The Sciencemobile

[thenightman]

Our plan for the third day was to drive Saddle Mountain Road, Kings Range Road, and Kings Peak Road.
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To hit the entirety of all of them meant many miles of backtracking, but whatever, doing it all was important to me. It was pretty foggy in the morning.
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Eventually we climbed above it though. You could probably see the ocean from here on a clear day.
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Since we hit the road by 6:30/7:00, and these three roads were all in such great shape, we had driven them all before 1:30. We had planned on getting a hotel that night, so we went out Wilder Ridge Road and Ettersburg Road, to 101/ Avenue of the giants. This takes you through Humboldt Redwoods state park, and is incredibly beautiful through the park, probably even better than the Avenue of the Giants. It was way past lunchtime, so we hit the gravel bar down by the river.
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It is pretty cool that you are still allowed to drive in the riverbed. This definitely is not the bay area. In the bay area driving down there for the purposes of recreation would be illegal, and the space would be a huge homeless encampment.
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We made sandwiches, since I haven’t made a sandwich table yet we turn bins sideways and use those to make sandwiches on. It works well. You can also see where we hang our trash bag, we just slip an illegal in California plastic bag over the lid of the better water jug. There is enough room to just leave it there until it eventually fills up.
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[thenightman]

With a few good hours of daylight left, we still had some opportunity to get some dirt under the tires. Already out to 101, it wouldn’t seem like there would be a lot of options. Luckily [MENTION=132734]MeefZah[/MENTION] had told us about the Dyerville Loop, which we cruised on for a few hours. It is a mix of mostly dirt and gravel, with lots of spectacular views.
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Totally different ecosystem then the Lost Coast area, it’s fun to be in multiple ecological areas in one day.
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We stayed in a hotel in Garberville. The room was pretty crappy, and the area had just as many crazy homeless people as at home. It made us yearn for the wilderness again. Not surprisingly, there are quite a few beaches on the lost coast. We checked out Shelter Cove Beach.
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In case a person was temped to swim in the 50 degree ocean in 60 degree weather, there was this sign.
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There must have recently been a good storm, because there was a plethora of sea life washed above the regular tidal zone. This beach is pretty and worth a stop.
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This sucker was huge, about a foot long.
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[MeefZah]

Excellent. I like your report and pics.

Dyerville Lp is a good one. Next time you are coming up from the Bay area you can also take Bell Springs Rd staright north off 101 south of Leggett; it is dirt and runs up to Alderpoint Rd and then Dyerville Lp. Really there's too many good ones to list, but you hit a lot of them.

Here's the zebras. There are 3. One was shot by some a-hole last year, but another one was born soon after. They are on Mattole Rd about 3 miles north of Petrolia, on the west (ocean) side. They roam in a big pasture with some horses. I was just by there today and they were out (pic is from a few months ago though).

 

[thenightman]

After a fun coastline interlude, it was time to go back to Four Corners, then head southwest down the trail to Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. An easy dirt road, but again, amazingly pretty, with lots of greenery, ocean views, and multitudes of elk.
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Our second speckled banana slug of the trip.
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Lunchtime!
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A small group of cows wandered by as we were eating or lunch.
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I would never approach an animal this big, but as they were going on by I just sat quietly taking pictures.
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This one was munching on a spinal column. She would pick up a section of vertebrae and chew on it until it broke into pieces. Once the vertebrae were all separated, she would pick up individual vertebrae and chew on that. We watched her do this for probably ten minutes. Due to the size of the vertebrae, I can only assume that it was from another elk. Cannibal elk.
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Some lucky guy lives in this house for a few months at a time, working as the docent/ naturalist/ ambassador for the area. What an awesome job. He was a cool dude who drives a third gen!
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The local docent person said we could grab whatever wood we wanted from this giant pile. We took all the easiest to spit, bark free pieces we wanted. Score!
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[thenightman]

Excellent. I like your report and pics.

Dyerville Lp is a good one. Next time you are coming up from the Bay area you can also take Bell Springs Rd staright north off 101 south of Leggett; it is dirt and runs up to Alderpoint Rd and then Dyerville Lp. Really there's too many good ones to list, but you hit a lot of them.

Here's the zebras. There are 3. One was shot by some a-hole last year, but another one was born soon after. They are on Mattole Rd about 3 miles north of Petrolia, on the west (ocean) side. They roam in a big pasture with some horses. I was just by there today and they were out (pic is from a few months ago though).

Wow I wish I had seen those! It's not everyday you see a zebra. We will definitely be up your way again to check out the rest of these roads. My wife and I have always loved the redwoods, and have camped at all the state, and the national, parks with redwoods, and even got married in a redwood grove. Congratulations on being smart enough to live in such a cool area.

 

[Mark_BC]

Here is my photo of the zebras. I almost missed them but something caught the corner of my eye, some pattern that didn't seem to fit in...

I can't believe someone would shoot one. Why?

 

[MeefZah]

Here is my photo of the zebras. I almost missed them but something caught the corner of my eye, some pattern that didn't seem to fit in...

I can't believe someone would shoot one. Why?

No logical reason. Being an *******. Randy was the name of the deceased zebra, he was the patriarch of the clan. A reward was offered but to my knowledge no one has been identified as the shooter.

 

[thenightman]

Shooting Zebras

The person who shot the Zebra is definetly a major POS in at least two ways. The first one is; who would shoot a zebra, for no reason? The second is; the Zebra is in a paddock, living with horses. That makes it obviously not a wild random zebra, but a pet that belongs to some rancher. It is all just messed up in so many ways.

 

[thenightman]

That night we elected to go back to usal beach to camp. We took the faster way there, lots of pavement going around, to take the southern route in. I am actually, maturity wise, about six years old. And as such, I can never resist taking pictures next to a piece of equipment.
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We got an awesome spot in the first copse of trees closest to the beach. We could hear the waves crash and smell the ocean from our site.
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We got a lot of wood from the friendly docent, about three campsite bundles worth. I chopped it into thinner pieces for easy fire management.
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Pasta with spam and onions for dinner, along with leftover chips and homemade salsa. Enough food for a family of five, since there are only two of us there was plenty.
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I surrounded the area with leds for ambiance, and, because I like leds. Probably a little too much.
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We a guest in our site that night, caught him on the game cam.
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If you can’t tell, it’s a cute little glowing-eyed fox.
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[thenightman]

In the morning we went back to the beach, so much less crowded on a weekday then on a weekend.
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Naturally I could not resist taking more glamor shots of the 4runner at the beach.
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After out little photo shoot we climbed back up south out of there to Hwy 1 on Usal Road. As we got over maybe 200’ of elevation we got into that nice heavy fog that acts like rain on your windshield.
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Some colorful local has an interesting artistic eye. Pretty clever, if you ask me.
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This is in somebody front yard in the Fort Bragg area. California is a weird place.
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California is also a scenic place though too.
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That was our Lost Coast trip. Anyone who will be within a days drive of it at any point should check it out. I am still behind on updates, but will continue to update the thread as I have time. Thanks for reading, and as always, comments and BS are welcome!

 

[thenightman]

The light coming from my bumper LEDs was bouncing all over on this last trip. I thought maybe the bar was loose, or the bumper where the bar bolted was flexing. So I took a look.
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There’s the problem, the only thing holding that side up is the plastic cover mounts by the wheel well. I had to fix it that day, and the junkyard is pretty far so getting a new bumper was unrealistic. I also had plans the next weekend that I wanted the bumper firmly attached for. So off it comes.
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You can see here where it cracked top and bottom. I think maybe the top or bottom part had been broken for a while, making the lights kind of fluttery, and the second crack happened on this trip. On the top there is a series of broken tacks. There are no tacks on the bumper mount on the others side, which is weird.
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So I cleaned up the rust and old paint.
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Fit her together so everything lined up.
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And tacked it straight
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Since it is just sheet metal I just stacked a bunch of tacks to put it together.
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And shot a little black on it so it won’t rust too badly.
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And just like that, the problem with the LEDs on the light bar bouncing around on rough roads was fixed! On top of that the bumper was now aligned better than ever before! With my new bumper mount and nice panel gaps, my front end was looking the best it ever had!

 

[JBurt]

Nice fix. Keep up with the awesome trip reports.

 

[thenightman]

I heard through this forum that some group of 3rd gens was going to be at Pismo the weekend after we got back from The Lost Coast. I couldn’t resist the chance to go to both of California’s four wheeling beaches on back to back weekends! My Wife had to work that Saturday, so I drove down Friday night after dinner. Getting there about 1 am, I hit that rear locker and started making my way down the beach. I found an inconspicuous spot, crawled in the back, and had a restful night on the sleeping platform. If it is just me, I don’t bother with the tent, I just sleep inside.
In the morning, I put up the flag, cruised all over, and went out and got me a sammich to eat later and my proper permits.
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Look how clean and well aligned that front bumper is! Only just one little dent, really nice over all, and well fitted. Sturdy too!
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Yep, she sure is a looker, from all angles.
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This 4runner is the most capable 4x4 I have ever played around in the sand in. Aired down to around 15 psi, locker on, with these new mud terrains I had a blast. I went over all the worst, deep, mixed and fluffed up sand that most people were avoiding. Sand is so much fun when you are fairly capable. I understand how people hate the crowds, or the sand getting everywhere, but it is worth it. Speaking of crowds, there were approximately 74,000 people out there on rental quads that weekend.
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In the middle of my afternoon nap (napping is high priority when I am on vacation) I awoke to a clatter. Springing up to see what was the matter, I saw this.
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This poor simpleton barely made it a quarter mile on her quad before plowing into this fifth gen. She hit it hard enough that the owners actually got the rangers over there to make a report, in case there was yet undiscovered damage. She wedged her quad under it well enough that it took a few guys to get it out. What a freak occurrence! Bizarre! A once in a lifetime thing to see!
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Until the next morning, that is. Sunday there was this 80 series parked in that exact same spot, and another person on a rental plowed right into it! Hit it on the same corner as the Fifth Gen. Wedged under good again. I guess the half hour video you watch on operation and safety isn’t quite doing the trick.
While we are on the subject of bad driving, here is something I did.
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I came around with a little too much speed, and slid sideways off the top and ended up here.
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I was able to back out of it though, and keep romping. I was having a blast! Until I got a little mixed up, and thought I was going over a different dune.
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Oops. With no momentum, and the rear tires barely touching sand at all, I was good and stuck. I nose-dived off the dune, over the slip face, and plowed my front end into the ground like a lawn dart. If you look behind the 4runner, there are no tracks down the dune, it was all airtime.
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As you can see by all the sand on top of the bumper, I smashed in pretty hard. My bumper was nice for like three days! Looks like I ran out of talent. When I talked to my wife later in the day I told her I fubard the bumper. Her reply was that we need a heavier duty one! She is a keeper. A nice old guy in a half ton dodge containing about 10 grand kids made short work of pulling me out. The rest of the weekend I paid it forward by pulling out about 5 other vehicles. That is another fun part of Pismo, plenty of opportunity to pull out others.
I had a great time at Oceano Dunes SVRA, wheeling, meeting cool people like @loudrunner, and hanging out on the beach.

 

[thenightman]

Rock Rails. I went about this different than most. I like the outcome, but it was a long process and took a while. I already had this set of sliders.
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This is probably my favorite style of slider, 2” tall box tube main tube, and a 1 3/4” round tube outrigger. There were just a few problems with this pair of sliders. The first is that the mounts fit a jeep Cherokee, and are in no way even close to what a runner needs. The second problem is that they were only 59 5/8” inches long. So I cut the old legs off, and smoothed it out.
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It was a good start. At this point I was stupidly thinking this shouldn’t be too hard.
I went to the steel store to pick up some goodies. I got some 3/16”x5” flat bar, 1.75 HREW, 1.75” DOM, 1.5”x3/16” flat bar, and 1.5” HREW. As always, I made sure to get more then I needed, since leftover steel is useful to have around.
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Now I could start the stretching process.
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At this point I had really taken it past the point of no return. If I had spent an hour sanding, and an hour painting I could have definitely sold these Cherokee sliders for over 150 bucks. Weld together slider kits aren’t too expensive. Oh well, this is where we are. I did not buy and 2”x3’x3/16” box tube, cause I had some around already.
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I cut some pieces for the stretching process. The new pieces to scab in were 8 3/8” long, for a 68” long slider.
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There are two little supports that go from the main box tube body to the round tube outrigger. I figured it would look better if I added a third one in the middle where I stretched it. It would also be stronger. I had some 1.25” 1.20” wall HREW around already, so I notched it and cut it to fit. This is how I often notch tube. First, cut a pair of even slices off two opposing sides of the tube. Make sure the tube is longer then you need, just in case.
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That gets it pretty close.
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Hit it with the flap wheel or sander to smooth it out.
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Very nice! Now, it can be cut to length. Since both ends are square, I put the notch against the 1.75” tube, and measured from the inside of that to get my cut line. I cut it just shy of the gap width, this will give me a little room to work with, and whatever gap will be filled with weld anyway.

 

[thenightman]

Here you can see the new outrigger segment. The slug piece is already inside the 1.75” outer piece. As you can see, before putting the two pieces together, I drilled two 1/4" holes on opposite sides on the outer piece. After centering the two pieces together, I put a tack weld in each hole. This just keeps the two pieces oriented correctly while the rest is assembled.
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Then I fit it all up. Seems ok. Unfortunately, around the time I was tacking and straightening this, I realized the corner radius of the two different main tubes was slightly different. This did sadden me, but I didn’t want to mess around buying all sorts of different tubes trying to find a matching radius. I just kept going. I guess it isn’t too noticeable. Anyway, it fit together fine.
Braced up and tacked.
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As you can see, the best thing I had to clamp to was the other rock rail.
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Time to weld the rails up!
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Then for a little grinding, clean up, and paint!
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I’m going to need two.
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Once finished, the sliders were straight enough. One curves up in the middle, one curves in towards to the frame in its middle. Only about 1/16” of an inch in both cases though. A person would have to have better tools and more skills that I do in order to make it perfectly straight. Which probably would not be too difficult actually.

 

[thenightman]

Ok, now that the main slider bodies are done, we get to figure out how to mount them! There are many schools of thought when it comes to mounting sliders, round vs square, HREW vs DOM, frame plates, and gussets. Here are my frame plates, made of 3/16” thick steel. I cut 8 square plates with the chop saw, then stacked and tacked them. Once they were tacked as one, I could cut two of the corners off, using the chop saw again.
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Due to the shallow angle, I had to cut the other corners off with the cut off wheel, I then smoothed them out with a sander wheel. Notice how my cuts aren’t “perfectly” on the line? Who cares? It doesn’t really matter for something like this.
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In order to figure out my leg length, I need to mock them up in place. Oops, they don’t actually fit where they are supposed to. This dumb plastic is in the way.
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Coping saw and razor knife to the rescue, my main bodywork tools.
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Sitting on the jackstands, they look pretty cool! They just need to be attached to the 4runner somehow.
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Now that they rail was roughly in place, I could figure out where I wanted the legs. Once I had a good idea, I removed the paint from the area of the frame plates. I used a 80 grit flap wheel for this, that’s why it looks kinda blurry. If I had finished it off with the 150 grit it would have been much more sharp.
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When the frame was clear of undercoating, I tacked the plates on the frame, then, I could measure the leg length and cut them.
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Tacking the legs in place was an important and confidence building step. The legs are all about 6 15/16” long, and are 1.75”x 0.120” wall HREW. I considered DOM. DOM is stronger, but these are only less then 7” long, and will have giant ultra-gussets to help prevent deflection.
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Once one side (minus gussets) is done, it can sit in the side yard for yet another important parts maturation period. Part maturation is a crucial step in modifying vehicles. New parts should never be immediately installed, but should sit where they can rust, or be in the way, for a few months after acquiring.
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[thenightman]

Gusseting the legs where they attach to the frame is important for two reasons. The first is to add weld area to the leg, making the joint stronger. The second is to add rigidity to the joint by in essence trussing the corner. Something I wanted to do was make the gusset as large as possible, make it go from the body pinch weld all the way to the top of the frame plate. Another thing I wanted to do was use a stronger material shape than just a piece of 1/4" plate with a 45 or 60 degree angle cut on it. This is why I used 1”x2”x0.95”wall rectangular tube for my gussets. After laying it all out, I cut out a few more then I would actually need. I figured I can use a few of these here and there, In the future at some point.
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This step seemed to take a while.
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Finally, once all were cut out, I could weld underneath where the gusset will go.
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Fitting these up took a few minutes each.
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Each one was slightly different, so they all took some custom fitment.
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Always be sure to do your welding on the proper unleveled workmate with a barclamped chunk of mdf on top as your work surface.
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Weld ‘er up!
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The box tube gusset gos out as far as it can go, to the pinch weld, and up almost to the end of the frame plate. This will make it much stronger than the common smaller gussets. And the boxed in shape of the gussets should also make it a good deal stronger than the 1/4" plate gussets. The two vertical planes are pushed out to the outside of the HREW, for more linear loading and a lessened chance of the top tube denting. The box shape of the gusset is also more resistant to the gusset itself bending. Weight between the this style and an equally sized plate gusset should be almost the same. How much stronger might it be? I don’t know really, but if you put the two materials in a beam calculator the box will come out stronger. If any mechanical engineer wanted to do the calculations and figure out the pros and cons, that would be sweet. I am certainly no mechanical engineer.
An important step is to paint the rock rail prior to installation, so you don’t have to mask off the body. I hit all but the little bit still needing to be welded to the frame.
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[thenightman]

When I fit the sliders together, I made it so that the legs were only about 1/8” away from the body pinch weld. This would normally be pretty dumb, as every rock slider, and indeed almost anything in the world, will deflect a bit under a shock load. My plan was to make vertical cuts where the legs would hit the pinch weld. Then I cut the plastic off entirely, and pounded the metal up flat. Cutting off sections of pinchweld should be avoided unless you plan on rewelding that seam.
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Now you can see the clearance created. The sliders have about 1/2" of room to deflect up on a hard hit. By doing this whole pinchweld cut and fold, I was able to mount my sliders 1/2" higher then otherwise. I will put that little extra bit of time in to get another 1/2" of clearance any day.
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Since removing the paint from the frame where the sliders mount, I had been camping at the beach for two different weekends. Removing OEM Rust inhibition + Hanging out by ocean = lots of rust. So that had to all come off.
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I can finally weld them on now.
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I shot a little black on the mounts once finally stuck on there. I think they look pretty cool.
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I tried to do the classic “lift it with the high-lift to show the strength” picture, but it was on a fairly steep hill so I chickened out after a little bit.
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There you go! In 50 pictures I have shown you how to adapt parts you don’t have from a Jeep Cherokee to fit the a 3rd gen 4runner. I spent only around 60 buck in metal, and used up an undetermined amount of consumables. The weld together sliders start a bit over 300 bucks I think, so I did save some money, though spent way more time. At least I have fancy box tube gussets! All in all I probably should have just bought something. One of the reasons I got into 4x4s is I like building things, so I did have fun.

 

[Wedgy]

Nice job man ! Fabricating is fun stuff, especially when it comes out looking good like yours did. With your welding skillz are you going to do a weld it yourself bumper like the bandit runner kit ?
I'm eventually going to do a rear but time and injury is putting it off for a while.

 

[infamousRNR]

Dang Keith! You got some fab skills! Btw, once summer comes around again we gotta make a caravan down to pismo with the Bay Area kids. Sicmods dude!