Hey all, hope you're all well!

Last weekend we unspooled our winch lines and washed the salt out of them. Welcome to the salt belt, USA!

Still awaiting parts ordered, got a up-top re-do coming up if my thing ever ships.

 

Well, my spring break just got extended for another couple of weeks but I might be working but maybe not.....food service at a school and we're committed to feeding kids that go to our schools that might not otherwise have as much food as they need for being kids who are stuck at home. Everything is up in the air because this is new ground. On the plus side I have juuuust enough toilet paper to hold us until things mellow but milk and eggs are swiftly becoming an issue. Substitute food creativity, I gots it- and my family should be scared!

I did get notice that my roof basket shipped and should be here Friday. Seeing how things are going I'll believe it when I see it- and while it's super-low on the shipping priority list- if it shows it will be nice to have a reason to mess around with the truck again!

 

Well, that's not right...




I'm too used to having some business going on up top.
On the plus side, the light bar + roof basket + load bars weigh about 57#, close to what the new rack coming in at 60#, according to the website.

 

What's the new rack?

 

I splurged when Rakuten had a 14% cash back for 4WP and 4WP has free shipping, and my credit card had a small online purchases percentage too so it was a pretty good deal considering the original price-
a 3/4 Baja G3 basket.
It's all my husband's fault because he gave me an awning and the mounting arms will not work with my Thule rack.
The things I have to do...

 

96 4Runner 312,728 miles

Got out at first light this morning to wash and wax the truck before the cold front came through.

And then went with my husband to the shipping company to pick up the
Baja Rack G3 3/4 length
because they were planning on delivering on Monday and I work that day but am on spring break this day and I'm going crazy doing not much and because wanted to.
We had to sign a form saying we have not been exposed to someone with Covid-19 or had symptoms of same and have not traveled out of the country. The box was too big for inside the hubby's truck so it got strapped to his roof rack.
Got it home, unboxed and on my truck.

I think the way it mounts is good. 3 brackets each side with bars the length of each bracket that slides into the roof rack
In the pic there is a bracket in the background and a mounting bar in the foreground:


And the basket bolts to the brackets. Easy enough.
I will order some light cubes to replace my $5 Walmart clearance isle specials that served as auxiliary reverse lights, maybe Nilight as I've heard good things about them and they're affordable. Feel free to weigh in on cheap flood lights!
I'm not sure about replacing the 6" KC driving lights that were up front as I didn't use them all that often. The Rigid amber lights in the front bumper have proven so much more useful.

The Baja still has the sides I wanted but is much closer to the other truck's rack height-wise than the Thule Rack. It will hold 300#, or 600# static in case a bear feels like sitting up there a spell.


It fits between the sun roof and open hatch nicely.


And now I need to figure out the best way to secure the awning brackets.

 

The 4Runner with the new rack is looking great, Hab!

 

Thanks Jake!

Well, I've gone and made a call to Kyle over at Marlin. He was nice and answered my few questions. I've never thought of myself as a midwest drawl kind of girl but am rethinking that, there was some quick speaking on the other end of my line.
I'm going for the Tacobox. It's been sitting on the back burner for a long time now, having to rebuild the rear driveshaft and needing new u-joints on the front as well just pushed it a bit farther forward.
Dropzone's rabbit hole.
And now we wait.

And while we're waiting I still have to figure out how to attach the awning brackets to the roof basket. Because of the covid-19 thing visiting the store to find what I have in mind is not essential enough to do. Am being patient. Muy difficil.
With the new rear bumper fill plates I also still need to make brackets for my rear Anderson connector and move the lines for the air bags.
You'd think not being able to go in to work would allow me the time needed, but I'm trying to catch up on the things that I've got behind on. It's a lot of things.

I hope you are all well and safe and we all get through this, can dust ourselves off, and get back to 'normal' when it's feasible to do so.

Can't wait to do this again:

 

Awesome!! I would love a tacobox.... just don't want to spend the money!

 

I COMPLETELY understand that! I've been sitting on the idea of doing it for a very long time and just didn't want to cough up the dough either but I'm finally ready to take it in the wallet (but it's still painey).

Hope you're not going too crazy hanging out day after day, if you're boat is like St. Louis County's- self-quarantine unless essential.
So far it's getting stuff done around the house and wishing I could go get some parts so I can set up the awning. Still can't deem that essential enough to risk so here I am.
I did grocery shop today- that was a little surreal with the masked faces and half-empty shelves- and it was also very essential, we were out of beer.

I couldn't get more than one milk and one soy milk so bought a lot of frozen orange juice to go with meals. No potato chips or mint oreos either so the kid is really going to be slumming it.
I also dragged a turkey out of the freezer, planning on 5 meals off that thing.

 

Shoot, I've been working 40-60 hours a week this past month!! Super slammed. We just hired another civil engineer and a concrete testing technician to help lighten our load. Here I am about to start doing some work on the computer on Easter Sunday :/

Oh yeah, and about the Marlin California fast talking, you talk way faster than me!!

 

Glad you're working! Maybe it's not good you're super-slammed, but hopefully it is.
I thought I was going to go to work this coming week but a couple of bus drivers that had been distributing food in a near-by school district died from covid-19 so several districts including the one I work for has stopped handing out meals until they can figure out a more safe way to get them to the people. Luckily Operation Food Search has also been handing out meals for kids at some of the county library parking lots so nobody has to go without at this point. I'll probably still need to go make meals, just don't know when yet.

Hahaha....I guess listening to me trying to wrangle the thoughts cavorting around in my head can be a bit of a whirlwind ride sometimes-
I've got a lead foot in my brain and my tongue is scurrying to keep up.
Cali though...Kyle had me scrambling. Luckily I knew exactly what I wanted and needed to ask and say!

Here, I'm bored even though there's laundry to do. Have some not-great really bad pics from our last CO/UT trip- Colorado side:






and a different tunnel..

 

Where were / are the tunnels?

 

We started from Canon City in Colorado, headed north up Phantom Canyon Rd (first pics) to Victor and Gold Camp Rd, (last pic) then east to Stage Coach Rd. and Colorado Springs. It was interesting, the washboard was about the biggest challenge (we actually aired down to make it a lot more comfortable) except for one road we took that required some mild wheeling at the beginning. As we got closer to Co Springs there were people shooting stuff on the sides of the road, target practice/ having fun. No worries. If we do it again we'll have to make sure to take a much better map than we had, there were a lot of off-shoot roads after Phantom Canyon.

 

96 4Runner 312,780 miles

Using junk I had around the house to secure the awning brackets, awning is installed.

The Baja rack is sturdy enough for my weight, no flex. I popped up top to secure the nuts to the awning bolts.


The awning is as long as the cab, a full-size rack might have been better here, but I really didn't want one- it does seem to be sturdy up there with about 18" of awning hanging in the breeze.


180 degrees of coverage. About the same coverage as the bus depot awning, though a different shape. A lot heavier, but since it's not something you carry around that part isn't too bad. It is, however, SO much easier to deploy. The bus depot awning will still get used because it can be set up any old place, like velcro'd to trees at a campsite where a truck can't go even. .




Hopefully the self-quarantine thing is able to be lifted soon, too much time in front of the computer staring at pretty truck gadgetry is dangerous on our wallets!
Be well, be safe as you can.

 

the new awning looks awesome!
no kidding about all this BS being dangerous to the wallet. my amazon cart is full of all kinds of unnecessary BS. Just waiting for the missus to add something and order it all so I can blame her

 

Thanks! It wasn't something I would have gotten for myself, but it will certainly come in handy. My husband is good at coming up with things I wouldn't have thought of that I have to figure out. Probably trying to keep me out of his hair...

.....
married life

 

96 4Runner 312,851 miles

Self-stuck at home other than occasional bouts of work. Have managed to get a lot done in the yard, but is it wrong that the most action the truck has seen is acting as a sun shade in our front yard while I dig up short bamboo?
Awning works great...


The Tacobox won't be ready for a bit but I should be getting a few bits and pieces in the coming week, that'll be a lot more interesting than yard work!

 

96 4Runner 312,873 miles

One of my things showed up. The other thing will be off-brand light cubes for my auxiliary reverse lights, so I guess this showing up before that means it's in the right order.
I bought stickerz!


This came FREE with the purchase of the stickers (think the hubby will fall for it?)...

Arb RD90 for the front diff.
I used the code SHELTER to alleviate a small portion of the pain and suffering of the now not even lint-filled pocket.

And my budget is now way WAY past blown. At least I already had the manual hubs (not required, recommended) and the OBA w/tank.
I have some trepidation about installing this thing, but this old dog can still learn a new trick or two. I will be following instructions!
Any tips, I'm listening.

 

96 4Runner 312,873 miles

As memory serves...
Skid plates off (boy, do those need a beating back into some semblance of normalcy)
Front drive shaft off
Front tires and adapters off
Front hub assemblies off (set to free, undo dial bolts and slide off, undo bolt at end of cv shaft, undo hub body bolts and pull off, undo snap ring in cv shaft, pull off washer)
Lower ball joint bolts off
CV shafts off
Front diff drained
Front diff mounts removed
Rear diff mount unbolted
Vacuum lines and electrical connection disconnected
Front diff tickled out of its lair

And time to make the dinner.