Back from 7,770 mile trip

[Nunyabiz]

27 days and 7,770 miles.
Was packed full to the brim, seemed like the sides were bulging out, total blivet carrying 800lbs of shyte in a 400lb cargo area.
Every square inch from back door to front seats and from top to bottom.
So I was hauling a LOAD.
I burned 391.66 Gallons for an average of 19.83mpg.
That is hauling a huge load with temps ranging from in the low 20s up to 100 degrees, from sea level to over 8500 feet with lots of severe up and down hills.

My worst mileage on a tank was 15.69mpg that was in Southern California in traffic and lots of idling.
My best tank was 21.47mpg that was leaving Bend Oregon headed towards Yellowstone.
So all in all was better mileage than I expected, so maybe the new Intake pipe/air filter and new muffler helped.

I did have one minor problem and I do not yet know what it is.
I had the "check engine plus VSC trac off lights come on" 4X, I reset with the UltraGuage which never said anything but "Pending Code" even after the lights on dash were lit.
Wasn't my gas cap, checked that and I always click it good before I close the cover.
I assume it must be some Evap emissions control system problem but do not have the codes yet.
After resetting it around Montana somewhere it never came back on for the last 2000+ miles or so. What ever it was it never seemed to effect the truck at all, it really ran like a top the whole trip.

Soon as we sell our house in NC will be doing another cross country trip, this time one way to Bend Oregon with 2 Kayaks on the roof rack.

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[JayRolla]

Bad ass, no wheeling pics?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Bad ass, no wheeling pics?

didn't really "wheel" anywhere other than just a few dirt roads out in the Mojave dessert, was just way too loaded down plus didn't have much time to go off track anywhere. We spent 27 days as it was and had everything mostly planned out to the hour.
You really have to make reservations for everything now including campsites at most places, so you are pretty much on a schedule that you can not veer from too much, especially when you are driving between 8-16 hours per day kinda the last thing I wanted to do was drive some more.

Trip was mostly to let my wife see parts of the country she has never seen plus for her to see Bend Oregon where we are going to retire.

 

[BlackCat914]

the VSC and Trac Off lights automatically come on when the Check Engine light comes on. That looks like an AWESOME time man.

 

[Nunyabiz]

the VSC and Trac Off lights automatically come on when the Check Engine light comes on. That looks like an AWESOME time man.

Yeah it was great, weather was really nice for the entire trip until the very last day coming back to NC it was raining and hot and humid, bleh. Not surprising though.
Camping was nice, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Yellowstone. The only glitch was Jalama Beach in California (Point Conception) was literally a Blow Out, wind was howling so hard we simply had to leave, even our little Chihuahua that went with us couldn't even stand up it was blowing so hard.
She handled the trip great, in fact we joked that this vacation was really hers and we just tagged along to do all the hard work.
I set up her bed right between the front seats, left her harness on and tied 2 pieces of parachute cord to the 2 handles above the rear doors and those to a carabiner that clipped to her harness, that way she was basically strapped in about like a seat belt in case we got into an accident.

So we plowed through to Bend Oregon driving 16 hours and spent an extra 2 days there instead which was really nice.
Rented a Condo right on the Deschutes River for same price as a hotel room.

 

[GSPRunner]

Looks like a great trip man. I really want to just take off for a month like that.

 

[BlackCat914]

Looks like a great trip man. I really want to just take off for a month like that.

ya, that's seriously sounds like the perfect vacation to me.

 

[blizz86]

Yeah it was great, weather was really nice for the entire trip until the very last day coming back to NC it was raining and hot and humid, bleh. Not surprising though.
Camping was nice, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Yellowstone. The only glitch was Jalama Beach in California (Point Conception) was literally a Blow Out, wind was howling so hard we simply had to leave, even our little Chihuahua that went with us couldn't even stand up it was blowing so hard.
She handled the trip great, in fact we joked that this vacation was really hers and we just tagged along to do all the hard work.
I set up her bed right between the front seats, left her harness on and tied 2 pieces of parachute cord to the 2 handles above the rear doors and those to a carabiner that clipped to her harness, that way she was basically strapped in about like a seat belt in case we got into an accident.

So we plowed through to Bend Oregon driving 16 hours and spent an extra 2 days there instead which was really nice.
Rented a Condo right on the Deschutes River for same price as a hotel room.

Nice trip!

Holy crap. Jamala beach is definitely the worst tent camping experience i have ever had. LOL. Winds at night are ridiculous. I literally had half of the tent on my face. Definitely a trailer campsite, unsure of why they would encourage tents to come. Where did you stay when you were out in lompoc? Or did you drive further south towards Santa Barbara?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Nice trip!

Holy crap. Jamala beach is definitely the worst tent camping experience i have ever had. LOL. Winds at night are ridiculous. I literally had half of the tent on my face. Definitely a trailer campsite, unsure of why they would encourage tents to come. Where did you stay when you were out in lompoc? Or did you drive further south towards Santa Barbara?

Actually since we got blown out at Jalama we just drove 16 hours to Bend Oregon from Jalama. I was strung out on 5 hour energy shots by the time we got there. We just emailed the person that owns the condo from the truck while we were driving and added two days to our stay. So worked out no problem.

I used to go surfing at Jalama back in the 70s when it was just nothing but a parking lot. Fantastic surfing and the times I went the winds were calm and weather beautiful, nobody there but just a few of us surfers camping on the beach. I think if you go later in the year like August to November its nice with little wind.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Nice pics. I don't think I have ever seen a 4runner so tightly packed.

Amsoil is treating your 4runner well it sounds like. It is good stuff.

 

[4yotaguy]

Looks like an awesome trip man, hope you enjoy Oregon! Looking to move myself and planning a similar trip next year, thanks for the info on campsites, I am totally old-school, had no idea you even had to register lol....

 

[GhostRing]

Definitely gets the wanderlust going!
When you get here again, look me up - always good to have more good folks here

 

[Nunyabiz]

Nice pics. I don't think I have ever seen a 4runner so tightly packed.

Amsoil is treating your 4runner well it sounds like. It is good stuff.

Speaking of that, I checked my oil fairly regular on the trip. Far as I can tell I don't think I have burned 1 tablespoon of oil in almost 8000 miles on this trip.
I changed the oil about 200+ miles prior to trip.
The oil on the dipstick looks to be in the exact same spot as when we started.
Just slightly darker in color is all.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Looks like an awesome trip man, hope you enjoy Oregon! Looking to move myself and planning a similar trip next year, thanks for the info on campsites, I am totally old-school, had no idea you even had to register lol....

Yep, in most every place now you should go ahead and get online and reserve a campsite.
It was very necessary at the Grand Canyon, not so in Joshua Tree.
We got away with not reserving a spot "barely" in Yellowstone but that was only because it was early in the year.
Depending on time of year and what campsite/park you are thinking about you will be better served by reserving a campsite before hand.

Also if you plan on going to more than say 3 national parks within the year go ahead and get a "annual pass" which is $80 unless you are over 62 then its free. Will save you money.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Definitely gets the wanderlust going!
When you get here again, look me up - always good to have more good folks here

Nice! will do so.
Last time I was in Bend other than just last week was about 17-18 years ago and was only 25,000 people there, now its over 80,000.
love Bend though, great town.

 

[GhostRing]

yup!
My first pass was in '93...travelled around a bit and came back to stay in '98

LOT of changes, some good, some...well...

 

[AlphaEcho2k5]

Those are some amazing photos, thanks for sharing and glad you had a great time.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Got lots of pictures, many of them for some reason will not post.
The obligatory Old Faithful Geyser photo, which is actually pretty amazing if you are standing there.
Pretty cool and odd angle of Mount Rushmore.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Love these trip reports.

 

[Dous]

Absolutely awesome! Must suck coming back to this dump! :wink2: