It's been about six months since I drove over to eastern Idaho to pickup and install the CBI Outback 1.0 rear bumper with dual swing-outs on my way down to The Maze in Utah. In that time, the bumper has performed well - I'm generally really happy with it, save a couple niggly things that I should probably write up as a "what do I think six months later," sort of post. But, one thing that I've been missing - and knew I was missing when I purchased the bumper - was a fold-down table on the swing-out. This was…
3 CommentsYear: 2018
If there's one thing I've learned when it comes to first gen Toyota Tacoma's, it's that the weak point of the design (well, excluding rusty frames) is the lower ball joint (LBJ) on the front suspension. The design of the joint makes it susceptible to failure, and that failure is often catastrophic if you're traveling at any kind of speed. And sometimes, even if you're not. So, over the last year as I've been pushing the truck harder, I've been keeping an eye on my LBJ's - they're the originals after all, nearly 20 years old, and with 95,000 miles…
Leave a Comment
TL;DR - I'd like to find a ham radio antenna that is more flexible/floppy than the Diamond NR770HBNMO that I've currently got, and that doesn't have a small section of wound metal in the middle, since that gets stuck on trees and pulls at the roof mount.
Leave a Comment
TL;DR - It's much easier to carry around a Coleman Stove and a griddle than the bulky Weber grill, but the griddle is too bulky and cleaning it sucks, so I'm changing it all up again.
Leave a Comment
TL;DR - I continue to be really happy with the main tent, for the most part. I am not however, happy with the rain fly on it due to the "stargazer" windows never ever drying off.
Leave a Comment
TL;DR - Though it's a great battery, my days of running a single Group 24F Toyota TrueStart battery are numbered; I'm moving to a dual battery system. And, I can no longer recommend the DBPOWER 600A 18000mAh Portable Car Jump Starter, since it failed to start my truck when I had a dead battery.
Leave a Comment
TL;DR - conceptually the fold-down-and-out table is cool but I need to rework how the far corner is supported for it to be useful. Oh, and it can't have any wooden components, since they swell up in wet weather.
Leave a Comment
"Dan?" I only half heard Pops say, rousing me from my afternoon nap. "Yeah?" There's been an incident in camp, and we're pretty much all packed up.Pops Well, I can tell you that getting awoken to that kind of news really gets your heart pumping. Especially with the type of afternoon we'd had so far. But, as is often the case with my stories, I'm getting ahead of myself... let's back up for a moment. Our day had been relaxing as usual - I forget the specifics of what we did, but it was mostly around camp and likely involved…
2 Comments
There was plenty of relaxing around our camp in the Sierra's - and it was great. The way I see it, most of us live in the world running from one thing to the next, attention spans of a cricket. To really be able to relax, disconnect, and not worry about "doing something all the time" is an ability that's being lost. Not every trip lends itself to this kind of relaxation, but every trip does have moments where this can be experienced. Relish - even look for - those moments; they are grand. Even so, even this trip had…
Leave a Comment
Having enjoyed even the short bit of dirt into - I mean the secret Sierra location, the next few days would be a whole different type of trip than I'm used to - we'd be sleeping in the same spot each night, there'd be no scramble to reach camp before dark, and any excursions were more likely to be on foot than in the trucks. Come to think about it, this was the camping I'd grown up with - well, except that it was a camp site much more like those of my trips today (as opposed to the "crowded"…
Leave a Comment
Part 1: We Arrive, and It's Amazing Note: For anyone reading this "not in the family," it should be noted that this is a different type of trip report. Headed out with my Pops and his Jeep, there is libel to be more family ribbing than usual through parts of the report. It's all in good fun. 🙂turbodb Our awesome trip to Idaho ended like no other trip we'd taken to date - in more ways than one. Of course, we'd found the Overland Trail, but more importantly we'd ended the trip in another state, with no pit stop at…
Leave a Comment
July 4-5, 2018. Having parted ways with Ben @m3bassman and Kirsten after a wonderful couple days in Idaho, our first and second stops were in Boise for some fuel and food. We'd hoped to hit up a place that @pizzaviolence suggested as "the best taco's in Idaho," but being the Fourth of July, it was unfortunately closed. Instead, we grabbed some burgers before heading south-east - a four-state day in store through Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and finally California where we planned to find a place to camp for the night. Off the dirt, we racked up miles quickly - many…
Leave a Comment
July 3-4, 2018. A bit windy when we'd arrived, by morning the wind had died down and Seafoam lake was a glassy surface. We'd slept soundly - warm in our respective beds (in fact, everyone but me was still asleep when I looked out the window and noticed that the cloud pattern could be an interesting one for sunrise. Hoping for the best, I donned my clothes and grabbed the camera - no time to spare now, the light was starting to work it's early morning magic. But really, I had absolutely no idea what was in store over the…
Leave a Comment
July 1-2, 2018. The previous 17 hours had been a whirlwind, but we were on our way. Headed east this time, towards Idaho - to a ridge above Garden Valley, where we were set to meet up with Ben @m3bassman, Kirsten, and their pups as well as @pizzaviolence and his family (at this point unknown to us). But we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves. What about those 17 hours? You see, 17 hours earlier we'd pulled into the driveway after completing the WABDR - a week of adventure that would not normally be quickly forgotten. But things were not…
3 Comments
June 28-29, 2018. Our campsite above Lake Chelan worked out well through the night, the small bluff sheltering us from the wind until it died down in the early morning hours, and no traffic on the nearby road. In fact, the site worked so well that none of us woke before sunrise, instead the warm sun hitting the tent was what finally roused us from our sleep. As usual, we spent a bit of time exploring the area with @mini.turbodb and stumbled upon a fenced-off area that appeared to contain some sort of well. We never figured out exactly what…
9 Comments
June 27, 2018. As we awoke the next morning, everyone was well rested and happy that we'd gotten only a short burst of light rain; and that the morning was shaping up to be a beautiful one - hopefully indicative of the entire day ahead. The first order of business was something that @mini.turbodb had been asking for since we arrived in this "not the best camp site" - go explore the narrow trail that headed up the downhill side of the saddle. This of course was the motorcycle route of the WABDR, but that meant little to her -…
Leave a Comment
June 26, 2018. The wind that rocked us to sleep in the CVT kept blowing through the night, perhaps the most continuously windy night we've spent six feet off the ground. Nestled under the covers we were cozy and warm, and it was a struggle to pull myself out at 5:30am to capture sunrise. But there's only one sunrise each day and it's not every day that you're parked on the edge of a ridge with Mt. Rainier in the distance, so pull myself out I did. I wasn't disappointed. Of course, I was up well before the rest of…
8 Comments
June 25, 2018. It was a cold night - even though we were at only 4,500 feet, the temperatures dipped into the mid-thirties, making us all acutely aware that we'd expected (and dressed for) warmer weather. As usual, I was the first out of bed, hoping to catch sunrise, or at least a bit of that early morning light that is so special as it's long rays light up the landscape. And today, as I climbed up above camp, I was hoping for even more - my view through the trees suggesting that I would be in luck. As I…
Leave a Comment
Day 1: Joe and Daisy's First Big Dirt Adventure June 24, 2018. It's not often that we end up on a trip in our own backyard. There are many reasons for that - there are amazing sights far and wide, adventurous friends are located states away, and of course the weather in Washington makes snow-free exploration tough much of the year. But when Joe got a 4Runner and mentioned that he and his wife (Daisy) wanted us to get them (and their 16-month old) out on their first trip, it seemed like a great opportunity to do something a bit…
2 Comments
With spring upon us and the snow starting to melt in some of the lower elevations, we got word that the road to one of our favorite camp areas east of the Cascades had opened up for the season. Hoping to beat the crowds, @mrs.turbodb and I loaded up @mini.turbodb and the truck and headed east. Naturally, from the get-go, the main question was, "how long until we get there?" which we've realized must be answered with "about an hour," until we're less than an hour away, at which point we can use actual times. Seems to work for now.…
4 Comments