2/11/2012
SHAKEDOWN RUN!
WOOHOO!!!!!
I've been waiting for this day, and my wifey has been mad at me this whole time, because I've been purchasing/playing with the vehicle and not paying attention to her. You know how it is! Pick your battles, right?
Load up the truck ( and MAN do I need to change the shocks/springs!) and get going to rendezvous with our convoy!
Meet at the local Shell gas station. Dump a bottle of Lucas Oil Fuel Injector cleaner into the tank. Fill up, $49.80! Not bad, I'm sure on an empty tank it's about $60, I had about 1/4 tank left.
My little bro offers to buy some munchies for the trip, I'm not going to complain! Donettes breakfast and beef jerky, doritos and something else I forgot for later. Survival food!
So far the rigs in the convoy are 2 2nd gen 4Runners, and one LC100. There was supposed to be a 3rd gen 4Runner as well, but he got scared at the last minute and decided to just ride in the LC.
We head out and encounter a bit of rain (sprinkles?) driving up HWY 4 West. Good thing I change those wiper blades! Rendezvous at the 49/4 JCT with a buddy in a 2wd Frontier. Top off at the Shell station up there, and keep driving. End up going throw a very low cloud, looks like nasty fog! We were definitely in the Sierra's now!
Find our turnoff, and take it. I start filming with my AWESOME Nexus and new mount I bought for it. It's a maintained road, but the washes and whatnot in it make us very aware that the shocks definitely need to be changed, and probably the tired rear coils too. 20 minutes on the road and we end up to our first destination!
Candy Rock
We've been doing recon, trying to find more places to camp/fish/shoot. This is an interesting place. We 'climb' down what seems like a 85* descent down to the river. Nothing but granite boulders all over! I take some AWESOME panoramic shots of the area. The waters are clear (where it wasn't rushing) and the place just looks pretty cool. We find some salamander/newt creatures and take some photos of them. Lot's of photos! One is out of the pool of water they were in, and it just flips out! It does the craziest thing, it stands on it's hind legs, front legs spread wide, looks like it's praying, then kisses it's own ***!! ****** Right? It just did this the whole time, until we left. More cool pictures of that!
We were exploring for about 20 minutes around the area, then we decide to head back. Recon done! Good spot for a swim, day trip, bbqing. Just that, nowhere local to camp that we know of, yet.
I'm getting across the rocks and water, when all of a sudden my knife falls outta my pocket. I had taken it out for some reason, and ended up putting it back into my pocket. I thought it was clipped. Guess not! There goes the knife, right into a rushing water area, no way I can get to it, or even see it. RIP CRKT Hissatsu! I think I had jumped from one rock to another, and upon landing, the squat pushed the knife since it was barely clipped.
Next we were getting across another area, and all of a sudden my phone drops! FML!!!! I didn't even get a change to see it fall, my buddy just goes "YOUR PHONE!" and I see it sliding into the rushing water....bye bye 3 month old, $750 totally awesome Samsung Nexus...no insurance, never put it on. Lesson learned. Pay for the $8/month insurance...Sad thing was, this thing was in a holster, clipped to my belt. IDK how it happened, as I was crouching to get down a steep rock. I guess it just was fate. Actually, it was because I had my Glock holstered where I usually have my phone holstered. My phone was not in it's usual spot, so I wasn't used to it there. It wasn't supposed to be there, it should have been holstered/clipped into my cargo pocket, where I wouldn't have pressed against it with my thigh/oblique. Lesson learned? LEAVE YOUR PHONE. Especially with no insurance on it. I should have left it in the vehicle, but I hate leaving valuables in the vehicle when we are in an area we don't know, and who knows who could come out and burgle the trucks while we are gone?!
There goes 2 things. I'm lucky I didn't lose my Glock either, or else I would have just decided to go swimming after all 3 of them!! Ah well, I didn't lose my life, phones and knives can be replaced. People were like "oh go look for it, see if you can get it out of the water." WHY? It's gone, the phone is dead, and it's too dangerous in the area we were crossing to be looking for the phone. Not like it'd save anything, why bother?
So we finish heading back. Ascend the 85* slope, that was a nice workout. High Knees pays off here! Everybody who doesn't normally workout was complaining/breaking every few steps. WEAK! Push through! Glad I've been biking! It really paid off here!
Then we head out to another spot our buddy in the 2wd frontier knows. It's above 5000ft elevation, and we encounter snow. Yay! Get to put the 4WD to work now! SOOO excited! We go through some stuff, Land Cruiser in the lead. He's full time 4WD so he walks right through it. His only mod is Yokohama HT/S tires, all stock after that. He blows through the trail like nothing. My other buddies do it in 2WD, they have M/S tires on their trucks. My truck goes through the stuff, it's not a big deal. A little slippin, but nothing serious. No need for the 4WD yet. Then we head to a clearing, where it's nothing BUT snow. My buddy with his 4Runner attempts to just go through in 2WD. It makes it up the road in 2wd, but at the clearing it's ALL snow, and a bit deeper than in the road, so he can't get anywhere. Throws it into 4WD and makes it around and outta the way for the rest of us. I try in my truck. I only have the stock Bridgestone Dueller HT's on my truck. It goes through a bit, but the tread gets filled up with ice/mud real quick. Here's where the fun begins.
(My bro 'rig surfing')
I start spinning the wheels/sliding. Stop. Reverse. Try again, same ending. Reverse. Get momentum, get farther, get more stuck. NOW I try putting it into 4WD. Put it into park, Throw into 4H. Reverse. Nothing. Put into 4L, nothing. My buddies push a bit, truck unsticks and goes back. I try again, this time going in 4WD. It just drives like stock 2H ******?!
(Stuck in 2H...)
(Trying to just barrel up in 2H, yes this is actually going UPHILL)
My friends are like "you are in 4wd right?" YES I AM? Did you put it in park or N? I put it in park. Try N? It probably didn't engage! OK. Try that. Still nothing. Wait. We hear relays clicking, so we know something is happening!
Other 4Runner guy asks "Is your 4WD light coming on?" there's a light? Who knows if that is out, or if it's not actually engaging. FML.
We back up the truck. Turn it off. Turn on, move to N, 4WD H/L. No light, all we know is that relays are clicking. I just back the truck to the side of the road out of the snow and start looking around under the truck to see if anything is loose or broken.
(Literally a quick push and gassing it got out of this...but without the push it wasn't going ANYWHERE)
Spin the front drive shaft. That is working!
Have my buddy get into the truck. Back it up, move forward. 2H, front shaft is not moving. OK.
Reverse, forward, 4H/L, front shaft is engaging and spinning. OK
So I've deduced that the hubs are not engaging? I'll need to look into (thank you BLKNBLU for the links) how to fix the hubs, or possibly something else (the vacuum canisters and other components to the 4WD?) that are probably broken.
We figure there is nothing else to do now, so onto shooting! Set up targets, have at it for a while. LC guy just drives around in the snow, ladeeda oh look my 4wd/center/rear diff locks are so awesome blah blah blah. We tell him to go fire up the grille and make lunch.
Get back down to the area to eat lunch. "You should get a Land Cruiser, 4wd always works in it!" Yea? Even if I dumped in 9k to equal the price he paid (12k) for his LC, I'd have a more capable truck than his! (no offense LC owners!
)
We explore some more, I throw the truck into 4wd Just in case it might actually start working as we are in a snowy area (all on fireroads no street driving) And IDK if it was just me, but it felt like it was engaged as long as we were moving, I never got a chance to test it out, and as this is my first 4wd vehicle, I really don't know what I'm looking for. I'm going to try driving it on the road, in the court, really slow in both 2H/4H/4L and see if I can feel a difference. Only other thing I know I can do is go down to a buddy's shop, put it on a lift, and see if the wheels will all turn if it's in the air lol.
Luckily, it's not something major, and doesn't affect the daily driving of the vehicle. So I'm not stranded, and I can take my time and repair/replace whatever needs to be fixed.
Overall, except for the exhaust leak or valves ticking (probably both) and a funny noise I'm hearing from the center console/ transmission area when the truck hits about 4k RPM, and the loose gas pedal (there's play in it, I'm thinking it needs to be tightened up, I don't think I'm getting 100% WOT so that's another reason why the truck feels so slow) The truck is actually proving to be awesome.
I mean if this thing can take the neglect the prev owners have been doing to it, then with a little love and TLC this thing is going to get back to the awesome vehicle it's known for being!!!
Unless the engine blows up on me now.
*cliff notes: Lost knife, lost phone, lost 4WD? recon, shooting, snow, fun shakedown run, made it home alive, and truck is pretty decent for the neglect it's been given! *
