2018 Supercharged Adventure Pig

I finally feel like I've changed enough on the truck to warrant having a build thread now. I'm mainly hoping to use this as a reference for maintenance, ask questions, and plan future mods. If I'm able to help anyone else out in the process, even better. The plan for the truck is just to have an all-around capable vehicle that I can take anywhere and do anything in. I drive it daily and it's our main road trip vehicle to haul kids and dogs and all the stuff that comes along with them. It will also be occasionally towing a camper or boat or other trailer. I'll probably try to break up the first posts on this thread into sections, but here's a little background on how I got to this point:

I started out with a 2017 Crewmax Limited that we had for a couple years and I kept mostly stock. I added a topper, tires, a bedslide, but otherwise just drove it everywhere. Then I happened to find this 2018 at a local dealer and it was pretty well set up. The real selling point for me was this:



So I pulled the trigger and traded my 2017 for a 2018 with higher miles. Here's my old truck in the front and the new one in the back:



Initial impressions of the truck were that it was insane - but needed some changes to be what I wanted. The dealer let me swap whatever I wanted over from the old truck, so I swapped over the Bedslide and had the topper painted to match the new MGM paint. Then I added some RB20 steps for the wife and kids, picked up some Weathertechs, and put in a new set of LED fog lights. This is pretty much how it stands now:



A few weeks after picking it up, we did a big road trip up to Montana and back, towing a camper the whole way.



I was nervous just being in a used truck I didn't know much about, but everything went great and it towed the camper and all our crap just fine. Hoping next summer it will be towing this boat to the lake a bunch.



Anyway, excited to see where this thing goes. Thanks for following along

 

Performance
Magnuson Supercharger
TRD Pro Exhaust
Exhaust Cutouts (currently closed off)

The main reason I pulled the trigger on this truck was the supercharger it had, and I'm glad I did. It would be hard to go back to a regularly NA truck after this one. The truck has almost 100k on it and I don't know when the supercharger was installed, so I need to figure out some maintenance schedules for it. But it runs great and sounds good still. No weird clatter or knock or anything. I'm not sure what tune is on it, I'm assuming just Magnuson's stock one out of the box. There's a little "HP Tuner" box in the glove box of the truck, but I haven't looking into it much yet. If anyone has tips or insight into tuning for superchargers, I'm all ears.

The exhaust is the TRD dual exhaust, which I had on my last truck and loved. But I noticed that this truck was noticeably louder as soon as I drove it. I looked underneath:



The previous owner had installed dual exhaust cutouts and this thing was LOUD! (Thanks to @dirtydeeds & @ColoradoTJ for helping educate me on what I have) I loved the sound of it, especially driving around town and once you got into the boost. But loaded up with my wife, two small kids, and a camper on a trip, the drone was too much. By the time we got to Montana, I was ready to wear earplugs for the trip home. So I borrowed an angle grinder from a buddy and got some steel from HD, cut two rough plates out, and sealed up the cutouts in the middle of a Montana forest . The plates are still in there, but I think I'm going to look into actuated cutouts so I can open and close them at will. Or at least I need to get back under there and make some cleaner plates and seal with RTV. Someday maybe...

Supercharger Maintenance:
Planning to add maintenance details here for my own reference

 

Suspension
Spacer lift front & rear (currently)
Aftermarket UCAs (currently)
Fox 2.5 w/ DSC front & rear (soon)
Camburg uniball UCAs (soon)
1.5" lift shackle (soon)
Airlift LoadLifter 5000 airbags w/ Wireless One compressor
Daystar airbag cradles (soon)

While I liked that the truck was lifted when I bought it, I soon found out why no one really likes spacer lifts. The ride is super rough and kind of feels like the truck is driving around on solid stilts. I knew I would need to change it eventually and I was planning to sell the 20" wheels to go to 18" with 35s, so as always, was keeping an eye on the local Craigslist. I happened to find someone in town who was selling a bunch of parts off of his tundra he sold, including 18" Methods with 35" KO2s. The tires are pretty much shot, but he gave me a good deal, so I bought them mostly for the wheels. (Not realizing that most places don't have KO2s in stock ) While picking up the wheels, we got to chatting and he showed me the pile of parts he had, which included Fox 2.5 shocks with DSC & reservoirs, 1.5" lift shackle, Camburg uniball UCAs, and an RCI aluminum front skid plate. He could tell I was drooling over the parts, but I really didn't want to drop the money on them right then, so I left. He called me a couple hours later and said he just didn't want to deal with selling on CL, so would give me a great price if I'd come take all of it. I couldn't pass up the deal, so now I have a pile of truck parts sitting in my garage .



I threw the rear shocks on just because it was easy and I was impatient to see if they'd make a difference. So far they seem to be a little less bouncy and a little softer, but I really need to take the block out of my rear suspension and get some airbag cradles to get full articulation in the back. I like having the airbags because I tow a decent amount, and having the wireless compressor on board is super nice, not having to worry about filling the bags up before I leave. But they are definitely limiting the down travel in the rear and I'm worried about tearing them if I run it too hard. So I'll get some cradles and put those in when I take the block out. I'll need to mess around with it some because ideally, I want the bags to not touch the cradles until I load up a trailer. I'll make a new post in here when I get around to installing the rest, because I'm sure I'll have questions or issues I run into.

The truck already has aftermarket UCAs, but I don't know what brand they are. I was debating leaving those on and selling the Camburg, but the general consensus when I asked on here was that I'd be a fool to NOT install the Camburg UCAs, so they'll be going on when I get around to installing the fronts. I'd love to get it all installed before I go elk hunting next month, but I doubt that will happen with our busy schedule.

 

Wheels & Tires
Toyo Open Country ATIII, 295/70R18
Method NV 305, 18x9, 25mm offset

Finally found time to swap these new wheels in with new rubber on them. I went with Toyo ATIII at the recommendation of my friend who runs a Discount Tire. Really liking the look of these with the Method wheels I picked up a few weeks ago. I love the taller, skinnier look over what I had before. Haven't tested them much yet, but we're supposed to get snow this weekend, so maybe I'll get a chance to try them in some slippery stuff. Still need to get the Fox coilovers on the front and get some cradles for the rear suspension. Hopefully I can do that before winter hits in full.

 

Nice work! Skipped the 6 month coilover backlog line. Great build so far

 

Yeah, I found some locally on CL for a great deal and couldn't pass them up, especially with how backed up everything was. Fox wasn't my first choice, but should work great for what I need