AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I noticed your Cal Poly gear, what year and major did you graduate? I am a mechanical engineering grad of '11. This trip looks epic. I'll have to look into whether something like this would be possible on the Colorado back country discovery route. Thanks for the motivation!

 

Great read. Thank you for that. I spent the last 2 days reading this thread (don't tell my boss) with the perfect mix of trip report and maintenance/mods.
I can feel the warmth in your writing as opposed to some more static posts.

 

Great write up! I'm so looking forward to hitting that section next week. I'd do more but I only have a day and 2/3rds to play... see any signs of fish at the ford or cane creek?

Your day 1, 2, 3 totally brought me back to my trip. Amazing following the gps when there is no or only the faintest track!

Looking forward to the next couple of days.

 

You should totally do the Colorado route. I want to do it! I was CSC '99 at CP, would love to move back to SLO.

Appreciate that. I've read many a thread here in a similar fashion, nice to give back a bit

We didn't look for fish at either ford, but there were definitely fish at other places along the route. Both fords seemed to have some nice looking holes nearby, if there are fish!

 

OBDR Day 6: Lookouts.
August 2, 2017.

Mornings were becoming routine. Beautiful sunrise, tasty breakfast. Such a tough life.

Of course, we suffered through it as we talked about the day ahead. While the previous day had been one of our longest (distance-wise at 180+ miles), today was going to be one of our shortest - only 110 miles or so, since we'd tackled 20 already after hitting Granite early - ending near a small town that even the locals (when we stopped for gas) - had never heard of: Kamela, Oregon.

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There's a spicy sausage in that breakfast sandwich. Yum yum!

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And then we were off.

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Within 20 minutes, we arrived at what would be our first extended stop - Desolation Butte Lookout. And as we pulled up, we each looked at each other knowingly - parked there, under the lookout, was another Tacoma.

Of course. Of course the only other vehicle we'd seen on the trail was a Tacoma. This one, a 2011.

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As I backed in next to it (for a pic of course), Mike, the lookout dude was just coming down the stairs and called down, "Hey, don't park on the grass."

My window already down to greet him, I waved, said "No problem," and then muttered to @mrs.turbodb as I backed the truck in over some gravel, "Off to another good start with the lookout resident."

But then, when he got to the bottom he introduced himself as Mike and explained that the fire danger was so high that he didn't want to risk the bottom of the truck catching anything on fire, before telling us that we were free to head up the lookout while he used the out house. As we were heading up, he beelined for our truck to give it a look, and asked what year it was and what we were up to. Turns out he was on his 9th Tacoma, of which he still owned three.

Once at the top of the lookout, it was clear that the smoke from BC was going to make the rest of the trip one of local views, rather than grand vistas. Mike described to us how unusual it was to have these northerly winds, and how visibility here was usually 100+ miles, but today we could only see two.

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We chatted for an hour - both sides happy for the company, and Mike happy for the chocolate @mrs.turbodb had brought him. He pointed out several previous fires, answered all the questions we had about the lookout and forest management, and we had a good chuckle over his amazing NPR reception in the tower ("It's great, I don't even get this at home," he said!)

After 45 minutes we signed the guest book, discretely left a couple more chocolates (since he'd long finished the first several), and headed down the stairs. As we pulled away, I turned to @mrs.turbodb and said, "OK, he's restored my faith in Tacoma owners." It was an interaction that brightened our already great morning.

After making our way down, down, down from Desolation Butte, we found ourselves crossing the North Fork of the John Day River and following it down to the town of Dale, where we hungrily filled up on gas, having struck out the previous day in Granite.

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This time, it was @mrs.turbodb who said, "Let's take a picture of the three of us."

'atta girl! (when you gonna get your T4R?)

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As usual, history along the route was thick - this old cabin was over a hundred years old.

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After a short gas stop, where the owner started with, "Where are you kids headed?" followed by, "Kamela? Never heard of that!" (it was less than 75 miles away at this point), and waved with a "You kids have a great time!" as we pulled away, we continued on, back up the North Fork of the John Day to the longest hill climb we'd encounter.

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As we ascended the first couple miles, we were worried that the climb would become another ATV track (because it wasn’t on the map), but as we crested the top of the first section, the track joined another road that was significantly wider.

We kept climbing, then hit a paved road for two miles (so nice) up what ultimately turned out to be Tower Mountain, pausing to enjoy the smoky (but still amazing) views of the Umatilla National Forest, and just in time for lunch.

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When we hit pavement for two miles, the mountains were covered in a blanket of new, bright green trees; the old burned ancestors beckoning them to grow taller.

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Just before Tower Mountain Lookout, we passed through a Lodgepole Pine grove. These trees don’t have much commercial value now, but you can see why they were so prized by early settlers - with straight, narrow trunks, they were perfect to cut down and stack into a quick log cabin.

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Dual battery setup at the lookout. Don’t let the Tacoma see, it might get jealous!

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We ate lunch with a woman from the Forest Service who just happened to show up at the lookout a couple minutes before us - "I needed to get out from behind the desk for the day," she said. We traded stories and talked a bit of forestry (where several times, she asked if we wanted her opinion or the Forest Service’s - of course, we wanted both!)

We also, for the second time on the trip got some cell service and our phones went crazy. We may have even stolen a few minutes reconnecting with the rest of the world before setting off again.

By early evening after a re-route around an ATV trail (that wasn’t on the map), we made it to Kamela.

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Kamela it turns out is a town that is nearly smaller than the railroad crossing that passes through it. As we passed over the tracks and I got out to take a picture, @mrs.turbodb also go out - to wait on the other end of the crossing "just in case."

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With no reason to stop, we took a quick look at the route beyond Kamela and spotted a couple places that could be great spots to camp for the evening. Back in the truck for an hour, we passed through golden fields on our way to a ridge overlooking Summerville (barely visible through the smoke). There, we camped in the middle of the road, knowing that we were highly unlikely to be in anyone’s way given that we hadn’t seen any other vehicles on the trail for 6 days.

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Dinner was our best of the trip. Three-day-marinated flank steak, mashed potatoes, and fresh salad. And, it was the first day we’d put Coke in the fridge, so we had cold soda as well.

And of course, sunset during dinner.

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As we dozed off, we looked forward to tomorrow - our last day on the trail, and possibly the day we were headed home!

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OBDR Day 7: Out of the Mountains.
August 4, 2017.

Somehow, we were ahead of schedule. Having made it 15 or so miles past Kamela the evening before, that meant we had only about 85 miles to the end of the OBDR for our final day. That was fine with us because we woke up to pea-soup levels of smoke - enough to completely obscure Summerville in the valley below our middle-of-the-road camp.

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We rolled out of camp early, heading down our ridge on our way through the last of the Blue Mountains on our way to Walla Walla.

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Travel today would be on the easy side - no extreme roads, river fords, or “off-map” GPS tracks to follow. It was as if, as the original OBDR planners made the route, they had been “ready to be done” as they neared the Washington border.

The road up to High Ridge Lookout was gated and locked, but as we drove by on a nearby trail we were able to spot the occupant on the catwalk keeping an eye on things.

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And then, we reached our final descent. It was long, following the folds of the mountainside.

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On our way down, we passed an F150 parked in the middle of the road airing up. When we stopped to make sure the driver was OK, we confirmed that he was; he was fixing his third flat in a week from the same stretch of road. Ack!

And then, we arrived at the end of the OBDR and the Oregon - Washington border. A non-descript section of road, where the gravel transitioned to pavement, we couldn't believe we were done. 850 miles of Oregon backroads, less than 50 of which were on pavement, and with relatively few problems.

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Back in Washington, it was time - for the first time in a 7 days! - to air back up. And when we found another Tacoma parked 50 feet into Washington, we knew that was as good a place as any. Plus, there was a nice spot of shade ...

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It was a trip, and adventure, and an experience that we're sure to remember for years to come.

/fin​

 

Thanks for posting your adventure. It was great following along.

Great pictures and beautiful country.

 

Great articles, nice trip!

So where did you get your waypoints from? I found http://www.oohva.org/ (looks like you used route 5) and I would definitely want printed maps but I'd like GPS maps as well.

Generally if you could be specific about what you used for navagation I'd appreciate the info.

Thanks

 

I'm doing the reverse of this trip starting Sunday (starting in Walla Walla), excited to take these views in myself!

 

Thanks, and glad you enjoyed!

It was great fun. I used some waypoints I found online a couple years ago. They were mostly good - the person who made them was clearly on an ATV or motorcycle, b/c there were a few places where the points went on trails that a Tacoma couldn't (now or ever) fit. From a nav perspective, we used AFTrack-Lite and (offline) Google Maps on an Android tablet, which worked reasonably well but that I'm not totally happy with, and I'll be looking for a different solution for the next trip. Perhaps Backcountry Navigator. We also had a "normal" AAA Oregon map, which gave us a sense of where we were in the state and where we could pull out for gas, but of course didn't have any of the route on it.

I did record a GPX of the whole trip, but it needs a bit of editing to take out "dead ends" where we ended up off-route, or needed to re-route. I'd also like to mark a few of the more interesting places for future reference.

Awesome! Have a great time. Hopefully you don't run into crazies who think they can do parts of this in their Civic in order to see the eclipse! I will say just as fyi - I'm glad we ran south->north, because the north end was more enjoyable, and that was nice to keep us engaged and motivated as we got later in the trip. At any rate, take a GPX, and we can compare routes when you're done!

 

awesome that you went back and made it happen after the first attempt. great read and i look forward to hearing about other adventures.

 

Bed Slides on the Cheap
August 20, 2017.

As soon as I installed the bed rack, I knew that there were going to be trade-offs - on the one hand, it made for a much nicer sleeping experience with the CVT; on the other, it was a lot harder to get stuff that was in the bed of the truck. Like the cooler, and kitchen stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a trade-off that’s totally worth it. But what if it didn’t have to be a trade-off?

What if I could have my cake and eat it too? That’s what I thought when I heard about and then saw this - BedSlides. I mean, for a cool thousand bucks, I could easily get to everything in the bed.

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There were just two problems: First, it was a bunch of extra weight I’d be putting back there all the time. And boy, I’ve already got a lot of extra weight back there. Second, it would add 4 inches of height to the bed. Not a big deal for most things, but I only had 3 inches of clearance for the ARB fridge.

The fridge is a life-changer, so there were no BedSlides in my future… and then I got to thinking… which is dangerous: “what if I made my own?”

At first, I was thinking through a plan that would mimic the design of the commercial slide. There was no way I could do that for a reasonable amount of money (5-foot drawer slides cost hundreds of dollars). And the thing would weigh a ton - part of the reason I didn’t like the commercial one.

And then it came to me: as a strapping young lad, I just need some way to push/pull stuff in and out of the bed. What if I were to simply slide it on a piece of plywood? It’d be cheap. It’d be functional. It wouldn’t weigh much. It wouldn’t raise things up off the bed too much (so the fridge would fit).

It was worth a try.

Knowing that this would be outside, I opted for some ½” MDO plywood (the MDO would have good weather resistance) and I lucked out when I discovered that the local traffic guys were getting rid of some of their older signs.

I picked out a “RIGHT LANE CLOSED AHEAD” sign that was 48x48 inches and got to work.

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In the end, I used a 39" wide by 36" deep piece as the main "slide." That was big enough to fit the fridge, all of our kitchen stuff, and a bunch of other gear that's always harder to get out of the bed. Then, I used the remaining 12" that I'd cut off to build a handle that I could use to pull the slide in and out of the bed. I made the handle in sections, so it can fold up in the bed, or fold down over the tailgate for easy maneuverability.

I also added a maple runner on the bottom of the slide panel to keep it aligned in the bed (it runs in the grooves of the bed liner).

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With the slide complete, getting to items in the back of the bed was easy. Pull out with the handle; push in with the handle. But there was one problem - even when pulled all the way out, the fridge was still a bit too far back in the bed; opening the lid would cause it to hit the CVT.

No problem I thought; I can create a small shelf on some drawer slides, and that'll get it to slide out another 24 inches. And it did. And it worked.

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Overall, this turned out great. The only thing I had to buy was a pair of drawer slides, but even if you had to buy everything, it'd be under $100. And it's super functional, and easily removable; you know for the 95% of time you don't need it and just want to use your truck like a truck!

Materials used:

• Half a sheet (48x48") of ½" MDO plywood - ~$60
• 20" of piano hinge - ~$10
• 1 pair 24" full extension drawer slides - ~$20
• Some scrap maple (any scrap wood will work) and plywood for the runner and shelf - free

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What happens when the MDF gets wet?

 

If it was MDF, it would be a disaster to get wet! Luckily, this is MDO (actually, HDO in my case) or Medium/High Density Overlay - it's the stuff they use for road signs; a plywood with waterproof adhesives and a special adhesive-impregnated covering that should work really well in this situation. Besides road signs, they also use this stuff for concrete framing.

 

My misunderstanding! Excellent work!

 

To keep the panel sliding easily, use some paste wax on the bottom side. Nothing fancy, just something like Johnson's Paste Wax (used for woodworking and furniture.)

I use that on my woodworking tools, and it works great. Should keep your slide sliding.

 

Truck Shower - What is that Smell?
September 4, 2017.

Nice hot showers. Love those.

Of course, when you're out exploring the wilderness, showers can be few and far between. Often times that is fine - there are opportunities for hot springs, lakes, and creeks - any of which can make a great place for lathering up and taking care of some of the sweaty grime that can build up.

But sometimes it'd still be nice to have a warm shower. On our week-long trip running the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route, it turned out that the first 4 days of the trip presented no washing opportunities. And with temps hovering around 100°F, we were gross. And The Tour is coming.

Upon our return, I started looking for ways to make washing on the road possible. I figured someone else must have run into this same thing and come up with a workable solution. And I was right. In my research, there are two broad categories of "shower." The first is a pump that you submerge in a vessel of water - nice because it's relatively compact, can use any container (bucket, pan, bowl, etc.) to hold water, and if you're near a water source, you can take as long a shower as you want.

Of course, the water may not be all that warm.

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The second type is what I'd classify as "a vessel of water that you empty onto yourself." These come in different shapes and sizes - some you hang on a tree, others attach to the car - but the idea is that the sun heats up some water in a container, and then gravity or pressure push the warm water out onto you - the smelly smelly human.

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I didn’t really love either of these, because I wanted warm water, but I didn't feel like I'd generally be "in a camp" for long enough (or early enough) to heat up a big container of water. Instead, I wanted something that would attach to the truck, be self-contained, and give me warm water wherever we ended up each night.

I hatched an idea (OK, I'm probably not the first one with this idea…as usual) - use a 4" ABS pipe for the vessel, and the compressor under the hood to pressurize the water, just like a real shower. The first step was to gather materials - some 4" ABS pipe and end caps; a 2½" threaded adapter and plug; a valve stem and pressure relief valve; and a ¼" NPT elbow + quick connect coupling to make up the vessel; plus a quick connect, two hose ends, some flexzilla hose, and an NPT-GHT adapter for a spray head for the shower.

Of course, I also needed some tools and consumables… ABS cement, 2 3/8" hole saw, 7/16" drill bit, ¼" NPT tap, and a bit of teflon tape.

Materials in hand, it was time to get started building. First, I'd drill out holes for the valve stem and elbow + quick connect in one of the ABS caps. Both used the same 7/16" bit, which was nice. Of these, the hole for the elbow and quick connect gets threaded; the valve stem hole doesn't.

The key here is to get the quick connect drilled as close to the bottom of the cap as possible, so you can get as much water out of it the system as possible. Positioning of the valve stem is less important.

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Next, it was time to drill and thread a hole in the 2½" plug for the pressure relief valve (set at 50psi) in the plug for the threaded , which will ensure that the Truck Shower won't explode or become a rocket.

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With that done, I used the hole saw to drill a hole in what would be the top of the vessel for the filler, and then it was time for assembly.

One fitting at a time, ABS cement both sides. End caps first, making sure to put the outlet hole (with the elbow and quick connect) 180 degrees from the 2 3/8" filler hole. With the end caps on, I lathered on the cement to the filler and fit it into the hole on the top of the vessel.

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Then I waited. Full cure is two hours and I was super curious to know - would it hold pressure?

It did! With a few custom brackets that I made out of some 1½x1" tubing, and pipe clamps I attached it to the bed rack.

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Now we've got warm (to hot) water for two-to-four-ish showers right on the truck - awesome. And perhaps most importantly, @mrs.turbodb approved.

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Oh, and since I used the same air fitting quick connects as the on-board air, it's easy to "blow dry out" the shower hose when we're done showering. So win.

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That's pretty much the exact same design I have in mind for my dog/kid washer on my truck. Looks good.

 

Nice. Seems to be a pretty reasonable design. I ended up with about 3x all the parts I needed, so I'm considering building a few for folks if you're interested (and you're local so shipping won't break the bank).

 

So is it a quick connect or using a schrader valve? If it's quick connect how are you regulating the pressure building up inside? If it's a schrader, ideally a nice additional modification would be an internal regulator that can set it to a low but usable pressure without needing to manually add air.