Truck Stuff Ch.1

Initially, when we were looking for a vehicle we wanted a 4Runner, the plan was to build it out, take the back seats out and just sleep in the back. However, after countless hours wasted driving to dealerships and in dealerships (over the span of several months) we hadn’t had any luck. But one night when driving back from another dealership Alicia found an ad for a 2019 Tacoma that was reasonably priced and relatively close to where we already were. We got to the dealership just after 9pm, told the salesman that we wanted to see the Tacoma, and as soon as he pulled it around I got a good feeling. The thing looked nice, really nice, it was completely stock and that’s exactly what we needed. Upon further inspection of the underside I was shocked to truly see 0 rust, and virtually no signs of wear and tear. At 58k miles the truck was hardy broken in, but it looked like it was new off the lot. The only blemish that I could find was where someone had spilled a cup or so of white paint on the back seat, but neither Alicia or I viewed it as a dealbreaker. The test drive went well, the truck felt well balanced and rode smoothly, no weird sounds or vibrations, this just continued to add to my growing excitement. When we went back into the dealership I was doing everything I could to not show that I really wanted this truck, and Alicia had told me that she did to. So we sat down and reviewed the copy of the CarFax. And again, I was shocked to see that the truck was 1 owner, bought locally (explaining the no rust), and had every…single…service performed at the Toyota dealership that the truck was purchased at. So after Alicia and I had a brief discussion we agreed to have them run our credit so we could buy it. The salesperson went to fetch our finance info and was gone for a few minutes, after he came back and showed me the numbers my heart sank. The dealerships initial offer was at 27.2% APR, I politely but very clearly explained that there was no way that I was going to accept those terms, and if he wanted to close the deal that he would need to significantly lower the APR. For a few hours we played the car negotiating game where he would bring me a counter and I would refuse, he would “go check with his manager” to see if we could get a better rate, rinse, repeat. At close to midnight he returned with a rate that was comparable to the local credit union, we initialed the offer, started our paperwork with finance, and the rest is history.

The next day, we were proud new owners of a Tacoma, but now the real work had to begin; I needed to figure out how to outfit it to be worthy of an Alaska bound adventure. Initially, the plan was the same, to get a bed shell (like a Leer or something comparable) but I quickly found out that it wouldn’t be in our budget. We had the 6 foot bed Tacoma (a rarity apparently), so there were no second hand toppers anywhere near us on marketplace or craigslist. New toppers for that model ranged from $3,700 to $7,000, and we weren’t willing to pay that premium, so I kept looking. The more research I did the more apparent it became that we would need to use a rooftop tent (RTT). Alicia and I mulled over the pros and cons of each option, but we both agreed due to price and accessibility that the RTT was the choice for us. Once the RTT was decided upon I started cross shopping different bed racks to put the tent on and mount our gear to. I stumbled upon a company based out of Boulder, CO that offered what seemed to be the perfect solution for us, the best of both worlds. Softopper traditionally makes canvas bed toppers for a variety of trucks, which isn’t unique, but where they do differ is they worked with the engineers at Datin Fab (based out of Idaho) to create a system which allowed for a full overland gear bed rack with the canvas topper. So we would be able to stow our gear in the bed, under the canvas shell, and mount our RTT, water, and auxiliary fuel to the overland rack. The best part, for the whole system (rack and canvas shell) it was only $2300 shipped to my door. Don’t get me wrong, there are defiantly companies out there that offer some version of this for cheaper. But having an American company that still manufactures their product here in the states versus over seas brought me great peace of mind, knowing that if anything broke I could call the company and a real, knowledgeable, employee would be able to help me get the parts I needed and get back on the road. So we pulled the trigger on the bed cover/rack system from Softopper and started the search for a rooftop tent. I started my search with 23Zero, the gold standard for rooftop tents, but again I was disappointed to see that the model that best fit our needs (the Kabari 2.0) was $3,000 not including shipping. It was simply just out of our budget. So Alicia took to Amazon to see what she could find, and find she did. A company selling on Amazon offered a clone of the Kabari that had several hundred reviews with an overall rating of 4.7/5 stars. I’m generally pretty weary of Amazon clone products, but the specs and reviews didn’t lie. They were selling a comparable product for $1,300 including shipping, so we made the most expensive amazon purchase of our lives and ordered the tent.

After the tent, rack, and bed cover were ordered I started drawing designs for our internal storage system. A set of side by side drawers that would be able to carry hundreds of pounds of gear and handle the beating that is overlanding. I quickly realized while the system is simple in principle, actually fabricating it and getting the tolerances correct would be a somewhat challenging feat. I couldn’t find drawer slides that were load rated for the length that we needed (60”), so I made our own. I got 3/4” maple plywood for the body and drawer boxes, skateboard bearings (to act as rollers), and 3/4” aluminum square tubing (to act as the slides). And while we were waiting for the rest of the stuff to be delivered I got to work. In the end, the drawers took me about a week from start to finish (working on and off), and cost about $450 in materials. We had our bases covered, we had a place to store gear and a place to sleep.

More to come on the truck build, detailed posts on each piece of gear we put into the truck and the pros and cons of each.

Onwards and Upwards,

Connor