September 3, 2016. Ever since the truck was broken into in the alley, its place at night has been in the garage. That isn't simple, since the garage was built in 1925, and is only 1" longer than a stock 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4WD. I mean, I did have to sacrifice…by removing the tow hitch so it would fit. But with the new armor the truck was lengthened by 3½", due primarily to the Predator hoops on the front bumper. No problem I thought - we'll just knock out the front wall of the garage and go along our merry…
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August 23, 2016. The trip was a long awaited one. But first, some background. The lead up Six months ago (Feb 2016), I'd decided it was finally time to get a winch on my Tacoma - to allow me to get out of jams (if I get in one); to increase safety on certain trails when we're out solo, and to open up new trails where a blow-down may need to be moved out of the way (for instance). Initially I was going to go with a hidden front hitch, and a winch that I could move to the front…
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August 7, 2016. I've suffered enough. That Panasonic stereo I installed back in 2013 was great for the Bluetooth, and it was nice for playing videos, but the UI was just horrendous. I mean, why can't there be an option to just make the background black, and not some pulsating craziness that belongs in "The Fast-er-est and Furious-er-est," not a Toyota Tacoma? Plus, I'm getting to that point where I should just buy what I want - I mean, I've learned from Pops that I'm just spending @mini.turbodb's inheritance at this point, even if she did love the old stereo…
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The trip started out on the iffy side. We wanted a beautiful weekend for a stunning hike, and instead it was raining, there was a faint hiss coming from the back left tire, and 20 miles up a Forest Service road I had no tire patch kit. But, a spare tire can be installed, and weather can change in 24 hours. And when that happens, you can end up with great camping - 25 miles up a Forrest Service road - and perhaps the most beautiful hike you've ever encountered...if you have a truck. (This is the North Cascades Pass…
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July 2, 2016. It's been close for a while, and it's been a long time coming, but on our way out of town for a what would become an off-road adventure to a brand new site - the truck hit 60K miles. That's an average of 3,600 miles each year, or a whopping 300 miles per month. Except that I'd driven it 10K miles in the first two months, so it's really more like 200 miles per month over the life of the truck. This truck is going to last me forever. I hope. So we arrived at our super-secret-undisclosed-location-that-you-have-to-rush-to-or-someone-else-will-get-there-first,…
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June 12, 2016 Epic journey behind us, it was time to find out what was wrong with the engine and get it fixed. Step 1: Read the error code. To do that, I bought a Kiwi3 OBDII adapter and the DashCommand app. Error code P0131 - which in mechanic-speak is "bank 1 too lean" and in human is "dirty air intake." Side note: these two gadgets are an awesome combination. With them, it's like having a car from 2010 - instant fuel economy, average fuel economy, and all sorts of stats, coming directly from the computer. Sweet. Step 2: Fix…
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May 29-30, 2016 With a new lease on life (no check engine light), the trip through Jordan Valley (again) and to our final destination was fun. We saw a ring-necked pheasant and of course 1 million billion cows just grazing wherever they wanted on the BLM land. The highlight however was a cattle grate crossing on the top of a rise where, at 50 MPH, the Tacoma played "Dakar rally truck" and we caught air, much to our surprise (and enjoyment). As we continued to drive, we entered a whole new landscape - green valleys between rolling hills covered in…
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May 28 - 29, 2016 A few miles outside of Jordan Valley, it was back onto dirt roads for 30 miles to Three Forks. Mostly uneventful, we saw many more cows than cars, and we arrived at our destination around 7:00pm. Once again, we were deceived right up until we got there, as the canyon opened up below us, rather than being something we drove into. Coming over the edge, we were greeted by this sight, and it was just the beginning. We continued down, and found ourselves in the most populated place we'd see all weekend - 7 or…
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May 2016 The whole of Owyhee Canyonlands are composed of various volcanic activity. Jordan Craters is the most recent of that activity (parts of which are only ~100 years old) and are a crazy sight to see. Looking at the area when approaching via car, and even more when viewing it via satellite, it looks like a huge lake. In reality, it's a huge (~25 square mile) lava flow, with basically nothing growing in the area at all. At the very northwest corner is the place we were heading - Coffeepot Crater. We made great time, passing a slow moving…
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May 27, 2016. It was just like any other work week. Or at least, any other week where you go to work for half a day Monday; take a 24-hour flight to India at 6pm; work in India for 34 hours; and then arrive back in Seattle at 7am Friday morning after 24 more hours in the air. Except it wasn't. Memorial Day the following Monday meant a four-day weekend, and that meant that this was the perfect week for an extended camping trip. Where would we go? Being May, our normal haunts in the Pacific Northwest were still largely…
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May 18, 2016 First generation Toyota Tacoma's are known as great trucks. The horns - specifically on 2000 Tacoma's - not so much. For some reason, Toyota decided to only put "half a horn" in the 2000's, and it's obvious. The thing is wimpy. It's quieter than my Honda CBR 600 F2 motorcycle. It's time to make a change. As with most projects, this one starts with opening up the hood, and in this case, taking off the grille, which is held on with 8 little retaining clips. And with that, the weakness that is the OEM horn is revealed.…
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March 20 - April 28, 2016 Courtesy lights are those little lights around the car that turn on when you open your doors. They generally include the dome light, some door lights, that kind of thing. Now, I know what you're thinking - "How in the world does disabling the courtesy lights take five and a half weeks?" Electricity. And negative switching. For years, I've wanted a way to disable the courtesy lights - mostly so that when camping, the doors can stay open without having to worry that the battery will run down. But of course, finding the right…
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February 2016. Or March. Sort of April. If you're going to lift your truck, there are two ways to do it. You can do it for looks, or you can do it for real. For looks, you're talking about a spacer lift or a body lift - something that raises the truck but doesn't raise the performance. For real, you're talking about a suspension lift - replacing all the parts that make up the suspension on the truck, and in doing so, improving the performance - both on and off road. Clearly, you want a suspension lift. But, we're getting…
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August 2015. After driving the same truck for 15 years on the same set of (original) tires, you get to know how it feels, how it sounds, and frankly - how it smells. It still smelled normal. But it didn't sound or feel normal when we were on our way home from work, that hot August afternoon. Thump thump thump and shake shake shake. I'm sure to other drivers, my front left wheel looked crazy-out-of-balance as we made our way (slowly) over the bridge. As soon as we got home, @mini.turbodb decided that we needed to see what all that…
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Summer's here and we decided to go camping at our super-secret-undisclosed-location-that-you-have-to-rush-to-or-someone-else-will-get-there-first. While there, we had a great time, including an epic fire that was bigger than our daughter. But being four years old, and sitting in the back seat for three hours each direction, @mini.turbodb understandably got bored and started playing around (unbeknownst to us) with the back window in the truck, ultimately leaving it unlatched/unlocked. No biggie, except that when we got back, I parked the truck in the alley behind the house and left it overnight, where some young hooligan randomly happened to try the back window and…
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July 26, 2013. We're headed home from work, just about to get on the freeway and I push the clutch in to change gears. The clutch never comes up. I reach down while trying to keep an eye on the road, squirm my fingers behind the pedal, and physically pull it back out. I'm now in 3rd gear. Not happy, we pull over before getting on the freeway and I give the clutch a try again. The clutch never comes up. At this point I know something's wrong, but I have no idea what, so I put the truck in…
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January 13, 2013. It turns out that auto tech changes in a decade. "What?," you say. "Yes, yes it does." Before @mrs.turbodb and her Audi (which I call a station wagon, but she'll have me tell you is a "Dark Gray 2008 Audi A4 Avante named 'Kitty'"), I'd never experienced Bluetooth in a car. Not for phone calls, not for streaming podcasts, nothing. I mean, I'd only gotten my Windows Phone 7 a few months earlier. But the Bluetooth in the Audi - that was a great thing. So, it was time to get Bluetooth in the truck. As always,…
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July 2012. Without a tent, camping in the truck has always been a fair-weather affair. Which in Washington limits options. So I decided to change that. With products that contained the letter Z. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. You'll see. The way I've always seen it, tent camping is reasonable if you have more than two people, but it's also very limiting. You can just roll up to a great spot, and be ready to go. You have to find some flat ground, setup a tarp, setup the tent, etc. etc. etc. Plus, everything gets dirty on the…
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January 19, 2012 We had our biggest snowstorm ever in January 2012 - 6+ inches that stayed on the ground for over a week. Of course, in Seattle, that wreaks havoc and this day was no different. At 8pm a call came in from Shahar - he'd slipped into a ditch and needed help. An opportunity to tow? Traction chains required? Yes and yes and sign me up! Of course, the truck didn't just pull him out of the ditch. It dragged him home.
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2008. I forgot to lock the truck last night. Actually, I rarely lock my truck. I mean, we live in a neighborhood of 75-80 year-olds. But apparently there is some hooligan in Woodridge too. A hooligan who opened the truck, rummaged through the glove box, and took several invaluable artifacts: My Tacoma owner's manual. My gas log The piece of door jam sheet metal that had my VIN information They did not take: My Maglite flashlight My tape measure The $20 in the change tray OK, obviously this guy was a moron. In terms of real value, he missed the…
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