Taking my Taco to Burning Man...

Been wanting to post these for awhile, but only now getting around to it. A primary reason for replacing my '99 Ram with a '17 Taco was a reliable truck I could use to get back and forth to Burning Man every year. Even before I bought the truck I knew exactly what I needed....four doors, long bed, shell, full-length roof rack. Ended up with a 2017 Quicksand TRD OffRoad which I added a Leer shell and Prinsu Designs set of roof racks. Here she is on the side of the road at sunset on my final day before entering the event (and she would never be this clean again):


I drove her all the way from Dallas, so I was able to have a good idea of gas mileage. Like everybody else, I was a little disappointed. That V6 just doesn't have the power needed to keep a loaded truck at speed on even the slightest grades. She was frequently in the 3k RPM range just to stay at 75mph. Once I got her fully loaded with water and ice in Reno it got even worse...averaging maybe 12mpg for the last 2-3 hours of the journey onto playa.

I'm pretty sure the roof rack robs a lot of gas mileage, even when it isn't loaded with gear. One thing I did not anticipate was how much wind noise the Prinsu rack generates. It's LOUD. For long road trips I've taken to wrapping the leading edge of the wind deflector with pipe insulation. This cuts down on the noise remarkably, but it's ugly.

This is my fourth burn, and I'm pretty heavily committed to going every year. This year I went a full week early for build, plus stayed several days later to help strike our camp. I wanted to customize my rig to reflect my passion, so I 3D printed some logos to replace the Toyota ones. The inspiration was pretty obvious...they both occupy roughly the same oval shape.




The grille logo didn't last long after the burn. The heat just got to the PLA and it warped. Would have been better to use ABS for it, but ABS is a bitch to print and I didn't have the energy to fight it. Next year I'll probably upgrade it to a backlit logo sorta like the Mercedes three point star backlight on some of their cars.

Also had Clazzio seat covers ordered. They were offering free headrest embroidery, so I figured, why not????


This was my homestead on the playa. My Taco was chocked full of gear, inside and out. I was hauling some stuff for a friend, so that kinda maxed out my capacity.


Once on playa you can't drive your vehicle, so I drove something else...a VW bug made out of a firetruck chassis. She's called "Big Red" and is one of several art cars (mutant vehicles) our camp brings to playa every year.


The aftermath of all that superfine dust on playa is a mess. In the past I've rented SUV's in Reno when I've flown in, and it takes a full day of meticulous handwashing to clean the whole thing to avoid a $250 cleaning charge. Luckily I was able to keep the doors to my cabin closed the whole time, so only the bed and exterior got trashed. Pretty much every bit of exposed plastic and rubber on the car (window gaskets, bumpers, etc) gets impregnated with dust. You can't wash it off. It just needs to wear itself out of all the little nooks and crannies.

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You musta used one of those special Real Estate agent's lenses to photograph that VW... somehow it looks really huge.

 

I admire your passion for BM and happy to see the truck do well. Cheers bro.

 

Now for that I would get a snorkel...

 

really cool man, that would have been really fun.

 

how do you shower or bathe?

 

I'm jealous. Burning Man is on my bucket list.

 

1) What is burning man?

2) Why does car get dirty, if you are not allowed to drive it, once there?

 

Burning man - never been, but sound like scantily clad girls with lots of boobs in the desert . Damn, never been, but sounds like a blast!!

 

Well, depending on your resources you can A) Have an RV, B) Be part of a camp that has showers provided or C) Birdbath it with baby wipes and cooler water. It all comes down to your ability to handle greywater. BM is a "leave no trace" event...what goes in must come out, and that includes greywater. You're not allowed to dump anything out. People with RV's can have it pumped, and camps that have showers typically have greywater storage that gets either hauled out or pumped out.

 

it's all that and more. if you want it, it's at Burning Man. 70,000 people and you have all flavors of self expression present, from chill parrothead hippies to insane club kids who stay up for days at a time.

 

It's a giant counterculture festival in the northern Nevada desert the week leading up to Labor Day. Been going on for 30 years. Currently at 70,000 people. The event is held in the Black Rock Desert, which is a dry lakebed made up of talc-fine powder..it gets everywhere. Once of fthe highway it is a few miles across the open desert to get to the site. There are daily dust storms varying from mild to whiteout. That dust gets into EVERYTHING.

Just google pictures from it. I started wanting to go back in the 90's, but didn't get to go until 2014.

 

yup....it can be pretty crazy if you want it to be. tons of camps have all-night dance parties. most people tend to sleep as late as their arrangements will allow (10-11am for tents, all day for yurts and RVs with AC) so they can enjoy the night activities.

 

you should see the rest of the fleet:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SZy7s0JH7...600/Screen+Shot+2014-01-13+at+10.27.35+AM.png

 

Try PET. It is easy to print with, makes really nice prints (like PLA), and has a much higher heat capability. Be sure to turn off the hot end fan. This will keep it from curling off the bed.

I've seen the Merc stars at night. Not a fan in that application. Something cool? Maybe.

Wasn't that bug in the first Grand Tour episode? It looks familiar.

 

Just do it! Seriously. I'd been trying to go since the mid 90's and always had a reason why I couldn't go. I finally said "fuck it. this year is it." My only regret was not going a LOT sooner. Same thing with going to Europe. Every year you don't go is another year you won't go.

If you need any help/info/advice, please let me know!

 

I live in Reno and it is very easy to tell which vehicles were out at Black Rock. Playa dust everywhere!

 

Big Red was absolutely in that episode! Nice catch. This year was my first year for driving it, and it is crazy fun. PETG is on my list to work with. Got a buddy with a bunch of printers who uses it all the time and loves it.

 

I thought so, along with a lot of other awesome beasts.

Once you try it, you will never go back to ABS or Nylon. The stuff is strong and can be very flexible on thin prints.

 

How do the Reno folks feel about BM? Only people I know from Reno are burners, so they are biased. I can see where they could easily HATE burners because of the way they descend on their city and trash it (even if only accidentally). I'm pretty careful about leaving no trace, even in the city. When I stay at GSR after the burn I bring my own towels and don't leave an inch of dirt in the bathtub....Also don't throw away crap in public trash cans/dumpsters (which I see happen a lot. I apologize for those folks and their asshole behavior. They are not indicative of most burners, but it only takes a few to make us all look bad). R

Reno is a nice town. You guys have great access to a ton of nice terrain out there.