The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Weren't you going to try a heating coil in a fire? I remember some small detail about that some time ago..

You're welcome. In the future I may decide to comment on how I've chosen to manage my time, but for now, it's a trade secret.

Sure. The TRD Offroad 16" wheel weighs about about 22.2lbs, according to forum report here. I can cross check once dismounted, but I believe that is correct. I will weigh the 4runner one too after I get one fully cleaned up. I expect it to be about the same.

 

Nah, gotta have a fire for that and fires aren't always allowed.

 

I'm all ears.

 

Mountain Spring Stagecoach Trail - Anza-Borrego South.

There is a trail that I have seen all my life, and wanted to explore since my earliest memory as a child. Today I finally got it done, as a day trip. I was joined in this adventure by my long time friend Kev of 18 years. He owns a 2WD Baja Bug. It was really fun to wheel with my old friend. This particular trail was cut about 116 years ago in the year 1900.

This photo was taken in 1910 and you can see the trail rise from left to right. And look at dem tall and skinny tires!


The trail has some ruins at the end. They are the ruins of a stagecoach station. I'm not sure the origin of when it was built. I'm still researching and I may have to pull some books to find out.

From the net: To serve travelers going up and down the steep Jacumba Mountains, a local entrepreneur named Peter Larkin built a stagecoach station. Today, all that remain of the station are its stone walls. They are beside Interstate-8, near Call Box 8-723.

SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY:

In 1863 Pete Larkins and Joe Stancliff built a small house at Mountain Springs, selling meager supplies to travelers passing that way, and with their team of oxen they assisted travelers up the steep, thirty per cent mountain grade.

In 1870 the San Diego -- Ft. Yuma Turnpike Company purchased Larkins' holdings and petitioned the San Diego Board of Supervisors to allow them to establish a Toll Road and station at this location. The permit was granted, and the company operated a toll station in the old Larkins House for about six years, with Mr. Bowers as Station Agent. All that remains at present, to mark the location of the original station site, is a lone Washingtonia Palm tree and the remains of a portion of the old stone foundation.

In 1878 the Board of Supervisors relocated a portion of the road above the station, and eliminated the toll road. This change of alignment brought the road into the Mountain Springs area about one-half mile north of the old stage station. At this point another spring was developed in a near-by canyon. It was at this location, in about 1860, that sheep men built some stone corrals and a small stone house. In the corrals lambing ewes were kept at night, to protect them and their young lambs from the coyotes.

In 1900 Supervisor James Jasper constructed a new grade into the area. This new road came around the mountain from the north and terminated near the stone corrals. Jasper cleaned out the springs in the canyon, and piped the water a short distance to a large water trough at the feet of the grade; this was convenient for the sheep men, as the overflow ran into the nearby corrals.

In 1909, a new Mountain Springs Grade was constructed with monies provided by a San Diego County bond issue, to accommodate the increasing demand of the automobile. This grade entered the amphitheatre from the south and the old water trough was moved to a new location about a thousand feet to the south east from its position at the stone corrals, so that cool water could be had for the boiling radiators. A short time thereafter a small cafe and garage operated at this location, but closed when the California Division of Highways again relocated the highway a few hundred feet farther north. This is the highway that is in use as of 1955.

NOTE: Prior to 1907, San Diego County extended easterly to the Colorado river. In that year, Imperial County was formed, the division line between the two counties passing through the Mountain Springs area; in fact, the present highway down the grade crosses and re-crosses the County line several times.

The trail is about 65 miles east of my home.


Kev towed his trail rig out there with his new 2016 Tundra. Nice tow rig!


His BajaBug is 2WD. It's less than half the weight of the Tacoma. It can really move pretty quick on the trail, and was really fun to watch. There is no way my Tacoma could keep up in the rocks. He would just bounce right over stuff and keep his momentum going.




The trail winds down the mountain. Except for a few very short sections, this trail is almost all rocks!


Kev and I had to move about 8 large boulders, rolling them out of the way so we could keep going. It's sketchy when your nose into a shelf road trail with nowhere to turn around and you don't know how bad it's going to get.

Because I don't have belly armor, wheel placement was critical. Even with a mild lift, I had to sweat bullets a few times at some embedded boulders in the middle of the trail that could not be avoided.

There were also about six "Oh Jesus" off camber moments, praying that nothing went wrong and sent me rolling off the mountain.

This trail gets very tight. After all was said and done, my drivers side slider got tagged and both rear wheels have some fantastic new rock rash going on.


Rocks, rocks, and more rocks,


A really tight section where my driver side rear wheel got tangled up with a rock.


Sidewalls taking a beating, and this picture was from 3/4 of the way down the mountain. The trail starts downhill and you have to climb back the way you came.


One of the nicer, smoother sections with a fun couple shelves to climb up.


(To be continued)

 

give this a shot, if the mineral spirits dont cut it, go for some denatured alcohol, 2x the power but be wary of getting it on you or rubber stuff that you want to keep using, as it literally eats anything organic or petroleum based.

 

@Crom Found this mobile Hot shower interesting.
http://4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Shower.shtml

 

Hey Crom, any reason why you haven't done the locker anytime mod yet? I'm sure you've heard of it before but would like to get your input as to why/why not to go ahead and tackle it.

 

Appreciated!

Yes, that's exactly the same concept. The plate style heat echangers are quite popular, but so are the tube/shell heat exchangers. As a side note, it warms my heart to see a webpage from the year 2001 still active and up! Good times!

I never felt it was necessary.

Generally speaking, when my truck hits dirt for a trail run, I turn the drive dial to H4, to engage the front axles, and I hit the ABS disable switch.

On a few occasions I have gotten stuck in H4, when that happens, I just shift into L4, and crawl out.

 

@Crom By chance do you have a part # for the new TPMS you mentioned. Thanks.

 

Gotcha, thanks for the insight. The only scenario I could see it being an advantage is if you need to make a tight turn without traction on the rear end. Not sure I want to hack up the wiring harness and add a relay just for that advantage.

 

With all the systems in the 2nd gen tacos I've only used the rear locker a handful of times. I've been in areas where I wasn't getting traction with the locker on and then it's time to engage the atrac and it worked like a charm. Not sure what kind of scenario would necessitate the locker any time mod.

 

I ordered from RockAuto.com

• Denso (550-0103) - $31.89 each

• SCHRADER AUTOMOTIVE 20032 - Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) Service Kit - $1.44 each

Total cost for quantity (4) to my door was $134.01, or $33.50 per wheel.

Here is a link to

$44 Denso 550-0103 TPMS 315-MHZ Sensor for Toyota/Lexus with Factory Alloy Wheel Options. (THIS SENSOR MUST BE PROGRAMMED BEFORE USE), Black

Amazon reviews of the Denso TPMS Sensors. But don't pay the stupid Scamazon price.

EDIT: You don't need the TPMS Service kits, as the new sensors come with new hardware.

Exactly my thinking too.

This topic came up in a thread recently, and my take away was for guys running around in the dunes, they seemed to like to have the rear locked up.

My ATRAC button is always activated, so whenever I go into L4 it's there if it's needed. I know there is a lot of forum hate for it, but IMO, ATRAC is just great. What I really like is that it's quite effective at arresting a slipping wheel, and transferring torque to the axle with traction, and then as fast as it engaged, it disengages, hence no binding on steering. Many times, it has negated the need for the rear locker. I usually only use the rear locker when the trail gets technical or scary and slippage could be dangerous.

I'm sure you can relate.

I've been meaning to ask you. How is your '09 holding up?

Mine only has two maintenance items I need to take care of.

• Blower motor resistor is on it's way out. Hooray! I get to go into the dash.
  
• Drivers side door lock button, has detached from the cable inside the door. Yay for going inside the door. Good thing I still have to sound deaden that door.

Other than that, everything else is working swell.

 

I've replaced the carrier bearing and u joints. I'm having some vibes from the tranny as of late and my mechanic isn't certain if it is the entire tranny or the torque converter. Not to mention the numerous squeaks in the suspension. I'm still very happy with the rig and all the great places it's brought me.

 

Thank you Sir for the fast reply.

 

Sub'd

 

It's really quite unfortunate that the TRD Sports don't come with A-TRAC. I can live without a locker but I only recently learned the true value of TRAC on a recent camping trip in which I did over 200 km of snow covered backroads. There was a few areas that 4L would have been ideal but I refrained from shifting down because I was afraid of wheel slippage with no TRAC or A-TRAC in 4L. There is a mod that you can do to get TRAC in 4L that requires snipping a yellow wire. It still isn't quite the same as A-TRAC but from what I've read it seems to do the trick.
See this thread for more info.

Another wiring mod I need to tackle is the ABS kill switch. Thank you @Crom for your great write up!

 

Welcome. I agree--It would be great if the sport model trucks had it too.

You may know this... The brake boosters are different in the 4WD OR model trucks with 1GR-FE engine. They have a hydraulic brake booster made by ADVICS Manufacturing Co. All the others have a vacuum brake booster. The hydraulic brake booster can produce something like 4x the sending pressure of the vacuum one. The features that this enables is A-TRAC, DAC, and HAC. In my opinion, DAC is useless marketing... But the ATRAC matters.

If I had the sport model truck I'd definitely do the 4-low TRAC mod, and probably get a locker.

I am really glad I got an '09 model OR 4WD truck. It was just dumb luck that, that when it was time for me to buy, that it was that year Toyota did major updates to the traction controls.

 

I too, like the ATRAC. I just always have it on but for grins, I've tried a few obstacles with it off, struggled and turned it on and climbed much easier. That sold me on it.
I have to disagree that DAC is useless though. It's like A-TRAC for descent. The occasions to use it are fewer, but if I understand it right, it works by applying braking to individual wheels as needed.
In practical application, it does two things that I sometimes find valuable. One, it provides a descent speed that's about 1/2 the speed of the truck in 1st and 4L and two, it does so on very steep and very loose terrain without making the truck want to swap ends. The only way to duplicate it would be with four feet, four individual brake pedals, and the coordination of.... I don't know, someone way more coordinated than me ... oh, and some rocks in a metal trash can to duplicate the crazy racket it makes.

I don't know what HAC is... is that the hill start assist thingy for manual transmissions that keeps you from going backwards as you feather the clutch and gas?