The Punisher by Dragos

After several years and what I consider a "done" truck I'll take a stab at making a build thread.

Lets begin in the beginning. I was never a truck guy. I thought trucks were just stupid until I was having my house built and I used one of the contractors lifted F250 to go get a trailer full of cement. Damn, that thing was just bad ass.

I wasn't sold, but it did plant a seed of curiosity. At that time I had a Jaguar, previous to that I had several Beemers and Benzes, most recent was a S600 AMG.

I bought a mustang, sold it, bought another, sold that one. then I decided I'll try a truck.

I picked up a 2008 GMC Sierra single cab short bed. V6 4.0 stick shift.
To me that was just the coolest vehicle i've ever owned, even cooler than the benz! I was instantly in love with trucks!





I put some 35s on it and of course the 4.0 struggled. I needed more power! I needed a V8!

So I did a lot of research, close to a year until i decided that I'm going to own a Tundra.
I almost bought a RCSB in charcoal. that truck was beautiful and i still lust for them whenever i see one on the road. But having small kids I knew i had to be sensible and get a doublecab.

I found the Tundra I liked and worked that dealer over for a month straight, drove him crazy until he saw it my way and sold me the 2010 SR5 for $25k not a penny more. They were asking 28k for it plus tax, title etc.

So here I was with a beast of a truck and I had no idea what direction I wanted to take the truck... I knew nothing about trucks, nothing about off road, i was totally wet behind the ears.

So I started with small mods, BHLM, JBL Nav, LED lights.

http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tu...lled-accent-leds-courtesy-leds-lots-pics.html

http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tu...-installed-puddle-leds-mirrors-lots-pics.html



http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-parts-accessories/289817-peter-built-semi-horn.html



http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-lighting-electrical/204809-what-battery-you-using.html

At this point I had an idea of what i wanted to do.. I wanted to go off road with my truck.
Of course I knew nothing about suspension and I was/am a cheapskate so I wanted everything to be done on a budget.

I got a level kit and some new wheel.

By chance I noticed a meet and greet and decided to check it out. It was a trip to Death Valley where I met @osidepunker @N2Deep @Scooby @SCTuna and many others

My truck was pretty much bone stock, with a level kit and a trd swaybar

On that trip I pretty much fell in love with the idea of off road driving and from there my obsession had begun.

I purchased Fox 2.5 Coilovers and Total Chaos UCA and @osidepunker 's rear take offs
and that got me started on the path to MT







But that would never be enough, I wanted MOAR

after several runs with the guys @osidepunker realized that he also wanted more so he upgraded to LT which left me with the great opportunity to also buy his fox triple bypasses for the front. I ordered the Total Chaos bypass shock hoop and had that welded on.



That was a game changer and I rocked the ish out of that setup for quite a while. It had its limitations and I knew i always pushed the boundaries.

I also became obsessed with LED lights and switches!

http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tu...iple-switches-relays-multiple-led-lights.html

Most everyone knows that my truck is 2wd. Like i said, i was new to trucks and knew nothing about what direction i was going to go with the truck. That being a limitation, I purchased an ARB air locker. It helps tremendously but its still not 4wd and there are still times i get stuck.

I really liked the look of the prerunner tube bumpers I was seeing on other people's rides, and I decided that I want one also. I remembered that I like to weld so I took on the challenge and decided to build my own

http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-4x4-off-road-tech/509418-diy-prerunner-tube-bumper.html



After a trip with my wife in which we were sleeping on a ground tent, we saw a tarantula right next to our tent and my wife freaked out. She said we need to buy a roof top tent. little did she know that i was stashing $$ to buy one but now that it came out of her mouth I bought one as soon (literally that same night) we got home from the camping trip.



I saw the limitations of the bed rack and the benefit of having a rack that pivots open but I wanted something more. I saw how the other guys with the rtts struggled to level out their trucks once we did reach camp, they'd have to mess with boulders and logs to try and get their trucks level.
That and they were having to crawl on their knees to get to their gear.
I wanted no part in that tomfoolery so I built a rack with actuators


http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-4x4-off-road-tech/505993-rtt-rack.html


At this point I had many trips under my belt and more or less an idea of what the limitations were of my truck. One of the problems i was having was my towing hitch was slamming and hanging up on boulders when we'd go off road. So i decided it was time to chop it off and make a high clearance rear bumper



http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-4x4-off-road-tech/545938-diy-rear-tube-prerunner-bumper.html

On many trips when coming down some gnarly rock trails i'd slam on my RBP steps and they were just damage multipliers waiting to happen. That and they looked like crap.
So i took the opportunity to fab up a set of sliders



http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/tundra-4x4-off-road-tech/552441-diy-weld-tube-rock-sliders.html