Cgoss's "crawler" build

Most current picture.

So here i am, 6 o' clock in the morning, haven't slept a wink and I decided to make one of these "build" threads because I'm bored.
My family kept nagging me to get a jeep, so instead I got my Taco in June 2018, its a 06 double cab short bed TRD OffRoad.

Shortly after getting it i went offroad once and was hooked. Of course my first mod had to be bigger tires and a lift. so i threw on some Bilstien 5100's and an add-a-leaf and got a set of 35s and got to cutting.

The next major upgrade was sliders and i knew i needed a bumper, and being a broke 20 year old i didn't want to spend a ton. so I got myself a welder and made my own rear bumper (first time ever welding) and i got some 4xinnovations weld on sliders.

After that i got busy enjoying my truck. I took a trip out to Ouray, co in july 2019.

Then out to moab in September 2019.

Back to Moab a week later.

And again in October 2019.

The 350 mile drive home in FWD was not fun, especially when its snowing.

For now thats all. I have met some awesome people in the year and a half and made so many memories. I already have a few trips planned this year and this year is going to be even better.

 

2020 started off great, went to Winter 4x4 jamboree in sand hallow utah.


Day 1 we did double sammy and almost got kicked off the trail before it even really started. i dont have a front locker and i got high center at the gate keeper and some douche in an orange jeep was throwing a fit. (later he overheated and blocked the trail for about 20 minutes). The trail wasnt too hard but it is pretty tight in some spots and i did not leave it without leaving some paint on the rocks.

There is an obstacle at the end called the chute and everyone says you cant do it without a front locker. well i proved them wrong.

Day 2 we did johns trail. i did not make it all the way through it. i broke a cv axle on a really flexy obstacle when i gave it a little too much gas. (guess i do need a front locker). i got my truck fixed that day and we went back out to do chutes and ladders (buggy trail) and i left my truck at the house.

day 3 we did milts mile. it was not a forgiving trail. my sliders hung me up multiple times this trip but this trail they got in the way the most. i hit them coming up and it knocked me off my line, as i backed up i slid sideways and the rocks got my fender.


overall this trip was a blast and im excited to go back next year to show all the jeeps what our Tacomas can do!
Huge shout out to @In4aride at warfab for the awesome bumper. i hit it alot less that my old homemade one.


So in prep for moab this April I decided I need 37s. So to get my truck ready for the bigger tires and harder wheeling I decided to redo some of my steering, new inner and outer tie rods, gusseted the spindles, new alignment and greased all fittings and power steering flush. I also did 5.29 gears from ECGS and came out to 2400 rpms at 65mph. Not terrible for the Colorado mountains and I don't plan on doing 80 on the highway very much.


Finally got the wheels and tires. Tires are bfg krawlers 37-12.5-17. on Warfabs old wheels 17x9 -6.


I was hoping to put off a cab mount relocate till after Moab, a little rubbing it fine for me but this was catching the tire on the cab mount bolt and stopping it in 2wd. So I ordered a red goat fab cab mount relocate and so far I dont rub, even in reverse. I still rub frame but that's a whole other issue I don't care to address at the moment.

 

Please post plenty of pics of the WARFAB front bumper when you get one on there. Love your truck and what you’re doing. Keep up the good work.

 

Thank you! There will be plenty of pictures coming. Im sure Mike will post pictures as soon as he can.

 

Bro. Holy smokes, that's a sick shot!

 

Thanks. @flemography on instagram took it. The guy has some awesome photography skills.

 

Got the warfab 2nd gen front on the other week. Theres a few changes Mike would like to make to it before releasing it , he's also going to let me beat on it for a bit and see if there's any other changes we want to make.


I'm getting ready to move back to Vegas soon. I'll finally have a garage I can fit my truck in, so I can finally do some projects I've been wanting to do. Also my brother is always down to wheel with his Jeep so I'll be getting out alot more often.

 

Moved back to Vegas and luckily had a job already lined up, so my extra savings I had went to truck parts.
One of the reasons I moved was to be closer to family, well they also have a welder and a 3 car garage with AC. So I'm finally able to get some projects done that I've been wanting to do.
So far I've done 14in shocks and a shackle flip. Still stock leafs with an add a leaf. I set it up for about 5inches uptravel. I also swapped out the front springs to some 886s I got for cheap, but I need to change them out to 888s or 887s, or stop being cheap and get some coilovers.
I also got some kmc beadlocks.

I've taken it on the trail once already and it did amazing. But I did break my rear driveshaft flange when I was getting back on the highway.

Going to Moab in about 2 weeks, so it'll be nice to compare how the truck was vs now on some trails I've already done.

 

Recently I went out to Moab and ran kane creek, cliffhanger and pritchett. The truck took a beating on those, but I met some awesome people and had a great time.


Also I've been exploring my more local trails here in nevada. Logandale has alot of great technical crawling trails that have pushed the truck in different ways. Also sand hallow isn't too far from me now, so I should be able to go play out there more.

 

This has to be one of the most underrated build threads on here. Such a sweet build and so much inspiration

 

Well I finally got a front locker. Went on a quick trail the next day to test it, then later that week I headed back to Moab for rock therapy. Warfab and I had been talking about doing pritchett for months and finally this was our chance. Friday we ran potato salad hill, cliffhanger and Moab rim. Nothing too exciting happened, we were mostly just trying get used to the trucks. Saturday we ran pritchett, we had 1 1st gen SAS on 40s, 2 3rd gen tacomas (1without a front locker) on 37s, and 2 4runners on 34/35s, and my truck. Overall the trail went extremely well for me. We did have a few issues with the 4runners and mike's 3rd gen tacoma, but all viechles came off that trail that night. We left camp around 930 and didn't make it back till midnight.
My truck did extremely well, the only obstacle I couldn't make was rockpile/son of rockpile. And I got into my bedside on the same hill I did last time. I did have to change my inner tie rods when I got back home, but that wasn't just from this trip, I had play in them before, it just got so bad I finally did something about it. I also need to do my UCA bushings and put in the gussets I've have for 6months.

 

After Moab I had about 2 weeks till hump n bump, it's a local event in logandale nevada. Alot of jeeps go and I've been going out recently with my family who will be leading trails. So the Sunday before the event I decide it would be a good idea to try a really hard obstacle on rocky gap (local trail). I ended up turtled, on my driveshaft, with a broken front CV axle. I was able to winch myself off and pull the axle shaft out and drive home, but I had a really bad vibration from my driveshaft and couldn't go over 65mph. I replaced my axle the next day. Later in the week I went to hump n bump in logandale, I drove the 70miles there and back with a dented driveshaft. Hump n bump was alot of fun. I did shedder trail with my family on Friday and and Saturday I did upper rock bottom. I've don't both trails in the past, but I tried some new harder lines on them and was really impressed with the truck and the front locker. I also impressed some jeep guys, that were a little doubtful of the tacoma. Now it's time to get some maintenance done on the truck and maybe get some skid plates ordered.

 

Slick build

 

I saw your post on the jd fab on your power steering pump what made you go that route?

 

Full hydro steering. Stock rack wasnt giving me the power i needed while bound up in the rocks.

 

Alright its been a while since i updated this. Most of this is already on instagram, because its just easier there.

Ive had quite a few trips since the last time i updated it....

So shortly after hump n bump 2020, me and a friend and some local toyota guys planned a trip to calico, ca in december. We got there around noon and ran up odessa and down doran. It was a fun day, but little to no challenge for a dual locked tacoma on 37s. My buddies 3g on 35s and rear locker barely had trouble. I didnt take too many pictures, but heres one of pucker pass.

I was an idiot and hit a huge rock at about 20mph and messed up my steering. Weird thing is, the rack looks straight and tie rods were fine, but the steering was binding while turning right.

Took a trip back to logandale one day to test out my brothers jeep before our upcoming sand hallow trip, the day went well, but i hadnt fixed my steering yet so it was a pain to get through some obstacles. Then as we were going to leave my transfer case would t shift out of 4lo. I took apart the tcase actuator and shifted it into 4hi for the drive home.

I got home and it took me a while to figure out what broke, the gear on the ADD actuator stripped and for the life of my i couldnt get it all synced back together. So instead of fucking with it for another week and possibly missing our sand hallow trip that was less than 2 weeks away, i decided an fj case would be the best solution. I also ordered a rear locker wiring harness and button, front range shifters and a steering rack. The wiring harness, steering rack and shifters all shipped super fast, but the damn tcase came monday and we were leaving thursday morning and i worked all week. So it was alot of late nights for me working on the truck to get it ready, but i got it done and had a blast at Winter Jam in sand hallow.

The trip was going really well, until i broke my first tie rod, and in the process i bent the steering rack.

 

So i have now broken 3 steering racks on these trucks, the original one leaked since the day i put 35s on, the second lasted a long time, till i hit a rock going to fast, and the last one lasted less than 2 weeks in the truck. Thankfully i had a solution, i had been researching and i had ordered parts over 6 months ago to test fit. So i figured it was finally time to do it, i had 3 months till best of the west in colorado. In the jeep world once you get up to 37 inch tires, turning the wheels becomes extremely difficult and puts alot more strain on components, so a common upgrade is hydro assist. The only hydro assist i knew of was on a swing set steering setup, but thats alot more fabrication than im capable of. So i opted for full hydro with a double ended ram.

I was still unsure of this project at first, so i wanted to retain my factory rack mounting locations. The first time i had the full hydro in the rocks i knew i would never go back.

Here is how i have the hydro set up currently (i am currently waiting on parts to go back in and redo the ram mounting).

The steering valve was pretty easy to mount by the driver side exhaust manifolds, and you can drop it out without disassembling anything else.
A TC style pump fit pretty well in the stock location with the stock pulley and belt. I did need to drill out the mounting hole on the pump for the stock bolt. And i needed a small spacer for the rear of the pump.
I also added marlin crawler cam gussets ( they fit terrible and i hate them, but they work and strengthen the lower control arm mounts better than others) i also added cam eliminators.
I have had a few issues with the TG kit, and im still trying figure out what is causing the stiff steering wheel. I since have switched everything to PSC and hopefully this next time through i will be happy with it.

 

My next trip was best of the west in colorado with Warfab. He put on a killer trip and helped me out so much that weekend. It was one of the best trips ive ever had, but also the most expensive for repairs.

So day 1 we got there around noon, as soon as i got off the trailer i broke. Some bolts backed out of my wheels hubs ( granted i havent touched them in 2 years) and it wrecked my brake rotor. Mike was kind enough to go back to the shop and get me a spare rotor and wheel hub. Then we went out to do a easier trail, scratch and dent. I broke on that trail too, but it was only a CV axle. But i put the steering stop on backwards and it left a nice groove in my brand new warfab rotor.
So the next day we went out to do die trying i didnt really get any pictures that day, i was focusing on learning the new hydro and not getting stuck. We werent too far from the exit when my truck decided it didnt like my rear driveshaft anymore. So again, mike being the amazing guy he is, went back to his shop to get me his drive shaft off thier truck. The rest of the trail was a blast and noah and i both decided to remodel our bedsides.
Mike got beat by a dodge.

On the last day we did 21 road in grand junction, this was an awesome trail that had alot of fun obstacles. I took alot more picture that day, but i also broke the most that day. Shortly after that last pic i blew up my front ADD and both front axles. Joe, kyle, david and i all ripped out my front drive train before the others turned around. But we didnt have a 2nd spare outer cv joint to put in the wheel bearing. Kyle thought it was myth that you need one, so we sent it without one. I got about a 1/4mile down the road before my wheel fell off.
John was kind enough to give me his wheel bearing to get back to the trailer.

Overall it was a really fun trip and we got to do alot of fun trails, the hydro steering was a success on this trip.

 

When i got home i started ordering parts to fix the truck for the next trip, we were going to rubicon in early july, so i had about 3-4 months to get ready.
So i ordered a fj ADD, a few new axles, a power steering pump and new hydraulic lines and cooler. I also got a new WIY rear bumper from @WarFab Armor and thier front chop kit. My rear had seen alot of abuse and mike wanted me to get the new updated version to beat on. And the front bumper had seen better days, it was bent and i put a pretty good crack in it.
Since that was a demo bumper it stuck out a lot more than the production ones and because of that i always rammed it into walls. It kept me off my fenders, but i would purposely hit it into rocks and scrape by.

The rear is the same style, just updated brackets.
But the front, i built it myself. And because of covid and the lack of available material, its a mixture of 1.75x.120 dom and 1.5xshed80 pipe. It isnt perfect, and ill remake it one day, but for my first time dealing with tubing it came out pretty good. And for a skid plate i did a piece of 1/8in under the frame and kept the stock one under the diff.


So the rubicon was a blast, we got to loon lake on sunday at 10am. Parking was terrible at the trail head. The first day went pretty good, besides getting turtled a few times our group did really well. We were a about a 1/8 mile from our camp when my motor mounts failed and my upper oil pan hit my hydro ram. We limped it to camp and patched it with jb weld. The next day we were making our way down big sluice when it happened again, but we were out of jb weld. We also left about half our group at camp with a jeep that broke both rear axle shafts. So i jumped in a jeep and we continued our way out to try and get parts. We werent making great time, and when we got to the top of cadillac hill, our leader and the other guy took off and we couldnt keep up. Thats when our positive terminal on our battery went to ground and fried the alternator. After trying to fix it, but seeing that the alternator was smoking, i set out to find the rest of the group. I hiked about 6 miles before i caught up with them, and they had already gone to town and didnt get parts. So i jumped in the back of one of thier jeeps and rode into town on the fuel tank to get JB weld to fix my truck. We got back to the jeep with the busted alternator after dark. They said they were going to tow it to town and get a room for the night, while me and the jeep i was riding with would continue back to camp.
We got back to my truck around midnight and did a quick patch on the oil pan and jumped in 5 qts so i could get back to camp. Got to camp at 130am. Got up and tore the truck apart to patch the hole even better, so we could limp it off the trail in the process i found a broken inner hiem for my hydro steering. About a 1/4 mile from the trailhead the ram contacted the oil pan again and blew the hole even bigger. Finally we were loaded up by 8 and at the hotel by 10. But we werent done yet, we still had a broken jeep that we left on the trail. So thursday, i spent the day tearing my truck apart on the trailer to patch the hole and weld the motor mount solid, while the others ran to get 2 axles from a junkyard. Friday we entered through lake tahoe side and it was much more enjoyable. I stopped at rubicon springs because i didnt want to have issues with my broken hiem coming apart. Saturday we made our way out and even with all the traffic it was only about 6 hours out from rubicon springs.

 

Bad ass stuff happening in here.