Driving a Tacoma around the world

Very nice! My advice is to rent a camper or rooftop tent and try it out for a couple of weeks. Id also ask her what she wants for comforts. My
wife wanted a indoor toilet & shower and do daily hikes

 

Sub'd. I love it!

 

My wife wants the same comforts...

I just happened on this thread and read your first post, immediately thinking that I'd leave the truck as stock as possible mechanically. Better to have parts availability than to try and replace something custom. There have been some good suggestions, though... dual batteries and dual fuel tanks. My second thought was that I would never do this kind of trip alone, one vehicle. I'd want a couple of other identical vehicles (spare parts sharing) along with people I can depend on once on the road outside of the States.

 

Thank you! Yes, we tried not to touch the mechanics (motor, transmission, etc) of the truck. As much as I’d like the extra power of a supercharger, the axles from a tundra leaving it stock as much as possible is wise.

We actually have only one battery under the hood; all of the camper electronics are run by the lithium battery in the camper and most of that is generated by 2 160 watt solar panels.

So far we’ve been living in the truck for six months in the western US, putting on 15,000 miles without any real troubles. Brakes were hot coming down one Colorado pass, just found a leaking rear diff seal

 

If you guys are planning on heading through Vermont give me a shout! Spare bedroom and bathroom, and a full shop with vehicle lift should you need to do any maintenance.

Amazing build, really jealous! Looks like you guys are having an incredible time

 

Thank you for the invite! That’s very kind of you. I wish I have a lift right now trying to figure out if my rear diff is leaking or if my diff breather is plugged. I will let you know

 

Just found your thread and spent the evening reading through it! I think we may have seen your rig in Bend in late summer but can’t be sure with this being adventure rig Mecca and all that.

What’s the latest on a ship-off date? Waiting for vaccination? Hope to see an update here or on your website soon.

PS Our last vehicle was a Sprinter and I successfully left our Engel MT45 on freeze mode for two weeks while on a work trip with no issues, only powered off of one 100 W solar panel in mid-summer. The ~250Ah of AGM battery bank was at about 58% when we got back. We had friends peak at it every other day to play it safe. If you’ve resolved that battery issue, I’d expect your fridge to not be a major draw.

PPS With Sprinter conversions, a popular electrical setup is to run an Alternating Current Relay (ACR) between the house bank and vehicle battery. You can hook it up through a three position switch that allows isolating either battery to your system and even starting the vehicle off of your house bank. But the constant benefit is that it keeps your vehicle and house batteries at balanced levels. Plus a monitor on the shunt will also let you know if the vehicle battery is being run down. Not sure if it’s applicable to your system but thought I’d share. Cheers.

 

Your around-the-world sounds absolutely epic! I was reading your list and one thing I never go without is a Pull-Pal. I've been stuck in places where there wasn't a tree, rock or anything solid within the reach of my winch line like in my profile photo. The Pull-Pal allows you to get out of a situation that otherwise might be a long, tough ordeal. I go on nearly all solo trips and I wouldn't dream of doing it without this ingenius tool!

 

a similar idea, but soft shell which may take up less room (and can be a tree saver etc)

https://www.deadmanoffroad.com

 

@Bigt707

Ha! Small world, we were there around August 20th and camped along Century drive west of town. It was crazy crowded, in my 30 years of camping there never seen anything like it.

Thanks for the electrical tips, our battery is working great. We have a 100 amp hour lithium with 330 W of solar and it works perfectly at keeping everything charged up. Dreaming about adding another battery and 2 more panels, thinking then I could get rid of carrying propane. Probably doesn’t make economic sense but sounds cool

yes, we have been remiss about updating our website. We felt a bit guilty about wandering carefree while everyone is supposed to be isolated. We’ll definitely start writing about our adventures we’ve had this winter. It’s not as if we have a house to go back to. We definitely wear masks when we’re within 10’ of people, even when hiking.

we are hoping that we can receive a vaccine in April when we swing back thru OR, our tentative shipping date is June. Last night we spent it 200 yards from the CA/Mexican border. Here it’s a metal slatted fence 20’ tall. Lots of nighttime activity around, not the best nights sleep! We’re hoping to cross the border into Baja later this morning at Tecate. Wish us luck!

 

Thanks for the suggestion! That looks like a great tool. We did think long and hard about bringing one. Being in a Tacoma its a trade off due to very limited space. I’m hoping that I can use our hi-lift jack and bury it as a deadman instead. That doesn’t sound but I’ve heard people doing that. On a high note, yesterday I broke down and bought another set of maxtrax, so now we’re carrying a total of 4. So far we’ve haven’t been stuck, not really needed the lockers yet except for out adventure driving over Imogene Pass in CO last fall.

 

Great suggestion as well! We saw this at the 2019 Overland expo and we’re very tempted. This thing is beefy, bulky, and expensive though. If we were planning to do a lot of sand driving by ourselves (other than The Sahara, Namib, Gobi, Kalahari, Atcacama, Simpson..) crap! We probably should get one...

 

pull the breather and blow into it...then suck on it and make sure you can't suck in any air.

 

Yes I did that and realized the line was plugged. Looks like the pressure forced diff fluid out the pinion seal. Took it to a Differential shop and they replaced the pinion seal but unfortunately the pinion gears have too much play and are now bad. Will have to replace them when we get back into the states as we are in Baja right now

 

That sucks about the gears, I hope you’re able to make it back safe.

How’s Baja?! That sounds incredible

 

Have you seen Andrew Muse down there? They ran into trouble on the beach. Be careful out there, stay safe.
Zim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0YEO3aEcyY

 

In short, Baja is awesome! First time for us visiting here. It reminds me of the Sonoran desert around Phoenix and with a blend of the Mojave desert as in Joshua tree National Park. It's also like what I envisioned southern California was like prior to all the people. We're about 1/3 down the peninsula and the temps are 50/75. People are very nice but try to give everyone space.

This is supposedly the busy season yet there's basically no one in the campgrounds. The people here are hurting financially. They are taking their Covid precautions quite seriously with pretty much everyone wearing masks and temperatures being taken prior to going into buildings. Although we have only been in two. We always wear masks and basically stay outside.

 

Being a Socal native, I took a marine ecology class in high school and was told Baja is the exact same as Socal when it comes to ecosystems, wildlife, and topography. So the land that has been preserved there is exactly what Socal was like before we urbanized it.

 

Man! You guys were in South Dakota and I missed ya! Ha dang!

Hope your future travels go well and you get the diff worked out! Maybe see you out there

 

That's interesting Zim. Evidently, this person is not a Mexican national who has rented /leased beach accessed and who sounds slightly unhinged and has accosted verbally and physically a bunch of people.

We're definitely taking common sense precautions like not camping alone on the beach and stayed away from the border areas.

Thanks Zim