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First Taco, first truck build. 2020 TRD PRO

midnight20pro

midnight20pro

6️⃣ Aficionado
Tacoma3G Supporter
Hey all, I'm building my first taco!

I'm going to be taking this truck through some of the parks out west as soon as it's done. Lake Tahoe to Yosemite over to LV then Mt Zion, Canyonlands, Moab, then we finish our trip in Colorado. I want to build a truck capable of anything. (I'm currently in a Jeep JK Unlimited with Fox suspension / lift, MT's on 35s, warn winch, rigid lightbar, steel bumpers)

So for my taco, I'm going for a bit more of a subtle look and hopefully it drives better and provides a bit more safety and comfort.

Here's the build:

Armor:
SSO Hybrid Slimline Stage 1 kit (I bought the stage 2 addons, but I'm going to roll with stage 1 for a while to see if I need to go higher clearance on the corners)
CBI T3 Rear bumper with no swingarms, no tire carriers, no nothing, just the bumper.
(Question: I don't see cutouts for the rear parking sensors, what do I do about that?)
CBI full skids
C4 rock sliders
Gas tank skid
Lower control arm skids
Bed frame reinforcement
3M self healing vinyl wrap (pinstripe prevention)

Lighting:
Switch Pros sp9001
Baja designs 30" lightbar in the SSO slimline bumper, yellow
Baja designs s2 pro scene ditch lights, yellow
Baja designs squadron 2 sae fog light, yellow
Baja designs Rock lights

Suspension:
Icon Stage 9 kit with icon hydraulic bump stop

Wheels / Tires:
33" KO2s on the trd pro wheels and maybe I'll get new wheels at a later date.

Accessories:
DIMM for ram mount on dash
ARB Dual motor mounted in truck bed

Recovery:
Warn Zeon 10S
2 metal shackles, 2 soft shackles
1 kinetic rope
2 tow straps
2 tree savers
2 snatch blocks
Shovel
Axe
 
Whoa! Thanks Rob! and thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into your content. I definitely spent easily a month reading up and watching a lot of your videos to help make some of these decisions. Your video on hacking up your fenders to fit large wheels was an eye opener :) Thanks for the inspiration and keep up the good work.
 
Hello and welcome to Tacoma3g!

When do you plan on buying on, or do you have it yet? I saw your in a Jeep still.

Make sure to post pics when you get the truck and when parts start showing up!
 
I take delivery of the truck tomorrow (Monday) but I'm still waiting on the CBI T3 rear bumper and waiting on my SSO Slimline Stage 1 to show up. Once I get the bumpers, I'm going to start the whole build. All the parts have been trickling in to my friends warehouse and we're getting a detailed project plan outlined so we can wrench on it. The truck is actually being delivered from the dealer to Premier for the vinyl wrap tomorrow and once it's wrapped parts start going on. I'll take pics of as much of the build as I can and post along the way. I just don't wanna post stock truck pics in the dealer lot... those aren't as cool or impressive :)
 
Sneak peek! Dealer finally delivered the vehicle today and did some of the easy cosmetic stuff to kick things off.

MYTACOFull.webp


MYTACOTL.webp


Also filled the fake headlight vent with the @MESO customs flat color matched plate. It's the little things... on deck is the wrap and then all the heavy metal starts going on it :)

What do you guys think of the @CaliRaisedLED smoked taillights??
 
Thanks @Jfrisch01 ! It's only just the beginning :) Going to put all the pics and what not together as the rest of the build comes together then give my truck it's own build thread with more details and all the pics. Thanks for the love!
 
midnight20pro said:
Sneak peek! Dealer finally delivered the vehicle today and did some of the easy cosmetic stuff to kick things off.

View attachment 19494

View attachment 19495

Also filled the fake headlight vent with the @MESO customs flat color matched plate. It's the little things... on deck is the wrap and then all the heavy metal starts going on it :)

What do you guys think of the @CaliRaisedLED smoked taillights??
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new truck! It sounds like you have some awesome things planned for your future. Canyonlands is one of our favorite parks.

Can you show me what that color matched plate looks like? I'm not familiar with it.
 
Truck looks awesome man! I'm in a black TRD Pro as well and have the SSO bumper with the HC sides. I really like the overall look as I'm trying to keep the clean look on the truck, following OEM lines. I have pictures somewhere in the forum.
 
3cent.Taco said:
Truck looks awesome man! I'm in a black TRD Pro as well and have the SSO bumper with the HC sides. I really like the overall look as I'm trying to keep the clean look on the truck, following OEM lines. I have pictures somewhere in the forum.
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Right on! I couldn't agree with you more, I love the SSO slimline because it looks like it's supposed to be there and does a great job of hiding the winch and lightbar out of the way to keep the truck looking clean. Will dig through your post history for the pics :)

Tyler said:
Those are sweet. Like I said, I had no idea they existed. He makes the most interesting stuff, lol.
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He really does! and fast! Dude innovates quickly and goes from prototype to production pretty quickly. I got the smoked turn signals for the sideview mirrors, the key fob, the headlight trim plate, the diy ect switch for the shift knob, the led map lights, the extended fuse box cover, the interior chrome deletes, the trd change bin, and I'm hoping he restocks the method wheel center caps soon so I can get those ordered also :D Writing it all out, I may have gone overboard.
 
midnight20pro said:
Right on! I couldn't agree with you more, I love the SSO slimline because it looks like it's supposed to be there and does a great job of hiding the winch and lightbar out of the way to keep the truck looking clean. Will dig through your post history for the pics :)



He really does! and fast! Dude innovates quickly and goes from prototype to production pretty quickly. I got the smoked turn signals for the sideview mirrors, the key fob, the headlight trim plate, the diy ect switch for the shift knob, the led map lights, the extended fuse box cover, the interior chrome deletes, the trd change bin, and I'm hoping he restocks the method wheel center caps soon so I can get those ordered also :D Writing it all out, I may have gone overboard.
Click to expand...
I agree with you about the slimline bumper. I often wish I built my truck with a "stock" look over the way I did it. 35s on stock wheels (like I used to have), hidden winch mount or slimline, etc.
 
midnight20pro said:
Right on! I couldn't agree with you more, I love the SSO slimline because it looks like it's supposed to be there and does a great job of hiding the winch and lightbar out of the way to keep the truck looking clean. Will dig through your post history for the pics :)
Click to expand...

It really does! I will say, the back set of bolts (I guess towards the front of the bumper) to mount the winch in the bumper was a pain in the ass for me to bolt down the winch. My winch has to bolt through the bottom, so the bolt head is under the winch. The bumper is angled under the winch plate so I could barely fit my hand in there to get the bolt through and a ratchet wrench didn't even help as I couldn't get around the bolt. It might be a different case for you with the warn... I'm not sure how those get mounted. I have the Caliraised LED 25degree sliders to hug the truck and keep the lines tight as well.
 
Tyler said:
I agree with you about the slimline bumper. I often wish I built my truck with a "stock" look over the way I did it. 35s on stock wheels (like I used to have), hidden winch mount or slimline, etc.
Click to expand...

Originally I was thinking of going with the full overland style build similar to what you put together on yours, but as I was thinking about it... I sort of started leaning towards a less is more mentality and more of a baja / socal style runner that's still plenty capable crawling rocks. If I end up carrying my bike more than expected I may even lean towards the Wilco Offroad tiregate https://wilcooffroad.com/shop/tiregate-prerunner-toyota-2/
3cent.Taco said:
It really does! I will say, the back set of bolts (I guess towards the front of the bumper) to mount the winch in the bumper was a pain in the ass for me to bolt down the winch. My winch has to bolt through the bottom, so the bolt head is under the winch. The bumper is angled under the winch plate so I could barely fit my hand in there to get the bolt through and a ratchet wrench didn't even help as I couldn't get around the bolt. It might be a different case for you with the warn... I'm not sure how those get mounted. I have the Caliraised LED 25degree sliders to hug the truck and keep the lines tight as well.
Click to expand...

shtballs I hope I have an easier time with the Warn. I still don't have an eta on the front bumper but it should ship by April 1st. My roadtrip starts the 10th, so I truly can't run into too many snags. Hoping it all comes together like it does in my head :)
 
midnight20pro said:
shtballs I hope I have an easier time with the Warn. I still don't have an eta on the front bumper but it should ship by April 1st. My roadtrip starts the 10th, so I truly can't run into too many snags. Hoping it all comes together like it does in my head :)
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You'll be fine, it just adds on to assembly time. haha. I wish I could move at a faster pace for my build like you. I think our trucks might end up looking very similar! I will have Baja's all around too.
 
Sweet! Yeah I like doing it all at once and having the truck fully built and ready to go from "day 1"

Especially since I immediately plan on taking it crawling and off road with my wife this April. Gonna be fun. I can't find your build thread though, I wanna see the modssss :D
 
midnight20pro said:
Sweet! Yeah I like doing it all at once and having the truck fully built and ready to go from "day 1"

Especially since I immediately plan on taking it crawling and off road with my wife this April. Gonna be fun. I can't find your build thread though, I wanna see the modssss :D
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Oh.... uhhh.... I don't have a build thread.... I really should make one.... But, here's when I finished the bumper: https://tacoma3g.com/threads/what-have-you-done-to-or-with-your-tacoma-today.740/post-43614

I've since put a Factor55 fairlead and Flatlink E.
 
Craziest part of this build is I'm thousands of miles away and my friend took delivery of my truck out west. I won't even get to see my own truck until the first or second week of April! By then however, it'll have been wrapped in 3M Satin PPF, the tail lights are on, the BD squadron pro fog lights will be on, a bunch of the MESO stuff will be on. I'll fly out there for the suspension install, armor install, bumper install and finally for some off road testing before my road trip with my wife. This is delayed gratification on a whole new level and my wife and I can't wait to get off road in the new truck. 1 month away from all the new awesome!
 
midnight20pro said:
Craziest part of this build is I'm thousands of miles away and my friend took delivery of my truck out west. I won't even get to see my own truck until the first or second week of April! By then however, it'll have been wrapped in 3M Satin PPF, the tail lights are on, the BD squadron pro fog lights will be on, a bunch of the MESO stuff will be on. I'll fly out there for the suspension install, armor install, bumper install and finally for some off road testing before my road trip with my wife. This is delayed gratification on a whole new level and my wife and I can't wait to get off road in the new truck. 1 month away from all the new awesome!
Click to expand...
Whoa... did I miss something during your intro? That's crazy man! where are you at?
 
midnight20pro said:
Craziest part of this build is I'm thousands of miles away and my friend took delivery of my truck out west. I won't even get to see my own truck until the first or second week of April! By then however, it'll have been wrapped in 3M Satin PPF, the tail lights are on, the BD squadron pro fog lights will be on, a bunch of the MESO stuff will be on. I'll fly out there for the suspension install, armor install, bumper install and finally for some off road testing before my road trip with my wife. This is delayed gratification on a whole new level and my wife and I can't wait to get off road in the new truck. 1 month away from all the new awesome!
Click to expand...
That's actually kind of cool. I'm on the same level of hype for the camper I'll have in March. Been waiting for it since October.
 
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