The building of the Storm Trooper Evacuation Vehicle (STEV)

Thanks for having me on. I thought I would share some of the trials and tribulations that I am have encountered along the way with my Sequoia build.

Starting platform

• 2011 Platinum 51,000 miles
• Purchased October of 2019
• Bone stock

 

The first thing I wanted to do was to get STEV a lift and some larger 35 inch tires. I went with the Rev tech leveling lift. For the rear however, I went ahead and adjusted the airbag sensor to raise the rear. Now, this came with its own issues as now the airbags are maxed out so the ride is a little rough in the rear.

 

Once I installed the larger 35 inch tires I got frame rub. My wife was not going to have that she was furious that I lost the turning radius of the Sequoia. So into the shop to go to get the frame shave done.
It was pretty simple to do as it is only the mounting point where the front cab sits. You can do it at home with a reciprocating saw but I wanted a new plate welded on so it would maintain the original strength.

 

Sweet!

 

As I looked at the front end it was missing something. I needed a little more from the sequoia. So I went to CarID.com and picked a bumper. They have over 100 bumpers for the Tundra. They mount right up to the Sequoia. That being said there are some bumpers like the one that I purchased where you have to cut your original bumper in half to fill the gap. Or you can purchase the front bumper fairing from the dealer. I could not find it anywhere else.

The aggravating part was the picture on the site showed a very different bumper than the one I received. My advice is to call in and they will send you a picture of the bumper so you can double-check it.

Here are some pictures showing you gap between the body and the new bumper. Before you ask yes stock parking sensors mounted directly into the aftermarket bumper with no issues at all.

 

After the snow trip, I realized that I needed some fender flares. As you all know this next to impossible to do on our trucks. I managed to find a pair of the discontinued bush wacker fender from 4 Wheel parts.

There is a lot of work to get these to mount to you Tree and look good but it is worth the work.

 

You all know that the gas cap for the Tundra is in the wrong place for the Sequoia. You can see that I left the cut out in the fender flare. The next step is to use the originals as fiberglass molds to make some new rear flares that do not have the gas cap cut out.

Oh yeah I also got blacked-out mirrors from Amazon for $100 per mirror. They are decent quality and I was able to install them in about 15 minutes per side.

 

The nighttime look I thought could use some work so I got some new headlights and fog lights for STEV. Amazon for the headlights and fog lights. Both mounted right in without any issues.

 

The next things I want to do are

• Change out the grill
• Add some interior LED strips so we have a little more light inside the cabin at night
• New Side Steps
• Rear bumper
• Roof rack
• Roof Mounted LED light bar

If you guys have any pictures of the items above that you have done I would love to see them.

Thanks for following and I will post more updates soon.

 

Nice work and great build. There's a lot of great builds in this forum so a little snooping will get you some ideas for your future mods.

 

Nice ride brother! If you get around to making those fender flares I’ll buy a set from you.

 

Lmk what you come up with for a rear bumper,only option I found was to custom fabricate one.

 

The Sequoias dont get enough credit. This is one bad ass ride youre creating.
I really want one , but i would go full stupid and do the Tundra front end swap .

 

The Tundra front end swap is on the calendar for the end of the year. I think these look really tuff with that conversion and it is not that hard to do.

 

I installed the 1 inch rear shackle to give me some more travel on the rear end.

 

Brake Controller Mounted

 

New cell phone charger - Amazon Special

 

New LED Light Bar with the N- FAB Mounts

 

What light bars did you get and how are they holding up?