100,000 miles

[jim65wagon]

Well, the Tundra crossed 100,000 miles last weekend


So to celebrate I thought I'd let ramble on for a bit about it. Since my last truck couldn't make 100,000 on a flatbed it's a milestone for me.

We bought the truck new in the fall of 2002. The salesman asked "What color do you want?" I was thinking green, or blue. Beth says "Black, it looks cool in black." And there we were a few weeks later signing papers for a black TRD 4x4 Access Cab. My first new truck!

Since it was purchased with home improvements in mind, and we never had time for camping, I said (you can laugh now) "It's perfect for us, I won't even have to modify it at all!"

Two weeks later it had sidesteps, and Rhino-lining in the bed. December saw the Truxedo tonneau cover added. This is the closest thing to a new car picture I have of it. It was a little wet out and the driveway had a little water in it!


Another few months and the fine PA winters set in. With 15000 miles on the original tires they weren't cutting it in the snow. I found a used set of BFG AT's to try out (thanks Mark) and a buddy on Tundra Solutions had a set of Wheelers Black Steelies for sale cheap. Much better now!



The house finally got finished enough that we decided to take a real vacation somewhere. After much net surfing we came across the Outer Banks. After more searching we discovered the 4x4 beaches north of Corolla. "Hey we've got a 4x4! Let's try it out!" So we rented a house for a week, got a tow strap, shovels out of the garage and packed food clothes and various other necessities for a beach week. The beach was the best vacation to that point in time! We try to go once a year now even if it's only for a weekend....it's the bomb!

The winter of 04 brought a deer collision. Bugger ran out of a field at dark, nosed into my fender, took out the drivers mirror, scraped his eyeball and antlers across both windows, and proceeded to convolute every panel on the drivers side. The undamaged items, turnsignal on the front, tailight on the rear!

Our last PA winter...no it wasn't the deer's fault. We moved for other reasons, partially snow and cold. After the move we found we had more free time. What to do? What to do? Let's go camping! Yeah that sounds like fun! I haven't done that for years! Beth bought me this neat truck tent...totally cool...then.
We wound up at GWNF after fishing on 4x4icon's (Paul) website and he wrote so highly of Flagpole and Meadow Knobs. Truck loaded and GPS'd we went into the unknown (to us at least) on our first family camping trip
in years.
To say we were bitten (me at least) by the "exploration" bug is an understatement. Suddenly we want to see what's down every road. I know someone's been down that road before, but I haven't and I won't be happy with you just telling me what's there...I want to see what is there.

Enough rambling (for now) and wasting anymore of your time. I'll post more on my truck and our explorations later. If you're enjoying yourself stick with me for a while; if not you may want to find a thread that is more to your tastes and avoid this one. The build up is not wild, the explorations are mild, but here we are having fun and enjoying the outdoors.

[HMR]

Good work! Another 20K miles or so and the break-in period should be complete.

[corax]

Trucks don't have to be "extreme" to be awesome . . . just good enough to get you where you want and back. With regular maintenance, you'll be able to post 200k and 300k threads in a few years.

[DaktariEd]

Excellent milestone!
Congrats!

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

Originally Posted by corax

Trucks don't have to be "extreme" to be awesome . . . just good enough to get you where you want and back. With regular maintenance, you'll be able to post 200k and 300k threads in a few years.

My 1995 Taco's odometer currently reads +/- 248k miles, and running strong!

[jim65wagon]

Thanks guys... I am actually hoping for 300 or better. At 100,000 this truck is the best vehicle for its mileage I've ever had. It drives tight and squeak/rattle free and very quiet (except for the Coopers) which is quite impressive to me.

Anyways...I need to backtrack just a little. At some point, after our first trip to OBX, I managed a cold air kit from ebay for $10, it's an SSAutochrome (bling) with a blue conical filter. It's still on the truck, but the filter has been replaced with an AEM dryflow now. I know it seems cheesy, but the stupid thing netted me about 1 mpg on the highway, I could crack into the 18.5s at 70 if I held steady on the throttle. Never got more than 18 stock, so I kept it on (plus it does an old man's ears good, it's got that old 4bbl moan to it)

After our first trip to GWNF and camping out, not being able to find things in the dark under the cover, and airing up tires with a portable TruckAir compressor (45+ minutes) I decided if we were going to do this with any frequency at all I needed a few things.
First came a bed light and a 12v power port. Now I could see under the tonneau cover in the dark, and I could air up the mattress without climbing into the cab. I wired a switch in the dash to cut power to both (paranoid for leaving lights on)



Second, I bought a little MV-50, it was fast, 20 minutes now to do all four. However, I didn't want it taking up room in my little gear box with all my fluids and puncture kit, tow strap etc; so under the hood it goes.

No room. Big truck, little V8 and no room for the compressor. A perfect spot was on the fender right next to the air intake, but that big steel plate that comes with the kit took up to much room. I found an equally cheap (that's me) method of making the air intake smaller. I used a battery box to house the filter and plumbed a nice little ramair system from the bumper. I made it so I could block off the ram air if I was offroad and the truck would just have to breathe hot underhood air from the vents on the box.



That gave me room for the compressor, mounted it on a steel plate using the original airbox's rubber isolated bolts. Worked like a charm!

Now I could airdown with my nice Staun deflators, drive wherever i was, and air up in half the time as before. All was right with the world.

Then I met my neighbor (Sean) with a blue Unlimited Jeep on 33x12.50s...

[jim65wagon]

Sean liked to wheel, and he asked us if we wanted to go to GWNF. Heck yeah! So here we were a family of four, following two jeeps, (one on 33's the other on 31's and a Dodge Ram on 35's. It was fun, but I like to go slow and look around, get the kids out to hike, geocache, etc. This day we were there to drive trails. Going up the trail (same one we came down by ourselves last time), I followed the others on a side trail. This is what happened...wham!

So much for the steps. They were only there for the kids anyway. Kids can climb, right?
Regardless of the slight damage (the door still opened), we continued the day...





The blockoff for the airbox came in handy, and I decided that I didn't have quite enough ground clearance. I spent some time researching tire sizes, how much lift was needed, and how much hammer I needed to fit the larger tires. The White Paper on Tire Selection was very helpful, as was the Expo Portal. Not having the ready cash available for the Donahoe coilovers and full Deaver leafspring setup I wanted, I settled for the slightly less desireable (ok way less desireable) Daystar and Deaver 3leaf AAL. Both purchased from members of TS, both slightly used, both very cheap. I got 1.5" out of the Daystars in front and 3/4" from the 3Leaf in the back. Now I could fit taller tires without much effort, and all I had to do was wait for the BFG AT's to wear out.

We continued through the summer camping and fishing on weekends. Most notably we went to Mount Rogers (tallest peak in VA), camped at Hurricane campground. The hiking was great and the campground was quiet. Nice.


Then came Monongahela 2006, we showed up...and Chris (Cshontz) showed. We didn't get there in time to run the forest roads, but we had a good time, and made a friend for life. Trips just keep getting better!







That was our last trip for the year, it made a lasting impression on us. Actually knowing someone who was like us made us much less apprehensive about meeting new people in the middle of West Virginia in the middle of nowhere...

[jim65wagon]

Just as an FYI update (if anyone is still looking at this) we just had the timing belt changed. Had the work done at Rosners Toyota in Fredericksburg. (Iwas too chicken to try it myself).
4 hours
400 dollars
ouch but a necessary evilwith the 4.7V8.

[CA-RJ]

At least it's finished and all the work and parts have a warranty.

[RoundOut]

I really enjoyed reading your thread, Jim!


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