Here’s my 2004 Toyota Tacoma. I sold my one ton/caged TJ to build something a bit more streetable again. Started life with me in 2022 with 594,000km and I drove it for a few months while I collected parts. This truck was such a good daily driver I almost regretted cutting it apart. The goal was a low, small(ish), very streetable/usable all around truck. Since I was a little late to the platform I took a lot of inspiration from other builds that seemed to work well.
Currently sits on 37s at 21ish inch frame height
Anyways, pretty much just your typical Toyota build - Toyota mini axles with all the goodies, arb’s, 4.88, RCV’s, ECGS hp third, Marlin filled dual cases, 3 link front with 14” fox coilovers, radflo air bumps, 63s in the rear. Sits on 37” trail grapplers/TR beadlocks in the summer and 38” mud grapplers/15x10s/coyote internal beadlocks in the winter.
Originally I had a front mini truck axle widened 3” on the short side for it, I found out pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to work. The third was way too far into the oil pan, basically no uptravel, driveline issues. Ended up going back to a stock mini truck housing and wheel spacers to gain the width I needed(not what I wanted, but it works)
Part 1 of the build ( December ‘22-April ‘23) I bobbed the bed 9”, new rear frame, new front frame - all 2x3”. Raised the engine, raised the transmission. Pretty much did anything reasonable I could to get the most uptravel. On paper, everything I did worked great.. ran into some issues once I actually put tires on it. The very narrow axle, paired with a decently big tire and lots of travel/articulation, made it hard to keep the tires out of hard parts. I started with trimming inner fenders, battery relocation, bigger wheel spacers, I just couldn’t keep the tires away from steering box/body. So I decided to limit my travel for the time being
Currently sits on 37s at 21ish inch frame height
Anyways, pretty much just your typical Toyota build - Toyota mini axles with all the goodies, arb’s, 4.88, RCV’s, ECGS hp third, Marlin filled dual cases, 3 link front with 14” fox coilovers, radflo air bumps, 63s in the rear. Sits on 37” trail grapplers/TR beadlocks in the summer and 38” mud grapplers/15x10s/coyote internal beadlocks in the winter.
Originally I had a front mini truck axle widened 3” on the short side for it, I found out pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to work. The third was way too far into the oil pan, basically no uptravel, driveline issues. Ended up going back to a stock mini truck housing and wheel spacers to gain the width I needed(not what I wanted, but it works)
Part 1 of the build ( December ‘22-April ‘23) I bobbed the bed 9”, new rear frame, new front frame - all 2x3”. Raised the engine, raised the transmission. Pretty much did anything reasonable I could to get the most uptravel. On paper, everything I did worked great.. ran into some issues once I actually put tires on it. The very narrow axle, paired with a decently big tire and lots of travel/articulation, made it hard to keep the tires out of hard parts. I started with trimming inner fenders, battery relocation, bigger wheel spacers, I just couldn’t keep the tires away from steering box/body. So I decided to limit my travel for the time being
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