My baby is home (for now)

Well after what seems like an eternity my project truck made it home last night, although short lived as it goes into the shop for gears and lockers on Monday. Long lead times on parts, having the man power in an extremely busy shop and over coming all the challenges of cutting the frame and doing the 2014+ conversion was frustrating at times but in the end I really enjoyed it and I think it's going to be an awesome build. Still a long, long, long way to go but I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I received a lot of great advise from folks on this incredible forum in particular @osidepunker who unselfishly has spent at ton of time advising me on this build and he introduced me to some great folks. I know I've been promising a build thread to some of my buds on here, I will get it started soon. Here she is so far Long Travel Short bed DC Tundra.





This is where we started

 

Looking good!

 

Awesome looking rig!!

 

Very nice!

 

Man!!! That looks great Greg. I really like what you did with the bed sides and rear bumper. It's hard to tell you shortened it.

 

Badass!!! How far did you push the axle forward, what’s your new WB?

 

very nice ! love the conversion work.

 

Thanks guys, the truck is 1 foot shorter than a standard DC cab 6.5 bed or crew cab with a 5.5 bed. Trying to get the time to do a build thread.

 

Thanks Warren, I meant to install your contribution to the build yesterday but @GreatAvalon came over to look at the truck and talk about electrical stuff we're going to do ( Matt is awesome with that kind of stuff ) and 3 hours later it was still sitting on the cart with the tools. We even joked about the fact I can't even get a 15 minute job done.

 

Just awesome!...so clean looking - soon to get so dusty soaking up bumps and whoops at top speed!

 

Damn that thing is nuts! What rear bumper is that? Custom?

 

Thanks ! yeah we fab it then I decided I didn't like the original version it so we re-did it last week pretty happy with it now.

 

Love how this is already and can’t wait to see how much more you’re doing on it.

 

Looks great.

 

That thing is going to rock out with its cock out. Outstanding job so far

 

Amazing!!!

 

I'm sure you've been busy but your public is......

 

wow thats awesome!!

 

Whoa! Badass. I’ve wanted to shorten my bed for a while now. How does it feel and drive shorter?

 

Warren @831Tun I know, I know I can't seem to keep my head above water, work is insanely busy and truck has kept me busy in what little remaining spare time I have but I promise I am working on the build page. Truck drives great @2ndgenny a lot of challenges to overcome doing this but I am, super happy with how its coming along.

 

Love the short bed with the double cab

 

Wait. What? I’m new to the forum (still getting used to pages-long threads about blinker bulb brightness, and similar enthralling but seemingly mundane topics) and Tundra ownership, so maybe this is really obvious, but what? You’re shortening your bed and wheelbase? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful ride (black being the awesomest and all), but what’s the goal/purpose?

PS, I’m totally hooked and will definitely be watching this thread/build! Now to go find that popcorn graphic...

 

I'm not sure either and I'm curious. I know wheelbase has a lot to do with how it performs in the high speed desert stuff. There is an optimal wheel base for certain size trucks. I can't see his exact suspension set up, but it looks like it might be long travel.

Or of course shortening it for tight trail 4x4ing.

 

Bada$$

 

His rear is caged and yes, it's long travel.
Shortening the bed improves all the angles, approach, departure and break-over. Plus it makes it more nimble and looks extremely BA. I would imagine it decreases the turning radius too. I'm sure Greg knows a lot more and has more info than I do.

 

Thanks for clarifying, Happy! This helps me think through how I might be able to sell this idea to my wife!

 

These are the reasons I want to shorten mine.