Building Dorothy (Part 1)

My first weekend with my new favorite girl.

Since my freshman year of high school, living on the move has been on my mind. I watched thousands of #vanlife videos, build series, and how-to tutorials on creating a home on wheels. Eventually, I had saved up enough money and created a very detailed, comprehensive plan about how I was going to do it. So, this is the first of many posts explaining, in detail, the process of building out Dorothy, my beloved truck.

First, I want to talk about the base of my build. Dorothy is a 2018 Toyota Tacoma, which I bought used with about 30,000 miles on it. She is the TRD Off Road version, which means it has extra features such as crawl control, electronically locking rear differential, Bilstein shocks, and skid plates. It also traditionally comes with smaller wheels and off road tires, but my used truck came with 18 inch wheels.

The very first modification I made was a new grill with raptor lights, because I didn’t like the original grill. I installed it very easily, and wiring the new raptor lights was a breeze. Next, I replaced all of the chrome badges with black ones, and bought Carhartt seat covers (which are life savers if you’re an outdoorsperson).

I also decided that I wanted a different front bumper that could house a winch and light bar, especially since I would likely be out by myself a lot of the time. Wouldn’t want to get stuck with no means of recovery. I went with the Body Armor HiLine Series front bumper, which was a lower profile than many others, and I liked the look (and weight savings) much better than other options. Installing this bumper was very straightforward, but it did require some trimming of the body. I used my angle grinder, and it took about 5 minutes. Afterwards, it was pretty easy to just bolt it on.

I bought and installed my winch later on, so I had to remove the bumper and mount it, along with my light bar. I bought a Smittybilt Winch, with a wireless controller, and so far it has helped me and others get out of some sticky situations. Overall, the new bumper and grill made for a nice facelift.

After this, I swapped the wheels and tires from my old 4Runner to my Tacoma just before selling my 4Runner. Now she rides on 16 inch rims with General Grabbers. New wheels may come in the near future; we will just have to see!

The next big thing I changed was my suspension. I was anticipating a lot of off road trails and a substantially heavier load once my camper was on. After a lot of research, I made up my mind. I went with a Toytec suspension system. I got new coilovers, rear shocks, progressive add-a-leaf’s, and SPC upper control arms. They all came in the Aluma Series Boss Suspension System, depending on what options you picked. I also picked up Firestone airbags and Daystar cradles.

With the help of some good friends, we got the whole suspension system setup and ready to drive in one day. We started with the front, and we got the new coilovers and UCA’s installed. It was a bit of a hassle getting one of the bolts on each side in, but not impossible. It started getting pretty cold, so we moved the operation into the garage to work on the rear.

We got the rear shocks out, and we got the leaf pack out, so we could add the leaf. Unfortunately, in this process, we managed to shear a bolt, so I had to go buy another. Other than that, it was pretty smooth sailing. We got the new shocks installed and the leaf pack put back in, and we got the airbags taken care of.

I learned a lot that day, and I am confident I could do it all again, but faster. I love how it rides now, although its a little bit stiff in the rear. I’m sure that they will break in as I ride, and it will also adjust once I mount the camper.

Right about when I installed my suspension, I went all in and ordered my Ute Limited flatbed. For me, this was my real dive into this project because there would be no going back afterwards. After a couple of months, my flatbed finally arrived. It came from Australia, through Seattle, and I picked it up from a freight distributor in Denver. That day was so extremely exciting!

On the way home from picking up the flatbed!

Upon driving it home on a sketchy trailer I borrowed, I started calling around to different places to get it powder coated. I powder coated the headboard and tray black to better match my truck, and I spray painted the bed sides to match. Once I got it back, the installation process began. To start, we removed the old bed.

The whole install process we were kind of on our own, because the bed I bought is made for the Hilux that is sold in Australia. So, the bolts match up for the mounts on the Hilux, but an alternative mounting system (made in Washington) is what we used to mount the bed. The real trick was getting the bed to be level with the body of the truck because the mounting holes on the Tacoma are not level front to back. So, after a lot of trial and error, I figured out the perfect size of spacers for each mounting hole. If you buy this flatbed, please don’t hesitate to contact me about this information! It was a long process of figuring out the best way to mount it.

Again, with the help of some friends, we got it all installed and operational. It was quite the achievement. We got the under-bed boxes, taillights, and mud flaps situated, which included a relocation of my exhaust. These final touches made it a look much more complete.

Lastly, Evan and I built a custom rear bumper. We bought some raw tube and plate steel, which we cut and welded into a solid bumper. I then sanded it and painted it, and now it looks sharp. Even though I finished my bumper, I didn’t have a place for my license plate, back up camera, and trailer hookups. So, I designed a plate to go between my flatbed and bumper to house all of these things. I bought some sheet aluminum, and I drilled/cut holes for everything, even a bottle opener. This really tied everything together, and made it look less like a “DIY” project and more like a professional installation/outfit.

All of these modifications took place over a solid 8 month period, and the final results were exactly what I dreamed of. I had created an awesome base setup upon which to build an awesome tiny-home on wheels. In Part 2, I will talk about the framework of my camper design. Please follow along! I would love to show you the process of my self-built, flatbed truck camper.

Building Dorothy (Part 1)

Building Dorothy- Design Process (Part 2)

A Redwood Thanksgiving