A Take on a 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road

Building An Overlander Is An Exercise In Balancing Need And Want

The first thing you need to realize when you’re building an overland vehicle is that you don’t really need most of this stuff—but it’s okay if you want it.

If you think you need that fancy suspension to explore backroads—there’s a biologist doing it every day for work in a bone-stock F150. If you think you need 35s because your dream journey across the (insert exotic name of a trail in a third world country here) requires it, there’s probably someone driving it in a Toyota Corolla; when they get stuck in the mud, they push. If you’re the kind of person who thinks you need everything because you saw it on Instagram, you might want to re-think your priorities. However, no one can ever criticize you for something you want. There is one exception—I need a 12V fridge/freezer because I need cold beer.

The best overland vehicles I’ve travelled in, built, or driven have had a well-balanced approach to what they need and what they want. Too many needs or too many wants lead to a quickly overweight, underpowered, unreliable vehicle. You’re never going to be prepared for everything, so give it up while you’re ahead. Also, it’s important to understand in this story that I’m not recommending specific products to buy, I’m telling you what you should keep an eye out for in the products you may buy.

Ask yourself: what kind of adventures will you really go on?

Overlanding, in spirit, is about exploring new things—not conquering the most technical trails out there, or seeing who can get through the biggest mud hole. If you’re setting out to explore some of the more-common overland routes in North America, the Mojave Road, comes to mind; you probably don’t need the biggest lift, the largest tires, or quadruple bypass remote reservoir shocks.

We all think we’re going to end up putting our vehicles through scenes reminiscent of Land Rover’s Camel Trophy, but I suspect most of us will not be putting our vehicles completely underwater. Figuring how you’re going to be actually using your vehicle—before you build it—is just as important as the parts you’re going to put on it. Most people could do far more with far less.

If weekend adventures in America are your forte, a small lift and a larger set of tires might be advisable, but again, realize that clever marketing will make you yearn for a lot of expensive gear that you might not exactly need; which means, I am a sucker and don’t take my own advice.

At the end of the day it’s important to eschew image and popular opinion and make sure what you spend your money on works for you. If a bigger lift allows you to cruise through more challenging obstacles with less stress, or some fancy shocks give you and your occupants a smoother ride—once again, it all boils down to need versus want—just ensure that you’re relatively well balanced on those two.

Weight

To add performance, simplify, then add lightness. It applies to more than just sports cars.

A lighter vehicle will always perform better than a heavier vehicle, and the biggest problem with most overland vehicles is that they’re massively overweight. A Toyota Tacoma has a carrying capacity of a little under 1,200 pounds, the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited is even worse at 1,000 pounds—meaning the frame, brakes, transmission and engine aren’t officially tested or designed to work above that load. Most vehicles I see blow by that before they put their butt in the seat, fuel in the tank, or load up any of their camping gear.

The heavier your vehicle, the more likely it’s going to break, the harder your suspension is going to need to be to work, the worse fuel economy you’re going to get, and most importantly, the suckier the driving experience is going to be.

Choosing the correct vehicle is an essential part of building a vehicle that’s going to fit your needs. Add up the weight of the modifications you’d like to make to a vehicle, then simplify, and find the vehicle that best suits your needs. If I had a dollar for every Tacoma owner I saw on the trail that thought they were driving a one-ton truck, I’d be rich.

Bumpers

The purpose of an aftermarket off-road bumper is to provide additional protection to the vehicle, while increasing utility such as the ability to mount a winch or a spare tire. It seems simple enough, but a lot of people in the business of making bumpers don’t understand this. An educated look at most bumpers on the market show nothing more than damage multipliers. Bumpers need to be properly engineered, not just designed to look cool or give you a better approach angle.

If you hit a deer, tree, or boulder with your fancy off-road bumper, is it actually going to protect anything on impact? Or are you still going to be replacing sheet metal? Being strong enough to not bend is one thing, but every properly engineered bumper needs to consider standoff distance (that’s the room the bumper has to flex before touching another component). The argument that a manufacturer’s bumper is so strong it won’t bend is feeble. Something will always give way, and the next thing down the food chain is your frame—something you don’t want to mess with. I’ll lose a degree of approach or departure angle any day if I know that when I need to use my bumper, I won’t be visiting the body shop afterwards.

Integrating recovery and winching points into a bumper isn’t easy, and if you look at some of the top bumper manufacturers offering products in the U.S., they’re typically a separate unit with separate bracing to the frame. There are few situations where a factory bumper mount (which on modern vehicles is meant to hold a plastic cover and a lightweight steel or aluminum bumper) is enough to support the loads placed upon it by a winch or recovery point. Be skeptical and ask questions, this can be life or death stuff.

Recovery Gear

If there is a single category where I could stress “you get what you pay for” it would be here. Simply put, recovery gear should never, ever, ever be put on the back burner, and it’s the first thing you need to purchase—alongside the proper training of how to use it—before going off-road.

People love to mount Hi-Lift jacks to their vehicles, and while they’re an incredibly useful tool, they typically do so without the requisite knowledge of how to properly use them, or the required locations to use them. Ensuring that you have the proper gear to use your recovery gear is also important. Most vehicles don’t come outfitted with a suitable recovery point, and you need to know the difference between that and a lashing point, designed to hold the vehicle in transit.

Pound-for-pound, recovery straps can be some of the most useful tools in your vehicle. Generally divided into two categories for general use—dynamic (snatch) and static (winch extensions)—both have benefits, but just ensure you’re using the correct unit in the correct situation, something you’ll learn from training.

Winches use the power electric motors, increased by gearing, to pull a vehicle out of whatever situation it finds itself stuck in. While they require professional training to effectively operate, they should be considered almost essential to an overland vehicle that might not have someone else to rescue them. Quality units are from companies that have been around for decades—resist the temptation to buy a sub-par unit, as the electronics in the solenoid boxes typically fail after sitting. This is an item that you need to work when you need it.

Recovery boards can be used in conjunction with all other recovery devices, they work by giving your vehicle’s tires the traction they need to drive out of the situation by themselves. MAXTRAX, the original recovery boards, can even be nested on top of each other to help you bridge over crevices and boulders. Again, you get what you pay for, with cheaper offerings typically being made from subpar materials that will crack during the first use.

Roof Racks

Technically speaking, the roof of your vehicle is the worst place you can store accessories. But unless you drive a Unimog or tow a trailer, it’s likely going to be a necessary evil.

Roof racks have evolved significantly in the last decade. While it used to be common to bolt a 150 pound steel tube contraption to your roof; these days the use of higher-tech construction techniques and materials, like extruded aluminum, have reduced those weights significantly without sacrificing weight. South African-based Front Runner pushed the innovation in this segment of the industry, creating a modular design that was easy to assemble, and even easier to mount accessories to, offering an entire lineup securing everything from roof tents to kayaks, bicycles, Hi-Lift jacks, and even MAXTRAX recovery boards.

It’s important to consider the mounting solution on these racks. Are they sturdy? Do the require drilling? How quickly can they be removed? The Jeep Wrangler JK is a great example, with many aftermarket roof racks simply attaching to the drip rails on the side of the plastic roof. These rails might hold the roof rack up during daily driving, but throw a load on top and you’ll quickly discover that they were never meant to hold more than a bicycle. Proper roof racks will mount to a reinforced hard point or factory-designed mounting point. Be careful to not go crazy with the amount of gear you’re storing on the roof, especially if you’ll be attempting technical trails.

Roof Top Tents

Roof top tents (RTT) are heavy wind-draggers that can cost your vehicle a mile to the gallon or more. Why do so many people have them bolted on top of their vehicle? Simply put—they’re roomy, comfy, and generally easy to set up, while providing a level of comfort that cannot be achieved on the ground. We have a love-hate relationship with our roof tent: we hate putting it on the truck, but love watching others suffer in their backpacking tents when the weather starts to turn.

Roof top tents are separated into two categories, hard shell and soft shell—each with their own advantages.

Regardless of the type of roof tent, you’ll want to watch out for overnight importers bringing in tents from China by the container load, with little knowledge or understanding on what makes a quality unit. Stick to the well-known and respected brands who will backup their products.

Soft Shell RTT: Soft shell roof tents are the most common, the most affordable, and the most spacious. Depending on the brand, they’re usually harder to set up and take down—while still being easier than a ground tent. The benefit of a soft shell tent is that they fold over themselves, taking up half the space on the vehicle, as compared to the amount of living space you end up with.

They’re typically constructed from waterproof canvas and supported by aluminum poles, with an aluminum honeycomb or wood base. All soft shell roof tents will have a cover to keep the tent protected from the elements, with most models using a zipper to secure it around the base. Eezi-Awn has my favorite cover, which attaches with a ratchet that’s much more durable.

Hard Shell RTT: The allure of the hard shell roof tent comes from its ease of setup and takedown which can legitimately take 60 seconds or less. Built with a fiberglass or composite structure that houses a mattress and a strut-actuated hinge system, they’re incredibly resistant to wind and rain and a fantastic option for travelers who find themselves moving daily. Most manufacturers offer a variety of sizes, typically extending the tent’s width for more interior space.

Most brands offer a few different hinge systems, with some tents opening at an angle and others opening straight up—and some opening up and at an angle. Which is better? Well, that’s really down to personal choice. We found the angled tents to be a bit louder in the wind due to the excess material, while limiting which direction you can sleep. We opted for a James Baroud that opened straight up, as the most efficient use of space is a vertical wall—this allows both of us to sit wherever we want inside the tent when the weather gets a bit average.

What’s best? It comes down to ease of setup versus interior space. If you have a family, I wouldn’t even consider a hard shell tent, at times ours is cramped with just the two of us. If you find yourself doing a lot of solo trips, or weekend trips, and you want the nicest, most comfortable solution which is insanely easy to setup, the hard shell is the way to go. However, for our next overseas trip, we’ll use a soft shell tent, as we agreed that the extra room was worth the extra setup time. It also leaves more space on top of your roof rack, and gives you some extra space away from bugs and for relaxing out of the sun during the day.

Suspension Systems

Auto manufacturers will spend thousands of hours making minuscule changes to a vehicle’s suspension geometry that would be otherwise imperceptible to most drivers. In other words, suspension is complicated, so what should you look for in a good system?

You’ll notice that I titled this section “suspension systems” and I haven’t until this point mentioned the word “lift”. That’s because suspension is a very complicated thing, more so than some will understand, and there’s a lot more to it than just getting some extra ground clearance.

Finding the right setup is the holy trinity of three things: drivability, ride quality, and load carrying capacity, with the latter two being inextricably linked. The first step is choosing the right springs for the amount of weight you’re going to be constantly carrying.

To be frank, there is no way to have a vehicle that can carry a literal ton of weight, without it riding like shit when it isn’t loaded. So finding a happy compromise between the two is essential. If you’re increasing the spring rate on your Tacoma, a good starting point is to add up all of the sprung weight that won’t come off—that’s gear such as your bumpers, winch, and roof tent—then figure out how much gear and supplies you usually bring, and add half of that weight to the permanent items.

Drivability will never be better than it was when stock—ever. Anyone that tells you this shouldn’t be trusted; there may be some positives, but there will always be negatives.

Most people are too quick to dive into high-performance shocks, when they don’t have the suspension framework to actually take advantage of them. Generally speaking, if you’re going to lift your vehicle it will handle best when its geometry is returned as close to stock as possible.

Depending on the vehicle, quality suspension companies will include a variety of relocation brackets to correct your roll center, caster, camber, and steering angles. Independent suspension systems will generally see new upper control arms, which typically have the benefit of providing more down travel as well. Solid axle systems will typically see drop brackets used to correct the location of control arms, returning caster to a factory level to prevent ‘wandering’ on the road.

Most suspension companies offer the ability to fine tune your suspension’s spring rate to the amount of constant load the vehicle will be carrying. It’s important to note that technically speaking, more goes into the carrying capacity of a vehicle than it’s spring rate. So, if a company promises a set of springs that will allow your Tacoma to carry an additional 1500 pounds, you might want to walk away or you could risk serious damage to your vehicle’s frame—the next thing in line to break when your suspension doesn’t give way.

Drawer Systems and Storage

Instagram may show you perfectly organized drawer systems, with equally perfect foam cutouts for weapons, coffee makers, and other show-off gear, but that’s always left me to wonder where these so-called overlanders are actually storing the stuff they need to live while on the road. Drawer systems offer a massive amount of convenience, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have downsides.

In our travels, we’ve found drawer systems to be beneficial for longer trips, but a bit of a hindrance for vehicles that need some semblance of practicality for when they are on daily driver duty and seldom-see trips longer than a week or two. Drawer systems are heavy, often weighing more than the goods they’re storing, reducing fuel economy and vehicle performance with the tradeoff of convenience. By the time you’ve mounted the all-but-required fridge-freezer on top of your drawers, you’re left with very little room—good luck squeezing that piece of furniture you need to pick up inside your vehicle.

For confined spaces the best storage system is one that’s flexible, and that’ll often mean something that can be easily secured and removed. For weekend and shorter trips, bags and boxes make the most sense. They can sit in your garage without inconveniencing you during the work week, labelled and ready to go when it’s time to go have fun. Regardless of your choice, it’s important to ensure that your gear is properly secured off and on road. That recovery shackle floating around the vehicle will turn into a missile in an accident. Check out our feature on storage boxes and bags in this issue for more details.

Tires

Figuring out the type of tire that you’ll need comes down to how you’re going to use your vehicle. The common notion is that the more aggressive the tire, the better it will perform off-road, but that’s not always the case. A tire’s aggressiveness is measured by its void ratio—that is the space in between the tire’s lugs when it’s touching the ground. A mud tire will have a high-void ratio, a street tire will have a low-void ratio, with an all-terrain tire being somewhere in the middle.

It’s certainly hard to argue against a high-void tire in wet areas where mud is prevalent, but if you’re cruising through lots of sand in the Southwest desert in a standard 4X4, that aggressive of a tire might actually cause you to get stuck easier; the high-void ratio actually decreases your contact patch in soft sand. An all-terrain tire is typically optimal for overlanding, retains some street manners, while offering plenty of tractive surface to provide grip in all types of terrain.

Bigger isn’t always better, though it’s pretty damn hard to disagree with having a slightly oversized tire. You just don’t want to be the person that spends ten grand to put 37s on their vehicle that never leaves forest service roads, which are conquered daily by Subaru-driving mountain bikers. My general rule towards tires is to go one-or-two sizes larger for most uses off-road—rarely will you require more than that unless looks are your main driving factor.

Gearing and Lockers

Adding larger tires decreases your effective final drive ratio, so if you’re interested in respectable fuel economy and general vehicle performance, you’re going to want to return your vehicle’s final drive ratio to as close to stock as possible. The best way to do this is by re-gearing your axle’s differentials.

Re-gearing is a job best left to a specialty shop that has the experience to properly install a new ring-and-pinion into your differential. And while you’re at it, if your vehicle isn’t already equipped, you might consider adding some kind of traction-enhancing or locking differential while you’re doing the world. These upgrades won’t change how your vehicle looks on the outside, but they’ll be “all go and no show” when you need them. “Lockers” work by effectively eliminating the differential when engaged, allowing both tires to spin at the same speed. This is compared to a standard “open” differential, which will send the power to the path of least resistance—which means the tire with the least amount of grip.

Auxiliary Lighting

Let’s be blunt here—you’re going to pay for what you get when it comes to LED lighting. Sure, that $12 light on Amazon might look pretty similar to the high-end RIGID model, but that’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Pontiac Fiero with a body kit.

If you’re doing a lot of night driving—especially if you live in an area where animals like to hop across the road at random intervals—quality auxiliary lighting is one of the most important choices you’ll make. Forget how many watts the knockoffs are claiming to be, you’re going to want to focus on the LUX rating of the light. Most aftermarket lighting leaders will use this as their measurement of performance, and are one of the only true indicators of a light’s usable output. P.S.—roof mounted light bars might be cool, but they’re likely going to blind you the moment you turn it on.