About My Truck

My truck is a 2001 Toyota Tacoma, purchased on June 4, 2001. Factory specs were Lunar Mist 4×4 XtraCab, with the SR-5 package and TRD package. This includes power everything, tinted windows, bucket seats, decent stereo. Other options are the push button 4wd (which can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask), and factory electronic locking rear differential.

Clubs

TTORA SoCal

I am a member (and webmaster) of the Southern California Chapter of the Toyota Territory Off-Roader’s Association (TTORA). It’s a free organization dedicated to Toyota enthusiasts with several lively discussion forums.

Links

• National homepage TTORA.com
• Southern California Chapter TTORA SoCal
• Message board http://www.ttora.com/forums/

Mods

As with everyone else in the TTORA, I’ve spent countless hours and dollars tweaking my truck. Most of the stuff I’ve done to my truck has been to increase performance. I want my truck to look nice, but I’d rather have it kick ass performance-wise than impress the rice rocket crowd.

Short List O’ Mods

Below is the short list of mods I’ve done to my truck. See the next sections for more information on them.

• Body and Suspension
  • Line-X Spray-In Bedliner
  • Sway Away Racerunner Coilovers
  • Demello Offroad Bed Bar with hi-lift jack, and DeMello round tube sliders
  • Bent-up Rear bumper
  • Deaver Prerunner Progressive rate leaf pack
  • Bilstein 5100 series rear shocks
• Powertrain
  • Toyota Racing Development Supercharger System
  • Underdog Racing Fuel Mods
  • Deckplate Mod
  • AMSOil Air Filter and Synthetic Oil
  • Sawzall’d tail pipe, straight dump after axle…
  • "Gray Wire" Locker Mod - Allows locker to engage in 2wd, not just 4Lo
• Wheels and Tires
  • Mickey Thompson/Alcoa Classic Rims 15×8 3.75 backspacing
  • Goodyear MT/Rs 32×11.50×15
• Electronics and Stereo
  • Kenwood PS-200T Amp
  • Blaupunkt Malibu stereo head unit, currently just using as amp
  • Empeg/RioCar Hard-disk mp3 unit
  • Synergy Engineering Cargo Box Subwoofer Conversion Kit
  • Two JBL 8″ Subs
  • Valentine 1 Radar detector with remote display

Synergy Subwoofer Kit

This kit is no longer available, unfortunately. It included the plate, foam sealant, and fiberglass batting for funky airspace tricks. I ordered it with two JBL GT800d 8 inch subs that are designed for the small air space of the cargo box. It sounds great, and I would recommend a similar setup to anyone who doesn’t want to lose cabin space to a huge sub setup. The plate is of excellent construction and looks slick as all hell back there.

Caveats to the setup:

1. They’re 8s, not 12s, so they are more punchy and less boomy than what you’d get out of 12s. A good crossover and decent cabin speakers can help you overcome this limitation.
2. Of course, sealing the area well helps a lot. I found that I hadn’t sealed the cargo box up completely when I did the install. I went back in with more foam sealant, and the difference really is amazing.

Line-X Spray In Bedliner

I didn’t want my bed to get all scratched up with the stuff I threw in the back, so the first real mod I did to my truck was to get it Line-Xd. Line-X is a spray-in polymer coating akin to Rhino liner that adheres to the surface of the bed.

It is my opinion that spray in bedliners are superior to drop in plastic ones for several reasons. First, the line-x doesn’t crack or warp with age. Secondly, there is no gap between the liner and the sheetmetal for sand and mud to get between. With drop-in liners, dirt gets between the bedliner and the bed itself and rubs off the paint. Moisture then gets trapped in there and rust develops, but you’d never know it because the drop-in bedliner is sitting on top of it.

Line-X isn’t totally indestructible. I managed to gouge out the sheetmetal and Line-X coating with a Hi-Lift jack secured incorrectly with cargo straps. However, I think a plastic liner would have been ruined by the same treatment, or at the very least dents would have happened to the bed.

Sway Away Racerunner Coilovers

The Tacoma uses a coilover assembly in the front for suspension. This is basically a shock absorber with a coil spring around it in a single unit.

I found that the stock Bilstein coilovers that the TRD Tacoma package ships with were way too soft and that I was bottoming out on whoopty-do sections way too often. The Sway Aways cure this problem, and also provide adjustable front lift for the truck. Quite frankly, these things rule on high speed desert and sand dune stuff, which is a decent amount of what I do.

The Racerunner is a rebuildable racing coilover assembly which is much firmer than the stock Bilsteins and can handle hard hits with ease. If they wear out, they can be rebuilt.

Sway Away was the first to market with a coilover system for Tacomas. In 2004, everybody and their grandmother got into the coilover market for the Tacoma. Donahoe Racing, King Shocks, All-Pro Offroad, Camburg, and Fabtech
all have somewhat similar offerings. The Donahoe and Kings are the best of the bunch, with larger shock bodies than the rest of the field.

All of the above listed coiloversovers are equipped with an adjustable collar that increases the preload on the coil spring, thus lifting the front of the truck up. This can be cranked to about
2.7 inches above the stock height without worring about damage to the CV boots
on push button 4wd systems. Manual hubs allow you to crank your coilovers
higher - to about 3.2 inches over stock. (Donahoe Racing does not recommend you change the ride height that their units ship with.)

The reason SAW coil-overs are so popular is that they are a high quality shock using off-road racing technology for a comparatively reasonable price. The shock body itself is about 2″ in overall diameter, much bigger than a conventional shock. Sway-Away also has 2.5 inch diameter coilovers available, to compete with the offerings from Donahoe and King.

The wider the overall diameter, the better the shock is able to dissipate heat, one of the main factors in causing shock fade.

Inside the shock body is found other technological designs developed from off-road racing. The shock itself is charged with nitrogen and special shock oil. I don’t understand the mechanics and technology of this well enough to explain it, but the shop tech section of race-dezert.com’s message board and King
Shocks’ website at www.kingshocks.com has some good info explaining somewhat the benefits of off-road racing shock technology compared
with conventional shocks. This kind of shock require some periodic maintenance (checking nitrogen pressure is at 200psi and occaisional internal rebuilds with new gaskets and O-rings), but the benefits of its performance make it worth the maintenance.

The bottom shock mount is a heavy duty steel heim joint. Most conventional shocks come with rubber bushings which wear in time. A heim joint will eventually wear down as well, but most heim joints outlast rubber bushings. Lastly, the coil springs that come with SAWs are also of very good quality. They are rated at about 650 lbs, compared to the stock coils which are rated about 420 to 480 lbs according to my Downey catalog.

The combination of the quality, higher rated springs with quality performance shocks should help reduce that “body lean” or sway feeling you sometimes encounter when taking corners. Of course, the stock anti-sway bar also aids in that function, but since the anti-sway bar may limit articulation while off-road, many take it off. I have left mine on because 90% of my driving is on paved roads.

DeMello Offroad Bed Bar and Sliders

The Bed Bar mounts to the front of the bed near the cab and has tabs for mounting two rear facing running lights and a CB antenna, as well as a hi-lift jack.

Sliders protect the rocker panels of your vehicle from dents and scratches from large rocks and allow you to literally slide over rocks. The Demello sliders curve upwards and match the contours of the vehicle, so they don’t stick out really far and look funny.

I highly recommend sliders over step bars or nerf bars as they are stronger and more able to provide protection. Plus they can be used as a lift point for a hi-lift jack, making tire changes about 3 billion times easier.

TRD SuperCharger

The TRD supercharger is a bolt on supercharger design manufactured for the Tacoma, 4runner, T100, and Tundra 3.4 liter V6 5VZ-FE engine. It adds roughtly 70 horsepower to the vehicle, and makes the truck a lot of fun to drive. More information about the TRD supercharger can be
found at Gadget’s Supercharger page.

I picked mine up new for about $2100. You do have to look around to find a good deal on them, but they are out there. A good place to look is on the TTORA homepage - the sponsors usually have deals on the supercharger to TTORA members.

Installation of the supercharger kit can easily be accomplished in an afternoon with little more than a good set of socket wrenchs, box wrenches, allen wrenches, and a cheater bar for your socket wrench.

2.7 and 2.4 liter engine owners:

For the 2.7 (3RZFE) engine, TRD marketed a kit made by Alpine Developements in Durban, South Africa that uses an Eaton M62 blower. This kit is pretty good, but you can get a better one directly from Alpine IF you are a TTORA member. Additionally, Alpine has a kit for the 2.4 liter 2RZFE engine.

The TRD-marketed kits are no longer available through the dealer network, but URD Racing has a contract with TRD to sell the kits, and they can ship them with upgraded fuel injectors as well.