First long road-trip/overland, what do I bring? (On a budget!)

Take a look at HAM, specifically the APRS function and android tablet with back country navigator...may help in a pinch. Oh, and everything everyone else said, x2.

 

Truth. My original plan (and if I were to re-do my trip alone) was to sleep in the back of my truck 75% of the time. It ended up being about 25% of the time, but we came across some super cheap hotels along the way. It just has to be a clean room with hot water.

That said, when we went in 2018 was during all those wildfires out west. We got rerouted quite a bit, ended up having to miss Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. Yosemite was closed, Lake Tahoe was so hot and so dry, we were told that if we went there and a fire started that nobody would make it out alive. It's beautiful, but it a'int worth our lives. It smelled like campfire for a lot of our trip and my wife is a bit sensitive to it.

Hell, when we woke up in Chehalis, WA, there was 1/2" of ash coating my truck from the wildfires up in BC. Wish I'd taken a picture, but wifey was pushing to GTFO and I forgot.

 

Everyone else has such great suggestions here that I am taking notes !

So I will offer up something totally different -- a pair of water shoes, good swim trunks that dry fast and a good beach towel / chamois that dries quickly. After all of that time driving in the car one of my favorite refreshers is a a jump in a lake, river, waterfall, you name it. The colder the better !

 

changing spark plugs today:

Everything looks and feel fine except the plug nearest firewall on driver side.

Sparky tip looks fine but there was some discoloration on the sparky charger and some oily burnt junk on the sparky maker. can’t remember words right now but just look at the pictures alright?

I think its probably just some liberal use of thread lube by a toyota tech but i figured i would see what yall think!

 

Does this mean you have original plugs? How many miles? Assuming its a lot, big ups to Toyota engineers.

Short answer is it looks fine, but these trucks tend to run better on fresh plugs so clean or replacement is probably due. A more knowledgeable interweb mechanic can correct me, but there's no grease on the plug or coil. Since it doesn't look more than a little dirty past the threads, odds are some oil got in your coil somehow and cooked. They're not perfectly sealed, but you should check the plug seal for visible cracks and replace if you see any. I have a cleanable air filter and when I first put it on I over oiled, some of the oil dripped down into my coils and baked on a similar brown coloring on my passenger side plugs .

 

AAA plus membership.

 

Gentle reminder. Too much ecological damage can be attributed to people creating their own paths. We should all strive to stay on existing trails and avoid creating alternate routes.

 

Yeah we aren't talking about trail blazing. We are taking about debris blocking trails and roads.

 

So we just drove from San Diego to Sac. The entire time I was listening to every little rattle and vibration that the truck has. It all seems to be right at the usual level of background noise while driving, but i’m getting a loud groaning when i turn slowly. Like i’m inside the titanic while it’s sinking every time I back out of a parking space.

*Okay, it appeared that one of the sway bar bushings was loose. This appears to have solved the problem.*

Dealership replaced them at some point in the past... But on further inspection it looked like it had been sitting there baking for a while. I replaced the plugs last week and it’s all running smoothly. I did have a reusable filter and that may have been the issue.

Thank goodness i already have one!

Preach

 

Well it sounds like you already took off but one of these would be a good alternative to a chain saw. Smaller, lighter weight, no fuel to deal with. Obviously won't clear a giant sequoia but could handle some mid size obstructions.

$312 Silky KATANABOY Professional 500mm Folding Saw XL Teeth (403-50)

https://www.amazon.com/Silky-Professional-KatanaBoy-Folding-403-50/dp/B002GKB5PQ?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4
Besides that I don't have anything much to add to the supplies list other than something that will provide you with shade while camping and bear spray if you plan to camp/hike in Wyoming or Montana.

As for places to see, a lot of these are obvious. Glacier NP, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone. Utah has no shortage of beauty. Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion NP, Goblin Valley, Lake Powell (rent a boat for a day or two). SW Colorado, Taos NM, Sedona Arizona (never been but wanna go). Research fire bans before camping they can change county to county. Anyways sounds like a cool trip. Have fun and keep us updated!

 

Thanks for the update OP. I’d be interested to hear how it’s all going if you think of it. If you don’t know, there is a trip report forum that might be better to document. No pressure.

Since you got a (very) wide range of advice on what to bring, I’d be interested to hear what you actually brought. What did you actually use and what never made it out of storage?

 

@RoughRder
Thanks for the interest! I'm hoping to get around to starting a trip report to update while we go, but right now I'm a little busy because we just moved into a new place in norcal. Pretty funny, we will have been paying for about 4 months of rent without even actually occupying the apt because of work. It's been two months and we finally unpacked our stuff. Gonna be a couple more months before we come back.

And then this Saturday we will take off! Gonna do a night of camping with some good friends in the Russian Wilderness, then leave from there.

I'll post a link here when we start putting everything back into the truck to take off.

Side note: the only thing that wasn't recommended that I'm bringing for piece of mind (provided they arrive in time) are a set of bearings/hubs from
@05Taco4x4 . I know that it has been some miles since my front wheel bearings have been replaced and, I kinda panicked and ordered them. Hopefully they get here in time and I'll take them with me. I'm confident I could change it out on the road if anything happens. And if not, I'll do it when I get back. Fingers crossed! I ordered through him so I don't have to worry about junk parts.

also: Been looking around for a come-along to pick up but everywhere is out of stock! I'll find one on the road if I don't find one tomorrow. It's not an urgent need.

Thank you for the reminder about fire bans. I forgot. And good idea, I'll see if I can find a small saw like that.

 

Honestly these work great. I've used mine for years and it rips through trees just fine.


Cleared two this past Saturday with it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8R9JZQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ANNmFbT0H4N2F

 

Fiskar makes quality tools. I have a pair of bypass trimmers that I got 20+ years ago. Stays sharp and easy to hone