Built 2017 Toyota Tundra is Ready for Overlanding Adventures
Heavily modified Tundra Double Cab can seat and feed four adults, serve as a mobile tent, and pull itself out of sticky situations.
If you’re going on a long trip, there are certain things you need to check off of a list before you leave. You definitely need a plan and some sort of a schedule. The proper supplies are essential. Perhaps the most important thing is reliable transportation, especially if your journey involves overlanding. The 2017 Toyota Tundra in this video from Expedition Overland you see here is all set for it.
Paul May of Equipt Expedition Outfitters originally brings the truck by to make a delivery to the Expedition Overland shop, but then host Clay Croft has him give a video tour of all of the add-ons May installed to make it an overlanding rig. May picked a Tundra Double Cab as the foundation for the project/promotional vehicle because its 6.5-foot bed offers enough room for gear and supplies, plus it’s large enough that May, who’s 6’4″, can sleep in it.
He can turn the back of the Tundra into a hotel-room-on-wheels in about an hour. It requires removing a sliding drawer system that contains a portable power pack, inverter, mini refrigerator, and recovery gear.
On the outside, there are a variety of mods to make what was already a tough truck into an even tougher one. May added a 12,000-pound winch up front and upgraded both bumpers. He did the same with the tires, which are now 35s. He tells Croft, “Suspension, we went with the Old Man Emu suspension. Two and a half inch lift in there. Also on the rear, to carry a better load, we put on Firestone airbags, so it’s a full airbag system on there, too.”
May’s Tundra wears aftermarket assist steps, but they have their limits, particularly when it comes to rocks. May says, “If I’m rock-crawling this, I’m in the wrong spot.” If he stays away from rocky trails and still manages to get himself in trouble, the rack on top of his camper shell might be able to help him out. It has enough space to carry two traction pads, a pair of jerry cans, a box for gear and tools, an axe, and a shovel.
Surprisingly, the 5.7-liter V8, aside from a few electrical additions, is stock. May hasn’t even re-geared his truck. He hasn’t felt a need to do that or add power. He says, “I can take this on the open road, you know, running back between here and Utah, be having a conversation in the car, look down and I’m doing over 100 miles an hour.”
If May’s truck without a supercharger is good enough for him, then it’s good enough for us, too. It offers plenty of other cool stuff that make us want it – inside and out.
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