Unner's Build, 2001 T4R 4x4

[Scramble]

I'm getting pretty good at brakes, we have 4 cars between me & my GF. I spray WD40 around the pistons to keep them lubed & wash out dirt & moisture. I also use a 1" chip brush with regular red axle grease & "paint" the inside of the piston's. Corrosion is the enemy! LOL

 

[Unner]

The table of contents and links on the front page have been updated and reformatted a little bit. This week I will get some of the pics from my trip back in May posted up and get started on that trip report, I promise. About time...

 

[Road Bull]

Wow, I just caught up on a lot of your adventures across America tour. Man! You saw some cool stuff and took some great pics to prove it. I like several of the pics capturing the clouds and storm fronts moving in. You have been putting your 4Runner to good use for sure. How has the rig been treating you? How are your ST Maxx tires holding up to your travels? Still like em?

 

[DonkeyCo]

Trails Wheels and Tire Size

Hey Unner -
I dig the build and have a few questions on the Trail Wheels. I have a 2001 SR5 w/ an ARB bumper and 2.5" Old Man Emu lift, running boards are off and my next two projects are rock sliders--likely the bolt on shrockworks and then new tires.

Right now I run stock wheels w/ 265/75/16 Dura Tracs and I love them, but they look a little small. From my research it seems to jump to the 285s on the 16 they will rub, so I'm debating going to 17" wheels and then their are options for 255s or 285s - did you have to do any additional mods for the wheels to fit and are these the same ones? https://www.ebay.com/itm/17-TOYOTA-...Y-WHEEL-RIM-07-17-SET-OF-4-CAPS-/132712094319

With the tires being only an 1" difference with the 285 vs what I currently have, I'm also just debating sticking with new ones of what I have and putting the extra $1K towards the roof rack and lights. As it sounds like the 285s might rub as well? Any suggestions or thoughts, much appreciated. Sweet rig you've built up!
cheers - KA

 

[Unner]

Wow, I just caught up on a lot of your adventures across America tour. Man! You saw some cool stuff and took some great pics to prove it. I like several of the pics capturing the clouds and storm fronts moving in. You have been putting your 4Runner to good use for sure. How has the rig been treating you? How are your ST Maxx tires holding up to your travels? Still like em?

Thanks! Lots more pictures from that trip to come. The truck has been used for sure. Someone asked me the other day "Why do you drive that thing?!" after I told him my tires run about $200 each. I told him because it'll go anywhere, it's actually pretty cheap to drive (gas is the only thing that's "expensive"), I like to drive it, it's dead reliable even at 260k miles, and it's taken me to 43 states and back without a hitch.

The ST Maxx are doing great. Very even wear, still quiet, and they're wearing really well. I've put 43,000 miles on them. I just measured and I've got about 13/32 of tread left. New they have 19/32. So at 90k miles I should have 6/32 of tread left. Granted, I'm doing a 5 tire rotation, but that's still a whole lot of miles to get out of a set of tires.

Hey Unner -
I dig the build and have a few questions on the Trail Wheels. I have a 2001 SR5 w/ an ARB bumper and 2.5" Old Man Emu lift, running boards are off and my next two projects are rock sliders--likely the bolt on shrockworks and then new tires.

Right now I run stock wheels w/ 265/75/16 Dura Tracs and I love them, but they look a little small. From my research it seems to jump to the 285s on the 16 they will rub, so I'm debating going to 17" wheels and then their are options for 255s or 285s - did you have to do any additional mods for the wheels to fit and are these the same ones? https://www.ebay.com/itm/17-TOYOTA-...Y-WHEEL-RIM-07-17-SET-OF-4-CAPS-/132712094319

With the tires being only an 1" difference with the 285 vs what I currently have, I'm also just debating sticking with new ones of what I have and putting the extra $1K towards the roof rack and lights. As it sounds like the 285s might rub as well? Any suggestions or thoughts, much appreciated. Sweet rig you've built up!
cheers - KA

Thanks! No mods required to fit the wheels. Those are almost exactly the same wheels. Those are from a slightly newer 4Runner. The older ones have a gunmetal color on the parts that are painted, they switched to black at some point which is what those are in that link.

For 285s you will have some rubbing almost definitely, both on the upper control arm and at the pinch weld. 255's you won't rub the upper control arm, you might rub the pinch weld. I did a pinch weld mod because mine rubbed just a little bit pulling in and out of the driveway and I didn't want to chew up the tires on the trail. Another tire to look into is the 255/75/17. It's taller than what you currently have, but not as tall as my 255/80/17's. I ran those for awhile and you shouldn't need any mods for them.

 

[Unner]

Day 1 – Drive to Northern Wisconsin

Friday morning, I had planned to leave early in the morning as usual. But, last minute packing got in the way. This trip had little planning leading up to it. There were a lot of things up in the air, but I knew I’d be in the clear for a little bit so I figured I’d set off. If I had to be back home for something I could always turn around wherever I was and be back fairly quickly. I had no reservations, plans, or agenda. I gave the 4Runner a bath before I left, as I always do even though it gets dirty instantly…

So Friday morning I got on the road about 8 AM. Much later than I wanted to. Today I had a destination I had to make it to. I was going to spend the weekend with a friend in Wisconsin. He was able to get a lake house through work for us for the weekend. We planned to meet in Green Bay to get dinner, and then head up to the cabin. He’s not from Wisconsin, so he consulted coworkers on a place to eat, and I consulted a friend from Green Bay on the best restaurant to eat at in Green Bay. We both got Titletown Brewing as our recommendations, so we figured it must be good. I had my GPS set, and was off.

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I made it out of Alabama quickly, and shot straight up Interstate 65 through Nashville. I made good time into Kentucky. I finally had to stop for gas in Louisville, KY. Indiana came quickly as well.

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Indiana and Illinois was a very windy ride. I stopped to get gas somewhere just outside of Chicago, and grab something to eat at the slowest fast food place ever seemingly.

From here I continued into Chicago. It was dreary and windy here as well, I know why it’s called the Windy city now. I had also been warned about all the toll roads in Chicago. They were everywhere, and all odd amounts, like $.85.
I hit traffic, which got frustrating, but finally was in a new state for me, Wisconsin. It was getting dark at this point, but it looked like it was a pretty state. Very flat in the southern portion, but very green. Around Milwaukee it started to rain, and the temperature was dropping quick. When I left Alabama that morning the high was somewhere in the 80’s, with some absurd humidity I’m sure. In Milwaukee it was raining, and the temperature was hovering just over freezing around 35*. It was mid-May…

I drove through Sheboygan, Wisconsin snickering at the name of the town.
Darkness set in fully, and I stopped to get gas one more time, and change from my shorts into jeans since it was cold up here. We met up and ate at Titletown Brewing, which was an excellent suggestion. My friend had told me that while I was in Wisconsin, I had to try fried cheese curds. So an appetizer of them was ordered, and they did not disappoint. They were delicious.

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I ordered an elk burger for dinner, which was also delicious. While we ate my friend told me about the elk farm near his house. That’s something I never even knew was a thing.

We didn’t stay too long at the restaurant, as we still had another solid 2 hours of driving. That wouldn’t be bad for my friend, but I’d been on the road for 12 hours already…

We left Green Bay and headed further north into the Wisconsin wilderness. This lake house was on a small private lake not really near any towns or villages. When I checked the weather before leaving there was something like a 50% chance of snow up there as the low was down around 30*.

Thankfully we didn’t see any snow, or wildlife as we wound our way through the North Woods of Northern Wisconsin. The landscape difference between southern and northern Wisconsin is quite stark. We pulled up to the lake house and the air was over 50* cooler than what I had been dealing with in Alabama. It was great. We brought our things into the house, and got a fire roaring in the fireplace. We sat around the fireplace BSing until the wee hours of the morning. We went to bed with the plan to get up around 9 the next morning. We had planned to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan tomorrow, since neither of us had ever been. My friend’s coworkers said we had to try a pasty while we were there, and that turned into another story…

 

[Unner]

Day 2 – Stranded at Sea

My alarm went off at 9, but I couldn’t hear my friend making any noise, so I figured he was still asleep. I went back to sleep for another hour before I decided I’d finally get myself up out of bed.

I walked all through this huge lake house and couldn’t find him. I checked out front and his Jeep was still there, so I figured he was out back fishing or something. I stepped out onto the deck blinded by the sunlight. I looked around and didn’t see him in the immediate area, and then I hear someone screaming my name. I look out onto the lake and he’s on a little dock, in the middle of the lake. No boat. Just him, a fishing pole, and a sunburnt head…

“Help me!”

“How the hell did you get out there?”

“I took a boat out here, then it floated away.”

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Ouch. I went inside to put on shoes. I get to play Coast Guard apparently... I look around at my options for boats, we’ve got single seat Kayaks, big multiperson canoes, and these double person paddle boats. I called out to him to see what he took out there, and he said one of the paddle boats. So I flipped the boat over, pushed it into the water and jumped in. Now if you’ve never tried to paddle one of these two-person paddle boats by yourself it can be interesting. I’m not the smallest person, so the boat is leaning heavily to the side I’m sitting on. I try to straddle the console between the two seats, and use one foot on each paddle, but you’d have to be 6’11” to do this comfortably. So instead I used my arms to push the paddles. The steering on these things is all left, or all right. So after some fancy boat maneuvers I crash into the dock and save my friend. Now we’re off to retrieve his boat that floated away.

It had floated into a very shallow area with lots of branches and trees, so we picked up some speed and made it to the boat with no problems. Now getting out was going to be a problem. The paddles kept getting stuck on branches and trees, so we broke off two branches and pushed our way our like we had been tour guides on the canals of Venice for years.
We made it back to the house and made breakfast, while constantly reminded him about the mornings events. He will never live that down. We got ready to leave for Michigan, and contemplated the Jeep or the 4Runner. The 4Runner won, we wanted to be able to hear each other and have a conversation.

We’re driving through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, and he’s telling me stories about how it turns into some lawless land up there in the National Forest when it snows. Snow mobiles everywhere, ATVs, trucks, anything goes. Sounds kinda fun, and kinda terrifying at the same time. He also tells me a story about how he got stuck in several feet of snow coming to this very cabin in his old “one wheel peel” Silverado, as we called it.

Thankfully a snow plow pulled him out of that mess. This is the same friend who flew into Salt Lake City to go to Moab with me. He flew out of Chicago for that trip, wasn’t going to make it in said Silverado, so he stopped and bought a 4wd Jeep on the way…

While we’re driving down some back road I see this ridiculous contraption in front of someone’s house. We turn around and park on the side of the road to watch this thing. He had an old steam saw set up in his front yard. I don’t know what he was cutting the wood for, he just cut it, threw it on a pile, and then used that pile to feed the steam engine. It was very cool to watch though. We sat there watching this thing in action for several minutes. The most ironic part, he had a three-legged dog…

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We made it to the Upper Peninsula, and stopped in a little town called Menominee. We walked out on a pier through a swarm of some sort of bugs, checked out this lighthouse, and contemplated what to do next. We decided we’d try a pasty while in the Upper Peninsula, so we found a place to get this local dish at.

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We walked into the restaurant lobby and no one was at the front desk. We walked around the gift shop and no one was still there. So we walked into the restaurant and finally someone acknowledged us and got us a table. This should have been the first red flag. As we’re sitting waiting to order, we realize we are the only ones in this restaurant. Literally. It’s a big restaurant, and about 4 pm, so there should have been someone more than us.

The waitress comes up and asks what we’re having. The first thing my friend asks is “is it pronounced pay-stee, or pah-stee? We’re from Alabama and don’t know…” She looks at him like that’s the dumbest thing she’s ever heard. She replies and tells us it’s pah-stee. Then she asks what kind of salad we want “house salad, or cottage cheese coleslaw.” That’s exactly what I heard, so I figure what is cottage cheese coleslaw, might as well give that a try. Once again we get a look of “Really? Did he just say that?” Apparently, it was cottage cheese, OR coleslaw. That was awkward.

Now at this point we’re laughing uncontrollably in this restaurant that we’re literally the only customers in. We can’t stay quiet, and it just keeps getting worse. The waitress walks up with our salads, and we bust out laughing again. Things just keep getting more awkward.

We look down at these salads and they are just huge chunks of vegetables. Half a tomato, whole leaves of lettuce. What is going on…
Next, she comes up with some biscuit muffin things. We are still laughing and she’s just looking at us at this point.

We look at these muffin things, unsure of what they are. I picked one up and smelled it, and if I had to describe the smell of horse food, that’s what this muffin smelled like 100%. So we’re making fun of the horse food muffins, laughing uncontrollably, with an assortment of uncut vegetables on the table. She brings out the main course, and we realize we had no idea how to eat these things. Do we pick it up and dunk it in the gravy, cut it and eat it with a fork, pour the gravy over it? We decided fork and dipping it in gravy was the way to go. We are still the only ones in the restaurant…

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The pasty was good, we ate, paid, and left as fast as we could. What an awkward dining experience. We figured we’d had enough of Michigan and headed back to the lake house to try our hand at fishing on the lake.
On the way back we saw these contraptions. I later learned these are like lawn mowers for the lake. They’re used to cut down the weeds that grow up in the lake.

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We spent the evening fishing from a large metal canoe. It’s no surprise we didn’t catch anything, that metal canoe and oars probably sounded like the titanic sinking to the fish. We did see a muskrat swim across the lake though. My friend had been talking about all the bald eagles he sees up here, but I had yet to see one. I’d never seen a wild bald eagle.

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We fished until we got cold and ran out of drinks. Back into the house we went to get a fire going, and start on steaks for dinner. We’d step outside occasionally to take in all the stars you could see in the cold summer air.

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After a long night of sitting around the fire, and burning through all the wood that was easily accessible we decided to call it a night.

 

[Unner]

Day 3 – Lakes, Eagles, and an Oil Change

Sunday morning I woke up without having to play Coast Guard. We spent most of the day hanging out around the lake house, taking in the nice summer Wisconsin day. He was still going on about these bald eagles, but at this point I figured he was lying.

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We were sitting outside when he says “what’s that sitting on the log over there?” Sure enough, it was a bald eagle. We watched the eagle soar around the lake for a little while until he went off to another lake or something.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture of it.

Later that afternoon/evening we decided to head back to his place. Fortunately, his workplace had a nice shop that I was able to use to change my oil before I set off the next day on my adventure.

 

[Unner]

Day 4 – Minnesota

After saying our goodbyes I hit the road and he went to work. I was headed west towards Minneapolis where I was going to grab lunch with another friend before continuing my journey. Before I left Wisconsin I made sure to grab some New Glarus, which is unfortunately only sold in Wisconsin.

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Western Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota were both very flat with few people. I stopped at the Minnesota welcome center, which is right along the Mississippi River, which is much clearer than the Mississippi River is down around Mississippi…

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I drove through lots of farm land on some back highways until I got to the small town my friend lives in near Minneapolis. We got lunch, and discussed my plans for the rest of the trip. After leaving here I planned on going up to Minneapolis, and then turning west and heading towards Fargo and North Dakota. I wanted to make it to the Western side of North Dakota, and then to Teddy Roosevelt National Park the next day.

This friend is from Minnesota, and wanted me to see more of his home state. He recommended I keep going north and check out Duluth, and Lake Superior. I told him I’d think about it while I drove towards Minneapolis.
We finished up lunch, and I got on the road heading north. Before I decided to go anywhere I wanted to stop in Minneapolis and check out the new football stadium they had just built, where my Eagles had just won the Super Bowl. I made sure to wear an Eagles shirt, just to irk any people who were still butthurt over the thrashing the Eagles gave them in the NFC championship.

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After walking around downtown a little bit I headed back to my travelling hotel, I mean 4Runner. I figured I’d give northern Minnesota a shot, and see if my Minnesota friend was right about how pretty it was. The drive from Minneapolis to Duluth is pretty uneventful. The road is very flat to start. It gets slightly hillier as you get further north, but not much. I was able to get pretty good gas mileage for this part of the trip.

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My first recommendation was to stop at Enger Tower and take in the view over Duluth. I stopped here and walked up to the top of the tower. It was a pretty neat view looking back over the forest with all the new leaves that were a various shade of green, and also looking out over the city bordering Lake Superior.

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From here I went down to the pier and checked out some of the lighthouses, and watched the boats skip across the water. I was loving the weather up here. No humidity, and much cooler than the weather I was used to in Alabama.

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[Unner]

It was starting to get a little late at this point, and I figured I’d try and find a place to camp somewhere along the lake. My friend had mentioned a road that runs along the lake. He said they built a highway next to it, but from there you can’t see the lake and take in all the beauty. I found the road he was talking about, Highway 61, and set off. This was actually a really cool road. On your right side you’ve got a lake that looks like an ocean, and on the left you’ve got mostly forest.

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I drove along this road for awhile, before stopping at a place that said there was a light house. I pulled over into the parking lot for the lighthouse, and there was a small heard of deer that didn’t seem bothered by the human presence around them.

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There was also a harbor with some loading/unloading equipment for iron ore maybe that made for interesting pictures as the sun set behind it.

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While I was here in Agate Bay I figured out where I’d be spending the night. There didn’t appear to be any free campsites anywhere near, so I settled for a pay site. I’d be spending the night at Gooseberry Falls State Park. This was another place he had recommended I check out.

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By the time I pulled into the park it was already dark, but I could hear the waterfalls roaring somewhere in the park. I paid my fees and went to my site. I chose the most secluded one I could find, set up my bed for the night, and walked out to the lake to check it out at night. Afterwards, I went back to the 4Runner to get some sleep. I planned to wake up early in the morning to check out the sunrise over the lake.

 

[Unner]

Day 5 –Minnesota Forest Wheeling, off to North Dakota

I woke up what I thought was early enough to catch the sunrise. Wrong. I got up and went out to the lake. It was freezing outside, so I took a couple pictures shivering in my jacket, and went to hopefully take a hot shower at the campground bathrooms.

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After packing up camp I went over to the falls. It was maybe 6 AM at this point so I was all by myself. I parked and walked the trails around the different falls. It was nice having the entire area to myself.

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And incase anyone thought it wasn’t cold, there were still huge chunks of ice hiding in the shadows.

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Minnesota deer don’t seem to care about people.

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After walking around here for a little while I got on the road and headed north. I really wanted a hot coffee at this point, but there wasn’t much up here so I just cranked up the heat in the truck.

My next stop was Split Rock Light House. It was a neat lighthouse, perched out on a cliff. There was an extremely long staircase which I walked down to get to the beach area along the lake.

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[Unner]

Lake or Ocean?

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The water was really clear here.

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Unfortunately, I had to walk back up the stairs which was much harder than walking down them…

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I kept driving north, enjoying the scenic drive through the country side along the lake. I stopped at another little place, Palisade Head.

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From here I got started on the smaller state highways and headed west. I didn’t really know where I was going to stay tonight, but I wanted to make it to somewhere in North Dakota. I spent several hours making good time down some back highways through the Superior National Forest.

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I crossed into the George Washington National Forest, saw that I rolled over 250k miles and decided to turn off on one of the dirt roads to celebrate. The truck was too clean for a trip like this.

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Not far down the road I ran across a tree that had fallen, and was partially cleared. Someone had cut a path through it wide enough for an ATV, or maybe a narrow jeep. I thought I could probably fit through the gap, but I decided to cut it wider because the one side of the log was at about body panel height and I don’t want body damage. So I cut the log and went to drive through the sloppy mud there. I was in 4 Hi and went pretty easy. It bogged down and immediately slid into where that log had been that I just cut. Good call me!

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[Unner]

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I backed up, put it in 4 Lo and powered through the Minnesota sticky mud. From here the trail kept getting narrower and with more overgrowth. I guess I got there right at spring so I was probably one of the first ones through.

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I had to stop multiple times to move large branches that were hanging down out of my way. I still took a lot of pinstripes on this trail, but it was a fun time.

I made it off the trail and onto the main dirt road. I gave the Kings their first good workout on this trip here cleaning out the mud from the tires.

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And just like that I was back on the road cruising at highway speeds an hour later. Gotta love a well-built truck that can wheel and cruise.

I hadn’t thought to bring a hat with on this trip, to keep the sun off me, and to hide my disgusting hair as I wouldn’t be able to shower every day. I found a place while getting gas and set my GPS.

I crossed into North Dakota, and stopped at Fred Meyers just to see what they were. I had seen them when I went to Moab and Colorado, but never stopped at one. From here I went to Scheels to get a hat. I needed a new Eagles hat, and Fargo, North Dakota is a surprisingly good place to get one since Carson Wentz played his college football there. I bought a can of bear spray, and an Eagles hat. I was now prepared for Wyoming and Montana.

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In Fargo North Dakota…

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[Unner]

I left the city and got back on the highway. The 75 MPH speed limit was impossible to maintain in 4th gear with the wind blowing as hard as it was. After a short period of time I had to stop for gas again… This time I got on the interstate and found a group of Semis who were travelling at a decent speed so I joined their convoy to try and block a little of the wind for me.

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The eastern half of North Dakota is painfully boring. So flat, and so windy. There was really nothing out here. It was hot, and I know the winters are cold. No wonder no one lives out there…

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I finally made it to Bismarck and decided to stop at a grocery store and get some food that I could cook, or eat easily since I’d be living out of the truck for many many days to come. I got my stuff, and got on the road. I was hoping to make it to my campsite by dark, but I realized that wasn’t going to happen so I stopped at a nice rest stop and commandeered a picnic table to cook dinner on. I had a pretty great view for a rest stop, these pictures don’t do it justice. The western half of the state is much more attractive, and actually has these cool things called hills.

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I cooked some concoction of beef, peppers, and teriyaki sauce. It was a lot of food so I threw the leftovers in some ziplock bags and into my cooler. It was just about dark now, but I didn’t have too much farther to go to my campsite. The extra light up this far north and west in a time zone was really nice. It was light until really late here. There was still light in the sky past 10:00 PM.

20180515_204145 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

20180515_210351 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I got off the interstate, and it wasn’t too much farther off the interstate to my campsite. A little bit of pavement, and then some windy dirt roads through the soft rolling hills. I stayed at Schnell Recreation Area. I paid my fees, and went to pick my campsite. I was the only one here, which was nice. I picked which site I would call home, and set up my bed for the night. There was a creek I could hear running not too far away, some cows mooing, and a really loud screeching sound occasionally which I think was a wind vane. Since I was all by myself in the middle of North Dakota, there were a lot of stars to be seen. I grabbed the camera and tripod, and got a couple shots.

DSC03135 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC03140 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC03141 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC03144 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC03131 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

DSC03133 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Some of them came out pretty good. I was tired, so I climbed into the 4Runner and went to bed. Tomorrow I would go to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and then cross into Montana.

 

[Gothere]

Looks like a ton of fun. Can't wait to see the rest of the trip.

 

[Unner]

Looks like a ton of fun. Can't wait to see the rest of the trip.

Thanks, it definitely was. The best is yet to come though!

 

[Unner]

Pushing this to the next page to keep loading times reasonable.

 

[Unner]

Three!

 

[Unner]

Two!

 

[Unner]

One!