blueberry.taco
Active member
Hi everyone,
I've been surfing expedition portal for years now but never joined.
(full disclosure: I joined so I can sell my previous rig to like-minded people so I can help fund the current build)
Anyways, since I need to build up 50 posts to sell the previous rig, figured a build thread for the current rig was the best ways to start.
I've been playing with wrenches and cars my whole life, been involved with some forms of motorsports, but really enjoy spending time outdoors away from 'society'.
Offroading was a good start, but that didn't get me away enough. Backpacking has been great, but you still start out from trail heads.
theoretically, a self sufficient house/rig that I could drive into the middle of nowhere, and then comfortably stay there for extended lengths of time is what I want.
I am currently planning to retire in about 10 years to live out my retirement doing #vanlife in some form, so this current build is the 'practice' run for the next decade.
I'll dream about buying an earthcruiser for retirement, but we'll see about that.
For now, I've decided to start with a midsize truck and pop-up camper and hope I can get enough time off work to do months long trips around North America.
with the possibility of forever work-from-home, this may allow for longer stints such as a whole summer up in alaska, etc, but that is being hopeful at this point.
my previous rig was (is) a 2004 ZR2 blazer that I've put substantial effort (and money and even a v8) into over the 8+ years I've owned it, making it into the "best overland zr2 possible" in my opinion, and have enjoyed many many weekender and weeklong trips in with my fiancee and dog. It has been the perfect size vehicle for the majority of those short trips, especially in the narrow forests of michigan and the east coast-er woody places.
But it's a little small in the living spaces, and ground tents are not always ideal in muddy places or cold.
(I'll post more details on this rig in 50 posts when I'm allowed to post it for sale)
So that brings me to the current build.
I definitely wasn't ready to jump all the way to a full size truck after being so comfortable with a Blazer, so it had to be a midsize truck.
Reliability and parts availability was highest priority so the Tacoma beat out the Colorado/Canyon (including the AEV variants which are built down the street from where I work) or the Ranger.
Plus we were fairly decided on a fourwheel camper, which seems to have the most relationship/experience with Tacomas compared to the other midsize trucks.
And since we wanted to have reasonable living space, we needed to get a Fleet rather than the Swift, so longbed was the obvious bed choice.
As much as a larger double cab would be useful, I couldn't bring myself to buy a suuuper long wheelbase double cab longbed, plus Toyota doesn't offer that combo with a manual trans which is a requirement for me at this point.
and in order to get a manual, access cab, it had to be a TRD Sport trim.. also not super common which means I needed to order from the factory.
more on this in the next post.
I've been surfing expedition portal for years now but never joined.
(full disclosure: I joined so I can sell my previous rig to like-minded people so I can help fund the current build)
Anyways, since I need to build up 50 posts to sell the previous rig, figured a build thread for the current rig was the best ways to start.
I've been playing with wrenches and cars my whole life, been involved with some forms of motorsports, but really enjoy spending time outdoors away from 'society'.
Offroading was a good start, but that didn't get me away enough. Backpacking has been great, but you still start out from trail heads.
theoretically, a self sufficient house/rig that I could drive into the middle of nowhere, and then comfortably stay there for extended lengths of time is what I want.
I am currently planning to retire in about 10 years to live out my retirement doing #vanlife in some form, so this current build is the 'practice' run for the next decade.
I'll dream about buying an earthcruiser for retirement, but we'll see about that.
For now, I've decided to start with a midsize truck and pop-up camper and hope I can get enough time off work to do months long trips around North America.
with the possibility of forever work-from-home, this may allow for longer stints such as a whole summer up in alaska, etc, but that is being hopeful at this point.
my previous rig was (is) a 2004 ZR2 blazer that I've put substantial effort (and money and even a v8) into over the 8+ years I've owned it, making it into the "best overland zr2 possible" in my opinion, and have enjoyed many many weekender and weeklong trips in with my fiancee and dog. It has been the perfect size vehicle for the majority of those short trips, especially in the narrow forests of michigan and the east coast-er woody places.
But it's a little small in the living spaces, and ground tents are not always ideal in muddy places or cold.
(I'll post more details on this rig in 50 posts when I'm allowed to post it for sale)
So that brings me to the current build.
I definitely wasn't ready to jump all the way to a full size truck after being so comfortable with a Blazer, so it had to be a midsize truck.
Reliability and parts availability was highest priority so the Tacoma beat out the Colorado/Canyon (including the AEV variants which are built down the street from where I work) or the Ranger.
Plus we were fairly decided on a fourwheel camper, which seems to have the most relationship/experience with Tacomas compared to the other midsize trucks.
And since we wanted to have reasonable living space, we needed to get a Fleet rather than the Swift, so longbed was the obvious bed choice.
As much as a larger double cab would be useful, I couldn't bring myself to buy a suuuper long wheelbase double cab longbed, plus Toyota doesn't offer that combo with a manual trans which is a requirement for me at this point.
and in order to get a manual, access cab, it had to be a TRD Sport trim.. also not super common which means I needed to order from the factory.
more on this in the next post.
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