Burt, The Old Man

The Move:
This Time It' Personal.​

I Currently am attending College in Gunnison Colorado, a small mountain town in south western Colorado at an elevation of 7703' and often times in one of the coldest places in Colorado and in the lower 48. But that's besides the point because I was about to leave the 100 degree weather of the northern front range and head back to the mid 70 degree goodness of a small high mountain town. Because CoWj is set up with a drawer system and fridge full time it doesn't exactly leave a ton of space for my life supplies for living up at college for the year. So a perfect excuse to take Burt up for a week before returning home to pick up CoWj.
I slapped the topper back on Burt and loaded him up with everything I needed. Still amazed with how much actually fits in the 6ish foot bed. I fit everything I needed for my dorm and other than camping gear which typically just stays in CoWj.

With everything loaded I headed out on the first long distance drive I had done with Burt. Only about 230 miles of highway, but it is filled with steep climbs twists and crossing over the Continental Divide and going up to the top of Monarch pass at 11,312'.
285 is a nice drive but has quite a few steep hills in which I learned how much a loud of a couple hundred pounds effected the poor little 2.7 at around 8000 feet. So it became a slow process, I technically could keep the 55mph speed limit but that just involved running at nearly 4000rpm which wasn't what I wanted to do to poor Burt. So on came the music and I cruised along at a slower speed but at a much safer rpm.
Them came Kenosha Pass the first real pass on the drive, it wasn't too bad but I knew that I couldn't hold the same speed as what I was used to. So I cruised my way up and eventually decided to pull off to take a quick lunch break near the summit with a nice view.

I continued down 285 until I got to the town of Salida where I turn to Us-50 which takes me right to Gunnison.
But with 50 comes Monarch...
I slapped Burt in 3rd and made it up and over with zero dramas, I was running about 50mph and about 3000rpm with low throttle input. It never got hot, lost power or complained. Burt was truly a Trooper up the Pass.

I love passing the old mining areas of the side of the mountain. Monarch is a beautiful drive for anyone in the area but in the winter it can get bad fast.

I an hour later I had made it to Gunnison, with no dramas, no issues, and a great sense of pride in Burt.
I had time to kill before tomorrows move in time so what better way then do some sunset wheeling! Which turned into one hell of a night run but that it for the next write up.
Coming Soon...

 

Alright after a long weekend of work I am back to writing this thread, also If you ever want to Regear our Toyota especially a new 4Runner trail edition. Just buy East Coast after spending 30 hours building the diffs for one its worth the extra cost for ECGS the clamshall and 3rd are not as easy to tune as everyone says.

Wheeling Trip:
And Now its Dark. ​

After making the drive back to Gunnison I had time to kill due to the fact that I was scheduled to move in the next morning and was staying with my girlfriend who was at work till 10pm so I had a few hours to kill. What do you do when you have a few hours to kill and you have a Tacoma, well you go wheeling.
I made my way towards the back side of the local recreation area, Hartman Rocks, and set about just driving around and exploring some of the roads on the backside of the area.


After through the south eastern entrance and finding a few campsites to mark on the gps I set about looking for some trails with a little bit of challenge.


Mission accomplished I found a nice trail with a few rocks and hill climbs to test Burt on. I learned a couple more things on this trip out. First off I really have to learn to drive it as a new vehicle and not like CoWj because they are about as different they can be but both are fun in there own way, next is damn, Burt has about as much flex as a frozen fish.
Now it was time to make my way out of Hartman Rocks as it was getting dark, and it was at this point where I should have left, but my curiosity took over and instead of heading north out of the rec site I decided why not push on in the dark into a unknown area, South.
Unfortunately, this is where the good decisions and photos end too.
I pushed on through the dark and ended up heading down into the valley that leads down to the old Aberdeen quarry historical site. Nothing really difficult on the road other than a few steep loose hill climbs that I had to learn about what gear to hit them with. 2ndLo and go go go seemed to work very well to keep momentum without going to fast or having too much torque and spinning out.
I keep heading west hoping to eventually finding my way across Hartmans and to a road I knew eventually 35 miles and 5 hours later I found my way out and drove the 15 minutes back to town, gotta love having such close access to an area that you can truly get lost in.

 

Adventure Time!
Long way? You Mean Fun Way!​

So as my girlfriend was working for the college she was in Crested Butte. A town 45 minutes north of Gunnison on highway 135. However I wasn't gonna take the highway when it is a beautiful summer day and I have a mountain pass that I could go over instead. Why not!

So I made my way north I missed being up in this area, I don't love living down on the front range during the summer but there is a lot more work down there than up here. So I guess I will take it for the next couple years. So I will just have to enjoy this view for a couple months a year before the snow falls and covers it all up.

I could get used to this view.
Soon enough I was back on dirt my happy place. How can you not slime ear to ear when you get to drive through a place like this knowing that you are about to take the long, slow, rocky road to you destination.

A nice little taste of what Ohio Creek Pass is like. A tunnel of aspen leaves, It is pure magic during the couple days of spring we have up in this area.

This is a relatively young group of aspens towards the base of the pass.

Soon enough you are driving through a pure sea of aspens. The road by no means in difficult, we have driven the schools 15 passenger vans up this pass a few times without issue. But it is rougher than can be. Every turn was very bad corrugations from people spinning their tires trying to get traction on the loose dirt surface. I never put it in 4WD up the pass. on top I went down a FS road that turned into a bit of a muddy mess so I back out of it.

Once at the top there is rock slide area that opens up the trees and allows you to see into the valley below.
It is hard to imagine to force when all this volcanic rock broke away from the ancient volcano millions of years after its last eruption. All of the west elk range was formed to do volcanic activity so it is all granite and similar rocks that can crack and break apart easily due to the long term freeze and thaw cycles we have. After making it over Ohio Creek Pass you simply hop onto Kebler pass and head east to CB. Instead of a 45 minute drive on 135 it was nice hour and a half through the mountains with a bit of rocks, dust, and plenty of adventure.

 

I like those tires. The steelies are cool but I like the originals you took off better because they were deeper and tougher-looking and they are kinda rare too, unique to your rare truck. Hope you stored them and maybe someday you could renew the finish on them. I don't know-they just have that "Tonka" tough look IMO.

 

Yup I have those factory wheels and the old KOs. I love the look of those wheels. But I needs to put better tires on the truck quickly so I went with the steel wheels to be able to use the tires I already had. I hope that this coming summer I might be able to pick up some 31x10.50r15s and return to the factory alloys. I hope I can remove the clear coat and clean up the oxidation.

 

Adventure Time:
This Got Messy.​

So after a week on having Burt up in Gunnison it was till to return him home as he is not is as winter prepped as CoWj is and I don't want him to have to deal with the -30 temps of Gunnison. So I made the 4 hour drive home and pulled the topper off so my parents can uses him on their current remodeling project.
Fast forward a couple months to November and I was on my thanks giving break. Which means I was back on the front range and while my boss moving into a new shop I was helping him get set up before our first project. I had the day before Thanksgiving off and we got a inch or two of snow that morning so I thought it would be fun to see how Burt does. So I went out on a quest to find snow. and well of course ever paved road was plowed or melted even just a couple hours after the snowfall ended. So I went in search of a dirt road with snow and while I originally did find a few snowy road and kept pushing east trying to find more snow. Well by the time I realized that the temp started to increase again I was about 50 miles into the maze of oil, farm, and feed lot roads of eastern Colorado. Unfortunately, this meant the upper layer of the road was about to get muddy. Great...
One this to know about me is that I absolutely hate driving through mud, I hate everything about it. I will drive through it when needed on a trail but will not to out of my way to drive through a mud puddle or go "mudding".

Yup that's gross...

Oh boy! Its frozen mud too even better.
I really need to find a front driver side mud flap, it makes a big difference. As far as I can tell it is one of the few things that Burt is missing.
Well after this adventure Burt got a wash the next warm day to remove the mud and any road grime/ mag-chloride that Colorado sprays on the road instead of salt. Next up some "Mods"

 

Burt Got all Washed up a couple weeks later once I was back home and it warmed up enough for the ice mud to melt off. Plus a bonus First gen possible the same year 98-00! I really like the Soft Topper on the Single cabs... I may have to get one of those and sell the Raven Topper.

The Rust spots on the passenger side are on the list of things to repair summer 2019 when I have the time and am back at home.
Spotted this little fellow at the local Toyota dealership, Looks like a person vehicle of an employee. I love seeing reg cab 98-00s especially the 2.7 5 speeds like mine. This one is in really nice condition too. Very well looked after for sure.

 

Mod Time:
Kind Of?​

When I purchased Burt he came with a type of cruise control, I don't believe that it was a factory system based on the install of everything I may be wrong but it really never worked and I didn't like how the switch looked on the interior, or how the entire unit looked in the engine bay. I had thought about removing it when I bought it but didn't have the time or motivation to do so. Well being back for winter break I was driving Burt around in some low teen temps and I hit a pothole on my drive to work before the interior hadn't warmed up. Well the sudden jolt caused the switch to come unglued and fall out of the dash...
It seems like Burt didn't like that switch either. So I guess it was time to pull it out. Hole clamped and Zip Tied to a bunch of random crap and it is even tied into the vacuum system. I plan to replace a majority of the vacuum hoses this summer as after 21 years they are starting to show some cracking and stress so to prevent any issues while on a trip I will definitely go through all the lines.

I began getting farther and farther into the dash finding more and more wires that connect this thing. The nice part is now I am pretty knowledgeable about where everything is in Burt when it comes to the computers and HVAC system.

Had to get all the way to the ECU as there was a T-tap into one of the wires.

Talk about being lucky. I was wondering where to find the fill to the switch blank. The cruise control was in the place where the E Locker switch would be if I had that option. Well upon taking the left side of the lower dash I found the switch blank just taped to the wires! Score!

That is a lot of wires and other crap. Nice to clear out the engine bay and remove anything that is not needed. Time to fine something to put in its place!
Next up, A first gen classic, a broken door handle. Simple repair nothing difficult.

And done. Yup the clear coat is really fading off Burt. I am in the process of planning onto what to do with that in the future.

 

Spring Time is here:
Get Stuck Damn You!​

I was home on the front range last week for spring break which means a break from the CoWj and a chance to drive Burt around and have some fun in the mean time. I had ordered a set of Maxtrax Before heading home and luckily they showed up Monday! And I forgot to take any photos of the Maxtrax... But I got Maroon to match CoWj. I plan to use them for both CoWj and Burt as they can easily be moved between them and can help get Burt out of some bad situations if I ever get stuck.
So of course I really wanted to test the MaxTrax out and so I was hoping aired up with open diffs that wouldn't be too hard on some soft tilled soil.
Man was I wrong, granted I didn't really try all that hard at first but really I expected this to be easier.

I tried to doing some cross axle a small mound at first but even in 2wd it did nothing.
This part was extremely half-a$$ed on my part
So I upper the effort level by about 30%

So I dug some holes for all 4 tires hoping to get it to loose traction and I could use the maxtrax as a test. But I slapped in 1st gear 4Lo and the moment the clutch came out the tire did a 1/4 turn grabbed and drove right on out. which was a little disappointing after digging for 15 minutes. But at the same time was cool too see how much Burt could handle as long as all 4 tires can bite at the same point.
I guess I'll just have to take him wheeling to give the Maxtrax a proper test of wait until I get called out on the Next recovery.

 

Newish Parts!:
Time to Remove some Crust
Now it was time do a bit of work on Burt among with a dozen or so other Tacoma's for work. But I was able to pick up a used Optima Yellow Top Group 27f, and I'll be honest, I am team Odyssey working in the dual battery industry I get to see what batteries last and which ones don't and unfortunately the past couple years we have seen quite a few DOA Yellow Tops or ones that fail after a few months as a starter battery of Aux battery.
We pulled this out of a customer truck under the assumption that it had failed and the owner bought a new battery, well after doing some testing on this one that was only a year or two old we found that it was testing perfectly even after doing some load testing in the form of spooling in a winch line on the battery outside of a vehicle and recharging before testing again for the same results. Eventually I will get a more personally desirable battery for Burt but until then he gets the Yellow Top to replace the crappy Costco Battery. And a little upgrade as well...
​

That is one crusty cheap battery...
Oh man, that sure is nasty.

Because I can't simply leave "Okay enough" alone, while swapping batteries I decided to so a nice Mil-Spec Lead Terminal conversion and get rid of those absolutely terrible Toyota stamped steel terminals. Now I have tons of power and space for more Electrical Goodies!!
And for anyone Curious this is how the electrics in CoWj are set up for now...
Group 65 Battery, Mil-Spec Terminals, and all accessories are controlled by a Switch-Pro

$659 Sp9100 Switch Pros SP-9100 8-Switch Panel Power System With Concealed Mounting Hardware

Sp9100
In the Mean time CoWj got a ARB Bumper and Warn 9.5XP-S I love the look so much I have to keep from getting Burt one.

 

No Burt needs an ARB. It would finally make it complete.

 

I am trying convince my self that he doesn't because I know if I do a front bumper then I will end up down the rabbit hole, But ARB bumpers look so good on the First gens especially now that they come in a flat black powder coat.

 

Sorry, but I think you need one. If I had the dough I'd love one. Or, if you are handy with a welder and grinder, build your own! I've seen some good looking ARB clones....

Pics I found here on TacomaWorld

 

I plan on making a rear bumper soon as I need a rear recovery point and use of a actual hitch receiver. Maybe if i find one used for the right price Burt will get one eventually, but currently I am enjoying the stock look and functionality.

 

Nothing wrong with that. Make sure you post pics of the bumper while you're building!

 

I Definitely will, It will be bumper #3 that I have built but first for a Tacoma, its not gonna be anything special just a quick simple bumper.

 

Quick update: Nothing major since I haven't been home to work on Burt in a couple weeks. But I was able to confirm some measurements over the phone with my dad and using those I was able to do a quick rendering of the bumper plan. The reason the the pure rectangle is that the bumper is only as wide as the tailgate and will fit in the open panel of sheet metal between the lower corners of the bed. Its getting a full 2" receiver even though Burt will likely never tow anything more than a couple hundred pounds. But if I am going through the effort of building a bumper I might as well just do everything. Chain tabs are on the back side and will act as bracing to the receiver. The bumper will get built around late May after I return from Expo West.

 

I like how you "downgraded" to steel wheels. Steel wheels are awesome, looks good!

 

Thanks, I like the look of the Pizza cutters on the steel wheels. eventually I think I will go back to 31x10.50r15 on the factory alloy wheels, depending on how much much I want Burt to have a "Classic" look.

 

Threw the topper back on for the next little while, it's move out week at school so Burt's making the trip down to Gunnison this Sunday. After this Thursday I'm going to be in full expo prep. Depending on how much of a turd CoWj is deciding to be before the trip depends whether Burt gets driven to Arizona or not. Which would definitely add to the adventure of expo west.
I think that with the steelies, the truck looks better without the topper but with the alloy 15s the topper looks better. Maybe at some point the summer I'll swap some 31x10.50s onto Burt, but that's TBD.