Lake Arrowhead trip in the Taco

Last weekend before New Years my wife wanted the family to go to the mountains so the kids can see snow... WELL first of all she told me it was Big Bear so we prepared for colder temps.

Look at how much we packed for a single overnight stay. It took me a while to pack it and get it to fit everything. Having 3 kids and a wife in the Taco is a little tight but fortunately I'm the only tall one for now.

After doing my wonderful pack job. I asked my wife for the Big Bear address...Well it was Lake Arrowhead instead!

Also going up at 9am it was sunny and 70 degrees! 😆

Well I dropped her off and Joanna (the baby) and took my boys to some adventures.  It was a little sketchy but for a noob offroader like myself but I handled it.

Check out the wheeling vid and also my vlog about the drone.

It was a good day with no problems in the end.

I don't mall crawl...I yard crawl!!!

I had some sick palm trees in my front yard that I decided to remove and make room for parking.

I shopped around for the best deal and I save a lot of money! More truck mods!

Anyways it was an opportunity for me to do some yard crawling too! haha.

Check out my video:

Holy Jim Trail - Redux ... yep.. I went back!

This time I went with friends but didn't take the easy way. In fact I went up partially what they call Jeep Hill and chickened out. I'm a noob and literally just figured out 4LO engaged properly. Yea I know..I should read the manual...or how about just the card on the visor?

Anyhow here's a few pics but the best highlights are on my video.

Please chime in with any comments.

Holy Batman it's the Holy Jim Trail!!!

Took the Taco on it's maiden voyage on getting it's feed dirty.

It was an easy ride overall on the trail as I was even behind a Honda Civic and a Fit later so if you avid hikers who don't down a truck or suv wanted to go on a hike to Holy Jim you would be fine...If you watched out for big dips. If you get car sick easily I recommend not to go.

There offshoots that can get hairy which I tried then backed out. I didn't have 4LO engaged properly and it was beeping at me! I should have read the instructions but oh well. lol

Jonah had a blast and got really dirty but hey it is an offroad adventure.

My video footage is a little lengthy as I wanted to show the noobs like myself what to expect when driving there. I had no clue and just kept going till I hit the hiking trail entrance.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Yo bro where'd you get that TRD PRO grill?!!?

So I caved in got me a grill. I got it used so it helped with the cost. The cheapest new one so far is $393 from ebay. I just can't pay that much for one. They are nice but damn it's still $$$$. The metal grills out there are even more. I've seen some up to $800! Yikes, no thanks.


Anyhow I'm basking in my BROness.

gansta lean using a slider adapter

So since I was getting my sliders put on the Taco, I asked Ryan from Shmellfab to hook up his Hi-Lift jack using this custom adapter to lift up the side of my truck. Everybody who sells sliders like to do this to show how strong their sliders are and how it can support the weight of the truck so why not me, right?

Check out the video...the slider didn't budge

Sliders and Tacos do mix!!!

I recently decided in case my mall crawler ever hits dirt I should have protection. After doing research and seeing the costs of shipping a set to me I decided to see if there were any local fabricators.

I found one on the forum I've frequented a lot Tacoma World in the 2nd gen forums. Ryan of Shmellfab only has 1 thread posting about his work. The good thing is the mounting points of a 3rd (2016-2017) gen Tacoma are exactly the same as a 2nd generation (2005-2015) Tacoma. He does have to make an adjustment to the front of the slider when he builds it but that's about it. Another reason I wanted to go local is that he would install it. I'm a DIY guy as you know but certain things I leave it to the professionals especially when it comes to something heavy above my head.

I stopped by his home where he builds the sliders and we did a video to showcase his work and install.

I have to say his work is clean and they are solid on the Taco.

If you're local I'd recommend buying his products.

Video and pics of his work.

mall crawling door ding protector

custom removable step

My son Jesse supervising Ryan's install

Spend $2 and avoid an accident - cheapest Tacoma mod to date

Well not technically the cheapest as removing the emblems and bed stickers cost me zero dollars but dollar for dollar and time wise it is the cheapest mod to date.

I'm talking about blind spot mirrors.

I got them from ebay for $2 shipped and for the driver's side it was totally worth it. I've missed some cars even with doing a 2nd take. Maybe because I'm distracted, getting older, or just too into the music while driving this little device will save me time and money as well as sadness hurting my baby taco.

Take a look at my youtube video to explain it further.

As always, stay tuned...