Mr. Leary's 3rd gen 4runner

[Mr. Leary]

Mike, what did you end up doing about your alternator? Did you go back with a Denso? I'm thinking I might need to upgrade mine, but I'm concerned about running into the same problem! :snorkel:

I would recommend sticking with the stock alternator. I am running my replacement that I bought on the Ouachita trip and have my stock alternator in my spares bin. If I have time someday in the future, I may make a bracket and add a second alternator up near the hood. Of course that takes time... a commodity that I am very short of at present.

I have heard of folks using beefier alternators off of newer models, but have yet to find it in a build thread.

EDIT: I have not thought through a second alternator and what it would take... I just know that power generators run multiple alternators, so it can be done. I am unfortunately getting close to the line in terms of pwer generation myself... my current philosophy is try to conserve useage where convenient and charge multiple batteries so I can have more to draw on when the truck isn't running. I'm thinking eventually 2 in the trailer in addition to the 2 I have in the truck.

 

[RSB]

a second alternator? :Wow1: wow, I hadn't considered that. I wonder how that would be done...

with cable loss, I determined the charging rate I'm getting is not sufficient for when my batteries are deeply discharged. I'm trying to find a solution to this problem. Thanks!

 

[TangoBlue]

a second alternator? :Wow1: wow, I hadn't considered that. I wonder how that would be done...

with cable loss, I determined the charging rate I'm getting is not sufficient for when my batteries are deeply discharged. I'm trying to find a solution to this problem. Thanks!

Down boy, down! One mod at a time!

 

[Mr. Leary]

BTW, Fall foliage thread is up, guys! Central section. Of course everyone is welcome. :victory:

 

[RSB]

:coffeedrink:

Down boy, down! One mod at a time!

 

[Mr. Leary]

Finally got the parts installed that have been piling up in my garage for months. Once again, LaOutbackTrail got drafted / volunteered to work on yet another one of Mr. Leary's projects.

Yaesu 8800 with hood mount antenna.
National Luna Dual Battery system.
Scan Guage.
Cabelas battery boxes.
relocated power inverter and actually hooked it up (imagine that!)
relocated amplifier for radio to make room for new dual battery system.

Other work, such as the new trans cooler, brake controller, swingout re-engineering, and plumbing all breathers and the ARB air compressor into the snorkel were done at a shop, due to my lack of time to get them done.

Still some work to do, such as cleaning up some of the old wiring, but the bulk of the work is done.

 

[Mr. Leary]

Lol. Oops!

Some other stuff from the fall foliage trip:

 

[Whitey]

Are those dog crates on your roof?

 

[Mr. Leary]

Are those dog crates on your roof?

Yes. We cage the dogs at night, with blankets on the bottom of the crates and a tarp over the tops. An added bonus of this is we can use the area on top of the crates as an extra table for gear.

 

[ttora4runner]

So what's the story behind you getting stuck in the water?

 

[Mr. Leary]

So what's the story behind you getting stuck in the water?

Well... everyone else had decided to take the bypass around the "pit of despair." :sombrero:

The bypass was tight and in a moment of questionable judgement, I decided to try to plow on through the mud hole. I didn't walk it first... if I had, I would have got a running start at it... and now my truck has "the funk!"

I find that I often make mistakes when I let my cajones do the thinking for me! :costumed-smiley-007

The biggest mistake I made was opening the door to get out of the truck to assess the situation. Open door... in comes water... truck starts sinking... "Scott, get the kinetic strap quick"... "whatever, I'll break out the winch"... "okay, he's back with the strap"... "Hey Mike, come pull my lame #%! out of here!"

Funny thing was hearing TheBlackSheep recall the banter over the CB while this was going on:

"Looks like a bad hole, everyone should take the bypass, but bigger trucks and those with trailers may not be able to make it around the hole" - Someone in one of the front groups

"Leary to group... I'm going through the mud hole" - Me (Sounding excited and pumped up)

about 5 seconds later...

"Leary to group... I'm stuck in the mudhole!" - Me (Sounding utterly deflated)

:coffeedrink:

 

[Dave Bennett]

Lol. Oops!

NICE!!! :victory:

 

[Mr. Leary]

Actually, this was the same mud hole that we encountered this spring...

... but I didn't realize it until after the fact. The water was less deep, but the mud was deeper. So far, this hole has given "the funk" to two trucks that I know about (RSB somehow managed to avoid water ingress).

 

[austintaco]

Yes. We cage the dogs at night, with blankets on the bottom of the crates and a tarp over the tops. An added bonus of this is we can use the area on top of the crates as an extra table for gear.

good to know that I am not the only person that brings the crate for the dog when camping. Our dogs liked it so much, they just went in there and laid down when they got tired.

 

[Mr. Leary]

New power steering rack is in. Nightmare.

Horray for great friends. Never would have got it done by myself.

Thanks LaOutbackTrail and Bones for all your help.