Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Stock Bumper - 38.5 lbs
Stock Receiver Hitch - 51.5 lbs
Stock Receiver Hitch Frame Brackets/Hardware - 3 lbs

So the total stock solution is 93 lbs. The brackets mentioned above attach below the frame rails and provide an additional two bolt holes each for the receiver hitch. The stock bumper attaches to the receiver hitch. My understand it without the tow package a different mount is provide to hold the stock bumper to the frame. The All Pro does not require the stock brackets so I removed them. I don't know about other after market options.

I agree the All Pro doesn't seem a win if you want a receiver hitch. There seem to be a few steel designs that incorporate the receiver into the bumper design itself. Most all the bumpers I've looked at say "designed to" some tow weight but are not actually rated as Class III or Class IV specifically. I expect with your modest teardrop that one of these steel bumpers with integrated receiver might work well and come in under the total stock weight.

 

Inyo Mountains
June 2016

This will be a quick report. I hoped to do a solo trip for a few days up at elevation to avoid the heat and do a few simpler mods on the truck as well as try out some gear while just generally relaxing. In the end I had just a one night trip!

I left quite early on a Tuesday morning and headed over the San Gabriels, once again becoming a familiar migration. Stopped for breakfast in Palmdale and continued on up to Lone Pine where I stopped at the relatively new interagency visitor center there. It is a really nice visitor center with an excellent bookshop. Well worth the stop.

From there I headed up to Independence and turned off for Mazourka Canyon Road. At the base of the Inyos I stopped to air down and take a silly photo by an ore loading bin. Distracted by the photo I managed to lose all four valve stem covers - sigh. I did have spares at least.

Not really equipped for a load...
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The intent was to head to Papoose Flat where I knew there were some nice spots with views for camping that I explored about a decade and a half ago. The road up to Badger Flat is in really great condition as there is an antenna farm accessed by this road. From Badger Flat to Papoose Flat involves crossing a much rougher road that is frequently very steep and rutted. Nothing the truck couldn't handle of course and there are some beautiful views from this road that crests above 9,000 ft.

Between Badger and Papoose Flats
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This was a beautiful if rather slow drive and time wise it probably would have taken about the same amount of time to have driven 40 some miles past Independence through Big Pine onto Death Valley Road to approach from the north. But this way was definitely more fun and scenic.

On some steep downhill sections I tried out DAC for real for the first time. I was actually quite impressed. My previous truck was a manual and so 1st Low was really nice and slow going down though it required some throttle control depending on the terrain. I knew I'd miss that with an automatic but DAC proved to be an excellent and very functional stand in. I did have to remember to enable ABS though or DAC wouldn't work!

Somewhere along the way a tree branch grabbed one of the supports for the front of the Flip Pac and flipped it back. Nothing got removed but it did bend the support just a little. These are relatively cheap things that are typically used for boat awnings. Mental note to upgrade the hardware a bit. A trip to West Marine in my future I think.

Occasionally the road would cross smoother meadows and I'd make better time. The whole route was very picturesque.

See Diet Taco in the Distance
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After a bit more climbing I finally descended to Papoose flat which is at about 8500 ft. It is covered with many impressive rock formations and is a neat "secret" kind of place. I didn't take many photos and will leave it for others to discover on their own. There are a variety of camp spots around with differing levels of shelter, exposure and view. I had one in mind but didn't remember precisely where it was and worried the spur road to it might have since been closed. The good part of this was it forced me to explore a number of other nice spots along the way. I was feeling pretty good that this would be a fun few days!

I finally located camp and was pretty exhausted from the drive and not much sleep the previous night. No way I was going to do any truck chores. I popped the Flip Pac and opened up all the windows to enjoy some nice breezes. It was surprisingly warm in my camp at 9000 ft! Had a late lunch but wasn't very hungry, read and relaxed and took a bit of a nap. Mostly just let the rest of the afternoon waste away. I did notice that whenever the breeze stopped there were quite a few flies about. I don't like bugs...

By sunset I was feeling off and realized it must be the altitude. When I used to live in these parts I was always acclimatized and thought nothing of driving or hiking straight to nine, ten or eleven thousand feet. Well not any more, plus I'm older and not in as good a shape either. I started pounding water and adjusted my dinner plans to be more compatible with altitude sickness.

Sunset was beautiful though there was a bit too much haze for a nice photo. I slept well, continued to drink lots of water. Come morning I still had a headache with little appetite and little energy to do much. By noon despite lots of water drinking and carbohydrates I really wasn't feeling any better. I wasn't really feeling that bad (I've had pretty severe altitude sickness once before) but the mild headache made it hard to relax and I really had no energy or motivation to do much of anything with the truck or testing out camping gear. The last straw was it became a calm day with plenty of buzzing insects around.

And so I made the call to abort the trip. I had lots of fun driving the route the day before and I'd be exiting a different route. I decided I would just rest at home and still take my vacation days. The temps were comfortable but a bit warm at 9000 ft. At lower elevations it was sweltering so I couldn't just retreat down. I'd forgotten that I used to camp most in the late summer when bugs are much less of an issue too.

The drive out to the north was much easier and faster with just two sections that were rough. One was a pretty rough dryfall kind of section that was a bit narrow but still much easier than Dedeckera Canyon over on Steel Pass. No problems without a spotter.

I aired up at the pavement and right as I finished the last tire my Flexzilla air hose burst! As best as I can tell the small gauge wire that the portable Viair uses gets quite hot and this wire was laying on top of part of the hose which probably weakened it. Another reason to get my semi-permanent installation of this done. Oh, and distracted by that I managed to lose another valve stem cover! So I've decided to simply surrender to my apparent senility and ordered a pack of 100 to just keep in the truck.

The drive back was uneventful and dropping to lower elevations did make me feel immediately better. There are some prescription acclimatization medications and since I'll usually be living on the east coast before heading out for summer mountain trips I think I need to investigate those for the future.

Anyway, not a very successful trip but still I had a lot of fun and as usual the Tacoma and Flip Pac did great.

Oh, and already posted earlier in the thread but the view from my campsite:

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Ken, I am in a bit of a quandary right now figuring out rear lift options.

Backstory:
I'm headed toward OME Dakars modified in the Cromian fashion: add AAL, pull an overload, angle shim, U-bolt flip, Superbumps.

My issue is finding a worthy shock. I'm considering Kings and Icons, but none of their rear shock travel, especially downtravel, comes anywhere near what Nick is getting out of his Bilstein B-100-T5s, which are advertised for a 4-inch lift (but do fine with the Dakar setup)

Question:
Have you taken compressed and extended measurements on your rear Icons? I realize you are running AP Expos, not Dakars, but I am curious about the Icon droop, and whether or not yours are modified in any way?

 

I'm running Cromated Dakars with Icon 2.0 shocks. I get about 1" less droop than Nick with the B-100s.

 

I haven't taken any measurements myself. Naively I imagined I'd do all these things slow and take interesting measurements and lots of photos but in the end I just wanted to get the damn suspension on...

That said I'm using ICON 56503-EXT from Wheeler's which are apparently a custom shock build meant for 2.5-3.5" lift. The Wheelers site specifies 15.9" compressed and 26.8" extended. Nick's Bilsteins are apparently 16.34/27.28 so it looks like we are within 0.4" shock length, call it 0.3" droop accounting for the shock angle.

But again, no direct measurements done myself to confirm.

 

I've had trouble finding extended and collapsed numbers for the Icons. Which exact model are you running? All I see on their site (whether 2.o series or 2.5 series rears) says for up to 1.5 inch lift or says nothing at all. Since the Dakars are more like 2.5, that seems no bueno.

 

56503, no reservoir for 0-3" lift. Collapsed: 14.22 Extended: 23.25

I run heavy with a cap and RTT, so my lift is right around 2".

 

1. No doubt. Been there, done that. Especially when doing a solo suspension swap on a DD. Hard work, no time to dick around. I don't know how Crom finds that time.

2. Thanks, that helps a lot. I am having some very odd difficulties with the DSM site. Hard to find stuff in general, and what I am seeing at home on Chrome is not the same as what I see at work on IE. I swear to god.

3. So on the front, the ICON 58635 are the extended travel 13x650, I see, also, in your earlier post.

Thanks for the reminders and details. I've got a little caught up in the DSM King sale, but I am leaning farther toward these custom Icons now since you've pulled back the sheets (and my eyelids) on the Wheeler's-specific offering to pair with the Daks. Far kinder on the pocketbook, too.

Plus I've had the attention span of an 11-month old lately.

 

On the valve stem covers, im currently using these and have yet to lose one. I can literally get them by the handful for free, albeit the paint is not perfect on some of them. just give me a shout and ill see about throwing an envelope of them your way.

 

Finally got the on board air wired, will post pictures and a quick write up sometime this week.

In other news, Diet Taco shaved a good hour or more off of my drive down from Utah on Friday!

For whatever reason the I-15 is just a magnet for traffic disasters. Before my daughter and I headed up the previous Friday someone managed to depart the SB lanes, drive across the huge median and hit a tractor trailer in the NB lanes shutting the whole freeway down late Thursday night. This near Zzyzx Rd. It was going to be all clear by the time we went by but it did remind me that I meant to do some Google Earth reconnaissance of all the routes that parallel the I-15 between Barstow and Vegas. The old 91 parallels as a frontage road in some parts but other places are dirt only or really nothing at all.

Come just this past Friday and we are about to head south and this time some one manages to leave the NB lanes and roll across the median ending up blocking all SB lanes! Right by Zzyzx Road once more. Again this appeared like it would clear before we got to it. And it did. But then a tractor trailer caught fire just before Field Road and once again shut down all the SB lanes causing a good 5 to 6 mile backup all the way to Afton Road.

Well - ha, ha! I knew exactly how to get from Afton to Field because of my earlier research (and this also parallels the Mojave River Wash that I drove on my Mojave Road adventure). There is a dirt county road (Cady Road I think it is called) as well as a few different power line access roads that parallel the freeway on the southeast. There is also some stuff to the northwest but the southeast side had more options.

And here is where things got crazy. I don't know if some GPS or Google Maps was suggesting there was a route parallel to the freeway (actually looks like Google Maps does show Cady Road connecting Afton and Field) but there were gobs of people out there in totally inappropriate vehicles. Smarter ones were turning back and from one of them I heard that the main road was blocked by five stuck vehicles. Looking in the distance I could see the disaster so I cut onto a power line service road to bypass and rejoined Cady Road further along. Maybe ten more vehicles had made it this far.

Came to another wash, this one obviously requiring 4WD and some clearance and there are two compact cars stuck in the bottom of it! Most of the other vehicles backtracked at this point. Fortunately the wash was wide enough to get around the stuck vehicles. Since I had my 4 year old with me I wasn't able to stop and help, but another Tacoma was there and was taking one of the occupants out to get help. From there I got to Field Road in short time. Was able to average about 25 mph along the 8 mile detour. Freeway was at a dead stop next to me most of the whole way. And almost empty once I got back on (they had opened the shoulder by this point).

The whole adventure broke up the six hour drive nicely for my daughter. While we were off road she said, "Oh boy, we are camping!" I'll take what entertainment we can get!

@Gaunt596 - Thanks for the offer, I've got a bag of 100 plastic ones now. I think the problem is my brain rather than the covers themselves. I'd hate to be leaving those nice brass valve stem covers all around as a road hazard Gives me an idea though, I've got pink, yellow and blue paint pens in the truck. I'll give the covers a coat of yellow or pink so they will be easier to see, though honestly I expect to still forget to put them on!

 

Because I've been around myself long enough to know how well I lose things I use these.

https://www.extremeoutback.com/product/92/No+Loss+Metal+Tire+Caps+(5+Pack)++Part#+008-006.html

 

Awesome write up, I cant believe I never have been to most of these places....and you put the utility in the Sport Utility Truck. Great photographs and summaries. Now looking back when my kids were smaller back in the 84 xcab 4banger 5 speed we did mostly northern and eastern Arizona, so that explains a bit about not traveling too far with three kids under 3 at the time. But thanks for putting some fire back in my belly, at 57 and retired I have the time and the Tacoma....I just need to convince my wife it will be exciting....I am sure there were casinos on the way...ha ha..again thanks for sharing the experience ....you and @Crom remind me of well, me...look forward to seeing more of your travels.

 

That would take far more patience and resolve than I have!

 

On Board Air - Mark II
July 2016

I originally had plans for under hood air. Then I realized that was going to take too long and wasn't super happy with the options. So I got the Viair 400P which is a "portable" configuration in which the pump is mounted on a base plate and jumper cables connect to the battery. This worked just fine, but the added time taking it out and getting it connected was annoying not to mention more than one kind person stopping to see if we needed assistance since the hood was up.

One reason I chose the 400P was that I knew I could more permanently mount it later if I chose to. Well now is that time!

Step one was to figure out where to put it and I decided on behind the rear seats since that being a mid-vehicle location meant easy reach with the air hose. Inside the cab meant less worry about weather and dust. One issue though was I like to store a lot of stuff behind those seats and parts of the compressor get quite hot in use. This was another annoyance of using it as a portable - I needed to wait for it to cool down before putting it away.

I solved this issue by enclosing the pump in a steel box with one side open. Checking dimensions there was a electrical utility box that looked like a nice snug fit. I drilled two large holes in the side - one for the air hose and one for the power. This drilling operation took forever with a drill press and step bit not to mention consuming a lot of cutting oil.

Pump Enclosure
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I got the box squared away a number of months ago and ran a few trips with the pump stored like this behind the seat but still taking the whole box out to use it. Now I could at least throw the pump back in the truck without cooling when done. The above photo also shows the later modification of removing the stock cable and fuse and adding covered FASTON 250 series blade connectors. These are fine for the low duty cycle high current use required here.

For the wiring I chose a 10 ga wire which again is plenty for the low duty cycle use here. This would actually end up with about the same total wire length as the slightly lower gauge stock harness since I'd be ground terminating right behind the seat and thus had a longer one way run rather than the stock shorter two way run.

This is the last high current accessory going in (or so I claim) and so I had no need for a fancy aux fuse panel. Just a simple weather tight fuse holder secured near the battery with a direct connection to the OEM battery harness. No inline switch required as the 400P already has a switch on it which is tucked safely inside my steel housing. The wire was run bare in the engine compartment following existing harnesses and clips. The fuse holder was attached to the same bolt that holds one of the brackets for the engine compartment fuse box.

I ran the cable through an unused plug in the firewall. Making a hole in this plug took way longer than it needed, but I essentially hand reamed a hole with successively larger drill bits.

Routing under the hood
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Once through the firewall I covered the wire with plastic wiring loom up to the point it would enter the wiring tray running along the door sills. A few trim panels had to be removed to access this but it was all straight forward.

Passenger Cabin Entry at Firewall


Routing to rear of cab
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Once the positive side was run behind the seat I attached the ground to a unused threaded hole back there. Thanks @Crom for the idea! Sanded off the paint there and even managed to acquire a JIS bolt so it would fit into the standard set of sockets required for a Tacoma. Both wires were terminated to FASTON blades so that if needed the compressor can be easily removed for portable use.

Compressor power behind rear seat
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With that done I dropped the compressor in its box back there and connected up power. I topped off all the tires to give it a test run and everything was fine. I'll need to monitor it still the next time I do a full fill as the run time will be longer in that case. But in the minutes of use here none of the wiring got even a little warm so I don't expect any issues. I also need to finalize exactly how I most conveniently and space efficiently store the hose and air chuck behind the seat while still maximizing storage space.

I did all this work in my brother's garage in Utah and it was about 106 that day so this was all more painful than it really needed to be. Paid for my procrastination in not having done this months ago when it was cooler!

Finished install
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Nice use of electrical box! Great install as usual!

 

Nice clean work. Well done.

 

I did exactly as you described. Check it out.

 

Perfect set up in my opinion. I will eventually do the same thing.

 

amazing stuff here. Well done I give you props for doing this. Spent the past week reading every page of this on any free time. I have never visited death valley but always wanted to.

It's inspiring and also saddens me at the same time. I bought a prerunner 2wd before I knew I want to get off the pavement. The past few months I've done some pretty rough trails around big bear but nothing serious or this secluded and remote. How much of your travels would you say 4wd is required? I'm lifted with upgraded suspension, all terrains, and mechanical limited slip out back. I want to hit all of the spots you mentioned, probably minus the river crossing. I can take a beating so be honest LOL. I know when to turn back if things don't look good.

 

also... What heater are you using and how is the yeti working out? Need something to keep my food colder, longer.