The Wild Crow - Flight Preparations

Engaging Ultragage Gauges

From day one of ownership I've wanted some way to monitor the "need to know" information about the engine and transmission. I've owned all kinds of vehicles, and I'm always disappointed with the gauge clusters provided by the factory. From my 65 wagon, which had a speedometer, a fuel gauge and three idiot lights to the Tacoma which (like my Tundra) has gauges, just none of them tell you really what is happening.

The gauges are just a scale - no numbers provided to give you a solid reading. You know, "My temperature needle is between C and H, but not in the red so I must be OK" kinda thing.

Back in the day you had to run wires for an amp gauge to monitor your battery, an oil line for oil pressure, another line for engine temperature, and yet another for your transmission. All these lines went to an aftermarket gauge cluster hanging under your dash.

It's so much easier these days! You buy one teeny tiny black box, find a spot on your dash, plug it into the OBD2 port and you've got more gauges at you're fingertips than you could ever fit on your dash!

I use a scangauge in the Tundra and love it. Easy to use, small, unobtrusive, etc. For the Tacoma I wanted to try out the Ultragauge. I've read good things about it on the interwebs, it's small, and even one third the price of the Scangauge.

After some time sitting in the truck and moving it around, pretending to be driving in the woods, or in heavy traffic (yes, I wiggled the steering wheel back and forth making vroom! Vroom! noises), I chose to install it left of the steering wheel near the door. In this location you can easily read its screen, it obscures none of the factory gauges or lights, All it blocks is a little bit of the vent but you can still adjust the vent easily.




Now I can keep track of my transmission temps while I'm towing the CrowsWing, check my battery or engine temp, and not worry about running out of gas from the fast dropping gas gauge Toyota provided.

The UG is an easy to install easy to use item. The price is right and I'm so far happy with the result.

Oh, and all you people who are subscribing, commenting, or just reading and enjoying the thread, thanks!

 

We got our front seat covers on finally. Well, "we" didn't, my wife did. I was busy with another project on the CrowsWing (trailer) so she installed the seat covers. They've done their job already saving some spilt coffee from staining the seats. I think I may spray them with some waterproofing spray. They stopped the coffee but I really expected it to bead up and roll off more.

 

In an effort to gain some expedition style street cred we finally made an upgrade that we've been holding off on for a while collecting the necessary parts until we were ready. After months of saving and acquiring we took the time to add our steekers!





And for an added bonus: For our anniversary I made my wife a present for the truck. We had both decided that it needed some defining decoration that matched the Wild Crow to the CrowsWing. I bought a sheet of vinyl car wrap in brushed aluminum (to match the trailers aluminum sheeting) and made a large cut out of a wild crow. Similar to the late 70s Trans Am but crow style. We applied it today and added a stripe which really set it off. It turned out well and she is happy with it. I'm diggin the distinctive look the truck is taking on.




Today while I was at work Beth finished the crow stripe adding in the section above the birds head and filling in places under its wings

 

We briefly discussed buying new wheels for a few days. While I like the look of the Baja wheels I found out my wife doesn't. She shopped online and found a set she likes. Fuel Revolver D525s. Nice looking wheels.

We got our calculator and started adding up total costs. We decided to hold off on the expense of rims. As we were talking about the merits of each rim ( the Fuels are black with shiny trim screws on the edge) we decided it was the bright aluminum beadlock that was offensive to the eye.

What to do? What to do?
Paint!
So I removed, cleaned, sanded, cleaned and painted the beadlocks.
A can of satin black later and voila! No need to buy new wheels!

 

We've used the Wild Crow for two trips this past July. Since it's not our only truck, we use the Tundra when we can to keep miles off the Taco. For July the kids both needed rides for work so we got to use the Tacoma for towing the teardrop.

The first trip was to the North Bend campground at the Kerr Reservoir. I didn't take hardly any pictures though, it's just a chill trip with friends. Eat, drink, swim, kayak, repeat


The second trip was with old Expedition Portal friends that wanted to do a waterfall tour of North Carolina. We loaded up the truck and teardrop and headed to Asheboro to meet them at their house.



We spent the night in Asheboro and the next day headed to Highlands NC, hopefully to find a dispersed campsite in the National Forest. I'll camp in a campground if I have to, but I really prefer those quiet nights in the woods. If the 'drop will fit down the trail I'll camp there. In this case our "trail" was just a gravel but rutted forest road which posed no problem for either the Wild Crow, or the CrowsWing.

Photo by Jay Capers

Campsite set up and we were ready for a week in the woods (against TLC's advice) of chasing waterfalls. Seems the rivers and the lakes I'm used to need to give way once in a while to new territories.


This was one of the last pictures of the trip my friend shot from his drone, but it's a good rendition of how we set up camp.

Photo by Jay Capers

We got to drive the forest roads a lot over the week and the Baja really wanted to fly down the gravel roads I had to remind myself to keep a cautious pace as the roads (both unpaved and paved) were all full of blind turns.

Waterfalls:
Glen Falls. Touristy location near town. The altitude of these mountains (4000 - 5000 feet elevation) means the hike down and back makes old men that live at sea level huff and puff.




This day was mostly "drive to" falls. Our next stop was Bridal Veil which is one along the road you can drive behind. It sounded cool, but was disappointing in reality. Almost no water and the road was closed. On down the road!

Dry Falls. Again touristy. Paved all the way to the falls makes walking easy. Lots of peeps hanging out at this one.


From there we found the roads going to Wayah Bald. Jay wanted to check out the lookout. tower. Great views on Tennessee and Georgia from the 5342 foot elevation.




On the way back down the mountain we stopped at the Wilson Lick ranger station. It dates back to 1916. I would have more photos but we kinda got swarmed by bees. Lol. A few stings among us and we knew to leave well enough alone.








After all this travel we took the scenic route back to camp, cutting down into Georgia and catching a glimpse of Estatoah Falls on a hillside in the distance. Sadly, it's on private property so no can see....

 

Great Thread, Subadubdubbed.

 

The next day we hit Scotsman's Falls. Nearby but a real workout to get to. Finding the trail was an adventure all it's own. The guide Jay had read " after a hard left turn on the gravel road look for two tall pine trees. The trail in next to them"

OK. First of all, in the mountains, every turn is a hard left or right.....and there are tall pine trees everywhere. After a few miss fires, we found the right two and got on the trail down. It was really a scramble through and over and under trees, and rhododendron and brambles.


Photo by Jay Capers



After an equally hard scramble back to the vehicles we had a brief lunch, and then headed for Lower Whitewater falls on the Duke Energy property. It was an interesting and pretty hike to get to the overlook, but oddly enough every sign we came to said the overlook was 1.7 miles away. Seemed like we were getting nowhere!

Eventually the wooded trail gave way to an overlook with the view.


After the hike back we met Jay's wife at a nearby gas station (she missed the first two days due to her work schedule) and we got back to camp well after dark.

Our next day brought us to Cashiers Sliding Rock. FUN! No pics from my camera though, I left it in the truck fully planning to slide the falls and get wet. It was crowded like a public pool in the summer but it was tons of fun.

A short way down the road led us to Silver Run Falls


....and then we took the hike down to High Falls. The hike itself was impressive. A mile or two downhill, but with staircases made of logs, bridges of sawn trees and a stone step staircase that would have been daunting to build.
and a sign like this makes everything more fun!










The day was great, we were tired. Stopped for ice cream on the way back to camp, then finished the day with good food, drink and conversation about camping, travel and truck tires

 

Another day, another waterfall.....or two.....maybe three....

With Deb around Jay wanted to show her Dry Falls, he thought she'd like that one. On the way we made a stop at one called Secret Falls. OK, if it's listed in a guide book, how Secret can it be? Turns out it was secret enough that we had the falls to ourselves for several hours. We spent our time wisely.


We all swam in the deep pool below the falls.




We dried off and headed back to Dry Falls. On our way we ran some forest roads looking for future campsites around Blue Valley. We stumbled upon this little fall along one of the roads.



Dry Falls take two


Another fine evening after a hard day of chasing those pesky waterfalls. I usually do the basic white girl thing and photograph our meals. I didn't this trip. I don't know why. You would have loved them. Pizza, Taco Salad, Porterhouse steak and Escargot......all the goodies.....and all downed with fine wines.

This evening after the meal and cleanup we had a nice campfire. Our daughter bought us some color stuff to put in the fire. It worked well, and looked reaaaally pretty, especially with a quality rum - in this case Kraken.


Our last day we hiked along with a billion other people to Rainbow Falls, and Turtleback Falls. We made a lunch stop at Hidden Falls and swam a while. Then we continued to Rainbow. The number of people there was astounding. Pretty but crowded


Several young men and women were doing North Carolinas version of cliff jumping


We made a stop at upper Whitewater Falls, and walked the 150 some steps to its observation platform


We headed back to camp and stopped at "our" waterfall under the bridge near our camp. Pothole Falls. This was an excellent place to play and swim after a hard day hunting.




Time to go home the next morning. We got up and packed away the Kelty tarps, camp chairs, EZ UP and all the other stuff we bring. The drive the 9 hours home. In all we put another 1100 miles on our teardrop. I love camping this way, it's not for everyone, but it's for me.....

 

I just read through your build thread on the CrowsWing... The amount of love you two poured into the making of that thing is mind boggling! Looks like a real dream trailer and one that is definitely one-of-a-kind. Glad to see you are putting it to good use too! Now if only I could build something like that... Lacking in the money and experience areas for now though, but this is inspiration for someday!

 

Thank you for your kind words. It is s perfect camping solution for the two of us and it's been doing everything we designed it to do very well. Our countdown continues for now. ...3 1/2 years and we'll have it on the road for a year or so.

Glad we could inspire you. Chances are you can actually do your own. Planning and budgeting (of both money and time are key). Skills are acquired through the doing ( with mistakes having a positive outcome on your skill level). When you decide to build a teardrop of your own feel free to ask any questions you may have on teardrop design and construction.

Enjoy

 

Just read through your thread. Loved the whole thing from beginning to end. Really interested in your cap storage ideas (Hi-Lift and Jerry can's especially), thank you.

 

"Breaker 1 9, anybody got their 400 watt power on?"

The last couple of weekends, (well, I actually only worked on it for two days.....it was just strung out over a week). The Wild Crow received a new fuse block under the hood, a CB radio, USB power ports inside the console, a 110v outlet on the back of the console and the 400 watt anytime mod.
For starters, there are these two nice threaded holes next to the stock fuse bloc under the hood.


I made a bracket out of aluminum plate and aluminum angle. The new fuse block and a main fuse were mounted to the bracket and the whole thing mounted to those handy mounts


The CB antenna was added using a bracket I bought yeeaars ago. It is made for a T100, it also fits a first gen Tundra, and now it fits a second gen Taco


Taking the console apart was easy peasy




I ran a circuit from the new fuse block to power the USB ports. Our phones can charge all the time now and the wires aren't coming out of the dash tangling up everything (like the shifter, my coffee, or my french fries)


The new outlet was installed in the back of the console. The back just unsnaps from the main console body so you can cut a big hole in it. The wires simply tapped into the existing circuit coming from the inverter (see the AC Outlet and 400 watt anytime thread for details )


The CB is the Cobra 75WXST. It's basically a handheld CB with a power block that can be hidden. I pulled my old one from the Tundra.


The main block is mounted in front of the shifter under the console. The attachment for the handheld is mounted in the weird long cubby beside the shifter.


And that's it. Now I can talk to truckers, or friends while we're out traveling through the woods, all while charging my phone and making toast......

 

Skidmarks happen, it's better to wear the right underwear and stay sexy.

Mobtown Offroad had a group buy recently on their skid plates. I sorta got involved as I've been wanting some aluminum plates. I had originally thought about making my own plates, but at 25% off it seemed to be an offer I couldn't refuse. After some discussion we decided to order a full set (Engine, Transmission, and Transfer case) of aluminum skid plates, no coating just bare aluminum.

I had an image in my head that the raw aluminum would look cool as hell under the truck, while protecting us from an errant rock that would like to eat an oil pan, or transmission pan (or that stupid low exhaust pipe)

The waiting was the hardest part. No, really, Mr. Petty is right. The waiting is the hardest part. But eventually they showed up at my door.

Very well protected in their packaging. Excited was an understatement! I barely got them in the garage and had them unpacked.





They sat in the garage for a week while life went by. I painted the transfer case crossmember, and then came install day. With my trusty wife beside me we knocked this out in just a few hours.












And damn if I wasn't right.......cool as Hell! Thanks @Mobtown Offroad !

 

really nice rig and sweet write ups! looks like some really good adventures ahead!

 

Business in the front, party in the back!


Our Tundra was always a Daily Driver first and and an Adventure vehicle second. The recovery equipment for the Tundra included a Superwinch Epi9.0 with a Viking synthetic winch line (the synthetic line came later, we ran steel cable and a roller fairlead for a couple years first). This was mounted to the truck using a removable Curt winch plate attached to a Hidden Hitch front receiver.




Luckily Tacomas are like the Barbie Jeep of Toyota: You can buy almost any accessory you need/want/desire for these things. (The Tundra was the complete opposite in that respect, when we wanted a winch bumper there was one option, and it was ugly and heavy.)


So then it became the game of which one. So many choices! Keeping our theme of aluminum to keep things as light as possible eliminated a (literal) ton of heavy, steel ones. The aluminum choices are fewer, but are still quite a few to choose from. I printed off photographs from the interwebs, read reviews of the products, reviews of the vendors, prices, shipping costs from said vendors – all these factors came into play.

 

We liked the looks (granted they are all similar – but different) of the Pelfreybilt the best, but shipping from Cali! Man! And then it happened.........Free Shipping became available for a limited time! We had the funds, so we decided to jump and order one.


It felt like time slowed down, yeeeeears of waiting, slogging through life, day by day.......OK it was really 8 weeks (which seems pretty quick for handmade stuff). We had it shipped to my wife's place of business – which didn't have a loading bay. The day it arrived, she called me to come help – so I took an early lunch from work and headed across town. She met the FedEx truck out on the road and the driver and she put it in the bed of the Tundra before I could make it across town to help. I then drove the Tundra home with our new bumper.

 

Installation would wait another couple of weeks. In the meantime I ordered some parts we would need to complete the installation. Finally, finally the right weekend came along and it was time! We parked the Tacoma in the drive, put the EZUp over it, brought out our work table, tools bumper, etc.

The grill was removed easily



Then the bumper skin



The aluminum crash bar had to be bashed off with a rubber mallet. Then was a quick test fit and everything was ready. While Beth mounted the Baja Design lights into their respective places, I modified the stock fog light wiring. I thought the kit came with a plug and play harness, but the harness was one to add along with the stock – it had battery connections, a dash button and plenty of wiring. All I needed was to attach that harness' weatherpac connectors to the wiring for the stock fog lights. Testing for working lights nearly blinded my wife – note, don't stare directly into these!





Beth then added the braces from the bumper kit under the swaybar mount.



I cut a notch in the brace under the headlights to better fit the Baja Design lights.



The fender liner got trimmed away








Another test fit....




I modified the Superwinch's solenoid housing to fit under the hood. We decided to install it behind the headlight and power steering reservoir. This location meant moving the air intake tube, so we took a lesson from the Alternate Snorkle thread and cut a 3.5 inch hole in the firewall. After a 2 hour break to buy a new hole saw, we had it. A silicone elbow ( 4” leg x 3.5” leg) and about 8” of aluminum tube and boom! Engine breaths from high up and not in front of the tire – and we've got room for the solenoid!

 

With the solenoid mounted on a custom made bracket and the bumper/winch combo setting on the ground in front of the truck, I began running, cutting, and crimping lugs on the 1/0 welding cable I bought for this project. I worked well into the night getting this done.(Well 9 pm , but that is pretty late for an old guy!)





The wires are long enough so that if we need to remove the bumper we can unbolt it and set it on the ground before we have to disconnect any wiring. All the wiring is firmly cable tied in various locations, and with a quick snip, snip, they unroll to allow bumper removal.



The next day, we made a bracket to mount the winch controller plug. It's right next to the original intake hole in the fender. Everything got connected, and the winch tested (It's alive!) and we installed the winch line.



We tightened all the bolts down, while carefully getting the fender gap to bumper ratio right, added the license plate and we were done! (Actually we forgot to mount the license plate with the bumper on the ground, and unfortunately the back of that area is pretty much inaccessible with the bumper on the truck, so we had to place threaded rivnuts in the hole to screw the plate to, but all's well that ends well.)





One step closer to freedom!

 

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