2001 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner - Introducing Project Venture Toy

We started the cage installation by positioning the 'B' and 'C' pillars in the back half of the cab and spanning them with the short lengths of tubing included in the kit. After aligning and checking for squareness, we started tack-welding the pieces together. A scrap piece of cabinet laminate material was use to protect the headliner and interior pieces as we tacked the tubes together.

Offroad Solutions provides floor plates that fit under the pillar tubes and hardware to bolt the plates through the floor. The 'A' and 'C' pillar plates end up fairly close to the body mounts for added support. Up front, we went with the bit longer plate and used the body mount bolt as an extra attachment to the floor plate.

The fully welded kit that Offroad Solutions sells comes in two large pieces. Once inside the cab it is connected with three overhead sleeves and two leg sleeves are used in the 'B' pillar. We duplicated their sleeving method on our kit cage. The ability to remove the cage allows for full welding of the tubes and painting outside the cab.

We used five pieces of 2-inch x .120-inch wall DOM tubing to sleeve our cage joints and bolted the sleeves in place using 7/16-inch Grade 8 bolts and metal cinch nuts. The entire cage follows the interior body lines closely, providing a snug fit that wastes little space. With the cage fully tacked together in the cab, we pulled the sleeves and removed the cage for welding.

Here's a shot of the fully built cage as it sits outside the cab. Final welding was performed at a slow pace, taking care not to apply to much heat that might cause the cage to distort.

With the cage painted, it was time to put it back in the cab and assemble it for good. You can see the rear 'C' pillar fits down inside the rear storage compartment area. We had to do some cutting to work around the cage leg, but the compartment should remain functional.

With the cage fully assembled in the cab and all the floor plates and sleeves bolted down tight, we added some foam pieces over the sections that would be closest to our heads. This is good to protect your noggin when entering and exiting the cab, or should you get tossed about in the unfortunate event of a rollover.

When installing the foam where two tubes came together, we found it useful to use a 1 3/4" hole saw to cut into the foam and then made a small slit with a utility knife so we could slip the foam over the intersecting tube.

The instructions warn you to check the operation of the window cranks and glove box once the tubes are tacked in place. We came out fine on the cranks but forgot to check the glove box. Our door wouldn't open past this tube, so we made a small wedge cut on the door for clearance.

With the cage installed, we put the carpet back on the floor and trimmed where needed around the tubes.

For seating, we chose to go with Mastercraft's latest offering, the Baja RS. We've always been pleased with the fit and feel of Mastercraft suspension seats. For our extended cab truck we wanted to stick with something that could both recline and lean forward so we could access cargo behind the seats, and are happy they now offer a seat for such an application. Our Mastercraft Baja RS seats arrived in two large boxes ready for installation.

The edge piping and stitching on these seats is superb. As with all their race seats you get slots for shoulder harnesses and an anti-submarine belt and these seats include top loops to keep your shoulder straps in place on the back of the seat when you leave the vehicle. Mastercraft offers standard and a wide selection of custom vinyl and fabric colors. Online they offer their Interactive Seat Configurator that lets you choose the various seat panel colors and see the combination on your monitor.