Florida Man Drives Custom Tacoma 3,000 Miles to King of the Hammers - Here's How

When you spot a second-gen Tacoma sitting on 40-inch tires in the middle of Johnson Valley, you know there’s a story behind it. But when you find out the owner just drove that rig 3,000 miles from Jacksonville, Florida to King of the Hammers, you know you’re dealing with someone who’s absolutely committed to the wheeling lifestyle.

Meet Brendan, a Florida wheeler who decided his IFS Tacoma just wasn’t cutting it anymore. After constantly breaking parts and getting frustrated with the limitations of independent front suspension, he made the call that separates the weekend warriors from the serious builders - he grabbed a cutoff wheel and went full send on a solid axle swap.

The foundation of this build starts with an ‘08 Tacoma crew cab with the increasingly rare V6 manual transmission combo. Finding a manual transmission truck these days is like striking gold, especially when you’re planning to put it through the kind of abuse that comes with rock crawling. Brendan knew he had something special and wasn’t about to let a weak front end hold him back.

Under the hood, he kept the factory Toyota reliability but completely transformed everything from the axles down. The front end sports a 2005-plus Super Duty axle that’s been completely stripped and rebuilt. Anyone who’s tackled a Super Duty axle conversion knows this isn’t a weekend project - Brendan estimates he spent at least 30 to 40 hours just cutting off all the factory brackets and mounting tabs before he could even start building it back up.

The axle runs 5.38 Yukon gears with a Detroit Locker, giving him the low-end torque multiplication and traction he needs for serious rock work. The three-link suspension setup uses Barnes 4WD components with a panhard bar to keep everything tracking straight. What’s particularly smart about this build is how Brendan positioned his coilover mounts directly above the lower links and managed his geometry to get the track bar and drag link lengths nearly identical.

Those 14-inch coilovers with 2.5-inch diameter bodies provide about 4.5 inches of up-travel, which is serious articulation for a truck that still needs to be streetable. The whole front end sits on air bumps that help control the suspension movement when things get rowdy.

The rear end keeps things simpler with a Sterling axle, also running 5.38 gears and a Detroit Locker. Brendan stuck with the leaf spring setup in back, which actually works well for this type of build and keeps the complexity down. The whole package rolls on 8-lug Ford wheels front and rear, keeping parts availability simple when you’re thousands of miles from home.

One of the smartest details on this build is the dual driveshaft setup. Brendan runs a two-piece rear shaft for wheeling to improve breakover clearance, but carries a single-piece shaft for highway driving. When you’re planning to drive cross-country and then beat on your truck, having backup plans for critical components isn’t just smart - it’s essential.

The transfer case is an FJ unit with a twin-stick modification, giving Brendan full control over front and rear axle engagement. While he’d like to add a doubler eventually for even lower crawl ratios, the current setup with 5.38 axle gears provides enough reduction for most situations.

What really sets this build apart isn’t just the technical execution - it’s the commitment to actually using it. This isn’t a trailer queen that gets babied to events. Brendan loaded up his tools and spare parts, pointed the truck west, and spent four days crossing the country on 40-inch beadlocks. That’s the kind of confidence in your build that only comes from doing the work yourself and knowing every bolt and bracket intimately.

The fabrication work is all home-built, from the custom front and rear bumpers to the detailed bracket work on the axles. Working in a residential garage with Harbor Freight tools, Brendan proves you don’t need a full shop to build something serious. The DIY sliders from 4X Innovations and the clean integration of everything from the hydro-assist steering to the lighting shows this is a builder who sweats the details.

This Tacoma represents everything that’s right about the current state of 4x4 building. It’s not about having the biggest budget or the fanciest shop - it’s about having the vision to see what your truck could become and the persistence to make it happen. When you’re willing to spend months cutting brackets off a junkyard axle in your driveway, you’re not just building a truck - you’re building something that reflects your commitment to the lifestyle.

The fact that this Florida-built rock crawler made it to California and hit the trails at King of the Hammers proves that home-built doesn’t mean compromise. Sometimes the best builds come from guys who refuse to let geography or budget limitations keep them from building exactly what they want to wheel.

You can follow WFO Concepts and see more builds like this at wfoconcepts.com, on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. They’re working on their own second-gen Tacoma kit, so keep an eye out if you’re thinking about making the jump to solid axles yourself.