Daring to be Different: The Trailblazing Bagged 2022 Tundra Build

Dare to be Different

IN a sea of late model GM trucks being bagged and bodied over the past few years, doing something that stands out is getting harder to do. It takes something like a cool modification that no one else has done or a crazy color to make it ultra visible in a show field. Scott Crosslin from Dublin, Georgia, knew he had to do something completely different when it came time to build a new truck. He had already gone down the GM truck route with his previous builds with a 2000 Silverado bagged on 28s and a 1995 S-10 bagged on 20s but decided to go off the rails this time.

OWNER **Scott Crosslin**
2022 Toyota Tundra Platinum
Dublin, GA
Relaxed Atmosphere

As a floating manager at Pitts Toyota of Dublin, Georgia, seeing the brand-new body style Toyota Tundras sitting on the lot made Scott start to wonder what it would take to lay one of them on the ground on big wheels, which is something no one had done yet at that time or since. At that time, new Tundras were hard to come by and even harder to order, but fortunately working at a Toyota dealership, he had a few connections and was able to order a brand new 2022 Toyota Tundra Platinum in the popular Windchill Pearl White.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

It takes something like a cool modification that no one else has done or a crazy color to make it ultra visible in a show field.

This truck was loaded with all the options from the factory, but Scott had big plans to push it to the next level. The truck came in from the manufacturer in June 2022 and was driven to his house right down the road, where it sat parked in the garage and covered until late September that year when it was loaded on a trailer and taken to Jake McKiddie and his Phat Phabz crew to work their magic and lay it on the ground. The Tundra only had 500 miles on it. Being a truck no one had bagged yet, it would be the first in the world, so the crew took their time making sure all the aspects of this unique build would drive and perform correctly and look good doing it.

The key component of a build like this is always the wheels. The wheel specs dictate how much cutting and fitment is needed to get the truck to lay on the ground and clear the wheels. For this, Scott picked up a set of Raceline Cheyenne wheels with a 26×9 front wheel with 6 inches of backspacing and a 26×10 rear wheel with a 4.25-inch backspace. Delinte Desert Storm tires in 295/30/26 front and 305/30/26 rear were mounted to the wheels, but not before they were powdercoated in black chrome to match the OEM trim on the truck.

Now that the rollers were ready, it was time to blow the truck apart and start cutting on it. For some people, this process is scary, having a brand new, perfectly good truck cut apart. But for us custom truck enthusiasts, it’s a required process to build something that will stand out. Jake and his guys decided to keep the stock chassis underneath the truck—at least the front half of the frame rails anyway. The crew also opted for a bag job due to how close the factory rockers sat to the ground when the frame was lying flat. A lot of these late model trucks don’t have the old-school massive frame hanging below the body, so it allows less work for a cool, bagged look. In the front, they made new control arms as well as one-off spindles to work with the Firestone airbags and Fox adjustable shocks. A new front crossmember was also built so it wouldn’t hang below the frame like the stock one did. In the rear, a whole new frame section was built with a custom 4-link setup, Firestone sleeve bags, and Fox adjustable shocks. There were 13.5 inches cut out of the rearend to make it narrow enough to let the rear wheels fit correctly. There are also custom front and rear sway bars on this truck, which make it handle even better than the truck did from the factory. A 40-gallon fuel cell was also built that still utilizes the factory fuel filler neck and door.

seeing the brand-new body style Toyota Tundras sitting on the lot made Scott start to wonder what it would take to lay one of them on the ground on big wheels, which is something no one had done yet at that time or since.

To make the new bags work like they were meant to, an Air Lift Performance 3H controller, Flo air tank and dual Viair compressors ensure Scott always has enough air pressure to lift the truck. Everything was mounted under the raised bed floor for a clean, hidden look.

Speaking of the bed floor though, that was probably one of the biggest aspects of making this truck function like it does. From the factory, these new Tundras have composite beds on them. The tailgate, tailgate striker panels and both bed side skins are the only metal (aluminum) parts of the bed. The factory floor, inside sides and front wall are all plastic. This won’t work for a bagged truck, so Jake and his crew had to think outside the box and build a whole new bed out of aluminum. This might be why no one else has done a new Tundra yet. To give the bed floor a factory look complete with ribs, a floor from a newer Ford F-250 was used and the inside walls were done with aluminum. Unless you were told, you’d never know just by looking at it. They built full front and rear wheel tubs complete with inner stone guard panels for added protection for driving. The front tubs can be seen under the hood and were color matched to tie them both in. Brandon Lewis at A-1 Auto Body Shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma handled all the color matching while the truck was at Phat Phabz. There were modified K&N air intakes to help the 3.4L twin turbo V6 breathe a little better and to clear the wheel tubs. A Burger Motorsports catch can and JB4 tuner round out the engine mods.

With the truck being a Platinum trim level, the interior was already super nice with factory leather, ambient lighting, and the large OEM screen. Scott had all the factory silver parts painted Windchill Pearl to match the exterior and added two 10-inch JL Audio W1 subs as well as a XDM1000/1 amp. Scott, with the help of Mark Poole from World Hi-Fi of Dublin, Georgia, handled the install.

The 2024 Tundra factory inner bedfloor, bed sides, and front wall are all plastic from the factory. Phat Phabz had to think outside the box and build a while new bed out of aluminum.

Luckily Scott’s truck was wrapped up right before the SEMA 2023 show where it debuted out front of the central hall in one of the Air Lift spots. Since then, Scott has taken this truck to several shows where it has wowed the crowd at every event. He would like to thank his wife Roseanne and his kids for their support on this build, as well as Mike Alexander and Mark Poole.