Tacocat is a palindrome

It's been a bit of back and forth between Mandy and I as to which vehicle we'll take. I would love to take the truck because there's so much storage, but I think it just won't be ready by then.

I think my eventual plan is ~3" lift and 33s. It seems to be a really capable formula with the Jeep so...

Rob Cote wrote:It's been a bit of back and forth between Mandy and I as to which vehicle we'll take. I would love to take the truck because there's so much storage, but I think it just won't be ready by then.

I think my eventual plan is ~3" lift and 33s. It seems to be a really capable formula with the Jeep so...

The taco would be such a great overland rig, at Rausch (sorry...) there must have been a toyota gathering. About a dozen taco's/4runners that were set up more for overland than crawling. They were all drool worthy..

3", 33's, and skids seems to work great for this area

Yea I agree. To get 35s on this (and the Jeep, too!) takes significantly more effort and cost. You generally need more lift, and going beyond 3" lift, you have to do more stuff, or do it differently. 3" seems like some common upper limit to the Tier 1 lift kit. But that's fine. Fortunately for me, this truck comes with skid plates from the factory. Unfortunately for me, they're rotted. Gas tank skid is the worst offender. Seems to be a common theme for me...

Making some progress in the bed. I have the two largest holes patched. Just got a handful of much smaller ones left. This one was right by the tailgate, approx 8"x3", here it's half-done:





I finished it up last night, but it was way too dark to take pictures. The rest are each around the size of a quarter, maybe a little bigger or smaller.

It's been a little bit since an update apparently. I finished patching all the holes in the bed. I kind of want to redo the first one, because I got much better towards the end of the process. Maybe in the spring. I also finally tracked down a reasonably priced locker actuator that's allegedly in good condition. It's en route at the moment. I think once I receive it, I'll gut it, clean it, reassemble and paint it before I install it. Just to be safe. It would be really nice to have all things functioning, and I'm really close at this point.

Hi Rob, It's great to hear that you have got better at welding, Keep up the good work,,

The actuator I received is nearly as crusty as what's in the truck now. Apparently this will just be a band-aid. I'm trying to figure out how I can replicate the case out of something less prone to corrosion. I don't know if I have the precision needed, but I'm going to make an attempt.

This is what $200 gets you:





I was hoping for something a little better. Oh well, at least it supposedly works. We'll see.

WOW, is that nasty looking or what, hopefully it works for you.

Of course it wouldn't! I had to gut it, clean it, re-grease and reassemble it first. But it works. I have an e-locker. For now. Let's see how long it works.

Well that was a short moment of "completed". I just slid out and smacked a stone wall coming back from lunch. Need another new front bumper now I guess.

Oh Boy,,just when you least expect it. At least you are ok,

So the truck tried to kill me a couple times. Luckily it failed miserably. No one was injured. But it prompted me to do some research. Turns out the tires have all around terrible reviews with exceptionally poor wet weather performance. So I guess I did pretty well, all things considered.



I'm gonna try out Treadwrights BFG A/T knockoff in 31". See what happens.

Not sure what direction I'm going with the bumper yet, and it probably won't happen any time soon.

I'm not sure of the price on the TreadWrights but I love my General Grabber AT2s, which I consider to be previous-generation BFG AT knock-offs. The tread pattern is very similar to the BFGs but the AT2s run at least $30 cheaper per tire. They're also exceptional in snow and ice to the point where I haven't needed to use 4WD on road in either Jeep I've had them on in the three years I've owned them. I 'wheeled' the YJ with them for a season too and they're tough as nails. Only downside is that I run them on 16" Moabs, and tires for that rim size are only offered in load range E so they're stiff as boards (but that's also part of what makes them tough as nails). Mine are 245/75s and when they were new they measured about 30.5" so basically a 31" like you're looking to run.

Commencing the derailment of this build thread by inserting a tire opinion in 3...2...1...

They were 138 a piece shipped. One of the cheapest, but mildly aggressive, not-straight-up-road-tire I could find. BFG ATs were like over 200 a piece. Still. Like 40 years later or whatever. That's just insane.

That's a real good price. The BFGs are definitely overpriced for sure. The BFG redesign with side lugs most likely makes them a little more aggressive but still not worth that kind of money, especially only at 31".

As far as the bumper goes, I say go with anything besides a full tubular pre-runner. I think the Tacos look so goofy with those on them even when not in stock form.

Damnit. That was the way i was very slightly leaning. That or stock replacement using new parts is more or less in the same ballpark. A "plate" style winch bumper is considerably more money. And weight. Though I will agree it does have a more finished look over the tubular style. I dunno. Like I said, it won't be any time soon. The Jeep needs tires too, and better shocks. And somewhere in there I have to save money for a wedding too.

Truck sits noticeably a little bit taller. These tires are stiff as hell. I need to lower the pressure in them. Also I have a rubbing issue now. 1 step forward, two back.

They definitely give it a nice stance. I'm envious of how clean-looking that thing is too.

What pressure are you running them at? I decided to try running my AT2s up around 35 psi for a few months last winter (max is 80 ) after previously running them around 25 psi from the time I put them on and that pressure did TERRIBLE things to the tread both front and rear. And at that time I was only driving about 60 miles per week and I still managed to cup them something fierce. I went from Spring basically until this past December running them at 22 psi to try to fix the error, and luckily dropping them down like that did the trick and all is good now. 24-26 psi seems to be the sweet spot for these tires but a lot depends on vehicle weight and such. Even at 22 psi they were still like bricks.

I'm not sure where they're at right now. They were just mounted yesterday and I didn't have time last night to check. Plus the weather is crap so I just want to be inside. But in my experience tire shops usually put them at 32-34psi to send them out the door. It's probably somewhere in that neighborhood. I'm waiting for the ground to dry up so I can do some chalk testing, see where that takes me.

To your other point, it's clean until you really look at it. Although, to be fair, the body is straight and the underhood is great. Interior is solid, too, except now all the dog hair. But the bed (as shown on previous pages) is not so great, though at least now it doesn't have many holes through it. And the underside has some pretty nappy hardware. When I get around to replacing the shocks, for example, I'm not even going to attempt it with a wrench first. It'll be fruitless. Cutoff wheel is going to be the first line. Also, the gas tank skid partially exists. Most of it is rotted away. But the floors and the frame are all in great shape, so the important stuff is good. It's clean...ish.

Eh, those are all things that any regular Joe-shmo who sees it roll by won't even notice, so at worst it's a 20-footer. My Cherokee is the closest thing I've ever had to one of those and it's far closer to a 30-footer than a 20 so my envy stands. Throw a new gas tank skid on there, address what you need to underneath, and throw a tonneau cover on the bed and drive the thing until that little Toyota engine decides 400,000 miles is enough for one lifetime. Just please continue to update this because the name of this thread is one of the greatest things to happen to this forum and as such it deserves to be seen in the sidebar.

AHahahahahah will do!

Keep following I have an idea to implement someday that you will like.

CEL is on. I think it's the VSV for the evap can, so I got one on order. Not too exciting.

I also got this.





I got it primed, need some time and warm weather to get paint on it. Got my eye on a Tuff Stuff 12k winch with synth rope. Found out after I ordered that this bumper only has room for a hawse fairlead so...that kinda sucks but oh well.

Ryan popped over and gave me a hand mounting the bumper up



And we put the turn signals into the side marker housings



I'm very pleased.

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting worse at this whole wrenching thing. And maybe I am. I dunno. I've been at it for...shit decades now. So I'm adapting. I had a new skid plate to install, and I figured it's going to fight me, because literally everything does. So I thought to get ahead of the game, I'd spend a little time removing and reinstalling the bolts, just to make sure everything would come loose. Since I was waiting on a new strap for the gas tank anyways, this wouldn't set me back any.

I Blastered everything that I was going to be touching on Wednesday afternoon. I took out the three bolts on the leading edge of the assembly; little tight, but not bad. The rear two skid plate bolts go into the strap, which was getting replaced anyways so I figured not to bother - I can just throw it out as an assembly. So there's one bolt that holds the strap up to the frame (the other end is pinned through a loop in the strap and a hole in the frame), it looked pretty clean (no significant rust) and I had easy access to it. It goes into a welded nut on the frame. I Blastered it and put a wrench on it. It tried to twist the bracket that's welded to the frame. So I didn't push it, I just called it a night at that and put my tools away.

So Thursday after work "all" I had to do was remove one "easy" bolt, and one pin, then install new gear. I put a wrench onto the welded nut so that I could counteract the torque and limit the bending of the bracket. So that worked to that end but:



No matter how many times this happens to me (it's happened a LOT) it still sucks every time. It makes me angry because I can't understand WHY it happens so often. What am I doing wrong? If it was a once in a while thing, sure, I get it. We live in New England. But it's more of a once-in-every-project frequency. Usually more than once per project. It leads me to believe it's ME, not the vehicles.

ANYWAYS. I broke off the welded nut and through bolted the strap so it's not a huge deal. But yeah...the skid definitely needed replacing I'd say:

Believe me, it's not you it's new england.