Topic: New Member From SW WA, 2000 Tacoma

[GrindingRock]

Howdy.

Am new to the forum and am currently in the early stages of a bunch of work on a 2000 Tacoma that the prior owner did a straight axle swap, leaf spring upgrade, installation of the 2nd Gen TRD supercharger and a bunch of other mostly neat mods. I believe he was a fabricator and the truck has an amazing stainless steel rear box and front bumper winch mount. The down side is that he used 1/8" thick material for all the fabrication and I suspect there is probably over 1000 lb of stainless in the rear bed and one of my long term goals will be to shave a bunch of weight out of the rear. The floor of the bed sits well above the top of the rear tires and there are no wheel wells in back but as a result my rear center of gravity is too high. I probably will convert it into a flatbed and then figure out how to either get a ragtop made or simply set it up with totes for camping gear, tools, etc and then use a tent for sleeping in the rear.

Am currently rebuilding the front axle using the Marlin rebuild kit. Nice stuff. The truck has a Diamond axle housing and one of my major headaches is not knowing all the components used in the build because I was unable to meet with the prior owner at the time I purchased the truck and the dealer didn't know Jack!

At any rate I mostly do trail stuff and enjoy dry falls and obstacles within reason.

Started wheeling in Saudi Arabia back in the late 70's and owned two mostly stock FJ-43 Land Cruisers. Since then have had an 83 SR5 and three different first generation Tacomas but this is the first with a straight axle conversion.

Most of my US experience has been around Death Valley, Panamints, Inyos and bunch of wheeling in 4 corners area primarily in Utah (Canyonlands, Bear's Ears, San Rafael Swell and a bit around Moab).

Anyway will try to share what little knowledge I have and look forward to any help the forum can provide.

[ryantowry_81]

Welcome from Naches Wa

[RUGER]

  to

RUGER

[Gnarly4X]

Hi GrindingRock,

Nice introduction.

Welcome to the forum.

Gnarls.

[GrindingRock [OP]]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

GR

[mudmaster]

  to  from Fife, WA

[toe]

 

[OVRAROK]

 
 

[Slabzilla]

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[Russ86]

 

[DutchVDub]

Welcome