Nitto Tire Builds The Baddest Off Road Toyota Tundra Of The Year!
By Brian McCormick
In the automotive aftermarket, image vehicles are often the most productive means of promoting a product that the consumer can relate to. This concept is nothing new to the marketing folks at major companies like Nitto Tire who pride themselves with being directly involved with the different niches of the truck communities. One of their most popular areas of product development and promotion is the off road market. Not only does Nitto sponsor and support off road racing teams from various racing organizations, but they also seize these racing opportunities to develop and test new tires in a constant effort to improve the products such as the Grappler series of off road tires.
When challenged with the idea of combining the off road racing element with consumer level enthusiasts, the idea was born to merge desert racing engineering with the new Dune Grappler tire on what is most definitely the most talked about new truck of the year. The concept of transforming a 2007 Toyota Tundra Crew Max Limited 4x4 into basically an Unlimited class off road truck was perfect! Little did the marketing staff at Nitto know that this insane Tundra would soon become one of the most talked about new Tundra in the enthusiast communities.
Many dream of owning a super trick off road Tundra, and this truck very well could be it! Tim Coltey who heads up the truck tire marketing division at Nitto quarterbacked the construction plays. Being an avid off road enthusiast himself, he knew exactly what elements this truck needed. His knowledge landed him at Nitto-sponsored Donahoe Racing where the DR crew began the construction transformation. This included custom fabricating new fiberglass front and rear fenders to allow enough clearance to clear the 37x12.50 Nitto Dune Grappler tires mounted on KMC Monster 18x9 wheels. The front bumper was removed and replaced with a hand-fabbed 1-3/4-inch tube front bumper and aluminum skid plate mount which also supports a trio of KC Hi Lite HID driving lights.
When it came to the suspension work, it was simply a matter of transitioning tried and true long travel technology onto the Tundra in place of the stock set up. The factory front suspension was completely removed and replaced with a set of Camburg Engineering upper and lower long travel control arms which are basically identical arms to those used on Camburg-equipped race trucks. For aggressive support and yet a smooth ride, Donahoe Racing 2.5 Zoo-Road coil overs were installed along with a secondary smooth body Zoo-Road shock which attaches to a tubular upper mount stretching over the factory coil-over perch. The total lift from this front set up is 4-inches while the most significant enhancement is in the form of greatly increased wheel travel and the strength to handle extremely aggressive off road excursions.
