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With all the Tacoma bits removed, it was time to trim the dust shield to fit the Tundra caliper. I didn't need to trim much, but after trimming the little bit I did, I used a file to remove all the burs, round off all the sharp edges and get it "user-friendly" again. And then I hit it with a...

New-to-me Tires and a Tundra Brake Upgrade October 25, 2017. When you find yourself on a trip with other Tacoma owners, there's a tendency for everyone to come away from the trip wanting something. And in my case, with a relatively "young" build, that's extra easy. For me, I've always known...

CB Radio - 'cause not everyone's a HAM September 10, 2017. When I got the ham radio, my hope was that I'd just skip the whole CB thing. I mean, when you've got the real thing… :) But, as it turns out (and let's be honest, I knew this when I installed the ham radio), a lot of folks don't have a...

(y) Thanks! Glad you're enjoying. I've found that it's fun to relate these stories (mostly for the family originally), and so it's always nice when other folks enjoy them. Hopefully they can help motivate everyone to get out there as well - so often I think people are intimidated to just try.

Greasing the Drivetrain September 09, 2017. With a low mile truck that's been stored in ideal (covered, underground) conditions it's entire life, maintenance for me has been minimal. With regular oil changes (done at the dealer until 2016) and services, I've pretty much done nothing. But the...

Truck Shower - What is that Smell? September 4, 2017. Nice hot showers. Love those. Of course, when you're out exploring the wilderness, showers can be few and far between. Often times that is fine - there are opportunities for hot springs, lakes, and creeks - any of which can make a great...

Bed Slides on the Cheap August 20, 2017. As soon as I installed the bed rack, I knew that there were going to be trade-offs - on the one hand, it made for a much nicer sleeping experience with the CVT; on the other, it was a lot harder to get stuff that was in the bed of the truck. Like the...

OBDR Day 7: Out of the Mountains August 4, 2017. Somehow, we were ahead of schedule. Having made it 15 or so miles past Kamela the evening before, that meant we had only about 85 miles to the end of the OBDR for our final day. That was fine with us because we woke up to pea-soup levels of smoke...

OBDR Day 6: Lookouts August 3, 2017. Mornings were becoming routine. Beautiful sunrise, tasty breakfast. Such a tough life. Of course, we suffered through it as we talked about the day ahead. While the previous day had been one of our longest (distance-wise at 180+ miles), today was going to...

OBDR Day 5: What Were We Thinking in May? August 2, 2017. Having gotten in late, we woke up a little later - you know, 6:30am - the morning of Day 5. The day was full of anticipation for us, since this was the leg that had bested us in May, so we were immediately out of bed and exploring...

August 1, 2017. We slept soundly through the calm night and woke up just as the sun was painting the sky the next morning. Well rested, we were excited for the coming day of travel - the plan was to reach Seneca, the town where we'd set off on what turned out to be Mission Impossible: OBDR...

OBDR Day 3: Crazy Day July 31, 2017. The wind having woken us up a few times throughout the night, we were up at sunrise above Summer Lake. The smoke was still light as we rolled out of bed and made breakfast - just cereal and blueberries this morning - and packed up camp for an early start...

OBDR Day 2: There's always a go-around. July 30, 2017. After a long day, we'd fallen asleep quickly and slept soundly by Moonlight Mine at the top of Crane Mountain. Morning light brought a bit more time to explore the mine and make breakfast out of the fridge - scrambled eggs, spicy sausage...

Return to the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route Back in May, we'd attempted to run the northern 40% of the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route, from Seneca to the Washington border. A day in, we chose a more reasonable goal: Seneca to Unity. And at day three, we called it quits - less than 50...

Icom 5100A Install (OMG, did I just drill a hole in the roof of my truck?) July 23, 2017. Ham radio is for old guys. I must be getting old. As the truck has gotten more capable, and as we’ve started doing longer and more remote trips, I’ve started carrying more tools, extra parts, etc. in...

No More Ice Runs or Wet Sandwiches - ARB Fridge July 22, 2017. It was July 8, 2017. I know because I will always remember the day @mrs.turbodb said, "You should just get a fridge for the truck." We'd just returned from our week-long trip to Canada with the little kiddo, where we'd pre-prepared...

Fixing the Stance - New Alcan Leaf Pack for the Rear July 15, 2017. The truck has always had a bit of rake, with the rear being ~2-3” higher than the front. And I like it that way - it looks good. Until the constant weight of the bed rack and CVT, the combination of stock leafs, Deaver AALs...

Canada Adventure to Glacier, Yoho, Banff, and Jasper June 30 - July 7, 2017. June 29, 11pm: we finally decided to head to Canada for a week of camping. We’d leave the next morning at 7am sharp. It was going to be awesome! But let’s rewind… We’ve been wanting to go to some of Canada’s National...

Aluminum Rotopax Tailgate Plate Mount June 18, 2017. As our excursions have been getting longer and more remote, I’ve started paying more attention to things like the amount of extra fuel and water we carry. It’s still nothing too extreme - 6 gallons of fuel (50-100 miles) and 6 gallons of...

ARB Tire Inflator Gauge Old-Guy Mod May 25, 2017. I’m not getting any younger, that’s for sure. It used to be that I could do all kinds of manual labor for 20 hours/day, wake up the next day, and do it all again. I’d hurt myself in some semi-major way and my body would heal itself quickly...