First Five Mods You Should SERIOUSLY Consider For Overlanding 

love the advice of going out and getting started with your stock truck. A stock truck with good tires in the factory size or one above will get you a lot of places. Start exploring and figure out what you need to get out further!

I subscribe to the “don’t mod until you need or break something” just go out there and with experience you’ll figure out what you need pretty quick, you’ll save a lot of money that way.

Had a buddy with a Tacoma pro and felt bad about my "work truck" SR5. I got out there and realized my 4x4 SR5 with A/T tires and upgraded $250 Bilstein/springs take offs from an off-road Tacoma was all I needed. Great daily and beast in the mountains.

Old man, here. Simple truck [5.0 Coyote F150]. High desert BLM roads, camping, exploring. Bilstein 6112/5160 - 33" Firestones, Motegi Trailite wheels, kinetic rope, soft shackles, snatch rings, winch, Hi-Lift (hidden), 20' tow chain, tow straps, tree straps, shovel (hidden) axe (hidden), spare 5 gals gas (hidden), water, food, blah blah blah. Your videos are always! spot on, and I commend you for it. Wishing you guys every success. Enjoy the outdoors!

A genuinely humble man. One day I may have to get back up to Canada to meet this man.

Shop owner has no sales pitch and honest advice that’s why I shop there! Great video dude!

Man you’re so right. You can do so much in a stock vehicle. I’ve taken a 99 civic to places no civic has been before and made many jaws drop from guys with side by sides and the like😂

Great video as always! Keep 'em coming 😄

Really dig this dude and the channel. Subbed!

Thanks for sharing your experience - that makes your advice even more valuable and useful.

Love you're content. You should definitely do more videos. Mods & Trips are super inspiring. Greetings from Spain ;)

It's funny I just came across your videos today and your 5 must haves and 5 don't buy videos are exactly the thing I bought and skipped when building my rig. Good to know I was on the right track. Unfortunately, just like you I tried other cheaper options with things and learned that I should of just spent the extra cash in the first place. Great videos!

Great tips!

Fantastic Information!!! Thank you so much for sharing this. Its very helpful!!

I feel like my stock 23 taco offroad is super capable, just need a winch to pull out my friends with dodge/chevy!

Thanks for the honesty.

Man! Thank you so much for your honesty. Really enjoy watching your videos.

I greatly appreciate the info and advice 👍

This is such a great channel!

i would recommend skids and sliders first. that was the very first thing i got for my truck. i like to wheel harder stuff, and went up some stupid trails considering i was on stock tires and lift, and the skids and sliders allowed me to make it off the trail with no damage or problems

As always, awesome video Braeden, greetings from Ventura!

Excellent advice! 🙋🏼

Love your honesty. Keep these videos up!

Braeden You have excellent advice here ! Your video on 5 things Not to Do is excellent as well . Hope you and yours are Safe, Healthy and Happy. We followed your advice and kept our 2008 Ranger stock except for large AT tires, a beefed up rear leaf spring suspension and an Aluminum flat deck to replace our rusted out box for our pop up truck camper. Its really quite remarkable where you can go with a stock truck. Some of the trips we have done are Thurston Loop including the widowmaker, RaceHorse Pass, Farnham Glacier, Nahatlatch and Cornwall Fire Lookouts and Brule. Two Thumbs up from us and we are Subscribed. Cheers !

Thinking about getting a 4Runner for the family. I’m really enjoying your channel. The blind shock tests were awesome. I don’t even have a rig yet and I’m already comparing shocks lol. Keep ‘‘em coming and thank you !

Great vid.. So funny you named everything I had in my list, ty sir

I’m the guy who dented his doors before getting sliders, I got new tires yesterday and was so excited to get out 😂, I’m gonna come see you guys for some sliders real soon

Great tips, greatly appreciated 👍🏻👍🏻. Greetings from Yellowknife 🇨🇦

Love the list and the general concept to just get out and use what you got first. I've taken my 2012 Honda Pilot to places only side-by-sides go in Utah and it has far surpassed my expectations. But it's time to step up and your insights on first five and not worth it lists are much appreciated!

Great advice dude 🤘

I adore my tacoma. The stars really aligned to get me into this whole space. Took the advice to just get out there and i would never go back. It has added so much to my life and I am excited to make my truck taller.

This is great! I was thinking of compressor with a tank but now i can save some money!

Great points. Appreciated brother!!

I love that you make these videos. Thanks for the info.. switch panel. What a great idea, i never even thought of that, I was thinking it was one of those things you get when you have everything else and its for the tech-e wheeler. Thanks.

I love this video! Thanks!

Good videos thanks

Good advice. You reminded me of myself when I watched your video. when I started some mods on my 96. Wasn’t much around at that time. Had to get cornbread spacer’s out of VA to lift the front 2” , modified the rear and that caused the pumpkin to get into a bind and of the drive shaft. So got me 3 degree wedges to point the diff up. Later came a supercharger not to mention tires. Sold it many years later with 230 thousand on it. Saw that truck still running around Fayetteville,NC 8 years later.😅

#1. Overlanding tires just go one size larger than stock. #2. Buy a off-road model and the suspension will be fine. #3. Rock-Sliders #4. Traction Boards. #5. Basic Recovery Gear This is for Overland not a Rock Crawler.

These are spot on, If only I saw this 8 years ago haha

Great Job Thanks

Excellent list! Lake Havasu 🌞 Az

💯 on point! Took me 10 years to learn to buy once and cry once… and I also still mess that up😂😂

When the 1st thing you said was to just go out and see if you can get where you wanna be i knew you know what you're talking about. My 2005 tacoma was originally a 2wd prerunner but i spent (alot of money lol) converting it to 4wd and it's still the dream rig it was 13 years ago. Tires - armor - suspension will take everyone 95% of where they want to go. Ignoring the latest and coolest gadget is the real challenge. Buy once cry once!

Thank you 😊

Great summary, I really appreciate you not trying to sell a bunch of stuff, I've noticed a lot of these types of videos are pretty much just ads with a veneer of usefulness. Couple things to add: Tires: If you go way up in size over stock diameter/width, your vehicle is going to be SLOW. width is not your friend for traction in most cases. I put 31"x10.5"-15" tires on my 04 Ford ranger, stock tire size is 27"x7.5"-15". The clearance and "look" are great but the bump steer from that wide of a tire on this truck is unreal. If you play around with toe and camber you can improve it but then your wear isn't consistent. In retrospect I would do a narrower tire/maybe smaller diameter too. It does 80 mph on stock gearing (4-10) but hills you're dropping down to 60 at best. Armour: both of my quarter panels are solidly bashed in because I was too cheap to buy good rock sliders/didn't think I would need them on the mild-ish trails I run on. Skids are a MUST have also. I had a nice leak in my transfer case because it got bashed hard enough to pull it away from the transmission and break the gasket seal due to lack of skid plates. Suspension: If you have torsion bar suspension, the more you crank it up, the less comfortable it's going to ride. You're decreasing your lever arm horizontal length so it rides much worse. Also make sure you have some negative travel left for when your tires start floating so you aren't putting the weight of the suspension on the axle or the shock. Don't buy Pro-Comp shocks, they ride like a low-rider on hydraulics. Compressors/Gear: Hi-lift jacks are pretty dangerous, switched to a bottle jack and its much easier to use, stow, and not kill yourself with. Also the cordless tool tire inflators (I have a ridgid) are FANTASTIC. Much more convenient than onboard air (which I do have), you can use other tools with the same batteries and it's not tied to one vehicle. All that to say, I was able to go some pretty wild places that surprised me with a limited slip in the rear diff, good tires, a 2" crank in the front and locked in 4wd front axle. Vehicles are usually waaaaay more capable than we think.

Good stuff! One thing I would add is to add all the overlanding stuff before suspension. That way you can weigh the rig and get suspension dialed first time. I had to change all the springs afterwards.

I recently bought a 2015 Lexus lx570. I was thinking about buying a schlee rear bumper and tire hanger first. To get the spare up from underneath. Then using that space to install an additional fuel tank to add range. Then tires and wheels. Looking to overland more than rock crawl.

I was given a 1946 dodge power wagon ambulance by my grandpa it’s in decent shape but want to make it an overlander and at a loss at where to start. This was a great video for guidance

Great perspectives. I love the honesty instead of just trying to sell sell sell. You guys do much work on Jeeps?

I started with all terrain tires and a rear diff breather kit on my 4runner. Next will be some bash plates on the underside probably. That setup will get me to plenty of interesting places while still being a good daily driver

Great video thanks for the advice! You should start adding links in the description for products you recommend! (Unless I’m just missing it lol)

Great advice! Random question, but what are some of your favorite trails east of Vancouver? Lookin to do some moderate wheeling this summer and Whipsaw is top of our list, but looking for more. Thanks again for the content

My biggest regret of building up my old truck was going with uniball upper control arms. I learned the hard way why OEM style ball joints are better for winter weather conditions after incessant creaking and popping. I think I'm going to go with the SPC adjustable ones next time on my new truck.

Thank you

You nailed it! Great advice & vid. Go out & drive it first to figure out your style of off-roading. I had to put on 50k now I know how I want my build done. See you at the end of the month 🤙🏼. Yukon John

Thanks for sharing. We don’t do serious off roading. We do a LOT of forest and logging roads. All of us have TRD Off Road trucks. 2 of us have 6’ beds and the rest have 5’ beds. All of our TRDs are double cabs. We live in north central Washington state and there’s plenty of roads to enjoy the beauty of our state and great fishing spots. I have the standard TRD front skip plate, but I’m going to have skid plates installed to protect the transmission, transfer case and rear differential. Also I’ve heard about a skid plate that also covers the catalytic converters. After my factory tires wear out, I’ll buy Faulken Wildpeaks AT/3’s. I will be adding an Add a Leaf, but my truck is mainly used for a daily driver… well since I’m retired I drive only 6-7K miles per year now. I bought my 23 TRD during the winter, so I haven’t taken it off road yet, but at the end of May we’re going to Montana to look for some land to build a log house and I’m sure that our 23 Tacoma will have its “First Dirt” then.

Great video! Any suggestions on a design to imitate if I'm building my own sliders?

It's good that you tried different suspensions and all kinds of stuff. It makes you a wiser person. So now when your customers come to you for advice, you can speak with authority, "Do this, don't do that". For example, I started out with a Tepui tent I bought from you. I liked it and used it a lot, but eventually I got a hard shell tent which I am also happy with. Now I can speak about the pros and cons of both from experience without relying just what I learned for RU-vid.

Thanks

Love the channel thanks for the great videos. I have been looking at some compressor options and saw some videos talking about how the ARB’s did’t last very long. What’s your experience with their longevity? I definitely am in the buy once cry once camp and was looking at power tanks instead. Thanks, from Arizona!

1) Comm 2) Recovery gear/ tools 3) Armor 4) Tires 5) Mapping (because you need to know where youre going so you dont get lost and if you do its good to have Comm to call for help)

Ty

In a stock Tacoma, I've done Sevenmile Rim in moab which is a difficulty 4/5 out of 10. All I did to the truck is put 31s on it and took off the sway bar. I've got bumpers and sliders now, so that was before those mods. Personally, I recomend doing suspention last. My reasoning is, once you've added all this extra stuff to the truck the springs won't be the right stiffness for the truck anymore and you'll have to get other springs down the road.

I had the Ironman stage 2 installed on my 2nd gen Tacoma. 33/12.5 18 Ko2’s. Very stiff ride. I believe with some additional weight it will calm down but gas mileage and power already at a loss. Live and learn. Work more overtime. Love your videos.

On our last pickup I put Cooper Discoverer A/T tires on it and they were great for what we used our truck for. It was a 11 Ranger XLT super cab 4WD that was stock, as far as the suspension goes. I wish it had more ground clearance, but other than forest or logging roads on occasion. It was mainly used for work around our property. Our friends who all have Tacoma TRDs would want us to join them, but they had more ground clearance with their standard (non lifted) Tacoma’s than we did. My wife and I decided to sell our Ranger and my Subaru Forester Touring and buy our (my) 23 Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab, 6’ bed with the premium and technology pkgs. so this summer we’re going over part of the WA BDR. Some weekends we’ll take our wives and other times we’ll have a “Guys weekend”. Our wives don’t like camping, but us guys do.

I like this guy

good video

I m in bc now . Hope to ride with u guys soon. Getting my licence soon.

Thanks for the advice. I have a TRD Pro with the Fox suspension and upgraded tires to BFG KO2s. Would you consider that setup okay or should I still upgrade the suspension? I normally like going fast on dirt roads and doing some light climbing in Arizona.

Regarding the 6112s, there is an HD version w 650lb springs instead of the 600s w 2.5" lift.... it goes to ~3" lift, rides just as nice and they support more weight which your gonna add anyway. Put the HD kit on our 4R after having the 600s at 90k miles(1 was leaking bad) + removed front sway its like a cloud now. Only weight up front is maggie supercharger(90lbs) but plan in bumper/skids. Needed 3" lift to clear 34's, and ive always ran Hybrid Ridge Grapplers they are silent for 1st 10-15k miles just x-rotate em alot and they stay pretty quiet/last 30-40k. Now its time for a 4:56's to let the blower eat sooner and spin heavier rubber. Regarding buy once cry once...Supercharge your yoda you will be happy and not regret dropping the cash! If you got a taco regear day 1 and supercharge it. Factory gives you a fkd up tall gear ratio its gotta be fixed asap lol.

Helpful Video! Thank you. I will get a switch panel. Seems like the water is better to have in a tank rather than your tires…. That is the only point I did not agree with. (I don’t have a tank).

My stock 4Runner trd orp with only upgraded oem size tires is already more truck than I am a driver. As my driving skills improve, the necessary upgrades will become apparent.

I absolutely agree on skids and plates. Protect the undercarriage is a must because where you think you're going, it may not end up there and the road can be way more challenging than you thought. As for tires, I disagree, you don't really need 33" or bigger if you don't do serious rock crawling. Stock size or slightly bigger (up to 32") would suffice. Yes, bigger tires may give you an inch or so more clearance and it may "look cool", but it's not really necessary. Consider "Pizza cutters". They may give you a better on road ride, save you gas and would air down more efficiently. Upgrading suspensions depends where is your starting point. If you buy any SR5, sure, suspension upgrade may give you some advantage, but if you start with TRD off-Road or Pro late years, the stock Fox suspensions would be absolutely sufficient. The most important question to ask is, what is the percentage of your overall driving is allocated to off-road? If you drive mostly on paved roads and you are an occasional "weekend warrior" who do some off roading, don't do any modification that can jeopardize your ride's safety and comfort on the road. You will regret if you do regardless of how "cool" you ride looks.

Always great advice Braeden! I can also recommend maintenance and rust protection as a good first mod to save some cash in the long run. Never worth polishing a turd! Especially with older Tacomas like mine lol 🥲

Timely videos, my air suspension is leaking on my GX 470, so time for an upgrade.

I’ve been building my truck as I need things , took the Tacoma stock offroad , blew the suspension changed that , smashed my stock bumper replaced that , smashed my rear bumper changed that and it goes on😅 Best way to do it 🤷‍♂️

amen!!!

i agree with the first 5 ... However fuel range is one of my concerns, are you going to add a 2nd fuel tank where spare tire used to live? That is one of my biggest items on my "to do" list. but to also add hd springs front & rear. I focused on recovery equipment, winch, snatch blocks straps, and a chainsaw. the more i use it the more i want to bring but organization becomes more important at some point. I have a 3rd gen 4runner. I have a roof rack amd rear cargo box on the way.. the roof carrier is to carry the 33" spare that wont fit under rear anymore. so i need to mount it on the roof. Plus to carry more fuel and my saw box i will carry a cargo box that i will modify to get some more exit angle out of it by 45 degree a step up after the hitch. like a foot until i can get a rear bumper with a tire mnt kit is what im thinking.. but thats more weight.. my winch is on a hitch mnt that i can mnt front or rear as i added a hitch mnt to the front and a 2nd bat with anderson connectors on both ends one to ea battery. I can jump my self without opening the hood. or jump someone else w/o opening hood..red and grey connectors. hd.. I also use it for the winch connection..

Thanks for the vid, have a stock 22 trail edition. Looking at tires then suspension, I live in the mountains at 8k feet and our trails are…bouncy with stock suspension haha Stock tires are 265-70-16 could I fit on 265-75-16s? Looking at falk wild peaks.

I love how clever marketing has created a catch phrase for driving a damn vehicle

Best mods done by myself for my toy was SAS with 1 ton axles and 39s. Soni can over land the overlanders and go where they can't go to see better places. Can be done for around $3,000 of you learn to weld hahaha quit paying shop prices. Learn to do everything yourself. And don't become RU-vid certified. Learn it do it and go out and ask questions. Good video. Have a wonderful day people!

As someone who is just building out a new truck I love these videos - Thanks! As for the compressor - would you recommend an onboard compressor or just a portable one that you take out whenever you need it? I was looking at the Morrflate Quad + TenSix compressor but maybe getting an onboard one is quicker and more convenient

Definitely tires first. Learned the hard way when I got a flat with stock non-offroad tires that came w my 4runner. Sliders next. I kept hitting my stock steps the most on rocks. Sliders gave me several inches of clearance plus protection. Wasted money on a leveling kit when I then decided to go for a full lift-buy once, cry once!

Great video, do you guys do 5.29 regear and arb airlocker installs?

All I’ve used is stock trucks. So far 2001 ranger, great. 1995 f150, suspension was too soft and would cause you to bottom out on rocks on the bounce after the initial bounce. But great traction, just had to go really slow. 1993 Nissan hardbody. Horrible. Suspension too stiff, instead of articulating I’d just spin out. So strategy is just to go really fast over anything gnarly. 2009 Tacoma, suspension too soft, same as f150. 89 bronco great, 87 Comanche was great as well. 2019 Tacoma sport did great, only problem was the stock tires would get punctured with thorns, never a problem I had before. Maybe because the tires were new and soft, instead of dry rotted like all my other trucks. Sadly my truck trading days seem to be over. The wife doesn’t like me buying and selling broken trucks all the time. Took my 2008 gmc 1500 sierra off-road once, it was pretty good. Could use more ground clearance but it has good suspension.

Great content as always! Do you recommend bolt on or weld on sliders? Is there a benefit to one or the other?

I think for a beginner, like me the best is just buy good tyres, a rack to put a tend and a good tend. And this is what I will do this winter after buy my first truck. And than from there and after have done some small trip, start to build the truck properly (:

Thank you for the reassurance on not really having to regear with 33’s. I probably would most definitely have to if I were adding more weight to the truck though right?

It is quite easy actually. Get a truck or SUV Go out and test the ground clearance in something easy Go and get All terrain tires. At this point you can go 2 ways... 1.- Get the biggest tires you can fit there stock. 2.- Get the huge tires you actually want and spend a lot of time and money to make them fit but never worry about it again. Then get rock sliders and skids Then keep going as your rig demands for things. Entry door are 3 mods: tires, skid plates and sliders. 4 if you really want to get huge tires that require a big lift.

I'm always curious because no one makes a video for it. I have a stock trd pro tacoma and im wondering what kind of mods I should do on it. It is already very capable so I'm not sure what I should mod first.

I started out with my first truck, little tires and a crappy 2" lift. Threw on 35s, cut the front fenders and bumper, and went for it... realized after a while, the stock front end on my 96 f150 just couldn't handle what I was doing, and would eat up wheel bearings constantly So here I am now, throwing an 08 dana 60 and sterling 10.5 under here, regearing to 4.88, putting detroit lockers in, and moving up to 37s. Expensive, sure, but I don't think I'll be breaking crap anymore lmao

An awesome option for a switch is voswitch...... incredibly value and doesn't look cheap as far as the in cab switch panel goes. The one that everyone resells as their own looks like crap.

The 1st mod if you have a tacoma, And it rains where you live, Is to plug the drain holes in the bed and run a weather strip between the cab and the bed. *hindsight while dealing with my 2nd gen frame, that "wasn't bad enough" for the recall.

Is it worth investing into a 2011 2WD Prerunner? For dirt roads/hunting? Would a portable winch suffice in leu of 4WD?

How do people feel about the newer 4Runner TRD Pros' Fox suspension and skid plates? Would they need to be updated for serious off-roading? Or is it better to go with the 4Runner Off-Road Premium and mod that instead of getting the TRD Pro? I don't know anything about off roading but I love photography and nature/macro photography and would just love to be able to go anywhere I want to capture photos! Thanks in advance for any advice!

I have a question I just bought a 2024 TRD off-road 4 runner and I want to run 285 but I haven’t had a 4x4 in years and back in the day with straight axles well you get what I mean different animals. I don’t want to have to cut the body mount is this possible. Some say yes some say no. What do you think. PS I live in Florida so I Wouldn’t be on rocks but don’t want to bounce and destroy a tire. Thanks in advance.

Question: You mentioned a tank not being necessary with the compressor. Would that hold true with air-lockers installed?

👍🏻

Can you talk about steel vs aluminium for skids?

I have a 200 series Land Cruiser it’s all stock and I don’t know what suspension I want for it.