Ripcord's Spruce Mica Build

Nice trip! I realized earlier this week it's been exactly a year since I was in Colorado running trails like that. It's such a beautiful place this time of year, I can't wait to make it back one day. That mountain lion must have been quite the scare!

 

Thanks! I enjoyed all the pics of your trip last year, its such a good place to spend time. I hope you do come back some time!



Moved post to this page because I wanted to.

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Had a good weekend camping and wheeling just me and my girl. Did some camping around Leadville, CO then ran Halfmoon Gulch
Mosquito Pass trails.

Here is where we camped the first night, on clear creek near Winfield, CO.




Took some sweet star photos friday night:





This was an interesting shot because of what you don’t see… there was a mountain lion just behind the bush on the far right of the image. My girlfriend was taking the long exposure picture as I was crossing the creek with a flood light. As I was halfway across I noticed the reflection of eyes near that bush on the opposite shore. I turned the light up and saw the face of a mountain lion 20-ish feet from me just watching us. It quickly turned and walked into the darkness when I shined the light on it. Needless to say that was the last photo we took that night!






Did some fishing in the morning






Nothing big this far upstream.




After that, we headed out to Halfmoon Gulch to do some wheeling. Neat water crossing on the edge of a 8-10ft waterfall.




Came up to this section of the trail.. being solo on an empty trail, I decided not to try it. If I had some friends with me I definitely would have though!




There was a bypass for that section that was a tad easier though.






Sooo much green in Colorado this time of year.




Coming back down…






After that, we went up the other branch of the trail to the Champion Mill. Definitely the biggest old mill I have seen that is still standing.








Neat old chevy truck, an apache if i’m not mistaken.




Next day, we headed up Mosquito Pass from the west side.





Mosquito Pass is the highest pass road in CO at 13,185 ft.




I had attempted the pass last year in late July and was blocked by snow at this point here. Just a testament to how dry last winter was here.

 

Awesome adventure and great pic's! Thanks for posting.

 

thanks! It is always a good time in these mountains

 

Got a few housekeeping items completed in preparation for a week long expedition through Wyoming, Montana and into Canada.


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Now that I have the taller bed rack, I could finish the mounting of the rear lights. You will recall from page 1 that I also picked up some rear dust lights, they are 6” bars (flood pattern) from ExtremeLED with amber lens film.




And these are the switches. I got these from CH4x4: http://www.ch4x4.com/product-category/push-series/toyota-small-push-switches/#

These are designed to fit in the small push switch positions in modern Toyota center consoles. Almost look factory!




For the switch positions, I moved the factory ATRAC and USB/AUX switches over to make things more organized. One thing to note is that these switch holes all have different “key” features in them, so some filing is needed when moving the factory switches around (but not when only adding new switches).





For the dash lights circuit, I tapped into the green wire on the back of the A-TRAC plug




Installed




Here is where I ran the wires. I extended them a bit so that the plugs would be at the base of the rack. This will enable me to remove the rack and just unplug the harness there. Routed the cables under the truck inside the frame rail.








EDIT 9/26/2018: Used some spare tent slides and moved the lights closer up against the tent.













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I also swapped out my shackles. The original BAMF shackles were an early version, Jerry had since sent me a new set with better clearance during droop. All new BAMF shackle kits will now come with this updated version.

Update: These shackles do not fit the Dakar leaf pack very well. Possibly going back to OEM shackles to get rid of the polyurethane.








Also on the shackle hangers, this one bolt hole never lined up quite right. I had never addressed it until now.




I had no way to get a drill up there and open up the hole, so I just used a slightly smaller bolt. It's been running with 3 bolts for the last few months so I'm not worried about this haha.




And finally I chopped the exhaust. Sounds a bit louder and meatier, I think it is because the exhaust is pointing at the ground now and the sound can bounce off of that more than when it was out the side.

 

Breckenridge Peak 10 Trail

Even though I was in the garage for half of the weekend, I still managed to get out for a little bit of fun. We ran the Breckenridge Peak 10 trail. It starts at the base of the mountain and goes up under the chairlifts and on the cat roads.

The summit of the trail is a weather station at the peak and at elevation of 13,300 ft.

Travel on this trail is allowed because the ski area is on national forest land, the resort just leases the land during the winter.





















And a little pond crossing video

 

Jim! What is up! Welcome to the dark side (tacomaworld). Glad to see your build thread. Hope to see the truck in person at a Toytec or RSG meet! Cheers

 

Thanks dude!

I moved a week too late for the most recent Toytec meet, I was bummed!

 

Any reason you went with the XRC 9500 over the Gen2 X20? ....I'm in the market right now.

Also, why the move away from KING?

 

Because I got a good deal on the XRC.

I had a lot of issues with the way that King was run, but I mainly left to get back to CO.

 

Got it. I was leaning towards the X20 but my fitment is verrrry tight, so I may need to go with the XRC. I have a chopped AOR front bumper for my 3rd Gen T4r with a front plate welded on where the bars were. Is there any chance you could measure your winch from the front mounting bolts to the furthest point of the winch forward?

EDIT: oh wait, your winch is in your bumper, nevermind. Killer build man!!

 

I'll try to remember next time I take it off haha.

Thanks!

 

I dont like this build

 

It doesn't like you either

 

dammit.

 

Was just reading about your truck and the history of the Toyotas. I'm like you, I've got a 99 but its 4x4, but I do dream about a Spruce Mica Green Tacoma with bronze wheels haha. I'd keep the current truck though. Only 19 so that'd be way in the future, but if I can't find the color I'll get the damn thing pained that color.

 

If my original Tacoma was 4wd I would have kept it. Still a better truck than most 19 year olds have!

 

Thanks haha. My brother gave it to me when it was bone stock. Ok I’m done bs-ing on your build thread.

 

I stumbled across this build and I admire it. Sub AF