AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Nice. Interesting seeing someone’s first time impressions of Anza-Borrego.

 

Thanks man, appreciate it. Did turn out to be a good day behind the lens it seems. Had some nice light throughout the day helping things along .

Glad to hear you liked it. The more we've used it, the happier we get - it's one of my "top mods" now I think from a "how well it does the job it's supposed to do." Seriously a great mat; wish I'd gotten it a couple years ago!

Thanks on both counts. AB is a pretty cool place, that's for sure - and the bloom made it extra special. Pretty crowded though for my tastes, at least compared to DV and Mojave Preserve - the crowds were something that really surprised me.

4Runner wheels are nice. Still a few bugs to work out, given the additional backspacing and the location of my resis, but I think in the long run I'll be happy with them.

Thanks. I like them too, though I think I liked the look of the @SCSPerformance Stealth6 a bit better - funny how the darker color grew on me over the last year. Considering giving these a paint job if I ever get the time...darken them up a bit. That may mean they stay silver forever, hahahahaha.

You should totally post yours. Everyone wants to see what you explored and what you thought was awesome. Gives us all something to think about for our next trips! C'mon now, go create a thread in Trip Reports.

Well, I obviously don't know your exact situation but I'd encourage you to get out to Anza-Borrego for sure. It's actually one of the more-populated, easier-to-travel places we've been. The roads (mostly washes) are really in pretty good shape - I mean, good enough shape that you could easily drive a Civic or some family sedan on them as long as you were careful. And there's plenty to see without hiking.

Glad you enjoyed the post, and hope you enjoy the rest of the trip as well!

Thanks! Definitely not a "normal" first experience I think, given the super bloom this year. As I mentioned above, pretty cool stuff to see IMO, but also a bit crowded for my tastes overall. I can see myself going back a couple times, but likely less than I do with more solitary/less disturbed (?) places like DV.

I take it from your username that you have spent some time in AB. And your wording, "interesting" has piqued my curiosity. What did you mean by that / why was it interesting to you? Because you remember your first experiences? Because your impressions now are different?

 

Eh my trips aren't big enough to post there, I just update my build thread. I just need to use my camera more, to remember how to haha. For some reason my film speed was spiked to 3200 for most of the day, and in general, the colors just really don't pop like they do in person. I end up driving too fast and running around too much to take pictures. I found the slot canyons off calcite mine rd, but didnt know about the tanks you mentioned. The trip back through Elsinore was INSANE with poppies, so those are worth posting. Anyway, back to YOUR trip report.

 

Wheels are definitely looking nice! Also considering a darker color - I went over them with HyperSilver and Clear a few times since they were pretty banged up. Not sure I'm satisfied with the color. Awesome trip report as usual!

 

It's all about that final edit as far as color and vibrance is concerned.

 

Spectacular photos. I liked the Desert Lily. Wild unique looking plant. Thanks for sharing.

 

I spend a lot of time in Borrego.

The last couple blooms have seen increasing people. It is usually not so crowded the rest of the year.

The popular 4wd and hiking trails are crowded, but the best stuff is off the beaten path and accessible hiking cross country only. You can still easily find solitude.

 

I've always read your trip reports via phone and enjoyed the story and photos. I happened to be on my laptop tonight and....F@#k there's a huge difference, so much detail color and depth with each photo.

 

Maybe i missed it somewhere, but did you have to run spacers on the new wheel setup?
Looking to change my steelies out for something else and eliminate the spacers. Those 4runner wheels look good.

 

I don't believe he did. I obviously can't speak for him, but I can't imagine him using spacers with the amount of time he spends off-road.

 

Edit.... Nevermind....

 

and your point is?

We're not talking about a SAS'd Tacoma. We're talking IFS. Most people will agree that the physics in adding a wheel spacer puts more stress on the components in the front. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a spacer is awful. I used to run them before getting FJ wheels for the more favorable backspacing. That being said, they were a stop-gap until I found more suitable wheels.

I'm also not going to get into a debate on whether wheel spacers are ok to use off-road. If my opinion bothers you, go start another thread about it. This one is reserved for awesome stories, beautiful or cool pictures, and classy comments.

 

It is all about the backspacing on the wheels and the section width on the tires.

I am not certain of this, but IIRC those wheels Dan put on have ~4.5" of BS. And this does move the wheel inboard compared to what he was running before. But because he is running 255/85r16 tires he can get away with it and likely experiences little to no rubbing other than maybe a touch on the frame rail at full lock in a slow turn.

If he had 285/75r16s instead, he may not have been able yo run those wheels because that tire with that much BS will contact the ball joint area on the upper control arm.

 

Epic as always. Excited for the rest of the story.

I am taking the first multi-day trip of the year in a couple of weeks and I am going to structure my trip report in a fashion similar to yours, as your reports are the best I have ever read.

Thanks again.

 

Sorry for the slow replies. On another trip last week! Looks like everyone pretty much got along here just fine without us. Probably better, really.

Still have the rest of the Anza-Borrego trip to post, and then a whole bunch of new photos to process for the next one. Fun times.

Thanks. It is a very cool flower. Have a few more photos of it over the rest of the trip I think. Crazy to see a hillside full of them, for sure!

Makes total sense, seems to be the case everywhere really. We definitely enjoyed the less-well-traveled bits where we could find that solitude. And, I was mentioning that I really want to go back when it's not a bloom - I feel like the bloom was cool, but a bit of a "misrepresentation" of what it's really like, 90% of the time.

Oh yeah, much better on a bigger screen. Glad you are enjoying and got to experience it on the computer. Pretty nice build you've got going on yourself; I really dig a bunch of your designs.

No spacers on the new wheel setup. The 4Runner wheels have a backspacing of 4.625", where the stock wheels (not sure if they are considered 3 or 6-spoke alloys... but they were the 3, double spokes) on the truck when I got it were 4.5" - so just 1/8" difference.

As Mike mentioned, I like to run skinny tires - 255/85 R16, which have essentially the same width as the stock (31x10.5") tires that came on the truck - so I don't need spacers to fit with the UCAs/spindle.

Also, no frame rub with this setup for me, but the placement of my coilover reservoirs is going to need to change, because I rub on them slightly, just before full lock - they are mounted to the frame, essentially moving the rub-point 3" outboard.

Oh, and I only barely rub them - a 1/4" spacer might even solve the rubbing problem.

Except I want to keep them under the flares - that's the whole point of these wheels!

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Well, now I'm curious! hahahaha

Bingo, we have a winner.

The key really is that I essentially just went back to a stock wheel. The SCS Stealth 6's were further out (3.5" backspacing) which made them look bad-ass, but made my life difficult on our spring and fall trips.

I do sort of miss the look, though I like the look of the 4Runner wheels too. We'll see if they end up getting painted a nice bronze in the future .

Thanks man, appreciate that! Have fun on your trip - the longer ones are great because they let you get away and really disconnect (or is it connect with the outdoors? )

Find whatever format works for you with your reports, and have fun with whatever format you choose. If you enjoy putting it together, that'll come through in the end result, and that's what people like, in my experience.

 

You might contact ADS about that. They are providing a new mounting bracket for the reservoirs that moves them for this reason. @Blackdawg has them on Igor as you can see in this picture - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...kensteins-helper.390488/page-47#post-20162693

Edit, better pics of the brackets here - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...kensteins-helper.390488/page-45#post-20160541

 

Matt at mcm developed them though. We thought that because of this that perhaps Matt uses a custom pn for the shocks(different hose and arrangement) than if you ordered right from ads or someone else perhaps? Just a theory but no clue. Dan didn't get his too long ago

 

When I stopped over at ADS a couple weeks ago, just after you got that last set (they will have more mid-week next week they told me), Tyler told me that they came with those mounting brackets to relocate the reservoirs now because of the rubbing issues. He said they work very closely with Matt at MCM in developing stuff so if he designed them, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Yeah he does most the oem filiment stuff for Toyotas.

Well cool. They came packaged with them super well so seemed like a normal thing to include them. Glad they are now, work perfect as I don't rub at all. Not sure how it would be with a wider tire though

 

What size tire are you running on Igor? I'm sure in Dan's case, with the skinny tires and the new bracket, he wouldn't have any rubbing issues at all. I'm running 285s with plans on going to 315s eventually so I guess I'll fidn out once I get everything installed on mine. That will be a little while tho and is going to be a complete front end rebuild and upgrade.