Box Rocket '03 DC Tacoma Build

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

new fairlead and shackle. Trying to prep for a winch.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

I didn't like the factory front seats very much so I searched a local scrap yard and found a set of decent seats in great condition. They came out of a Suzuki Reno. I cut the brackets off my stock seats and welded them to the tracks of the Suzuki seats and it was a straight bolt-in. I made sure to find seats that had the same track width as the stock seats. They sit a little taller than the stock seats, which I like since I'm not super tall. (5'8") The Suzuki seats were much more comfortable, had durable fabric and much better bolsters.

Now what was I going to do with my stock seats? Well I've got 4 kids so we can't all fit in the Tacoma as it is. But now with two extra seats I had an idea. I checked the UT lawbook to make sure it was legal and when I knew I was in the clear I fabbed up a new low profile seat cradle and mounted my stock seats to it, added some lap belts and mounted it in the bed with some beefy backing plates. Now seating for 7!

Seats still slide and recline.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

Made a new hilift mount on the tire carrier.

just sits on a "pinned" plate on the base

With one bolt up high.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

Had been wheeling the truck a bunch and the wheels had bad rock rash. The wheeling season was almost over so the wheels came off and got sanded and repainted.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

I had a partially used sheet of plywood and got an idea to help with drilling a ton of holes in the truck bed to mount stuff. I made a simple deck for the bed and bolted stuff to the deck instead. Only drilled 4 holes in the bed to hold the deck down instead of a dozen or more that are in the deck rather than the bed. I covered it with a sheet of rubber diamond plate from Autozone. It gave me a spot for my fridge mount and a CO2 bracket.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

I had been thinking about a roofrack for quite a while but I didn't like the Yakima or Thule bars on the roof with a basket on top of them because it all just sat too high for my taste. I wanted something low profile but there isn't much out there unless you drill into the roof. I wasn't too stoked about the idea of drilling into the roof. Then I found some really cool roofrack rails made by FrontRunner for a Non-USA Toyota Hilux. Kurt Williams used a set of them on his Tacoma with a Front Runner low profile rack. I couldn't stomach the high pricetag of the Front Runner rack, but Paul May at Equipt Expedition Outfitters made a a good deal on the Front Runner rails. That got me started and then I just fabbed my own low profile rack and some custom tabs to secure the rails to the roof by attaching it to the drip rails inside the doorframe.

The rack used another set of the flush mounted tie down tracks that I used on my bedrack. Added my Thule bike trays and called it good.

I ended up not using the rack like I thought I would and sold it to a guy back east.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

The next project was a second swing out for the rear bumper. Wanted a spot to carry extra fuel and water. Picked up another double shear hinge from Comp4x4 and made the second swing out. I was able to figure out a way to still use just a single latch to close both sides. I welded a plate to the second swing out that goes behind the swing arm of the tire carrier so when it's latched it holds both sides in place.

I ran with it that way for 4-5 months and decided that it was more weight on the rear of the truck than I wanted. Between the weight of the spare tire and 10 gallons of fluids plus the weight of the bumper I wasn't comfortable with the leverage being transferred to the frame. The Tacoma rear frame sections are slightly notorious for bending with a lot of weight on the rear of the truck.

The fix for that is either boxing the frame or added some frame plates to the outside of the frame rails to stiffen them up. I decided to do the outer frame plates and cut some from 3/16" plate. But I still ditched the fuel can carrier and went for something lighter on the second swing out.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

My BFG KM2s were getting pretty worn and with winter coming I used it as an excuse for some new rubber. Decided to go with a wider tire this time instead of the skinny 10.50s. Went with some Goodyear MTR Kevlars in 33x12.50. These tires are slightly more noisy than the KM2s and don't ride quite as smooth. But I like the more stable feel of the wider tire and the performance offroad has been every bit as good if not better than the KM2s.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

When I did my bumpers I built the rear pretty tight to the body. And the top plate that I added to the front bumper I kept tight to the body as well. It was a clean look but after a year or so of wheeling I found that there was enough frame flex that the bumpers would make slight contact with the body when the truck was really flexed out. Also the new tires were rubbing just a little. I decided that the easiest fix for both issues was a small body lift. I got a 1" body lift from Roger Brown (4crawler.com) who has a good reputation of making quality body lifts with larger nylon pucks so there is less chance of the pucks pushing through the floor of the truck like can happen with other brands.

I was a little worried about how the gap was going to look with the bumpers, but after getting the BL installed it really wasn't that bad, and took care of the issues I had with bumper contact and rubbing.

Just a slight gap at the rear bumper but the gap is hidden with the swingout installed.

Small gap up front too but it was too noticeable.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

The next mod was an upgrade to my extra lights. I'd been running some Hella Black Magic lights on the front bumper and they just weren't adequate on higher speed tracks in the desert. I would constantly outrun the lights. I picked up a set of used Hella Optilux HIDs off another forum for a good price. There was three of them instead of the two I was running so I needed new mounting tabs. The HIDs have internal ballasts and deeper bodies so the tabs I was using wouldn't work because the lights would hit the grill. I fabbed up a new simple light bar. This meant cutting off the upper light hoop on my bumper so I could fit three lights and adding a bracket farther forward on the bumper for the new lights.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

Something that had been nagging at me from the very beginning was that the OME shocks were slightly too short for how my rear suspension was set up with the extra leaf and the longer shackles. The shocks would limit the amount of droop I was getting. I was happy with the shocks performance so I didn't want to replace them so I got to measuring and decided to relocate the shock mounts so that the shocks wouldn't limit droop. At the same time I got some ubolt flip kits from Trail Gear. I also got some axle relocation plates from 4Crawler.com My rear tires would make slight contact with the front of the fender wells when full stuffed so the relocation plates would move the axle back to center the tires in the wheel wells. I tackled all of this one weekend.

I used new upper and lower shock mounts from Ruffstuff and welded in a new upper crossmember. This changed the shock mounts from a 1 forward/1 backward configuration to both shocks behind the axle with a slight rearward tilt. I kept the shocks parrallel instead of angling them inward at the top so that they would keep the rear of the truck more stable with less body roll.

Then went out and flexed it up to see how it all cleared. The relocation plates centered the rear tires up nicely

I was getting at least a couple more inches of droop in the rear

The OME leaves are actually pretty flexy. The progressive overloads seem to handle the negative arch ok.

Seemed to work out really well on the trail. The rear end was flexing MUCH better than before and the shocks were no longer limiting travel.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

I added some Spidertrax 1.5" wheel spacers on all 4 corners. I was surprised at the difference in stability. Maybe it's all in my head but it seems to help.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

The next mod was a Fridge slide for the bed of the truck. I wasn't using the rear deck anymore and I have had a set of heavy duty slides for years and never used them. I fabbed up a simple frame and mounted my Engel Transit Lock to it and bolted it all to the slides. I mounted it in the bed with some eye bolts to use as extra tie downs.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

Too have the fridge back there meant I had to modify my bed rack. It was too short for the fridge to fit so I cut the legs off and welded on some new ones to raise the rack up to clear the fridge. I also recently picked up a Tepui RTT that is mounted to the bedrack.

It was time to repaint the wheels again. So this time I threw on the 35's from my Land Cruiser while I worked on the Tacoma wheels. It doesn't look to bad with 35's.

Tacoma wheels repainted and back on the truck

I mounted this ammo box to the second swingout on the rear bumper to take the place of the fuel can rack. I carry recovery gear in here.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

When the bedrack is on the truck I have a spot on the rack for my hilift and shovel. When the topper is on the truck I've been carrying the hilift and shovel on the roofrack on the topper. It's fine up there but not easily accessible. Since I already had the hilift mount on the tire carrier I could move the jack to the tire carrier for better access but the shovel (even though it isn't used often) wasn't easy to get to on the roof. My tire carrier has a receiver tube on it in the center of the wheel. So a little welding of some new tabs I was able to move the shovel bracket to a quick release in the receiver on the tire carrier. This is much easier to get to.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

That's pretty much everything that's been done to the truck up to this point. I have really enjoyed this truck and it has been way more versatile than I thought it would be when I bought it. Its a great overlander and even with the IFS it can rock crawl pretty well. It's done all but the most gnarly trails in Moab so I can't complain at all about how well it works for me. Big thanks to Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters for advice and parts through the build process.

The only other mod that's maybe worth mentioning is my trailer that I drag around behind the truck sometimes. I built this from scratch back in 2008 and I'm still tweaking it. It's been fun. Maybe I'll post a build thread of the trailer.

Box Rocket · Nov 25, 2013

Hope this gives some ideas for others. Enjoy.

cruiseroutfit · Nov 25, 2013

Box Rocket said:
Hope this gives some ideas for others. Enjoy.

Solid work Adam, this truck rocks!

Lets see some more 'in-use' pics... I know you have them

Kevin B. · Nov 26, 2013

I love the heck out of this truck.

More details on the trailer please! It looks like the track width is wider than your truck? And how do you like the tongue length for dragging it through tight trails, any trouble there?

TRD270 · Nov 26, 2013

Sweet ride, great fab work. Might have to pay you to make me a little shelf for my back seat :greg:

Box Rocket '03 DC Tacoma Build

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Cruizah!

Not often wrong. Never quite right.

Emptying Pockets Again