About
This started with one camping trip a couple of years back and got out of hand from there. Now everything I need lives in the back of the truck, and the plan is usually whichever road looks more interesting.
Maya comes with me. Setting up camp deep in the trees or just driving to the next spot, she is equally pleased about it, and that is a lot of pleased. Winter is the other half of this. I take the Tacoma up near the resorts, ride all day and come back to camp rather than to a room.
The truck is a 2021 Tacoma TRD Off Road and I built it out myself. Tune M1L camper on the back, solar on the roof, a galley in there I put together.
What is on here: write-ups of where the truck has been with the campsites listed, the food that actually got cooked out there, and the whole build broken down part by part. Exact coordinates for the quiet spots sit behind a login. Everything else is open.
- The truck
- 2021 Tacoma TRD Off Road
- The camper
- Tune Outdoor M1L
- Bolted on
- 14 parts, 2 years
Meet Maya, my loyal adventure companion
Maya is a German Shepherd, born on August 28th, 2017 in New Hampshire. She has been in the truck for most of it. Hiking, water, fetch, though fetch turns into keep away about a minute in. She would rather be around people than not, and she has never once had to be talked into a car ride.
She collects rocks. It started with sticks and then she moved on, and now she carries them around and gathers more. Colorado is one of her favorite places and it is not hard to work out why. Some evenings she just sits and watches the sun go down with us. She also talks, more than a shepherd has any business doing, closer to a husky. On every trip she is the one people remember.
The build
Everything that has gone on, in the order it went on.
2025
Redarc Dual Battery
Redarc
DC to DC charger and a 100Ah lithium under the galley.
Old Man Emu Suspension
ARB
Two inch lift with heavy rear leaves for the camper weight.
2024
ARB Twin Compressor
ARB
Airs all four tyres back up in about six minutes.
Galley Drawer System
Goose Gear
Three drawers I built out for the stove, the pots and the dry food.
Dometic CFX3 45
Dometic
Dual zone fridge freezer under the sleeping platform.
Tune Outdoor
Hard side aluminium camper. Stand up room, big side window and it stays put on washboard.
Start here
Three ways in, depending on what you came for.
