First post:
Caping trip to Bishop and Mammoth.
Got the truck all buttoned up from the sound system exploits/detours. then immediately (like I finished the autotune on the headunit as we were loading the truck up to leave 3 hours late) hauled ass to the promised land, AKA Bishop, CA. I have been in love with Bishop and the surrounding areas for years, and I don't see that changing any time soon. One day maybe I'll post some of the highlights of the areas, but plenty of others here have been in the Bishop/Lee Vining/Lone Pine/Mammoth area and know how incredible it is. no need to harp anymore on it. Found our way to our usual campsite areas and found a rad spot, then went to town to grab some supplies. Camped for the night, then headed up the hill to catch the last few mashed potato turns of the season in Mammoth. Stopped for a while for a dip in the river outside Bishop near some boulders, then made dinner at camp and chilled. Did the Valentine Lake hike in Mammoth the next day, With the last half mile of it being a near-vertical, snowy rock scramble. Lots of fun to go back down, sucky to go up.






A couple of other camping trips I'm sure happened, but maybe in the other car, or in Shirlee but without as much pictorial evidence. Then some time around the 4th of July i made my way out to a secluded lake to do some (what I thought would be) some low risk solo wheeling and a jaunt to a new Alpine Lake. I picked a terrible overall line because I was an idiot, and the wheeling was much more sketchy than anticipated. #Badlinesgoodtimes I guess getting out there, and I caught a couple of baby smallmouth bass, but nothing to write home about in terms of fishing. It was a delightful drive out there and back though; I will definitely be back to paddleboard and fish some more.














one anecdote: some time during this lapse of time, I picked up and refinished a trans/t-case crossmember from a local guy who swore up and down it was out of a single case, w56, first gen 4runner with a 22r or 22re. so I thought it would work in the truck no problem. well, none of the frame rail bolt holes come anywhere close t lining up, but look to be space appropriately. so I plan to chop the frame pads off, figure out where to weld them back on, and proceed to modify the thing to make it work. it should give me like 4 inches of belly clearance back, and help my breakover angle.

 

Second: Built a truck bed camper setup
It's certainly not perfect, but it fulfilled it's purpose more than adequately on the inaugural trip it was planned for.
Key criteria this design filled:

1. Easily removable
2. Modular
3. Collapsible
4. Robust
5. Stores appropriate gear

This was designed to be 3 parts. My family pitched in as a gift for my birthday to make the whole build happen, with which I'm very grateful. both side parts have legs that have the ability to fold in and collapse. they also provide supprt for a center cover board that is removable. the center is made of a drawer that rides on spherical bearings and spacers; this allows it to slide on the bed, but the legs from the sides and the corrugations in the bed+the spherical bearings keep the drawer from translating side to side more than about an inch. the drawer holds all the good stuff, and had removable dividers to allow for storage customization.

mock ups and install pics, + a couple of use pics.





Legs and center platform support:


Shoing one end of the drawer folds down so the side panels can nest inside the drawer. maybe i'll call this idea the campernest - copyright forthcoming


Put some flush mount d-rings in to strap the cooler down. plus, coffee is essential. one day soon-ish i'll do an actual video walkthru of the camper setup


and from a further view you can see all the extrea stuff that fits beside the drawers, the heaver and a couple of storage totes fit perfectly.






i leave you with a fall Northern Arizona sunrise

 

Love it!

 

Updates Loading.......

trip reports being submitted, photo dump commencing, etc

 

October 22, the next trip was a shakedown thru gold lakes highway:

My buddy's new truck












Then Went to Arizona for a late fall trip:
finished the camper drawer setup and used it for a bunch of camping trips.
We went to Phoenix, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Zion. All of that was pretty great. Then I drove back to Reno from Zion alone, and storms destroyed my trip plans. So I just drove home through central Nevada instead of through Great Basin and ended up getting a flat in a ghost town that was a PITA to deal with before I got it patched in a podunk town.

 

More zion:



And the road back:










After that, i found a guy in Sac that was selling a dressed longblock and goodies for CHEAP so I picked it up.





ThenIi found THIS during disassembly:

 

Cliff notes of the last 10 months or so:

got the motor stripped down and dropped it off at a local machine shop that I hope has his stuff together. Block, head, and rear timing cover are all there to be decked and checked.



swapped out the rear diff cause the pinion bearing was HOWLING. it was toast.



old diff:


new axle bearings too:


Went mudding:


first camping trip of the season, late April '23:


got nice and stuck, spent some time digging us out...


found a great spot for lunch:


Now more stuff:

Installed the Icon Add-a-Leaf kit for the 1996-2015 Tacoma, and works also for the 89-95 truck spring pack. Added an inch and a half of lift as advertised.



went out to Independence Lake in June:

 

Got an Auxbeam 8-gang switch panel to install:


Still not hooked up, but it sure looks good in place of the ashtray:


Also got a nice tool roll setup that I'll hopefully not need very often:

 

Took a trip through Boise, into Montana, and Yellowstone after July 4th. Long story but the rear diff in the Lexus went out. So we did the rest of the trip to the Yellowstone and the Tetons in a rental and flew home. I flew back a couple of weeks later and drove the Lexus back home. Not ideal, but I was fortuitously funemployed at the time so I took an extra couple days home to enjoy that part of the country by fly fishing my way back to Reno.
Boise nat'l forest camping:




a whole-ass full-size bison, also stopped appropriately at this stop sign, not sure who taught him to read...


The rainbow-colored hot spring. way more majestic in person. The drone shots do it justice, but mine don't.


Tetons:





Long weekend in the Ruby Mountains:

 

Got engaged in April (a bit out of order, but a cohesive post so idc if you think it's a bit disjointed timeline-wise).



then went searching for the right spot to get married:







Then Mammoth for a Trail running Ultra in August:






Mountainbiking on the first snow day of the season:


One last camping trip for the year that ended up with me being bearanoid about something I could hear continually circling my campsite, so I went home:


And lastly, Christmas tree hunting!

 

That gets me current.

Truck has been running fine. Got new tires in mid-November. Decided to just bite the bullet and size up. I'm still waiting on my block from the machine shop, so it'll be a while but I have more power on tap coming down the line, and then turning these larger tires will be no problem. For now, I've basically negated 5th gear on all but the flattest roads with no wind

Looks sweet though, so I'm not complaining.






Yes I clearanced the fender wells. and I put back the liners with some minor modifications. Doesn't rub at all at full stuff/lock. No body lift or anything.