I can see if they'll work after installing the C4 lo-pro. Maybe since I live in Houston I can just drop by Treat Oaks for a test fit before committing.
YETIX Build and Adventure Thread aka Travels with Savanna
- Thread starter YetiX
- Start date
I can see if they'll work after installing the C4 lo-pro. Maybe since I live in Houston I can just drop by Treat Oaks for a test fit before committing.
YetiX
New member
Good call. Kyle is a good guy. He might even know already if you ask him.
BrianSD_42
New member
YetiX
New member
Thanks Brian. The next trip I did was the last time I rode a motorcycle. Stay tuned...
Perfect 4Runner
Hi,
I'm new to the forum and just spent the last hour or so going through your build thread. I just wanted to say that I love what you've done with your 4Runner...it's almost exactly what I plan to do with mine! I hope you don't mind if I copy a few of your excellent ideas!
I think you've hit the perfect sweet-spot between a stock rig and a hard-core, long-travel rock crawler. I'm glad to hear you're happy with the 6112/5160 Bilsteins as I am currently waiting on delivery of just that setup.
Anyway, I look forward to reading more about your adventures!
Cheers,
Mike
Hi,
I'm new to the forum and just spent the last hour or so going through your build thread. I just wanted to say that I love what you've done with your 4Runner...it's almost exactly what I plan to do with mine! I hope you don't mind if I copy a few of your excellent ideas!
I think you've hit the perfect sweet-spot between a stock rig and a hard-core, long-travel rock crawler. I'm glad to hear you're happy with the 6112/5160 Bilsteins as I am currently waiting on delivery of just that setup.
Anyway, I look forward to reading more about your adventures!
Cheers,
Mike
YetiX
New member
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the kind words. I really do feel like I've struck a good balance here. I need to find time to update this thread as I have a couple of significant upgrades and a couple of cool trips to add.
Btw, I think you'll love the Bilsteins. They're awesome and a great mix for street and off-road. I rented a 5th Gen recently and was appalled at the stock suspension. Squishy, bottomed out on everything. Got back in my 4Runner at the airport and thought to myself, "Ah, now THIS is how suspension should feel!"
YetiX
New member
Glad it helped out! I've gained so much from this forum (and spent a ton of money), it's nice to give back.
YetiX
New member
Anza Borrego - March 2018 (Picture Heavy)
My friend Ken recently retired from the Navy. He built up his 5th Gen and bought a mini Airstream trailer. He and his wife and their two dogs are now travelling the country enjoying retired life for as long as they can. Before he left town, we decided to have one last trip out to Anza Borrego. We had a group of friends that were all going to go, but a threat of rain had everyone bail but Ken and me. We weren't stopping over a threat of a little rain!!
All set and ready to load up:
The cockpit. It's been cleaned up considerably, this was my first real trip with the tablet.
We took 8 East and turned north on S2 past the windmills. It sure looked like rain was coming, but we never experienced anything more than a drizzle.
We turned off onto the Great Southern Overland Stage Route and aired down, not so much for traction but for comfort over the washboards. Ken and I both have E rated tires and if you don't air down, the washboards will shake your fillings out:
Jess hamming it up:
The beasts of burden:
And off we went . . .
From the Overland Stage Route we took Arroyo Seco Del Diablo over to Diablo Drop Off.
When we got to the top of the Drop Off, we saw that we were right behind a huge group of Toyotas, all with families and dogs, etc.
We saw that they were regrouping at the bottom of the hill and realized that if we didn't want to get stuck behind them, we had to go immediately without previewing the Drop Off. I know now that it's not too technical, but I'd heard a lot about the drop off and was a little concerned but decided to just go for it. Ken's voice came over the radio, "Keep it slow at the bottom, the sand's loose and you'll drift off and not be able to stop." 10-4, let's do this!
There aren't any pictures of me going down the Drop Off because Ken was behind me. I got out, ran back up and got a couple of shots of Ken starting down:
We made it down just fine (what a blast) and got through the big group. After the Drop Off there is a small rock garden and twisty bit to go through before you get to Fish Creek Wash.
That was a lot of fun and pretty tight in a few spots. I was still leading because there wasn't room for Ken to get around me:
You can see the group starting to form up behind Ken . . .
And then out of the slot and into the wash:
To be continued . . .
My friend Ken recently retired from the Navy. He built up his 5th Gen and bought a mini Airstream trailer. He and his wife and their two dogs are now travelling the country enjoying retired life for as long as they can. Before he left town, we decided to have one last trip out to Anza Borrego. We had a group of friends that were all going to go, but a threat of rain had everyone bail but Ken and me. We weren't stopping over a threat of a little rain!!
All set and ready to load up:
The cockpit. It's been cleaned up considerably, this was my first real trip with the tablet.
We took 8 East and turned north on S2 past the windmills. It sure looked like rain was coming, but we never experienced anything more than a drizzle.
We turned off onto the Great Southern Overland Stage Route and aired down, not so much for traction but for comfort over the washboards. Ken and I both have E rated tires and if you don't air down, the washboards will shake your fillings out:
Jess hamming it up:
The beasts of burden:
And off we went . . .
From the Overland Stage Route we took Arroyo Seco Del Diablo over to Diablo Drop Off.
When we got to the top of the Drop Off, we saw that we were right behind a huge group of Toyotas, all with families and dogs, etc.
We saw that they were regrouping at the bottom of the hill and realized that if we didn't want to get stuck behind them, we had to go immediately without previewing the Drop Off. I know now that it's not too technical, but I'd heard a lot about the drop off and was a little concerned but decided to just go for it. Ken's voice came over the radio, "Keep it slow at the bottom, the sand's loose and you'll drift off and not be able to stop." 10-4, let's do this!
There aren't any pictures of me going down the Drop Off because Ken was behind me. I got out, ran back up and got a couple of shots of Ken starting down:
We made it down just fine (what a blast) and got through the big group. After the Drop Off there is a small rock garden and twisty bit to go through before you get to Fish Creek Wash.
That was a lot of fun and pretty tight in a few spots. I was still leading because there wasn't room for Ken to get around me:
You can see the group starting to form up behind Ken . . .
And then out of the slot and into the wash:
To be continued . . .
YetiX
New member
Anza Borrego - March 2018 (Part Two)
Once we got out of Diablo Drop Off we were in Fish Creek Wash.
We then went into Sandstone Canyon to look for an awesome camping Ken knew of, hoping no one beat us to it . . .
Fortunately, we were the first ones there so we set up camp and then did a little hike to explore the area:
My home for the night . . .
Time for beer and a camp fire (and yes, I know packaged guacamole sucks, I didn't have time to make any before this trip due to work).
I also tried my hand at night photography. I won't be quitting my day job any time soon. I did learn some lessons which will come in handy for the future, the most important of which is that you have to use manual focus. Oh well, I tried...
The next morning we headed back south through Fish Creek Wash and out to Split Mountain Road and then back home to San Diego . . .
Overall, it was a really fun trip and I got to explore some new areas of Anza Borrego I hadn't seen before.
Next up, I get a Wilco Hitchgate and fabricate some Jerry can holders for it . . .
Once we got out of Diablo Drop Off we were in Fish Creek Wash.
We then went into Sandstone Canyon to look for an awesome camping Ken knew of, hoping no one beat us to it . . .
Fortunately, we were the first ones there so we set up camp and then did a little hike to explore the area:
My home for the night . . .
Time for beer and a camp fire (and yes, I know packaged guacamole sucks, I didn't have time to make any before this trip due to work).
I also tried my hand at night photography. I won't be quitting my day job any time soon. I did learn some lessons which will come in handy for the future, the most important of which is that you have to use manual focus. Oh well, I tried...
Overall, it was a really fun trip and I got to explore some new areas of Anza Borrego I hadn't seen before.
Next up, I get a Wilco Hitchgate and fabricate some Jerry can holders for it . . .
BrianSD_42
New member
Great pics!
How does this compare against Backcountry Navigator. I've never used Gaia GPS. Do you like it a lot? Does it let you download full map level zoom for free?
How does this compare against Backcountry Navigator. I've never used Gaia GPS. Do you like it a lot? Does it let you download full map level zoom for free?
YetiX
New member
Thanks! I have not used Backcountry Navigator so I can't compare them. I do like Gaia a lot. There are some maps you can download for free, others are only available with a Premium membership. There was a discount code floating around so I pulled the trigger on the Premium. I just download the maps for the area I will be travelling through before I leave and it's good to go. I can also (so I've heard) download additional maps via my InReach, but I have not tried that yet.
YetiX
New member
It's a Verizon Elipsis 7(?), I believe. We got it free with a phone upgrade a couple of years ago. I think it's a 7" or 8" screen. I just acquired an iPad mini which I may switch to because it has more memory and is little faster processor.
YetiX
New member
Wilco with Jerry Can Holders
This post encompasses a few months and a few days of work, but it makes more sense to do this all as one post.
I would really like to have a steel rear bumper with swingouts, but it's just not in the budget at this point. Since I really wanted to get my spare out from under the 4Runner, and get one the same size as the other four tires, I started keeping my eyes open for a Wilco Hitchgate LINK I also wanted to be able to carry extra fuel and water. After a couple of months of looking, I saw an ad for an original Hitchgate on Craigslist for $600 on a Saturday morning. I showed my wife and she said, "I bet you can get that for $400." So I emailed the seller and offered $400. When I heard nothing, I figured he wasn't willing to go that low. So imagine my surprise when I received a email Sunday afternoon saying, "If you can be here in 30 minutes, it's yours for $400." I was on his doorstep in 20 minutes.
These are the pictures from the ad. As a plus, it came with the license plate relocation bracket.
And installed on Hank for the drive home.
As I said, I also wanted to be able to carry additional fuel and water so I needed a Jerry can carrier. Wilco wanted almost $400 for theirs, but I knew I could build one for a lot less. I ordered two Jerry can holders on eBay for $25 each. After a quick trip to my local Industrial Metal Supply for a 2 x 2 and some angle iron, I headed to my friend David's shop to do some fabrication.
My Ridgebacks came along to supervise:
We started by placing the 2 x 2 stock on the busses on the rear of the Wilco and then marked it up.
We then welded the angle iron to hold the bar in place and used his drill press to drill the holes for mounting the cans. I then took everything home and spray painted the holder in my spray booth:
The finished (or not) product:
And mounted on the 4Runner with Jerry cans:
I thought it was great, but after a couple of trips and seeing that the cans were swaying, I realized the Jerry can carriers needed more lateral support. So back to Dave's we went with more angle iron in hand.
We mocked up what I wanted and then got to welding. We added a piece of angle iron on each side to give more support to the cans.
Then ground down the welds to smooth everything out . . .
And then primed it:
I took everything home, again, and re-sprayed everything with Rustoleum hammer finish. As you can see, each carrier is now secured with six bolts. Mucho more macho!
And re-installed on the Wilco:
When I bought the Wilco, it came with a license-plate bracket with LED lighting. LINK The only problems were a) it was chrome, b) the LED lights were WAY too bright, and c) it was held on with self-tapping screws which did not feel very secure.
I solved a and b by spray painting it black and putting window tint on the lights. Then I bought a cheap Nutsert kit on Amazon, installed two M6 Nutserts in the previously drilled holes and now my license plate and light are much more secure. (The bolts in the picture were just two I had lying around. I went and bought stainless steel bolts with lock washers.)
This post encompasses a few months and a few days of work, but it makes more sense to do this all as one post.
I would really like to have a steel rear bumper with swingouts, but it's just not in the budget at this point. Since I really wanted to get my spare out from under the 4Runner, and get one the same size as the other four tires, I started keeping my eyes open for a Wilco Hitchgate LINK I also wanted to be able to carry extra fuel and water. After a couple of months of looking, I saw an ad for an original Hitchgate on Craigslist for $600 on a Saturday morning. I showed my wife and she said, "I bet you can get that for $400." So I emailed the seller and offered $400. When I heard nothing, I figured he wasn't willing to go that low. So imagine my surprise when I received a email Sunday afternoon saying, "If you can be here in 30 minutes, it's yours for $400." I was on his doorstep in 20 minutes.
These are the pictures from the ad. As a plus, it came with the license plate relocation bracket.
And installed on Hank for the drive home.
As I said, I also wanted to be able to carry additional fuel and water so I needed a Jerry can carrier. Wilco wanted almost $400 for theirs, but I knew I could build one for a lot less. I ordered two Jerry can holders on eBay for $25 each. After a quick trip to my local Industrial Metal Supply for a 2 x 2 and some angle iron, I headed to my friend David's shop to do some fabrication.
My Ridgebacks came along to supervise:
We started by placing the 2 x 2 stock on the busses on the rear of the Wilco and then marked it up.
We then welded the angle iron to hold the bar in place and used his drill press to drill the holes for mounting the cans. I then took everything home and spray painted the holder in my spray booth:
The finished (or not) product:
And mounted on the 4Runner with Jerry cans:
I thought it was great, but after a couple of trips and seeing that the cans were swaying, I realized the Jerry can carriers needed more lateral support. So back to Dave's we went with more angle iron in hand.
We mocked up what I wanted and then got to welding. We added a piece of angle iron on each side to give more support to the cans.
Then ground down the welds to smooth everything out . . .
I took everything home, again, and re-sprayed everything with Rustoleum hammer finish. As you can see, each carrier is now secured with six bolts. Mucho more macho!
And re-installed on the Wilco:
When I bought the Wilco, it came with a license-plate bracket with LED lighting. LINK The only problems were a) it was chrome, b) the LED lights were WAY too bright, and c) it was held on with self-tapping screws which did not feel very secure.
I solved a and b by spray painting it black and putting window tint on the lights. Then I bought a cheap Nutsert kit on Amazon, installed two M6 Nutserts in the previously drilled holes and now my license plate and light are much more secure. (The bolts in the picture were just two I had lying around. I went and bought stainless steel bolts with lock washers.)
Last edited:
YetiX
New member
Thanks y'all. I appreciate the kind words. I'm getting closer to being caught up to real time, at least I'm in the same year now. I have a few more trips and a few more cool mods to go. Maybe I can catch up before New Year's!!
danronian
New member
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