Ryan's Tacoma Build and Adventures Thread

When you're worried about getting stuck in the sand, keep that momentum up! And don't forget to turn off your traction control, too.

 

Yearly trip out to Sand Camp on the Coos Bay dunes was a success. Good time riding with family and friends even if my sis's bike and my dad's quad both broke minutes after setting out for the sand. Luckily we had an extra machine and lots of extra seats.










The Scout Yoho really does make loading up a whole lot easier. Woke up at 7:13am, and were leaving the parking lot at 9:01am. Got up, started breaking down the chairs and screen room while my wife straightened up the camper. Got the trailer to the parking lot along with the toys, and then loaded up the camper on the truck and drove it out. Then airing up, which takes quite awhile with my single ARB going from 15lbs to 55 and 60. Overall though, I think it was pretty quick!




66 nights in the Yoho

 

124,000 miles on the original front bearings... They were droning and humming like crazy at this point. The driver side was the really bad one. The cab is so quiet in comparison it's kinda weird. Wish I had done this 20,000 miles ago.

Also, buying the pre assembled hubs with new bearings really makes this an "easy" job. I'm no mechanic, and this was one of the few jobs I've done myself that didn't turn into an 8 hour job when it should only take an hour.







Told the wife I'd be in for dinner in 15 minutes as I took this picture... I almost didn't lie. If you take a look at the above pic of the old setup you might see my screw up... I put the dang shield on 90 degrees off so I couldn't reinstall the caliper. Had to pull it all back apart and rotate it. Luckily I knew what I was doing this time and it didn't take long. I absolutely didn't make that mistake on the other side!!

 

Nope, didn't buy a new toy. Friend/coworker had his bike not start yesterday. So I headed home to grab the truck and trailer. Of my three engineer friends I've now hauled each one of them home at least one time. I figure my turn will come, but one of them says I'm just continuing to build good karma. Maybe that will keep me safe.

 

Nicole's friend decided to get married in Banff, so we thought we'd make a trip of it. Took a week off and headed out with the Scout.




Beautiful rest area lunch stop






Definitely a different look to the mountains up here.




Don't zoom in on the front of the camper unless you want to see about 12,000 dead bugs.

 

We camped at the Tunnel Mountain 2 campground. The view was great, but it was not a private campground by any means.




About 30 feet in front of my truck, and 30 feet behind, and directly across the "street" from me was another campsite. You sort of parallel park along the sides of a gridded campground.




We originally planned to leave Banff and drive up to Edmonton, Wednesday morning, but instead decided to extend our time in Banff for 2 days. We did have to move our campsite, but it was a very short drive. This shot out the back door gives you a better idea of the layout of the campground, even though it's sorta empty here. It empties out a lot during they day as people drive out to explore the area. I've never seen as many rental RVs as I did this trip. Easily 50-60% or more were rentals. CanaDream seems really popular, followed up by Fraserway, with a smattering of Indie Camper, RV Canada and RV America.






Here's a shot down the street in Banff. There were more people, but my wife used her Google phone to erase most of them, lol. Works pretty good. I would say it was a perfect time of year to be here. Hardly any kids running around, and the number of people in shops and at restaurants was totally manageable. Food was amazing by the way. Also want to note, getting to downtown Banff from the campground was SUPER easy. They had a free bus service to take you downtown. BUT, you need to pay $2 CAD for the ride back. We actually walked it one night. Was like 1.5 miles I think?




Can't recall the name of the park we rode through, but we rented a couple e-bikes for the day and made a 20 mile ride out to Lake Minnewanka and back and this was along the route.




Shot towards Bow Falls just a short walk from downtown.




And I was thinking that was going to be 70 nights... but looking above we were already at 66, and this was another 8 nights. So 74 nights in the Scout! We actually just hit two years of ownership about the day we left, so I'm feeling good about how much we've used it. Definitely getting more outta it than the AT Habitat.

 

A good friend of mine was getting married in Kalispell so the wife and I decided to head over and then see Glacier National Park. Was a great trip and a wonderful wedding.

Traffic was lined up pretty good on the western side of the park when we got there, but made it easy to snap a photo with the Glacier Nat'l park sign.










We stayed at the St. Mary campground on the eastern end of the Going to the Sun Road.




77 nights.

 

Scout (adventurer manufacturing) threw an open house for owners to come check out the factory, get some free maintenance and updates done, bring us owners together. They asked questions about likes and dislikes and ideas for what we'd like to see next in future iterations. Was an all day event with breakfast lunch and dinner provided and finally a campout at a nearby campground. Between Yakima and Ellensburg. Was awesome seeing so many Scouts in one place







79 nights.

 

Somewhere between 2013 and 2014, I changed the sparks plug in my taco for the first time, trying to stick to that 40,000 mile interval suggested. They were super easy to change, and looked really nice when I took them out. This time I got lazy and waited til just shy of 130k, so 90k miles instead of 40k... They were horrible to get out. Not frozen in the head, but so tight it was ridiculous.

My buddy suggested warming up the truck for the second bank, and that helped a lot, but still really tight. I will not be waiting this long again.

 

Since I was having that "P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1" code popping up, I tried swapping the O2 sensors from side to side to see if the error would follow the sensor, or stay with the Passenger side (bank 1) Catalytic Converter. Swapping them required soaking them for a couple days in penetrant, but they came off reasonably easily for being in place under there for just shy of 130K miles. To my surprise, the Passenger sensor has a shorter pigtail, so couldn't reach to plug into the connector on the driver side. I unhooked the mounting bracket for the connector and used a long bolt to give it some slack. Sadly, the code did not follow the O2 sensor.

I had been in contact with my local go-to shop about the issue, but hadn't heard back on getting the truck in. They were at the tail end of a shop remodel/expansion so they were pretty busy. Decided I'd reset the code since I didn't know when I'd hear from him again. And then he tells me he can get me in on the next Monday (on the week of Thanksgiving). Of course the code didn't want to come back driving to work for a couple days, even though it had gone from getting the code in 900 miles down to about 5 minutes after reset. Ended up driving to Ellensburg for breakfast hoping to get the code to come back before dropping it off Monday. Nope... luckily shortly after turning around it came back. So much for 5 minutes. Took 140 miles.

Ended up getting the truck back on Wednesday before Thanksgiving with two new Magnaflow exhaust manifolds with Cats. It was the Passenger side cat, but he said we'd need to do both, so it's done. I think he installed the High Flow ones, cause they definitely sound different now. It's really noticeable when you get on the gas.

Hopefully these can last another 130K miles. I guess it's just that time. 12 years in, and things are gonna start needing replaced.

 

Headed down to my parents' on Christmas Eve and hit 130,000 miles on the Taco. Just over 12 years since I bought it new.



We had a great Christmas, and as usual my mom still goes overboard. 5 of us adults and 0 kids, and look at this tree, lol.



And like the last couple years, the Scout made a great private little apartment for us to escape to at the end of the night.

Bringing us to 81 nights. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you who happen to read this!

 

Two years ago we happened to randomly be in Leavenworth for the culmination of their Winter Karneval. It was the first year they ended it with Fireworks. We decided we'd make a 4 day weekend of it and check it out again. We were hoping to try some X-country skiing for the first time, but lack of snow and crazy cold had us decide against it.



The drive over wasn't too bad. Both Snoqualmie and Blewett Passes had a lot of compact snow and ice, but people were actually driving sanely. Didn't see a single spun out car. Luckily the entire weekend was dry, so even though it was stupid cold the roads got better for the return trip.





We had electric hookups at the KOA we stayed at, so mainly used a 1500 watt space heater sitting on the floor to keep warm. The thermometer over the door was consistently between 75 and 80 with the side windows cracked for a little ventilation. The bed area, however, was 15-20 degrees cooler. We ran the fireplace the first night to boost the heat, as well as used electric blankets and an extra heavy blanket we had. We cooked. We found we were plenty comfy with just the electric heater and the cabover being 55-60.

Spent a lot of time in the camper just relaxing. Our new snowmen watching over us. The KOA was selling all their Christmas stuff for 50% off, so we picked them up.



Been to Leavenworth a few times now, and this was the first we actually went down the river to walk the trail. Was cold enough the tips of my wife's hair was freezing. Lowest temps while we were there were around -15F degrees. Coldest I've ever experienced.





We found a new favorite breakfast/brunch place in Leavenworth. Bear Bear. It was amazing. Went back a second time before heading outta town. The food was the best breakfast I've had in quite awhile. Definitely check it out when you're in town. Wife said the cheese grits were the best she's had outside of the southern states. She can never find good grits in the PNW.




With another 3 nights, that brings us to 84 nights in the Scout.

 

Met up with a new group of folks at Frenchman Coulee saturday. Ended up being a great time.



Pics below are from a couple of new friends who take way better pictures than I do!







Only one night, but well worth the trip. That's 85.

 

Had a relatively busy weekend, starting with Avants Off Road's yearly women's only event. I usually run a pace lap with everyone at the beginning of each session, but I thought it more fitting to invite my wife to do the driving.










Here's me just running around trying to finish setting up.

 

When I got home, my new Bilstein 6112s were waiting for me. Ordered them from @HeadStrong Off-Road on 3/4, delivered 3/9. Had them set at notches 8 / 6 (driver / passenger) with 650lb springs.






Wasn't even noon the next day and my buddy was calling telling me to bring them over so we could get them installed. My old Icons served me very well for many miles, but I went with Bilsteins to match my 5160s in the rear.




Two sets of hands, and his know-how and tools, made the job pretty quick.






Was on the fence originally about an alignment, but definitely looks like it needs one now. Looking forward to seeing how the new coilovers sit after driving around a bit. Need to get the camper on, too, to really see. Hopefully I don't need to lift it another notch!

 

First trip of the year out on the SxS. Teryx4 is still a ton of fun out at Moses Lake. Had a nice little group going this weekend.




The Grizzly stayed on the trailer, but always nice to have a spare machine, just in case.




Couple folks had a chilly night in their cars, but as usual we were nice and toasty in the Scout with our fireplace going.




My wife made a delicious dinner Friday night. These Fred Meyer / Kroger salmon patties are great. These had some peppers in them, but others come with cheese or other stuff in them.




Was a beautiful weekend, even if the wind did pickup pretty good in the evening. Luckily we all used my truck and camper as a windbreak. Worked great.






87 nights.

 

Just for my own record, mainly. Had a handful of work done on the Taco.

Auburn Car Repair & Offroad:
Rear axle bearings/seals, etc.
Serpentine Belt
Lower Ball Joints
Rotors and Pads

What amazes me is even with all the heavy hauling I do, at 131,640 miles, that's my 3rd set of brake pads (and they probably had 5-10k miles left on the 2nd set) and the shop even said the bearings in the rear were only barely showing any noticeable signs of wear.

Only the front driver lower ball joint had a torn boot, but was still tight, went ahead and did all this as sort of preventative maintenance. Hopefully I'm good now for a long time, especially how few miles I put on the Tacoma anymore.

 

Got the new Wet Okole seat covers in. We decided to brighten up the interior, a LOT. Went from the plain grey/black to this teal/black. The half piping is definitely the way to go.

I'm not completely done yet. I still need to wire in the seat heaters. They came with cigarette plugs, but I'll be cutting those off and wiring to an add-a-fuse so I don't lose my 2 cig ports. First test, the seat heaters are only OK. They can't cook me out like my wife's Chevy Cruze, but I think a big part of the issue is the thick neoprene is a good insulator.

 

For years now, almost every time I went to the dunes I'd pop a hole in the orange hose between my compressor and the small ARB tank when I was on my 4th tire, or just after finishing and the system built up to full pressure. Between the engine heat, compressor heat, and the pressure it just couldn't handle it even thought it was supposedly for "high heat". I was getting closer and closer to not enough hose left after repeatedly cutting off a few inches, so I finally got around to replacing it with a Viair 3ft braided hose.




Like an idiot, I originally mounted it with the check valve in the wrong direction, so that was fun. I thought I broke my compressor, lol. But after reinstalling in the right direction I'm hopefully back to having a reliable setup.

 

Headed up into the Umtanum / Wenas area on Friday night. Spent two nights mainly enjoying the view from inside the camper. Was crazy windy up there, which isn't to be unexpected. We at least had one nice breakfast chilling in the morning sun beams enjoying the view.

















Definitely proved something this weekend. The Newport Dickinson fireplace wouldn't light when I was parked like this with the wind coming from the rear. Night one was plenty warm so it didn't matter, but day two we decided to fire it up a bit. Turned the truck around to point it opposite direction, facing INTO the wind, and the fireplace had zero issues in sustained and gusty wind.




89 nights.