New Build 2012 Limited Crewmax - Overlander Lite

Just bought this 2012 Crewmax TRD Limited with 110k miles on it, super clean, definitely a garaged pavement queen. The plan is to slowly build it into an Overlander Lite rig. Not going to go for a fully decked out buildout, but definitely focusing on some essentials. Rig is just about bone stock right now, it did come with a Flow Master Dual exhaust and an AFE encapsulated filter, which makes for a nice rumble. Started with a few simple mods to get going. Put this together for a to do list...

Installed:
- Lockerdown console safe CCW/ flashlight/ bear spray mod - Assembling a couple husky waterproof cases to sit in here with velcro as well for mini survival kit, mini first aid/ trauma kit (OH SHIT kits)
- Front and rear Weathertech floor mats
- Duluth deluxe canvas seat cover for the rear seats, sits underneath dual offroad certified car seats - copilot protection...
- ARE Overlander Shell with lighting kit, 12v power kit, ARE Ascend roof basket, swing safe
- ARB awning 8'(aluminum shell) w/ light kit & awning room w/ windbreaks
- RAGO fabrication bed rail high lift jack brackets (probably add a couple of their molle panels as well) with quick fists attached for shovel mount
- Cargo Net for in bed divider (1/3 gear, 2/3 Dog)
- 275/65/20 Falken Wildpeaks - Installed! Tough decision between these and my old go to BFG All Terrain TA KO2 - had many sets of these on multiple rigs, never failed me in the snow. Decision came down to some dissatisfaction with the BFGs tread wear, never managed to get more than 30k off a set. (Snowed again, tires from the dealer need to come off.)
- Rigid stacking toolboxes (2) - one for tools, one for recovery gear - rooftop basket connection for these
- Maxtraxx and roofbasket - Ended up using the Rhino Rack 75 deg Maxxtraxx mounts. Made a few minor modifications to make the connection to my rack beefier. Seem pretty damn stout.
- (LED bulb replacements for hi/lo beams from ToyTec) Replaced these with new Morimoto XBs
- Interior LEDs
- 4 gallon Road shower
- LED back up lights and tail lights (Sealight and Dorman Bulbs)
- Aluminum perforated basket floor for roof basket and additional Stainless D ring/ eyebolt tie down points. Sourced this from McNichols metals in Denver.
- OME full 3" lift kit w/ 612 springs and Dakar leafs + Add A Leafs
- SPC upper control arms
- Wilco High Clearance Solo Tire Carrier with dual Rotopax mounts.
- LED puddle lights
- Spidertax 1.25" spacers
- Sequoia TRD pro grille with color matched surround
- Yota LED amber Raptor lights

Sitting in the garage waiting for warm weather (-2 below here today):
- Diff. drop, carrier bearing drop from ToyTec
- Quickfists for axe mount/ fishing poles
- Onboard Compressor
- Jackery 500 and Zamp 80w solar panels
- ARB differential breathers
- Victory Offroad cabover rack & side scene lighting
- Replacement seat cover for worn out drivers side leather


Planned:
- 120v Inverter mounted in the bed, tied into the 12v power kit - 86ed this, the Jackery meets my needs without pulling off my starter battery.
- Safari Snorkel - 200 series LC model
- ARB, C4, Victory or EXPED front bumper
- Rear bumper w/ spare tire carrier -
- Hard shell rooftop tent (leaning towards a Roofnest Condor XL or iKamper Skycamp 2.0)
- Rooftop lighting system - Victory pods on the cabover rack
- Dual Battery system - SDHQ most likely with solar charger
- LED upgraded Fog lights(Morimoto) - Probably wait for a new bumper for the fogs... Amber or yellow
- Coachbuilder shackles and shims as needed to level and rake once its built up
- Color matched door handles and mirror caps
- De-badge
- 12k Winch
- Full belly armor - Probably RCI aluminum to keep the weight down

 

Shell and roof rack installed just in time for the snow storm... picked up my diff. drop kit, carrier bearing drop, led headlight bulbs, maxxtraxx and mounts from Toytec. That place is a seriously dangerous toy store. Saw a pair of the Falken Wildpeaks in person there... and added them to my possible's list, nice looking tires.

 

Congrats on the purchase! It seems like a pretty decked-out build to me!
I’ve never loved the stock photos of that overland shell with the black sections, but it looks phenomenal on your truck!

 

Just ordered the Falken Wildpeaks in 275/65 r20 from DT after much deliberation. I love the BFGs traction, but their treadwear absolutely sucks. Going with the 34" diameter for this first go around as I don't have my suspension installed yet. Going to stuff them in there and get my suspension on ASAP. Not my daily driver, so not too worried about the tight fit until it warms up. Need some snow traction...

 

And yes, I didn't like the stock photos of the shell that much either, but I saw one on a local Tacoma and it looked sharp. Really like the Line X reinforcement on the exposed edges. Really happy with it now that its installed.

 

Got a little warmish weather today, so got the Rago fabrication hi lift mounts installed on the bed rails, and added a set of Quickfists to them for my shovel. Those Rago mounts are super sturdy, very impressed with them...

 

Tires on today! These Falkens are really nice, took them for a little spin on the snow packed fire road behind the house, super grippy! If they hold up well I can definitely see these making me a convert from the BFGs. 275/65 r 20 fit with plenty of room to spare, only a little rub at full lock on the skid plate. Bottom Picture is in comparison to the 275/60 r 20 "new tires" the dealer decided would be a good idea to put on a pickup. I could see running those in the summer for a pavement queen, but they had to go in the middle of winter...

 

Made some progress yesterday after the kiddos went to bed...




ARB Awning matched up perfectly with the side rail on the Ascent rack, feels pretty bombproof with 10 bolts through the side wall.

 

Then got lucky and got some warm weather after work. Made a little more progress! Fire extinguisher mounted. Mount is a tube mount quick release for a roll cage, drilled out the bolt holes a little and it's rock solid on the bed rail.

 

Then a little more progress.... Working on the layout for the rooftop rack. Nothing bolted down. Opted for a pair of Ridgid stacking toolboxes instead of Pelican Cases. I have these for work and leave them out in the back of the truck all the time, plenty waterproof... And at 29.95 each, a little more budget friendly than pelican cases.... Worth a test run, will bolt them down directly to the cross bars with rubber washers, and stainless hardware. Nice feature is they have nesting latches on the side. I have another set I can stack on them and lock in easily for added capacity without needing straps.



Going to add a light weight aluminum mesh underneath everything to create a basket floor, kind of perplexed why they don't have this as a factory option on the rack... And then some strategic D rings when I put the mesh in.

Aluminum tube stock is for a couple of cross bars on the back 8" or so of the ARE roof rails. Slid the rack all the way to the front to get the appropriate support on the ARB Awning, so it exposed some rail at the back. Probably just end up as the spot camp chairs live... lol.

 

Rim for the full size spare arrived on Tuesday, so got this mounted up, and discovered it wouldn't fit underneath with the dual exhaust. Trying to get ahold of the Detroit fabrication guy, but no luck.. so probably going to get a Wilco Hitchgate Solo High Clearance on the way... JEGS free shipping is tempting me.

 

Added a 27F Odyssey Performance battery yesterday. Battery that was in it was a cheapo 24f and after our first test run of the ARB Awning lights and cap lights (ran them for about 3 hours) without starting the truck up, it was at 75% charge the next morning and had to put the truck on the charger... Needless to say a bigger battery was in order. Since the Northstar's and X2 27Fs are basically made out of Unobtanium right now, decide to try out the Odyssey... They had a Northstar dual terminal marine battery in stock but we couldn't get the leads to reach, so I'll be looking at lead extensions next... Then move the Odyssey to the #2 spot when I add my dual battery set up...

 

Sun gods are finally smiling on Colorado... Got another one checked off the list. Could have tackled 2 things but the wife's RX350 has a burned out tail light, so I'm upgrading all her rear lights to LEDS...

Mounts are for a Rhino Rack, but made a few minor modifications (drilled a couple extra bolt holes into my roof rack and added a couple stiffener bolts to keep it from sagging) and it came out pretty stout. Love it when a wild ass guess works out the way I think it will... Just need to get a couple nice rubber bumpers to protect the windows of the shell from the bolts if I'm really tossing the truck around. Plenty of clearance and it doesn't budge, but you never know...

 

Installed my LED headlight bulb replacements from Toytech last night. Need to do a little polishing on the lenses, but DAMN are those bright!

 

LOVING this build thread. Keep it up man!!

 

Super high dollar fancy stuff installed. Weathertech hood protector....

 

My perforated aluminum arrived today from McNichols Metals - Check these guys out if you are Denver, great service, fast delivery. Started fabricating the floor decking for my roof basket. Need to hunt down my riveter in my garage to tack it all together. 14 gauge with 1/2" holes and 14 gauge edging. Weighs about 6-7 lbs. Nice and sturdy, should make the basket a lot more functional.

 

Good looking build Jeremy, and welcome from Fort Morgan!

 

Just picked up my 4 gallon road shower from REI... After the snow melts it'll be time to fab up a mount. Looks like it will fit pretty well behind my rack... We will see how my guestimate works our after the bubble wrap is off....

 

Rack floor all fabricated and ready for install. Bolted it down and added a few additional eyebolts to the rack rails for specific tie down points. Came out nice.

 

Jackery 500 showed up yesterday, now to get the wiring harness to my Zamp solar panels configured so they can work together....

 

Installed my Road Shower with my modified factory brackets and some handy L brackets. Mounted directly to the ARE roof tracks with some finagling.. Added Eyebolts for tarp connections at the same time...

 

Had a busy weekend...

Started with my Wilco High Clearance tire carrier showing up, finally, so got that installed first.

 

Next I dove in on the rear suspension. Installed the Add-A-Leafs to the Dakar 3" leaf pack. Installed the rear suspension on Saturday. For an extra fun challenge, I did all the install during my kids nap time and after they went to bed, so no impact tools, and no beating on things to get them into place... Took lots of moving the jacks and stands around to get the right alignments and leverage, but I succeeded in not waking the entire house up.... Finished at 3 am...

Up in the air:

Wimpy Factory Leaf:

Beefy OME Leaf:

 

Then on Sunday I went to my buddies house... and tackled the front OME coil overs and SPC UCAs.

 

Started resurfacing the headlights on Saturday before my window to tackle the lift opened up... Got the first 2 steps done, need to finish them up this week sometime. Made a lot of extra passes with each disc to get everything nice and even. Definitely makes the next step easier...

 

End of the weekend... Had to order some Spidertrax 1.25" spacers from Toytech, as my tires where only about 1/2" from the UCAs and I now have a wicked rub on the skid plate... So going to throw those on tomorrow and bend the skid plate. Alignment scheduled for tomorrow, then its time to go romp on it a little and see how the OME setup handles it. So far its noticeably more stable, and feels way more planted. No more body roll in the corners. Woot Woot!

 

Finished the headlight polishing, came out awesome, got a little squirrelly with the drill and scuffed the paint in a spot or two, not stoked, definitely would do more masking if I do this again.

 

Removed the mud flaps from the front and bent the skid plate. Installed the Spidertrax and no more rub!