Hello all,
I'm a new member, long time lurker. I've learned a lot on these pages and wanted to officially introduce myself and thank everyone here for sharing their knowledge. Through this and other forums I've saved a ton of cash and saved myself from some huge headaches, fixed and headed off some serious problems and generally had a lot of fun.
A month or so ago I picked up a new (to me) 12 Tundra 4x double cab. I had been after one for quite some time, and being a long time Toyota fan ever since my 91 Corolla SR5 (still miss that car) current 2000 4Runner and 07 FJ I found one that fit the bill.
My better half, 3 dogs and occasional 17 yr old teenage son (he's generally too cool to hang with us now though) do a lot of camping WAY back in the mountains near our home in Wyoming. We used to take our 4Runner, then graduated to an FJ, but we seem to want to take more and more when we go so the Tundra was the only logical choice. Here is a shot taken last summer on a solo trip I took.
We have a slightly modded Little Guy teardrop camper which pulls pretty well behind the FJ till you hit the steep stuff in the mountains. Its not like going 45-50mph for 20-30 miles was too big of a deal but with it loaded down with a 4wheeler, dirt bike and a couple weeks worth of fuel, food and beer I felt like I was reaching the end of the FJ's towing capacity.
So here is the new Tundra:
When purchased I was immediately thrilled with the power of the 5.7 and the ride was dreamy compared to the FJ and 4Runner. Quiet and smooth were the first things that came to mind. Unfortunately it wasn't quite ready for the places we wanted to go so some mods were necessary.
I knew I wanted a winch which I wished like hell I had with the FJ on my last solo adventure when I was buried up to the axles, bottomed out in the thickest mud I have ever experienced. I was 10 miles deep in the Cloud Peak Wilderness above Buffalo WY, with little more than a shovel that was on its way to giving out. I was back on a fire road that looked like it hadn't been traveled by anyone that year. I'm guessing it hadn't since the road was snowed in 500 yards from where I camped. Needless to say I spent 5 hours shoveling thick heavy mud, filling holes with firewood, scooting a few inches this way and that till I was free. Not a fun experience and one I vowed to never repeat. Now for those who will say I was stupid to go alone, this was a road I have been on tens of times and I did have a dirt bike to ride to civilization and rescue if I needed it.
Sorry I digress a lot...... So I found a winch (Smittybuilt X2O 10K Gen 2) that seemed to fit my needs for the Tundra and found a nice light, simple and affordable aluminum bumper that would accommodate it. It is the Rockslide Engineering base model. I had a little trouble with Rock Slide in the beginning as they didn't have any pictures of their bumper on a gen2 Tundra, and some issued with wether I had to trim the stock bumper, AND the fact that the bumper showed up with NO cutout for the winch lead. After a few frantic phone calls between them and the shop doing the install it was all worked out and they apologized for the trouble and made it more than right with me. My installer simply cut a hole for the line and all was well.
I wanted a lift and was recommended by a few people to get the BDS 7 inch lift with the front Fox coil overs if I could swing the price. It's a pricy endeavor for the coil overs rather than sticking with the stock shocks but after much research I was convinced.
Next was wheels and tire decision time. I wanted to go with 37's but talked myself down after pricing 20 inch wheels and 37 inch rubber. Amazing how much the price shot up from 35's on 18 inch rims. I was also nearing my budget and didn't want to drop another huge pile of $ on re-gearing, which I thought would be needed, especially with towing my little camper and the possibility of a larger, heavier one. I would have liked the look of 37's a little better but sanity (and keeping my wife from killing me) had to step in at some point.
So here is what it looks like now:
I'll post a couple more since I'm out of Pics for this post.
I'm a new member, long time lurker. I've learned a lot on these pages and wanted to officially introduce myself and thank everyone here for sharing their knowledge. Through this and other forums I've saved a ton of cash and saved myself from some huge headaches, fixed and headed off some serious problems and generally had a lot of fun.
A month or so ago I picked up a new (to me) 12 Tundra 4x double cab. I had been after one for quite some time, and being a long time Toyota fan ever since my 91 Corolla SR5 (still miss that car) current 2000 4Runner and 07 FJ I found one that fit the bill.
My better half, 3 dogs and occasional 17 yr old teenage son (he's generally too cool to hang with us now though) do a lot of camping WAY back in the mountains near our home in Wyoming. We used to take our 4Runner, then graduated to an FJ, but we seem to want to take more and more when we go so the Tundra was the only logical choice. Here is a shot taken last summer on a solo trip I took.
We have a slightly modded Little Guy teardrop camper which pulls pretty well behind the FJ till you hit the steep stuff in the mountains. Its not like going 45-50mph for 20-30 miles was too big of a deal but with it loaded down with a 4wheeler, dirt bike and a couple weeks worth of fuel, food and beer I felt like I was reaching the end of the FJ's towing capacity.
So here is the new Tundra:
When purchased I was immediately thrilled with the power of the 5.7 and the ride was dreamy compared to the FJ and 4Runner. Quiet and smooth were the first things that came to mind. Unfortunately it wasn't quite ready for the places we wanted to go so some mods were necessary.
I knew I wanted a winch which I wished like hell I had with the FJ on my last solo adventure when I was buried up to the axles, bottomed out in the thickest mud I have ever experienced. I was 10 miles deep in the Cloud Peak Wilderness above Buffalo WY, with little more than a shovel that was on its way to giving out. I was back on a fire road that looked like it hadn't been traveled by anyone that year. I'm guessing it hadn't since the road was snowed in 500 yards from where I camped. Needless to say I spent 5 hours shoveling thick heavy mud, filling holes with firewood, scooting a few inches this way and that till I was free. Not a fun experience and one I vowed to never repeat. Now for those who will say I was stupid to go alone, this was a road I have been on tens of times and I did have a dirt bike to ride to civilization and rescue if I needed it.
Sorry I digress a lot...... So I found a winch (Smittybuilt X2O 10K Gen 2) that seemed to fit my needs for the Tundra and found a nice light, simple and affordable aluminum bumper that would accommodate it. It is the Rockslide Engineering base model. I had a little trouble with Rock Slide in the beginning as they didn't have any pictures of their bumper on a gen2 Tundra, and some issued with wether I had to trim the stock bumper, AND the fact that the bumper showed up with NO cutout for the winch lead. After a few frantic phone calls between them and the shop doing the install it was all worked out and they apologized for the trouble and made it more than right with me. My installer simply cut a hole for the line and all was well.
I wanted a lift and was recommended by a few people to get the BDS 7 inch lift with the front Fox coil overs if I could swing the price. It's a pricy endeavor for the coil overs rather than sticking with the stock shocks but after much research I was convinced.
Next was wheels and tire decision time. I wanted to go with 37's but talked myself down after pricing 20 inch wheels and 37 inch rubber. Amazing how much the price shot up from 35's on 18 inch rims. I was also nearing my budget and didn't want to drop another huge pile of $ on re-gearing, which I thought would be needed, especially with towing my little camper and the possibility of a larger, heavier one. I would have liked the look of 37's a little better but sanity (and keeping my wife from killing me) had to step in at some point.
So here is what it looks like now:
I'll post a couple more since I'm out of Pics for this post.
