Rob - saw that you were looking for some grommets/screws for the tailgate...not sure exactly which ones you needed, but check clipsandfasteners.com. The #6 washer head screws work great for the tailgate door sill grommets.


Got some sweet recovery stuff for father's day, first of all a 65 foot recovery strap:


And a 15 foot tree saver...this one is stout.



Also got a cool "Rusty But Trusty" shirt from RJCruisers with an fj60 on it...no pic of it, but you can see them online. My wife thought it was a 4Runner, still a cool shirt.

 

Well, we made it to Beech Mt, about 14 hours. My truck did great. ..it really cruises nicely on the highway.

one thing I noticed though was that the transfer case seems to get warm. I think I'm going to switch to synthetic before driving back.

Hoping to explore some back roads in the next couple days. We are over 5000 feet here and the roads are STEEP.

 

I have synthetic in mine, it still gets hot, not worryingly so though

Have fun!

 

Right on Cory! Take lots of pics

 

Have fun, Cory!

 

Thanks Rob, Tony, and Ray.

Today was an awesome day. Since driving down the mountain is a bit white knuckle, I'm trying to plan things smartly. Today we decided to hit a gem mining place with the wife and kids and then do some offroading since it was nearby.

The gem mining was awesome, loads of fun, kids got a bag full of gems.

Then we went to Richland Rd..we probably spent an hour on the trail, it was really fun. Along the way an 87 extended cab came up and we did part of trail together. Nice local guys. They said the trail had about another 2 hours, but I had to turn around...I had the family and it was getting late and they were about spent. We exchanged numbers to possibly meet up again. I'm going back to this place for sure. Very rocky, several creek crossings and just a lot of challenging rock sections. Makes the whole 14 hour truck ride worth it, so much fun.

 

You got some great pictures of your truck in action. Looking good. I like your fix for the door jam cover. Some of those tabs do get out of shape and can be a pain at times. Great to see the antenna fix worked for you. You did a better job using a tap and die set to make an exhaust stud work. One day I need to get a tap and die set, ( it is on the list, just has not happened) and I will go about your way of fixing them.

 

Terry, thanks for the comments. The antenna fix is all your idea. ​​​

Here's a couple short videos my wife took while offroading.

 

 

nice! But looks too technical for my taste.

 

Great to see the family having fun!

 

Nice pics, looks like you guys had a blast! The runner looks great, love the soft top!!!

 

Thanks guys. When you drive 14 hours with the window down, no AC, can't hear the radio, and no cruise control you sometimes wonder if you are crazy, but hitting trails like that are so much fun, it makes all the pain worthwhile.

My wife seems to really enjoy it, and this morning she said let's go offroading. I just learned about a new place yesterday thats a bit closer than Richland, so we loaded up the kids and headed to it.
This trail was not as difficult as Richland, but it was very scenic and there were a couple spots that were a bit tricky.

 

And a short video of me on this trail. No idea why my videographer keeps making these so short, I'll try to get a longer video at Richland Rd next time we go.

 

So Cory,
What's your backup plan if something happens on those light off-road trails?
Like you snap a pitman arm or cv or something?
I ask because I plan to use my truck similarly, road trip and then very light, senic offroading

 

When I went to Windrock last year, I took a spare CV, but I did not bring it on this trip. I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I take those obstacles so slow with the 4.7 low gears that I haven't been too worried about steering damage. I'm sure I could snap a CV, but I'd probably just put it in 2WD and try to go down the trail. Now that you bring it up though, i do have an old pitman and idler arm at home, I should carry them because a steering failure would be major. Thanks for the question, really has me thinking. I guess each trip is a learning experience and I will definitely add those old steering parts to my trail spares.

 

Went back to Richland Rd yesterday to complete whole trail. Arranged to meet the local guys that I met last time, and this time they brought their buddy with a really well built 87 extra cab. Richland is a really great trail for a mildly built truck. I don't think I would attempt it with a stock truck, the very first obstacles are pretty tough.

 

I'm back in FL as of Sunday night. I flew back for 2 weeks of work and left my 4Runner up there in NC, I'll fly back in a couple weeks and spend another week enjoying the mountains before that long 14 hour drive home. During the drive up there, with the window down the whole time, you really can't hear the radio and so you have a lot of time to find issues with your truck.

Tcase lever gets really hot. I can touch it, but it's pretty hot. At the same time, I can feel hot air blowing in (or maybe being sucked in) around the shifters. I noticed when I was installing the vinyl flooring that the rubber shifter boots are both torn, didn't really think of it as a major problem, but it's pretty annoying. It lets hot air into the truck, and this hot air, combined with the tcase getting so warm is warming up my metal center console. So when I put a bottle of water into my new cupholder it turned into hot water real quick. I could probably brew tea or coffee with as warm as it got the water. Also, you get whiffs of the sulfur rich gear oil every now and then. So I need a new shifter boot, I believe they are no longer being produced by Toyota. This IH8MUD small business seller city racer sells a reproduction for $72, https://www.cityracerllc.com/collect...-pick-up-hilux .

Besides the new shifter boot, I already purchased 2 qts of synthetic gear oil which is sitting in the back of my truck up there in NC. I did not have a large enough socket with me to remove the fill plug, so I plan to fly back with the right fill plug socket to drain the dino oil and refill the tcase with the synthetic when I get back up there. RAD4Runner also pointed out something he did, which is to run his floor insulation right up to the shifter handles. I'm going to do the same, thinking maybe a piece of reflectix or frost king non-adhesive foil insulation cut to fit under the shift boot retainer.

The truck is remarkably quiet, but of course with my windows down the wind noise still overpowers the tiny dash speakers and I can't hear the radio. Obviously having a working AC would help, and hopefully that's coming but I keep putting other projects in front of it. One thing I'd like to do is to move those cargo area speakers up to the rear passenger area. I don't really want to cut my side panels though, so I'm not sure what I'll do there. Maybe use the lap seatbelt cutout somehow since I converted to should belts back there.

 

Sounds like a 3d printed speaker grille to fit in the lap belt hole would be slick.
Gives me an idea. I might cad something up.

 

Rob - that would be cool of you. Love to see what you come up with there.