02 Tacoma Build

Chris_Keziah

Chris_Keziah

Joe Dirt @ Rev Limit Fab
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Location
Winston-Salem
How she sits currently
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Vehicle:
2002 Toyota Tacoma TRD Limited, 3.4L V6, 4x4, 5 speed

Suspension:
Bilstein 5100 on top setting
Wheeler’s 1/4” top plate spacers
Daystar 1.25” shackles
Bilstein 5125 rear shocks
Homebrew 5 leaf pack
Sway bar removed
U-bolt flip kit

Drivetrain:
Grey wire mod
4.10 e-locker rear differential
4.10 front differential
Rear Diff-Breather Mod

Armor/Recovery:
Ryno Offroad skid plates
Trail gear bumper
Superwinch Tiger Shark 9500 SR
Jeep JK tow hook in the rear
Homebrew sliders out of 2x4x1/8

Wheels & Tires:
15x8 4” BS Steelies
35x12.50 BFG Km2’s
1.25" wheel spacers

Been a member on here long enough so figured I ought to start a build. I bought this cherry two owner grandpa truck a little over a yr and half ago
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Keep it stock minus cutting out the front of the air box to let it breathe a little better. When I bought I told myself I'd keep it stock for a year, kinda wish I said fuck it to begin with and mod from the beginning, lost a whole yr of wheeling because of that decision.
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First thing I wanted to take care of was the suspension, tires, and armor.
Tires I got off a buddy of mine. Wheels are mid 80s Toyota wheels and 32x11.50 Hankooks. Even being a little worn I love this tire and size, almost like it was designed to be the factory size for these.
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After that the truck really need some help in the ride height department. Went with Bilstein 5100’s up front and 5125 in the rear, hindsight I should have gone with some quality coil overs up front and foxes or something better in the rear. The rear shocks are both leaking and ride like a dump truck. The rear got some daystar 1.25” shackles and eventually an diy add-a-leaf.
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A lot better after the lift.
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From there I found on another forum a group buy for a set of 3/16 ths skids, needless to say these showed up a few weeks later. Primed and painted the silver to match the truck.
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Over time I added a cb, picked up a redtop optima and added some mil-spec terminals, also picked up some tow point made by Rampage. These are intended for Jeeps which some of my club buddies attribute to the off-road capabilities this truck has.
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Up till this point hadn’t wheeled the truck much or hard because of the lack of rocker protection. The night before a club ride at big creek sick as a dog my buddy Morgan and I were up till 3am welding them on. Also did a u-bolt flip and added some shock mounts then as well.
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Then on Saturday I wheeled the piss out of the truck at Big Creek near Uwharrie. I had a blast. It's amazing how well these trucks will do with some driver training(Thanks to Scott and the guys at UORTC) and simple mods.

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Only have pics of when I got hung up on some rock. The skids plates from rhino off-road held up great. Very happy with them, they really got a hard work out yesterday for sure.

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As you can tell in the pic above my tires were fairly well worn. 4 Wheel Parts had a sale on tires and picked up some 33x10.50R15 BFG Km2’s, took a while to get here since they were coming from commifornia. Before they came in though I was rushed to install some top plate spacers for a little more lift in the front, diy aal in the rear and get an alignment(still hadn’t had one since the lift was put on).

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New Tires!!

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Then went and had them mount at a local tire shop. I'm overall very happy with the look of these. They look like everything will clear too.

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After that was the Jambo weekend at Uwharrie so got some wheeling in.

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Some pics of me playing around at the UORTC property at the Jamboree.

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This is one of my favorite shots of the truck thanks to Cydney for taking it. Timing was perfect for catching the bed hitting.

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Went to the workday at Uwharrie and got some wheeling in afterwards with a guy in a FJ Crusier. Had a ball, did notice my cv boot starting pissing grease and the ball joints are doing the same so gonna have to do those here soon.

Some pics messing around on poser rock.

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Also figured out I need to extend the bump pad and cut my u bolts down some, definitely using all my shock travel. Need to get rid of the 5125s and go 5150s, or some fox's or ICON's.

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Took some clearance pics while I had it flexed.
Front

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Rear

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Did my diff breather mod at work while on lunch, only about 20 bucks in materials.

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Boring maintenance on the truck, changed the carrier bearing, had about an inch or so of vertical play in the rubber so figured I'd change it. Rather Dylan change it, I just threw the tools at him since I was being lazy.

Also finally put a muffler on it. Buddy of mine gave me a flowtech raptor. Sounds pretty good, not loud at all but has a nice tone.

Took the bed rack off as well, remounted the cb antenna, mounted the tag to the tailgate, and added some jk tow hooks the the rear since I ditched the hitch.

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Up till this last week hadnt really changed much on the truck. Was doing my normal for sale section looking and found a new set of 35 km2s for a good deal. Thanks to the help of two of my buddies spent all day Sunday tubing and trimming sheet metal to fit 35s. Wheels are pro comp 15x8 with 4" backspacing with 1.25" spacers up front.

Anyways on to the pics.

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Some in progress pics and an up close of how I trimmed the body mount.
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Got to thinking last night of how much I hated the look of the tailgate rail, plus it's really hard to hooks onto when wet or you hand are covered in grease out mud. I had painted it awhile back when I took the chrome cover off. Remembered I had some leftover grip tape from putting it on my sliders so threw some down on the tailgate.

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How is the gearing with the 35's? I want 35's, but don't feel like I have enough gear for the 33's I have now.
 
It sucks, for the both the highway and off-road. On the road 5th is pretty much useless unless it's uber flat and your going over 60. Even long hills in 4th can lug the v6 down a bit much. Off-road was ok to an extent. Was using a good bit more throttle to crawl when brake throttle modulating. My re-gear has moved up quite a bit on my list now. Have the gears already just need the install kits and someone to install them for me.
 
What ratio you going to? I'm thinking I need dual cases just to keep up with 33's and 4.10's. With 35's, I'm thinking 4.88.
 
4.88's is what I'm going with, If I were trail only I'd go 5.29 but I drive way to much on the interstate. 4.88's at 70 is round about's ~3100 rpm's if I remember correctly.
 
Truck looks really good with the 35s.. I just went to 35s on mine today..
Also.. Ecgs did amazing work on my truck when I had it geared the drive back sucked as far as doing the break in procedure though
 
Chris_Keziah said:
4.88's is what I'm going with, If I were trail only I'd go 5.29 but I drive way to much on the interstate. 4.88's at 70 is round about's ~3100 rpm's if I remember correctly.
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I have 4.88's with 36 tsl's and it's as close to stock and still has pep. 65 70 at about 2500. But I can confirm that this weekend if you would like.
 
cgm147 said:
I have 4.88's with 36 tsl's and it's as close to stock and still has pep. 65 70 at about 2500. But I can confirm that this weekend if you would like.
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Seems a little low on the rpms but wouldn't mind if you report back. I do quite a bit of interstate driving which is mainly the reason I didn't go 5.29s
 
Box of goodies finally got here.
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Still unsure of where I want to mount the extra fuse panel. Could build a plate and mount in sorta in this area v
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Or on top of the fuse box
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Got the light bar and hoop installed. Turned out pretty good, light bar is a little off center but oh well. Also got the turn signals and the resistors installed to cure the hyper flash.

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Simple fuse panel and mount, need to pull it back off and paint it but that's for another day.

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What's getting added on the extra fuse panel? Looks good on the 35s and it's hard to beat the look and price of some black steel wheels!
 
Croatan_Kid said:
What's getting added on the extra fuse panel? Looks good on the 35s and it's hard to beat the look and price of some black steel wheels!
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Right now the only thing on the fuse panel is the cb and the light bar. I know I have a few more things I'll probably add but not to many.
 
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