PNW Exploration Rig

[Shallow Water Steve]

Wife and I got our dream orders from the military and are headed from DC to Oregon for a few years. While I love my old 4Runner, she wanted more airbags for our upcoming kids. Enter the Tacoma! Me, my wife and college roomate are going to take 14 days to get out to Oregon and hit as many national parks/forests as possible and get up into Banff and over to Vancouver as well. Also, if you are in OR, would love recommendations. So here we go.

The 4Runner, my first true love and build, pictured in Puerto Rico:


The Tacoma TRD Offroad, fresh off the lot:


To do before roadtrip:
-A.R.E CX HD series cap to handle weight of RTT
-Full length Prinsu Rack
-Baja Rack Jerry and Water can holders
-Maxtrax
-Extreme LED light bars 30in bar for front
-Baja Designs S2 Sport scene lights on sides
-Baja Designs S2 Sport Driving/Combo for reverse lights
-Switch Pros SP-9100 w/ SDHQ mounts
-Aux Fuse panel for constant hot power to bed 12V outlet and cap lighting
-Tepui Autana Sky
-Tepui Awning
-DeLorme InReach Satcom

Wish list for Oregon:
CBI Bumper w/ Smittybilt winch
Baja Designs 20in amber light bar in bumper
Baja Designs fog lights
OME BP-51 suspension
Method Wheels
285 Tires
CMC
Skids & Sliders

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

One thing I love about this truck is all the storage. Got around today to getting the essentials stowed.

-Tool Kit, Socket Set, Funnel, Jack Base, E-Tool, Breaker Bar, Tire Iron, Siphon, Air Compressor, Poncho, Tire Repair Kit, Tow Strap, Fire Extinguisher, Jumper Cables, and Genius Boost GB40 jumpstarter just in case until I can afford a dual battery set up.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Grabbed a first aid pouch from Amazon since I already had most of the supplies on hand from work.


Top is Trauma: HyVent Chest Seals, Israeli Bandage, Combat Gauze, Celox Granuals, Saljets, CAT Tourniquet, Gloves, Cold Pack, Wound Closure Strips, Petroleum Gauze, Gauze Pads, CPR Mask.

Middle: I'm a huge fan of the Adventure Medical .7 kit. I grab this out of here for hikes or other activities I don't want to take this whole kit on. I've expanded some of the medication in this kit, but other than that its got just about everything you could need up to major trauma. This is where the medications, moleskin, band aids, creams, and ace bandage live, among other things they've managed to stuff in there. Behind it is their dental medic kit as well. The rest is another trauma bandage, betadine, oral and nasal airways, oral IV, bug spray, duct tape, and a triangular bandage.



The bottom pouch is a hodge podge of hygeine and other items that weren't in the Adventure Medical Kit or didn't fit cleanly elsewhere. Single use tooth brushes, hand wipes, floss, hydrocortisone packets, burn cream packets, sunscreen packets, ammonia inhalants, chapstick.




A first aid kit is only as good as your training. This kit has everything I feel comfortable using, right up to my level of training. While I'd love to have sutures and other goodies, I'd do more harm than good even in the most exigent circumstance.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Alright now for some actual building. Switch Pro SP-9100 and the SDHQ mount came in today. Got it mounted up and ran hot wires form the light bar, reverse lights, and scene lights off the Switch Pro along existing wiring harness for the tail light. Had to grab some heat shield due to the proximity to the headers. Those hot wires will stay run right up to the tail light housing until the cap comes in and then I'll run them up through the bed, and then the cap with a cable gland on to the roof. Hoping to get a good ground off the roof rack mounting bolts. Trigger wires and extra switch wires for the Switch Pro not in use got bundled up and secured to the brake cylinder reservoir for future expansion.

While the Tacoma comes with a sweet 120V outlet in the bed, it doesn't have a 12V outlet. Grabbed a Blue Sea 4 gang fuse box from West Marine and added in a 40amp circuit breaker to have hot power to the bed 24/7. This fuse box will power the 12V outlet, and the cap lights.

For the cap lights, I picked up some led strips from Super Bright LEDs and put a small waterproof switch by the 12V outlet. I'll mount the strips in the top of the cap. I also picked up a Baja Designs dome light that will go on the inside of the flip up cap window to light the tailgate area for cooking etc.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Prinsu racks came too. Got the cab rack set up w/ Maxtrax and front light bar. I'll wait to do the cap rack until the cap comes in. Opted to drill through the cross bars to mount the Maxtrax w/ the Maxtrax pins and I'm stoked about how they fit. Baja racks jerry can and water can holders will go behind the MaxTrax with a spot for a Smokey Joe as well. Forward of the Maxtrax is getting left open for luggage or an Alubox or two. I'll mount everything else w/ carriage bolts in the T-slots to avoid drilling and keep the flexibility to change the layout of the rack.

I HATE rattling so I picked up some gear ties to hold the locks secure to the mounting pins. I'll do the same for the jerry and water can holders.

Hoping to put this on this weekend when weather is finally not miserable and mount up the scene lights.

 

[Tex68w]

I like where this is heading, should be a sweet build! I helped a buddy install his Prinsu on his T4R Trail, it's a hell of a nice product for the money.

Nice to see another have an appropriate med kit on board, mine goes with me everywhere.

 

[Trigger]

It’s going to be a good looking, FUNCTIONAL truck. I’ve got a 17 Tacoma Off-road that I’m looking to do the same with. I went with a bed rack instead of a cap and I’ll have the Nitrocharger OME suspension instead of the BP51. I’m interested to see how the prinsu rack goes. Keep posting the updates!


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Thanks guys. Functional is the plan! Looked at the bed rack but since rain is measured in FEET where we are headed in Oregon I decided to spring for the cap, but if that wasn't the case I would have gone the same route.

Just got the Prinsu rack on and its sturdy as hell. Not to mention it looks so clean. Worth. Every. Penny. A dremel makes quick work of cutting through the metal band in the weather stripping, and then a 3/4in hole saw is used to cut holes for the spacers. Solid instructions on their website. I've seen some people just cut the weather stripping straight through and leave sections out where the spacers go. I did that on one part because the dremel accidentally went all the way through. Ooops.

The hardest part is finding the holes in the roof through the spacers and silicone to thread the bolts, but even still, in only took an hour and a half. Pops came over and helped me lift it on., and we laid a blanket over the whole roof to avoid scratches.

Light bar fits great, someday I'll splurge for the Baja Designs 30in bar, but for $150 bucks on clearance, I couldn't pass up the ExtremeLED one.

The jerry and water can holders are supposed to ship this week so looking forward to getting those put on.

Just need A.R.E. to hurry up with the cap so I can keep going!

 

[chuckoverland]

Our prinzu ships (hopefully) april 27th, super excited to put it on. Nice rig.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Mine actually shipped 2 weeks early. They were great about it. I’m sure yours will be there in no time!

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

So my boss let me telework today to get ready for our move and it went surprisingly smoothly so I had some time to work on the truck. The jerry can and water holders line up perfectly on the Prinsu rack. Hopefully it's not some cardinal sin to mix BajaRack gear with a Prinsu rack. I shed the BajaRack mounting hardware and used 4 carriage bolts to secure them to the Prinsu. Seems very solid. The smokey joe in its carry bag also fits PERFECTLY between the fuel and water can mounts. Success.

I'll post a photo of the full roof rack load out once I get the tent on. Got a plano gun case as well to go in front of the MaxTrax to carry random campsite gear.

Also had a chance to ditch the stock battery. I'd love to have a dual battery set up, but that is not in the budget and won't be a priority for sometime. Probably the last thing I would do to this truck. For the time being, and honestly, probably forever, I'm going to run a single Group 31 set up. It actually has more CCAs and reserve time than a dual battery setup, and with the Switch Pro having a low voltage cut off I'm not super worried. I also carry a jump starter as well. The only trade off is that now my "taco lean" is a tad more exaggerated. I'll fix that with the pre-load on the coilovers later though.

I went with the Odyssey 31M. I used to swear by Optima Yellow Tops (A group 31 is what I've always had in the 4Runner) but apparently they aren't what they used to be. The Odyssey seems to be the go-to now. Grabbed a Pelfreybilt Group 31 battery cage which fits like a glove. Their website said they were all sold out for months, but I called and it was just a typo and they shipped one right out.

The cap goes on Wednesday which is when the fun really starts. Can't wait to finish up all the wiring and really see how the Switch Pro set up works out. The Tepui tent and awning are in the garage waiting for their day in sun as well. Hopefully my boss continues to be cool this week.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

The cap is on! I went right to work and put the Prinsu rack on. I assembled it before hand and left all the hardware loose while mounting the rest of the lights. Putting it together took some work, but actually putting it on the cap was a 15 minute job. Ten times easier than the rack on the cab. Its contrary to the Prinsu instructions but putting it together off the cap worked out way better I think.

Finished up wiring all the lights to the Switch Pro and ran the hot wires through a cable gland on the cap, and then to where I routed all the hot wires from the Switch Pro along the factory tail light harness. Crimped everything together w/ heat shrink connectors and loomed it up and it looks great. When I put on the cab rack, I put put ground wires around two bolts which paid off big, less holes in the cap and they turned out to be great grounds. All the lights on the roof have grounds coming off the roof rack bolts on the cab (cap is fiberglass, obviously a non-existent ground).

Not a ton of pictures. I was trying to get all the wiring done before dark and sweating my ass off. Mounted up the Tepui awning with carriage bolts as well. Last step is getting the tent on. And then phase two of bumper, sliders, lift, wheels.....;)

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Got the interior cap lighting done today which officially marks the end of about 30 hours of wiring. The LED strip lights are from SuperBright LEDs and they are awesome. They are stick on but the adhesive is serious. Mounted up the Baja Designs dome light as a tailgate work light for cooking. It comes with a rail mount and place for a zip tie which was perfect for the CX HD cap rails. These run to the aux fuse box so they are always hot and I don't have to go in the cab or get on my phone to turn them on. The dome light has an integrated switch and the strip lights run to a switch by the 12V outlet. If you look closely there's a hard earned rum and coke on the tailgate.

 

[mario.gonzalez]

Some ideas for gear you might need for camping


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

So I’ve been a real dirt bag about updating this but now after we’ve made it cross county and are getting our feet on the ground in Oregon I’ll fire it back up.

Here’s the truck with roof rack load out. Grabbed a Plano case for upfront for easy access camping equipment.

Took the advice of the thread and got the tepui awning when I ordered the tent. Rei was running a 20% off coupon that was actually eligible for use on an RTT so that was sweet.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Loaded her to the gills and headed west. Made a last minute purchase of a Samsung Tab A and a 128GB sd card. The tablet was reasonably priced and with the expandable storage I was able to download Gaia maps for the entire cross country drive. Topo, sat, MVUM, hiking, Canadian backroads, etc. The subscription is well worth it for access to the best layers and the tablet ran everything flawlessly. Also nice to Bluetooth it to the inReach for messaging. That’s about all garmins inReach app is good for. Got the delorme on clearance. So much cheaper than the new garmins and the same subscription support.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Learned a lot on this trip about what it takes to do a 2 week overland trip. There were 2 nights where we were either too exhausted or the weather was terrible we decided to just get a motel. It originally felt disappointing, like we were cheating, but we learned that it was part of the adventure and if you’re miserable trying to travel and camp it’s not a good trip. Hitting the reset button with a good sleep and hot shower those 2 nights endured we enjoyed the trip.

Spent the first night in the badlands, then hit up the black hills and Mount Rushmore. From there we grabbed an incredible campsite with Teton views in the NF. Headed up to Yellowstone, quick stop in Bozeman, then Glacier, into Canada, a night in Banff, across BC to Golden ears provincial park, a planned hotel night in Vancouver, and our first night in Oregon spent on the dunes at Sand Lake.

 

[Shallow Water Steve]

Installed a CB yesterday. Turns out it's pretty critical for safety on the logging roads here.

Picked up the following:
CBI Offroad Fab Ditch Light Brackets
Uniden CMX760 CB Radio
2' Firestik Antenna
Firestik Spring
Firestick Stud K4R (longer bolt for Fire Ring install)
18' Firestik Fire Ring Coax MU8R18 (this is the model where the end unscrews and doesn't require soldering)
Air Onboard RJ45 Mic Outlet
6' Ethernet Cable
Hondo Garage UnHoly mount w/ Mic Clip

Fist Step was to wire wheel off certain parts of the CBI mount to ensure a good ground between the hood hinge bolts and the mount.


Wire wheeled the bottom of the mount where the Fire-Ring coax will go to ensure good ground continuity. Also had to drill out the 3/8in hole to 1/2in for the Firestik stud.



Unbolted my driver seat and zip tied the radio mount to the underside of the seat. The nice thing about the CMX760 is that it comes with a mount where the radio slides and snap in. This is also a good time to vacuum up all those crumbs :)





Ran the ground wire to the back seat bolt. Re-torqued to 30 ft/lbs



Grabbed a hot wire from my Switch Pro, and ran everything under the trim on the driver's side, under the carpet and out the existing hole in the carpet under the seat. I bought the Coax where the end unscrews, which was much easier to route and punch through the fireweall.









The trickiest part was installing the Air onboard mic outlet. I specifically got a radio that had all the controls in the mic to keep it as clean as possible and stow away the mic in the center console while not using it. The 6' ethernet cable goes into the mic outlet on the radio, runs by the shifter, up to the back of the mic outlet. For this I had to pull up the trim on the front of the center console. I got around having to take out the entire center console by taking out the radio, tying it to my rearview mirror, and popping off the A/C control panel which allowed me to get behind the center switch panel and run the ethernet cable up under the wireless charger. If you are curious about how it all fits together there are a ton of Youtube vidoes on ripping apart a Tacoma dash.











Threw an SWR meter on it and was able to get under 2 on Channels 1 and 40, and 1.1 on Channel 19. I'll call that a success considering I'm still around 3 on my 4Runner :/ I had about 3 ft of extra coax that I wrapped up like a yarn skein and put under the front seat. This is the recommended way to store extra coax without running up your SWR.



The Fire-Ring fits nicely under the ditch light bracket and just runs along the cable run on the very top of the fire wall and then through the main fire wall grommet with everything else.





2ft was the perfect height antenna. Low SWR and still fits in the garage.

 

[Chadlyb]

Absolutely fantastic build thread....so many of my own ideas used and new things to look at installed. Love it. Thank you for sharing it.

 

[Smileyshaun]

anywhere on the Oregon coast , crater lake , mt hood wander around timberline lodge work your way down the Barlow road then explore your way to central Oregon , mt saint Helens, camping around mt Jefferson is always nice ..... essentially choose a direction and you'll likely run into something rather amazing . don't forget the non overlanding essentials explore the food beer and wine , so many amazing places to try