AK.xplorer
Observer
Good day folks,
I'm new around this forum, but not new to traveling the north country. Since about 2002, I've traveled overland, over sea, and over freshwater by snowmachine, dogsled, 4wd, bush plane and canoe. The Yukon River is my preferred highway to get to other rivers.
When I was a skinny Indian kid, I used to run around the back woods of Maine on a Honda XL 500 with a break-down 20 gauge shotgun and fishing pole in my pack basket. I'd go after ruffed grouse, and lots of brook trout. I called that Honda my Iron Horse.
I tried a unicycle one time as well, my tail bone still hurts.
Over the years, I've learned that you're very limited to what you can see here in Alaska/Yukon/BC, by flooding a bunch of money into a 4wd. Rather, bushplane tickets, snowmachines, boats, and dog teams are must-use methods of travel, and money well spent. There is far more to a north country skill-set, than sitting inside a vehicle, as many of you know. Getting a vehicle to start at 50 below, breaking up a dog team fight, cutting up a moose, catching your supply of fish, etc. My builds are usually conservative, as I don't crawl over rocks in Utah or Cali. Money has to go into my dog team, my boats and other outdoor equipment. I call them Canoe Rigs, as there's a canoe on top of my 4WD's almost all spring/summer/fall. I'm originally from northern Maine, and those weirdos back home even put canoes on top of mustangs, cameros, mini-vans, etc.
I've built the following vehicles:
1988 isuzu trooper was my first:
Metallic Sandune paint
Arb rear air locker
3 in body lift ( only for access to all sorts of things)
3 in calmini lift
terra-low transfer case gears
calmini front and rear sway bars
flowmaster exhaust
desmogged
new clutch
Pros
the 2.6 l engine/aisin 5 speed was bulletproof and very peppy. The 4 wheel disc brakes were nice. The stock 4:56 gearing was great. It was cheap to build. It never failed. I overheated it three times, the head gasket never failed. The flipping thing was so slim, I could fit down the tightest trails. It was like a poor man's 70 series. That was 2002, the thing is still driving around the area.
Cons:
The ride quality with the bigger torsion bars was harsh, so I just drove faster. The wind noise was intense. The seats were noisy. The fuel consumption was only 17 mpg with 265/75's.
2004 Double Cab Tacoma TRD(bought new):
Old Man Emu suspension
ARB bumper
Champion Winch
IPF lights
Rhino Linined truck bed
Add a leaf for better towing
Yakima bars with full sized cargo basket
Wet Okole Seat Covers
Pros:
Toyota warranty was great for fixing the grenaded front end. I put 97,000 hard miles on this thing. It held up well.
First and foremost, it would start at 55 below zero unassisted (screw diesels)!
Great shifting transmission. Immense power in 4 low.
Nimble, Reliable, Versatile, decent on fuel when in 2WD.
Cons: Once the excitement and pride of buying your first new vehicle wears off I found that: Everybody has one, they are not unique. The turning radius was terrible. Rear drum breaks?! Too light in the rear end, too small, no low end torque because v6's are mini-van engines, no rear swaybar, partial c-channel frame, terrible front seats after about 3 years. I blew up the front diff, and the rack and pinion steering as well, just towing firewood down a trail. Only got 13 mpg around town in 4wd in the winter time, so don't tell me that Land Cruisers are worse on fuel.
1990 FJ62 landcruiser:
Fully rebuilt head shaved 30 thousandths
Desmogged
2.5 in magnaflow exhaust with new cat
spidertrax wheel spacers
tacoma rims
Old man emu suspension
fj60 manual door and hatch conversion
A million maintenance jobs. I nicked named it the most expensive, most beautiful garage whore I've ever owned.
Pros:
Gorgeous vehicle! The looks, defeated the negatives, but the romance wore off. Lots of bed space to sleep. Heavy, good for not sliding off the road in icy conditions. Good weight distribution. Simple, clean interior. That grey interior is timeless, and by far my favorite.
Cons:
Expensive, non stop maintenance jobs, bloody horrible motor with no power, terrible shifting transmission. In order to make it better, it costed more than I wanted to spend for the 5 speed conversion and camshaft regrind. I learned that down shifting to drive-3 was a must use item up hills. For such a nutless wonder, it gave you fuel economy like a hummer: 9 mpg around town unladen with zero weight after impeccable maintenance with all OEM parts.
1996 Toyota T100
235/85 tires rims
2.5in Dynomax exhaust
roadmaster active suspension
Cab over utility rack
Rancho shocks
Pros:
Great 5 speed manual transmission, clean and simple interior with manual doors, reliable, decent load hauler, strong frame, surprisingly capable offroad, Made in Japan. After the roadmaster active suspension, it had the width to haul heavy boat atop the rack without dangerous sway, and I could stack firewood all the way to the top of the utility rack. Why I even pulled an entire moose down a four wheeler trail back to the road. Tough truck with better dimensions than a Tacoma.
Cons:
The mini van engine had no low end torque, and is not a full sized truck motor. Rough ride. Terrible body sway due to no rear sway bar. This was fixed completely with the roadmaster active suspension. Torsion bars, are nonsense.
Current builds:
1996 FZJ 80 Truck Conversion. Transporting my dog team, moose meat, salmon coolers, and trash runs all smell bad. I want them out of my atmosphere, without having to spend money on importing a 70 series truck.
1996 LX450 daily driver (No road noise, I can't believe this thing is from 90's):
People say these don't make sense as a daily driver. BS. When I was driving on glare ice after freezing rain, I witnessed a half dozen people crash into each other on the highway three months ago. I thought: "screw the fuel economy". With high end snow tires, this vehicle is amazing. On glare ice, I raced an Audi A6. It was stupid, but I had to test the limitation of this Lexus Land Cruiser. This urban ****************** was irritating me with his tail-gating and driving like a jerk. At 106 mph, I won. His car started fish tailing at higher speeds and he was forced to slow down. What a way to realize that it's time to do the head gasket......going out in glory. I smiled for about 30 minutes, even after dumping 3/4 of a gallon of coolant in the radiator, to get home.
After running down Klutina Lake Trail all the way to Klutina Lake (10 hours of trail roundtrip) in the Toyota T 100 last fall, my back hurt for days. The limited suspension travel of all IFS Toyotas are terrible when you're constantly hitting the bump stops. Screw spending a bunch of money modifying 4runners and tacomas, when there's the 80 series.The ride quality of an 80 series turns inhospitable terrain into something far more tolerable.
I love everything about that 1fz-fe torque monster. My father, mother, and grandfathers all ran inline six chevy trucks, fords trucks, and slant 6 dodge trucks when I was a kid. These inline six engines are the real deal. I couldn't imagine removing this engine like others have done. The full floating axles are gusseted, high pinion, and sporting disc breaks the whole way around. Doing the head gasket jobs on these are too easy. Couple grand to do it right, but money well spent. The adjustable leather seats have been way better than every Toyota I've ever owned. It makes inhospitable terrain less of a challenge as well, when the seats are adjusted to your aging back. Getting rid of all that worthless plastic fender flare and running board baloney has these rigs looking quite slim for tighter trails. I have to repeat myself: I can't believe that these rigs come from the 1990's. They are timeless. I am hooked.
I've been getting good power from the engines with a 10 thousandths shave on the heads, full header-back exhaust with only one catalytic converter, and advancing timing. No expensive forced induction needed.
Future upgrades to both vehicles:
Nomad valve bodies, torque converter lock-up switch, tranny temp sensors all from wholesale automatics.
4.88 gears/harrop lockers
The heaviest rear coil springs I can find.
I've driven or owned these others for a brief time as well:
1998 100 series (aka Sequoia as far as i'm concerned) Good vehicle, still a Toyota.
2000 4 runner with 5 speed manual. It was a great vehicle, fun to shift, and kind of sporty. Great shifting transmission, but boring minivan engine.
hj61 with auto. I drove it from Victoria Island to Alaska for a friend. I attended tribal gatherings along the way. Noisy, smelly, 16 mpg highway.
hj61 with 5 speed. Daily commuted for two months while I did a head gasket job. Torque at 1600 rpm's. Lovely use of power climbing hills, right where it needs to be. Noisy, smelly, 18 mpg highway
bj70 This was a weird vehicle, 5 speed manual transmission ratios were terrible, and the 4 cylinder turbo diesel was worthless and liked to overheat climbing hills.
hdj81 completely decked out in everything old man emu/ARB. Drove for six months. Not noisy, but smelly, 16 mpg. Was a great rig, I like the 1fz-fe better due to 50 below zero cold starts.
fj60 with plow. This 267,000 miles, rusted POS got bought by some Hollywood folks to film a movie in Seward. It's gonna be a movie star.
I don't get cookie monster eyes over diesel engines. I put three one-year tours in Iraq, driving and repairing dozens of up-armored vehicles around that junk yard.
Pictures to follow...........
I'm new around this forum, but not new to traveling the north country. Since about 2002, I've traveled overland, over sea, and over freshwater by snowmachine, dogsled, 4wd, bush plane and canoe. The Yukon River is my preferred highway to get to other rivers.
When I was a skinny Indian kid, I used to run around the back woods of Maine on a Honda XL 500 with a break-down 20 gauge shotgun and fishing pole in my pack basket. I'd go after ruffed grouse, and lots of brook trout. I called that Honda my Iron Horse.
I tried a unicycle one time as well, my tail bone still hurts.
Over the years, I've learned that you're very limited to what you can see here in Alaska/Yukon/BC, by flooding a bunch of money into a 4wd. Rather, bushplane tickets, snowmachines, boats, and dog teams are must-use methods of travel, and money well spent. There is far more to a north country skill-set, than sitting inside a vehicle, as many of you know. Getting a vehicle to start at 50 below, breaking up a dog team fight, cutting up a moose, catching your supply of fish, etc. My builds are usually conservative, as I don't crawl over rocks in Utah or Cali. Money has to go into my dog team, my boats and other outdoor equipment. I call them Canoe Rigs, as there's a canoe on top of my 4WD's almost all spring/summer/fall. I'm originally from northern Maine, and those weirdos back home even put canoes on top of mustangs, cameros, mini-vans, etc.
I've built the following vehicles:
1988 isuzu trooper was my first:
Metallic Sandune paint
Arb rear air locker
3 in body lift ( only for access to all sorts of things)
3 in calmini lift
terra-low transfer case gears
calmini front and rear sway bars
flowmaster exhaust
desmogged
new clutch
Pros
the 2.6 l engine/aisin 5 speed was bulletproof and very peppy. The 4 wheel disc brakes were nice. The stock 4:56 gearing was great. It was cheap to build. It never failed. I overheated it three times, the head gasket never failed. The flipping thing was so slim, I could fit down the tightest trails. It was like a poor man's 70 series. That was 2002, the thing is still driving around the area.
Cons:
The ride quality with the bigger torsion bars was harsh, so I just drove faster. The wind noise was intense. The seats were noisy. The fuel consumption was only 17 mpg with 265/75's.
2004 Double Cab Tacoma TRD(bought new):
Old Man Emu suspension
ARB bumper
Champion Winch
IPF lights
Rhino Linined truck bed
Add a leaf for better towing
Yakima bars with full sized cargo basket
Wet Okole Seat Covers
Pros:
Toyota warranty was great for fixing the grenaded front end. I put 97,000 hard miles on this thing. It held up well.
First and foremost, it would start at 55 below zero unassisted (screw diesels)!
Great shifting transmission. Immense power in 4 low.
Nimble, Reliable, Versatile, decent on fuel when in 2WD.
Cons: Once the excitement and pride of buying your first new vehicle wears off I found that: Everybody has one, they are not unique. The turning radius was terrible. Rear drum breaks?! Too light in the rear end, too small, no low end torque because v6's are mini-van engines, no rear swaybar, partial c-channel frame, terrible front seats after about 3 years. I blew up the front diff, and the rack and pinion steering as well, just towing firewood down a trail. Only got 13 mpg around town in 4wd in the winter time, so don't tell me that Land Cruisers are worse on fuel.
1990 FJ62 landcruiser:
Fully rebuilt head shaved 30 thousandths
Desmogged
2.5 in magnaflow exhaust with new cat
spidertrax wheel spacers
tacoma rims
Old man emu suspension
fj60 manual door and hatch conversion
A million maintenance jobs. I nicked named it the most expensive, most beautiful garage whore I've ever owned.
Pros:
Gorgeous vehicle! The looks, defeated the negatives, but the romance wore off. Lots of bed space to sleep. Heavy, good for not sliding off the road in icy conditions. Good weight distribution. Simple, clean interior. That grey interior is timeless, and by far my favorite.
Cons:
Expensive, non stop maintenance jobs, bloody horrible motor with no power, terrible shifting transmission. In order to make it better, it costed more than I wanted to spend for the 5 speed conversion and camshaft regrind. I learned that down shifting to drive-3 was a must use item up hills. For such a nutless wonder, it gave you fuel economy like a hummer: 9 mpg around town unladen with zero weight after impeccable maintenance with all OEM parts.
1996 Toyota T100
235/85 tires rims
2.5in Dynomax exhaust
roadmaster active suspension
Cab over utility rack
Rancho shocks
Pros:
Great 5 speed manual transmission, clean and simple interior with manual doors, reliable, decent load hauler, strong frame, surprisingly capable offroad, Made in Japan. After the roadmaster active suspension, it had the width to haul heavy boat atop the rack without dangerous sway, and I could stack firewood all the way to the top of the utility rack. Why I even pulled an entire moose down a four wheeler trail back to the road. Tough truck with better dimensions than a Tacoma.
Cons:
The mini van engine had no low end torque, and is not a full sized truck motor. Rough ride. Terrible body sway due to no rear sway bar. This was fixed completely with the roadmaster active suspension. Torsion bars, are nonsense.
Current builds:
1996 FZJ 80 Truck Conversion. Transporting my dog team, moose meat, salmon coolers, and trash runs all smell bad. I want them out of my atmosphere, without having to spend money on importing a 70 series truck.
1996 LX450 daily driver (No road noise, I can't believe this thing is from 90's):
People say these don't make sense as a daily driver. BS. When I was driving on glare ice after freezing rain, I witnessed a half dozen people crash into each other on the highway three months ago. I thought: "screw the fuel economy". With high end snow tires, this vehicle is amazing. On glare ice, I raced an Audi A6. It was stupid, but I had to test the limitation of this Lexus Land Cruiser. This urban ****************** was irritating me with his tail-gating and driving like a jerk. At 106 mph, I won. His car started fish tailing at higher speeds and he was forced to slow down. What a way to realize that it's time to do the head gasket......going out in glory. I smiled for about 30 minutes, even after dumping 3/4 of a gallon of coolant in the radiator, to get home.
After running down Klutina Lake Trail all the way to Klutina Lake (10 hours of trail roundtrip) in the Toyota T 100 last fall, my back hurt for days. The limited suspension travel of all IFS Toyotas are terrible when you're constantly hitting the bump stops. Screw spending a bunch of money modifying 4runners and tacomas, when there's the 80 series.The ride quality of an 80 series turns inhospitable terrain into something far more tolerable.
I love everything about that 1fz-fe torque monster. My father, mother, and grandfathers all ran inline six chevy trucks, fords trucks, and slant 6 dodge trucks when I was a kid. These inline six engines are the real deal. I couldn't imagine removing this engine like others have done. The full floating axles are gusseted, high pinion, and sporting disc breaks the whole way around. Doing the head gasket jobs on these are too easy. Couple grand to do it right, but money well spent. The adjustable leather seats have been way better than every Toyota I've ever owned. It makes inhospitable terrain less of a challenge as well, when the seats are adjusted to your aging back. Getting rid of all that worthless plastic fender flare and running board baloney has these rigs looking quite slim for tighter trails. I have to repeat myself: I can't believe that these rigs come from the 1990's. They are timeless. I am hooked.
I've been getting good power from the engines with a 10 thousandths shave on the heads, full header-back exhaust with only one catalytic converter, and advancing timing. No expensive forced induction needed.
Future upgrades to both vehicles:
Nomad valve bodies, torque converter lock-up switch, tranny temp sensors all from wholesale automatics.
4.88 gears/harrop lockers
The heaviest rear coil springs I can find.
I've driven or owned these others for a brief time as well:
1998 100 series (aka Sequoia as far as i'm concerned) Good vehicle, still a Toyota.
2000 4 runner with 5 speed manual. It was a great vehicle, fun to shift, and kind of sporty. Great shifting transmission, but boring minivan engine.
hj61 with auto. I drove it from Victoria Island to Alaska for a friend. I attended tribal gatherings along the way. Noisy, smelly, 16 mpg highway.
hj61 with 5 speed. Daily commuted for two months while I did a head gasket job. Torque at 1600 rpm's. Lovely use of power climbing hills, right where it needs to be. Noisy, smelly, 18 mpg highway
bj70 This was a weird vehicle, 5 speed manual transmission ratios were terrible, and the 4 cylinder turbo diesel was worthless and liked to overheat climbing hills.
hdj81 completely decked out in everything old man emu/ARB. Drove for six months. Not noisy, but smelly, 16 mpg. Was a great rig, I like the 1fz-fe better due to 50 below zero cold starts.
fj60 with plow. This 267,000 miles, rusted POS got bought by some Hollywood folks to film a movie in Seward. It's gonna be a movie star.
I don't get cookie monster eyes over diesel engines. I put three one-year tours in Iraq, driving and repairing dozens of up-armored vehicles around that junk yard.
Pictures to follow...........
