Axial AX10 RTC Crawlers!
We now have plenty of the Radio Controlled (RC) Axial AX10 RTC Crawlers in stock and ready to ship. Kits come with everything you need to get going; including a charger, batteries, radio, and truck. This is everything in one box. All you have to do is charge the battery, plug it in, and get crawling. Check them out in the FORUM STORE (must be registered on ExploringNH forums to view).
Truck of the month!
2007 Toyota Tacoma
Another Truck Of The Month article written by the owner. Here you have your common late model Tacoma, a 2007 owned by Mark (voodoochile). I have to tell you right up front that this is no overbuilt extreme duty anything- it's my daily driver and occasional wheeler. I commute in this thing, so it has to be pretty mild and totally reliable; so far it has been. Used to have a Saab 9-3 Aero, which was huge fun on smooth roads in good weather, but not so much fun at 5am in January with 4" of snow and sleet on the road.
So my plan was to try and strike a balance between capability and practicality. Being my primary vehicle it has to good street manners; having a family- it has to be safe. It's not much fun trying to be practical, but I think I have reasonably achieved my goals. I did not want a TRD, because to get the rear locker, I needed to buy loads of luxo doodads that I really didn't want on this truck. So it's a base truck, with access cab and sliding rear glass, that's it. It's got IFS, so it does not flex very well. On the other hand, it's pretty comfortable bombing along rough roads, and if you place your wheels well, it can traverse pretty reasonable obstacles.
The Tacoma comes with very bland Bridgestone tires, which weren't even very good as all-season tires go. Most of the roads where I live are unpaved, and tons of them are C6, so I wanted something fairly agressive, which would add some clearance underneath, but not require a lot of trimming and plating in the wheelwells to fit. As for lifting, again I had to be practical. 2.25 to 2.5" is the maximum lift you can go without compromising the CV joints, so I did not go for a full 3". Knowing that a lot of overland vehicles make good use of 85 series tires, I checked into those, and found that 255/85R16 fits very well, and was available in BFG Mud Terrains. These are about 33.4" in diameter, and about 1.25" wider than stock. Much bigger footprint than stock, yet significantly lighter than 285/75R16s. No trimming, and I can still get 21mpg without any trouble.It's two years old now, and has close to 50K miles on it, so I'm going to need new tires by the fall. THE BFG Muds work very well.
Started with OME springs and shocks which were good for the 2.25" without any spacer, but the stock bumper has a pretty lousy approach angle. I was able to barter a nice deal on an ARB front bumper, Camburg coilovers, and an 8,500# winch from Superwinch. The Camburgs are 2.5" diameter shocks with spherical bearings on each end rather than rubber bushings. They are also fitted with 700# FJ coils rather than the typical 650# Tacoma coils. I can hit 2.5" with the added weight of the bumper and winch without having to overly compress the coils. They are harsh around town, but they are great on very rough trails, and also awesome when commuting when the frost heaves are in force. Soaks them right up without any drama at all, a large improvement over the stock truck. After a year, I measured the lift, and cranked them another turn to accomodate some minor sag. Another thing nice about the Camburgs is that I no longer need to run the sway bar. I had removed it for wheeling when I had the OME suspension in, but it was not cool on the highway, you really had to take it easy. With the Camburgs it corners very well, and I don't miss the swaybar at all. Articulation is only slightly improved without it, but being IFS I'll take anything I can get.
Other additions include ARB air locker in the back, All-Pro sliders, an extra leaf in the back, onboard air, Midland CB, Hi-Lift, Cibie Oscar dual beam lights, and a pair of 35 watt rock lights. I also extended the rear diff breather to one of the bedside bins, and added an extra fuse block for the lights and CB. The stock battery was just replaced with a DieHard Platinum AGM battery, which is made by Odyssey. So far, it's still running less than the TRD would have- but I have a winch instead of climate control and electric windows.
Future plans include replacing the nearly useless rear springs, relocating the Hi-Lift from the bed near the cab to the passenger bedside, adding an air tank, and hardwiring my inverter under the console. A rear bumper with tiregate would be outstanding, but it will be some time before that will ever happen. I'll see Dr. Werx for that when the time comes.
For more information on Mark's ride, you can check out his thread in the Member's Rigs section of the site.
