If you read taco truck when you saw the title of this blog post, you might want to get your eyes checked, but you also wouldn’t be totally wrong. Before spring of 2021, Stephan and I both drove vehicles that were manufactured close to the years that we were born. We loved our cars, and they did a great job getting up around the local area, but we both knew that there was a zero percent chance that either one of our vehicles would survive our epic roadtrip to Alaska, much less Alaska and back. So we, and by we I mostly mean Stephan, started doing some research.

We decided on specific wants and need in a vehicle, looked at what others who had gone before us recommended for the trip, and came up with a shortlist that any vehicle we looked at had to live up to, it is as follows;

1. Four wheel drive – we knew we would encounter snow, unmaintained roads, and other unusual conditions on our road-trip, and ensuring that we couldn’t get stuck without at least putting up a decent fight was important to us.

2. A spacious backseat – storage was vital for transporting all of our necessities with us, Ares is also king of the backseat when he travels with us, and we wanted to insure that even with all our gear, he still had room to stretch out.

3. A good suspension – to take on the terrain we had read about on all the blogs outlining the Al-Can drive. (the road through Canada on the way to Alaska).

4. Reliability – this really should have been number one, and goes hand in hand with four wheel drive, headed toward a land with almost as many predatory animals (including mosquitoes) as people, and spotty phone service, we didn’t want to get stuck in a tight spot because our vehicle was finicky.

When we added up all these factors, plus a price point we could afford, Toyotas TRD Offroad Tacoma stuck out as a vehicle that fit all of our criteria. We saw one listed for sale in Georgia, which is conveniently where my dad (also an amazing bargainer) lives, so we booked a flight the same day to check it out. The first car we saw had been mislabeled in the add, and did not have off-road capabilities, but after a moment of panicked searching, we found a white Tacoma on Paulding Chrysler Dodge Jeep Rams website and when we test drove it, we knew it was the car to make the trek in.

While the Taco did have the basic specs that we needed, we did make the following aftermarket additions;

1. Rear airbag suspension – while the Toyotas payload capacity is a whopping 1,175 lbs, with everything loaded in, we noticed the back sagged a little. A local shop did a same day install of an airbag system that worked together with the rear leaf springs. They added a valve inside the gas tank door that allowed us to add or release air pressure as needed to accommodate the amount of weight in the back of the truck.

2. ARE midrise camper shell – this afforded us extra storage area with the added safety of being able to lock our gear in, it also gave us a great place to camp, and the couple that sold us our camper shell included an amazing inset bed platform and two drawers that we stored our camping gear inside.

3. Caliraised LED Tri color Fog Lights – the yellow fog lights afforded us increased visibility both for us and also for vehicles approaching us, decreasing the changes that our white car would disappear into the fog and snow we anticipated running into on our trip.

4. Wildpeak A/T3W All-Terrain tires – as their website says, these tires are designed for the severe weather conditions we anticipated encountering, they also provide a smooth on pavement ride, while still being off road capable, which was important to us, because we were about to be spending ALOT of time on the interstate!

In the yea thatr we had the Taco, before we sold it for another Toyota truck with a greater towing capacity for camper life, we put over 50,000 miles on the vehicle. It handled two cross country treks like a pro, and cemented our loyalty to the Toyota brand for life. The reliability, and capability of Toyotas manufacturing meant our truck every challenge we put it through without issue. We did regular mainanance, but never had to do any unexpected repair work, and never found ourself stuck in a bad situation due to car issues. This post is not sponsored, but Toyota is a brand we would be proud to work with if the opportunity ever arose!