off-roader said:
Very nice Gen III. The nicest I've seen so far... for sure.
I like the internal setup too and having the trailer really makes it easy because now all the 'camp' gear stays in the trailer and you can focus on keeping the 'wheeling' gear in the Montero.
Thank you for the compliments.
The tarp setup is exactly what I have in mind for mine. How did you attach it to the roof rack? Rope? Zip Ties? I'm looking for some kind of Quick release setup for mine. Will also install grommets as required for my needs. I'm thinking of making it a bigger tarp so I can drape it down to gain additional shelter from the sun/rain more so than the wind but we'll see.
I just tied loops on the roof rack with short pieces of rope and used small carabiners to connect the loops to the grommets. I would roll the whole thing up and store the poles, guy lines, and stakes inside it. I used short bungee cords to keep it rolled up and secured to the roof rack.
I now have a Fiamma 35 mounted to the roof rack instead. Much, much quicker and easier to setup and breakdown. I used to only set up the awning when I absolutely had to or if we were to stay a while. Now, I don't hesitate to use the awning even for just a lunch break.
As for gas mileage you mentioned, was that adjusted for your tire size and was that rig alone or pulling the trailer? My 96SR in present form (35x12.5x15 MT KM2, 2" BL, aftermarket front and rear bumpers) is getting as much as 16/17mpg on the highway (65mph w/ cruise control on, foot planted firmly the floor avoiding both the brake & skinny pedal).
With semi-aggressive driving on road, it drops to between 13-15mph and lower the stupider I get LOL. The mileage is adjusted for the tire size so that's not based on the odometer reading alone.
Well, I wasn't really adjusting much for the different tire size, just taking the readings with a grain of salt due to their effect on the measurements. Before the re-gear, my speedometer was approx 8% below my GPS; after the re-gear, it reads between 4-5% faster than my GPS.
Without the trailer I was getting between 15-18 mpg with the 4.3:1 gears; now I get about 14-15 mpg with the 4.9:1 gears.
With the trailer, I'm still getting between 10-12 mpg, but I just have more power with new gears and can use different gears in the transmission to maintain about the same RPMs.
Regearing (yours & mine) will hopefully make a difference here. I'm going for 4.90 r&p's soon. Hopefully at some point, I'll be able to get the 3.15:1 gears for the xcase from Australia but unfortunately that's significantly more dinero
While the crawling gears would certainly provide more control on certain climbs, I am pretty happy with what I have for now. Those are a bit pricey, but with today's exchange rate I bet there isn't a better time to buy them.
