The Ballad of Texas Truck

[wiggilez]

March of 2019 I changed my camping rig from a 2wd 1985 Ramcharger to 2004 4wd Tundra.


Here is a picture of the old truck

here's a link to the beginning of the Ramcharger story https://comancheclub.com/topic/53878-the-100-ram-charger-plus-ferrets/#comments

Here's a picture from last year when I picked up the truck. it already had a roll-n-lock which was nice, you can kind of see it in the picture.




Then a month or so later I install a front hitch receiver on the truck so I could fit the winch I had on my RC. Unfortunately I didn't take any picture of this install, so here is a picture of my ferrets instead.






and then about a week or so later after the hitch was installed I went on a little test outing,











Here you can see my hitch and winch set up.




I then proceeded to take truck on a few day trips for the rest of spring and early summer, mostly to get use to it.

Then from the last week for June to the first week of July I went to Moab.








here's a better picture of the roll-n-lock, I actually really liked it, and looked into having it fixed before I left for this trip, but the cost ended up being almost as much as buying a new unit, so I just rolled with it for the time being .






The classic Moab pic, with a better picture of my front hitch setup.

 

[wiggilez]

Part 2 of mine intro post as I hit the picture limit on my previous post, starting with more Moab.





Just after I took this picture I ended up in a teetering 3 wheel position where I taught I was stuck.... turns out I was only in 2wd, putting it in 4wd solved that problem fast.








It's almost been a full year since I went to Moab, I've cleaned the truck a few times since them and I'm still finding that red dust in places inside the cab.




last of my Moab pics.


Didn't do much for the rest of the summer except for a quick little one week trip trough the mountains in either late August or early September.




I didn't really need the winch on this trip, but I wanted full marks on the looking-cool-in-pictures category, so on it went.









blurry phone picture of the truck/campsite from the base of the hiking trial.








end of part two, once again because on picture limit.

 

[billiebob]

I think you down graded but yeah the Toyota has a few plusses. Great pics, thx for sharing.
I think I see Alberta. Maybe a BC campsite.

 

[wiggilez]

I think you down graded but yeah the Toyota has a few plusses. Great pics, thx for sharing.
I think I see Alberta. Maybe a BC campsite.

I do miss rammy a bit, especially the couch of a front seat but the tundra was to good to pass up, and I didn't need a 3rd vehicle, so the Ramchager ended up drawing the short straw. Also definitely AB, good eye.

 

[wiggilez]

attempt 2 at part 3

here's the last pics from my trip to the mountains.








the rest of 2019 was fairly uneventful, other then a few day trips here and there. once again no pictures, so here's one of my ferrets instead.



however my friends and I did get out to the mountains in November for some hiking most of those pictures are on film, however I did get one good phone picture.





That's the end for 2019.


The beginning of 2020 started with a pop.

In early February the leak in my power steering went from topping up once or twice a month to blowing-out-the-seal-on-the-drive-home in give or take 4 days.




I was going to try and rebuild the original rack, but ended up buying and installing a new one. This was to only picture I took due to 90% of the work taking place outside, where it was COLD.


Part 3 done that includes 2019 and the first bit of 2020.

 

[wiggilez]

So the roll-n-lock on Texas truck has had issue ever since day one, as I stated in a previous post I took it in to have it looked at, and the quote to fix it was almost as much as just getting a new one. So I pasted on that. Ever since joining this forum last year I've been considering making the switch from roll-n-lock to canopy, however I wasn't having much luck find one to fit my truck, then in February one came up for sale in the next town over, it was perfect, it was in good shape, the same colour as my truck and most importantly it was a Tundra specific model. However at that same time the power steering on my truck failed and I wasn't able to drive out to get it and by the time I had the truck fixed it had been sold. I'd been keeping my eye online for another one to come up.

Then this pasted Sunday another one went up for sale. and it check all the boxes just like the last one, though not quiet in as good of shape, it needed new handles for the rear glass, but I could live with that. So I called the guy up drove 2 hours to the next town over and bought it for 400$ which was less then half what was quoted for fixing the roll-n-lock that was on the truck.



and here is the truck with its new to me topper. it came off of a 2003 AC T3 Tundra. Unfortunately two of the clamps for the topper broke as we where removing it from his truck we snapped the head of one clean off, and the other ended up looking like this.



This was completely seized, I ended up cutting the head of the bolt off to get it out, and it's kind of a bad picture, but the part that holds on to the bed was too bent to line up.

so today after work I set out to build a new set clamps to hold the topper on.



I started with some old sheet metal I had and some new hardware from Rona.



Then I cut out two rectangles.



and bent them to the appropriate shape.

I then welded the nuts to the longer side of the "V" I didn't end up taking any pictures of this. So here's another ferret picture



the ferret pictures aren't in any order, I'm kind of just picking them randomly.



and here's a picture of the final product in use, terrible welds and all.

 

[phsycle]

Nice truck. Keep an eye on the LBJ if you haven’t already.

 

[wiggilez]

Nice truck. Keep an eye on the LBJ if you haven’t already.

I'll have to double check, but I believe they were bone by the PO a few months before I got the truck.

 

[Todd780]

Looks good! I like the Ramcharger too. It reminds me of the black 4x4 Ramcharger I owned about 20 years ago. 318 1 barrel, 4 speed. Cold molasses moved faster than that truck. The slight lift and bigger tires probably didn't help either. Not mine below but looks the same...

 

[wiggilez]

Looks good! I like the Ramcharger too. It reminds me of the black 4x4 Ramcharger I owned about 20 years ago. 318 1 barrel, 4 speed. Cold molasses moved faster than that truck. The slight lift and bigger tires probably didn't help either. Not mine below but looks the same...

View attachment 572864

Mine was a (I think) a 2barrel 318 with a 3 speed auto. The driver side electric window worked for about 1-2 weeks. After that I was able to open it by just pulling it down. And it hated being up in the mountains, whatever horses it had left all developed sudden onset asthma up there.

 

[wiggilez]

So I've picked up this rack from the junkyard,



Here is what it looks like sitting on the topper.



There is a little gap on the inside of the rails.



So I'll probably end up making a little shim or something to fill the gap, but what I'm wondering is how the rest of you mounted a rack to your fiberglass toppers?