195rb Expediton Glamper with Toyota Tow-coma build

[Lord Humongous]

Hello, my wife and I have had a 195rb for almost 2 years now and absolutely love the trailer! Our tow vehicle is a 2016 Tacoma with a ton of towing and offroad upgrades. We live and work in the Phoenix area and love to beat the heat by escaping in the trailer as much as possible. Our favorite place is the Oregon Coast but we usually can only make time to visit there once a year. We love to boondock but do camp in established parks when necessary.
This thread is going to be about the mods and upgrades we've completed as well as current and ongoing mods.
I don't wanna SPAM this thread up with a bunch of Tacoma stuff so you can see the tow vehicle here if interested.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/...-build.436524/

I'll update already completed mods as time allows.

[Lord Humongous]

Last week I approached a local fabrication shop to build a "rock slider" to protect the dump plumbing from being damaged. We haven't broken the pipes yet but have had a couple close calls on fire roads.

[Lord Humongous]

Go big or go home!
New tires coming soon. I haven't really been a big fan of load C wildtrac AT tires that came OEM. They've held up OK but I like a little more wiggle room when it comes to max load rating. The rolling resistance of load C tire also leaves allot to be desired when loaded. I will say the trailer has always pulled well so I'm definatley comfortable sticking with all terrains vs ST tires. The AT tires also have much better puncture resistance when off the beaten path.

You might notice those are 16" 6 lug wheels. I have Timbren axle-less suspension and bigger brakes/hubs on order as well.

The first pic are the new LT235 85r16 load E Falken AT3 next to the OEM 235 70r15s Ground clrlearance bonus

The second pic is just comparison to the 255 85r16 Cooper ST MAXX on the tow vehicle.

[NH_camper]

I've been wanting to do something like you did to protect the dump plumbing. My 195rb doesn't have a flipped axle like yours, so my pipes are even lower. I'm not into off-roading, but I can't even back my trailer into my driveway from the street due to a slight incline. The pipes would hit way before the rear bumper or frame. They also come real close to speed humps in some campgrounds. It's crazy!

[Lord Humongous]

Originally Posted by NH_camper

I've been wanting to do something like you did to protect the dump plumbing. My 195rb doesn't have a flipped axle like yours, so my pipes are even lower. I'm not into off-roading, but I can't even back my trailer into my driveway from the street due to a slight incline. The pipes would hit way before the rear bumper or frame. They also come real close to speed humps in some campgrounds. It's crazy!

Definitely! I contemplated pulliing down the corrugated plastic and re-routing the pipes to the front but this was allot less work haha

[Lord Humongous]

This was our solution for adding lift struts to the bed. I didn't have much faith in the 2x2 non dimensional construction of the bed frame holding up so I braced the bottom of the frame with 2x4 which also gave a solid mounting place for the lower strut mount. I then braced the bed with some steel box tubing. The strut brackets are riveted to the box tube and the assembly is attached with bolts and fender washers to the 2x2 bed supports.

You MUST pre-drill any 2x2 before putting screws in them. They will crack if you dont!

I initially used dual 40lb struts but that was surprisingly just barely enough to hold the bed up. After we upgraded to a Zinus mattress they no long worked and I moved all the way up to dual 80lb gas struts which work perfectly.

I bought all the necessary parts on Amazon. Let me know if you need any specifics.

[Kim Gass]

Now if you could help us mount a TV to the inside wall over the fridge. Trouble is it would need a swivel

You must have added front stabilizers to avoid rock and roll.

[wags999]

Wow looks like you have every add on you can get for your Truck...cool...what does that do for your cargo capacity ?

[Lord Humongous]

Originally Posted by Kim Gass

Now if you could help us mount a TV to the inside wall over the fridge. Trouble is it would need a swivel

You must have added front stabilizers to avoid rock and roll.

Yeah let me know what you figure out haha! After a ton of online research about SLX tv mounts with no luck I contacted Jayco directly. I basically received a courteous yet generic answer about letting the aftermarket deal with it and to have my local dealer do it. I talked to my dealer but they didn't seem to know much and I prefer to work in my own vehicles and equipment anyway.

We eventually decided in a 24" tv that we just set on the counter. Not being mounted also has the benefit that we can take it outside when the weather's nice. We transport it in the rear closet on a modified shelf. I'll add an update soon about how we do that.

[Lord Humongous]

Originally Posted by wags999

Wow looks like you have every add on you can get for your Truck...cool...what does that do for your cargo capacity ?

Yeah I can't leave anything alone. The Tacoma is basically a jeep that can actually do some work. Payload is 1620lbs and Max tow rating is 6400. The 195rb at 2900 dry is a really nice size camper for the little truck. Tounge weight is around 300lbs and I limit the truck bed to a Fat boy cooler and champion generator when traveling.

[01tundra]

Nice truck!

I used to have a little Toyota truck that I built to take on mild off-road trails.

[Lord Humongous]

Originally Posted by 01tundra

Nice truck!

I used to have a little Toyota truck that I built to take on mild off-road trails.

DUDE!! that rig is awesome! Solid axle first gen tundra kicks! did you run Toyota axles on it? kinda hard to see but the front diff looks big!

[Lord Humongous]

So this is how we deal with the TV transport. I destroyed the rear shelf in the rear closet on one of our first trips. I think we had our lawn chairs on it and I was probably going too fast down a rough road.

I didn't want to attach anything to the walls of the cabinet again so I just built a simple 4 leg table out of plywood and 2x2 and affixed it to the floor with 3m tape to prevent vibration. We wrapped it in "wood grain" wallpaper, it matches close enough (it's a closet...). I added tie down points to all 4 corners and when traveling we wrap the TV in a yoga mat and secure with a bungie. We're all about Amazon prime and Netflix so we've never actually tried the TV antenna.

Sorry but I was too lazy to empty the closet for pics.

[ttavasc]

We had a similar issue with that same shelf though it took a couple of seasons for it to really show. Ours bowed in the middle and when you see the cheap staple job used to hold the backside support it's easy to see how that happens with very little weight on the shelf. I used some wood screws to refasten the support across the back which solved the issue:

[Lord Humongous]

Originally Posted by ttavasc

We had a similar issue with that same shelf though it took a couple of seasons for it to really show. Ours bowed in the middle and when you see the cheap staple job used to hold the backside support it's easy to see how that happens with very little weight on the shelf. I used some wood screws to refasten the support across the back which solved the issue:

Looks good man! Those staple support pieces completely came off on our rig.
Another area to watch is the pantry shelf immediately above the water heater. Ours was bowing pretty bad. I used a couple of 12" L brackets on the back wall (drivers side) to brace that up.

[01tundra]

Originally Posted by Lord Humongous

DUDE!! that rig is awesome! Solid axle first gen tundra kicks! did you run Toyota axles on it? kinda hard to see but the front diff looks big!

A Solid brand Dana 60 HP front with king pins and chromo axles. Shaved 14-bolt rear with disc brake conversion. They were the only thing I could find that would hold up to a V-8 and 4-speed Atlas transfer case turning 40” tires.

[Kim Gass]

We just plonk the TV on the counter too the. Can hand swivel.
Interested in your shelf mod
We’re still keeping it in the box in the wardrobe

[Lord Humongous]

Sounds like an awesome truck! Those 14 bolt full floaters are almost indestructible!!

[Lord Humongous]

Allright finally some work getting done! We dumped the 3500lb axle for 5200lb Timbren axle-less independent suspension. The bigger spindles also also mean bigger brakes and 6lug 16" wheels so we can say goodbye to the load range C tires too.
We did some parking lot curb bashing and ride is 100 percent improvement. Also going to the load range E Falken tires feels like I just lost 2 flat tires out back compared to the load Cs. Im really curious to see if I get any fuel economy improvement and lower trans temps?

Also upgraded to a way overkill 12500lb bulldog collar lock coupler which will improve rotation by about 15-20 degrees and never ever let go. And last but not least 5000lb 30" stroke stabilizer jacks on all 4 corners so no more stacking blocks when parked on hills.

[Lord Humongous]

Also recently bought a harbor freight tool box so planning on turning that into a "solar ready" battery compartment and adding dual 20lb propane tanks in the next couple weeks.