Another amazing Baja trip—6 weeks and 3700 miles.


It was a mad dash to prep, but we got the roof rack completed. Original plan was to do a two layer perimeter just like Gobi's, but we were running out of time so stuck with a single layer.


Lots of notching, welding and grinding. Rigged up a notching jig for the drill press and kept the compressor blowing air the entire time to keep things cool:


Added two surfboard racks with capped ends:


Added 6 feet to bolt down into the factory rails:


And two tabs to bolt feet into on the front:


Added 3 of these tabs for the awning to bolt on to.


Finally paint!



In between all of this, we added a second 100Ah battery, second 100w solar panel, and an inverter. All so that we could run Starlink while in video calls all day from the beach:


Awning broke the second time we used it when the wind gusted unexpectedly. 20 zip ties and 5ft of duct tape later and it was working again.


Only car issue was that one of the top nuts on the drivers rear shock worked itself off on a washboard road. Had to drive 400 miles without it before I had a chance to get a replacement nut and washer.

While I was under there I finally discovered what was making so much noise—the front end links weren't torqued down enough to the LCAs. After tightening the suspension is completely quiet and finally feels dialed.

We didn't really score great waves, but the real highlight was the epic freediving and spearfishing—we ate fish almost every day and saw beautiful sea life like spotted eagle rays.


And explored a ton of the gulf we hadn't seen before.



It was an epic trip.

That's awesome. Looks like an epic trip.

How much do you think that roof rack weighs?

Just the rack is probably 60-75lbs, but with the solar panels and awning over 100lbs.

I spoke too soon on broken parts. Just got under there while washing and found both end links in the front sheared off. I know they were intact a few weeks ago when I tightened them, but they sure look rusty already!

As great as the 4Runner is, our extended Baja trip highlighted the lack of space to work comfortably. This made work + travel really difficult, but we wanted to do more of it. So, we upgraded to a flatbed Four Wheel Camper on a second gen Tacoma. Lot's of projects already completed, but that's for another forum.


This 4Runner may never see Baja again, but she's still got a lot to give as my daily. I might need to drop baja & camper from the thread title. Anyways...picked up some clean limited wheels:


Still need to finish painting some silver center caps, but in the meantime I added sound deadener to passenger and driver doors:


My taillights were cracked, faded, and full of condensation. Replaced with some late model ones and swapped in LEDs. Took a little splicing to go from 7440 to 921 reverse lights.


My main goal was brighter reverse lights, but thought LED brake lights would be a slight safety improvement (they turn on slightly faster + brighter) But I feel the tail lights are too bright when not braking that it makes the brake lights not feel as bright in comparison. I probably will swap out for a different brand or back to halogen bulbs. They also have a pinkish hue since they are red LEDs, not a orangish hue most cars have.

And finally, I thought my clutch or transmission was going out—was getting super hard to shift into gear & 5th was regularly grinding. But after reading the FSM, was able to adjust the clutch pedal and everything is back to normal. replaced the tiny little rubber pads down there, one was in pieces.

I love the BMW seats I installed a couple years ago, but have always wanted to get the seat heaters working, so finally set out on that.

I had a sense of which wires coming out of the control module were for the seat heaters from some past research:


Here are each of those plugs, one for the back and one for the seat:



I ignored the grey wire, I assumed it sent a thermostat signal back to the module (original seats had 3 different settings), and just wired together the brown and greens (brown is typically ground in BMWs):


They heat up! warmest I clocked after sitting on the bench for 30min was 119°


I picked up some expensive OEM switches off ebay, but wanted them to fit in OEM slots. And, since I was only going to have one setting, I wanted switches to match (which isn't that common). All my center console switches are now filled...curious what extras when in these from the factory.


While I had things torn apart I took the opportunity to clean up and paint this rusty center console support:


and put 3-in-1 sound deadener on the floor:


Toasty bums!

Link to the Tacoma build?

I never got around to making one...some day.

This thread still needs Baja pictures, 4Runner or not. There is like 10" of snow on the ground where I am and my family is leaving me and my pregnant wife for PR tomorrow morning to go surf.