Unner's Build, 2001 T4R 4x4

[Taylor20]

Where at around Huntsville? I live in Madison, but just put Huntsville down since it's the nearest bigish city.



Fair enough. I would like a supercharger, but the increase in fuel cost and another point of failure keep me from doing it, that and the price... I'd probably only run one if I found it really cheap, or if I end up getting a daily driver and the 4Runner becomes strictly a toy.

To be specific, a small community called Greenhill, also known as Killen, just outside of Florence. Probably about 45 minutes west of Huntsville.

Ya the S/C isn’t “necessary”. Think about how many are out there fully armored and loaded without one. I’d rather have gears before a S/C.


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[theesotericone]

Nope, just more wheelspin and then I threw a roostertail from the front tires into the truck…

Man, you gotta remember to roll up the windows and turn on the AC whenever things get steep or largely rutted but especially when it's both. lol

It's happened to me more times than I'd care to admit. The last time it was mud. Yeah, mud. Right in my eye from my open drivers side window. I knew better and still got mud in my eye. Literally.

I'm really glad you had a good time out here and got around to writing it up. Those are some really great areas you hit and the amount of photo's gives a really good feel for them.

Nice job.

 

[Unner]

I can't wait to read the rest.

I am preparing my next trip for the end of summer to beginning of October, for 6 weeks. I will be in Idaho, then around Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and High Sierra including Alabama Hills. I am really curious the see where you will end up. Hopefully, you will have time to post your trip report before I leave (no pressure...!!!).
.

Sounds like an awesome trip! I'll try to have this trip report up faster, but you never know what life has in store. I didn't think it would take me nearly 6 months to get this one up haha

To be specific, a small community called Greenhill, also known as Killen, just outside of Florence. Probably about 45 minutes west of Huntsville.

Ya the S/C isn’t “necessary”. Think about how many are out there fully armored and loaded without one. I’d rather have gears before a S/C.


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Nice, I have a friend that bought an old MK3 Supra from a guy out in Killen. I agree, I would regear before supercharging. But gears are expensive too, because I'd have to add lockers also if I regeared.

Man, you gotta remember to roll up the windows and turn on the AC whenever things get steep or largely rutted but especially when it's both. lol

It's happened to me more times than I'd care to admit. The last time it was mud. Yeah, mud. Right in my eye from my open drivers side window. I knew better and still got mud in my eye. Literally.

I'm really glad you had a good time out here and got around to writing it up. Those are some really great areas you hit and the amount of photo's gives a really good feel for them.

Nice job.

Usually with mud and water I think about it and roll them up, I guess I just wasn't expecting it with sand since we don't really have that down here haha. Everything was already covered in a fine dust so it wasn't too bad, just brushed the seat off and pretended like it didn't happen haha

Thanks or the compliments. We had a great time out there. It took me much longer than anticipated to write this up, but better late than never right?

When I was going through the photos picking the ones I wanted to edit and post, I had a really hard time narrowing it down. I took probably 2,000 pictures, narrowed it down to about 700, and then from there I'll end up posting probably around 600. A lot of pictures, but almost everyone shows something different/unique about the place we were at.

I also take most of these pictures from my trips, throw them in a folder and use that folder as the slideshow for my computer screen background, so every time I open up my laptop I get to look at a place I've been. Or my truck. Either one makes me happy.

 

[Taylor20]

Nice, I have a friend that bought an old MK3 Supra from a guy out in Killen. I agree, I would regear before supercharging. But gears are expensive too, because I'd have to add lockers also if I regeared.

I've got a 97 with 4.30's and elocker that is about to get swapped in to mine So I'll make a small jump and regear again later on if needed.

Hey, you should look into the Appalachian Toyota Roundup in Knoxville Labor Day weekend. I'll be attending and it will be my first organized offroad event. I've heard nothing but great things about the event from past attendees.

 

[Unner]

I've got a 97 with 4.30's and elocker that is about to get swapped in to mine So I'll make a small jump and regear again later on if needed.

Hey, you should look into the Appalachian Toyota Roundup in Knoxville Labor Day weekend. I'll be attending and it will be my first organized offroad event. I've heard nothing but great things about the event from past attendees.

Nice! Hopefully that small jump will keep you happy and you can save the money on doing a full blown regear.

I've looked into that event before, the only thing I don't like is you have to register for it so early, and it's hard for me to plan that far in advance. Maybe this year I'll just do it though. Looks like the registration deadline is June 30th.

 

[Taylor20]

Nice! Hopefully that small jump will keep you happy and you can save the money on doing a full blown regear.

I've looked into that event before, the only thing I don't like is you have to register for it so early, and it's hard for me to plan that far in advance. Maybe this year I'll just do it though. Looks like the registration deadline is June 30th.

I registered last week, and I think they have x amount of openings. Great event though, I am really looking forward to it. If you decide to go, let me know!

 

[Scramble]

I've been wanting to go to the ATR for years. I don't think I can make it this year but I'll shoot for next year.

 

[Taylor20]

I've been wanting to go to the ATR for years. I don't think I can make it this year but I'll shoot for next year.

This will be my first, and from what I’m hearing, probably will be a yearly ritual.


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[Unner]

Day 9 – Death Valley

We didn’t get an early start, and still needed to get some stuff before heading into Death Valley. We stopped at an Albertsons and bought steak. Steak seemed to be cheaper out west, maybe because of all the cattle farming that is closer.

After that we grabbed a late lunch at Leticia's Mexican Cocina. Here we were able to get “real sopapillas” instead of the kind they serve down here which taste and look like sweet tortillas. I like the ones you get out west much better.

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From here we drove north for awhile, into a miserable headwind. Our gas mileage was abysmal to say the least. We stopped at a gas station right across from Creech Air Force Base. It was pretty cool to watch the drones flying while the 4Runner fueled up. There was also some sort of domestic dispute happening in the parking lot, so she locked the doors while I went inside to use the bathroom…

When I came out and went to start the truck it didn’t do anything. I was very confused, but on the 3rd attempt or so it started just fine so I assumed it was something to do with her locking the doors or something.

We stopped again in Beatty to top off on gas, where the truck didn’t start on the first try either. On the second try it started fine though. I was a little worried and confused at this point. I pulled off into the parking lot and restarted the truck 10-15 times in a row successfully. I apprehensively assumed it was some sort of fluke and we continued on our way.

Our first stop was going to be Titus Canyon. Unfortunately due to our late start from Vegas and all the stops we were already starting to run low on daylight. We turned off the paved highway and onto this road. It looked like a very smooth gravel road where airing down might not be necessary. Wrong, after being shook to death for a couple miles we stopped and aired down.

The TrailHead tire deflators I got before this trip are such a time saver.

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Next we crossed into the valley of death.

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After airing down the ride was much more tolerable, and we made our way off into the mountains. The sun was already low so we were pretty strapped for time. The first few miles of the trail were mostly climbing along winding mountain roads. It was a scenic drive, but not like the pictures I had seen of driving along huge canyon walls.

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Then we crested the hill, and the sunlight was casting a perfect image across the valley that lay below us.

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It was stunning.

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We continued on, and were now descending.

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After driving through a few historic sites, we made it to the part of the trail where you’re driving through the tall canyon walls.

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[Unner]

The way the rock layers and formations can be seen in Death Valley is like no other.

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Saw some petroglyphs.

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The sun was really starting to set now.

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It got even darker inside the canyon walls since the sun could reach in, so the lights came on.

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We eventually popped out the other side of the canyon, just in time to watch the sun set across the mountains.

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My initial plan was for us to make it to the racetrack to camp at the campsites there, but since it would definitely be dark we decided to camp closer to where we were so we could actually enjoy the views in the morning. I consulted the map and found a campsite I figured we could stay at, the Mesquite Spring Campground. Unfortunately we pulled up to the campground, and it was closed. So I consulted the map again, and saw that as long as you are 2 miles (I believe that’s what it was, don’t quote me though) past Ubehebe Crater you could camp off the side of the road. So we drove further, keeping it slow on the pavement since we were aired down, and made it two miles past the Crater and began looking for a place to stay for the night. We could an area that was clear enough to fit a 4Runner in off the side of the road and called it a night. I shut the truck off, with the thought of the starting issues from earlier still in my mind. We made camp, and gazed at the million stars overhead in Death Valley. We were truly in the middle of nowhere.

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[Unner]

Day 10 – Death Valley & Alabama Hills

We woke up the next morning, and with the sunlight we were actually able to see our surroundings.

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As we were packing up camp, this ancient Volvo station wagon drove by on Racetrack Valley Road, moving at a snail’s pace. They had their windows up most of the way to keep the dust in and gave us a half-hearted wave. I couldn’t tell if they were enjoying themselves or not, but the ride in their 1985 Volvo station wagon on one of the roughest “roads” did not look pleasant. We packed up camp, made breakfast, and headed back to Ubehebe Crater to see what we had missed.

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After exploring around the crater for a little while we got back in the truck and headed towards the Racetrack, even further into Death Valley.

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We were keeping a pretty good pace on Racetrack Valley Road, there’s a perfect speed where it’s fast enough that it’s not a totally jarring ride, but still stable and not terrifying. That speed was probably at least 5 times what the Volvo was travelling at.

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We came around one of the many bends, and my girlfriend pointed out a car ahead. We were pretty sure it was the Volvo and it sure was. They hadn’t made it very far in the time that had passed since they passed us…

I caught up to them, and waited for them to pull over. They pulled off to let us pass and we were back up to speed. They were very quickly nowhere to be seen…

We made it to Teakettle Junction where we stopped for awhile. We had brought a Teakettle from Alabama that we would leave with all the others. We spent some time reading the others, and much to my disbelief we found this one that read “Philadelphia Eagles 8-1” “gointothesuperbow.com”. I’m an Eagles fan, and always have been, so it was pretty cool to see this. We left our teakettle here and wrote “Fly Eagles Fly, 11-2”. While we were on the PCH a friend texted me asking if I had heard about Carson Wentz, that’s when I learned about his torn ACL, but Nick Foles really stepped up. This teakettle story from Death Valley made the first SuperBowl win even more special.

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As we were about to leave, that Volvo pulled up again. The couple got out, and they were a very German couple. They excitedly spoke to us about where we were going, and where they were going. He asked me a few questions about the racetrack, and I told him what I knew. I thought for sure he was going to ask us for a ride, but they didn’t. It was interesting knowing they were German, in Death Valley with a seemingly poor choice of vehicle to travel into such a remote destination, after having read this story about a German family that had died in Death Valley many years ago due to being ill prepared for the harsh environment…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_Germans

They got in their Volvo and headed out before us. We gave them a little space, and then set off ourselves, even though we knew we would pass them soon…

We could see their car up ahead, and as we got closer I see both of them are not in the car, but instead on their knees looking underneath the car. “Oh boy, now I’m gonna have to try and fix their Volvo in the middle of Death Valley.”

They both saw me pulling up, looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and got back in the car. They pulled off to the side and I rolled the window down to make sure they were OK. He told me they were fine, so we proceeded on our way.

 

[Unner]

The racetrack was now in sight.

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The Grandstand really sticks out in the racetrack.

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We made it to the eastern side of the racetrack and got out to check out the Grandstand.

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While we were here the Germans pulled up in their Volvo again and seemed happy/relieved to have made it to their destination. This was the last time we saw them, so I hope they made it back out OK.

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After the Grandstand we headed further west to the area with the moving rocks. This is a really cool place, and amazing that this actually occurs. The trails left behind by the rocks make for great photographs.

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[Unner]

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They have a sign out here now, explaining how the rocks move, pretty wild how it happens.

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After doing our exploring here, we set off for the next event, Lippincott Pass.

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The entrance to Lippincott isn’t far from the end of the Racetrack.

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We started off down the narrow shelf road, heading towards the next set of mountains. The trail wasn’t too bad, just some bumps and ruts and stuff. Not something you could take a Forester down, but a stock 4Runner with decent tire placement shouldn’t sustain any damage.

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We heard the noise of airplanes so we stopped to see if we could spot them. Just over the mountain range in the distance you could see two fighter jets doing combat training drills. That was pretty cool to watch them maneuver about, and go from flying super low to real high up, making sharp turns and having a good time. I really wanted one of them to break the sound barrier since Death Valley is one of the few places you can do that, but neither of them did.

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[Unner]

I had read about one really narrow spot that people in full size trucks can’t get through so I was expecting that to at least be a little nerve wracking, but it wasn’t until well after we passed it that I realized we had passed it. 3rd Gen’s are the perfect size.

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We drove a little farther and found a couple in a 5th gen 4Runner making their way up. We complimented each other’s trucks, and I asked if there were any trouble spots below, he said no, and I told him the same thing for his path up. The trail eventually stopped winding, and turned into more of a long flat road, which took us out to Saline Valley Road.

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An old closed off mine along the trail.

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We got to the intersection of Saline Valley Road and Lippincott, and she said she wanted to drive. So I let her drive for awhile down the rough washboards roads of Death Valley. I wanted to go to the Hot Springs, but they were still quite a bit farther in the opposite direction of the highway we needed to head towards, so we decided to skip the Hot Springs. I took a few pictures out the window as she drove and we climbed in elevation.

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[Unner]

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I like Joshua Trees…

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The grade was starting to get pretty steep and the transmission temp was getting pretty high so I told her to put it in 4 Lo to keep the transmission temps down. She didn’t like driving in 4 Lo, so we switched back soon after.

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[Unner]

We made it to a T in the road, and were greeted with this view looking down into the valley.

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From here we continued on, staying at the elevation that we had climbed to and driving along the ridge of a mountain. As our elevation had increased there were a lot more Joshua Trees all around, which made for some neat scenery.

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We were starting to near a long straight downhill portion of the road. The road was super wide here, and perfectly straight so I really gave it some coming down here.

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Now we were definitely nearing the end of our time on dirt roads in Death Valley. The road started to have mixes of pavement and dirt, until we got to the highway. Our next stop was going to be Alabama hills. It was only about 35 miles, so I decided to skip airing up, only to air back down and we’d just keep it slow and make stops to keep the tires from overheating.

 

[Unner]

As we came out of the mountains of Death Valley, we began to see another mountain range on the horizon, the Sierra Nevadas.

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As we approached, the mountains got bigger and bigger. And the clouds did some interesting things as they rolled over the top of the mountains.

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We made it to a gas station in Lone Pine where we got gas, and headed off towards Alabama Hills. We drove around the park, looking for a semi secluded spot, but there were a lot of people in the park at this time. I think it was a weekend when we were there. We finally found a place and decided to stay there for the night. We made dinner, and took in the last starry night we would have in California.

 

[Unner]

Day 11 – Alabama Hills

We woke up the next day to some extremely high winds, and some people who parked RIGHT NEXT TO US and started unpacking and getting their stuff out to go rock climbing. Now I don’t care if you want to come climb the rocks near where we camped, but at least have the courtesy to park a little farther away from us, and not back right up to me like you’re parallel parking in the city…

The winds had blown the lid off the box that I keep our camping stuff in, so I got out of the truck to go search for it before the wind took it any further. I got out, and looked towards the stove and saw this…

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I was startled. I went back to the truck and said “Do you want to see a really big spider?” “NO!”, but 30 seconds later she was putting on shoes to come look at it. We kept our distance from it and were talking about how we were glad it wasn’t there the night before. She got back in the truck, and I went to go find our lid…

I came back and the spider still had not moved. I cautiously walked around it to grab our things and begin packing. It was too windy to deal with making breakfast, so we were just going to pack up and stay inside the truck.
We had picked a pretty nice spot.

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As we packed everything the spider still hadn’t moved. We were beginning to believe that it was fake, so we tossed a couple rocks towards it and it didn’t move. We got closer, and could finally see that it was fake and obviously placed there by someone while we were sleeping.

I don’t know if it was the people getting ready to go rock climbing, or the people that were camped 100 yards from us, or what. Generally it isn’t a good idea to go snooping around stranger’s campsites though, that’s a good way to find yourself in some trouble.

With our things packed, we went on to explore Alabama hills, while eating donut holes for breakfast, which can be seen sitting on the dashboard...

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I had read about how this was the place that had been used to fill many movies, like Iron Man, and now I know why.

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It’s a very different landscape.

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[Unner]

We explored around here a little, but then I saw a small side road on the GPS that looked like it could be a fun little trip. We took that road, and it kept climbing up, towards the top of a hill on the northeastern side of Alabama hills. We made it as far as the road existed for, and I could tell how windy it was up here just from how bad the truck was shaking while parked. I decided I wanted to get out of the truck to take some pictures and the wind about knocked me over several times…

I was leaning into the wind, absolutely freezing, and being pelted in the face with sand for these pictures…

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I got back in the truck, and we watched the birds try and fight the wind. They would do fine walking on the ground, but as soon as they tried to fly into the wind they’d get picked up and thrown about 15 feet backwards.
From here we had a pretty good view of Mt. Whitney. We decided that would be the next place we would go to, at least as far as we could. I started driving in that direction, and occasionally consulted the GPS until we were on a paved road with signs.

We climbed steadily up the mountain, until we were well over 10,000 ft. and as far as we could drive. It was much colder up here, and actually snowed on us for a little bit. There was a large frozen waterfall we checked out, but not much else to do up here.

DSC02236 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02237 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

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[Unner]

It was too cloudy to see the peaks…

DSC02258 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02263 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Unner was a little dusty after several days in Mojave and then Death Valley…

DSC02259 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

On the way down we stopped at this little pull off for a neat picture looking out over Alabama Hills.

DSC02266 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

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DSC02277 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We left Alabama hills, and stopped at the same gas station in Lone Pine to use their air compressor to air back up. I checked the weather for our next stop, the Grand Canyon. I had planned to camp somewhere along the North Ridge as it should have been less touristy and given a different view of the Grand Canyon, but it was very cold there, and we both wanted a shower. The actual visitor center on the North Rim is closed during the winter, so we decided we’d just go to the South Rim. We were able to book a hotel for very cheap because no one goes to the Grand Canyon in December.

We passed through Death Valley again, this time on pavement. There was a cool looking pull off, so we stopped here to look our over Death Valley one more time.

DSC02280 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This was a fun curvy road we took into the valley.

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The signs that say something like “Shut Off AC Next 26 Miles” or whatever they say really show how harsh this place can be in the summer.
While driving down the highway, we saw a coyote standing near the side of the road. He looked like he wanted to come home with us.

DSC02294 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02300 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We pulled off the road to look at him, but people were stopping in the middle of the road. It seemed like an accident waiting to happen so we left. We made our way through Death Valley, and eventually passed a sign that said “Elevation: Sea Level”. Pretty wild how you can be at below sea level in the valley, but there are several peaks around 10,000 feet surrounding the valley.

It was still extremely windy driving through Death Valley, and a sandstorm started to form in the valley. At certain times it also looked like it was about to rain.

DSC02302 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02307 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Here we saw the lowest elevation I’ve ever seen. 137 feet below sea level.

DSC02312 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02314 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We passed through Stovepipe Wells where gas was $5 a gallon, and continued on towards daylight pass, and eventually Beatty, NV. We saw a pack of wild Donkeys on the way too, unfortunately no pictures, but that wasn’t something I’d ever seen before.

With the wind blowing as hard as it was I decided to get gas again in Beatty since there wasn’t much between Beatty and Las Vegas. We stopped and got gas, while a guy with Illinois tags pulled in with a new Durango, and a homemade roof rack. It was basically just a basket, and it was filled with his family’s suitcases. As he pulled in I could see these suitcases were not secured in any manner, and weren’t even packed tightly. They were flopping around just driving through the parking lot…

I finished pumping gas, and went to start the truck. I got nothing but a click. And then another click. And another. Eventually after probably 20 attempts it started. I wasn’t real amused by this, but extremely thankful we weren’t in some remote place anymore, not that there’s much going on in Beatty, Nevada… At this point I was 99% sure it was the starter because the previous owner had it replaced with some crap Chinese parts instead of just replacing the contacts like we all know to do.

With the truck running we got on the highway towards Las Vegas, and I contemplated our situation. 2,000 miles from home, and we had two and a half days to cover it. I had my girlfriend start looking for starters in Las Vegas. I knew the only place that would have a Denso starter would be Advance Auto, but none of the ones in Las Vegas had one in stock. So she looked at Autozone and they had several Duralast ones instock. We set the GPS for there, and I figured I will have them test my current starter, I will buy a starter from them regardless, as well as the tools needed to change it. I had all the tools, but after watching several videos and reading some writeups including [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] and [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] ‘s video I decided I should get several long extensions as well.

Remember the guy with the Durango? Well we caught up to him on the highway, and right as I went to pass him a suitcase came flying off his roof rack. It hit the ground, split right open, and their clothes went everywhere. Then as they realized what was happening and as they started to brake they lost another. It provided some comic relief to an otherwise stressful situation.
We got to the Autozone in Las Vegas and I talked to the guy inside. He said they can test it, but basically if it starts then it’s going to say it’s fine, if it doesn’t start it will say it’s not fine… Anyway, I had him test it a couple times in the parking lot and of course it started fine every time. I bought the starter anyway, along with the tools and decided I would just keep them with me, and if I need to change it somewhere along the way so be it. If not I will return it when I get home and replace the starter with a Denso regardless of what happens on the rest of this trip. I HATE garbage Chinese parts. Denso only on these rigs.

So equipped with all the spare parts we may need we grabbed dinner, and headed towards the Grand Canyon. We decided we were only going to turn the truck off if absolutely necessary, which meant one of us had to be with it at all times.

We made good time through Las Vegas, and I saw a sign for the Hoover Damn. We decided to stop here on a whim, even though it was dark, just to say we’ve been there. I followed the signs, and then saw the checkpoint you had to go through. I was not expecting security to be this intense, but I guess it makes sense. The guards were friendly, one was from Ventura, California and asked us about the fires, the other was from Arkansas and said he was ready to move back to the southeast. They had me open the tailgate, and they wanted to look in my boxes so I showed them nothing but tools and camping supplies. They let us through and we drove to the parking lot where more security was watching. There was no one out here which made it nice, and seeing the Hoover Damn at night is neat since it’s all lit up.

DSC02321 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC02316 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

We got back on the road and headed for the Grand Canyon. We crossed into Arizona, and made good time. We showed up to the hotel very late due to all the stops and starter issues, but we checked in, and I parked the truck and nervously shut it off for the night.