The full report, minus my deets.
TL;DR - I had my second oil analysis done. With 260K miles on the Tacoma, everything still seems happy.
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A parent category that captures non-trip related posts and information. Sub-categories can filter this further.
It's been a minute since I happened to glance under my truck on the way home from a trip and noticed that the rear axle housing was cracked and leaking at the passenger side leaf perch. Luckily though, the sinking feeling I had at the time has faded, no doubt due to the smashing success of the patch I installed - following Ryan's @Reh5108 lead - which has been trouble-free ever since. Of course, the only reason I installed the patch was because it was going to take a long time - six weeks was the estimate - to get…
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I've very much enjoyed my Alcan leaf springs. The first set I had was near as perfect as I could ask, and working with Lew - the new owner in 2020 - on the second set was a pleasure, even if the end result wasn't as perfect as I could have hoped. Rather than go for a third set of Alcan's - which I am 100% sure would solve my problems - I'm going to try something a little different in the hopes of finding a solution that gives me a ride that is a little softer - but that…
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Another failure from CBI Offroad. I've run into problems with CBI before - both with their customer service when I was initially installing my rear bumper, as well as customer service when the latch that keeps the two swingouts closed, failed. This time, I was driving along the bumpy roads of the Whipple Mountains when I noticed that the Trasharoo was hanging at an odd angle off of my spare tire. This isn't unusual - all the jostling tends to move it around a bit - so after snapping a quick photo of some fantastic landscape, I set the camera…
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December 31, 2023. Another year in the books. Unlike previous years, there weren't any big changes to the way I planned for trips or the gear that I brought along. Rather, it was a year of small tweaks, with most of my energy going towards exploring and enjoying myself in the outdoors. Taken with the Rig Reviews, this series of posts give a good sense of what's working and what's not with the setup. So, without further ado, let's dig into what's on and in the truck at the end of 2023! Additions for 2023 are marked in red. Items…
22 Comments
It's been another great year to be out exploring! It was a bit tougher to get out for much of the year - I haven't mentioned it anywhere, but my main task this year was a kitchen remodel for @mrs.turbodb. An nine-month project that started with building the cabinets, we consistently progressed through a down-to-the-studs demolition, load-bearing-wall-removal, replumbing, rewiring (bye bye knob and tube), and then rebuilding everything from there. I'm not a fan of hiring work out, so only the granite countertops were done by someone else. Still, I was quite happy to have still gotten out on a…
7 Comments
There are more powerful chargers out there, but at least for now, this one seems perfect.
TL;DR - I found a compact, 65W USB A/C charger that can be used for my laptop, camera, drone, flashlight, phone, and just about anything else, and it charges faster than the dedicated chargers for those devices. Fantasticly amazing.
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The DJI Air has allowed for shots I would have never been able to capture previously!
TL;DR - I've enjoyed taking still photos with the drone, but I've not enjoyed trying to shoot videos as my piloting skills leave many things to be desired. I've also got several more things to add to my like/dislike list, which I'm sure will continue to grow.
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So far, the Dometic is working out.
TL;DR - After switching over to a Dometic Fridge, things have been working "just fine." I think I still technically preferred the ARB overall, but the Dometic has a few nice features the ARB did not. And, most importantly, it's actually cooling.
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"Seems ...Unsafe."
TL;DR - Having the Tacoma in Las Vegas is by far the best thing I've done for exploring, ever. The convenience of not having to drive forever at the start/end of a trip is worth it alone. Icing on the cake is that it's been even cheaper than I originally estimated (which itself was cheaper than driving).
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September 1, 2023 Change has been great My journey in photography has closely coincided with my adventures. I picked up my first "real" camera - a Canon 80D - on a whim a year or two before I started exploring, but I never used it until I went on that first trip with a bunch of guys I now call good friends. At the time, I assured them that my Google Pixel (yeah, the very first version) was just as good as their DSLRs, if not better. Its lack of zoom was a benefit as it required more attention to…
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May 22, 2023 With the Tacoma living in Las Vegas now, it's harder to perform various maintenance tasks as they pop up and between trips. As such, with a few general maintenance issues - oil changes, tire rotations, etc. - and a few items in recent Rig Reviews needing attention, I drove the truck home from the Three Days of R&R trip for a little TLC (Tacoma Loving Care). On my list for a warm spring day were the following tasks: Routine maintenance - Change the oil, Rotate the tires Grease drive train. Check the new SPC UCAs for play in…
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May 21, 2023 When I showed up in Las Vegas for Three Days of R&R, I followed my usual procedures, picking up the Tacoma from storage, turning on the various systems, and then heading to the grocery store to provision my ARB fridge with a few days' worth of food. My ARB Fridge Bites the Dust As I was stopped for gas on my way to Utah, I happened to glance at the control panel for the fridge and noticed that it hadn't gotten any cooler than when I'd turned it on a couple hours earlier. No bueno. Thinking that…
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Costs pretty much the same.
TL;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.
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December 31, 2022. Another year in the books. Unlike previous years, there weren't any big changes to the way I planned for trips or the gear that I brought along. Rather, it was a year of small tweaks, with most of my energy going towards exploring and enjoying myself in the outdoors. Taken with the Rig Reviews, this series of posts give a good sense of what's working and what's not with the setup. So, without further ado, let's dig into what's on and in the truck at the end of 2022! Additions for 2022 are marked in red. Items…
8 Comments
We've reached the end of the year again, a good time to look back at the last 12 months, contemplating everything that's happened and - as always - overanalyze it. Trips: 19 | Tent nights: 74 | Total photos: 4636 This year, looking through my favorite photos, I realized that more and more, I enjoy photos that don't contain the Tacoma. I don't know why this is exactly, and I don't expect that there will be fewer Tacoma shots in the future - it is the roaming gnome of my adventures - but I find it to be an interesting…
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September 1, 2022. Note: There is an important update below. It was more than three years and 120K miles ago that I installed SPC UCAs on the Tacoma. Shortly after installation, SPC came out with an improved design that was a single forged piece of material, with an entirely new type of joint. That joint - which they call the "X-Axis" joint - was essentially a sealed spherical bearing that replaces the polyurethane bushings where the UCA is mounted to the frame. And so, when I took the truck in for an alignment and the alignment tech (a good one,…
18 Comments
One of the jokes we always make about the folks (ok, let's be honest, it's 99% guys) we hear talking on the 146.520 simplex ham radio frequency that we have tuned in the Tacoma most of the time, is that they are always talking about their radio setup. Whether they have just tuned a new antenna, are calling for CQ ("anyone out there") from the top of some mountain, or are reorganizing their "shack" to fit a newly acquired transceiver, every radio operator seems to be... a nerd. Guilty as charged. My first mode of communication in the Tacoma was…
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August 17, 2022. 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 of the noise I'd heard when I'd broken a leaf spring, so I was out of the truck quickly to look for the problem. I wasn't able to isolate it entirely, but I was pretty sure that I found where the bed had split (more than in the past) in the passenger front corner. Luckily, it only seemed to rattle around on significant downgrades with rocky conditions, and I knew…
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