Se7en62's '99 Montero Gen 2.5 Overland Build & Adventures

[Se7en62]

October 20th, 2022: It was finally time to move the Montero into it's new home, out of the winter elements and into an area where I can work on it and other projects year-round. The shop has a ways to come still, as I need to run all the electric, insulate it, and add a wood-fired furnace with a blower motor. All-in-all, I'm stoked.

 

[Se7en62]

Then a week later, I flew down to Texas to buy the F350 we had been searching for: 2019 King Ranch F350 Crew Cab Long Bed FX4 6.2L 6R140 3.73. The reason for this is the same reason we sold the Sportsmobile; We are planning to get a slide-in truck camper this year so the 4 of us can travel more with more space and comfort, but still be capable offroad. I'll be making a new thread for this truck here on Expedition Portal as well.





It fits nicely in the shop, but when I add offroad bumpers, the length will likely increase so I'll need to use the 12'x12' door on the long end of the shop.

 

[nwoods]

Hey everyone! Here's a LOOOOOONG overdue update to this build thread! A LOT has changed with the Montero and with my life! .... had a daughter, recently replaced it with a new F350 and a plan to buy a slide-in camper.

Congrats on the family expansion plan. Good thinking in keeping the son and exchanging the daughter for an F350. That will end up saving you a lot of money in a few years

 

[nwoods]

So, I just read through all 11 pages of this awesome thread. Fabulous use of your Montero. Very encouraging to see people put their vehicles to proper use. It your Monty had a tail, it would be wagging.
Nice house. If you don't mind my asking, what do you and your wife do for income living way out in the boonies like that? BTW, your garage is a dream of mine. I would LOVE a barn with a lift, and doors on each end for a cross-breeze!

 

[Se7en62]

Congrats on the family expansion plan. Good thinking in keeping the son and exchanging the daughter for an F350. That will end up saving you a lot of money in a few years

Hahaha! I see what you did there! She's stuck with us, but I meant to include that we "had a daughter, bought a Sportsmobile, sold it and replaced it with an F350..."

So, I just read through all 11 pages of this awesome thread. Fabulous use of your Montero. Very encouraging to see people put their vehicles to proper use. It your Monty had a tail, it would be wagging.
Nice house. If you don't mind my asking, what do you and your wife do for income living way out in the boonies like that? BTW, your garage is a dream of mine. I would LOVE a barn with a lift, and doors on each end for a cross-breeze!

Thank you and I think the Montero deserves this life! It's done us well and taken us all over the Southwest, but as our family grows the purpose the Montero serves will change as well. I recently removed the roof top tent to drop weight and am working on assembling some long-travel parts for the rear suspension and likely 35s so I can take it up Lake Como Rd, which is real close to the house.

We love the house, so thank you very much! We work(ed) remotely for a big computer company in Texas. My wife's been there for going on 8 years and loves it so much she plans to retire with the company. Back in September, I accepted a severance as they work on laying off more people in the face of the upcoming economic downturn. So far, they've let about 7,000 people go globally.

The SHOP was always in the plans as we prepared to move up here. I ordered it before the house was even finished, but due to our remote location and mountain weather, it was a SLOW project to get ~14 truckloads of fill-material delivered. Thankfully the slab and building only took 2-days each for installation.

The plan is to run electric this spring, then insulate it, then stick a lift in the middle bay. The 12x12 door on the long end of the building is so we can pull in my truck with a truck camper on it to prep for trip or store it. The slab was spec'd and the 12x12 door chosen to support future use of an LMTV/Camper project, so we have some room for growth there too. Absolutely worth the investment in the building to have everything stored out of the elements during the winter.

 

[Se7en62]

To everyone who's followed this thread and enjoyed it, or found it useful, I wanted to say 'Thank you!' If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. If you use Youtube, please subscribe to my channel where I'll be filming and uploading more content now about our other 4x4s. (We just bought a rock crawler, so I'll have a video on that soon!)

That said, we did sell the Montero in April, 2024. The new owner is local and is has already taken it out into the high-country for some great trout fishing and camping. I'm stoked for him and for the Montero to be back in action!

Here's the final walk-around of it and a little footage of the new owner driving away with it. Cheers!