Rig Review – Twice in Owyhee – What worked and what didn’t?

May 24, 2020.

Our last two trips have both been to the Owyhee area of southeastern Oregon and western Idaho - Into the Owyhee Uplands and Owyhee Redux. The truck performed well on each trip, but as always there are little tweaks I want to make to the setup, so let's dive in to the rig review.

TL;DR - The spherical bearings are doing OK, but I think that's temporary.

Second (House) Battery Replaced

TL;DR - The (warranty) replacement battery is working great!

Propane Bottle is Leaking (update)

TL;DR - I threw away the leaky bottle and got a few used bottles to fill and use on future trips.

Mobilinkd TNC 2 failure (APRS) (update)

TL;DR - no trouble on the last couple trips.

Cooper ST/Maxx Tires

TL;DR - I've really liked the ST Maxx tires, but they are on their last legs. Time to start a search for replacements.

It's Noisy in the Cab

TL;DR - I wish it were easier to hear podcasts, and that the long stretches on the highway were a little quieter.

The Air Conditioning Doesn't Work

TL;DR - I need to replace the evaporator core inside the cab of the Tacoma so we can get cold air again.

Seemingly solved from previous Rig Reviews

Front ADS Coilover Spherical Bearings - "solved" in that I know they are going to require constant maintenance for a while.
Second (House) Battery Seems to be low - completely fixed with a new battery.
Propane Bottle is Leaking - threw it away, got some new-to-me second hand bottles that don't leak.
Mobilinkd TNC 2 failure (APRS) - it's been working for the last two trips, so I'm calling it fixed. Plus, I know how to fix it if it fails again in the future so...

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 than highlight those things again, I'll simply link to them here.