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Welcome back to Rigs We Dig—our monthly series celebrating the ingenuity, grit, and creativity behind DIY adventure rigs. This month, we’re rolling out to California’s Central Coast, where Overland Under Budget has spent the last five years shaping a 2001 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab into a handbuilt camper rig. With a supercharged engine, custom flatbed and pop-up camper, and a HEST Dually setup designed for all-weather sleep, this build is equal parts rugged trail machine and mobile hotel room.
Your Name: Micah Weber from @overlandunderbudget
Location: Central Coast, CA
Rig Nickname: No nicknames actually haha, we just call it "the truck"
Make & Model: Toyota Tacoma Double Cab 4x4
Year: 2001
HEST products: Dually Wide & Dually Long, Down Comforter, Fleece Duvet & Camp Pillows
What made you choose the Toyota Tacoma as your base?
Can you give us a top highlight overview of your buildout and its key features?
Supercharged 3.4, regeared, on 33 inch firestone MT, front and rear lockers,. Completely homebuilt flatbed and popup camper system, front and rear winches, powered leather mercedes seats and 10inch infotainment screen apple car play.
What were your main goals or priorities when designing and building your rig?
The driving force behind my truck build was to create any weather, any location, any time sleeping pod. Like a hotel room in the wilderness. All eating, cooking, showering ect was to be done outdoors so this let me keep the interior simple and spacious. Having been able to camp in it over the last 4 years I can truly say it's been just that!
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the build process?
With everything being completely hand made and designed by myself mostly in my head with just a few paper sketches. I would say the hardest aspect was just translating the images and design in my head to physical measurements and shapes.
How many dollar signs on a scale of 1 to 5 is your build (5 being the highest)?
$$$
Well it's been an ever evolving build so I've definitely lost an exact cost of the build, but I bought the truck for $7,500 cash, and I think it's safe to say it's somewhere in the low 20K range now. The camper and flatbed build were actually pretty low cost, just very time consuming.
What products, brands, or upgrades are you most excited about in your rig?
Truck Camper details flood lights, kitchen, bike rack, storage.
How much time and effort did the entire process take, and was it worth it?
What’s one feature in your rig that you’ve learned you cannot live without?
Goes without saying you have to have 4x4! I even use it to back up my driveway at home haha. After that, it's the sleeping pads and blankets. If I can count on having a comfy and warm bed at night I feel like I can figure any situation out.
Are there any features or upgrades you wish you had added (or done differently)?
Since I've been hand-making everything as I go, I usually start at the “I really want to improve this” point so I'm pretty happy with how it is right now. However I will say over time and with the changes in my travel I think my next upgrade will be a custom second fuel tank with a transfer pump.
Where is the coolest place you have taken your rig?
Hard to say! So much of what makes trips special is the people that share it with you. But I do have a pretty sweet photo of the truck parked on a cliff in Moab.
Do you have any advice for someone just starting their overland rig build?
Keep it simple! Slightly larger all terrain tires, maybe a 1-2 inch lift or level to add some ground clearance, Grab a nice heavy duty ground tent, some water jugs, sleeping pads and warm blankets and of course your hiking shoes and then just get out! As you start spending time outdoors you will quickly find what type of items might improve your personal trips for you individual use case and you can add those as you go.
