blueberry.taco build and adventures

Are you really good at keeping other people out of your photos, or do you never see other people?

 

We spent a good amount of time looking down at the Green River so we decided to take a shelf road down to drive the banks of the river on the Hey Joe Canyon Safari Route.
Shelf road was beautiful and slightly sketchy at a washout before a switchback but we managed just fine.
along the river was super tight and a bit of off camber in areas with rock walls that threatened to destroy the roof of our camper a lot, so after a couple hours of slow moving but not seeing much in the way of river accessible camp spots, we turned around, had lunch and headed back up the same shelf road.
It was very quiet and aside from a pair of dirt bikers that passed us heading down right at the start of the trail and a parked truck at the bottom (maybe a kayaker?) we saw noone else.

As we approached the "pretty area" we noticed 2 guys just hanging out in the middle of the trail with only 1 dirtbike visible.
We knew something wasn't right so parked in a safe place and started walking over to see what was going on.
As we approached we noticed a tacoma down the cliff, it clearly was not there when we came down this trail in the morning.

Turns out one of the guys got out of the Tacoma for a picture, but the parking brake failed or for whatever reason it started to roll. He tried to reach in and turn the wheel to turn into the cliff rather than off of it, but was too late and got dragged down (unclear how far) with the truck.
He ended up with a bad head wound, described to us as "spurting blood", which explained all the blood on the ground.
Luckily a group of dirt bikers came across him and patched him up as much as possible with a T shirt and whatever they had on them, split up, and while one of them stayed with the guy, the others rode up the cliff in search of cell signal to hopefully get help.
By the time we arrived, the dirt bike guy said he had been there for an hour already.

Unfortunately, having deleted the entire rear seat we were not a good vehicle to really transport him, but we have a Garmin Inreach and offered to call SOS (which most likely would have meant a helicopter showing up) but were declined, he felt like he was in good enough shape to wait for ground based transportation, so we offered him water and tried to make him comfortable as much as possible.

Surprisingly within probably 20 minutes of our arrival, the first of the first responders arrived in a 4runner so we quickly moved our truck as far off the road as possible deep into a switchback.
As we just parked our truck a sheriff in an f150 came down the road but was initially hesitant to cross the sketchy washout. With some spotting I was able to help her down to the scene as well.
We rearranged the vehicles (turned the 4runner around and got the F150 out of the way) with the plan to move the injured guy in the 4runner but while the first responder was still patching him up, a helicopter arrived and touched down on the switchback above where we parked.

the whole situation was pretty intense so we were emotionally strung out and it seemed everything was under control and there was nothing more we can offer so we decided to head out of the area.

Later we realized the dirt biker was holding a dog, who seemed perfectly fine, but there was no way the dirtbiker had the dog with him, so it must have been the Tacoma guy's dog. As we had a dog we regret not offering to feed the dog or provide a bed or even take care of the dog for a while, but our brains just weren't in a clear enough state of mind.

couple weeks later we randomly came across this video on youtube of "trailmater" recovering the truck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquUa8bS0QM
which leads us to believe the driver is alive which makes us feel better (we didn't doubt he wouldn't survive, but it's still nice reassurance he got out of there okay)

So pretty crazy story we got to be a part of.

Definitely makes you rethink all the protocols of being safe in the wild, vehicle maintenance and understanding capabilities and comfort zones.




driving down the pretty shelf


the "prettiest" switchback of the trail


it wasn't a particularly fun or scenic along the river so we only have 1 pic to prove we were at the bottom


What we were greeted with coming up the trail


overlaid over where we were driving down in the morning

 

We work really hard on finding places that most people either don't know about, don't have the capability to make it out to, or we find a time or season that is not super popular.
If we come across a place we had targeted to camp but see people already there, we will turn around and go find an alternative.

 

slacked off on updating this thread.

still more camp spots from our trip


some narrow trails


some climbs up the "top of the world" trail


and some flexing




THE iconic photo at the top


and the minor scuffs we got


and the celebratory ice cream

 

now that trip season is over, build season begins!

current status: disassembled.

 

Hello shiny new thing.
Dog for scale.

 

Finally got the sendcutsend stuff i sent out a while ago. Note to self: make a separate order for anodized parts to minimize the time before they ship

 

Are you integrating a winch in your rear bumper?

 

Close,
rear winch yes, but stock rear bumper will have nothing to do with it

 

sent out another batch of parts to get cut by sendcutsend and now i can start welding up the first batch

 

Very impressive.

 

did a bunch of welding this weekend


did some turning


and fitted some tubing.
structural bits of the winch mount are done

 

work has been a bit nuts so didn't have a chance for much updating but here's a dump



wishing i had a sand blaster


welding them together


more test fits.
you can see i got stock harness clip equivalent tabs so i can route the harness without random zipties everywhere.
I am fully reworking the stock rear harness but i can try to match OEM quality/attention for reliability.

 

Making some regularly scheduled weekend progress.
Just barely got to tacking everything today before running out of argon

 

fuel tank mocked up for the first time, some more welds, and the tire swing out brackets bolted in.

 

simple little things getting touched up here and there





I don’t think too many overland Tacos have all these AN hose and fittings all over their truck but when seeking ultimate reliability this is where I landed.

Top left: tying the vents from both tanks into the charcoal canister
Bottom left: now very complicated stock filler neck with some mods -16 hose heads to fill the aux tank.
Missing a 45 degree fitting to complete the pressure line from the aux tank pump to fill this stock tank. Tiny 1/4” gas pump nozzle shut off vent line thing teed from both tanks.
Top right: pressure testing the modified filler neck for leaks
Bottom right: overall layout. Still waiting on some fittings to plumb the pressure line through the filter before heading to the stock filler neck.

With all this, the theory is I can fill both tanks from one fill neck, and it will self shut off the pump when both are full.
I can transfer across tanks as needed and no worry of over filling the main tank because the overflow will just run back to the aux tank.
Also fingers crossed all evap functions work as normal and the diagnostics don’t notice anything.

 

I finally ran out of room to piggyback wires through existing grommets to poked a big hole in the firewall for more bundles of wires.
Used this grommet from Amazon, hope it lasts!

$14 4 Pieces Universal Firewall Boots Firewall Grommets Automotive Rubber Grommets 3/8 to 1" Diameter Wire Bundle Boots Quick and Easy Grommets for Vehicle Running Cables

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B6W82TD?ie=UTF8



my powertrays/switchpros is getting pretty populated with wires.
got a new label maker which makes much tidier labels without having to clear shrink over them to last



and some more switches. what #overlander doesn't need more switches and USBs?
New front vs rear air switches turn on and off some valves for the ability to air up the tires per axle from the comfort of inside the cabin.
not a big fan of the giant gaudy rocker switch, didn't realize how big that would end up, so it'll most likely get changed out later.

 

I remember reading your first few posts when you first created the thread and then I guess I missed all the following posts until just now because I forgot to subscribe.

This is a really amazing thread man, great work on the truck and the write ups as well. I’m following along now; this is definitely one of the best build threads I’ve seen here!

 

I've posted some stuff here and there on instagram, but time to update this thread a touch

Trying these Hawk LTS pads for more bite to deal with all the extra weight


Trying out some durobumps for more end travel comfort


doing some bunghole work


and the butt came off the truck again.
I’ve never added a 1-1/4” hitch to any vehicle I’ve ever owned but here I am now adding a pair of them

 

got some tubes bent up


this one was a fun one to notch to get good fitment


and rear bumper welding is complete, finally into primer!