Hab, I think your hair tie problem is getting out of control!

Hey, you never know when you might need a hair tie or, like, 80....

96 4Runner 316,048 miles

Things that showed themselves as our out-west trip wore on....
Broken rear sway bar...as in the actual bar. Appears it had been weakened before it broke. Need to look at it more closely.
Clutch not fully disengaging
Radio in self-protect mode
One of the cbs (or both) need tuned and possibly new mics or sumpthin'
Skids may need some....ironing....
Alternator not keeping up with headlights, 11 year old house and 5 year old start batteries- guess where I'm gonna start investigating. Luckily didn't need the headlights often so it wasn't a situation.
Also had to connect both batteries to run the OBA, which is not typical.
Gas tank skids got more clearancing, gas gauge suddenly reading wonky. The two may or may not be related.
A mouse got into the truck. haven't found any damage inside (I surprised him, so know he was inside), some chews on the battery post covers....so far.
Cruise control works 99% of the time, there's been 3 times the light flashed and cruise didn't work. Mouse or clutch issue issues possible.

Sleeping in a bed tonight for the first time since July 23.



More later.

The rear sway bar was broken inside of the sway bar mount so I only removed the part that was hanging and left the rest on. It behaved itself very well, only popping out during the Pearl Pass run. I removed the mount, put the bar back in, then re-applied. It stayed for the rest of the trip.
Good bar. Good grief.
The tank skid, hard to see, but definitely got some abuse.


As did the gas tank itself. Of the 3 notable dents this one was the worst:



The baffle is in about that spot inside. I'm betting this has something to do with my wonky gauge and not being able to get a full tank of gas. I'll have to drop the tank to further examine this theory.

As far as the stereo receiver goes- I've unplugged the speakers and it's still in protect. I did find a post where the guy's bad battery turned out to be the issue. Since I know I have a bad battery I'll replace that before digging any further into the stereo.

And that's what I did today. I still have to get people's photos together.

We ran:
Up to near Rollins Pass west (hiked the rest of the way
Rabbit Valley/McInnis Canyon/that part of the Kokopelli trail
The other end of the Kokopelli trail including Sand Flats,
Thompson canyon and
Rose Garden Hill
Top of the World
Geyser Pass
Dellenbaugh Tunnel
Rainbow Terrace
nearly up to Clear Lake
Yankee Boy Basin
Governor Basin
part of Mineral Creek
Poughkeepsie-but not the wall, though we went up to it and watched for awhile- there was a Jeep club ahead of us, it was late afternoon already....it was a case of forced sensibility.
California Pass
Cinnamon Pass
Peal Pass from the Aspen side this time

It all started with a night in Ellis KS, a place to put up the tent in town and get some sleep before we headed to Winter Park the next day.
For those who camp on Vasquez Rd: it was closed this year. I'm assuming because of the amount of trash and people leaving food out- the past couple of years especially bears were becoming a problem because of it. People can be so gross and inconsiderate!
Winter Park was the only really rainy day we had. Instead of riding the Tipperary trail on our bikes we drove up to Rollins pass, where we hiked the trestles and looked at the closed old train tunnel.

Bwahaha, and the time my tank droped to the pavement in metro traffic comes to mind and I had zero tools.

We need an OhBleep smilie. You probably head some beeping, and honking, like that ever helps those situations.
That must've been....exciting...

The tank strap on both the 96 and 99 rusted through at some point. Luckily the tank skid and a single bolt on the cross member held them in place so no fun traffic dramas for us.

The weather in the part of Colorado we wanted to go was VERY wet so we rearranged our itinerary and went to Rabbit Valley/McInnis Canyon instead. Our favorite place to camp was closed so we ended up in a different camp area with 2 other groups. The area wasn't very clean, one site had boiled egg in a tree, another had toilet paper and poop on a pair of glasses, and another had a big barf pile. The spot we got wasn't great, but at least it didn't have those things and it was quiet.
We biked a short mostly mildly downhill trail that's fun, and drove a somewhat moderate point A Colorado to point B Utah. There's a long hill climb that's a bit of a challenge, and a couple of skinny between a rock and a drop-off 4Runner sized points on a shelf road.
This was the biggest ledge, somewhere between 2 and 3' tall

Wow that's one heck of a trip! and repair list :0

If you need a new tank and skid, there's one waiting for you in TN

We hit a lot of new places driving, camping and a couple new to us mountain bike trails.
Hoping to hit the junkyard this weekend, see if there's a tank around- shouldn't have too much trouble finding a rear sway bar at least. TN, as beautiful as it is, might be a bit far...

We got into Moab, had some Milts,ended up camping at Oowah lake. Quiet, it was a nice spot. In the morning we began a full day of many miles of wheeling.

Speaking of repair lists, something big came in the mail today....time to take the truck apart again!

Glad to hear your trip out west was another fun year. With 2 rigs, you probably have less burrito incidents!

I'm a little jealous of the mountain biking and wheeling you've done. Time to set some goals and make some things happen.

Good luck with the tank and the sway bar.

Burrito incident... ..... ....
that was....rough....
thanks for the re-memory, laugh, and no small amount of cringe.

You got those adorable young-uns using up all your time! Well, mine is 17, I bet I'd be shocked that yours aren't toddlers any more. Still a lot of work though.

Looks like good times!
Did you go up or down that ledge??!

Very good times!
That ledge I went down this time, but we've also driven up it before.
Another pic, same ledge, me ooching down it.

So we woke up at Oowah lake above Moab in the La Sals.


On the way down to the loop road the truck started making some thunks, clunks, then some tings and bangs. Pulled over, looked for what had come loose starting with the front end because that's where the sound seemed to be coming from.
The sound was not from the front end...


Luckily the rear sway bar broke in such a way as the part that was left had a good amount of bar in the bushing, so I removed the left side sway bar link and the smaller part of the sway bar. This actually stayed together for everything except Pearl Pass. It came out once there, I was able to put it back in and it stayed that way until I removed the bar entirely once we got home.

We went from the La Sal loop road over to Castleton Gateway Rd. to Thompson Canyon. Listed as moderate, it was a nice drive in a pretty desert canyon.


Up out of the canyon, a short piece of onion creek (easy) and on to Rose Garden Hill (not so easy).

Rose Garden Hill. Listed as difficult. We went up from Onion creek, towards the Dewey Bridge.
As you approach it you can see what looks like- and turned out to be- several large ledges nearer the top 1/3 of the hill. You're far enough away to know these won't be small.


The green truck was in front so went up first. After waiting awhile and getting no response on the cb I followed and found the first obstacle- some larger rocks that had to be navigated.


Out came the recovery gear, having the bikes on the back limited the ability to back up and retry this thing. After a few rearrangements of winch line, recovery strap, tree saver, and snatch block the green truck went up to the next ledge-

While waiting for the first winching to be completed I took this pic of my inclinometer. Walking around on this hill was a bit of a workout!


More to come...

Rose Garden Hill, heading up the hill towards the green truck.
Yes, I killed it on one of the lumps.
Stick shift life.

Continuing on. The green truck starts out well, then shifts to the left, putting the bike tires in rock peril. Winching this time was a little easier for my husband, with better rock availability than the first time.
Would be totally lying if I said after a few feelers that I didn't enjoy walking the 96 up (manual trans style) with the dual lockers. That and I didn't have bike rack worries.

Found mouse evidence on top of the winch line today while changing my license plates (MO gets new ones) so I pulled out and inspected, then washed off the line.
No chews, just poos.
A small bit more about mouses later.

Another winch up one of the many ledges, I think this was the last one, then he drove it on up?