GeoYota - Sold to a good dude in the AZ desert

Sliders mounted today at ORW in San Marcos.


Pass side...



Drivers side...



Raw welding to the frame...



Cleaned and ready for primer...



And sprayed...

 

Picked up a Thule Canyon XT roof basket...expensive, but worth it.



Annnd...mounted



Gives me a spot to mount my Rotopax

 

Also ordered a Hi Lift mount/bracket set from Shame-a-zon...$61 delivered



So, now with the Hi Lift adapter, I can successfully change a tire with my lift and the HL sand base. Almost overland good to go!!

 

Did a little bed organization as well, removing my old plywood organizer system. Ordered up some of the U.S. Cargo Control tie downs, and then visited HF for some new cam-buckle straps for the fridge.



Let there be "free coupon" light




Installed





Again, a tip of the hat to Nick @Crom for all of his most excellent suggestions...this build wouldn't be half as efficient without his research and ground breaking (literally) overland prep.

 

My ARB DC cord plug took a major crap, so I dialed up Shame-a-zon and grabbed two new plugs. These are cool Blue Sea products, one for install and the other for my electro bag of goodies as a back up.

 

I like the headlights. Where'd you get them?

 

From a friend who purchased them new...I actually removed them because the power supply disrupted my ham radio.

 

I like the blackout. Looking for a simple pair that look similar to that. At least until I can afford for @LSC15 to make me a set of retrofits.

 

Found a roof rack in pretty good shape for $15 at my junkyard, now I need to order a rivet nut setter (I assume a regular riveter wont work) and take the plunge. Any other tips?

I will be cutting about 2 inches from the front to take care of the gap problem as stuffing foam under there simply wont work for me.

 

Looks like you plunged pretty well man...saw your thread on the install, looks great so far. I left a note in that thread with a few things I thought of that might help. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with, and good luck.

 

I was thinking about how you said you wished you cut your rack before putting it on. You still could cut it, but of course that would leave a rivnut exposed. You can still use the rivnut for whatever the screw will accomodate. Spotlight, Wind deflector, or even just a screw painted black.

And I'm thinking for mine I will cut fairly far back, and not rely on any type of rubber or foam to accommodate the roof curve.

 

Nice build, just read the whole thing. Where do you have your Ham mounted inside?

 

Thanks for checking it out...I mounted my ham radio with Velcro on the plastic console pass side foot well.



After doing some research, and looking at several different RAM mount options...this was the path of least resistance.

No holes drilled, and this mount held up extremely well during a five day trip through Joshua Tree NP and over The Bradshaw Trail here in the SoCal desert.

 

Ah, gotcha. I'm thinking about picking up an FTM-100DR and mounting the face in the headliner right in front of the map lights

 

Those are great radios...I take it you are a General Class? Congrats, you have a wide range of bands to choose from!!

I had also looked at detachable face plate options, of which there were no single band 2 meter available. I also considered having an HT option in the cab with an antenna mount direct to the top of the unit. The velco mount saved me a lot of hassle, and frankly I was surprised it worked as well as it did across the multi surface off road conditions we encountered during our trip.

Good luck with your radio research, and the faceplate mounting you mentioned is actually the best option. I previously had an older unit Kenwood tri bander with the main unit mounted underneath my driver's seat, and the detachable faceplate on the left side of my dash. It was a great unit but at over 20 years old, the finals just gave out. Cheaper to replace than fix...a bummer but inevitable.

 

Taking a break from some of the mod projects on the Tacoma, my wife and I took a nice road trip earlier this year across several states, camped in Sedona AZ, as well as Mesa Verde National Park.

Camping shot from Pine Flat CG just outside of Sedona...



Chili and freshly toasted bread bowls...delicious...





One night in Arizona, then off to Colorado.

 

I don't actually have a license yet. I plan to get it soon though. I like the idea of a digital radio. Seems to be more "future proof"

 

We drove through Flagstaff, as my wife needed a little Starbucks wifi for a business conference call. Flagstaff is such a cool town, so much history with great restaurants as a bonus.

We love Route 66 history, and Flag is a big part of that





Along the way we also made a quick stop at the Four Corners area of AZ/NM/UT/CO...really just a big tourist attraction on Navajo Nation property. $5 per person...cash only!!





The four areas are set up with vendor booths, some expensive trinkets as well as cool Native American jewelry. Really glad the Navajo Nation hasn't dropped a big ole gaming casino here!

It was cool to say we visited the 4 Corners area, but once you go, not really worth a return trip.

 

Colorado...



The real reason for the trip...and why Colorado is fantastic...



Doing the right thing...



We rode here on a tip from a friend, and I have to say that Phil's World it one of the best maintained trail systems we have ridden to date...it matches the Fantasy Island complex outside of Tuscon, Arizona. Well marked, well loved, and just amazing trails await you if you choose to trek here, or better yet, live here.

 

We camped at Mesa Verde National Park, and the experience was mixed. $22 a night for our tent site, which had amazing views. But it was small in comparison to our site we had at Watchman CG just inside Zion NP. We also were nabbed for an $80 food storage violation, as they take bear security seriously there. The worst part of the whole thing was the confiscation of our food, resulting in a 2 hour wait to have it returned. The rangers were cool, but we felt a warning would have been sufficient. Campers beware of the bears and stiff fines if you leave your food out.

Sunset view from site #33



Camping at 7,800' is interesting, and made unloading the truck and setting up camp a bit of a lung burner until we acclimated. This was all brought into perspective when we took a day trip into Telluride, where I attempted to breathe at 10,500'...more on that later.



Enjoying the campfire while we relaxed at our site...having a committed adventure partner is the best BTW.