A friend and I decided to make the trip up to the North West Overland Rally in Plain Washington for a weekend. We saw some really awesome stuff and I got a great deal on a Ironman 4x4 fridge freezer!
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This thing is awesome! You really can't beat the ability to have ice cream while camping out in the middle on no where! Haha.
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After a long fun summer in Oregon, it was time to head back to school in Kansas.:sobbing: However, it just so happens that Boneville speed week was happening the same time I was driving out to school, so I had to make a pit stop. This is truly an awesome event, and is definitely something every car guy should attend at least once. Even if you aren't into Hot Rods, the Salt Flats are really awesome.
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Besides, the salt flats are basically a natural photo studio.
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Theres even some nice wheeling to do in the surrounding hills.
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Once I got out to school it was time to do some a job I had been putting off for WAY too long. This truck has been in the family since 2002 when it had 89000 miles. It now has 270,000 miles, and we have never changed the timing belt. Needless to say it was overdue. I bought the kit off of amazon that included the belt, tensioner, water pump, and other bearings and such. It wasn't too bad of a job, but I did have to buy several new tools.
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Next was a dual battery setup This was needed to support all the electrical goodies I have added, as well as provide an additional safety measure for when I'm camping in the middle of nowhere. I decided to use the National Luna setup for several reasons. First, unlike many people, I didn't want to run the same deep cycle batteries that most people do, reason being that deep cycles take much much longer to re-charge than standard starting batteries, and are much more expensive. Secondly I liked how the batteries could be linked together at the push of a button for winching or jump starting the main battery with the auxiliary.
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Mounting the batteries was a bit of a pain, It involved quite a bit of cutting to get both group 34 batteries in the same space as the stock one. The batteries are within millimeters of touching in several places.
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While I was playing with electricity, I added heated front seats for the cold Kansas winters. These have been a great addition to the truck and were fairly cheap.
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The switches are located right behind the 4wd shifter.
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And lastly I finally bit the bullet on a snorkel. I went back and forth several times on whether I should do the Safari or Hilux unit, but after consulting the opinions of quite a few friends, decided the Hilux one looked better, and you can't beat the price.
Drilling the hole in the fender was not fun at all as the hole saw made a horrible gut wrenching noise as it gnawed a whole in my pride and joy.
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It was worth the pain in the end though.
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