Dune jumping, Beach Bombing, River Crossing landed me HERE <:)

When I first got my tacoma, I tried loading my moms dyna low-rider harley with the tail gate attached. Never seen a tail gate fold like that. Then I strapped my KTM 950 Adventure down (with kick stand down) and drove to Oregon. upon arrival I noticed kick stand wore hole in my seemingly all-plastic-bed. Then my friend told me that 6 bolts remove the whole thing. Not a bedliner.. but the bed. My front bumper ripped off when crossing 4 flooded creeks on a road in Willits, CA called Tomkai, almost lost the whole truck, had I tried crossing the 5th one. two zip ties and all good. One day when I got my braces removed, the grill fell off my truck.

After jumping my truck in order to scare my friend Dave in the passenger seat, I found myself changing my axle shafts, only to change again when I realized I crushed the 1-time crush-pins when pulling them back out because I put dust covers on backwards. Then I realized the third member needed to be replaced and my truck had double drive shafts

After a 100,000 or so more miles, I moved to the Talawa Dunes in Fort Dick California just north of Crescent City. Here I learned that you can drive your vehicle all the way down the beach from Kellogg rd, all the way to the mouth of the Smith River. (cleanest river in the U.S. ).. With kids in my truck I could not resist driving through the ocean at about 60mph. For almost a year I drove my truck down the beach almost every day, sometimes jumping the dunes, sometimes driving thru the ocean, but hey, what an awesome place to drive and take my 3 Blue_Noses.

Now you can imagine the issues my truck is experiencing some I have never seen like my windshield wipers running at 10x normal speed. its like they are going to fly off my windshield. So I got a really big bottle of dio-electrode grease for all my connections.

I built a 300lb custom rear bumper made from 1/4 inch steel, which bent my leaf springs backwards. I will probably be selling it on this site or craigslist soon.

I re-enforced my tail gate with some angle iron and am actually very pleased with it now.

But my current Engine issues are probably what prompted me to join this site. I have been leaking oil I think from the front timing cover and a major clacking is coming from the same area. I have a 2.7 liter 4 cylinder in my 2005 4x4 and plan on pulling the whole motor and rebuilding maybe starting as soon as soon as I find parts.

I look forward to talking with some of you on this site and exchanging some good information. I hope I can be of some value to everyone here, maybe what issues occur when you severely abuse your daily-driver.

I started writing a book before I checked into rehab over a decade ago. Its title: "Itching a broken nose; The life of Rick and a hundred ways to F--- Yourself.

Thanks for reading and much respect to EVERYONE here.

Rick
2005 2.7 Liter 4x4 Tacoma

 

Welcome to TW! If you still live in Smith River we should go wheel Rowdy Creek some time. I'm in Brookings. PM me your number if you are interested.

 

Ah man I'm out of town now.. but maybe look you up when I rebuild motor and come back that way.. truck took a lot of damage especially rust on that beach but how many beaches can you just drive down? I really enjoyed that while I was there. and never saw anyone else out there, I imagine most the crescent city folk were in playing call of duty..

 

I actually learned to drive at kellogg before the roads were so overgrown. I haven't been down there in years but I think I will take a drive that way soon.