This SEMA Tacoma Stands on 40-Inch Tires and Portal Axles

A one-off Toyota Tacoma built by a Colorado shop went to the 2026 SEMA Show in Las Vegas on 40-inch tires, portal axles and a set of shocks that cost more than $6,000 on their own.

The truck comes from Mountain Yotas of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and it is an independent build rather than a Toyota concept. It keeps the Tacoma’s turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, with a custom Magnaflow exhaust and a K&N air intake added, and it rides on 40-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Boss R/T tires mounted on custom beadlock wheels finished in white and orange.

Carscoops detailed the build on November 2 and quoted founder Dwight Houser saying "our job is to turn those dreams into reality." The outlet did not say which version of the engine the truck uses, so its output could be either 228 or 278 horsepower, and it gave no total cost for the project.

The hardware underneath is the real story. Carscoops lists 74Weld portal axles, Fox Factory Race Series DSC Evo shocks, billet upper control arms and rear links, and a new Hardblock 4×4 front locker. Portal axles raise the axle rather than the chassis, and a retailer’s listing for 74Weld’s kit for 2024-and-newer Tacomas gives it a 3.88-inch lift, a 22 percent gear reduction at the hub and 2.75 inches of extra width per side. The same listing describes 35- to 37-inch tires as the size commonly achievable with those portals, while Carscoops did not say which kit this truck uses or what else was changed to clear the 40s.

For scale, the most expensive factory Tacoma, the TRD Pro, comes on 33-inch Goodyear tires, so this truck’s rubber is seven inches taller.

The rest of the truck is just as busy. A steel brush bar, black skid plate, LED driving lights and a winch replace the standard front bumper, and a black, white, gray and orange wrap designed by Nick Hughes covers the body. The bed carries a custom setup with a large rooftop tent, and the cabin is trimmed in black leather with perforated orange inserts, orange stitching and topographic map designs worked into the leather.

The SEMA Show runs November 3-6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and it is a trade event except for the final day.

The Toyota Report Take

I like that a small Colorado shop is the one bringing the wildest Tacoma I’ve seen this SEMA cycle, because Toyota’s own show trucks tend to stop short of the point where an owner would have to give up daily comfort. Portal axles are the serious part here. To my eye they are a smarter way to clear big tires on independent suspension than a tall lift, because they leave the steering and CV angles close to stock.

The part I’d want answered is what all this does on a 2.4-liter four-cylinder. Forty-inch tires ask a lot of any engine, and the hub reduction only gives back so much of it. A truck like this is built to stop people in an aisle in Las Vegas, and I don’t doubt it will, but I’d pay more attention to the first owner who runs it hard on a Colorado pass for a season.