After a lot of trial and error, I think it's finally narrowed down to a slew of bad fuel pumps. The original seemed to go out on me on a wheeling trip. I changed it with a generic electric that was available at the nearest parts store. Problems still persisted so I changed some lines around. Problems still persisted and I just powered through and got home.
Picked up a replacement pump when I got home and decided I needed to drop the tank because there was nothing left that could be causing a restriction in the line. Tank was super clean. Barely any debris in the bottom of the tank. Got it back together and pulled the top plate on the carb and it was super clean. Put it back together and it started right up. Ran around town and on the freeway a bunch and all seemed well.
Headed up the hill and just shy of the Dusy trail head, I started to get some hesitation on long climbs. Got to the trail head and all was well. I aired down and started the trail. 20 yards into the trail, the truck died. We cracked the fuel line at the carb, turned it over and got a ton of air coming out. Then it started right up.
On the way to Chicken rock and right at the base of chicken rock it did it again. We decided the pump wasn't pulling hard enough and was cavitating causing the fuel to boil. The pump then wasn't strong enough to pull the air (caused from boiled fuel) through so we would have to bleed the fuel line.
We figured we'd throw the electric (brought it with just in case) in line in place of the filter (pump came with a filter as well) and between the two of them, they just might keep the line full of fuel. It worked and I had no other issues on the trail. Had a great trip and made it through with absolutely no body contact or damage.
I was able to source an OEM Toyota pump from one of our vendors. They had it on the shelf and I swapped it out last night. Even with the air in the lines from replacing the filter and swapping the pump, the truck fired right up and didn't stumble at all.
I think it's finally good. We've got our Customer Appreciation run on the Rubicon next weekend and with any luck I won't have any issues. At any rate I'll have that crappy electric pump with me just in case.
