Unner's Build, 2001 T4R 4x4

[Unner]

I found a campsite at a state forest or park. It was a decently long dirt road going back towards a lake that had several primitive campsites along it. I got to try out the new lights along the trail and grabbed a few pictures.

Bumper lights and amber ditch lights.
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Bumper lights only.
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Ditch lights only.
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Ditch lights only I think.
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It rained that morning, so it was nice to be sleeping in the 4Runner.

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As we were heading up into the more norther parts of Michigan the leaves started to get more color in them also.
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Stopped in Traverse City and got some cherry pie.
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From here we headed through the northern part of the Lower Peninsula and into the Upper Peninsula across the Mackinac Bridge.

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[Unner]

The colors started getting really good again in the UP, so I pulled over onto a Forest Service road in a National or State Forest and grabbed some nice fall pictures.

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The ST Maxx's were steaming from getting right off the highway and driving onto the wet leaves. Hard to believe these tires have 70k miles on them now and still have so much tread left.

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[Unner]

The next stop was Tahquemenon Falls. It's the third largest waterfall east of the Mississippi, and is known for it's root beer brown color.

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And the next stop was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along Lake Superior.

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[Unner]

It was extremely windy here along the lake.

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Another spectacular sunset over the great lakes.

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From there I grabbed something to eat in Munsing and headed to the Hiawatha National Forest to camp for the night.

The temperature dropped a lot that night into the upper 20s. I woke up freezing a little before sunrise and couldn't take it anymore so I turned the car on for some heat and slept until the sun came up. The dog didn't care about the cold though, she was unbothered by it the entire trip.

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The national Forest had some pretty cool Forest Service Roads so we did a little exploring.

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[Unner]

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Back on pavement in Munsing.

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The old "abandoned" ore dock in Marquette.

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And what I believe is the last active ore dock in the Great Lakes.

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[Romeo1]

Lots of great photos!

 

[Unner]

The next stop was Presque Isle Municipal Park in Marquette. Pretty nice little park.

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Stopped and got a pasty.

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From here I had to make a decision, head further north or turn back south. I decided to go back south as it was already getting cold up in the UP and then I could spend a couple days in Door County Wisconsin before they boarded up for the winter.

I made it to the famous windy road at the tip of Door County right as sun fell.

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I spent the night along a US Army Corps of Engineers Canal that was cut through the peninsula at Sturgeon Bay. The fog on the water in the morning was neat. And the Unimog that was at the same area I stayed at.

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Today I got out earlier before stuff was closed, and went by an orchard and grabbed some fresh apples.

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Then I went to Peninsula State Park as the sun went down.

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[Unner]

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This structure was pretty neat.

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And I had to get some cheese curds with dinner since I was in Wisconsin.

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And made a quick detour to go by Lambeau Field on my way to Chicago that night.

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The first order of business in Chicago was to get a Chicago style pizza and see what that was all about.

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The dog and I went for a long walk at millennium park in downtown. The sunset was nice with the city skyline across the lake and a thunderstorm and lightning brewing behind it.

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[Unner]

We left Chicago after a couple days and headed to Indiana Dunes National Park. It's a relatively new National Park and is pretty small so there's not a whole lot to do there, but it has potential and promise to become better over the years.

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After this it was time to start heading south and really begin heading home. We drove most of the rest of the day. We stopped in Indianapolis for a bit, and then spent the night in the Hoosier National Forest. It looked like a pretty neat National Forest, I'd like to go back one day and do some more exploring.

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We headed into Kentucky and made a stop at Buffalo Trace and Four Roses just to walk the facilities since it was a nice day.

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One last stop along the way was at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Historical Park. We went for a quick walk around here, and then got back on the road.

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The rest of the drive home was into a 20-30 MPH direct north wind as we were driving south. We got about 12 MPG and could barely maintain 70 MPH...


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But we eventually made it home. Another successful cross country trip in Unner with no issues at all. This one was the longest time wise, but not as long distance wise as my 10k+ mile trip back in 2018 where I drove to Seattle and back. She's taken me to all 48 lower states and back at this point. The next stop is going to be Alaska in Summer of 2022, if things come together correctly. That will be my 50th state, and the last state Unner can get to without a boat.

 

[octanejunkie]

Great pics, and what an awesome trip, truck and dingo lol
(Blue heelers are my favorite dog ever)

Millennium Park and no pics of The Bean?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[habanero]

Excellent report, wonderful pictures!

 

[Unner]

Great pics, and what an awesome trip, truck and dingo lol
(Blue heelers are my favorite dog ever)

Millennium Park and no pics of The Bean?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Thanks, she is a great dog. She rides so well in the car too which is great for taking her with me on trips.

When I went to millennium park I honestly didn't know that's where the bean was. I realized it when I was walking back, but it was dark and we were ready to go so we didn't go by. Gives us another reason to go back eventually!

Excellent report, wonderful pictures!

Thanks!

 

[Unner]

A few updates from the last couple months.



I bought new brake pads to swap them out as they were getting a little low. No Squeaking yet, but I didn't want them to start squeaking. What should have been a 30 minute job turned into multiple days.



When I jacked the truck up I immediately noticed the passenger wheel wouldn't turn freely, and the driver side was dragging as well. The NAPA calipers had seized again. Luckily they have a lifetime warranty, but so far they seem to last about 3.5 years before they start to seize up.

I ordered new calipers under the warranty, and decided to put new rotors on at the same time so everything is fresh. The old pads/rotors had 130k miles on them and served me well. This time I went with Toyota OEM Tundra rotors instead of the Brembo rotors I went with the first time. Everything is working good again.

While I had the spacers off I tried on the 285s from my dad's FJ. I think I like the look and am debating going that route when I get new times in the next 6-12 months. The Maxx's have 70k miles on them and a good bit of life left, but I don't like to push tires too much. The tread life has been excellent, but I probably won't be doing that many miles going forward since I have the 4th gen. I did like how the 2 ply sidewalls rode vs the 3 ply sidewalls on the 3rd gen.

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I also noticed the parking brake wasn't holding like it should. I pulled the pivot pin mounted to the axle and cleaned it up and greased it and it is now holding properly again.



While I was under the hood I noticed the heater control valve was showing a little bit of crusty coolant collecting around the entry side (driver side). I ordered a new OEM part, as well as new OEM hoses and hose clamps. I ended up only changing the valve and clamps as that long hose that goes down into the intake area looks like a pain to get to without taking other stuff off. I will hold the parts until I have to tear further into the engine again.



On the 4th gen I had all the windows tinted with 35%, making the rear windows much darker since they are already privacy glass. I really like the look and the comfort inside the car of having those windows darker so I took the 3rd gen to my tint guy and had him do the same. It came out good I think.

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I ordered the 4Xinnovations bumper filler plates that they started offering after I ordered the bumper many years ago. They are now powder coated, and just waiting for me to install.

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I believe on my trip through Maine and Michigan I broke my wind fairing on my roof rack. The lexan got a crack in it from a tree branch or strong gust of wind on the interstate I'm thinking. I looked around a lot, considered a Sherpa rack even, but then found a company called Colorado Fairing Company. They make a nice looking product for a good price, so I ordered one. I also picked up a nice Pelican case used to mount up on the rack. The plan is to keep my camping/cooking stuff up there to get a box out of the cargo area. I'm trying to reduce the amount of stuff in the truck on trips.

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The fairing works well for reducing wind noise, and looks really good too I think.

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I pulled the rack and redid the mounts for my recovery boards and Rotopax, mounted the pelican case, and mounted the new fairing. I really like the look of the new fairing, it's a much more finished look than the homemade one I had. The Rotopax mount is better than what I had also, the traction boards have shorter mounting studs which makes it easier to put up there. All mounted with stainless hardware so hopefully no rust.

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I also changed up my storage for the gear I keep in the truck. I used to keep it all in a very large backpack that was impossible to move, and a plastic ammo can. I bought three matching plastic ammo cans online and have one for recovery gear, one for tools, and one for the other odds and ends I keep in the 4Runner. They stack and should take up less space when packing for a trip.



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[Unner]

On the 4th gen I got an RCI bumper filler plate to cover the gap between the RCI skids and the front bumper.

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While I was dealing with the seized calipers and leaking heater control valve on the 3rd gen I had a trip to do the Georgia Traverse planned. I didn’t want to risk the heater control valve blowing up on the trip so I commissioned the 4th gen for it’s first off road duty.

I did most of the trail running it west to east. The first dirt road section was very overgrown so I turned around. Didn’t want to scratch the paint all up just to say I drove down a dirt road in Georgia.

I didn’t run the far eastern side because we ran out of time. I think I would have been fine though in the mostly stock 4th gen. The rest of the trail was mostly dirt roads, some much rougher than others. A few muddy areas and some rocky climbs I got to exercise the 4Lo on. The 4th gen did great and walked up everything I asked it too. The Cooper AT3 4S did really well too. I didn’t air down since they’re P-rated I didn’t want to risk a sidewall.

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Saw this big owl.

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Rolled over 88,888 miles.

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The dog was unbothered.

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[Unner]

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Stopped in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park on the way home.

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And the most impressive part, the gas mileage I got coming back. This was over a full tank of gas, hand calculated it was 20.7 MPG. I’ll take that any day.

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I took the 3rd gen on a trip up through the mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia and did some off roading. Pictures to come later on that one, but here’s a teaser.



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And both of them got cleaned up after their adventures.



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[Unner]

Also bought a wiper arm adapter so I could put a Silblade wiper on the back after watching the factory wiper smear dirty water everywhere.

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And I got tired of waching my phone fall off the magnets I have on my Panavise phone mount bracket so I mounted a RAM Mount to the A pillar like [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] shows in his video. This location is super sturdy and is growing on me.

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I think I am also going to modify the panavise mount to make it sturdier like [MENTION=148218]JZiggy[/MENTION] did. I tried it with a RAM mount on it as is and it has too much vibration even on paved roads. If I modify it I think that will help the vibrations and then it will give me two places to mount a phone, handheld radio, etc.

 

[octanejunkie]

Cool updates! Always great pics and awesome dog (I want one lol)

I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Amayama, a heater control valve is on its way to me along with a few other goodies.

I've been running this phone mount off the passenger front left seat bolt, I have it in 3 cars, it's comfortable for me.


I'm interested in the fairing you got... it looks great, can you share a link please?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Unner]

Cool updates! Always great pics and awesome dog (I want one lol)

I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Amayama, a heater control valve is on its way to me along with a few other goodies.

I've been running this phone mount off the passenger front left seat bolt, I have it in 3 cars, it's comfortable for me.
View attachment 395173

I'm interested in the fairing you got... it looks great, can you share a link please?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Thanks man, dogs are great. Better than most people

I'll have to check that phone mount out. I hadn't considered something like that yet.

The fairing came from Colorado Fairing Company. It's their "Large" standard fairing. Click around on their website and you can see their different stuff on different vehicles.

I think the price is great at $100 shipped. The hardware it comes with is black oxide coated I think, mine has already started to rust a bit from the rain so I'll be swapping it out here shortly for stainless most likely. The instructions aren't great, but the end product is pretty awesome. I think they're a really small shop/setup.

Standard Fairing – Colorado Fairing Company LLC.

 

[octanejunkie]

The fairing came from Colorado Fairing Company. It's their "Large" standard fairing. Click around on their website and you can see their different stuff on different vehicles.




Standard Fairing – Colorado Fairing Company LLC.

Ordered! Thank you.

Tagged you on another thread re gas tank skid. So many projects...

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[JZiggy]

Also bought a wiper arm adapter so I could put a Silblade wiper on the back after watching the factory wiper smear dirty water everywhere.

2022-04-19_09-37-04 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

And I got tired of waching my phone fall off the magnets I have on my Panavise phone mount bracket so I mounted a RAM Mount to the A pillar like [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] shows in his video. This location is super sturdy and is growing on me.

2022-04-19_09-37-45 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I think I am also going to modify the panavise mount to make it sturdier like [MENTION=148218]JZiggy[/MENTION] did. I tried it with a RAM mount on it as is and it has too much vibration even on paved roads. If I modify it I think that will help the vibrations and then it will give me two places to mount a phone, handheld radio, etc.

My dude! The Spiker Engineering phone mount is the only thing I recommend anymore. I still like my modified Panavise but only for accessories. The fit, finish, and placement is perfect.

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3632581-post439.html