Ryan's Tacoma Build and Adventures Thread

Took me a few hours, but I've almost got the mount finished for my hot water case. Just gotta take it apart to paint the steel angle iron and seal the bolts through the case.





Also hoping to hear back from BruteForceFab about another jerry basket. It'll haul around my propane tank, with water in the other basket.

 

nice quick setup for showering

 

Thanks, and once I get the flip down table mounted, it'll be perfect for washing dishes, too!

 

My Birthday present for myself arrived!

 

everything just looks amazing. thanks for letting me know about moses lake sand dunes. i will have to check it out next time i am visiting the in laws

 

Finally finished getting the hot water mounted onto the bumper.



The drop down table also got mounted up tonight. Will be perfect for doing dishes. And with the Habitat open, will be nice and protected, too.

 

Headed out into the Olympics for a quick over-night this past weekend. Was a beautiful weekend for it, hitting the upper 80s.

We started in through Shelton and headed for the High Steel Bridge. There were probably 10 or 12 cars up there, coming and going while we were there. Definitely weren't alone this close to town.

 

Definitely didn't think I'd hit any snow this weekend. The last 1/8th mile up to the spot I wanted to try camping out had about 200 feet of snow. And it was frozen solid. As far as I could tell we were the first ones up this year. There were no other tracks visible in the snow, or any ripped up gravel. Talked to a buddy that knows the area and he was surprised I made it up there, as there's usually even more snow there this time of year.



Having 4 MaxTrax was the only way we made it. Unless I wanted to chip snow away the entire way. It woulda been possible, I chipped quite a bit out as it was, but who wants to dig for two hours when they don't have to.



What none of my pics show is how close to the cliffside my driver side rear tire got. I was hanging onto my bumpers and mirror on that side as I moved around the truck.



But, we made it. I never really doubted we would.

 

We made it up top, and the views were amazing. To the north were more of the Olympics, and to the east was a perfect shot at Mt. Rainier, and as you looked further south-east you could see Adams and St. Helens in the distance.



Where my wife is sitting with her binoculars was a perfect view of Rainier. My cell phone camera wouldn't do it justice, so I didn't even try.

About an hour after we got up to the top I heard another vehicle coming up the trail. Lots of spinning tires, some talking, stalled their rig at least once. About 15 minutes later they made the top. Was a yellow FJ, with what I THINK was an Eezi-Awn 2000. I like to think they wouldn't have made it without the work/damage I did to the snow When they rounded the corner and saw our truck the driver's immediate response was "AWE, MAN!!!". I waved and he immediately turned around and left. Honestly there was plenty of room to share the site, but he must not have been interested. Though I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't be open to that.




For dinner we took a Home Chef Oven-Ready enchilada meal. Came with all ingredients and the pan to cook it in. We subscribe to the service, but we've found the meal service meals to make AMAZING camping food. You can actually find them at Fred Meyer now too. Try it out!



My Wife said I'm no longer allowed to run the oven... was supposed to be 400 degrees... Oops...


End result was DELICIOUS. Bottom did have a few small burnie spots, but the rest was perfect.



And that made 33 nights in the Habitat!

 

We had such a great time two weeks ago over at the Olympics we decided to head back over. We didn't go out as deep this time, but it made it much quicker to get to.

Setup on a nice big landing. Room for multiple rigs for sure. If the weather holds up next weekend hoping to head back up with some friends.






Our plan this weekend was to try camping without setting up our awning and awning room. We normally stay in one place for at least a couple days, so setting everything up makes sense and makes us super comfortable. But we do want to be more "overland" ready, doing single nights and heading to the next location without so much packing and unpacking to do.



Luckily for us, the Habitat is so spacious that hanging out inside instead of in our awning room wasn't much of a downgrade. And if you can't tell, Nicole loves her fluffy -15 degree sleeping bag, which also happens to have a 12v heated blanket in it.

 

When we finally got rolling the next morning we went to check out a few more landings for a possible future camping spot, maybe with an even better view.



The landing in the dead center of the image below was where we had camped the night before. This landing was obviously quite a bit higher, and a broader view.



We made a quick stop at a small park near my grandparents' place. Hadn't been out here in year, and was surprised how well it's been kept up. Of course COVID-19 did effect even this ridiculously rural park. The play equipment was blocked with caution tape. No playing on the swings for us

 

When I was 15 or so years younger, I used to ride ATVs up in these mountains with my family. There were some beautiful mountain lakes you could get to, but you had to make it around a pretty serious ditch, squeezing between it and the cliffside. I thought I'd see if we could get through, figuring either it would be impassible to the truck, or perhaps people were still riding around it and perhaps with the number of SxSs running around, maybe they had opened it up and I could squeeze my truck through.



Well, we never made it to where the ditch used to be... and we never will. Hunk of the mountain gave way and completely covered the road with boulders, some much larger than my truck.








O well, it's all part of the adventure!

 

After checking out the rock slide we started our way back out. We were pretty much starving so decided we'd just setup in the next halfway decent place we found. Found a small turnoff with a bit of a view and parked the truck.


After I opened the Habitat up I took another look out into the distance and noticed something way off in the distance. That blur in the middle of the pic below is Seattle, 52 miles from our location. We couldn't even see Mt. Rainier through the clouds, but there was Seattle. You could tell which was the Columbia tower, as it was by far the darkest structure, but it took our binoculars to find the Space Needle.



We had another great meal thanks to Home Chef. I think it was a Pork Eggroll in a Bowl or something like that. Was delicious. Still think they've been the best way to go for amazing camping meals!



Sorry, the food was a lil blurry. Still tasty though.





And with two more nights in the Habitat, that makes 35 in total!

 

When we returned home from our latest trip, guess what was on our doorstep?!?

Please welcome the newest addition to our family. Isn't it just the cutest lil 11lb propane tank you've ever seen? We're still trying to decide on a name. Let us know if you have any suggestions!



Hopefully I'll have this mounted on the swingout this week, saving us even more room inside the Habitat. Will also be the last piece of the complete hot water system mounted to the swingout!

 

We decided to head back out to the Peninsula for some more camping last weekend. The plan was to head out Friday night as soon as I was off work. My wife decided instead, to head out herself on Thursday night and I'd head out Friday. One of our friends was going to meet her out there that night, and I'd ride out with another friend the next day.

My wife arrived, only to find our friends hadn't made it. Then she saw them driving up the wrong road. I had given my friends multiple coordinates of nice landings, but ended up heading to the wrong one not too far away, but harder to get to. They were towing a travel trailer. The below is what their Jeep's front diff ended up looking like...



We thought of heading up with my car trailer that Thursday night, late, to rescue them, but they said they were fine. They got the travel trailer onto level ground and said we could figure it out over the weekend.

So instead of riding with a friend Friday, I borrowed his Ranger and towed my car trailer out.

Thursday night made my wife's 35th night in the Habitat, catching up with me after a guys camping trip.

 

The little white specks on the landing in the distance was the CORRECT camp spot. This pic was taken from the top of the hill the Jeep and travel trailer ALMOST made it up.


And here are some happy flowers my wife musta taken pictures of with my phone while I wasn't paying attention.

 

At first we were spread out on the landing...

But as the rain and wind started we circled the wagons...

And started a nice fire.


Rain or not, we had a great time relaxing with friends. We played some games, ate a ton of roasted marshmallows, and rescued a jeep.


37 nights!

 

Was definitely tight on clearance between my swingout and the trailer tongue. Had to pull the propane tank and mount off the trailer to have anywhere near enough clearance to turn the trailer around on the landing. I find it funny how enormous the trailer looks in this pic compared to my truck. It's only a 17 footer, i believe.






The fully loaded Tacoma and Habitat didn't have any trouble with the trailer. I wasn't even running weight distribution hitch and it was nice and level. You could definitely feel the extra weight when accelerating, but stopping was good with the trailer brakes. There was a bit of extra wind resistance and sway, but way better than I expected.

 

And I nearly forgot to mention our latest addition to our camp kitchen! Picked up one of those camp toasters. Read reviews that the Coleman version holds up better, but they had the Coghlan's brand for 3.99 at Fred Meyer. Yay toast!