I found "The One", 2001 Sport Ed. TRD SC'd

[BigFishAllDay]

CV Box..

The last project I had to knock out before the trip was to create a solution for securely/safely carrying my spare CV axles. I have two, and I wanted to containerize them so that I could easily just grab the whole setup and go for those trips where I'd like to bring them along.

This is what I came up with... note the bag of Nitrile gloves @ top center to help w/a messy job. 35mm and 36mm axle nut sockets sit securely at either corner on one end, along with some trash bags for greasy rags, and spare boot clamps, c-clips, and blue loctite get tucked away on the other end...

There are two spare dust caps tucked away with a bunch of old t-shirts, all folded up underneath the CV's. Two half-rolls of paper towels fit at either end for cleaning up grease. A piece of thick foam down the center helps keep the CV's in place and prevent rattling.

The lid was designed to be a tight fit, and is secured additionally by two barrel bolts. The ends of the box were drilled with two holes, and rope handles were added.

One stop CV shop... check.

 

[4ever4running]

Very nice work on the CB install and the CV box. Which reminds me, I really need to get some spare CV's...

 

[NateMob]

Great job on everything Nick, Im glad to see some of you ABQ guys getting on some tougher trails and seeing what your trucks are capable of, Moab is awesome for that. Hopefully this summer yall can make it down our way for some more trails. Take a ton of photos so i can see all i have to look forward to next year! Cool CV box, i hope you dont have to open it!

Nate

 

[LittleCaesar]

BFAD,

Forgot to add that I helped a friend the other week replace his alternator. The brushes were toast. He had roughly 13.2 to 12.7 volts, with the latter reading with his flood lights on (does sea turtle nesting marking on the beaches for the state of NC). With a new ALT he was at 14.4, 13.9 with the battery fully charged and all lights on. If you are in the junkyard in the future, grab an alternator for cheap and see if you can get the volts up.

It looks like a wine carrying box, the CV box that it.

Can't wait to see the pics. Enjoy the trip.

 

[4-Ripcord]

Glad we finally got a chance to wheel together, Nick!

Here are some of the shots I got of you, I have more in the album: MOAB May 2013 Photos by jim4x4runner | Photobucket

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Moab!!!!!

I've got a bunch of pics, so I'll have to make several posts, probably one or more for each day. Get ready for lots of pictures, folks.

First views of Moab country...

Hole in the Rock... almost there.

Tuesday afternoon I made a solo run up Geyser Pass for some snow bashing, but the snow got too deep high on the pass, so I backtracked and headed north on the La Sal loop road, then up across Thompson Mesa, and out via Fisher Towers and Onion Creek.

Overlooking Ken's Lake & Spanish Valley...

The snow got deep.... up to the tops of the tires @ the highest point. I was just shy of the pass when I had to turn back, which sucked because I had bought a fishing license and was trying to make it to a small lake high on the pass to try and catch a few trout.

Castle Valley...

Fischer Valley, and Beaver Mesa on the right... I saw a USFS ranger on Beaver Mesa who said to watch out for bear hunters in the area.... hmmm... bears you say?

Hideout Canyon...

Onion Creek... can you say "water crossings".. too bad they were all short & shallow..

I let the 4Runner dip it's toe in the mighty Colorado...

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Very nice work on the CB install and the CV box. Which reminds me, I really need to get some spare CV's...

Thanks, Jimmy! Thankfully I didn't use mine on this trip, but it's a good idea to have a few.

Great job on everything Nick, Im glad to see some of you ABQ guys getting on some tougher trails and seeing what your trucks are capable of, Moab is awesome for that. Hopefully this summer yall can make it down our way for some more trails. Take a ton of photos so i can see all i have to look forward to next year! Cool CV box, i hope you dont have to open it!

It was a good trip Nate! I didn't have to open the CV box, and the 4Runner performed flawlessly. I look forward to doing some local wheeling w/you soon, and hopefully in Moab next year. I'll be posting more photos as I have time, so keep an eye out for thread bumps.

Forgot to add that I helped a friend the other week replace his alternator. The brushes were toast. He had roughly 13.2 to 12.7 volts...... Can't wait to see the pics. Enjoy the trip.

Thanks for the input LC. I'm confident that my alternator is healthy. Now that I've got the idle up, everything is working great. Voltage stays between 13.7 and 14.3, and no more dimming of the lights at idle. I've got a little upgrade for the existing alternator that should make it work even better.

Glad we finally got a chance to wheel together, Nick!

Thanks for the pics, Jim!

It's a bummer how the trip turned out for you, and the resulting decision you've made about your 4Runner. Regardless, I had a great time and it was good to hang out. I'm glad I got to run a few trails w/you in your rig.

 

[LittleCaesar]

BFAD,

Great pics. It looks like you, Rip, and everyone else had a lot of fun. There are some great spots to fish in the Colorado, nice size rainbow. Granted it has been close to fifteen years since I fished that river so the fish could have moved.

Speaking of bears, back in mountain biking's zenith in popularity in the late 90's, some rider was night riding on one of the trails, fell, but managed to bandage himself up. In walking back to the staging area, he was chased by a mother bear for a good mile or two.

Gas is still pricey out there I see.

Good to hear that the ALT is charging well now.

 

[4est4runner]

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! seeing those awesome pics gets me more excited to make the trip out there once my rig is more off road protected, oh, and lifted

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Arches National Park & Hells Revenge...

Wednesday morning, I left camp early in the morning on my own again to see Arches National Park.

One of the guys from NM with a 2nd gen Tacoma caught up with me and we took the 4wd trail out to "Eye of the Whale" arch, then went west across Willow Flats to see some fossilized dinosaur tracks on the way to Hwy. 191.

Arches is gorgeous, and I would say it is a "must see" for anyone visiting Moab... you only need a few hours.

The first run of the meet was scheduled at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, so I left Arches and shot over to the trailhead for a little bit of this action....

Air down & B-S session...

Headed up the first big climb...

Overlook on the Colorado River & Highway 128

Steeze's beast...

Ripcord dropping off the Dragon's Tail...

The group...

 

[hrt4me]

nice photos!

 

[4ever4running]

Looks like an awesome trip Nick! I'm bummed I never got a chance to wheel Moab when I lived in NM, although I did get to do some mountain biking and climbing there which was pretty awesome.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Fins & Things...

Thursday morning, I joined a run on....

Mobbin...

[MENTION=57546]4-Ripcord[/MENTION] dropping off a steep ledge... I missed a great shot just prior to this one where he had his hands out the sunroof.

[MENTION=72252]atipps[/MENTION] climbing a "Fin"... or was it a "Thing"?

The run went pretty quick, and it was over too soon...

Supercharged much?

After the Fins run, Dirtco and I took a quick drive up Kane Creek Rd. to do some exploring. Thanks again [MENTION=67615]Dirtco[/MENTION] for showing me around, I'll keep those campsites in mind for the future. We parted ways and I went back into town, washed the rig, and relaxed at camp for the afternoon. I should have stuck with Dirtco as he went and ran a couple trails solo.

I took a few shots around camp at area BFE, just to capture the experience. My home for 6 days...

Nice views in the "driveway"...

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Kane Creek

On Friday, I joined a group of rigs and ran Kane Creek. This trail was a blast, with a mix of fast sandy sections, water crossing, rocks & ledges... the whole nine yards. My armor put in some work on this run...

Air down, BS, and info session...

There's an optional line early on that is only doable in SWB rigs, so I gave it a go... easy peasy...

I was playing a little game on this trip, trying to purposely hit every piece of armor on my rig, so I asked the spotter to put me on a line where I'd drop onto my passenger slider... we made it happen.

Doing a little spotting...

Flex on pause...

About halfway up, we ran into this huge boulder on the trail... What to do? Roll that mofo off the cliff! It made nice thud when it hit the creek bottom.

The group continuing along up the canyon...

On the last major obstacle at Muleshoe canyon... Thanks [MENTION=72252]atipps[/MENTION] for the pic!

The group at the end of the trail...

 

[NateMob]

Now that looks like a fun trail man! Did you use your locker much while up in Moab? I know the rock provides unbelievable traction.

You said you scraped the tire on that steep notch towards the start of the trail, could you take a photo which set of holes your spare tire is mounted in? I started pretty high on mine and moved it down a couple inches recently, I'm just not sure how low i can go before its an issue on the trail. Any extra viewing space out the back helps ya know?!

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Friday night after the Kane Creek run, we got some pizza at Paradox Pizza in town (definitely a good choice for quick bite when in Moab), then went back out to camp for the raffle and group photo.

The raffle was worthwhile... They had some really nice prizes, most of them Tacoma specific, but a few things that would have been nice for a 4Runner.

With a single ticket, I got lucky and ended up winning a coupon good for 25% off ANY single ARB product... front locker... fridge... the possibilities abound.

After the raffle, everyone lined up for a group shot. [MENTION=83876]white toy taco[/MENTION] one of our NM boys, represented hard for NM, parading the state flag all the way down the line... yeah, buddy! (The epicness blurred the photo)

Retina burn!!!

If my truck was a woman, I'd give her a kiss...

 

[BigFishAllDay]

7 Mile Rim...

After 4 days of progressively harder trails, I was ready to take on Trifecta for saturday. Trifecta consists of Poison Spider Mesa, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim run in series. Unfortunately for me, Trifecta didn't work out.

Everyone was partying hard on Friday night, and only 4 guys were still signed up for the run. When I checked early on Saturday, there still was not a designated leader for the Trifecta run so I went to look for the 3 other guys who were signed up. One was asleep, one was just waking up and had no idea whether or not the run was a go, and the other was gone.

There was an 8:00 am run scheduled for 7-Mile Rim, so rather than getting stuck at camp all day due to a flopped Trifecta run, I hauled ass out to the trailhead to catch up with that group. I got to the trailhead at 8:15, aired down, put it in 4-Lo and took off fast, trying to catch the group.

I reached the first big overlook around 9am, and as I was checking out the scenery I noticed some glinting lights off in the distance.

A quick check with the binoculars revealed a large group of Toyotas coming up the trail, about an hour behind me. It was the group I had tried to catch, and they departed at 9am rather than 8am.

So, rather than wait, I ran the trail by myself.

Uranium Arch...

Duratracs @ 20 psi...

A set of big ledges...

Flexin'... I removed a front swaybar endlink on Thurday after the Fins & Things run, and I really enjoyed how the truck was performing without the front sway bar in play. I still haven't re-connected it.

The Silver Crack... since I didn't get to do the Golden Crack on Trifecta, I had to hit this one...

Overlook...

When I got to the Buttes I decided to wait for the group. I had been taking it slow, and they were slowly catching up. While I waited, I played on some big ledges.

The group caught up, and as we were all parking our rigs for lunch, a guy in a 4th gen 4Runner managed to set off his side curtain airbags backing over a small dip in the rock. The noise was pretty loud, and the look on the poor guys face was a classic "WTF!!??".

We got to Wipe Out Hill, and surveyed the lines. One of the guys was in a black 4th gen with full skids, and he decided to have a go at the tougher line out. We spotted him up, and had to stack a couple rocks, but he made it. However, on the way up he had to put the entire weight of the rig on the gas tank skid several times. Since I still have my stock gas tank skid in place (and it had already taken a beating), I decided to stick with the easier line, which was still alot of fun.

After Wipe Out, we continued on to Determination Towers, then onward to the end of the trail.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Tusher Tunnel and the last night @ camp...

After we got done with 7 Mile we took the spur out to Tusher Tunnel to have a look, it was a cool detour.

The last night of any camping trip can be bittersweet.... You look forward to getting home, getting cleaned up, and sleeping in a bed, while thinking back about the happenings of the trip and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells while you still can.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Sunday... Top of the World!

Sunday morning there was a run scheduled on Top of the World. When I got up at 7 am and looked around camp, I could tell that wasn't happening, so again I said f@ck it and went by myself.

The biggest downfall of this TacomaWorld meet was the lack of follow through and organization. It was pretty much every man for himself, and I had every intention of making the most out of MY trip.

Is it a crime to love your machine?

Boom...

Top of the World was a fun trail... pretty much in and out, with a tough loop section at the top. On the way out, I took the far side of the loop, which was much more difficult than the side you come up. I creamed my belly skid a couple times coming down and bent it up. The views were worth it though...

It's a long way down... I think I see Stockwell's phone!

Airing up at the historic Dewey Bridge on the Colorado River...

Taking it all in one last time before I hit the road...

And that was the trip... Until next time....

 

[farmerjon]

REALLY cool set of pictures, Nick! I thoroughly enjoyed all the different pics and details of the different trails and stuff at Moab, gives me a (slight) idea of what to expect, if I ever roll down that way!

Six days can be a long time!