The Wild Crow - Flight Preparations

Your trip looks awesome. Were you able to get all the way up to the fire tower in your truck at Butt Mountain? May go up this weekend and camp in the RTT if we can get all the way up to the tower. I'm working with a 3" Bilstein 5100 lift and BFG 31" All Terrains. No winch or sliders or anything.

 

There is a gate about 100 yards before the tower. Looks like locals have made a bypass around it. It's not that pretty at the tower there's a pile of garbage at its base

 

ROKBLOKZ TIL YOU DROP

After losing one mudflap I was really surprised just how much mud got flung onto the side of the truck. Going flapless was definitely not an option. Knowing I'd lose the factory flap again made OEM not an option.

There's a few options out there and we settled on the Rokblokz. We picked up a regular width short set. They're actually slightly wider than the stock flap but shorter so they'll be less likely to be torn off hanging up on trails




Now there's less stuff thrown up on the side of the truck and we are ready to rock!

 

BACK SEAT SHAPED BOX

Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint!

That back seat while it's helpful for hauling peeps around it really makes hauling other things around more difficult. Not only do the seats themselves take up a ton of room but those plastic bins behind them take a lot of space and aren't very organizable.

We really thought a lot about how to organize storage for the back seat. We started out wanting to keep the seat for hauling peeps around as we need. But, as a friend of ours pointed out "How often do you haul anyone in the back seat?" This trusted friend is also the one who told us about his experience with roof tents, driving rain and wind and got us thinking about hard sided trailers, which led to the teardrop build.

For that, we're forever in his debt for his priceless advice

If we ditched the backseat we'd have more room and more freedom to build and organize storage


That allowed us to plan out dimensions, sitting front seats at a mild napping lean and using our plywood to make a floor and visualize the width and height



We insulated the back wall


And built a wall to hide all that shiny


We settled on a five drawer style box. 2 large bins on the driver's side for tools. 1 large and 2 small drawers on the passenger side for dry storage of some hiking gear, map books, and other small accoutrements

With plywood and Kreg jig in hand the box came together nicely




Drawer fronts and slam latches to hold the drawers closed

Several coats of polyurethane later and Now we've got tons of in cab storage space, we can stack stuff on the box as needed (tie downs to be added). We can still put stuff in the floorboards as needed, still recline (at least partially) all the tools I currently carry fit in their respective spaces (with room for more) and we're one step closer to making a year long trip around the country

 

I might steal this for my daily driver

 

I'd rather you build your own.....

 

Touché, I'd rather build my own as well.

 

I’m looking at buying rokblokz for my 2019 Tacoma that has 33’s and 2.5 inch lift but trying to determine between regular or xl. Are you on 33’s? Gravel and salt from roads has been rough on the black paint.

 

255/85/16's. So yeah, 33ish but not wide. I've got the regular width and they have enough coverage probably for 285s. If you look at the pictures above they are set as wide as they'll go.

 

Yeah, I’m on GG 285/70/17. I appreciate your help! I’ll probably go with the regulars.

 

i like the hood vents man how are they held on? and where did you get them from?

 

https://www.americanmuscle.com/mmd-hood-vent-louvers-unpainted-0512-gt-v6.html

They come with a factory type 3M tape. It's solid

 

thanks man im just looking around right now i might even get the jlu hood vents from a rubi

 

FILL ME UP TIL I OVERFLOW, I WANNA RUN OVER.....

I've been doing lots of little fiddly bits to the truck getting it ready for this upcoming year of adventure.

One of the main issues I had was the Long Range gas tank has always had issues with overflow upon shut off. We've replaced the vent tube to the charcoal canister, made sure all hoses were not kinked all to no avail. Every time I'd fill the tank it was a game of listening for the right gurgling sound and releasing the gas pump handle at that right moment. The right timing brought a full tank and a sense of joy, the wrong timing brought a full tank and irritation at having to wipe down the side of the truck and smelling gasoline on your hands the rest of the day.

I think I've finally fixed it. Holding my breath right now, but I've got one fillup in without spillage and the pump shutting itself off like a normal filling.

I spent a lot of time researching and found this article on Filler Neck Supply, about an antiwellback valve. I bought their kit,


removed the Tacoma filler neck, cut a nice long section out and replaced it with a section of filler hose with the Perko valve installed.


Unfortunately for you, I took no pictures of the process. But other than removing the fender liner to access the fuel neck it was a fairly simple process.

A couple hours work and I ain't crying over spilt gas.

 

BACK DAT THANG UP (again)

After installing the backup camera in the cap, I was advised that i should install a relay to cut power to the camera when not in use. Welp, I shoulda listened, but everyone knows I'm half deaf and can't (or just don't) listen very well. To sum it up, the camera fried and died from the constant 12v (when the ignition is on).

I had to buy a replacement camera and a relay. The relay pulls 12volt power from the trailer plug and sends it to the camera. I used the original camera's power lead to switch the relay on or off (off normally, on in reverse or when switched on with the dash switch). The relay is mounted in the tailgate with the bulk of the wiring.

No pictures for this job, it's all basically the same as post 144 with a relay added in

That's a couple more hours of work fixing a mistake I shouldn't have made....

 

TO EVERYTHING TURN TURN TURN!

It's always someone else that points out the little flaws in your vehicle. In my case it was two separate someones. The voices were from people I respect and value their opinions. The concern they voiced was real, and consequently needed to be addressed.

It seems the placement of the spare tire blocked the passenger side turn signal. As I was leading peeps to different places they couldn't see the turn signal for lane changes or turns. Traffic is a bear around here and not seeing someone's signal could mean missing a turn, or worse a collision.

Etrailer came to the rescue and I received a couple of surface mount LED trailer lights.


These are a 4 wire setup compared to the Toyota 5 wire. The (1) stop and turn lights are combined on one wire, (2) tail light, (3)backup, (4)ground.

This is fine if you're wiring a trailer. To shoot to a 5 wire system they make an adapter for everything to function correctly, but i didn't bother to purchase that. My solution was to wire the wire the turn signal, backup, and brake lights and leave the taillight off. So when my lights are on these stay off, the truck still has the stock taillights and I don't drive much at night anyways.

The process is simple.
Find a mounting location.


Drill a hole big enough for the wires to pass through,

screw it down to the bumper.

I did have to extend the wires to reach behind the taillights on the Tacoma. I could've tied into the harness at frame level under the truck, but I don't like cutting into electricals that frequently get exposed to all kinds of crappy conditions if I don't have to.
So I removed the taillights, patched into the harness on each side where it's normally high and dry.
And boom!

 

Taking shelfies of my shelf shelf shelf

Storage solutions 2.0
I've liked the thought of an overhead shelf in the back of the cab. It seems a good place to store lightweight small things like hats, jackets, blankey. Things you may need when you stop somewhere but don't want to use while driving.
We tried the netting style, with any weight at all they sag and bounce up and down on the road. We decided a solid shelf would be better.

I used a piece of perforated 1/8 inch aluminum sheet 12x45.5"

Cut the back corners to follow the contour of the roof

Welded on a 3/4" aluminum angle to the front to keep your heads from getting cut up on the edge and to keep stuff from falling off the front

It's held up with two brackets where the grab handles were on the front edge. The back is held up by wiring them to the coathooks with cables.


It's high enough to not be in your rearview low enough to stash stuff easily

 

I neglected to mention that over the winter I completed the stripe for the crow. It now runs across the roof, cap and tailgate. Conditions weren't the best and it orange peeled, but it's acceptable and can be improved with a good sand and buff

 

Looks good from here