The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Happy b-day!!!

 

Yep. Happy Birthday!

 

Here, have a cake

 

HB Nick!

 

Wow! Thanks for all the Happy Birthday wishes! Still on vacation, having a great time, adventuring with family.

 

From today...

Yee haw!

 

Spending your birthday on an adventure? Nice! sounds like you had a good B day

 

happy birthday and thanks for the tips...

 

Front Bump stop shims added, 1/4"; made from machined UHMW.

UHMW is very tough, and has the highest impact strength of any thermoplastic that is commercially made. It's a great material choice for a bump stop spacer. Got mine from

Note the red grease on the bump threads. The bump stop bolt threads to into a threaded hole on the frame where they are exposed on the backside to the elements. Some people snap the bolt because of corrosion. Greasing the threads helps guard against corrosion. I greased mine over a year ago when i first installed the bump stops and had zero issues getting them back out for install of the spacer.





The Toyo's only rubbed under very hard compression, usually from spirited driving across varied terrain.




The spacers have completely solved my rubbing issue based on last weeks wheeling trip.

 

Beating the pinch weld flat with a sledge hammer.

I put this task off for the longest time...

It turns out this is a very easy task and it's necessary to clear 33" tires at full stuff, lock-to-lock steering. It takes longer to remove the stuff in the way than it does to flatten the pinch weld out.

Before undertaking this task, I solicited input in this thread here: Beating your pinch weld flat with a sledge hammer. --Let's discuss!

The thread was helpful to my understanding and my take away from that there was there is no wrong way to do it, as long as care as taken. I will say that I went with @Evenflow 's advice. I beat the pinch weld flat to the outside to gain the most clearance. Thanks Jason!

Also special thanks to @GHOST SHIP @nfs257 for other advice, and @MonkeyProof for his pics and description in this thread.

I pad wrapped my 2.5 lb. sledge and had zero damage to the truck paint. No need to paint or seal. It worked superbly, and I gained a lot of clearance. After the beat down, I used a heat gun to reform the plastic fender liner.

The pinch weld itself is 14" long, nearly 2" tall at the bottom and 1" tall at the top. It's much more robust at the bottom. Still a very easy task, just go slow.

These are pics with the fender liner moved out of the way, I pulled the clips and pushed it to the front of the truck.



Top of pinch weld.

Bottom


My tool of choice, 2.5 lb. sledge, blue 3/16" PVC, and duck tape

All wrapped up and ready for beat down.


Here is a video I made using my left hand to swing, and right hand to hold phone. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oehq5vEiLyg


Lastly, I used an angle grinder and cut the mudflap a lot. This was necessary because I wanted to retain the trimmed mud flaps which help prevent rock damage to the doors.

I cut the mud flaps and did a radius cut on the fender trim.

The mud flaps ended up with holes that needed covering, so for the time I used some Gorilla tape to seal them up.



Field testing.




I'm quite pleased with the outcome after field testing! There is only a very little left to trim from the mud flaps, but the bulk of it is done.

 

Next up I'll be writing up some major trip reports from the last 6 days which were spent adventuring in the Eastern Sierras.

Here are a few shots I edited on my phone and posted in the Truck Camping Picture thread.

Building more great memories near Mammoth, CA

 

Teaser!

 

Did the 4Runner wheels help with rubbing on your UCA's?

 

@samiam yes. 4runner wheels solved the UCA, frame, rub problems.

 

WOOOOHOOOO!

 

That is so cool that your kids get to experience all of that. Kudos, my friend!

 

Eastern Sierra Summer Trip #2; Bishop, Mammoth, Day 1

Preface: For many years, our family has always base camped in tents and since having children, we graduated to the heavy duty Kodiak Canvas Tent, which we love. On this trip, I had large adventure ambitions, and wanted to try something different, to augment our experience. I decided to use a small 2-star hotel in Bishop as a base camp in lieu of tent camping for five nights. We still operated as we usually do, prepped lunches and and cooked dinner out in the wilds, and after each days adventure came to a close, (usually around 8:00pm), we returned to our air-conditioned room with hot showers. Each morning we elected to use the hotel breakfast room, and treat our selves to a continental breakfasts, which were very enjoyable.

We departed our home in San Diego around 8 AM on Saturday July 30th and stopped to get second breakfast before continuing on. Everything was going normal except for the very hot Santa Ana winds blowing which resulted in +15*F over normal seasonal temperatures. When we arrived at the Cajon Pass, (a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California), there was a traffic incident causing near grid lock conditions. This is a worse than hell condition.

The ambient temp outside the truck read 100*F. I was running the air conditioner on full blast, and we were stuck in this god-forsaken-awful traffic.



Never, ever in seven years, has the Tacoma thermostat needle on the dash gauge ever deviated from the middle, even in 115*F heat idling in the Mojave or Death Valley. Not until this day. After 40 minutes of going up hill, truck loaded, and stop-and-go-hell traffic, the air conditioner couldn't cool and started blowing warm air, I looked down and saw the temperature needle begin to rise. I immediately shut off the air, and turned on the heater on full blast. This allows the heater core to serve as an auxiliary radiator, at the expense of cabin occupants. So heater on full blast in 100*F heat outside is majorly uncomfortable! To make matters worse I was blocked by multiple big rigs and could not get over to the shoulder in the event I needed to turn the truck off as an emergency measure.

A sketchy situation, no doubt. It turns out that, those actions were enough to allow the Tacoma to return to normal temp, I watched in seconds as coolant temp returned to normal. What a relief! Even though we were trapped in hell, I was greatly relived. Eventually I was able to move over to the number 6 lane, and we began to count, 1, 2, 3... 20 disabled motorists were counted--all overheated burning in hell in the San Gabriel mountains, on the side of I-15.

Finally the madness ended at the CA-138 & I-15 junction, and freeway returned to normal speeds.

We motored north on I-15 to US-395, stopping at Kramer Junction for a late lunch.


I like to eat at this dive called, Astro's. We all got our fill before continuing on.


The next interesting spot we stopped at is a place with past volcanic activity. It's Cinder road, and it's the turn off for the Fossil Falls Scenic area. it was 108*F here. We explored only a little because it was dangerously hot.



My children instantly began to inspect the very interesting pumice stones found at this location noting the differences from normal rocks.



My youngest and I walked across the playa (small dry lake bed)


We crossed to the other side to get a good look over the hill. The wind was strong here, so it was 108*F and strong wind.

She kept asking me why we couldn't climb the giant cinder cone mountain (pictured above). I explained that it was too hot today, she didn't seem to mind and insisted I carry her to the top. Uh, no! lol

Looking back to the truck.


The vegetation that grows here is incredibly resilient and robust.

Above is what it looked like, but this his how this place felt.


This is a very neat place worthy of proper exploration, but not in summer time.

After about 10 minutes on the other side, we retreated back to the truck, found our way back to US-395 and continued North.

When we arrived in Bishop, I found a hotel and we got our room.


I found this lawn and table, right in front our parking space.


Our very pleasant outside dinner on picnic table.


After dinner, my kids thoroughly enjoyed playing in the hotel room which had brand new carpet installed, and was very clean and comfortable. My kids proceeded to make forts for themselves and play with their toys. Wife and I enjoyed ourselves, before putting them down for the night and getting a good nights rest in an air conditioned room. This was a very nice diversion from our normal practice. My wife did comment that she couldn't believe we weren't camping and already missed the tent.