Traversing the US (and back)
- Thread starter jessejman
- Start date
shortbus4x4
Expedition Leader
I hear you about your car being a rolling bear snack with little kids. My youngest is now 7 so its getting better but I can remember taking multi day trips with 2 or 3 kids in car seats and it seemed like there was more food and drinks spilled in the back seat than were actually eaten.
great read also; may I ask some questions if you have some time to respond;
first with the cruiser
do you have a write up of the build? do you have factory lockers or aftermarket? what other mods did you add before the trip? The winch did you use it? the tires; any cuts or trail repairs?
food
with kids; what food did you bring or use on the trip; also how was food prep and cooking? did you bring a case of "Mac N Cheese"? ( that was meant to be a joke)
sleeping
it was summer when you went out to colorado and such; what was the night time temps? You mentioned that at times it was cold even with the sleeping bags. anything you would bring with you now that you know what the weather was like?
security
my wife seems to think Jason is gonna come out of the woods and kills us while we sleep in our tent; did you come across any issues with this type of problem? also I read some of the posts about choosing a camping site; did you rely on the GPS to figure out if you were on private land etc.
toilet
at times it could not been feasible to go into the woods (weather/night time) what did you use or did you have a designated area with a covered tent?
thanks
first with the cruiser
do you have a write up of the build? do you have factory lockers or aftermarket? what other mods did you add before the trip? The winch did you use it? the tires; any cuts or trail repairs?
food
with kids; what food did you bring or use on the trip; also how was food prep and cooking? did you bring a case of "Mac N Cheese"? ( that was meant to be a joke)
sleeping
it was summer when you went out to colorado and such; what was the night time temps? You mentioned that at times it was cold even with the sleeping bags. anything you would bring with you now that you know what the weather was like?
security
my wife seems to think Jason is gonna come out of the woods and kills us while we sleep in our tent; did you come across any issues with this type of problem? also I read some of the posts about choosing a camping site; did you rely on the GPS to figure out if you were on private land etc.
toilet
at times it could not been feasible to go into the woods (weather/night time) what did you use or did you have a designated area with a covered tent?
thanks
No, no build-page. There are plenty of them out there for cruisers and most of my mods can be seen from the pictures and from the telling the story. There is a brief description of mods to the truck in the first or second post. It does have factory lockers though during the trip the rear was not working and now the front doesn't work. It's on my list of things to fix but I use them so rarely that it's further behind the necessity things. On most trails I cruise good gas and brake work will carry you through obstacles though with a bit more work than with lockers.
Quick list of mods:
-interior leds (in existing and added large bar at rear hatch from SuperLEDS.com, halogen reverse lights mounted inside, hella hids and 4000s on the front.
-custom winch bumper and tire/hi-lift/bike carrier welded to frame with IPOR spindle and latch (wouldn't use there stuff again - great service and knowledge but there are just better parts out there. Bummer but I was trying/do try to spend money locally.)
-13.5 gallon plastic drum mounted underneath where spare tire was with Shurflo RV pump to a brass gardenhose quick connect mounted to bumper and some other fittings for filling and venting, plumbed with PEX.
-added storage doors to the rear interior panels salvaged from a 4runner.
-added two 12volt outlets inside center console and two on each side of rear.
-800watt inverter (cheap and given to me from well-meaning in-laws but worked fine for charging laptop and running AA/AAA rechargeable batteries for GPS and headlamps.
-Old Man Emu HD 2.5 springs and shocks worked flawlessly and absolutely necessary due to rough/washboarded roads.
-Part time 4 wheel drive kit from Slee. Get better mileage and handling, no ABS but not necessary.
-custom aluminum roof rack with Pelican Cases mounted on top and Frontrunner Featherlight RTT. I tried hard to keep weight down up there.
-beefed up recovery points and did a lot of maintenance.
-on board CO2 system homemade works well and I want to sell it. It's just too heavy for expedition type travel.
-Titan 12,0000# from Duncan at titanwinches.com with solenoid mounted under the hood. He's awesome and knows his stuff. Good lighter winch made right but in China with a good warranty.
-Nitto Terra Grapplers D range, not E which I prefer. Craigslist find and cheap - did the job. Basically new when we started. After heavy and hard driving with some good drift and spinnage they held up very well. Very slight chunking with some cuts. One slow leak from a puncture fixed in the field with a kit and CO2.
-we took a good small cooler (Engel 30qt) not a fridge. Couldn't afford one and still can't. One day, right. For breakfast we'd do cereal and oatmeal. We'd use milk either from the UHT bottles (ultra pasteurized and no refrigeration needed until opened) when we could find it. It's available all over Europe but rarely here in the States. Powdered milk usually. Lunches were pb and j or turkey sandwiches or cheese and pepperoni rolled into a tortilla or pita bread. Dinners varied. We had a big pot, small pot and a frying pan. Backpacking types, channel locks as holders/tongs. So whatever we had was boiled or fried. Lots of mexican style meals, pastas with sausage or beef, spaghettis, cheese pastas with fresh vegetables, beans and nuts. Lots of fresh fruit. My wife has a disease very similar to Crohns and has a very very specific diet - basically fruits and veggies. So we ate well and fresh, stocking up every three or four days. When we stayed in friend's/familes houses we would make baked goods to carry with us - almond flour cookies, granola, brownies, etc... Not much sweet - it all melts.
-We had great mild temperatures in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Days were hot but nights were mostly pleasant. As you move west and the humidity drops it gets even better. We had sleeping bags for everyone and also liners (cotton sheets essentially). I thought that we would use the liners more often than the bags but we actually rarely used our lightweight stuff. It was usually cold at night. The bags were 15-20 degree bags but 30 would have been fine. We spent a lot of nights at elevation. You can avoid this if you want to for the most part. We were well prepared for the cold and yet surprised at the same time. Hats and light gloves would have been nice. The coldest temp we saw was in the upper 30s a few nights at or above 9,000 feet. The thing is, if it was cold, all we had to do was wait a little longer until the sun hit us and then we'd be roasting in minutes - it was still summer.
-This was a serious concern. I have no problem soloing just about anywhere and have but it's a different story with the family. We camped in the vicinity of other people only a handful of times so we felt really secure usually. My wife and I had a very scary experience years ago in Utah. It all worked out but we still talk about it. I carried (with a concealed carry permit) a pistol on me most everywhere this trip. We were never scared of or by people during the whole trip. We were most nervous whenever we had to camp close to roads. There was one night in Oklahoma when we'd run a pretty long day and met a family hunting turtles at creek crossing. We crossed and they had to move their cars to let us by. We chatted and I asked about a place to camp nearby as most everything is privately owned in Ok. He suggested a spot, said sometimes people camp there and that it was some sort of wildlife preserve. Well we found a few miles on down the road, next to a river. There was poison ivy everywhere, broken glass and rotting fish carcasses. Definitely not a place we wanted to be. We got the heck out of there and went on a search for state park that was marked on google and the gps. It didn't exist. So nearing dark we camped pretty close to a rural road on land that bordered the river but was forested. It was state land but there were no camping signs posted even though the area seemed pretty well used for camping. We were in view of the road so I covered the headlights with a tarp so they wouldn't reflect and we shut off lights when cars were passing. Slept fine with no problems.
In the future, instead of handgun (better - in conjunction with a handgun) I'd carry a high-quality bear spray/mace. It shoots 30 feet or better and will make a human wish they were dead. We met a retired police officer in the Wind Rivers who was a volunteer for the park service. As a volunteer he wasn't allowed to carry. He carried two cans of bear spray and said whenever he felt a situation might get out of hand he'd pop the safety off and carry it with him. It's a lot less threatening/provoking than a pistol.
-We used our head and watched for signs. You can usually tell if land is used a lot and we'd stay away from that. We always tried to plan camping as far away from towns as possible simply because there is more open/free camping and less people. The GPS did distinguish some state land from private but my guess is that it was only somewhat accurate.
- We dug deep holes or squatted over bags when we had to. I have a great wife! It took the kids some time to get used to it but they fell in line after a while and we had some great leave-no-trace, wilderness etiquette discussions.
-Absolutely, and make sure you post pictures and write about your trip when you go!
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thanks so much for the informative reply; I really appreciate it. The info on the bear spray is a great idea instead of the carry permit which I'm not sure how it works when crossing state lines etc. I forgot to mention before that Jon; who helped you out in Colorado is a great guy! I have not meet him in person but he is helping me with my build up etc and offering suggestions on mods. Question about your winch; did you actually use it on the trip? Also thanks for the info about the food; we have a possible gluten problem with one of our family but have not figured out the exact problem. Thanks again for being informative.
EricG
Explorer
I know a guy in Albuquerque that has a truck about the same model as yours. We were out one day and he opended the hood and he had a beld driven air compressor and his sliders and rear bumper were tanks. Quick on tires but when I was parusing under the hood I noticed something strange that looked like a popcorn cooker that you use over a fire.. it was he would put leftover pizza in it or other things that needed to be warmed and let the heat do it. One of the smartest things I've saw easy and cheap. warm food at the end of the day.
Just getting caught up on your additions to this thread over the last month or so, wanted to chime in and say thanks for continuing to put in the effort to go through the reports and pictures in as much detail as you started with. This is really a great read ... has kept me coming back for more every time I see that it's got new posts.
I also wanted to say thanks for the open and frank answers to direct questions ... it's sure refreshing, by comparison to the 'gotta be this way or that way' attitude that seems prevalent on a few other forums I peruse.
I also wanted to say thanks for the open and frank answers to direct questions ... it's sure refreshing, by comparison to the 'gotta be this way or that way' attitude that seems prevalent on a few other forums I peruse.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Just what I need to get through the winter hum-drums.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
This can't be all, say it isn't so!
Ruis_Rider
New member
This has been an awesome read! My wife and I are considering a similar trip with our two young ones (3.5 and 1), though I'm thinking we'd have to tone down the offroading somewhat for everyone else's benefit. Funny I have almost the same vehicle...mine's a 97 LX450 with locking diffs and 239k miles. These vehicles are great!
Also, no one gave you compliments on riding 40 miles on a mtn bike on trails you didn't know...especially after being cooped up in a truck for so long...it's impressive!
Thanks for the report...
-Ruis_Rider
Also, no one gave you compliments on riding 40 miles on a mtn bike on trails you didn't know...especially after being cooped up in a truck for so long...it's impressive!
Thanks for the report...
-Ruis_Rider
Ruis_Rider
New member
So this is pretty funny, but I read that guy's road report last year (which was very memorable!) and he mentioned this run-in...only reason I remember this is because of the Land Cruiser...
From post #83 here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=787498
Ruis_Rider
New member
Jessejman,
I've had a little trouble with my lockers, but it took very little time and zero cash to fix them...the most common trouble from these lockers is just due to not actuating them enough! When I got mine 3 years ago from the owner of 10+ years, he admitted never using the 4wd system, ever (although it is AWD, stock, as you know). I had to take out the center diff engagement and hi-low position switches and clean them up (instead of getting new ones...this worked for me...I also ran current through them and actuated them about 100 times on the bench) and now they work. However, if I haven't used the lockers for a while I sometimes have to just try going back and forward turning the wheels a lot in and out of low range (center diff engagement) and switching and unswitching the rear and front diff switching until they finally engage. The rear is more pesky than the front, but they usually come around after a minute or two. Then they are fine for a while. Just search ih8mud for more details on getting both the switches and lockers working again...
78ScoutII
New member
Jessejman,
Thanks for a mornings worth of great reading! I have a similar family situation with two young children (4 year old boy and 5 yeard old girl) and a wife who loves camping but has an autoimmune disease that really limits her options for food intake. This thread is really making me anxious to get started on my diesel scout project. Right now i'm stuck with a stuck 4 cyl. Mazda tribute that i don't trust as far as i can throw it! So in the meantime I have to live through trips like yours. Cheers!
Thanks for a mornings worth of great reading! I have a similar family situation with two young children (4 year old boy and 5 yeard old girl) and a wife who loves camping but has an autoimmune disease that really limits her options for food intake. This thread is really making me anxious to get started on my diesel scout project. Right now i'm stuck with a stuck 4 cyl. Mazda tribute that i don't trust as far as i can throw it! So in the meantime I have to live through trips like yours. Cheers!