Warthog Build and Adventure Thread

[2014 Warthog]

Borrego with BudgetBuilder

Last weekend I did a day trip with someone I met on Expedition Portal with the handle BudgetBuilder. He had a sweet first gen he had done a lot of work on, replaced the motor, suspension etc.

Went to Little Blair to see the petroglyphs, then a hiking slot canyon and then mainly Split Mtn, Fish Cree, Sandstone Canyon till the sun went down.

Sandstone canyon was indeed blocked off by a HUGE rock fall. It made a pretty tough obstacle to get over. BudgetBuilder gave it a valiant try but didn't make it, and in fact got stuck hugging a big rock and couldn't go forward or back! By a weird coincidence this was my first trip with the winch. I tugged his back end over about a food so he could clear the rock and was able to back down.

Pics!


First vs 5th gen runners. Other than he being on 33s and me on 31s, look at that difference in door height. The doors are SO much shorter and the frame on the side is higher and allows a LOT more clearance with a rock slider on the first gen. But the difference in approach angle in this case is entirely due to bumper choices.



Narrow spot in Sandstone Canyon



Getting late in the day. Photo at the bottom of a tall sandstone and rock cliff in Split Mountain




This picture is a mashup of a snapshot taken by BB's daughter and I think a capture from some video she did a bit after. But other than about 10 feet of missing space between the photos, this is pretty well representative of
the pull.

And no, I wasn't winching while standing there. I think this is after we were done and I slacked the line a little and was putting down the remote to go see if that was good enough for him to back down.

 

[2014 Warthog]

Yet another botrrego trip! (Whew)

Took a work friend with his 2x Tacoma out to south Borrego to show him some sights. "Don't worry, if you get stuck I can pull you out!" :spy:

At Dos Cabesas I got a new avatar picture and an update of in front of the water tank...





We then headed to painted gorge. Drive about half way up then hiked the rest the way. You can drive all the way to the end but sometimes it's nice to get out of the car and just go on foot!



Then a short stop at the shell beds and then a LONG rambling "Where the hell am I going?" trip across to then around then up through the middle of the bombing range. Found dome new trails, lots of sand. Had to pull work friend out of a sand hole with a towstrap at one point, no big deal. His 4x2 with nearly bald tires was doing amazingly well!

Finally made it to Superstition and... OMG so many people! Oh yeah, it's thanksgiving weekend... I think pretty much anyone that ever goes to the desert was here, painted gorge, the SVRA or Glamis today

There were SO MANY people offroading and so little wind, that they created a permanent dust fog covering Superstition all the way out to Glamis. Only seen that once before many years ago. You can see the fog in some of the pictures below...

Here's a beauty shot of the dusty, dirty and mean Warthog at Superstition:



So then the sun was going down and this was just a day trip. Started heading to Huff road, took a sandy side trail that went by one of those big wooden pyramids all over out there. Then I continued past and the sand got REALLY deep suddenly. I pushed through but the 2x got stuck good. No problem, I'll just pull him out like before! Ooops, sand to thick, now I'm stuck too! :doh:

Funny thing, with a 2x only 2 wheels get buried. With a 4x all four get buried!!!



So I start digging my tires out and lowering the tire pressure...



Nice soft sand is easy to dig out anyway With the low tire pressure I back right out of my predicament, but now how to get the 2x out?!?

Turns out that about 80 feet or so behind the 2x was a relatively solid piece of ground, so I parked there and used the winch to pull him backwards. Took two winchings with me backing up in-between to pull him back far enough to get out.

This pic is near the end of the second winching.



Wrapping up. Was an amusing and interesting experience. Learned a limit of my truck, as capable as it is on sand, there are limits when trying to pull another vehicle.



Having multiple ways of unsticking oneself is comforting though!
Shovel, rocks/wood, tire pressure, highlift and finally the winch.

 

[cd121082]

Took a work friend with his 2x Tacoma out to south Borrego to show him some sights. "Don't worry, if you get stuck I can pull you out!" :spy:

At Dos Cabesas I got a new avatar picture and an update of in front of the water tank...

View attachment 138119

View attachment 138120

We then headed to painted gorge. Drive about half way up then hiked the rest the way. You can drive all the way to the end but sometimes it's nice to get out of the car and just go on foot!

View attachment 138121

Then a short stop at the shell beds and then a LONG rambling "Where the hell am I going?" trip across to then around then up through the middle of the bombing range. Found dome new trails, lots of sand. Had to pull work friend out of a sand hole with a towstrap at one point, no big deal. His 4x2 with nearly bald tires was doing amazingly well!

Finally made it to Superstition and... OMG so many people! Oh yeah, it's thanksgiving weekend... I think pretty much anyone that ever goes to the desert was here, painted gorge, the SVRA or Glamis today

There were SO MANY people offroading and so little wind, that they created a permanent dust fog covering Superstition all the way out to Glamis. Only seen that once before many years ago. You can see the fog in some of the pictures below...

Here's a beauty shot of the dusty, dirty and mean Warthog at Superstition:

View attachment 138126

So then the sun was going down and this was just a day trip. Started heading to Huff road, took a sandy side trail that went by one of those big wooden pyramids all over out there. Then I continued past and the sand got REALLY deep suddenly. I pushed through but the 2x got stuck good. No problem, I'll just pull him out like before! Ooops, sand to thick, now I'm stuck too! :doh:

Funny thing, with a 2x only 2 wheels get buried. With a 4x all four get buried!!!

View attachment 138122

So I start digging my tires out and lowering the tire pressure...

View attachment 138123

Nice soft sand is easy to dig out anyway With the low tire pressure I back right out of my predicament, but now how to get the 2x out?!?

Turns out that about 80 feet or so behind the 2x was a relatively solid piece of ground, so I parked there and used the winch to pull him backwards. Took two winchings with me backing up in-between to pull him back far enough to get out.

This pic is near the end of the second winching.

View attachment 138124

Wrapping up. Was an amusing and interesting experience. Learned a limit of my truck, as capable as it is on sand, there are limits when trying to pull another vehicle.

View attachment 138125

Having multiple ways of unsticking oneself is comforting though!
Shovel, rocks/wood, tire pressure, highlift and finally the winch.

What tires u running? They look like mottos but I'm not sure.

 

[2014 Warthog]

What tires u running? They look like mottos but I'm not sure.

They are Toyo AT IIs They've done me pretty well (no really muddy conditions really so far though) They seem to be wearing pretty fast though

 

[2014 Warthog]

Bonus!

A picture taken from last weekends trip by my work mate while "blasting across the alkali flats"

 

[danballard42]

Damn that bumper winch mount setup is awesome!!!! Looks so good. Will most likely be my next upgrade after sliders. Sorry if you said this already, I just spent a ton of time on your build thread, but might have missed it. How much weight does it add? I would probably go with a 50lbs winch. Any issues so far? Still happy you did this instead of a full bumper? I love the looks (and I assume the weight), but thinking about approach angle.....

 

[2014 Warthog]

Damn that bumper winch mount setup is awesome!!!! Looks so good. Will most likely be my next upgrade after sliders. Sorry if you said this already, I just spent a ton of time on your build thread, but might have missed it. How much weight does it add? I would probably go with a 50lbs winch. Any issues so far? Still happy you did this instead of a full bumper? I love the looks (and I assume the weight), but thinking about approach angle.....

The bumper itself had a shipping weight of 60 pounds. I didn't measure it but I'm sure that's pretty close. The winch with the rope and wiring is 72 pounds.

One of the reasons I went with this bumper was that it was pretty light weight. But the two togeather is noticeable. I may have to beef up my front coilover springs to accommodate the larger battery, bumper, winch and skidplates. which add up to over 200 pounds of added font end weight!

Yeah it's sort of an interim offroad bumper. At this point I plan on seeing if the approach angle prevents me from doing something I wanted to do. I am probably going to trim back the lowest part of the plastic bumper in front of the tires some for more clearance there (Except the stupid windshield washer reservoir is right there on the pass side.

In the end I don't think I'm going to go full rock crawler with in within the next 10 years if ever I just wanted a really nice capable expedition type vehicle that can go pretty much anywhere and be self reliant.

 

[Mooney]

Warthog's bumper:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/175676-**official-group-buy-southernss-slimline-hybrid-front-bumper-2014-sr5-trail**.html

 

[danballard42]

The bumper itself had a shipping weight of 60 pounds. I didn't measure it but I'm sure that's pretty close. The winch with the rope and wiring is 72 pounds.

One of the reasons I went with this bumper was that it was pretty light weight. But the two togeather is noticeable. I may have to beef up my front coilover springs to accommodate the larger battery, bumper, winch and skidplates. which add up to over 200 pounds of added font end weight!

Yeah it's sort of an interim offroad bumper. At this point I plan on seeing if the approach angle prevents me from doing something I wanted to do. I am probably going to trim back the lowest part of the plastic bumper in front of the tires some for more clearance there (Except the stupid windshield washer reservoir is right there on the pass side.

In the end I don't think I'm going to go full rock crawler with in within the next 10 years if ever I just wanted a really nice capable expedition type vehicle that can go pretty much anywhere and be self reliant.

Thanks for the info and thoughts. I will have to give it some serious consideration. I am more into the expedition type off road as well so this really might be perfect. It sure looks great, and is so much more clean then a full front.

Thanks for as well for the link Mooney.

 

[2014 Warthog]

Air locker and Rear Diff Breather Mod

Air Locker:

Last week I had my group buy ARB air locker installed at The Truck Stop in San Diego. It's probably the first mod I can't really take pictures of, other than the switches maybe I would love to have done it myself but would have to have taken some extended vacation time as it would have likely taken me several days with unexpected part orders...

I already had an "Pod" switch relay system with the ARB locker cable adapter installed and reserved two switches for the air pump and the locker. I had also already installed the air pump here:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/165542-warthog-build-adventure-thread-12.html#post1845995

So the install itself wasn't too terrible in price.

Diff breather:

I gathered all the parts to put in a remote diff breather. Not because I necessarily plan on fording rivers much, but you never know... The main reason was to make sure there was no excessive pressurization to cause problems with the Air Locker.

Parts:
2 small hose clamps
12 feet of petroleum resistant 3/8 in ID tubing
1 Small air filter from the "performance isle" with a 3/8 in shaft.
1 "Union". Toyota part number 90404-51319

* About the hose, I'm hoping it'll last, we'll see. Would prefer to use something like fuel line but I couldn't find any 3/8in ID fuel line locally.
* About the Toyota part, this replaces the original diff breather and has a nipple for attaching the hose to. Was $10.

I routed the hose along the same route as the air locker hose. Basically following the Tire Pressure Sensor lines over to the Passenger frame rail, then up to the engine bay and tied off to a large conduit near the top of the engine bay. Zip tied to various things along the way to keep it tight and up high/out of the way.

 

[boyfester]

Last Sunday I got out to Borrego for a day trip. My friend was sick so I went alone. Not nearly as fun that way

I headed for south Borrego, to areas I used to camp 30 years ago with another friend that is no longer with us. Was a bit harder than I thought to find the old spots where we camped. After 30 years, those snapshots you have in your head you find out are not all that accurate. Things just don't look the same, even though they haven't changed at all.

Course some things have changed!

View attachment 135564
THESE THINGS. There's like 50 of them ALL OVER the lower borreco/ocotillo area now. Almost completely surrounding Ocotillo. Those people that lived there and had clear and vast views of the desert are now hemmed in by these giants. Kind of made me think.. What exactly is "Green" or "Eco" about these again?


View attachment 135565
Explored around the Dos Cabesas area. We used to camp at Mortero Palm a lot.

I scrubbed out the "Hail Satan" on the base I was surprised they spelled it correctly. Must have been real Satanists!

View attachment 135566
Headed over to the old calcite mine area. I didn't think I'd been there before but when I arrived I had a distant memory of it come up from the depths.

View attachment 135567

I then headed over to the fossil canyon area. Boy that place has changed :/ besides being encroached on by development, it is now apparently the official, unofficial lawless shooting rage for the most part. Everywhere I went there was tons and tons of brass and shells. Couple of guys with some insanely high powered sounding stuff shooting at steel plates it looked like in one area. Could have been wood painted dark grey though I guess. Fossil Canyon itself was also blocked off to vehicles, hiking only. But if the shooters all go to that area instead of Painted gorge area like I've seen in the past then overall that's a good thing. There wasn't anything really that special about the camping there really.

From there I headed to Painted Gorge to see what was up over there. There was a new gate across the entrance since I was there last. Now closed Jan1 to July1 for the Bighorns. So go early if you want to get in. Drove as far back as I could but not up the trail to the peak since I was alone.

No one was camping in the gorge! Strange, maybe that's fallen out of favor. We always camped in the gorge.


View attachment 135570
I went back out of the gorge without getting a pic somehow, then over to the shell beds to the north and then drive north on the east side of the mountains. After getting out of the wash to a main cross road I headed to Corizzo Mtn. What a hell road! Woops the entire way ugh.

Half way through I decided I was tired of it and tried cutting across the Stage line trail to the west since I'd never gone past the swamps before. Unfortuantely after a few miles the route was closed due to "unexploded ordinance" Had to head back to the Woops road and continue north.

After a while it became a wash and it was all high flying fun till I got to the tip of the Corisso range ( dark mtns on the left in the above pic) and crossed under the plaster city RR trestle. From there I headed SE along a pole road. 100% sand, fast and fun with occasional break slams

Then I cut across to Superstition hills. Hadn't been here in at least 30 years. All sand everywhere. And a great view of the military action, including live bombing, even at night! Only a lonely helo out today though.


View attachment 135568
Only did a little dunes running as again, I was by myself and didn't want to get stuck somewhere stupid.


View attachment 135569
Finally headed back towards Seeley and home. Passing by the dummy target range where we used to watch them drop talc bombs from about 1000 feet away. Range was still there, but quiet on a Sunday. Had some new targets out there it looks like though.

Headed back home as the sun was low, clouds keeping it from my eyes mostly and listening to my new "Desert Mix" on Google play that I recently put togeather of all my old late 60s /early 70s arena and psychedelic rock for the drive home.

Stats:
Escondido to Ocotillo: 90 minutes
Total off roading: 5+ hours
Superstition Hills to Escondido: 2hours and change
Distance: 246 miles
MPG: 15.9

Final note: I forgot my Nikon at home and had to use my phone to take these pictures. I'm actually surprised at how well they came out. Note 4 in HDR mode. Nice

Wow! I too haven't been to Superstition Dunes since high school (late 80s). How would the 4Runner do at the Sand Dam?

 

[2014 Warthog]

Wow! I too haven't been to Superstition Dunes since high school (late 80s). How would the 4Runner do at the Sand Dam?

Heh well... The runner does great on sand in general and regular dune stuff if you air down to 16-18 pounds. But it is a heavy vehicle so as the steepness goes up it will eventually dig in

There is a guy with a supercharged early model runner that does really well I've seen in videos though!

 

[2014 Warthog]

Warhog gets an early xmas present

This came in the mail today. A present for the Warthog. 1/2 of my black Friday purchase from Wheelers Offroad. A pair of icon adjustable rear shocks yay!

These will replace the billies I've been beating up in the desert for the last year. Hopefully get them on this weekend...

As soon as the other half of the order comes, a set of UCAs, my suspension will finally be complete for the time being.

 

[TheWraith]

Would love to go on this trail one of these days ... when my rig is ready

The next day, most of the campers were packing up to leave or hanging out enjoying the warm morning sun
before heading home. Just four of us were willing to brave the impending thunder showers that were called
for due to a hurricane down south.


View attachment 129839
The brave little crew of 4, one 4runner, one land cruiser and two jeeps, head off for the peak of White Mountain
and then down into Johnson valley.


View attachment 129840
We reached the edge of the mountain where we could look WAY down into the valley below. Trails went off in all
directions. There were a couple of Forest service trucks also parked there and they told us that they didn't want
us going down this little sketchy mine road because there was a stuck truck down there blocking it.

The truck we with them but not a forest service vehicle so they were not allowed to rescue it themselves.
A professional rescue in that precarious location would have been super expensive. Brian in the Land Cruiser
didn't hesitate for a second to offer assistance. So he and one of the Jeeps made their way down this super
narrow, shale covered "road" that winded down a gully. The truck was stuck to the axel in the soft roadbed
after a rear tire slipped over the edge the night before.

The owners of the truck were not there and we weren't allowed to actually touch it till they showed up, but
we spent the time figuring out how to get it's rear end back on the road, fortifying our trucks to keep them
from sliding down the road etc.

The owners showed up after a half hour or so and gave permission. Using the winch itself just pulled the two
trucks down the steep/slippery road. But letting the air out of the truck tired and trying to drive it down hill while
holding on the winch together got the back end up on the road.

Turns out the truck owners were Bat researchers invited out by the forest service to survey an open mine with
a colony of bats in it.


View attachment 129842
Right in the middle of the actual rescue the storm hit us. Pouring rain drenched everyone. I rode back up with
the Jeep and we waited at the top for everyone else to get turned around and back out. The Land Cruiser had
to air up as we reduced him to 9 pounds to try to keep traction on the road. At this point the rain was like a
bucket of water being poured on their heads while I hid inside the warthog waiting it out.


View attachment 129843
The Rangers and the Bat people were so happy we got them out that they invited us back to the station to dry
off so off we convoyed in the rain.


View attachment 129844
The trails were all instantly lakes and rivers. But the soil here is all DG, no clay so was just really watery sand, no mud.


View attachment 129845
The rain eased off to a light sprinkle as the cell moved on, it got quite beautiful and quiet. We got to the
station and it was just lightly sprinkling, we talked with the bat researchers and the rangers for some time,
exchanged emails and such.

One of the rangers was really into it, was also an Expedition Portal member. He gave us a little tip on a
nice trail to take since our main plans were kind of interrupted.


View attachment 129846
So another couple of hours in the cool 60 deg air and moody clouds with the windows open, heading towards
Big Bear lake on SN16 and SN08. Was quiet and the sounds of the tires on the wet rocks and gravel was relaxing.

Continued...

 

[Mooney]

This came in the mail today. A present for the Warthog. 1/2 of my black Friday purchase from Wheelers Offroad. A pair of icon adjustable rear shocks yay!

These will replace the billies I've been beating up in the desert for the last year. Hopefully get them on this weekend...

As soon as the other half of the order comes, a set of UCAs, my suspension will finally be complete for the time being.

View attachment 139224

View attachment 139225

Your going to LOVE those CDC adjusters!

 

[2014 Warthog]

Well my plans for installing the rear shocks this weekend were kyboshed by Icon forgetting to include the upper post mounting hardware

I called Wheelers who I ordered them through and they were awesome about calling Icon and getting a set of mounting hardware set out to me same day. Yay to Wheelers! And well yay to Icon for being super responsive anyway

I did finally get around to adjusting my coilovers since the bumper/winch install, and well the skids too. All that junk was weighing down the front end dropping me about a full inch!

I got myself back up to 2.5 inches of lift again, looks awesome. I think I would rather get some 700 lb springs for the front but I gather that people find rather stiff unless they have like a full on front bumper and heavy duty winch.

So I guess the 6 to 8 turn crank down will have to do! I currently have about 1 3/4 in of threads showing on the driver side and 1 5/8 on the passenger side. Not too bad I guess, ride still seems smooth.

 

[3wbdriver]

I can't remember. Are you still on the stock front springs? I went with OME 885 mediums after the SSS bumper and they are doing fine. Just a tic stiffer than the factory spring setup before the bumper installation. I had to reset the 5100's back to 0 lift and ended up with almost 2 1/2 - 3" lifted in the front, but I think it will settle in around 2" after all is settled. They have handled the added ~140 front bumper/winch fine, and actually I believe they could handle an extra battery up there without a problem. Just thought you might like some comparative feedback if you hadn't changed the front springs yet.

 

[2014 Warthog]

I can't remember. Are you still on the stock front springs? I went with OME 885 mediums after the SSS bumper and they are doing fine. Just a tic stiffer than the factory spring setup before the bumper installation. I had to reset the 5100's back to 0 lift and ended up with almost 2 1/2 - 3" lifted in the front, but I think it will settle in around 2" after all is settled. They have handled the added ~140 front bumper/winch fine, and actually I believe they could handle an extra battery up there without a problem. Just thought you might like some comparative feedback if you hadn't changed the front springs yet.

I've got Icon coilovers in front which I believe are using 650# springs. Though they can be changed out. Was looking around the Tacoma forums where some people had done that but only after they had cranked the front springs down till 2.5 inches of threads were showing at the top of the coilover. I'm only at 1.75 inches so it's probably ok for now But that could still be an option for the future...

 

[YetiX]

Wow, amazing build and thread! You've done really nice work, everything looks well thought out. I'll have to keep an eye out for you on the roads and maybe the trails!

 

[2014 Warthog]

Wow, amazing build and thread! You've done really nice work, everything looks well thought out. I'll have to keep an eye out for you on the roads and maybe the trails!

Thanks

The "Well thought out" part was mostly thanks to the resources of this site