forty2's (witty title here) '16 Tacoma

[forty2]

Picked up my new truck yesterday, '16 Tacoma 4x4 TRD OR with a manual trans[SUP]1[/SUP]. It's been 8 years and a couple of AWDs since my last Toyota truck. I've been kicking myself the whole time for leaving the fold too. Anyway, I don't know that it's fair to call this a build thread. I'm big on not messing with what isn't broke, so I'm going to have to see what I can break before any sort of real "sick mods" happen. For now I'm just going to start getting outfitted for remote travels[SUP]2,3[/SUP] with my wife and kid. On the imminent to-do list are the following:

Sell the stupid tonneau
Buy canopy
Build drawers/storage
Gear[SUP]4[/SUP]
Daydream about slide in pop-up
Rebuild drawers storage[SUP]5
[/SUP]More gear
Assess rear suspension needs based on loading
Sell gear
More gear

First big trip is happening in April, Death Valley and Mojave with my siblings headed to AZ, return w/ wife and kid. Plan to have a good chunk done by then. In meantime I spent the day doing what my wife would refer to as pleasuring myself with a tailpipe, AKA fiddling in the shop. Swapped the mirror for the Homelink out of my now departed Subaru and stripped the silly decals.

Before:

After:

Before before:

After after:

[SUP]1. Lambast me if you must but my wife never learned how to drive an automatic so I have to keep getting manuals for her sake.
2. Something I never stopped doing, even in less than appropriate vehicles.
3. Ask me how I feel about "RealTime 4WD" sometime!
4. I have a lot of "overlanding gear" already. Need more.
5. Pretty sure the first go 'round will not be as well thought out as I'd like.
[/SUP]

 

[DblD]

Great looking rig!

There was an access cab in this tan color at the Four Wheel Pop-Up display at Overland Expo. Absolutely love the color.

Am I understanding this correctly… Off Road package with a manual transmission? Do you know if/how this effects towing capacity? Is there still a trans. fluid cooler; is it even a necessity with a manual trans.?

Congrats on the new truck.

dd

 

[forty2]

Great looking rig!

There was an access cab in this tan color at the Four Wheel Pop-Up display at Overland Expo. Absolutely love the color.

I adore the color. I got the truck though a dealer allocation order so I had the opportunity to choose the color, this was the only real option as far as I'm concerned.

Am I understanding this correctly… Off Road package with a manual transmission?

That's right.

Do you know if/how this effects towing capacity?

No difference, 6800lb max tow capacity (w/ tow package) with either transmission.

Is there still a trans. fluid cooler; is it even a necessity with a manual trans.?

Not needed with a manual trans so it's not there.

Also of note, the manual gets 4.30 gears and an overall lower crawl ratio than the auto with its 3.91 gears. (V6 only)

 

[Skim]

Great truck. The color rocks.

 

[2happy_campers]

Love the color! looking forward to seeing your updates. not many out there with a '16 yet... From clicking around on Toyota's website, the manual transmission is not available in the extended cab long bed setup? unless with the 4 cyl? anyway, congrats on the new truck!

 

[washington taco]

Could you please post a few pics of the center console /shifter and the diff lock switch. Just curious how things could lay out for radios and accessory lighting.

I drove Metal Techs 2016 for a video shoot back in October but its was an automatic and was busy with shooting/driving duties and didn't get to just sit, look and think.


Thanks!!

 

[forty2]

Damn, deleted post while trying to edit. I'll re-post pics after work.

 

[codename607]

Finally a 3rd Gen Tacoma Overland Build. I want to put together a build thread but I haven't done much yet. Looking forward to yours!

 

[forty2]

Interior pics, round 2:

Note: the mirror in the last photo is a Subaru part, plug and play, cheaper than near identical OEM unit that isn't a factory option in the TRDs.

Anyway, things are starting to come together. Compressor is coming in about a month or so and will be hard mounted, underhood most likely. Got a couple of solid bites on the tonneau and down to just a couple different canopies. Have a solid plan for simple drawers/storage and most of the materials are already on hand. Also need to make a rack decision at some point, I'll be hauling 2 kayaks and a SUP 2-3 times a week next summer and I'd really like to get it done with only one vehicle this year.

 

[washington taco]

Look at Front Runner, I really like mine and plan to adapt it to my next new rig. If your handy there pretty easy to and NON Front Runner parts to. I just adapted my Yakima ski rack to it for less than 20 bucks.

Thanks for the interior shots!

 

[forty2]

Small progress report:

Compressor is hard mounted under hood, passenger side between the air box and the firewall. Still waiting on the matching Toyota style switch to show up though, so it's currently just for show. I did of course bench test though...

Built a mount out of some scrap 16 ga. and booger welds. The whole thing bolts to three existing studs that I think are used for ABS in non-TRD OR trucks. If I ever decide it needs to move, nothing is drilled, so harm no foul.

Also, The tonneau is finally on it's way out, found a buyer in Portland. Going to be down there anyway in a couple of weeks and will get rid of it then. Waiting until I'm sure it's gone to go drop money on the canopy. Pretty set on Leer, but I'm still going back and forth on exactly what build and options. Should hopefully have my mind made up when I'm making the drive back from Portland because that's when I plan to drop the deposit off. The other thing I haven't mentioned yet that I'd like to get done sooner than later is comms. I have my tech ticket and a couple of HTs (one decent, one crap), but I'm really thinking about pushing 50W possibly with digital modes, maybe APRS. I don't know though, I'm really on the fence and I just can't envision where and how a really clean install is going to happen. Nothing looking out of the ordinary when you peer in the window is really high on my list of priorities.

 

[forty2]

Updates:

Designed a little plate for switches to replace the pointless (to me) dash pocket that Toyota put to the left of the steering wheel. 3D printed from Shapeways as my printer is unavailable to me currently. Mounted a Toyota style switch for the compressor and one for a backseat USB port:

Fits into the dash like so:

Thanks to my stupid OCD tendencies I'm not really digging the switches themselves due to how far the graphics deviate from the OEM style, but they're blocked by the wheel when driving, so I'll live with it for now.

Finally ditched the stupid OEM tonneau cover about three weeks ago on a trip down to Portland, ordered my canopy on the way back home. Truck looks good naked, but no security:

Canopy showed up a week and a half ago, but I was unable to pick it up until yesterday. It's a Leer 100XR with windoor on the left, standard slider on the right w/ petscreen, fixed front slider, carpet liner (free upgrade) and thule tracks. Color match is better than I expected. Leaks a little bit up front where it meets the bed, but I'm pretty certain I'll have no trouble chasing that down.

Bed drawer system on the super cheap. Built the box from some 5/8" prefinished maple I had laying around the shop. Put two 2" wide VHMW strips above each drawer the full length of the box so that when the drawer pivots down it will still glide easily. Cut a bunch of holes in the box to both lose weight and to give air a place to move through as drawers are opened and closed. Note, box is sitting upside down in this picture:

Drawers are made from 12mm (~1/2") baltic birch. Had to buy this material but since BB comes in 5'x5' sheets and the bed of the truck is 5' there's very little waste. The bottom of each drawer got the same 2" strips of VHMW to glide on and they work surprisingly well.

Box goes in truck. The box lines up perfectly with the top of the wheel wells and the small ledge that runs the length of the truck. Another piece of BB makes a solid platform all the way across the bed. That piece is cut into two in a zig zag joint (very difficult to see in the photo) so that the two halves can both be drilled to the box right down the center support. In spite of the short bed length there is enough room for an adult to sleep diagonally back there, great for solo runs.

There's still more to do but that's it for now, running late for taking my kid to swimming...

 

[djtc]

Truck looks great . I used the same material for my drawer "slides" works great even when they are loaded.

 

[brettf]

How was removing the B pillar black coating? Every time I look at mine I get itchy.

 

[forty2]

How was removing the B pillar black coating? Every time I look at mine I get itchy.

Really easy. Got it up to ~100° with a heat gun and peeled it right off. Not even any residue.