The Wild Crow - A Not So Wild Build Thread

[jim65wagon]

Our last day we drove to Gorges State Park and hiked along with a billion other people to Rainbow Falls, and Turtleback Falls. We made a lunch stop at Hidden Falls and swam a while enjoying the respite from the heat and humidity of the hike. Then we continued on to Rainbow Falls after that.



Several young men and women were doing North Carolinas version of cliff jumping




We swam around enjoying the falls for a bit then made the hike up to Turtleback Falls. It looked like fun, but, man was it crowded. It reminded me of my childhood swimming in the city pool out in the midwest. So many people you couldn't stir 'em with a stick, as we say. I didn't even bother pulling out the camera....


After the hike back we drove out to Upper Whitewater Falls. It is the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi and plunges over 400 feet.


The best way to view it is to walk down the 154 steps to the lower observation platform.


We headed back to camp and stopped at "our" waterfall under the bridge near our camp. Pothole Falls. This was an excellent place to play and swim during the week. Cooling off after a hard day chasing waterfalls.


Jay spent a lot of time setting up some shots



Then he got out the drone.


I spent my time trying to get in the way of his shots





while trying to get some decent shots for my memory banks.





Time to pack up and go home the next morning. Jay took a few drone shots of the campsite.


We packed away the Kelty tarps, camp chairs, EZ UP and all the other stuff we bring. Then drive the 9 hours home. In all we put another 1100 miles on our teardrop. I love camping this way, the teardrop making a basecamp allowing us to explore an area thoroughly. This is our perfect relaxation from the daily work week.....



WildCrow mileage 22,000

 

[suntinez]

How fun to login after so very long and find my friends out and about hunting waterfalls. Great story & pics! Kids are HUGE, stop feeding them. Best to Beth It's about time for that west coast trip methinks ...

 

[jim65wagon]

Nice to hear from you! We've stopped feeding the kids. They have to feed themselves now. We just got back from a long weekend of moving them into their apartments for college.

The big trip is on schedule for a spring 2020 departure. If we wind up out west before that we have plans to give you a shout. We'll need a good guide.

Thanks for the props my friend!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[jim65wagon]

"Breaker 1 9, anybody got their 400 watt power on?"​

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The last couple of weekends, (well, I actually only worked on it for two days.....it was just strung out over a week). The Wild Crow received a new fuse block under the hood, a CB radio, USB power ports inside the console, a 110v outlet on the back of the console and the 400 watt anytime mod.​

For starters, there are these two nice threaded holes next to the stock fuse bloc under the hood.​

I made a bracket out of aluminum plate and aluminum angle. The new fuse block and a main fuse were mounted to the bracket and the whole thing mounted to those handy mounts​

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The CB antenna was added using a bracket I bought yeeaars ago. It is made for a T100, it also fits a first gen Tundra, and now it fits a second gen Taco​

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Taking the console apart was easy peasy​

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I ran a circuit from the new fuse block to power the USB ports. Our phones can charge all the time now and the wires aren't coming out of the dash tangling up everything (like the shifter, my coffee, or my french fries)​

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The new outlet was installed in the back of the console. The back just unsnaps from the main console body so you can cut a big hole in it. The wires simply tapped into the existing circuit coming from the inverter (see the AC Outlet and 400 watt anytime thread for details )​

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The CB is the Cobra 75WXST. It's basically a handheld CB with a power block that can be hidden. I pulled my old one from the Tundra. ​

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The main block is mounted in front of the shifter under the console. The attachment for the handheld is mounted in the weird long cubby beside the shifter.​

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And that's it. Now I can talk to truckers, or friends while we're out traveling through the woods, all while charging my phone and laptop...... ​

 

[jim65wagon]

Skidmarks happen, it's better to wear the right underwear and stay sexy.

Mobtown Offroad had a group buy recently on their skid plates. I sorta got involved as I've been wanting some aluminum plates. I had originally thought about making my own plates, but at 25% off it seemed to be an offer I couldn't refuse. After some discussion we decided to order a full set (Engine, Transmission, and Transfer case) of aluminum skid plates, no coating just bare aluminum.

I had an image in my head that the raw aluminum would look cool as hell under the truck, while protecting us from an errant rock that would like to eat an oil pan, or transmission pan (or that stupid low exhaust pipe)

The waiting was the hardest part. No, really, Mr. Petty is right. The waiting is the hardest part. But eventually they showed up at my door.

Very well protected in their packaging. Excited was an understatement! I barely got them in the garage and had them unpacked.

They sat in the garage for a week while life went by. I painted the transfer case crossmember, and then came install day. With my trusty wife beside me we knocked this out in just a few hours.

And damn if I wasn't right.......cool as Hell! Thanks @Mobtown Offroad !

 

[jim65wagon]

Business in the front, party in the back!


Our Tundra was always a Daily Driver first and and an Adventure vehicle second. The recovery equipment for the Tundra included a Superwinch Epi9.0 with a Viking synthetic winch line (the synthetic line came later, we ran steel cable and a roller fairlead for a couple years first). This was mounted to the truck using a removable Curt winch plate attached to a Hidden Hitch front receiver.




Luckily Tacomas are like the Barbie Jeep of Toyota: You can buy almost any accessory you need/want/desire for these things. (The Tundra was the complete opposite in that respect, when we wanted a winch bumper there was one option, and it was ugly and heavy.)


So then it became the game of which one. So many choices! Keeping our theme of aluminum to keep things as light as possible eliminated a (literal) ton of heavy, steel ones. The aluminum choices are fewer, but are still quite a few to choose from. I printed off photographs from the interwebs, read reviews of the products, reviews of the vendors, prices, shipping costs from said vendors – all these factors came into play.

 

[jim65wagon]

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We liked the looks (granted they are all similar – but different) of the Pelfreybilt the best, but shipping from Cali! Man! And then it happened.........Free Shipping became available for a limited time! We had the funds, so we decided to jump and order one.


It felt like time slowed down, yeeeeears of waiting, slogging through life, day by day.......OK it was really 8 weeks (which seems pretty quick for handmade stuff). We had it shipped to my wife's place of business – which didn't have a loading bay. The day it arrived, she called me to come help – so I took an early lunch from work and headed across town. She met the FedEx truck out on the road and the driver and she put it in the bed of the Tundra before I could make it across town to help. I then drove the Tundra home with our new bumper.







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[jim65wagon]

Installation would wait another couple of weeks. In the meantime I ordered some parts we would need to complete the installation. Finally, finally the right weekend came along and it was time! We parked the Tacoma in the drive, put the EZUp over it, brought out our work table, tools bumper, etc.

The grill was removed easily



Then the bumper skin



The aluminum crash bar had to be bashed off with a rubber mallet. Then was a quick test fit and everything was ready. While Beth mounted the Baja Design lights into their respective places, I modified the stock fog light wiring. I thought the kit came with a plug and play harness, but the harness was one to add along with the stock – it had battery connections, a dash button and plenty of wiring. All I needed was to attach that harness' weatherpac connectors to the wiring for the stock fog lights. Testing for working lights nearly blinded my wife – note, don't stare directly into these!





Beth then added the braces from the bumper kit under the swaybar mount.



I cut a notch in the brace under the headlights to better fit the Baja Design lights.



The fender liner got trimmed away








Another test fit....




I modified the Superwinch's solenoid housing to fit under the hood. We decided to install it behind the headlight and power steering reservoir. This location meant moving the air intake tube, so we took a lesson from the Alternate Snorkle thread and cut a 3.5 inch hole in the firewall. After a 2 hour break to buy a new hole saw, we had it. A silicone elbow ( 4” leg x 3.5” leg) and about 8” of aluminum tube and boom! Engine breaths from high up and not in front of the tire – and we've got room for the solenoid!

 

[jim65wagon]

With the solenoid mounted on a custom made bracket and the bumper/winch combo setting on the ground in front of the truck, I began running, cutting, and crimping lugs on the 1/0 welding cable I bought for this project. I worked well into the night getting this done.(Well 9 pm , but that is pretty late for an old guy!)





The wires are long enough so that if we need to remove the bumper we can unbolt it and set it on the ground before we have to disconnect any wiring. All the wiring is firmly cable tied in various locations, and with a quick snip, snip, they unroll to allow bumper removal.



The next day, we made a bracket to mount the winch controller plug. It's right next to the original intake hole in the fender. Everything got connected, and the winch tested (It's alive!) and we installed the winch line.



We tightened all the bolts down, while carefully getting the fender gap to bumper ratio right, added the license plate and we were done! (Actually we forgot to mount the license plate with the bumper on the ground, and unfortunately the back of that area is pretty much inaccessible with the bumper on the truck, so we had to place threaded rivnuts in the hole to screw the plate to, but all's well that ends well.)





One step closer to freedom!

 

[jim65wagon]

BREATHE DEEP DIFFERENTIALLY

Along with changing the oil yesterday, I did a quick and easy modification that I've been wanting to do. Extend the rear did breather.

I did this on the Tundra years ago and have been quite pleased with it. Now it's the Tacoma's turn.

I bought this little breather, I believe it's actually the one for the front diff. Along with two hose clamps, about 7 foot of 5/16 fuel line, and a fuel filter for a riding lawn mower.

The new breather quickly and easily replaced the old breather, the hose runs from there up into the storage box on the bed, and the fuel filter clamps to that end of the hose inside the box. Boom. Done. Took maybe half an hour, mostly cause I'm old and it takes time to crawl out from under the truck these days.

 

[jim65wagon]

We got a nice trip to Pennsylvania in the week before Memorial Day. This was a combo trip of camping, kayaking, visiting family (wife's side) and witnessing the marriage of our niece. It was quite a relaxing trip, even though it rained about 4 out of 7 days. First trip of the year for the teardrop!
We kayaked French Creek from Wilson Schute to Utica. Nothing extreme, but some of the scenery was great.

Saw this immature eagle

My wife loves to kayak and drags me out on a river or creek nearly every weekend!

Ducks, ducks, ducks!

My inlaws had this little guy visit their bird feeders.

The Wild Crow tows the CrowsWing quite well to wherever we camp

Not a true wilderness experience, but we were alone and next to a stream....

 

[jim65wagon]

The next day we paddled in Geneva Swamp (officially known as Conneaut Marsh). Somehow I lost the drain plug to my kayak, so we improvised a replacement

The launch is under I79

Geese were nesting

Redwings were everywhere!

Swamps are great places to be!

 

[jim65wagon]

I got a decent night shot of the teardrop.

Me and the fam at the wedding reception. My son and daughter had gotten out of college for the semester days earlier. Beth looks gorgeous in that new dress!

...and for some unknown reason, this peacock showed up at my inlaws and decided he had a new home

And that, in a nutshell, is our latest adventure.....

 

[jim65wagon]

The weekend of June 10th we took a quick trip to explore some camping options (for a future trip) in a couple of different sections of GWNF. We wanted to stay light (as light as I can be ) and maneuverable (as maneuverable as I can be ) because we were going to put a ton of road and forest road miles on in just a couple of days. We were specifically looking for campsites (preferably not campgrounds ) with enough space to hold two or three trucks, our trailer, and an assortment of other equipment essential to a glamping lifestyle.

Beth and I both worked Saturday until noon. We did some supply shopping, had lunch, and loaded the WC for the trip. I napped while Beth drove us out to Harrisonburg. We filled up the tank at Sheetz and decided to head up Long Run Rd.



We needed a quick camp for the night as it was getting into late afternoon. We know there are several sites up Long Run. This road is pretty easy up to Second Mountain, but gets rougher after that. Our Gazetteer showed we marked a site at the Dictum Ridge trail area. We went to check that out first. The road to Dictum Ridge had several muddy holes, and the truck finally got dirty.



We found our site, nicely hidden in the brush, but the fire ring was there, and it was clean. Parked in the site the truck was only slightly visible from passersby.


Our kayaking tent hides well


Beth fixed supper


I waited patiently


Chicken Alfredo! It is delicious!


The sun went down


As the sun went down, my awesome wife whipped up some Bananas Foster






A rough first day ended, tomorrow was for driving and looking over campsites......

 

[jim65wagon]

The night was pleasant. I gotta say the weather was perfect for camping. We left off the rain fly from the tent so we could watch the moon, stars and trees.

Breakfst Sunday morning was fresh coffee and an egg sammich on a bagel


We showered in the cool water of our portable "camp shower" system. It's a 7 gallon WalMart Reliance water jug with a boat fuel line. Drop one end of the hose in the water and squeeze the bulb - instant running water!


We packed up and headed down the road. The view from Long Run was gorgeous


We decided we wanted a campsite about halfway between Flagpole Knob and Crabtree Falls. We headed down to the Todd Lake area and cruised backroads and fire roads. This little guy was crossing the road so we put him in the woods he was travelling to after this brief photo op.


We didn't find any dispersed sites we liked and we stopped in at two campgrounds. They could fill the bill, but we reaaalllly don't want to CG it. We eventually found ourselves back up around Hone Quarry around lunchtime (another campground!) so we stopped in the sunshine near the quarry pond and dined. Took a few pictures and discussed our next plan.


One of the places we want to take our friends during their visit is Crabtree Falls, so we thought we'd check out opportunities near there. South of Crabtree we hit the National Forest again, and found ourselves along the Piney River. There's some camping there but it's all wet, buggy, and most sites are trashy. The one we climbed down into was so steep and rocky the ATRAC actually worked to crawl the truck back onto the road. The forest roads got smaller and rougher and somewhere this bird flew right in front of us. She landed nearby so I snapped this


We drove until almost suppertime again, finding a couple of useful campsites (yay!) and set up for the night. I readied the tent, and the air mattress (the inverter in the truck worked well!)


Beth fixed dinner. It started like this:


And finished like this:


That my friends is Porterhouse steak with a side of smashed potatoes smothered in escargot and butter with lots of garlic!

I took some photos that I thought might look neat while I ate supper.








We spent the night like the previous, able to look up at the moon through the mesh ceiling in the tent. Very refreshing!

On Monday morning after another egg sammich we went exploring some more. Found some official dispersed sites (they were even labelled by the forest service as such). And somewhere (I really don't know the road name - the road wasn't on the GPS and it's not labelled in the Gazetteer ) we got into a serious road. I was very thankful for the Mobtown skidplates, and very much wishing my rock sliders weren't still in the garage. No pictures, sorry - I was a little too busy picking lines over and around obstacles in the road. I do know it's near Mount Pleasant. It took about 3 hours to go maybe 4 miles of road. A real off roader probably could have done it faster, but I'm all about not breaking things when you're out and about......

It was a very successful and fun weekend!