Born in Sun Valley, Idaho, Club Ride Apparel is all about bringing you casual and functional ride wear. They also love camping and traveling to cycling events, and needed a proper way to get around. They opted to get rid of their old Sprinter van in favor of something newer and off-road worthy – and we wanted a closer look at their custom Toyota Tacoma.
#Vanlife: Club Ride Apparel custom Toyota Tacoma
While we often feature actual vans in our Vanlife series, we like to venture out into trucks, RVs and other fun things from time to time. We corresponded with Cameron Lloyd of Club Ride Apparel, who customized a slick Toyota Tacoma for their adventures in 2019 and beyond. Check out their images and words below.
From Cameron Lloyd:
In the fall of 2018, we talked internally about what we were going to build to take the place of our 2008 Dodge Sprinter van that seemed to be on its last legs. Do we go down the Sprinter van road again or do we want to stand out in the crowd of white vans at each event? We have been dabbling in the overland scene the last few years with its popularity and our clothing being a go-to for that crowd. When you look at the overland scene there are lots of options to choose from. We decided a Toyota Tacoma would fit the bill for our needs.
We chose the Tacoma because they are just a badass, reliable truck. There are many options to choose from with a base level truck that you can build however you would like all the way up to the TRD Pro that is equipped to handle just about anything you want to throw at it right off the lot. We went with the TRD Sport model. Although this is an overland truck it is used for all events that we attend so we need as much space as possible so we wanted a 6’ bed. The TRD Pro isn’t available with a 6’ bed. The Sport model is.
The wrap is mountain inspired and was created locally by Crown Union. Being that we chose the cement colorway for the truck and our logo is primarily black we went with grey, black and white for the wrap. We even went as far as taking the Sport logo off the back, replacing it with a matte black colorway in its place. The wrap was done locally by Windy City Arts.
The best part of building the truck was working with our various partners to build a dream truck. Once we purchased the truck, we needed a shell. We went with an A.R.E. HD Series shell being that we planned on adding a roof-top tent. It has internal supports to hold up to 550 lbs. Hal and Nathan at CBI Off-Road were the first to offer their assistance with the build. They helped us with custom front and rear bumpers along with a Prinsu roof rack. After we knew we had bumpers and the rack taken care of we needed wheels and tires. We purchased some 17” Method NV wheels directly from them in matte black. We wrapped those in some Maxxis Razr MT in LT285/70R17. They are an aggressive tire that still goes down the highway relatively well. We swapped out the stock suspension system to a Toytec Boss Performance Suspension System with a 2” lift.
Decked is a company that is right up the street so we reached out to Greg Randolph and he got a system moving our way. The Decked system is perfect for organizing our event gear, keeping it in one place. Our friends at CVT supplied us with a St. Helens 2-person roof-top tent. It is a hard-shell roof-top tent that takes less than 10 minutes to setup and take down, solo. We sleep very comfortable in our Big Agnes Dream Island sleeping bag and pad. We added a Rhino-Rack Batwing awning to the right side of the truck for tons of shade. The awning has 270 degrees of coverage and is a breeze to setup and take down. We rounded out the outside with a 1up-USA 2” Super Duty Double bike rack in black. It is solid, light and very versatile with how many options for bike placements it has.
As I stated before CBI Off-Road did most of the installation for us. They installed the lift, bumpers and wheels/tires. They also installed a massive light bar on the Prinsu Roof-Rack, Maxtrax grip system and lights on the inside of the windows on the shell. They did a great job with everything and would be highly recommended for their products and service.
We are really stoked at how the project turned out in the end. We have a vehicle that stands out at bike events and turns heads everywhere we go. A Tacoma is a great option if you are looking to get into the overland scene and with your Club Ride Apparel you will be ready for the ride and everything after out there!
