Todd Switzer's video: Toyota 4x4 1986 Pickup to Flatbed Conversion - Part 1

The beginning of the process of converting a 30-year old Toyota 4WD pickup to a flat bed conversion camping vehicle. Hey what's up my YouTube Subscribers! I'm stepping outside my usual camping and kayak fishing type of videos here and doing a series on converting an old truck into something practical for camping and hauling my kayak around the Pacific Northwest - with 4WD and serious off road capabilities. And maybe it will take us beyond the Northwest?? Hey I'm always up for a long road trip. I can breath out there with new mountain range on the horizon and all my toys packed in the back of the truck. So if this is your thing, then sit back and watch. Let me know what you like, or don't like in the comments below. Your feedback has made me better at producing these videos and is greatly appreciated. For the new viewers to my channel, or the Yota gear heads that find this video thru search engines. Welcome aboard. I try to do videos on the things in this world that interest me: Kayaking, Fishing, Wilderness Camping, Remote Destination Travel. It's my thing and it makes me happy. Thru these videos I've found that there's a lot of people out there with the same dreams and passions. You've inspired me and I hope I can inspire you. So If you like this sort of thing then hit the subscribe button, it doesn't cost a thing and you'll get updates from YouTube when I put out a new video. For the technical side of things here - meaning the truck specs and backstory. I have owned this truck since 1996. I bought it when I just got back from sailing across the Pacific and living in Australia for a year. Yeah, I was surfing-my-life-away as many in my life will tell you. But here it is 20 years on and I still have that old rust bucket. How many times have I had that truck stuck up to the axels in deep sand on some remote beach in Baja California and dug it out with an army surplus folding shovel - well I kind of lost count due to all the Pacificos, awesome sunsets and glassy morning surf sessions in the middle of nowhere Baja to tell you the truth. How many times did the Federales tear every bit of camping gear out of the truck and spread it on the 120 degree asphalt road of Baja searching for drugs and guns or hoping to get a little mordadita bribe - I couldn't tell ya. If this is your lifestyle, you get it. You don't just pitch away all those memories, and if possible you don't just pitch away Rusty-the old brown truck if she's got life in her you give her a chance to live it and see where she takes you. These Toyotas were everywhere in the early 1990s. They were the Southern California surf mobile, camp mobile, mountain bike hauler, construction worker truck. If you were a hard working, hard surfing, hard core outdoors person this was probably what you were driving at the time. As the gear heads will tell you, these are now one of the most sought after old trucks out there and is what the rock-crawlers and mudders want. The low-end 4WD and light body design combine to give this vehicle a huge amount of torque. Put a dollars into aftermarket engine modifications and that torque ratio goes thru the roof, couple that with the better tires we have in 2016 and these little trucks can almost climb trees. They're the Labrador Retrievers of off-road vehicles, they're everywhere, they're loyal, they're predictable and reliable. And like the dog they love water. I've floated across a couple of flooded arroyos in Baja in this one and it didn't complain one bit. That's pretty much the backstory, and a bit of technical detail about this truck. I'll produce a series of these videos as I go along doing the restorations on the old truck. So I'll have a chance to add in more technical information in the other video descriptions. If you've read this far down the page, you're in for the ride...Enjoy.