toyotatakemethere
Member
This past summer I was able to get an extended leave from work to go on a big road trip. I live in the Boston area, but actually started the trip in Wisconsin where I had been working for the previous year. I drove the truck from MA to WI in 2022, then left in June of 2023, so I'm going to go ahead and say the trip started from MA 
Overall, I put 16,000 miles on my 1991 Toyota pickup, leaving WI at the beginning of June and arriving back in MA a little over 3 months later. I was camping in the back every night, with the exception of a couple of hotel/motels and staying with friends in various places. I was going to do a more chronological recap, but instead am going to outline where I went in the first post and then add to the thread as I have time with pictures, etc. Here's the quick version of the route I took:
- Two days/1,000 miles from Milwaukee to Colorado
- Bounced around in Colorado for a while
- Over to Moab, UT then down through the national parks
- Spent a couple nights in Las Vegas
- Into Death Valley, then up the Sierra Nevadas
- Bay area for a few days with some friends
- I got COVID driving up the PCH, camped on the beach, stayed in a motel for a night
- Parked the truck at my friends in Portland, OR and went to Italy for a week (another story lol)
- A couple nights in Oregon
- Explored the Olympic Pennisula
- Spent a week or so on Vancouver Island
- Took route 37 up through BC into Yukon
- Alaska highway to Fairbanks
- Dalton highway to Prudhoe bay
- Back down and then to Denali NP
- Backtracked on the Alaska highway, then down through the rockies
- Jasper/Banff/The Icefields parkway
- Crossed back into the US in Montana
- Glacier NP then down to Yellowstone NP, then shot over to South Dakota to watch that crazy red full moon come up over the Badlands
- Blasted back over to MA
The truck:
It's a 1991 pickup I bought from this guy in Woodstock, NY in 2019. After I bought it, I did the following as maintenance:
Tough to remove shackle bolts:
Pre-paint stripping:
Summer of 2021 had a lot of time in the driveway:
Painted frame with some new bits and bobs:
Good old New England fried seafood shack, with 31's my coworker had lying around:
While I was in Wisconsin, before I left:
Camper shell I picked up for $200. It leaked, and had a plywood rear window that I added a lexan insert into so I could see out the back. This is me mounting maxtrax in my work parking lot. I was living in downtown Milwaukee so only had public surface lots to prep in.
Finally, the sleeping set up. It's a pretty simple wood frame that I built such that the front rests on the spare tire that's lying in the front of the bed. I got a ~$100 camper mattress, with a sleeping back and my comforter. I got some bins that slid underneath for more storage. Cooler in the back, hand-me-down Coleman camping stove. Nothing fancy here.
And here's the truck in Rocky Mountain NP, two days into the trip.
More to come!
Overall, I put 16,000 miles on my 1991 Toyota pickup, leaving WI at the beginning of June and arriving back in MA a little over 3 months later. I was camping in the back every night, with the exception of a couple of hotel/motels and staying with friends in various places. I was going to do a more chronological recap, but instead am going to outline where I went in the first post and then add to the thread as I have time with pictures, etc. Here's the quick version of the route I took:
- Two days/1,000 miles from Milwaukee to Colorado
- Bounced around in Colorado for a while
- Over to Moab, UT then down through the national parks
- Spent a couple nights in Las Vegas
- Into Death Valley, then up the Sierra Nevadas
- Bay area for a few days with some friends
- I got COVID driving up the PCH, camped on the beach, stayed in a motel for a night
- Parked the truck at my friends in Portland, OR and went to Italy for a week (another story lol)
- A couple nights in Oregon
- Explored the Olympic Pennisula
- Spent a week or so on Vancouver Island
- Took route 37 up through BC into Yukon
- Alaska highway to Fairbanks
- Dalton highway to Prudhoe bay
- Back down and then to Denali NP
- Backtracked on the Alaska highway, then down through the rockies
- Jasper/Banff/The Icefields parkway
- Crossed back into the US in Montana
- Glacier NP then down to Yellowstone NP, then shot over to South Dakota to watch that crazy red full moon come up over the Badlands
- Blasted back over to MA
The truck:
It's a 1991 pickup I bought from this guy in Woodstock, NY in 2019. After I bought it, I did the following as maintenance:
- General tune up: Engine/gear/transmission oil, spark plugs, air filter, etc.
- Removed the bed, stripped and re-painted the frame.
- New Bilstein shocks
- Leaf springs from LCE + new greaseable shackles/bushings
- Rear drum brakes
- Big brake kit from LCE
- All new brake lines
- Front + rear wheel bearings
- LCE header + full exhaust
- Clutch slave + master cylinder
- Tie rods
- Rock defense rear bumper
- New (used) gas tank skid plate
- Battery
- Some random body stuff
Tough to remove shackle bolts:
Pre-paint stripping:
Summer of 2021 had a lot of time in the driveway:
Painted frame with some new bits and bobs:
Good old New England fried seafood shack, with 31's my coworker had lying around:
While I was in Wisconsin, before I left:
- Timing chain guide broke: New head gasket, timing chain kit with metal backed guide, head was hot tanked with new valve stem seals, re-lapped valves, water and oil pumps, etc.
- Rear driveshaft U-joints
- Rebuilt the alternator with new brushes after it started failing
- Transmission died and I had a rebuilt W56-C from Marlin Crawler installed with new clutch + flywheel.
- 33x10.5 BFG A/T
- Differentials re-geared to 4.88 with Revolution gears
- ARB air locker in the rear + CKMA12 compressor under the hood
- Probably a few others that I'm forgetting about
Camper shell I picked up for $200. It leaked, and had a plywood rear window that I added a lexan insert into so I could see out the back. This is me mounting maxtrax in my work parking lot. I was living in downtown Milwaukee so only had public surface lots to prep in.
Finally, the sleeping set up. It's a pretty simple wood frame that I built such that the front rests on the spare tire that's lying in the front of the bed. I got a ~$100 camper mattress, with a sleeping back and my comforter. I got some bins that slid underneath for more storage. Cooler in the back, hand-me-down Coleman camping stove. Nothing fancy here.
And here's the truck in Rocky Mountain NP, two days into the trip.
More to come!
