Ryan's Tacoma Build and Adventures Thread

Thought I'd take the crawler to Clark Lake Park in Kent to see if I could find something to crawl on. If nothing else figured I'd get a walk in. It's a local park I had driven past a ton of times, but never stopped at. Had a decent time driving around. Ran a couple batteries through the truck, even took it through a small creek (seems weird, even though it's supposed to be water proof). Head back to the car and there it is... both driver side windows busted out. Another car next to mine had the same thing... Pics below... As far as I can tell, all they took was our bowling ball bag with our two bowling balls in it, and shoes. Seriously... what are they gonna do with that?








Luckily we have $0 glass deductible. Definitely paying for itself. Specially after my mishap last year at Moses Lake, and now this. So bummed about the bowling balls. Was my first ball, and only a few months old. League is tonight, so I guess I'll be back to house ball and shoes for awhile. People suck.

 

Couple pieces of fun news for us!

First off, a buddy from Search and Rescue posted his decked out low mileage quad for sale. Tried to talk my parents or sister into buying it, but then my wife said she wanted it to replace her Ace. Picked it up last night. It is a beauty. Can't wait to take it out!




And second, Scout announced that their would be a pricing increase beginning on the 11th of March on their campers, and since we knew we wanted one we decided to put down our deposit on a Yoho to lock in pricing. We were waiting only cause we wanted to pick up more towards spring of 2022, but lead times are currently around New Year's by the sounds of it, so close enough.

 

Buddy just sent me the below. It isn't on Google maps, but it is on Google Earth apparently. Musta been out riding since the Ace and Teryx weren't parked with the truck.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.0626942,-119.2933205,95m/data=!3m1!1e3




And these dots are prolly us!

 

Just a fun reminder of the time Tacomaworld mirrored everything on April Fool's Day.

 

Spent last week enjoying our Condo in Oregon. "Worked from home", with easy access to the dunes all week for some evening riding.




Also met up with a fellow TacomaWorld member @TheOnlyPajooned , his wife, and their pupper for some dune driving.

 

Finally Spotted over in the Oregon and Washington Truck Spotting Thread!!!

Was driving speed limit or under on the way down to Matlock to break in my new 4.56 gears, to get some camping in, and to visit family for my Grandfather's 91st birthday. Really missed having the AT Habitat. That thing made it so much easier to pack. Wife and I are definitely antsy looking forward to the Scout Yoho to be delivered at the end of the year. On the way home we swung by the restaurant owned by the folks that bought our Habitat hoping for some breakfast, but they were closed. We did, however run into the owners who were loading up to head out fishing. Was cool to see the Habitat on their Colorado ZR2. I kinda forgot to take a picture though...

 

That stance on your truck though! Never realized how tall the back was haha

 

And that's with 150lbs hanging off the swingout. Not including that crazy heavy rear bumper, and all the camping stuff in the bed (including another 60lbs of water at the tailgate).

 

Show's how well you built the back end

 

@Astr0Aar0n

 

Nicole and I headed back to Bethel Ridge for a weekend camping trip. Met up with @TheOnlyPajooned and his wife in Packwood and headed up together on Friday.




Plenty of room to camp on the ridge!




Took a mile long hike along the trail and found plenty of rocks to crawl the RC Car on. At least 2.5 miles on a single 2S battery. I was pretty amazed.




Saturday afternoon a group of 20 rigs came through and we walked over to the mudhole just up the trail to see how they'd do. It was chaotic, to say the least. This 4runner backed into a small log at least twice trying to get outta these ruts. Not sure why he didn't try his recovery boards or his winch instead of just spinning his tires? Maybe just having fun? I took off to watch the rest of the rigs, but I know he did get out somehow.




Was surprised to see an Avants Offroad decal on another 4runner in the group. Stopped to talk to the owner. He had been out to one of the Avants Offroad events up in Snoqualmie/Dirtfish that I volunteer at.




The mix of rigs was cool. Jeeps, Full Size GMC, Raptor, Ram 3500, 4 runners, Tacoma, Lexus, F150.




The Ram got stuck right here. Mud was super slick. Finally got a couple ARB Tred Pros from another person in his group and he drove right out.




When we finally decided to head out on Sunday, Nicole said she was driving! She had zero issues with the mudhole. We scouted out the best line before hand. Probably could have done it in 2wd. Taking a few minutes to check it out is always the way to go!!










I'm pretty jealous @Astr0Aar0n and his buddy are still out on the WABDR. We met up with them and trekked from Bethel to Nile. They were doing the entire run from Oregon to Canada!

 

Enjoyed a couple days out at Lost Lake again. The Gazelle G5 really is proving its worth keeping us safe from mosquitoes. Wasn't too bad, but great having zero worries inside. Still tent camping til our Scout Yoho arrives. Really looking forward to it. Also glad to find we'll still be able to enjoy Lost Lake once we have it. We previously always camped on the far end, but it's a steep tight trail getting down to the lake. This was much easier to get to, cleaner, and brighter (really helped my solar panel).

Kayaking the lake is always nice. Saw a few million tadpoles, too. Fun place for sure.

 

A friend of mine had been planning a Honda Monkey WABDR run with some friends for several months. With the extreme fire danger and DNR land closures and other issues the trip had to be pared-down from 6 sections to only 2. On top of that, one of the support vehicles also had to drop out for family reasons just a couple days before the trip. That got me invited to help fill in on Section 3 yesterday. I drove from Kent to Sammamish to pick up one of the Monkeys to haul it over to Ellensburg. We had an awesome breakfast at The Palace Cafe before heading up to unload the bikes. Ended up getting a really late start thanks to someone forgetting something... rather important back home.

The Monkeys made good time, and the riders had a blast. I was having an awesome time driving a videographer around racing ahead to find decent spots for video. Section 3 was a lot of fun. Afterwards we hit the highway from Cashmere to Chelan where they had a hotel lined up. I had to be back at work Friday though, so I stuck around for dinner and then headed home (getting in just before midnight). They'll be doing section 4 from North to South today, and cutting across to Leavenworth to get some photos and video before heading home. Woulda loved to have kept on for today, but just didn't feel right taking off two days of work with like zero notice.

 

Few Pics from Avants Fest a couple weekends ago. I was helping man the Avants Offroad booth. Sadly I was too busy to actually walk around and take pics of the millions of dollars worth of McLarens, Lambos, Ferraris, Jags, you name it that were parked a few feet away, lol.




Saw this DIY camper on a 1st gen on my way out.


Real nice 4runner with Goat Armor, and next to it was this Scout Kenai. Can't wait to get my Scout Yoho!


This was setting up a backwards winch pull. The white 4runner in the middle had it's winch on the front, but was able to pull itself backwards using our trucks as anchors along with a few snatch blocks.


And my first ever "bumper sticker". Avants Off Road vinyl decal that was a total pain to put onto the crappy rattle can surface of my bumper. Woulda been way easier on my back window, but looks great here. Hopefully it stays put.

 

I dig the decal man! looks like it was meant to be there!!

Can't wait for the next adventure!

 

Some of this I've already posted over in the Scout Yoho thread I started, but figured I shouldn't altogether neglect this page.

On the right is my new D-ring made to hold in our Scout Yoho that we are picking up tomorrow. Way beefier than the little bolt in guy I put in to hold my quad in.




Last night my buddy helped me get the Aluminum dust cover off my swingout hinge. Ended up having to drill it since the steel threads on the swingout side had rusted. I shoulda put something on them when originally mounting the swingout, apparently. I've also taken off my tailgate. Some people like leaving the tailgate on with the camper, as it gives you a bit of a porch behind the camper, but I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. My trailer jack is in the way of opening the tailgate while towing. No big deal, and having it off saves me weight, which is very important with how heavy the truck and camper are.




It is pretty funny how high the rear is sitting now. Can't wait to see how it sits with the camper loaded.

Getting new tires on tonight, going to 265/75r16 from 265/70r16. Staying with the Duratracs, but stepping up in size so I can get the e-load tires rather than sticking with SL. Replacing my spare with a matching Duratrac as well. Didn't want to cheap out on that!

 

So, what do y'all think? Duratracs or UltraTerrains? Cause they gave me a couple of each! Didn't realize last night that they mounted 2 Duratracs (correctly) and 3 UltraTerrains (spare included). Noticed it this morning and had it all fixed within an hour and a half. Stuff happens, but this was quite a mess up, lol. They were making a bigger deal outta it than I was.

Duratracs are definitely a bit taller, even in the same 265/75r16. Left turn I was getting mud flap rub, but not right. Since the correct tires have been mounted I'm now rubbing on both sides

 

I'll prolly be posting a lot of Pics of the Scout Yoho over on this thread I created awhile back, but I'll still be posting our adventures with it here.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/scout-yoho-slide-in-truckbed-camper.716186/#post-25485164

Here she is, in all her glory.

 

Loaded up and headed out! Should be our first nine nights in the camper by the time we get home!

 

Duratracs for sure!