Build Thread Romer's 2024 Tacoma Off Road Bronze Oxide

[Romer]

Front and rear? I have the Alldogs springs in the front...considering doing the same for the rear, or air bags - to prevent sag when towing my teardrop trailer. Any additional weight? Apologies if I asked you this in another thread.

Front and rear. Should take care of any trailer sag

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[Muckle]

Front and rear. Should take care of any trailer sag

When not towing, do you have any additional weight (skid plates, etc.) added or is it stock? How's the ride? I have about 300lbs of weight added (skid plates and rock sliders), mostly toward the front. I am worried if I put new springs in the rear, it'll make the ride uncomfortable when not towing.

 

[Romer]

When not towing, do you have any additional weight (skid plates, etc.) added or is it stock? How's the ride? I have about 300lbs of weight added (skid plates and rock sliders), mostly toward the front. I am worried if I put new springs in the rear, it'll make the ride uncomfortable when not towing.

My ride is fine. No complaints. I did the same thing to my Land Cruiser which towes a 4800lb camper. No sag when towing and a little rake when not.

I know some feel air bags are thee only way, but I have had success with springs on multiple vehicles. Plus less likely to fail when you need it.

 

[Romer]

Today I completed my Skids plates

RCI Engine, Tranny and Tcase

RCI Rear Link Rear

This is a known weak spot. From Tinkers Video

o I tried the RCI Rear Link Front Skid but it didnt work since the top bolt was used by the CBI Slider. I ended up with a DV8 skid there

Very Happy with it.

 

[Romer]

Installed the Rough Country Molle panels and they do work with my Tonneau cover

Details here
https://www.tacoma4g.com/forum/thre...rks-with-oem-tonneau-cover.13634/#post-170483

 

[ixo]

This is a known weak spot. From Tinkers Video

I saw this same video, can you post a link to the part you got to protect it? I can't tell between which of the two parts you showed, thanks!

 

[Droid]

Thanks for posting all this, looks great! Have a fairly similar '25 Bronze Oxide in the order queue and somewhat similar plans.

 

[Romer]

I saw this same video, can you post a link to the part you got to protect it? I can't tell between which of the two parts you showed, thanks!

https://dv8offroad.com/collections/...es/products/4th-gen-tacoma-trailing-arm-skids

this is the one I got

 

[Romer]

Took my Tacoma on its first off road run today. I took it up Argentine as part of our off road clubs volunteer cleanup day with the forest service.

Understand my comparison point is to my Land Cruiser.

I was very pleased with how it performed

It did not shift from 2H to 4LO. It beeped at me. It shifted from 2H to 4H. Then it shifted into 4LO. Looking at the manual, looks like that is the way it works, although it isn’t clear.

The cameras were nice, but pressing on the front view made it larger than the other two and that was a lot better. The rear camera works well. We hit a snow drift on a narrow shelf road and we had to backup quite a bit to find a spot to turn around. Sometimes the view from the side mirrors made it seem like I was on the very edge when I had a bit more room. They are extended out a bit from the body.

The gears are much lower than my 200 series Land Cruiser in 4LO even with a 8 speed Tranny. This is great for descending on the trail in not needing brakes and making slow climbs over obstacles. The not so good is when you get to wide open mostly flat trail and the RPMs go above 3000 at 12 MPH. This isn’t a big deal, just an observation.

The long wheel base made it harder to turn (Obviously) and it seemed like the full lock steering wasn’t as much as I am use to. Although, this could be a false impression due to my difficulties turning around on the narrow shelf road.

My HAM and GMRS radios worked perfectly and I had great range on both. Much farther on the HAM of course.

My winch worked awesome as we used 4 trucks with winches to bring upright a fence that had fallen over.

I went down an obstacle and I could feel one tire in the air. Likely wouldn’t have happened if I had the detachable stabilizer bar. That contributed to my feeling as it doesn’t have as much articulation as my Land Cruiser. I expected that since the Land Cruiser has KDSS (really cool system)

I was very pleased on how it performed and it did better than I expected. The offroad electronics and smart system are newer version of what I have in my Land Cruiser and it worked perfectly. Very point and shoot as long as you pay attention to your line. I had no issues today on its first run.

My truck is a non-Hybrid and I was very pleased at how it did driving the mountain roads. No lack of pep and made the steep climbs at high speed with no issues. The low torque allowed me to quickly pass the several yo-yo’s driving slow in the left lane when the right opened up.

These are great trucks and if this was the only vehicle I have, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it off road on any of the trails we do.

 

[Romer]

And the final Mod . . . . . . Well, I am sure it isn't the final mod, but it is the end of the build plan I had.

Bed stiffners from Uptop Overland. These are the no drill that also have 3 holes in case you want to drill later on as you add more stuff. I have been pretty good at nutserts so I added one 6M nutsert which fit the bolts that get removed and not reused at the top. I put it right in the middle

Another entry for the Ken Done Gallary, for now

 

[Romer]

Since I posted this in the review vs Builds section. Here is my review after 1 year of ownership

My navigation and remote connect subscriptions have ended and I don't want to spend $15 a month to renew them. When did Toyota start charging for navigation? You used to get a set of maps and could update them if you want, but were set if you wanted to figure out where to go.

I didn’t care about remote access as I never started my car remotely or closed the windows remotely, etc.

BMW wasn't charging me for maps or the similar remote access in my 2019 Z4 :(

Still have health status and find my car in the app.

BUT, Android Auto makes the navigation subscription worthless. Why pay when I can load any navigation app on my phone and see it on the vehicles big screen? Currently running Google Maps and Gaia. Probably should look into Wazee

The other complaint is about the smaller 18 gallon fuel tank. It hasn't been a problem for me even driving from Boise when I got it as I normally need to stop before I run out of gas, but why reduce the tank size. That is just dumb. If I was towing I would run out of gas before I had to stop. I did add 4 gallon capacity of Rotopax attached to the Molle panels in the bed.

From researching and Tinkers videos you can see there were some weak spots, but I have addressed those with skid plates on the control arms.

I am glad I bought the non Hybrid Tacoma. This 4 cyl Turbo has a lot of pickup and go and I have never been disappointed and wished I had more. It is great for accelerating on the highway and maneuvering in traffic to pass people. Without the Hybrid, I get the storage under the rear seat.

The space in the rear seats is small and if I know I am taking more than 2, I will opt for the 200. It is OK for a pinch and short rides. Adults can sit back there. Will they want to ride back there for a long trip, not likely.

I am very happy with the Tacoma. Glad I waited 4 months for the color and Premium options I wanted. The only thing I don't have I had thought about is the sway bar disconnect. I would have had to wait longer to get that. It does greatly improve articulation, but plenty of people wheel just fine with similar setups.

If you plan on wheeling, I would get the Tacoma Off Road in Premium trim ( extra features are great), I would get the sway bar disconnect and also set it up like I did except you may want bigger tires than the 33" I upgraded to and a bigger lift as a result.

Bigger tires get into lifts, gearing etc and wasn't a path I felt I needed to go down. Mild to intermittent wheeling can easily be done with the setup I have.

What do I think? After a year of ownership, I love it and have no regrets

 

[TacoFreak]

@Romer I think your build came out great! Is your Taco going to be out in the wild playing with that cool LC you built?

 

[Romer]

@Romer I think your build came out great! Is your Taco going to be out in the wild playing with that cool LC you built?

Thanks for that.

I did take my Taco to Argentine Pass and it worked awesome. I do expect to take it on a few close medium trails. It is more of my daily driver than can wheel when I want to.

The Land Cruiser is my primary wheeling rig and people hauler if I have more than two adults. The LC has much better towing capability for those mountain passes, more articulation and also a much shorter turning radius which helps on switch backs. I was in Silverton last week with it. The Taco could have done everything I did last week with the LC except it wouldnt have towed my Kimberley Karavan as well.

Here is the top of Hurricane Pass'

Black Bear Pass

The Tacoma is a great vehicle and a good wheeler. The Land Cruiser 200 seriees is a much better built vehicle and a great wheeler.

My 200 series land Cruiser after cleaning up from Silverton. I used the Griots Orbital Polisher to get out 10 years of pin stripes and discussed that in this thread on a different forum

I really like have both the Land Cruiser and the Tacoma. They are a great pair and both fun to drive

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