TL;DR - I'm not happy at all that the ARB fridge wouldn't cool on my last trip. I'm going to be reaching out to ARB support to (hopefully) get the issue resolved. When I showed up in Las Vegas for Three Days of R&R, I followed my usual procedures, picking…
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TL;DR - my headlight housings are getting foggy again. Given their age - original to the Tacoma - it's time to put in some new ones. A couple years ago, I went through a saga of trying to figure out the best setup for headlights. First, I installed some LEDs.…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - having the Tacoma in Las Vegas and flying back and forth for each trip is one of the best things we've done for the setup in a long time from a quality of life perspective. It doesn't save any money though. At the beginning of January, I arranged…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I don't ever really mention them, but my Canon R6 and lenses are doing great. It was nearly two years ago that I made the Involuntary Evolution to a New Camera and Glass (Canon R6) after running over my Canon 80D DSLR. In that time, I've taken more a…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I've begun to carry three, 20L Scepter military jerry cans full of fuel and despite the extra weight, it's been great. For a long time, I've carried two (2) 20L Scepter military jerry cans full of fuel. Each one holds about 5.9 gallons, giving me a reasonably good…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - The seal in the transmission that accepts the input shaft from the transmission is leaking and needs to be replaced. At the same time I noticed the slow leak at the rear diff, I also noticed a drop of gear oil on the transfer case skid plate. A…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - the form in place gasket (FIPG) used to seal the carrier to the rear axle housing is leaking just a tad and needs replacing. Not much more to say about this for now. I suspect this will be a reasonably straightforward fix, which I'll take care of when…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - The zipper finally failed catastrophically. Both CVT and YKK had amazing customer service and solved the problem in different ways. While exploring the backroads of Oregon's Hart Mountain, the zipper on the cover of the CVT tent finally failed. This has been an ongoing issue for the last…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I got my third Cooper ST/Maxx flat ever, all on the same set (my fourth) of tires. I still think they are one of the best tires out there. I got another flat - this time the driver rear - as I was driving home on I-5 after…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I no longer recommend SPC upper control arms (UCAs) if they contain X-Axis bushings. In my last rig review, mentioned replacing my UCAs due to a worn out bushing. Since then, I've added a significant update to Replacing my SPC Upper Control Arms ...with SPC UCAs which I…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I had my first oil analysis done, and with 235K miles on the Tacoma, it came back great. I've sort of postponed getting a Blackstone Labs oil analysis, since I was worried about what it would say. For the first 16 years that I owned the Tacoma, I…
Leave a CommentSeptember 2, 2022. Overall, the Tacoma has been doing great since my last rig review back in March, so I haven't felt any need to write anything about it. Still, there have been a few things worth noting on the last several trips, so let's get down to it. 250…
1 CommentTL;DR - My Cooper ST/Maxx tires finally gave me a bit of trouble. Still, I'll probably buy a 5th set when these wear out because they've performed better than any other tire I've seen others run on the trail. I had two flat tires on our recent trip to run…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - The new scheel-mann seats are doing fine. The jury is still out on whether they are worth it (and will be for several years, I think. These seats are definitely the most expensive mod I've done to the Tacoma. I don't often post photos of the interior of…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I replaced the lower ball joints (LBJs) as preventative maintenance after 75K miles. I wasn't having any issues with my LBJs, but as a known weak point on 1st gen Tacomas, I figured that 75K miles - and a little less than two years - was long enough…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - The passenger front corner of the bed cracked all the way down to the bed floor. I've fixed it, for now. On our first day of the trip to Plumas National Forest, on our way down to Poker Flat, we heard a new banging noise. It reminded me…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - the last time I got an alignment, the tech mentioned that the rear passenger side bushing on the upper control arm (UCA) was starting to get a bit loose. After some consideration, I decided to install completely new UCAs, with lifetime joints so I never have to worry…
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