100,000 miles

[CLynn85]

Great thread Jim! Just read all 3 pages through at once.

Just curious, did you ever solve the water splashing problem with the tank full?

I was really bummed we couldn't do the Core Banks trip, but buying a house kind of killed that one. Hopefully we can make it back out to GWNF with ya'll in the spring! :REOutCampFire03: 55k and counting on the Taco :smiley_drive:

 

[jim65wagon]

I've checked out your entire build thread. Wow, what a nice job !
1st gen Tundras are a great platform to build an expo rig from,and very capable by the way...
I think my previous rig was your rigs long lost brother (See pics attached).
I was well on my way with "mods on the cheap" also, until my daughter was born.

There is quite a resemblance there! I think Tundras are way underrated for their capabilities in all areas. Really all I'm trying to do is make Black an official ExPo color! (It's the new White!)

Just curious, did you ever solve the water splashing problem with the tank full?

I was really bummed we couldn't do the Core Banks trip, but buying a house kind of killed that one.

Congratulations on the house! Where'd you wind up at?

Solved the tank problem, haven't fixed it yet, but at least I figured out what I did wrong!

Sorry that no one made it to the Core with us, but it did make for a very quiet vacation! We're planning on going again in September if you or anyone else can swing it you're welcome to join us. I'll post it as a Planned Adventure.

The thread will continue as I've got trip updates and mod pics to add.

 

[jim65wagon]

Well, I should learn not to let sooo much time pass between updates! I've probably forgotten quite a lot! Aach! Sometimes I hate getting old!

Anyways I just posted a thread on our Kitchen Kit, I won't add anything about it here other than it is an absolute dream to be able to find your supplies in a well organized box!

 

[jim65wagon]

Let's seeMMMMMMMMMMMM.the year started out with lots of fishing on the river

And just as we were getting around to overnight trips to the forest we had a wrench thrown in the works; well not so much a wrench as a tree!

We managed to finally get out and met CLynn85 for a little trip to GWNF

 

[IH8RDS]

Wow Jim. I never seen this thread before :shakin: But I have seen these mods in person.

I can attest to the water tank setup. Does a hell of a job cleaning up puke!

 

[jim65wagon]

Again, forgetting the exact order of things, but...I did get the winch. It does get hooked up to the hidden hitch when we go out by ourselves. It does work, for pulling stumps at least!

The wiring: The factory winch wiring was super long! Of course, I took a pair of bolt cutters to a brand new winch! Installed a set of 350amp Anderson(?) quick connects and wired the loose end to the marine bolts on the Deka Intimidator 34/78 Marine/RV battery under the hood. I do not know if the auxillary connects on the battery can handle that kind of amperage; but this was temporary; as I plan to run a rear power line and hook both up to some kind of switch. No need to have full battery power running down huge cable all the time - kind of like asking for trouble, ya know?

For now, there is the winch set up. The Anderson QC on the truck side bolts under the hood so it does not bang around while driving. The winch bolts to the truck and voila! 9000lbs of pull!

Yes, it hangs a bit low. Lower than I like, but I'll deal. If I get wild I'll pull off the bumper cover and see if I can mount it higher, but for now it's OK.

Yes, I've buried the winch. One occasion, running a fair bit of speed, trying to find a campsite, before dark, rolled over a runoff swale; as the truck came down...Bang! No damage to anything!

I buried it in a hillside doing a 37 point U-turn.
And on our MON scout trip I put it through a mud hole (Al provoked me I swear!) I rolled the front of the truck down in the mud and to get it up the other side I had to dig a little trench with the fairlead to get out. Wash it off, spray it with WD40 and it's GTG!

 

[jim65wagon]

Well, let's see...what to report....I mentioned the GWNF trip with Carl. Adding the winch. The water tank.... I guess at this point, all we did was trips. We did another GWNF trip; just the four of us, we went up on Vepco Road, which is not the roughest of roads but it sure is pretty. It's got some awesome views of the mountains, and we know of some good campsites now.

This was a good trip, just a weekend, but we all had fun and got to work some bugs out the system.

Next trip was the Monongahela Scout trip, we (Haggis,BigAl,CShontz and I) did this a little under the radar. We knew we would have a bigger turnout this year so we set out to find a bigger campsite. We did, as the attendees can attest. I only managed one picture from the scout...

 

[jim65wagon]

Of course then came Monongahela itself. That trip was a blast! New friends, good food, forest roads, spelunking, swimming and unicorns! Read all about it!
Monongahela2008

Then of course was the Elk Rendevous. I had to work the first two days so we arrived late Saturday, said goodbye to some old friends who had to leave early, set up camp and built a campfire. Sunday we got to wander around and saw some Elk, nice countryside, oh, more food of course. Monday comes along and we were gone...6 hours up and 6 hours back. It was a tiring trip but, hey, I rest up at work for this stuff!

Of course it was only a short time after this that the Cape Lookout trip came around. It was started as an Expo East trip, had a lot of interest, but in the end everyone but us had to back out. We were terribly sorry that no one else could make it, but we perservered and enjoyed ourselves anyway. We're going back in 09, probably the middle of September, if anyone wants to come along!

Lastly was our trip to PA for the burning of the Yule Log, another one of our famous "driveformanyhoursandspendashorttimethere" trips, but it was cool; to the tune of negative degrees before the 45 mile an hour wind chill was factored in!

 

[jim65wagon]

Oh, my main reason for bringing this up to speed. On Black Friday I got out of work early enough to take advantage of a sale...Pep Boys had a color backup camera for 59 dollars. I got it wired up today. The monitor hangs on a homemeade bracket between the rearview mirror and the sunglasses console. It's wired to pull power from the interior light circuit and the camera is switched on at my bed light switch so it can be on anytime. That should work swell when the rack and all the gear is on; I'll be able to see who's sneaking up behind me that way. It works, um, well it worked.....until I shorted out the power wire and blew the fuse for the interior lights. Replacement fuse, you say? Of course I don't have one! Luckily, I know I'll be out to town tomorrow anyways, so I'll pick one up then......and then maybe I'll get a pic or two of the system.

Mileage? 119,000

 

[rctr03]

jim,
was that picture flagpole, meadow or redish knob?

jimmy

 

[jim65wagon]

If this is the picture

then its Meadow Knob. I think the view is prettier there than at Flagpole and the road is a bit more interesting to get there.

 

[jim65wagon]

Ok, Ok, I know you've all just been dying to see anything new, but, it's been coold! (for virginia) and I really haven't been out to work on the truck much. Here's your latest update:

The backup camera was installed and worked well, but the original bracket I made let it hang down in front of the rearview mirror just enough to be annoying and cause a slight blind spot if you were using the mirror. No pics of that bracket setup, but I did get out the aluminum and bent a new one. The unit now hangs behind the mirror, the view frame is not obscured by the mirror, and now it works like a charm!

Here are two views of the same shot. One through the camera and one through the mirror. If anything in the bed (like a gear rack, or a japanese maple) blocks the mirror, I still have a good view of who's sneaking up behind me!

.........

 

[jim65wagon]

I also managed to get out and get another set of tires....yes, I put 50,000 miles on my Cooper ST's in almost exactly 2 years. My replacements? Another set of Coopers, same 255/85 size. I like them that much, and me not being Redline, I can't afford more than one set of tires at a time. These have proven to be rugged and versatile. I won't bore you with a pic since the truck looks the same with the new Coops as it did a few pages back with the old ones.

The next thing I managed was a new CB mount. This one was my wifes idea (really!) as the box I built to house the power inverter and cb sat in her purse storage location for trips (center hump). Her idea was the in dash cupholder..."We never use these, can you mount the CB there?" "Sure I can, Hon, It'll be easy...all I have to do is pull out the holder and slap in the CB"

We all know how this is going to turn out, don't we?

Those of you with early Tundras know the location I'm talking about. Can you just pull out the cupholders? NO! The dash comes out, from the drivers side all the way over! I should taken pictures, cause my wifes comment was..."What the H...happened here? Can you remember how it all goes back together?" " Sure I can Hon"

And I did, took several hours, some swearing, bracket making and discovering a 5" long CB would fit sweet! Mines 7...aaarrgh! But there it is, wired up and working.

That's all I got for now, I wish I had Jonathon's fabbing skills...all this stuff would look waaay cool. But this'll work.


Oh yeah, I'm at 122,700 miles on brand new treads!

 

[Haggis]

If anything in the bed (like a gear rack, or a japanese maple) blocks the mirror, I still have a good view of who's sneaking up behind me!

Now you can watch out for those sneaky Titan pickups.

Riddle of the night: If two import branded, domestically built pickups bump in the woods with no other witnesses, do they make a sound? Or which is tougher? Toyota Tundra rear bumper or a Nissan Titan front "bumper"?

 

[jim65wagon]

So far this year: we've only managed to get the boat out on the river once! Rain, rain, rain...of course it tends to be sunny when we are stuck inside at work! Hopefully it will cease and desist long enough for the Expo Yak Float!
We've managed one camping trip (it rained of course, but at least our tents stayed dry) to Monongahela on Memorial Wekkend.

I did manage (after doing so much work on Tundrabird2 - Haggis' new ride) to pay a little attention to mine. I installed a set of Bilstein 5100 rear shocks (easy right? - WRONG!) and a set of Air Lifts Air Cell spring/bumpstops.

The shocks...what can I say...it should have been easy peasy but someone smarty-pants at Toyota decided a shock with a stud on top instead of an eye was better...better for whom I don't know; because it was a royal pain to remove that top nut! My hands just barely fit between the framerail and the bed, ibuprofen was my friend for a couple of days after that....oohhh to be twenty something again!

The air cells on the other hand were easy. Remove ubolts, remove bumpstop; place aircell bracket on replace ubolts. Tighten and torque ubolts. Snap in air cell.

I really was torn between these and the already proven Timbrens. But I like to try new things and I couldn't find any reviews on the Air Cell. So I did what any normal geek would do; I bought the air cells and you can make your decisions based on my one review!

AIR LIFT AIR CELLS
The ride unloaded is a bit bouncy, but I think that is more due to my sagging 3leaf AAL, which makes the stops ride really close to the stop-plate, instead of the inch or so gap they are supposed to have. As a result the air cell tends to hit the bumpstop plate more often than it should. New springs, or at least extra leaves may be needed to alleviate this and bring the truck back to it's original lift height.
Loaded is a whole different ball game! The ride is great. On road and off road bumps that had the truck slamming into the stock bumpstops had it compress gently down. Never once was it harsh hitting the stops. Cornering is improved at speed, and the truck sits quite level with a full load in the bed. I do not know if they have affected the rear articulation, as I haven't done anything dramatic with them yet, but I'll keep you informed.

I'll post some pics of them soon, but they are not very pretty. They come shipped white (eeewwww!) and now they are white with greasy fingerprints and some dusty West Virginia dirt...oh well, soon they'll be uniformly dirty...

As you can see, the Bilsteins are shiny, and the Air Cells are a direct replacement for your bumpstops, just about twice as tall; and as you can see, with weight in the bed the stopplates rest right on top of them. Unloaded there should be an inch gap, I've got maybe a quarter inch....hmmm I wonder if Deaver will sell me two more leaves to make a 5leaf AAL?