want to. It's outskirtsoverland. But first things first. You know, got to go through the housekeeping stuff, so I want to.
Speaker 1:My first shout out is going to go to Onyx Offroad. Here, if you use code GLOBALOVERLAND236, you're going to get 20% off of any level of membership you want with Onyx Off-Road. They did have a Mother's Day sale on Onyx Hunt. I don't know if that's still going, but it was 30%, so check that out. Onyx is what I use to map all my trips, unlike Gaia. If you get Onyx, all the trails and stuff they're already on the app, so you don't only get to see whatever info you downloaded personally or whatever info you know you down that you downloaded personally, track personally or downloaded from somebody else via uh, you know social media, patreon, whatever. So I like on X off roadroad for that. I'm a big Onyx supporter in my personal life from hunting. It was great they do have Onyx Backcountry now.
Speaker 1:Secondly, toyota Trucks of Arkansas. They've been awesome. I have friends over there. If you're in the Midwest and you're Toyota enthusiast, go ahead and go over to Toyota Trucks of Arkansas. It's on Facebook. There's a lot of really cool people there. I've found that group to be extremely positive and just people that are kind of into the Toyota off-road overlanding space and that's really nice and refreshing.
Speaker 1:And lastly, I'd like to do it again Go Fast Campers. I actually emailed you. Go Fast Campers, I'm trying to get on your radar. We are on week 14 of me talking about how bad. I want to go fast camper. I want to get rid of this rooftop tent and I'm talking about my truck build today and I got some good things to say about the company with my rooftop tent top 10,. But even so, go fast campers, if I ever get cool enough for you guys to care, remember I did email you early. You had your shot. Then somebody else comes for me later. I don't know that I'll be here, but right now I'm here for you. So, anyways, go fast campers, hit your boy up. All right.
Speaker 1:So as I get into this, I'm going to talk about my truck, my truck build this week. Justin said how late am I, justin? You are not late at all. I just got through the normal da da da of my intro stuff. So today I'm going to talk about my truck bill for you and I'm going to try and cater to the people watching and the people listening. So I'm going to talk about my truck Bill and I'm going to try and cater to the people watching and the people listening. So I'm going to be showing some things on the screen, but I'm also going to be trying to articulate those in words for those people that will listen later. So for those of you that are watching and listening, my truck is in the background If you watch it on youtube right now or later. All everybody wants to learn, everybody wants to know about my truck.
Speaker 1:I have built a pretty. I built a pretty cool truck. I mean it's got a lot of stuff going on. I have done it a hundred percent myself. The only thing that I think that has been done by someone else on my truck is mounting and balancing tires and alignment. I think that's it. That's it. You'll see as I get into this. I did buy my truck somewhat built and there's a story to that and I don't want to go too much into my past. But there's a story to why I bought my truck somewhat built. But also there's probably three parts on my truck right now that were on it when I bought it. I've changed pretty much everything, some of it twice. I mean some of it multiple times. So as I get into my truck, it's a 2020 Toyota Tacoma. It is an SR5. It is not an off-road, it is not a sport, it is not a TRD of any sort. It is an SR5.
Speaker 1:Earlier podcasts I talk about why I got an SR5. I was actually looking for an SR5. I didn't want all the crawl control and everything. I didn't want all the ABS controlled systems. Those weren't in my previous second gen Tacoma and it still had a locking rear diff. But in order to get a Tacoma with a locking rear diff in the third gen, you have to have all the bells and whistles of multi-terrain select, crawl control, all those things, and I didn't. Multi-terrain select, crawl control, all those things and I didn't like that. So I decided to go back a level to the SR5 with the tow package and premium sound and nav.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's nothing crazy by any means, and that's what I chose to make my platform this time. I previously did have a trd pro 2015 trd pro that, even though it was a pro that generation. For you guys that don't know, it's a uh, it's a uh, it's a um, it's just a less. Toyota wasn't doing a lot of electronic stuff with the previous generation, second generation, tacoma, so I really liked that. But ultimately, those all have two high miles and I got this. So to go back um in the story a little bit, I did have and I'm going to pull up, I'm going to put my Instagram up here. So this is when I bought my truck. For those of you guys watching, this is when I bought my truck and you'll see right here this is actually my Titan and these are my kids and my Titan. This is me building a rack for my Titan.
Speaker 1:I very, very much liked my Titan. I had it. I used it, you know, around property, did a lot of things, liked my Titan. I had it. I used it around property, did a lot of things with my Titan, loved this truck.
Speaker 1:Some life circumstances arose where I had to trade this truck and given that that occurred, I started to look and that's when I started to look into, you know, like it was decently built as well. That's when I started to look into trucks that were already somewhat built. I looked at everything from Gladiators to. I looked at Gladiators Rangers, I looked at gladiators rangers, I looked at tacomas, obviously. I looked at forerunners. I looked at I mean, I looked at four-door jeep jls as well. I looked at I don't even know what else I looked at. I think think that's, I think that is it, and I really actually was pretty dead set, uh, myself on a gladiator and uh, then I drove it and I just wasn't as impressed with it. So I ended up getting more into the Tacoma. But all of the trucks that I was looking at were somewhat built steel bumpers, skids, wheels, lifts all of them. I mean, I was willing to drive so I could find them all. Whether I looked on Bring a Trailer or any of the Overland Facebook groups, I was looking for a built truck.
Speaker 1:So this is the first day I had my truck Brought it home. It's got like a CBI, like covert style bar here. It had Mickey Thompson 33s. It had a puck lift, three inch Princey racks everywhere. That's how I bought my truck. Literally that's how I bought it. Right here this is the day I bought it. It has a high lift jack up here, princey racks, lights. This is how I bought my truck. Had the cap, no deck system or anything, bought it like this um, and from there is when it all began.
Speaker 1:This. So so I want to point out here, guys, september 21st I bought it and then this is like not even a month later, this is me in the truck, like I don't even know if I had had this thing registered at this point, but we're doing the thing and that's Tyson right here. Um, and here we go, bob, I am. So I mean, I went right into it with the truck. I did. I did get some time in it seeing how I liked things and then things started to change. So I I really wielded a bunch in its original form, which is just princy rack, bed rack, the front steel bumper it had. It had regular um, let me go back here. It had like steps on it. If you guys, I don't think you can see it, but it had like side steps, not rock sliders. They many things got ripped off of this truck and that's why they got changed To preface. So that's where the truck started for me. The grill yes, the grill was whack and you'll see that's not the grill that's on this bad boy now. At all I did not like the grill. It had the Raptor lights.
Speaker 1:Again, when I was looking to buy a truck, I was trying to buy a truck that had some stuff done to it. I've modified almost every car I've had in the last 15 years, so I was like I want something that's got a little bit of it out of the way for me. So that's, I mean not everything is going to be perfect. Somebody of the way for me. So that's, I mean, not everything's going to be perfect. Somebody else modified it. That wasn't me, okay. So we're going to click over to my Facebook page and I've got some. I've got some you know early photos of my truck here. Make sure you guys are now on my Facebook page. Um, and this is the day I bought it. I'm shaking the guy's hand At this point. It's block lift, though Like block lift, block lift. There's a better view of the steps. Obviously, that's me. I'm short, I've mentioned that before, but that's how the truck came Again, nothing crazy.
Speaker 1:Took it off-road pretty immediately. Then you'll see the carnage start to occur Ripped off the rear bumper, the exhaust pipe, you know wheeling. I mean I was wheeling, the truck doing the thing, the truck doing the thing, um, tongue up, high centered here. That's when I ripped off these side steps. Also, that same day is when I ripped off that rear bumper. So shortly after that I said, all right, well, I'm gonna do a new rear bumper, built one myself, also not what's on the truck currently, but I built a new bumper and for for those of you listening, I'm showing myself fabricating a piece of C-channel. I believe it was quarter inch, three-eighths quarter inch C-channel between the frame mounts on my Tacoma.
Speaker 1:Again, that's me, that's my shop. I did all that. That was an interim solution to a problem. Okay, it was just like I need something. I cut the trailer hitch out because I was dragging that everywhere and so, anyways, interim solution, not a permanent solution by any means Got that rear bumper on, started taking the truck out, all right.
Speaker 1:So you'll see here some things changed on the truck. I've got my rooftop 10 on it. I've added a second um box. My grill changed. I put a regular off-road grill. I put lights, I put Casey lights on the front of my original bumper, my original CBI cover. I also have rock sliders because I ripped the other sliders off, or not ripped them off, but they were mangled to a point of no return. And I'm going to keep going back and forth because, again, different points of this show different things on the truck. So here's the truck with rock sliders. This is also pre-rooftop tent. So I already had the rooftop tent from my Titan. So I didn't buy a rooftop tent, I already had it. Okay, so here we are, rooftop tent, you know, an extra box here. So all I've done at this point here is I've built a rear drawer system, which I will show, hand-built a rear drawer system, and added my rooftop tent and an extra Pelican box.
Speaker 1:At this point I decided to go to my rooftop tent as we were sleeping in the back of the truck and it's a five foot bed and I'm just too. I'm just too tall and I'll never say that many times in my life, but I was just too tall to sleep in the bed. So I went ahead and put my rooftop 10 up on the truck, um, for these trips, and this is in Arkansas here. So I I all I've done. At this point we are seven, eight months after I bought the truck here, march 1 of 23, I posted this I don't know if this was February 23. This is my truck. Like within the last year, like little longer than a year is where it was, so not much. At this point I started going more and that things started to change pretty rapidly from there. Here is the truck. You can kind of see my drawer system back here with my fridge and some things.
Speaker 1:Again got solar. That's all camping gear, though not necessarily the truck. It's nothing's attached at this point to the truck. But again, I did address that grill as you brought up. The grill was whack. I put a regular TRD grill on it. Life went on. I think it looks freaking thousand times better than it did.
Speaker 1:So anyways, rooftop tent same thing. Like I built a system here like wood. This is all wood. Wood drawer for this. Nothing Again, I could. I could for the for those of you watching like I could lift it up and like take it out. Like it wasn't screwed to anything. It was like raw wood. I think I spent two hundred dollars total on all of it, painted it with leftover paint. Nothing cool at all.
Speaker 1:Um question just came through and it. The question is do I wish I had a long bed? 100%, I say it all the time. Had I known how much I liked sleeping in the truck versus the rooftop tent, just for the factor of like quickness, I would have got a long bed, a hundred percent. Even the I mean Even the extra length. It would have been Ideal For what I wanted to do and I would have sold this rooftop tent. Justin asked Does a third gen Tacoma come in an extended cab? Yes, it does. It 100% does come in an extended cab. So that's the phase of the truck. There I can move on.
Speaker 1:I got rid of the puck lift, went to suspension, upgraded my tires. The Patagonia MTO2s were off-roading. The MTO2s were great tires for and they were great off-road. They were like beyond great off-road. They were not good on-road. So I did end up later, you know, switching away from those tires.
Speaker 1:But as you can see earlier on, when I had the truck, I was doing more wheeling than overlanding, and most of that in part due to it was winter. I got the truck at the end of September and it was the winter, so I just it was. I didn't have a diesel heater, I just bought the truck. So I paid, you know, taxes on the truck, you know all just got the truck, like there was some costs associated with just getting the truck as any vehicle. So I was, I wasn't really spending too much on anything else and just wheeling more than overlanding. I didn't really have much of a power system at that point. I made my own out of an AGM battery that ends up being pretty crap like, not crappy, just didn't last me like I would have liked to. Power became an issue um, very quickly, but I had done everything budget, diy, you know very, very low money, um until until last year. So, you know, I started to do more trips and along with that, you know, along with more trips became more ideas on what I would like to have in my truck. So this is so. This is what it looks like, we'll go ahead and call it before I committed fully to the build. You know, viper cut it is. You know this is. This is a few things done to the truck rock sliders, rooftop tent system in the back, like that I built, which I'll show here. This is the system I built drawers, wood shelves, these all just pull out. Nothing at all complex in any stretch of the imagination at all.
Speaker 1:Started going more, as you'll see here. Started going more and decided I'm liking this overlanding thing more than the off-roading thing. Yes, justin, I answered your question. They do make an extended cab. They do make an extended cab to Tacoma. So I decided at this point I'm pretty over the just off-roading and you'll see a direct shift.
Speaker 1:And then we're just going to go to the next couple of photos here. So here's one photo of stuff that I bought Fridge slide, front bumper, rear bumper. They just you know these are raw parts Front bumper, rear bumper, another pallet. Then I mean, where's the other one? Then a new rooftop tent, hard shell rooftop tent. So you'll see, I kind of just out of nowhere, was like, okay, I'm going to get into this. So you'll see, snorkel happened along the way too. So I'm going to go ahead and cut off of this screen and I'm going to talk about some of these products and what led me to go into these products. So I started to go more and for anybody that goes often, you're going to know you're going to get flaked on all the time. So at this point. I didn't have a winch, I didn't have recovery points, I didn't have satellite communication. I had just been going. I decided I liked the Overland side of things the soft shell rooftop tent was having some wear on the cover and then, obviously, like, protection and safety became a pretty big consideration, as I was going alone far more often and when I say alone I mean no other vehicles, just me, you know, just just the Tacoma was going.
Speaker 1:No, nobody else was going. So I started to think, you know, I probably should get steel bumpers. You know, not only for, not only for, you know, rock protection, but like vehicle or, excuse me, animal protection. Like, if I'm going on a long trip and I hit a deer, I don't want my truck to be annihilated. I wanted solid recovery points, I wanted a winch, I wanted better lights so I could see at night as I would get to camp spots late at night. You saw the rear of my truck lit up. That was at like 1 in the morning when I got there. So I was starting to think functionality, safety, convenience, quality. A lot of things on my truck prior to now were budget worked. You know that was it Like it worked. It wasn't awesome, but it worked.
Speaker 1:So then I went and started to do a lot of research. I went with all pro off-road. I have an all pro off-road. Front bumper, rear bumper skids are all all pro off-road. I went with All Pro Off-Road. I have an All Pro Off-Road front bumper, rear bumper skids or All Pro Off-Road. I went with a Smittybilt X2O 10,000-pound winch and some Baja Designs Spot XLs in amber on the front and KC Highlights in the fogs. I decided to do all those things. I did a Factor 55 hitch link as well On the rear bumper.
Speaker 1:It is a high clearance bumper but it did not require me to cut anything. So I'll go ahead. I'll slide back over here. My rear bumper didn't require me to cut anything. My rear bumper didn't require me to cut anything, which was great, quite honestly, and I've got. So I didn't have to cut anything, which was ideal. So this is all before I did everything. Okay, here we go. So this is the bumper that I got. That's it on the truck. Obviously, it's just scrolling through. You know my stuff here, but that is the bumper now. You know my truck's always apart, you'll see here. So that's my bumper. I got the steel bumper. I put it on. It didn't require me to cut anything. I'm trying to find a picture. It didn't require me to cut but the hitch is behind the license plate so it is a little bit higher than what was factory and it's all steel so you can recover from it. I don't tow. So that wasn't a big consideration, it just wasn't a thing I was considering.
Speaker 1:I did go ahead and buy a snorkel. Um, actually it was the advice of a friend why I bought a snorkel. So I have a friend, brad, and I've talked about him before and Brad's advice to me. I sold a rental home and Brad's advice to me was you should really buy something that you, that you really freaking want, like something that you want so bad you'll never be able to get it again. You know it's just a unique time. So I went ahead and reached out to Sloop Imports and I had a snorkel for my Tacoma, imported from Australia. So my snorkel is stainless, I believe, and it is from Australia legitimately and I have videos of me, you know, installing said snorkel. This is not a plastic snorkel, not a safari snorkel. This is a legitimate hard snorkel from Australia, from in-house fab in Australia, imported to the United States. There was only at this point in time. There was only a couple of those in the states, so that's my one like way more money than a normal snorkel.
Speaker 1:I do highly recommend a snorkel at this point as it keeps your air cleaner way cleaner, but that the reason I did that solely at that point was that, like that was something really cool. That I just wanted was that snorkel, and so that's what I went with. Is that snorkel? Um, I don't know that that's something that I would have done to the truck otherwise personally. But now that I have it, I would say I would highly recommend a snorkel just for dust in your air box. You know it's great for it's. I would say I would highly recommend a snorkel just for dust in your air box. You know it's great for it's great for dust. I would highly recommend a snorkel to keep the dust out of your air box. I mean, my air cleaner's rarely dirty at all because of the snorkel, and you can get a snorkel that would function again.
Speaker 1:This is like a fancy piece of something that I got for myself, like a that. That that necessarily isn't is completely unnecessary and was it was a ton of money, um, anyways. So, but you can get one on ebay for your car. Most of your guys cars of or some type of extent on ebay. So here's my front bumper with the winch in it. You'll see my front bumper's full steel. That was a huge thing to me that it was full steel. There's my smoothie milk winch in it. Another big thing that was extremely important to me about my front bumper is here I'll show it with this is that I could reach my hand in here and get to the winch clutch.
Speaker 1:A lot of people so I said I'm going to talk a little bit and that is my house garage behind us with my stuff there. But one thing that that I try to make sure I do is I don't have anything. I don't have anything but that snorkel on my truck that I'm like, ooh, that looks sick. This bumper is not the bumper that I thought looked the coolest, not the bumper that I thought looked the coolest. I can get to the clutch. I can get to my winch clutch to free spool my winch out and it's 100% steel.
Speaker 1:The winch plate will support the truck. It bolts up to the frame. It's a functional piece. I did not pick the all pro bumpers because they look the coolest at by any stretch of the imagination. So there are people that like pre-runner bumpers, there are people that like specific brands and how they look and tube bumpers and different things, and I'm not knocking any of that at all.
Speaker 1:But I can tell you that this bumper is going to protect me from anything that could hit me in the front. It's 100% going to hold my winch. It's attached to the frame. It's going to handle any animal protection, like animal issues I might have, which they could happen, and it's just a peace of mind period, period. So it's heavy, which turns into a problem. You know you fix one problem, you create 15 other problems when you're building a truck. So this bumper is heavy With the winch in it. I bet this bumper with the winch in it it's every bit of 200 pounds, every bit of it, maybe more, probably more. Who knows? It's heavy, very heavy, again turns into a problem. Everything you do causes another problem. And there's the Baja Designs lights. But again, extremely important, that you can get to your winch clutch. A lot of people get a winch bumper. I don't know that they intend on using their winch because they can't even get to it. So here's the bumper on the truck. You can see I can get right in there to get to my winch clutch. This is before my Factor 55 and also before my skid plates. So bumpers, snorkel, all kind of happen at the same time. There's the bumper on the truck, that's where the hitch is. It's got a lift up license plate and this is where stuff started to get serious Again. Rear bumper all steel anchor points, all steel, all the way back to the frame, cross-membered, extremely sturdy, lots of protection. Again, major concern protection, not looks protection.
Speaker 1:Well then, I didn't like. You know, I was like man, I kind of want a better rooftop tent. So I had an Overland Vehicle Systems tent. Previously my soft shell tent was an Overland Vehicle Systems soft shell tent. I think I paid $800 for it, brand new, on a sale. A couple years later, same sale got a Bushveld 2 hard shell rooftop tent Huge upgrade.
Speaker 1:Something I very much wanted to do was a hard shell rooftop tent no fading, no ripping, just a lot nicer. It's just a nicer. Upgrade is going to hard shell rooftop tent. Now I'll be the first person to tell you that hard shell rooftop tents. You're going to think they're an upgrade.
Speaker 1:I can't put my bedding in that thing. The mattress is thinner, the fabric's nicer, the top's nicer, it's more aerodynamic, it's shorter, but it's not a 100%. That's better, okay, so I'm not knocking soft shell tents at all. That is a better sleep. There's a. There's positives and negatives of both. I don't think one's better than the other.
Speaker 1:But now again, go fast. Camper would be the best of it all. It's hard, it's hard shell. You put your stuff in it. It's quick to get down. Go fast, cam camper is the way to go.
Speaker 1:Lights, skids at this point. That's what's changed. Okay, now, that's what's changed at this point. Big change around that, though. Here Now I've got front bumper, rear bumper, skids, winch right. Well, as I stated previously, that weighs a literal ton. Okay, I just added a ton of weight to my truck.
Speaker 1:So in comes Ironman leaf springs. I went with the Ironman constant load leaf pack. Now, again, this is to hold the weight of everything I just put on in the rear. It wasn't until very recently. I addressed the front because, although you guys listen to this, may think so, I am not made of money. And this was not all done, you know, within the same five seconds. So went ahead and did the Ironman 4x4 leaf pack in the rear constant load. So it's good for 600 plus pounds in the rear all the time and it lifts the truck. You know a number of inches two inches to it, I actually think it's like 2.75 inches or something like that. So Ironman Leaf Pack goes on. That was a huge, enormous upgrade to this truck. It made the world of difference and my stock leaf springs in the rear were absolutely and completely destroyed Bad. So this is a huge upgrade that I think anybody looking to build a truck should look at and they're going to make an Overland truck.
Speaker 1:Make sure you're looking at your springs, whether you got a 4Runner, whether you got a Jeep, whether you got a Tacoma or a different truck, whether it's whether they're coil springs or leaf springs on the rear. It is a huge, freaking upgrade. If you're doing a swing out, if you're doing rear bumpers, if you're putting drawers back there, very much look into springs. Unfortunately, on the Tacoma, heavy load springs are really really expensive. I think those springs ran me almost a thousand dollars just for the rear leaf springs, not shocks, just the leaf springs. Now my friend Chris just put heavier duty springs on the rear of his forerunner and their iron man as well, cause obviously I'm like, hey, those springs are doing me amazing. So he went ahead and he and their iron man as well, cause obviously I'm like, hey, those springs are doing me amazing. So he went ahead and he's got iron man as well and I think those springs ran him a couple hundred bucks. If he's listening, he can comment below and I'll give you guys the exact price. But they are coil springs forerunner. He drives a forerun 4Runner and they were pretty inexpensive. So Springs is a huge upgrade, huge consideration.
Speaker 1:So I go to Colorado. My truck is in this configuration. Nothing else has changed. This is Crested Butte, colorado, on the side of you know place to camp. I got the heavy load leaf springs, front bumper, rear bumper.
Speaker 1:I upgraded my fridge to the Dometic, the bigger fridge, the 75 liter dual zone, because again the fridge was starting to become a problem. I didn't have enough space for everything in my truck Cold stuff going on, longer trips, multiple days, three days, four days, six days and a fridge became an issue. Multiple days, three days, four days, six days and a fridge became an issue. So got a bigger fridge. Go to Colorado, spend the week in Colorado driving. Come back from Colorado Truck looks like this Everything's organized. Propane water recovery ladder because I'm short and I need a ladder to get up there. My powers back here. I have a Dometic fridge slide at this point, big upgrade. Right, this is my homemade setup okay, homemade, you know you'll see some other mods. I got bed stiffeners, which just a Tacoma has to have ARE over land cap bought it with that. So, anyways, got it like this.
Speaker 1:Well, the biggest pain in the butt with this whole system is that in the rear, in the rear, this was a nightmare for me, this was a nightmare for us. Like this was a nightmare. I did not have the ability to reach the things in the back from the front. I was crawling in and out and in and out and again we did like six days in Colorado, 3000 something miles, and I was in and out of this freaking truck 15 freaking times a day because there was no way to do anything. And Ladina just commented below this is the trip that determined way more of what I wanted. Because this is again. I'm getting way more into overlanding Again. I'd wheeled this truck a lot. We'd camped a lot. This is where I started to really make the transition, you know, really heavily into overlanding, like overland travel, just traveling long distances for long amounts of time. So my truck looks like this.
Speaker 1:I built this, it worked, it served its function, but my Titan had a deck system. Now the deck system is very expensive and I thought, man, I don't want to do that again. It was really expensive, hence building this one for very little money. Well, I came back from Colorado and did just that deck system. Like we're talking. This is September 16th. The deck system is in my truck and I am pretty sure that on September 12th I was in Colorado. So it was that big of a deal. It was that big of a deal to get drawers and for those of you that don't know what a deck system is, now that I've bought two and I've tried something else and I'm very competent DIYer in most cases and you just can't beat it Okay, you just cannot beat the deck system, even for the money, you can't beat it. And that allows you to have pull-out drawers and now all my stuff's organized and I can get the stuff in the back from the front. Everything has a place.
Speaker 1:It was just a huge upgrade to overlanding. Now, negative to that, again, the deck system weighs a bunch and I had to cut out here from fridge, so I had to figure that out too. So now my fridge had to go higher. But the deck system is a huge if you have a truck or you have an SUV, a quality drawer system for overland travel. Again, it's heavy, it's cumbersome. There's a lot of stuff in it.
Speaker 1:If you're into 4x4ing, rock crawling, doing trails one day, two days, I don't think this is something you need Now. If you're more interested in going longer distances, more days, this is an immense upgrade and probably an upgrade I should have done long ago. One of my earlier upgrades should have been this. It was the first upgrade I did on my Titan and I loved it on that, but thought it was a little spendy. Here we are again. I bought another one.
Speaker 1:At this point, I could not tell you that it's a bad idea for a truck, no matter if your truck's stock or not. If you like to camp and go out a bunch, this should be the first and only mod Now in my Titan. A lot of people look I have a bed rack or I have a bed rack, I have a camper shell on my. On my um coma, my Titan had a uh bed rack and the deck system's completely and totally waterproof and you could put over 2000 pounds on the top of it, so there's really no negative to it. It's not chintzy, it's waterproof. I mean there's no negative even if you got it out in the bed of your truck naked. It's great, highly, highly highly recommend. If you're into this hobby, this is a fantastic piece of gear.
Speaker 1:I immediately bought one when we got back and again just would not tell anybody any different there, huge, freaking upgrade. So anyways, deck system goes in. But then again you do one thing. You create a problem for a different thing deck systems in a cool picture of my truck, until they ride um with my monster middling antenna there. So anyways, I get there and then the issue was how does the fridge fit back there? And this is where one problem that fixed the problem turned into a really freaking expensive fridge slide. So my fridge slide before didn't tilt, but now that the fridge was going to be so high that wasn't going to suffice because I'd never be able to get in the fridge. So I didn't have to. But I ended up buying a Alucab tilt fridge slide for my Dometic, bolted it to the deck system and you see it here with my fridge sliding. That to me is just a necessity of the game, but I did talk about with you guys function.
Speaker 1:Why is my fridge on the passenger side? Well, two reasons. My gas tank is on the driver's side so it weighs more. And I'm in the driver's seat and I weigh a lot, so I put the fridge. It's heavy, the slide's heavy. I put it on the passenger side in hopes to weigh the truck out. That is something that I do consider when I load the truck and have been building the truck is trying to even out the weight.
Speaker 1:Now my leaf springs on the rear, unlike some companies. Now my leaf springs on the rear, unlike some companies. They are two separate part numbers on my truck from Ironman. So the one on the rear driver's side is a different spring rate than the one on the passenger side, because the gas tank's over there and some companies do that and some companies don't. But then that goes back into consume as much information as you can on the internet before you spend so much money, because you will not be able to know what what you're getting into.
Speaker 1:So that's my truck as it sits there. That's my truck as it sits there. Um, and then some cool pictures of it. After you know, this is pretty much how it sits now and these are cool pictures from last time I went to Arkansas, um doing some. Uh, this is my friend Jay back here and this is my truck more or less how it's how it sits today. But I do want to give a shout out to my friend Zion, because he comes off-roading with us and takes pictures. He rode the trail like this, by the way, guys on the back of the ladder because he's a stud. So those of you guys that are listening to this later, what I have in front of me is a picture of my friend Zion taking a picture of my truck. What I have in front of me is a picture of my friend Zion taking a picture of my truck while standing on the rear ladder of my friend Johnny's 4Runner while on the trail Epic move, sick move. Can't thank him enough for that Such a cool thing that he did there. And then these are just pictures of my truck. Nothing crazy going on here. That's how my truck sits today.
Speaker 1:So I mean, I've done a lot of things to my truck bumpers, suspension so then we get into today what I just did to my truck upper control arms, different shocks, different springs in the front to remedy the issue with the bumper, way and more. But I didn't do that for almost a year after I removed my sway bar. A couple different things, but it's always been constantly evolving. I would say now, I'd say at this point, you know, my truck is pretty dang well complete At this point. I'd say at this point, you know, my truck is pretty dang well complete At this point.
Speaker 1:I would like to have wheels. I am still running stock wheels on my truck. I would love to have wheels. I don't have wheels, you know, like no big deal, but I would love to Stock wheels. Wheels, I mean. I also along the lines I upgraded the brakes.
Speaker 1:And again, one thing leads to another thing all the time the interior of my truck. I have phone mounts, a scan gauge too, which monitors temperatures of different things. It monitors temperatures, trans temp intake, temp voltage. You can set it to say whatever you want of information. I have a Zolio for satellite communication. I have a first aid kit, I have seat covers, I have WeatherTech floor mats, yeah, so I mean it's a plethora of of things, but what I can tell everybody that will listen and watch this not only now but later is man, you, you've got to go like if the type of travel you want to do should dictate your build.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying to go ruin your vehicle before you build it. But I would say I'm happy that my truck had a puck lift, because it's a hundred bucks and I still got out to see what the truck was capable of and not capable of. And it's been far more capable. Um, ladina just said I always say my truck's done. So Dina just said I always say my truck's done.
Speaker 1:I couldn't tell you and this is going to sound pretentious I don't really know what else I could do to the thing at this point. I could regear it. I haven't regeared it and I'd love to do that, but it's extremely expensive and I will get into something that I just did today for the fourth time. That, I think, is huge, but I'm going to. I'm going to dedicate a whole. I'm going to dedicate a whole, you know section to that.
Speaker 1:So, um, anyways, I would go out with your truck with kind of the most minimal of things you could do. I think you can't go wrong with good 10 play tires and I don't think you can go wrong with a puck lift to start. It might suffice for you forever. Really, honestly, again, I've upgraded a lot of things, but that's based on the travel I do. Had I been more interested in longer trips earlier before I bought another rooftop tent before I did some things, I'd have had a deck system. I would have.
Speaker 1:Had I done my bumpers earlier, decided to do my bumpers before my first suspension upgrade. I'd have heavier springs. You know, like I kind of did some things wrong, but at the same time we're not all made of money to do it right the first time. So think about if you want, you know, and people, you could do this too. Like if you aspire to have a heavy front bumper and a winch, just get the heavier spring suspension to begin with.
Speaker 1:At the time I did my first iteration of suspension. I was wheeling more, so I wanted softer, but I that changed. So you just gotta. You know, sometimes I do the right thing and sometimes I don't, you know, and in some cases I've done good things, in some cases I haven't. So now, one thing that I have done on this truck that I cannot express to everybody is another thing that I think should be a first mod on anybody's truck car is uh, is ECU tuning? Okay, so what a tune is is where you, you hook your car up through the OBD two port and you reflash the ECU. Um, this is extremely prevalent. Um, ecu tuning is really prevalent in Jeeps, tacomas, 4runners, gxs, lexuses, all across the board. I actually just retuned my truck today with the Yodaworks Blackhawk 2.1. And I put an initial reaction review on my YouTube channel of that of that tune. Now I've had the so.
Speaker 1:So VF tuner is the tuning software that you use for that you use for Toyotas. Johnny asked how much is a tune? Johnny actually just asked me about tunes and I'm a cover it all Cause I got my tuners info up here, um, and I do it remotely and, johnny, I'd be happy to help you do it remotely as well, as I have all the stuff. If you guys ever around me and you ever want any help, I'm more than happy to help. Tuning. I'm extremely um I I'm pretty versed in it. Decently. The Toyota tuning software is a lot different than what I'm used to. I used to use Cobb tuning software a lot and I'm very good with that, but anyways, this is different. It's VF tuner. It's a little different. It's a lot of the same either way.
Speaker 1:But so you reflash the ECU. What that does is it changes so many things about your vehicle so it could change kind of where your power comes in, what shift points you have, how your shift points react. Can you lock your automatic transmission into a gear? On my Toyota prior to having a tune, I could put it in four-wheel low first gear but I couldn't bounce it off the rev limiter. It wouldn't lock in gear. It would eventually shift to second. By getting a tune I can lock it in first and just bounce the rev limiter. Not that that's something you want to be doing, but there are times where you're really screwed if it tries to shift and you don't want it to shift, you want to leave it where it's at For sure you want to accelerate in that gear to try and either get unstuck, get out of a situation, try not to slide off a hill, like there are times you want that. So that's something you can't get without a tune. Secondly, the new tune I just got actually works with the alternator to increase the voltage for my AGM battery. So now my truck, instead of doing 13.6 volts all the time, is doing 14.2 to 14.6 volts all the time, which is great for my my system in my truck.
Speaker 1:Um, as I have a lot of power coming off my truck, which I will talk about, I, I'm just talking about the truck. I'm going to do a whole nother podcast, a whole nother stream on my camping stuff, which is equally as extensive. But that's a whole nother freaking, that's a whole nother thing. I'm just talking the truck. I look at the truck as stuff that if I get rid of the truck I don't ever get back. All my camping stuff can just come out of the truck. You know even the fridge, like that's coming, that's not that out of the truck. You know even the fridge like that's coming. That's not that the Tacoma doesn't own those things. So I'll talk about all my camping gear stoves, power, solar, all that stuff, recovery gear, first aid kit, like all the stuff. That's not Toyota Tacoma specific stuff on a totally different streaming podcast later.
Speaker 1:So anyways, back to ECU tuning. So you remap the transmission, you remap timing, you remap shift points. How hard shift pressures like, is it shifting hard, is it shifting soft? How is it shifting? It's a big thing with the Tacoma it's called gear hunting. It's always going up and down Tuning could correct that. It can help. Sometimes it can help with gas mileage. Sometimes it can hurt gas mileage. It all depends. So the tuner I use is Tidewater Customs and here's the information. This Tidewater Custom is Chris LeBlanc. I literally just did an initial review of the most recent tune I just put on my truck today 's. On my YouTube he does Yoda works tuning. Blackhawk 2.1 is out now so Johnny asked and let me make sure that I get this up here. Here's Tidewater tuning. This is this is Chris's web page and they do remote tuning, which is what I did they do regular tuning reviews about. So so right here, um is the platforms he does 2016 plus tacoma. 2005 to 15 tacoma. 2016 plus tacoma with supercharger. 2010 to 2023 forerunner, which is the majority of my friends 05-09 4Runner, 07-21 Tundra. 2010 Plus GX460. And 2005-2009 GX470. So it does a lot of Toyota platforms. And so it was asked what does something like this cost? Well, first, it depends on what you've got. So I'm going to go through his website with you guys, as this made an enormous difference to my. Every time I've done a tune, it changed how my truck was able to perform going uphills, downhills, like. It is an enormous change and I can't explain it to you guys enough. And it's not just because I have a tuner and I've tuned my truck that I think it's awesome. I've tuned a freaking every car I've ever owned, because it just makes them better. It just flat freaking makes them better. But just for those of you guys that are watching, I'm going to go through it. So Johnny asked how much is a tune? Johnny is my friend. He has a fifth gen 4runner, so I'm gonna run through this website. I'm gonna talk to you guys about it. So what I did is I went to tidewatercustomscom. I went to buy. Now there's remote tuning options. All right, I'm going to. I'm just or you can request an in-person appointment. Now, if you request an in-person appointment, chris is on the East Coast, so if you're keep that in mind, but you can also look, you could also reach out to Chris. So you could go to Chris here, probably somewhere on here home. You could call Chris, you could contact Chris and you could ask for a tuner within your area. He has been a phenomenal resource to me. But I'm going to look at remote tuning. Fit Gen 4 runner. Johnny Remote tuning. This would be you do it. Your 2020 to 24. 4.0. Naturally aspirated. You can get so again. He's in Virginia. He can send you a cable for $75 or you can purchase the license and everything. In my case I have that, so you don't need to do any of that Laptop. He can even send you a loaner laptop. I have a laptop. You don't need to do any of that Laptop. He can even send you a loaner laptop. I have a laptop. You don't need that. So we're looking at fifth gen forerunner, naturally aspirated. We're not buying any extra stuff. This is assuming it's your first tune ever and it's $635. That's not him just sending you something. He gets on the phone with me every time immediately screen shares, helps me do it, talks through the tunes with me, what each iteration of the tune is. You're not getting one tune. I. It's almost a. It's almost a package. Also with that, like my truck. The questions he asks is your truck heavy? Does it have an AGM battery? What size tires are on it? Is it re-geared? These things matter too. Throttle response that you like heavy throttle response, light throttle response, mid throttle response. You're probably gonna get a tune for all of them. Um, so it's in it. In it again, I I wish someone with a tacoma ever would drive my truck that hasn't tuned their truck, and they would not. Even they would think I've done some major engine work to this truck. They would. They would think I've done something crazy to it and I haven't. But man, it used to just go between gears like crazy. Toyotas are known to be underpowered. This is a huge, huge, huge thing. So I just upgraded to it today because the new tune literally just came out, you know, like literally just came out. So I upgraded to it. New tune literally just came out, you know, like literally just came out. So I upgraded to it again. Initial renew, initial review is on my on my YouTube. I'm not like a fan boy, I'm just talking through it while I'm feeling it. So, to explain it to you guys, you'll be able to hear my truck. I have a louder exhaust on it, things like that. But that's what it would look like. Just go to buy now. Again, you can request an appointment, et cetera, et cetera. Different vehicles are different. So, johnny, I showed you what 4Runner was. Tacoma you're looking at year 2016 to 21 would be me, naturally aspirated automatic. Don't need it. Don't need it 3.5, 525. So again, I say 635, that doesn't apply to every year. Make a model. So just, you're going to have to go through and look for your year. Make a model. For those of you watching, he's got a picture of your cars here so you don't need to know. Third gen, fourth gen, second gen, it's going to. It's going to look like the vehicle that you drive. Click on that one and move through it. But I I can't express the amount of people that asked me about tunes and the amount of people that don't understand the difference between a tune and a throttle controller. You can get a throttle controller all day. It's not going to change your shift points. You can get a throttle controller all day. It's not going to change your shift points. It's not going to change air-fuel ratio. It's not going to change fuel delivery. Where the power band is, how your truck stays or doesn't stay in gears, what RPMs it shifts at, how it handles going downhill, like my truck now, if I tap the brakes a couple times, it downshifts to engine brake versus just rolling. These are all things that the tune did there. You know, when I'm off road it creates a lot better throttle control. They are. It is a great thing to do to your truck. Again, whether your stuff is stock or not, it's a good thing to do. It just makes the car run better. Again, you want to find a reputable tuner, like Chris, you know, don't just Joe Blow that does it, you know, in his I mean, treat it like you would treat anything Like you know, like anything Construction, like find a reputable person but highly recommend a tune. I think ECU tuning is, I think my truck wheels as well as it does due to the tuning. Honestly, because I can control the throttle better. I don't have dead spots, it's not. It's not late to react. I I can lock it in gears. Again, I don't have a rear locker, I don't have crawl control, so the tune is extremely. Now a lot of people will ask does it void my warranty? No, does it Does it. So it does avoid my warranty. No, it doesn't void your warranty. Like people ask, like does it affect? Is it only a performance upgrade? No, it's really just makes your car run better. I know everybody's going to be like well, toyota has a lot of research with Toyota. Also, you know, if Toyota did such a good job with the tuning of these vehicles, people like Chris wouldn't exist and I wouldn't be so happy with my truck Now. It also doesn't affect anything like your other electronics. It's not going to negatively affect your ABS system. It's not going to negatively affect your car control, your rear locker, your headlights. There's really not a downside to it in my opinion. So tuning is a great thing. It's far more than a throttle controller. It's not just changing that you press the throttle a little in your engine things. It's a lot. It's. It's so much more than that. It's like a redoing of the way the computer tells the, the vehicle, how to work and in a lot of ways it's way better, not just for overlanding, not just for off-roading, just in general. And I know there's a lot of people with jeeps. You know you get a bigger, you get bigger tires and you do like ECU. Tuning is something that is extremely prevalent across. You know, anytime you've got vehicles and they're great, but they have their shortcomings. Tuning is the solution in a lot of ways. Like you know, I haven't regeared my truck yet. It's a very, very expensive modification because the tuning solutions I have had have made my truck so much more drivable, even with the stock gears, even as heavy as it is to where I'm not looking to spend that four or five thousand dollars for the re-gear. I can deal with it just fine because the tuning is so good. So that is one thing that's going to go with the truck. I can never recoup that money back, but, man, it makes a huge difference. Tuning is an enormous upgrade to your vehicle and again, I cannot explain how bad my truck was going up and down hills previous to tuning it and it's just not anymore. It's like you would expect it to be. Even though it's underpowered it just see it, just it still does really well. Um, it's night and day. Honestly, most people, most people think it's a hoax and you can look at videos all day about people that are like I think it's bs and then they drive their truck for car whatever for the first time, like man, huge difference way better. I like it Like I don't know too many bad reviews for tuning. Honestly, great thing to do if you can get past the initial cost of it in your head, but the things it'll do for your vehicle, phenomenal. So anyways, that is, it's hard to go over my entire truck build in an hour, but that is the majority of my truck build my Tacoma, if you guys have, if you guys want to see a walk around of me, go through my Tacoma. That's on Instagram on outskirts overland. I'm probably going to do one on YouTube here coming up. I just did a first reaction of the newest new tune in my truck. I'm driving it, talking about the tune while I'm driving, first startup everything and I'm going to go over all my camping gear as well. I don't have photos and stuff of all my camping gear, so that's why that's probably not going to be for a little bit, but I will do that. But that's essentially my Tacoma. Make sure you guys are going over to my Instagram page, outskirts Overland. That's where I do the majority of updates and things like what's going on with my truck, what am I doing, where am I going, how are things going. That's where the majority of that stuff is and I'd highly recommend you guys go over there and check it out. I see I'm so grateful for everybody I'm getting. I'm getting a ton I mean an absolute ton of listeners and I really appreciate all you guys. The stream's been doing good. I got a lot of comment activity here. Really appreciate you guys being here. It makes me feel like I am providing something to this community. You know a lot of people care a lot about truck builds and a lot of people care about my truck and this is on my 14th week and if this is the first week you've listened, I wouldn't base the other 13 weeks off of this one. This is just a highly sought after episode for people. What did what? You know? What did charlie do to his truck? Why did he do it? What was he looking at? You know what's in, what goes into it, or what I put into it, why I did it? Um, and again, I didn't get into a whole lot of depth on it here, but, uh, more than I have before for sure. But I'd, I'd, I didn't, I'd, I guess, inspire you to go back and look at my other episodes. There's a whole lot more explanation of things, whether it's how to do stuff, interviews with the Toyo Jamboree Express Rally, a couple of my friends, you know, going over electrical systems. I talk about a lot of other stuff. So if this is your first time listening, I really appreciate having you. There are many other episodes backwards and you're going to find that I have a pretty wide array of content for you guys and again, I'd highly recommend you guys go over to my Instagram, check it out. That's where I put all the day to day. I may start getting more into YouTube. I don't know. I'm familiar and comfortable with Instagram, so that's really why I do that. But either way, I'm happy to have you guys here in any capacity If you guys would like to help drive my content in a direction you're interested in, just like me. Going over. My truck was driven by, you know, listeners and viewers. They wanted me to talk about my truck. That's what people want to hear about. If you're interested in any topics, I'm more than happy to accommodate my listeners and my viewers. I'd be happy to talk about any topic. I have a lot of opinions. I have a lot of experience. I can look stuff up to bring maybe some different insights to you on something you're looking at or wanting to do or interested in, or I can even find an expert in that specific realm or area. Or if you're like I really want to go to a state, I can probably find somebody that lives near that could tell you about it. If you're interested. Whatever you guys want, I'm more than happy to accommodate. Otherwise I'll keep jabbering as I have been. I love doing this, but I'm also cool doing whatever you guys want to Like if you got questions or anything. That's what I'm here for as well. So hopefully you guys enjoyed a little bit more about just me and my truck, as that's been asked about constantly actually. But ultimately, I appreciate you guys. I hope to see you guys next week. If you're listening. I really appreciate you guys. I've seen an enormous uptick in you guys and I've got a listener and you guys will listen. I would love my listeners in Germany to. I would love to know who you are. I've got some consistent listeners in Germany and I think that is the coolest thing ever. A couple listeners in Australia. I love you guys too. I just think that's. That's crazy cool. Man, I'm just a dude. I'm in my freaking kitchen like doing this. I love it. Anyways, guys, I really appreciate you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. Have a good day, have a good weekend and I'll be on next week, tuesday at 630. Ok, see you.