Unner's Build, 2001 T4R 4x4

[Unner]

I stopped along the Yellowstone River on my way towards the mud volcano. I took only a few pictures before a lightning strike scared me back into the 4Runner…

DSC04652 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I drove up to the Mud Volcano, and despite the rain that was coming down I walked around the boardwalks and observed the murky bubbling water.

DSC04657 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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From here I drove north towards the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I parked in the parking lot next to some people shoveling ice out from the cowl under their windshield. Apparently I had just missed a massive hailstorm that dumped so quick and fast everyone came to a stop in the road. The weather changes so quickly out there.

The canyon itself was beautiful, and the stones really are yellow here.

DSC04691 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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From here I intended to head north towards the Tower-Roosevelt area, but that road was closed, so I headed west towards Norris.

From Norris I headed north, towards the mammoth hot springs.
Unfortunately there was some serious road construction here, so I got stuck in traffic for awhile. I took a few pictures while I waited for the construction crews to let us pass.

DSC04713 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

 

[Unner]

After making it through the construction, I noticed several elk out in the field, so I pulled over at a pull off to get a better look. Using my binoculars and phone’s camera I was able to get some decent zoomed in pictures of them.

DSC04716 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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Everything here is very picturesque.

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Now I had made it to the Mammoth Hot Springs.

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I walked around the springs, while keeping an eye on the weather that was rolling in again.

DSC04781 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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Looking over the small village here at Mammoth Hot Springs.

DSC04749 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The Minerva Terrace was pretty neat.

DSC04771 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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[Unner]

DSC04778 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The trees here made for an eerie landscape.

DSC04786 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I drove into the little town to find a heard of elk had taken over.

DSC04793 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
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It was starting to get late, so I began to head back south towards Norris and Madison. By this time the construction crews had gone home and most had left the park, so I didn’t loose much time there. I stopped at a pull off to take in another awesome view.

DSC04801 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I made a stop at the Norris Geyser Basin, and met a cool guy from somewhere in Texas. I don’t remember his name, but he was a music teacher in Texas. We chatted about where we had stayed last night, and where we’d stay tonight. I hadn’t fully fleshed out my plans and he hadn’t either, so at least I wasn’t the only one totally unprepared.

DSC04802 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

This was a pretty cool area, with the steam coming from the earth all around you.

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I was now going to head towards West Yellowstone and hopefully find somewhere to stay near there so I could get back into the park early before the crowds.

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I stopped in the town and got gas, and figured out where I’d be staying. I found a couple different options not to far from the park. Some were free and on BLM land which was what I really wanted, but one sight in particular claimed to have bathrooms and showers. A shower sure did sound nice after going several days without one, so I picked that one. It wasn’t too far, but it was across the Idaho Montana border.

I set off towards the park and took note of the signs stating there had already been an absurd amount of bison strikes. That will not buff out…
I crossed across the Idaho/Montana border, Idaho being the 45th state I’d been to now.

20180517_222959 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I made it to the park, and paid the exorbitant fees. I paid something like $7 daily entrance fee plus a $20 camping fee. A bit pricey considering I was sleeping in my truck using nothing more than a parking space, but I paid and found a spot. I set up camp and went to bed, looking forward to my shower in the morning.

 

[Road Bull]

Cool travels man! And great pictures as always. I really need to make some time to head down there and check it out.

 

[AZBub]

Yellowstone is mind blowing. The first time I saw it I was expecting a hatch to pop open near one of the pools and a Disney Imagineer to crawl out to fix the special effects. Beautiful even if it smells of taco bell farts at a lot of the places. 3 people lost their dogs at the tent camping campground, got taken away in the middle of the night. I’m glad to see you didn’t try to steal a baby Bison and put it in your 4runner...


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[Road Bull]

Lost their dogs, as in, the got all ate up? That's gotta be a bummer.

 

[Go-Fast Boat]

Awesome pics man! That looks like a ton of fun. Great memories.

 

[AZBub]

Lost their dogs, as in, the got all ate up? That's gotta be a bummer.

Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing place, mind blowing in beauty. People just forget this is real wilderness and it’s not a zoo.


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[Bulldog79]

I was born and raised in Montana and my family owns a cabin right outside of Yellowstone. While I enjoyed hanging out with my family, as a kid I used to think going there was boring as heck. However, now that I have moved on the other side of the country and am grown, I realize I took that majestic beauty for granted. I am so glad you got to enjoy my old stomping grounds. If you get a chance, check Glacier National Park. While equally as gorgeous, it's also very different numerous ways. I highly recommend going from late June to early August.

 

[habanero]

Wow, what a trip! Terrific photos.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Yellowstone is beautiful. Looks like you had real fun there Unner. My great grandparents went there before 1920, but after WWI. Loved it but BOTH of them were required to show that they could change brakes before being admitted to the park. Crazy. Someone in the family has the pictures they took. If I remember correctly they wrote about a hiker who had been killed by a bear.

Get the timing done?

 

[fullspeed]

Yellowstone

This is great! Thanks for sharing your trip and the pictures!! I have been to Yellowstone, a fascinating place for sure, saw bears and cubs.

 

[Unner]

Cool travels man! And great pictures as always. I really need to make some time to head down there and check it out.

Thanks!

Yellowstone is mind blowing. The first time I saw it I was expecting a hatch to pop open near one of the pools and a Disney Imagineer to crawl out to fix the special effects. Beautiful even if it smells of taco bell farts at a lot of the places. 3 people lost their dogs at the tent camping campground, got taken away in the middle of the night. I’m glad to see you didn’t try to steal a baby Bison and put it in your 4runner...


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It really is mind blowing. That's sad to hear about their dogs...

Awesome pics man! That looks like a ton of fun. Great memories.

Thanks!

Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing place, mind blowing in beauty. People just forget this is real wilderness and it’s not a zoo.


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It definitely is the wilderness, it's amazing how wide open it is out there in that part of the country. And how helpless you can be if something goes wrong.

I was born and raised in Montana and my family owns a cabin right outside of Yellowstone. While I enjoyed hanging out with my family, as a kid I used to think going there was boring as heck. However, now that I have moved on the other side of the country and am grown, I realize I took that majestic beauty for granted. I am so glad you got to enjoy my old stomping grounds. If you get a chance, check Glacier National Park. While equally as gorgeous, it's also very different numerous ways. I highly recommend going from late June to early August.

Thanks! Glacier is coming up in a future update. I made it up there for a little bit as well on this trip. They're both amazing parks and places to be!

Wow, what a trip! Terrific photos.

Thanks habanero!

Yellowstone is beautiful. Looks like you had real fun there Unner. My great grandparents went there before 1920, but after WWI. Loved it but BOTH of them were required to show that they could change brakes before being admitted to the park. Crazy. Someone in the family has the pictures they took. If I remember correctly they wrote about a hiker who had been killed by a bear.

Get the timing done?

It must have been an even more amazing place back then, no tourists clogging the roads in their rented Suburbans with California tags...

This is great! Thanks for sharing your trip and the pictures!! I have been to Yellowstone, a fascinating place for sure, saw bears and cubs.

Thanks!

 

[Unner]

And I did get the timing belt done. Been doing lots of maintenance and cleanup lately, before it gets hot this Summer. I did the timing belt this past weekend. Took about 15 hours from start to finish. I forgot how much of a pain it is to replace that stupid tensioner, having to remove the AC compressor and all...

I replaced the timing belt, drive belts, water pump, crank seal, cam seals, both idler pulleys, tensioner, themostat, fan bracket and fan clutch. She seems to be running good as new again.

It's amazing how quiet it is with all new pulleys, it's like really really quiet. And the idler pulleys only had about 100k on them since I did it last time. The fan bracket was original as well as the fan clutch. Neither were bad, but the bracket was making a slight noise on cold mornings. Not enough for a normal person to notice. The fan clutch was original as well and seemed to be working fine, but with the new one you can really tell when it kicks in. My temps are also lower than ever before. It used to be 186 was the minimum, but I see 184 now which is the temp the thermostat opens up at. I figure it has to be the new fan clutch grabbing harder than the original one.

And a couple pictures from the job, nothing really special to see here.

20190504_125058 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

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[BrianSD_42]

Thanks for posting the pictures of Yellowstone. I really want to go one day in the future. I looked at your Supra blog. What an awesome find! Do you still have it? I noticed the last several sets of updates on that site were all about the 4runner.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Unner, I hope you had the stubby 14mm ratcheting wrench this time for those AC compressor bolts. Time for another 100k.

I think my great grandfather could change out all pads in less than 30 minutes, his wife I don’t know.

Yellowstone should be on every 4Runner owner’s bucket list.

 

[Scramble]

Hey Man welcome back! Seems I was away longer than you. Fall is always the busiest time of year at work for me. Plus I got burnt out on wrenching. Fixing my Honda & my GF's Suby. It was only supposed to be modding the 4runner! LOL Once it got down to 20 degrees outside I got back into some of my other neglected hobbies. Spinning vinyl LP's, buying, selling & consuming my Jack Daniels collection. Anyway, great pics of Jellystone. I've never been there but my Sister & Brother have & seen 100's of pics. You've inspired me to get back on my Build Thread. I was almost caught up. :gun5:

 

[Unner]

No real changes or updates to the 3rd Gen lately other than routine maintenance. Sitting at around 281k right now, still runs great.

Haven't been able to get it out and do many real big trips the last few years. I did make a couple trips out west, but that was flying and renting a car. Took a rental Tahoe through Moab and did Onion Creek, Schafer Switchbacks, stuff like that.

I've been busy with a house I bought about a year ago, and other things.

Also picked up a daily driver 2 weeks ago. I had been looking at 4th gens for awhile, wanting to get something that rides smooth on the highway, can use cruise control without shifting into second gear to go up an incline, and generally has more creature comforts than the old 3rd gen with almost 300k miles. Also wanted to keep 4x4 though because I can't stand the thought of getting stuck.

I was looking at a 2007 Salsa Red Sport Edition 4x4 with 125k down in Tampa. Was about to pull the trigger and fly down there to buy it sight unseen, but they sold it before I could get to that point. They never even posted pictures online...

So that night just for fun I went to the local Toyota dealers website not expecting to see anything. They had a terrible picture of a recent trade. 2008 Salsa Red Limited 4x4, with only 78k miles. I went to look at it the next day and took it home with me. It's probably one of the cleanest lowest miles 4th gens in the country. It's cleaner than my mom's 05 Sport V8 4x4 with 95k miles. All maintenance was kept up with, it was clearly garage kept, and there isn't a spec of rust. The car spent it's whole life in CA and AL. It's got everything I wanted, JBL sound system, side curtain air bags, 4x4, the salsa red is one of my favorite colors, and it has the V6 which I actually wanted over the V8. I didn't want to deal with the cracked manifolds or timing belt on the V8. And 1 or 2 extra MPGs never hurts.

I plan to get the windows tinted, eventually get slightly bigger AT tires and put a new head unit in with a backup camera. Other than that this one will stay mostly stock, at least for the current vision.

I'll let some pictures do the talking now.

 

[Unner]

The 3rd Gen from back in the winter when we actually got a little bit of snow. It didn't last long though.

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The Tahoe somewhere on Onion Creek.

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The same trip to Moab we got lucky enough to see Wolves at Yellowstone. That was really neat.

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And the new 4th Gen.

The night I got it.

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A few interior shots. It looks like it's brand new.

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Engine and frame.

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Went on a road trip the weekend after I got it. It does so well on the highway.

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The projector headlights are a huge upgrade over the 3rd gen. And look how clear that plastic is. I need to figure out how to protect that and keep it looking like that since I can't garage it.

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[habanero]

Looks clean and nice even if it is a 4th gen.