So three days of doing the MOhave trail, well really only 2.5 days, one from east to west and one from west to east, not sure whey it takes people 3-4 days to do this trail unless one is stopping at every little nook and cranny to see the history
. My purpose was to do the trip as I have been out in the area before looking at a lot of the history and have read up on it quite a bit.
Over all the trail is pretty darn simple to be honest, the part that is closed by the parks which has a detour, is a joke, you could do it in a stock tacoma, no crawl control, or locker engaged. I just drove up and over and was expecting there to be huge wash out sections/etc I would have to get clever with. Nope easy going the entire way, I actually called them and asked them why it was closed, they were amazed anyone made it through? Seriously I could only see the trail being closed to honda civics/crossovers. One would have to not have any common sense.
The spot I was most worried about was Soda lake as they had a rainfall the week previous and I was in contact with parks until they were shut down on the weekend trying to get updates, unfortunately no rangers were out that way. Again, nothing to worry about there, fairly dry, although I could see where someone lost a muffler recently and also found two shackles on the way across. Score.
the water crossing at the end was a bit dicey as the level was up a bit, not much, I edged in to see the depth on the truck it was just below the top of the wheel well (close on a tacoma as the air intake is 2-3 inches above this), backed up put in 4lo, locked the rear up and put it in low gear to keep up the RPMS. Entered into the river and kept a good bow wave in front of me, so it would cause the water to drop beside the truck. Thankfully I knew it had a good rocky bottom, otherwise I may have turned around.
Don’t get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the road/trail, but I was expecting it to be a lot more difficult. From reading up on all the reviews, and watching countless videos (some by well known people in the community) I am shocked that anyone would rate this trail difficult. After a storm, yes Soda lake would not be fun, but you can easily bypass this area, if need be.
Moving onto the canopy, which I must say performed flawlessly, did dust get in, hell yes, how could it not, the tailgate is not sealed, and in order to seal the bed on a tacoma, I might as well just lay a plastic sheet down and go to town with silicone everywhere. Even then I expect dust would get in. Only way to not have it would be to great a positive pressure environment in the back. That would involve some vents/scoops directing air into the canopy I think. One of the reasons why I decided against a habitat/camper and sleeping in the back, I knew that it would be next to impossible to keep the bed dust free, so my sleeping platform would be like pig pens blanket on Charlie Brown.
No shifting at all on the canopy, it stayed solid even when I clipped a branch on a Joshua tree that had overgrown into the path, I cut back to early and the branch missed my cab but connected with the canopy. Not even a scratch on it.
The locks, performed very well, although I can see that with a lot of dust and a bit of rain they would get gummed up a bit, I notice mine were a bit stiff on the back end, but were good on the sides. With the tacoma and the flare on the tailgate, it kicks up a lot of turbulent air behind the truck, which is apparently good for aerodynamics/pressure but it sure makes a mess back there (especially in the winter time), you might as well not even use the rear camera.
I haven’t put any accessories other then my James Baroud tent on the roof and that was fairly straight forward. Although I do plan to mount my maxtracs to the underside of the roof using some m8 hardware, hoping the max trac pins will fit, if not I will put hooks and use bungees. Eventually I will hookup an eccotemp L5 or something similar on a mount that is right inside the windoor on the front of the cab, I could see myself adding in a empty shelving unit and using that for recovery gear/etc. Also could see myself putting up a cargo net on one of the sides to hold jackets, etc. I recently bought the tacoma attic from Blueridge Overland, and it is the first piece of kit I have ever contacted a manufacture about in my life and told them what I thought of it. Sad as I love a lot of their gear as it is well thought out, but this was just thrown together and doens’t hold a damn thing in it. Sorry off topic, I have a tendency of down that, Look a squirrel.
Looks, well I musts have had about 20 people come up and ask me about the canopy, which I told them what it was and showed them it. They all thought it was very well built and looked great, although they did comment on the price, which I understand, but after I told them what i had been through with other canopy manufactures(fibreglass) I assured them the increased cost was worth it, and to be honest the cost is not that much more then a normal one. My ARE Overland was probably 500 dollars less and is not even half the canopy this one is.
Weight, well I can lift the canopy myself very easily. Two of us installed it in a couple of hours, lots of BS’ing and gabbing going on and talking about other things/etc. Really, if you had everything laid out, and ready to go, I would say 30 mins top, this was kind of a last min decision and we both were not expecting to do this, kind of just right spot at the right time I guess.
the lack of a third brake light doens’t really bother me, but it may cause issues in Canada. We have a law that any vehicle equipped with a third brake light must retain it, although I have never seen this enforced, I will be more then likely wiring one in on the canopy in the future.
Oddly, I have noticed a lot less wind noise in the cab of the truck (I haven’t sound deadened it yet), and I seem to be getting slight better fuel mileage then when I had the KBvoodoo rack. Not sure why that is, but I suspect I had a lot of turbulence behind the cab with the rack which was causing a lot of noise and possible affecting the aerodynamics? No idea could be the gas, or the warmer temps. Regardless I haven’t notice an impact to fuel economy with the tent above the roof line, not that I am getting stellar fuel consumption anyways. Wish this taco’s were hilux’s, man I miss my old Hilux I had for work in Africa. That sucker went everywhere.
Overall I am super impressed with the canopy, it blows any of the fibreglass manuafactures out of the water (ARE, LEER, SNUGTOP), granted it may not be as sleek, this canopy is a lot more functional and I think looks a lot better then the other offerings out on the market.
if you’re on the fence about getting one, I have no problem saying yo more then likely won’t be disappointed. Currently sitting in Motel 6 in Beatty Nevada, resting up from all the driving over the past week and getting ready for the Death Valley adventure starting tomorrow sometime. Where I fully intend to take my darn dam and do a lot of exploring, walking and just vegging in the valley while I am here to take in the full park if possible, before starting to make my way back to Northern Alberta for work,
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I’ll follow up on my review of the canopy after the Death Valley portion, to see if I am still liking it.
Steve
Steve
