Another Around the World Tacoma

You have done a great job organizing everything. I definitely like how you left space to be able to function and move around without climbing over gear. The magnetic spice rack is a great idea.

 

Dave, that is actually the knot that we tied at our wedding ceremony. We joined two pieces of rope together via a Figure 8 to symbolize our connection to one another. We put it there so we can see it everyday, in fact I am looking at it now.

We added it three weeks after the N Rim trip.

 

It certainly helps while moving around in the morning before we open the doors to the outside cold. haha

Yeah, another Stacy idea, and they stay put fairly well too. Only the most intense/extreme of driving will 1 or 2 become unattached.

 

I did have a slight thought that may be purpose hence the comment above - something like that is usually noticeable. After reading the posts here, spending a week with you two on the road and 31 yrs of my own marriage, that seems like a fantastic symbol. For the climbing, for the colloquial "tie the knot" and for the visible reminder, daily check the knot. That's awesome! Sometimes it starts to loosen, and the daily check is the key to not letting things get catastrophic.

 

Ah, I see what you mean now! Thanks Dave.

 

It's been a cooler two weeks, but our time in Southern Utah is nearing a close.

We were invited to complete three canyons in Zion NP this past weekend, which we excitedly agreed too.

Zion NP is straight up like Disneyland nowadays. We arrived a day early, so we rode the Zion shuttle through the main canyon, and it was full of lines and loads of people.

Still, an incredibly beautiful place. Up there on my personal list, only behind the Grand Canyon in my eyes.

On Saturday we did two canyons, Keyhole and Pine Creek. Both were frigid, requiring the donning of our 7mm wetsuits (these are very thick, near the thickest you can buy) while descending. Keyhole Canyon has infamously killed two separate groups of canyoneer-ers over the years (flash floods in both cases), and I can definitely see why. It is incredibly narrow and difficult to traverse, despite its short length (.52 miles). It was a beautiful canyon though, descending through narrow slots is outside of our normal experience, so it was fantastic to complete it. I led 6 of us through this one.

Just down the road was Pine Creek, and this canyon was much colder (the water temp was about the same, but the air temp was very low) and longer. It has the 'Cathedral Room' which was just amazing to experience. Only 4 of us took part in this second canyon of the day.

On Sunday, we descended one of the most famous canyons out there, The Subway. This canyon also claimed a single life, when a guy got stuck upside down in a waterfall on the second rappel. Only three of us were brave enough to tackle this one, as it is logistically difficult this time of year. Suffice to say, rappelling into water that has ice floating in it was quite the shock. The wetsuits do a fantastic job of keeping the covered parts warm, mainly by increasing the time it takes for the cold water to hit your skin, but the feet and hands were left to bear the ice water on their own. Swimming through the ice cold pools felt like pushing your hands through knives. Not a massive fan of this. Still, the cold didn't keep us from experiencing the 'Shower Room', a tiny alcove where water rains down on you in a natural shower. 9 miles later, and we had completed this iconic canyon.

We didn't get any photos due to all of the water and the extreme cold, but the images are burned into my mind quite well. Haha

We signed up to do (2) more canyons in Zion this weekend, thankfully this time without any need for wetsuits or ice water plunges, but the rappels are much, much longer.

Our general campsite area for the week has been pretty good. I was surprised when we had not one, but two different groups of people pull onto the tiny side road we were on to set up camp literally right next to us. There have to be ~150 campsites up on this mesa, but it seems these folks wanted to be right next to us. Nothing quite like listening to two guys set up camp until 12:15 in the morning. Or people getting so intoxicated that they forget the speakers on the outside of their trailer have been blasting electronic style music for the past two hours. Ah well, my fault for not getting far enough away from the busy places, though that is quite difficult here in Southern UT.

Needless to say, we left the next day to find another site 1/8 of a mile away.

I captured some good photos on this gloomy, cold morning.

GM - 11-23 - 1 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

GM - 11-23 - 2 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Zion NP here in the background

GM - 11-23 - 3 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

GM - 11-23 - 4 by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Thanksgiving is soon approaching (thankfully), after which we can push south to warmer weather. I originally planned to explore Death Valley until Xmas time, but I need to do more research to see if that is still a good idea. We may explore southern AZ instead. We do know that we will be pushing into Baja California over Xmas break, giving us extra time to settle into the new country, so until then yo necesito estudiar espanol todos los dias!

My replacement 1000w inverter, and adjustable dc to dc converters (I should have done this earlier, but it's time to skip out on the inverter and charging block setup that powers the laptops and go straight to DC power) among a few other things get brought to us over the family gathering. I'll get those installed while we are in St. George for the holiday.

Until next time!

 

Hey, your solar panels don't line up!

 

Alright, it has been a while. Some outdoor living, some broken stuff, some remediation, and a whole lot of cold!

Let's see. On the west side of Zion NP one evening, sitting on the ground eating dinner in the dirt. Trickiest spot to get to for camping thus far. Extreme off camber and a huge rut on one side. Stacy was thriled, to say the least. Haha. This very spot where the photo was taken would be a small flow of water in the morning, as it rained hard overnight. Getting out and back to the paved road was a good time. Same off camber, but this time with no traction!

4wd Campsite by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

We had Thanksgiving in St. George with Stacy's family. That was a great time, and sleeping indoors in the warmth wasn't too bad either!

After Utah, we headed south and went to an area east of Parker, AZ for the week.

I woke up Monday morning and got to getting the truck ready for the work week. Everything was going fine until I noticed that the little green light on the PoE for Starlink was not illuminated. Drats. No Starlink, and the cell signal was pretty weak in the exact spot that we were in. Thankfully just 1 mile away there was a flat area that had enough service for us to finish our work days.

I did some troubleshooting, and I knew that the 12 to 48v boost converter was not outputting 48v, even after I replaced the blown fuse on that circuit. No biggie, I'll just pull out one of my other boost converters and get this back up and running.

Except the dish wouldn't respond. 48v going into the PoE, but nothing from the dish. The app could detect the dish, but the dish would not do anything. I would find out later, after starting a troubleshooting ticket with Starlink, that the dish itself was bad and non-functioning. So that makes sense why supplying it with new power did not get it to power up.

What I didn't know was, was whether the dish fried the system, or the 12v system fried the dish.

Thankfully SL customer service is basically instant, hassle free, and very nice, so before I knew it a brand new dish set was on its way to me, and they credited me one months bill to my account for the issue.

We stayed around Phoenix, spending a week up in Cornville again to help install a mini split, and man was it cold at night. Electric blanket all night, and the furnace was run most of the night as well.

I have to say, the Dickinson LPG Fireplace is a big ol' let down. It is incredibly cool looking, and the fact that it is safe to run in an enclosed space is awesome. But man, if the temp falls down into the 20's, or heaven forbid the 10's, it does so little to keep the inside of the camper warm.

I purchased two analog thermometers, one for inside the camper, and one outside the truck, so I can keep a close eye on actual temps, as weather apps never seem to be accurate in my experience thus far.

One night it was 22 degrees, and the inside of the camper, after the furnace had been running all night, was a chilly 42 degrees.

Since it has to pull fresh air from outside, constantly, it can only increase the air temp so much in the limited time that the air is in the furnace. It adds ~70 degrees to the air, which sounds great, 90 degree air is rather warm, but that warmth literally lasts inches from the outlet vent. It just can't warm the camper. Which is alright, I don't want to be in cold places often anyways, but when we do find ourselves in the cold, the furnace does not have our backs!

That's about it 'til now. On Monday we found ourselves packing up camp after work, before heading down to Phoenix to spend a few days at my brothers.

It was finally time for my Alu-Cab Large Roof Box to be delivered! Just about three months after ordering I received an email that my shipment had arrived from Cape Town South Africa and was on its way to me. Someone has to be present at delivery, so it was time to make that happen.

Pending Arrival by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

The freight company left a bit of customer service to be desired, so I ended up going to the freight yard myself and grabbing the package, as they wouldn't be able to deliver it for too many days. Thankfully it was completely undamaged, which I was a bit nervous about based on the way OK4WD described the past shipping issues with these roof boxes.

I pulled the old Pelican case off of the roof and used two ratchet straps to get the new box strapped to the roof rack and back home to where I could install it properly.

First impressions? It is a thing of beauty. It is so damn nice, and way nicer than I was expecting. It is carpeted on the inside (minus the 'ceiling of the box'), has two gas struts to ease opening, a strap to keep it from being blown open too far and becoming potentially damaged, one handed opening and closing system (really happy with this, snapping the latches on the Pelican case was beginning to be a bit of a pain), and interior tracks with tie down points included! It is really straight and plumb too.

Old vs. new. ~80 liters vs. 250 liters of internal storage space.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

One final benefit is the large flat top of the box. A great size for holding the second modification that I just completed during this visit to Phoenix.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Install is basically identical to how I mounted the old case. Measure, draw lines, measure again, mark holes for drilling, and then drill. Alu-Cab gives you two rubber strips to help isolate the box from your roof rack, so I installed those too.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I was able to get it installed on my own, as it's pretty light (52 lb.) despite its overall dimensions.

They also include (8) spreader plates to help distribute the load into more of the floor of the box, so I installed those as well. This photo was taken before I moved one of the straps to the center, and completely removed the other. Having the straps at both sides seems the safest, but I quickly realized that they would be in the way all of the time when loading and unloading things, so to the center it went.

You can see the interior quality here.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

And the final fitment. This is a DCLB Tacoma, with Alu-Cab Canopy Camper, Sherpa Animas 36 roof rack, and Alu-Cab Large Roof Box.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Roof Box by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

It is a pretty tight fit tbh. It fills the entirety of the roof rack, with basically no space to spare. It overhangs the rack by 1.625" on each side.

I like it.

I had to cut off a bit of the handle that locks the table into its holder, as the new box was too close for the lever to swing through its arc without hitting it.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Installing the roof box was exciting, and I am finally glad that it was delivered and installed. The extra space will be very nice to have, and the size of the new box feels better, looks-wise, than the small Pelican case.

Our other modification was on kind of a whim. I sort of thought that maybe the constant deployment and stowing of the SL dish could partially be to blame for why the old one failed.

So I decided to take a much larger risk and cut the freshly arrived new dish so that I could flat mount it to the top of the roof box.

The company that makes the flat mount, Star Mount Systems, has a super technical way of marking the outside of the case so you know where to cut.

You simply slide a permanent marker, riding along the top of a roll of electrical tape (both included, what a deal), along the side. Telling ya, fancy stuff.

They do have good directions, to be fair. Although cutting just above the circuit board that makes up the dish is a tense few moments.

But it gets done. The flat portion on the bottom is where the magic happens. The bulbous top piece just houses the two positioning motors, which you don't really need nowadays. Plenty of satellites up in LEO.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

You grind down the edges with a Dremel to get a nice, flush fit inside of the housing. A piece of plexiglass, with a rubber seal around the edge, covers the top and seals the dish (or what's left of it) inside.

I was nervous about flat mounting initially, as some people online mentioned error messages and delayed start up times when the dish can't position itself, but those days seem to be gone, as I received no such error messages, and boot up time was super quick.

Here it is during its final test, before sealing it in its forever home. I wanted to make sure I didn't mess anything up before I started drilling holes in my new roof box and camper.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Sure enough all systems were a go.

I opted for the weatherproof version of the flat mount system, where you cut off the original SL cable and wired in two modified ethernet cables into a weatherproof coupler. This ended up working out well with the wire routing as well, and not having to pass a bulky end connector through walls.

I figured out where to run the wiring and then I got to mounting. They drill through holes through the four corners of the flat mount, so that is what I used to secure the dish to the top of the roof box. I only had 2 M5 bolts that were long enough, so I'll pick up tow more before we leave town.

The ethernet cable leaves the router and passes through the head wall of the camper, just above the penetration for the area lighting I installed a while ago.

It then goes into and through the back side of the table mount. I left enough slack to avoid any pulling on the cable when we hit the bumpy stuff. It then comes out of that and gets clamped to the roof rack, running along the side, before heading up the front of the box and to the coupler and then the dish.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

I had to put (6) holes in the new roof box, but those were holes I was willing to make.

Roof Box and Starlink Install by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

All in all, while I started out feeling stressed, this ended up being pretty easy. And it is a very clean looking end product. Fastest speeds to date as well, even flat mounted. 180 mbps down and 18 mbps up.

We will leave Phoenix tomorrow, heading south and west for the next week of work, because it is finally time to do some adventuring. I can hear the beach and waves calling us now. It's time to pay for some car insurance through Bajabound.................

Until next time!

 

Very nice!

 

Truck and Saguaro by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

Man, it feels so damn good to be back in warmer weather. Low 50's at night and mid 70's during the day. This is the type of weather I was envisioning when I thought about this in my head. The only drawback has to be the thousand of bugs we are dealing with everyday. Haha. So many tiny flying gnats. Thankfully they leave you alone, but they just cover everything. The deployed awning is their favorite place it seems. The ground bees are way more inquisitive, flying up my pant legs, landing on my shoulder, climbing inside of the interior door handle (he was able to extricate himself before dying in there), climbing up and into the rear water spigot, and more.

It is annoying as hell, but you eventually get used to it. They don't bite, and earphones block out their buzzing noises.

We ended up in the Belmont Mountain area SW of Phoenix for the week. We did 19 miles of hiking to two arches and three (I think, it's hard to tell what was and wasn't a mine back in the day) mines. Very little traffic as well. Definitely a mildly beautiful place, but I can see why it isn't a prominent destination. We are camped in an area nearer the 'entrance', as it still has cell signal, which we like to have as a backup. But deeper into the area you can camp directly at two old mines, perched high above the surrounding area, which I think would be worthwhile. The area has one much tamer trail that gets you to the mines, and another, almost parallel, trail that is far more aggressive, that leads to the same place.

Something that I forgot to mention in the last post is my poor experience with Renogy customer service. I had my original 1000W inverter fail on me, and I ordered another identical unit delivered to me in St. George. That unit only lasted a single day before it too ceased functioning.

I ultimately replaced it with a Sunthysis 2000W unit, as it was the only 2000W unit that I could find with suitable exterior dimensions (tight fit on my PCC panel).

I began the return process with Renogy and they just have such a terrible system that you have to work through. Asking you to reupload documents, asking for photos of the original box that the inverter came in, and almost denying the return based on me not having it any longer (threw it out in St. George). They only respond once per day, so the process gets drawn out way longer than is required. I have three ignored messages with them currently.

My entire setup is Renogy, but I won't be ordering any more of their products in the future. Their customer service has just been abysmal.

Excited to say, that after our initial highway drive with the new roof box, that we have no noticeable wind noise from its installation. It is still incredibly good looking, and very functional. It holds a bunch of light items, with the heaviest item being our Fiskar chopping axe.

We cross our first international border in the truck this upcoming Friday, as we make our way into Mexico and then on towards Baja California. Definitely a lot to learn. Letting our banks know about the travel so our debit cards still work, figuring out how much cash to take (in pesos), how to acquire insurance for the truck, what the FMM (similar to a temporary import permit, but you can't transition out of Mexico with it, except for crossing back into the US) process is like, what border point of entry to cross at (San Luis Rio Colorado in our case, this time), where to get to on the first night, what to do during the day, how to get clean water, what to eat, and much, much more.

We currently are only planning on visiting for ten days. I will procure the FMM for 180 days (the maximum per year for a US citizen) and purchase the 6 month comprehensive insurance plan for the truck (it is basically the same price as ten days worth of daily insurance) so that we can stay longer if we feel like it. The shorter initial visit mainly has to do with two previous poor experiences that Stacy had in Mexico (prior to me knowing her) that is causing the hesitation. Both times were in far more touristy areas, and involved police corruption and bribery, but she is still skeptical, despite our itinerary taking us to a wildly different type of place. Our travels will ultimately take us to a wide variety of places, so might as well overcome those discomforts now!

I have a small amount of apprehension about the journey as well, but I may be confusing it over excitement for what is to come. Only time will tell.

Other than all of this, we are still trucking. Staying put for ~6 days in a row is working well. The increased capacity of the energy system has been stellar as well. We work all day, and get to know the place we are staying through a variety of hikes/walks. We retire into the camper 'early', but we have a lot to occupy ourselves with while we are in there. We are eagerly looking forward to the days when we no longer have to work 4 days a week. That restriction adds a lot to this type of lifestyle, and holds you back from so much. Almost there.

Until next time.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bqg7lpd5OY


This guy is prob here on forums too

 

@MR E30 , have been reading your whole thread, great info. Love the build. Excited to follow your trip along to Mexico, but also nervous for you. Have just read so much non stop police bribery. Last time I drove from Phoenix to Rocky Point, 1999, we got stopped FOUR TIMES by police for bribes on the way there. It's not that long! But we were towing a boat and so looked wealthy. That was the last I drove through Mexico.

Anyways, I see a lot of folks post about doing it, so will be interested to see how it goes for you with that gucci blinged out rig!

Sorry to hear about your Renogy woes. I read several forums, focusing on mobile solar overland setups, and have seen a lot of folks say Renogy gave issues. Most end up Victron, though more expensive. ALSO, your 80% max discharge thing... sorry, no matter what Renogy has in their instructions, is just wrong for LiFePO4 batteries. You can take them down to 10% without issues, and going between 20% to 90% repeatedly is a fine and healthy use, for longevity, so long as they are 100% charged every few weeks. Rewatch some of Will Prowse videos on that. It's great you have 200Ah 12v now, but trying to stay above 80% charge is needless and wasted capacity, from all I've ever read.

Keep up the great posts and living, good luck, can't wait to read more. PM me if you need west Phoenix support, tools, etc.

 

1999 was 24years ago. I guess I'd depends on what time scale you use but for most people that's a far bit of time.

 

I have not read every post here but I want to express my admiration and envy at the way you have approached this and the results you are obtaining for yourself and your companion. The adventure obviously isn't free, but you are not tied to a mortgage or rent payment and can change the neighborhood and neighbors in a matter of minutes if desired. Did you happen to read "Nomadland" prior to starting this adventure?

 

Nice build! and really cool camping spots as well.

 

Thank you, I appreciate the comments. Yes, Stacy's poor experiences were around Rocky Point as well. However, that behavior is not indicative of the entire nation. Plus, it helps to be prepared with the appropriate knowledge. Like how the ticketing system actually works, how you pay fines, what a normal police interaction is like and what a corrupt interaction is like, etc. Things like copies of your vehicles paperwork and a spare copy of your drivers license basically eradicate any leverage that someone could create against you. Plus, having the phone number of Sindicatura (similar to the ACLU in the US) can create leverage in my direction.

Again, all probably not required, as I am not traveling to touristy places, but handy to know any ways. My research has all been positive thus far.

Yeah, I chose Renogy based off of Dan Grec and his recommendations. You are correct about that as well, I misunderstood the battery limitations in my previous post, and I thought I clarified my misunderstanding, but maybe I forgot to. We have dipped down into the 20% range before, but that was a lone occurrence.

Thank you.

 

Thanks TCB2020!

The mobility of it all is definitely both good and bad at the same time.

I did not. I did a lot of internet-ing, and I read both of Dan Grec's books 'The Road Chose Me' volumes 1 and 2. He did a decent job of explaining it all in a digestible way. I will say, only by actual living it can you start to really wrap your head around it all.

 

Thank you, I appreciate that!

 

Nomadland is primarily about people who have been forced into a life on the road, how they make the best of it and the friendships and other relationships that develop from their lives on the road. There is a movie out based on the book if you have some extra Starlink time. The Rubber Tire Rendezvous is mentioned often and it's generally in your neighborhood. 2024RTRs – Homes on Wheels Alliance

 

Thank you for the recommendation. I will certainly check out the movie here sometime soon.

Checking out your link, I have stumbled across a guy who lives in a van who talked about meeting up with a lot of nomadic type folks outside of Quartzite. If we are in that area when it's going on (we very well may be) we will swing by and check it out.