Anytime you bring people from different worlds, something interesting is bound to happen. And when DC Shoes put together an online contest with some of its extreme-sports partners, offering them a chance to build their ultimate Toyota Tacoma, some amazing things were born.
The idea was to allow the fans to vote on Facebook for one of three build designs and then let the builders at Camburg Engineering in Huntington Beach, Calif., make the concept a reality. The winner, the ultimate snow truck, made its debut today at the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas.
Built with skiing, snowmobiling and snowboarding in mind, the pickup truck’s entire exterior is shot with Blizzard White Rhino Lining for extreme weather abuse. The bed was modified to accept a custom slide-out storage bin with multiple lockable compartments; it doubles as a platform for loading and mounting a full-size snowmobile. Bedside racks were mounted on both sides of the truck to hold as many as four snowboards and several pairs of skis.
An ARB foldout rooftop tent was modified to accommodate several adults as well as any extreme snowboarder who might want to use the tent as a platform to drop into the local half-pipe or a remote roadside ski slope. And just in case it takes all day to get to the right location, there’s a 40-inch LED light bar that can light up any hillside for some night runs.
At the front of the vehicle is a fully hydraulic Meyer snowplow that can be easily controlled from a pair of toggle switches inside the cab. Of course, to handle all this extra weight on the front and rear (and roof) of the truck, Camburg installed a modified version of its Tacoma lift so it could fit a set of 285/75R16 General Grabber AT2 tires under the fenders.
We’re hoping to get some seat time in this Tacoma in the near future, but we may have to wait for the weather get a little nastier before we head into the mountains to grab some stranded snowboarders desperate to find some remote, untouched backcountry slopes. More to come.
To download the press release for the snow-ready Tacoma, .
