Alhounos overland build - "The Toddler Trekker"

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A

alhounos

Joined
Oct 15, 2025
Threads
1
Messages
17
Location
Portland
Hello everyone, thanks for all the incredible info I've found lurking around here so far. I've already done quite a bit to my GX (2017 luxury package) since I got it six months ago, so I figured I should start documenting it. I'm new to 4x4s but have plenty of experience driving and wrenching on cars.

The GX will be used for family road trips, camping (wife and two toddlers), and light overlanding, with some occasional blue-trail wheeling on the side. Priorities for this build are comfort and reliability first, off-road capability second. I know from modifying cars that mods tend to become a vicious cycle if you let it get away from you - "OEM+" is typically the sweet spot, so that's what I'm going for here. Also trying to keep weight as low as I reasonably can.

I'm on a tight schedule trying to get this ready for a road trip in March from here in Oregon to Tennessee to visit family. Along the way I want to stop in Death valley, and then do the Mojave Road and possibly another multi-night offroad camp at Merus Park (Palo Duro Canyon) in Texas.

Mechanical stuff so far:
265/65/18 Falken Wildpeak AT4W standard load
RCI rock sliders
Prinsu roof rack
Gobi ladder
Bison Gear external molle panel

Planned:
Bilstein 6112/5110, approx 1" lift
Transmission cooler
differential breather relocate
maybe aluminum skid plates in the future

Camping stuff so far:
3rd row delete and homebuilt cargo tray + drawer system
Dometic 75l fridge
Jackery 1000, Jackery alternator charger
iKamper Skycamp
OVS 270 Awning

Planned:
Awning lights
water system

Here's a picture of me just after taking a pee on the side of the trail, and one of the partially complete drawer system.
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Great start! 🤙
Regarding your wish/to-do list, a couple of things I would redirect your spending from:
Don't bother with a ladder. Considering you're wanting to keep weight down, unless you're as short as my wife (5'-1") a small folding step stool (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYW5BFB?tag=ihco-20) is all you'll ever need, especially if you plan on a roof top tent. We've had an iKamper for almost 8 years with pretty extensive use and absolutely LOVE it! (Here's my build thread for reference: R²M 2013 GX 460 Overland Build ) With a RTT, you'll never use your ladder that my short wife couldn't get to, since the entire roof will be covered with your tent. Save the money and weight.
Having built several overland rigs, I've never needed to redirect my diff breathing lines. Yeah, I know, down here in So. CA we don't get much rain. But as you pointed out, your off roading will be pretty mild so I imagine you won't be fording any deep crossings up to your door sills, or beyond. Again, save the time and money.

Your drawer system looks fantastic! But for shedding weight, I would have opted for aluminum or polypropylene (Delrin). It's light, machines well and resistant to UV and chemical. It's basically what your kitchen cutting boards are made of.

Again, from experience, I'd suggest getting your aluminum skids ASAP. You are FAR more likely to drop down on something you NEVER saw, e.g.: rock, tree stump of whatever, even on "easy" trails, than rubbing your rock sliders along a tree or rock. It always happens you think you have a good line and then BANG! 😲 you drop on something hard. With rock sliders you'll always now when you're coming up on a rock or tree that you'll be rubbing against, but guarranted you won't see that hole you just dropped into and banged your under carriage.

BTW, I too am concerned about weight, so I went with alu skids. Even though I have fully locking front and rear diff's, gears and everything else for rock crawling, I built my rig first and foremost as an overlander and everything is solely for getting me out of a bad situation if I should ever use poor judgement on a trail or attack line. So in consideration that I don't bash my rig on boulder trails, I felt I only needed alu skids and so far they've been awesome. In fact I would have also gone with aluminum bumpers too, if they'd been available back then!

Now about rock sliders, I have RCI's because they stick out. My previous sliders were MetalTech and everytime I had to stand on them for closing our iKamper (you'll need to reach and tuck in the sides before the clam shell completely shuts), I was on the very edge of my toes trying to keep enough purchase to hang on. And trust me you WILL be using your rock sliders A LOT for closing your tent! The RCI sliders have been great! Plenty of room for standing on and also for my wife to use as a step when necessary. Also, a rock slider that's more proud, will keep rocks and trees further from hitting/rubbing against side of your rig. And my last point on the subject, they are a huge upgrade in protection for side impact collisions (being T-boned) both in safty and reducing vehicle damage. Ask me how I know...

Not sure if you've seen them yet, regarding your rear quarter panel MOLLE's, I too have rear quarter MOLLE panels AND a rear shelf byt Victory 4X4 (https://www.victory4x4.com/product/UNI-UPRS.html). I believe there may be a couple of companies that sell them. This has been great for keeping thing off the rear deck, yet easy to get to. If you look at my build, you'll see a photo that I mounted my fire extingusher on the front side of the shelf for easy and out of the way access!

Okay, I've bloviated FAR too long here, so I'll just end with, "Congrats on a great looking rig and good luck with all your upgrades!":cheers:
 
Thanks for the welcome fellas! I've been working my way through your build threads as well (they're long!), great looking rigs.

Speaking of ladders, I would agree with you @r2m that they aren't needed - if I was planning to use it as a ladder. For me it's a cheap and light swing out substitute. Got my propane tank mounted today and my trash bag. Happy with the way the propane mount worked out - not as bulletproof as a swing out or bumper but I figure the ladder's 250lb weight limit should mean a 20-ish pound dynamic load (13lb filled 5lb tank + 7lb pound aluminum tank holder) should be pretty safe. I mounted the tank holder using 4 ebay rollbar mounts and homemade 1/4" aluminum adapter plates. The weak link is probably the rolllbar mounts with their two 4mm allen bolts but spread across 4 mounts it should be fine. I added a steel wire safety strap so that if something does fail it will just bang up my tailgate instead of exploding in ball of flames as it bounces down the interstate.

IMG_4783.webp

Funny, I searched forever trying to figure out what the hell overlanders with SUVs do for propane storage and I came to the conclusion that most probably just use the 1lb bottles and keep them inside the vehicle. I need a 5lb tank because I want to use an ammocan-style fire box, and 1lb bottles just aren't practical for that.

The trash bag mount probably needs some tweaking as the s-biners I used are a little large, but it works for now. Will also need to keep the weight in the bag modest for this ladder setup to be safe.

I also got the drawer boxes mounted after paint and was thrilled to find that my 20 liter Sea to Summit Watercell fit perfectly in the gap between the box and the cargo area side panel. Fit so well, in fact, that it doesn't need securing. Just fills that area perfectly. I do plan to add some type of strap to secure it to the top of the drawer box so that the weight isn't all in compression. I plan to drill a hole in a nalgene bottle cap (the watercell uses the 63mm standard cap) and use that at camp with a rechargable water faucet that will allow me to have a very minimalist running water setup.

IMG_4787.webp
 
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@r2m I hear you on the aluminum skids. Probably no time for that before the big trip in march, but they're definitely in my plans. Prioritizing the trans cooler and suspension for now.

Speaking of, I'm glad to see you are a happy iKamper user. I haven't used it yet, but it certainly seems like it will be very comfortable. I bought the insulated liner for it as well. Does it ever make your rig feel tippy though? Highways or offroad? I've made it worse by adding our ridiculous 70lb awning (a must for the wife and kids, though), and I'm kinda anxious about having all that weight up there. I have found several examples of people with similar setups, including several Aussie Prado guys, but it definitely is not ideal. A big reason I'm trying to get the Bilsteins on.
 
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regarding aluminum skids- I banged mine up pretty badly, so much so that one of the captive nuts in the frame cross member came out. the result was a loose skid that made clanking noises only at low speed turns. The noise became so concerning that I thought LCA bushings or CV axles had gone bad.

I took it to a shop to diagnose and them commented that this is common for AL skids. maybe they bend more when hit and stress the bolts??
 
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llm said:
regarding aluminum skids- I banged mine up pretty badly, so much so that one of the captive nuts in the frame cross member came out. the result was a loose skid that made clanking noises only at low speed turns. The noise became so concerning that I thought LCA bushings or CV axles had gone bad.

I took it to a shop to diagnose and them commented that this is common for AL skids. maybe they bend more when hit and stress the bolts??
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I know aluminum skids may not be everyone's cup of tea, considering I only do overlanding and avoid rock gardens (whenever possible), my aluminum skids have been banged upon a couple times but are still holding up fine. Again, I avoid trails looking for reasons to use them, but there is always that "OH Shoot!!" moment when you drop onto something you didn't notice on the trail, and that's really all I need them for.
 
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alhounos said:
@r2m I hear you on the aluminum skids. Probably no time for that before the big trip in march, but they're definitely in my plans. Prioritizing the trans cooler and suspension for now.

Speaking of, I'm glad to see you are a happy iKamper user. I haven't used it yet, but it certainly seems like it will be very comfortable. I bought the insulated liner for it as well. Does it ever make your rig feel tippy though? Highways or offroad? I've made it worse by adding our ridiculous 70lb awning (a must for the wife and kids, though), and I'm kinda anxious about having all that weight up there. I have found several examples of people with similar setups, including several Aussie Prado guys, but it definitely is not ideal. A big reason I'm trying to get the Bilsteins on.
Click to expand...
Regarding cold weather in our iKamper, it's only been cold enough for us that in the morning, our gray water was iced over. Inside the tent, we were warm and toasty all night.

A few things most folks don’t realize about RTT's, at least good ones, is one, the obvious, they're off the ground, that being said, they don't conduct the cold off the ground, into your inflatable mattress, sleeping bag, and to you. With a real foam mattress, albeit, only about 2.5 inches thick, as opposed to air mattresses, when it gets colder through the night, air condenses, hence your air mattress becomes squishier, easier to roll off of, not as firm as when you just blew it up right before going to bed, AND the cold ground goes directly through the mattress right to your body core.

With an iKamper (and most RTT's) the entire floor of the tent is mattress! Thus, you're never rolling off the edge of your mattress, no matter how restless a sleeper you are and your entire tent floor is insulated! iKamper tents (and again, most quality RTT's) use a much heavier material instead of very thin rip-stop nylon for all the walls, which provides added insulation. Finally, there's the hard shell that iKamper has that in high winds, you can position your vehicle so the wind is blowing directly at the hard shell and not flapping the fabric side wall, windows or zippers. And when you get as old as me, NOT having to get off the ground in the morning is a huge plus! I sit up, swing my legs out the "door", put my feet on the ladder, like I'm sitting on a chair, and just stand up. The ladder is angled enough for me to step down like a steep staircase. Easy-peasy! One last point specifically regarding iKamper's, my wife and I have actually timed opening it: 01:30 minutes (1 minute, 30 seconds), and closing it: 3:00 (3 minutes). Closing it with 2 people is best. My wife stands on the bumper and I, on the rock slider towards the front. This allows us both to tuck in the sides of the tent at the same time as I'm closing the clam shell. One person can do it, but it just takes a little longer. Grant you, the opening time doesn’t account for laying out the sleeping bags, pillows or whatever else you have in your tent, the actual times are for literally popping it open and closing it.

Now the down side....
It's a little more of a headache if you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. For my wife and I, fortunately it's not an issue, we're usually good till morning. Also, after about 7 years of ownership, the plastic windows started cracking from the heat and UV. But I have to factor in that we don't have a garage large enough for our GX so it's outside 24/7/365, so it gets our hot summers and all year round.
I did the duct tape on the windows for one or two camping’s, but considering the entire fabric zips out from the hard shell, we decided to purchase the iKamper fabric replacement liner for our tent from our iKamper dealer at about $900.00, total. They did the install in about an hour and a half and it looked like new. Now, it's like we have a brand-new tent again! Plus, since ours was such an early model, the new liner has a couple new features that have been added since we purchased ours.

So, in short, we love our tent and would purchase one again, although, if we do another one, we may go with the smaller version since we're empty nesters and don't necessarily need all that room.

Regarding the raised CG (center of gravity) and feeling top heavy, I too have an awning mounted, and have been in same heavy cross winds. The suspension and way my GX is built, it’s never felt tippy. But note, I am very careful about being off-camber when I’m on trails. I know with a higher CG, I am far more susceptible to tipping than most rigs. But so long as I’m careful and conscious of my line of attack on a trail, I’m okay. Also, my wife is that little birdy on my shoulder that will pull me from the ledge of anything she fells scares her too much.
 
I remember well when I could still pee my name in the snow, sighh... The day will come, if you make it there, where taking a pee without peeing on your boots is considered a successful day in the woods. Just saying....

Banandalorian said:
FWIW the stock GX skids are stronger than people think, they just lack coverage for the transfer case and back 2/3 of the gas tank. I would still suggest full skids for the sake of sending it, though.
Click to expand...

Agree 100% with this. And seeing how @alhounos has a Lux good chance the gas tank skid already is full coverage, on my 19 Lux it is. Something seldom mentioned in the differences of the Luxury trim.
 
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