Summer in the Pacific Northwest is hard to beat. So, I wouldn't blame you for wondering why - with a week of sun and 75°F in store before Memorial Day - we were headed for the inclement weather of the Oregon-Idaho border and Hells Canyon. So let's start there. In what I believe to be a tradition that I've stumbled into, Monte @Blackdawg and Mike @Digiratus generally get together for a trip every Memorial Day, and this year the plan was go meet up in Lewiston, ID for a few days of puttering around and enjoying ourselves in the outdoors.…
Leave a CommentYear: 2019
With all the recent work on the 4Runner, I wasn't the only one who wanted to put it all to the test. Upon seeing the storage/sleeping platform, @mini.turbodb had declared, "We need to go camping right away!" I don't know if she's been well-trained or it was just a wrinkle in the space-time continuum, but it was music to my ears. So, we found the first weekend that we possibly could and scheduled a single night camping trip to one of our favorite "quick getaway" spots outside Leavenworth, WA. And then we watched the weather. As the weekend drew near,…
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May 10, 2019. When I originally built my bed rack back in 2016, I was sure that the rack was going to be something that was only installed when we were out on an adventure. The rest of the time, I'd remove it using the pulley system in the garage so that the Tacoma could be it's natural self. Oh how naive I was. Turns out, there's no reason to stop adventuring in the winter, and quite frankly, the rear suspension on the truck is much more comfortable with the couple hundred extra pounds from the tent. Plus, I don't really…
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May 7, 2019. Roof rack built, we now had a place for @mrs.turbodb and I to sleep, but what about the whole reason we decided to get the 4Runner in the first place? We wanted to have something more comfortable for @mini.turbodb! The idea was for her to sleep in the back of the 4Runner - "downstairs" as she likes to call it - but for that to work, I needed to make the back storage area just a little higher so that it would be level with the folded down back seat. Not only that, but I knew that…
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May 3-5, 2019. If you're going to turn a 4Runner into a family adventure vehicle to replace the Tacoma, one thing is for sure - it's going to need a way to carry the CVT @Cascadia Tents Mt. Shasta that we sleep in every night. With an Exped Megamat 10 Duo, it's some of the most comfortable sleep I've had, really. So with most of the mechanical work done for now, I figured the next bit of work was to figure out the roof rack situation. I generally start with a mid-level design for these kinds of projects, but this…
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April 29, 2019. The trip to the Alvord Desert and Hart Mountain Antelope National Wildlife Refuge was one that we threw together relatively quickly and without much work on the truck after the previous trip. The only work really was maintenance - an oil change, tire rotation, and re-booting the passenger CV axle. That said, as the trip progressed, there were still several items worth noting. Unchanged / Still an issue from previous Rig Reviews There are some things that have been featured in Rig Reviews that are - as yet - unchanged from when I originally reviewed them. Rather…
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The wind that had been relentless the day before died down over the next several hours, resulting in the most pleasant night of the trip. Oriented just so, there was no need to get up in the morning to enjoy the sunrise either - something I'm sure I'll forget by the next time we go out. A full day ahead, we didn't linger long under the covers, both of us out of the tent by 6:30am - our long shadows playing across the playa, Steens Mountain towering to our west - so we could get breakfast eaten and the tent…
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April 26, 2019. I don't know what the deal is exactly, but it seems that last year was a year of trips with rain and snow, and this year - at least so far - it's all about the wind. It was so windy through the night that at some point I closed the door to the tent just to give us a bit of a reprieve from the insidious cold that kept pushing it's way under our comforters. As the sun rose, so did the wind speeds - clouds zooming across the sky, Earth's natural kaleidoscope. I popped out…
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April 25, 2019. It'd been several weeks since my last trip and as usual that meant I had a bad case of the shakes. Spring is such a frustrating time from an adventure perspective - the weather seems so nice, and yet everywhere interesting is still covered in snow. And, the winter staple - the desert - is getting hot. You can imagine my delight when a check of the weather showed that the Alvord Desert - a place we'd visited for the first time last October - was going to have weather in the mid-70's. From my perspective, we hadn't…
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April 23, 2019. It's been a busy few weeks getting the 4Runner whipped into shape mechanically. As I've said before - I knew there were a few things to do when I bought it, and I felt like it was easily accounted for in the purchase price of the vehicle. The last of those mechanical things was one that I wanted to do out of an abundance of caution - preemptively replace the lower ball joints (LBJs). These are a part that's known to fail - and catastrophically - on 3rd gen 4Runners, and since I had no idea when…
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Just to set expectations - there are no amazing photos in this post. Actually, there are no photos at all - it's just a story. A story of how my day started off one way, and ended another. Come laugh at with me, and enjoy! So, today I was going to work on the 4Runner. I've been getting it into shape so that it can become our family adventure vehicle and daily driver. As such, it's getting a lot of love in the "let's make sure that key parts are in known condition" department - today's work was going to be…
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April 10, 2019. I'm not really sure how to start this post. I mean, what can I say except that it was inevitable that I'd eventually drive something besides a 1st gen Tacoma. We all will - that's the harsh reality of life, the harsh reality that we and our trucks are getting older, the reality that eventually, we'll all have to make a change. This trip started out unlike most others. We didn't climb into the truck, instead we climbed onto a plane. And at this point, @mrs.turbodb didn't know anything about the surprise waiting for us in California.…
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January 9, 2019. With winter here and therefore the weather a bit crappier, it's a generally a good time to take stock of the truck and perform the maintenance and modifications that will keep it going strong for another year. This year however is a little different - there's not just one vehicle that needs attention - there are two! In fact, the still relatively new-to-us 4Runner might even be the more important vehicle to get right, since it'll be the one we take when we venture out with @mini.turbodb. There are only a few things on tap for the 4Runner…
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April 2, 2019. I like to think that I live and learn. I'm also a creature of habit, and I wonder if I'm starting down the same road I've been down before. See, with the Tacoma, I thought long and hard about the first set of aftermarket suspension that I put on it. Originally I wanted to spend a couple hundred dollars. Luckily - and before I spent any money - I realized that I didn't want a block lift, I wanted a suspension lift. So then I did a bunch of research and came up with Toytec BOSS coilovers as…
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If you're here looking for how to install Tundra 13WL or 13WE brakes on a 3rd gen 4Runner, you can read how I did it on this particular day, but the more useful page for you will probably be this guide: Step by Step Tundra Brake Upgrade on a 4Runner The guide shows step-by-step (with pics) how to do the upgrade, and has links to all the parts needed (at varying price points). You know that feeling when you've got a project to do that you're a little apprehensive of because you're not sure if it'll go well, or if…
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March 31, 2019. Ever since we picked up the 3rd Gen 4Runner back in September 2018, we knew that it needed some work to really be a viable family adventure vehicle. Some of that work is cosmetic, and some is mechanical - but all of it took a back burner to the various trips that we had planned and the winter weather that prevented too much work on any of the trucks. But now, things are starting to look up for the 4Runner. Spring is here - or at least threatening to be - and it's time to start getting…
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TL;DR - The question for me when it comes to recovery tracks is, are they worth it? For me, I think the answer is still "not yet," but I'm more on the fence than I've been in the past.
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TL;DR - I think I often overlook the little stuff that I take on trips that just does its job, or that may not be used every trip, but is really handy when the time comes. A few of those things saved the day this time and I think it's worth highlighting their value.
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TL;DR - After rebooting my CV axles with Toyota OEM boot kits, I am extremely happy. I think this is absolutely the best way to go - even better than custom boots or extended boots from CVJ or doing the boot slide mod.
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TL;DR - I recommend running front suspension with as little pre-load as possible. Having removed about a third of the pre-load from my ADS setup for this trip, the ride was much better and the suspension felt like it was able to work in situations where it was previously hitting full-droop.
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