From Long Beach, CA to Anna, TX

Yep go to Brady every once in awhile. Nice place.

 

Haha my mom was born in Melvin and my grandmother still lives there. Brady is way bigger but a cool little city. My dad used to take my in that abandoned hospital when I was little.

 

9 more days and the road trip begins! Anyone have any good things to check before I go as far as the truck. I obviously know fluids, and general stuff but anything you guys have delt with traveling. I have LT up front and recently lost my driver side bearing but ordered Bama's assemblies and will be putting those on. Also will be towing a small 5x8 Tacoma trailer. Total weight including trailer won't be over 2000 pounds but any recommendations you guys might have would be cool to make sure the truck will be good will help.

 

Belt, diff fluid, u joints, grease everything that can be greased, keep a jump box with you

 

Should I just be checking the u joints are torqued properly?

 

No make sure the undoing is still good, park on level ground put the truck in neutral and see how much play there is by hand. If it's a lot id replace it before you leave since it's such a cheap part. 14$ I think

 

Okay cool. I'm also gonna do the ATF drain/fill and changed diff fluid as well. So once my hubs get here I can get those on, get it aligned and get cracking on the last parts of my pre trip maintence. I will surely post here of the status!

 

Are you 4x4?

 

No sir. Prerunning since 2008

 

Haha ya won't be getting any pre running out here.

 

Yeah I've heard that haha swap to 4x4 maybe?

 

If your actually going to hit up some of the parks and trails I would because you will be extremely limited to what you can do. If not and you won't ever use it then stick with what you have.

 

Well I was gonna buy another truck soon. Keep the taco but buy a 4x4 chevy or ford so I don't even know what to do. Depends on some things and will probably have to be after my girl and I buy a house.

 

Where is it your working here? If it's heavy of ford, good luck fitting a fullsize down the trail.

 

I'm doing splicing for a cable company my girlfriends step dad work for. Working on becoming a lineman.
And yeah that's why I was unsure what to do It's just my dream truck. Maybe I'll buy the full size and use that to tow my truck to cali to prerun then come back every weekend

 

Wouldn't be half bad an idea. If you are serious about towing it, get a 3/4 ton

 

I definitely am. My goal is to get a full size for my daily and build up the Tacoma fully and trailer it. So I might just do that. Won't be for a few years. My girl won't let me spend any more money on the truck at the moment so buying a new one won't happen soon.
I do have another question. Are there any good alignment shops out there or near me? I have heimed steering which doesn't really ever go out of alignment besides when I put something new on. But the general tire shops I stay away from. There's a couple options I've had out here and wondering if there's any place or anyone good out there you know of.

 

Not aware of any that direction

 

So a little update. About a month ago my hubs went out on the truck and I ordered hubs from BamaToy. Unfortunately he made a mistake with my order and I couldn't make the Monday deadline. Last week I cancelled my order with him and went with jersey hubs and they will be here tomorrow (or so usps says). So new plan is to leave Friday.
It's gonna be a three day trip with 2 stops to stay overnight.
Route is Long Beach-Tuscon, Tuscon-Odessa or Peca not sure which yet, then Odessa-Anna TX. My girlfriend found that to be the best since she hasn't driven far on her own. She will be following me and I'll have a trailer so won't be going very fast. But hopefully my hubs will come tomorrow and I can get everything squared away and head out on Friday!

 

Gotta love shipping. Hope the hubs get there and installed. Be safe on the drive!