The rig
Built to reach
water, not to
be photographed.
Nothing on this truck is here because it looked good on a build thread. Everything here earned its weight, and a few things are still on probation.
Specification
- Platform
- 2026 Toyota TundraChosen because parts exist in every town in the West.
- Suspension
- Old Man Emu MT64 3″ lift64 mm monotube shocks. The three inches are what the tires needed to fit, not ride height for its own sake.
- Wheels
- Method MR316, matte black — 17×8.5, 6×5.5, 0 offset, 4.75″ backspacing (×4)Seventeens so there is sidewall left to air down. Zero offset keeps the tire under the truck rather than out past the fender.
- Tires
- Toyo Open Country A/T III, 37×12.50R17 (×4)Aired to 22 psi off pavement. Deflator and a small compressor live in the rear quarter panel.
- Sleeping
- Rooftop tent, hard shellSixty seconds up. The weight penalty is real and I've thought about a ground tent more than once.
- Kitchen
- Rear drawer system, 12V fridge, two-burnerThe fridge is the single best thing I've bought. Everything else is negotiable.
- Water
- 23 gal tank + 5 gal jerryTank feeds a foot pump at the tailgate. Jerry is the backup and the wader-rinse.
- Power
- Dual battery, 100Ah, 160W solarRuns the fridge indefinitely in summer. In October it needs a drive day every three days.
- Recovery
- Winch, traction boards, kinetic rope, soft shacklesUsed the boards four times, the winch once, and the rope never. Carry all of it anyway.
- Rod storage
- Two hard tubes, roof rack, driver's sideRigged rods ride inside along the headliner. Tubes are for the spares and the two-hander.
What's failed
Build lists are easy to write and mostly useless. This is the other list — the one that tells you what forest roads actually do to a vehicle.
Nothing yet. The truck is new and this list is empty, which is the least interesting it will ever be.
Two opinions
Weight is the enemy
Every pound goes on the suspension, the brakes, the fuel economy, and the odds that something snaps a long way from a paved road. The build list only gets shorter from here.
The fridge stays. The second awning did not.
Fix it before you go
Roughly every problem I've had in the field was visible in the driveway first. A new truck buys you a grace period, not an exemption.
The pre-trip check is now written down and laminated, which felt ridiculous until the second time it caught something.