Hi everybody,
I bought a 2000 Tacoma TRD V6 MT last summer, and have been outfitting it as an overlanding/camping rig bit by bit. I've been reading a ton on here and elsewhere, and seeing how other people have done things has been hugely informative. Here's where I'm at so far:
I'm happy with the camper setup, but the biggest thing that I think I need to improve is ability to self-recover. My primary use is going to be overlanding and camping around the western US (I'm based in Seattle) to ski and mountain bike. I'm not really aspiring to rock crawl seriously or anything like that, but want to be careful to be able to get myself out of wherever I end up.
My to-do list is as follows:
I'm not sure what else makes sense. A winch would obviously be great insurance, but they're expensive, especially once mounting gets factored in, and I'm not thrilled about adding weight and length to a daily driven truck that gets street parked in a city regularly, when realistically the winch would be used very irregularly. A high lift for the very occasional manual winching might be sufficient? On the other hand, a high lift won't be much use as an actual jack without metal bumpers and/or sliders, neither of which I have at present, and the same aversion to adding too much weight still applies. Maxtracks or similar seem like they could be useful, perhaps more so with a high lift and lift mate to actually get them under the wheels? What would you all recommend?
I bought a 2000 Tacoma TRD V6 MT last summer, and have been outfitting it as an overlanding/camping rig bit by bit. I've been reading a ton on here and elsewhere, and seeing how other people have done things has been hugely informative. Here's where I'm at so far:
- 2" lift, 32" BFG KOs (on the truck when I bought it)
- Snugtop Canopy
- Homemade bed setup for the shell, with storage for 7 gallon water jug, stove, cookware, etc
- Some basic recovery gear: shovel, recovery strap, shackles
I'm happy with the camper setup, but the biggest thing that I think I need to improve is ability to self-recover. My primary use is going to be overlanding and camping around the western US (I'm based in Seattle) to ski and mountain bike. I'm not really aspiring to rock crawl seriously or anything like that, but want to be careful to be able to get myself out of wherever I end up.
My to-do list is as follows:
- On board air. Best way to recover is to not get stuck in the first place.
- A roof rack for some extra storage. Extra fuel for one, the tank in first gen trucks is small.
I'm not sure what else makes sense. A winch would obviously be great insurance, but they're expensive, especially once mounting gets factored in, and I'm not thrilled about adding weight and length to a daily driven truck that gets street parked in a city regularly, when realistically the winch would be used very irregularly. A high lift for the very occasional manual winching might be sufficient? On the other hand, a high lift won't be much use as an actual jack without metal bumpers and/or sliders, neither of which I have at present, and the same aversion to adding too much weight still applies. Maxtracks or similar seem like they could be useful, perhaps more so with a high lift and lift mate to actually get them under the wheels? What would you all recommend?