Wiggilez's 2004 Tundra

[Wiggilez]

I've named this thread after my current truck but I'm going to try and start from the beginning with some of my previous vehicles. (note: though I will try my best of of the pictures of my old stuff may not be in proper chronological order)

So my first taste of camping and adventuring started many years ago when my dad and i would load our 80's motorhome with a week or two worth of food and our dirtbikes in a little home built trailer behind behind it. these trips usually consisted of us driving out to some place setting up camp then riding as many of the trails as we could until we either ran out of time, gas mix or bike failure (broken clutch or brake handles ended more of our trips then anything else). unfortunately we didn't take many pictures then. But since I know people like pictures here's a pic of my kx125 from a few years ago on a day trip.



included is a picture of my old 2wd dodge dakota. I had gotten that truck in high school and with it and my friend the three of us explored as many highways and gravel roads as we could includeing a few places that we probably shouldn't have.









I promise my packing skills have gotten better since this picture. which if my notes are correct was taken somewhere around 2013.

though the dakota was fun i wanted to go further, and the kx125 could only go an hour or two before running out of gas. I needed something like the dakota but 4wd.

so after much research and looking for something practical like an XJ, 4runner or toyota pickup then many more hour looking online I ended up with this.





A 1986 jeep conmanche with a 2.8L GM V6 an AX5 5 speed manual and 4wd. and although it was 4wd it wasn't the greatest vehicle. and I was limited to day trips with it.







though this truck was a lot of fun, it probably spent more time being broken and not running then it did exploring the province. and when it was broken ye olde dakota was always reday (to get stuck)




I can't remember exactly how this happened, but I think i was backing down a hill after I realized that the next obstacle was too big.

though when it wasn't broken i did have some fun times with it.



and after many years of unreliability I finnaly disided to fix it.





2.8 out




prepping the harness for a 4L swap



new hybrid harness finished.


4l in, also at some point I swapped out the front axle for a TJ axle with 4.10 to replace the 3.55 and I had picked up a ram 1500 axle with 4.10 and lsd for the rear and spacers for the front to match the bolt pattern, couldn't find any pictures of that though.



In this piture you can see the ram axle behind the jeep and the "new" 80's dodge ram rims I picked up, these that the proper bolt pattern for the new axles.



at this point things were going pretty good on the jeep, the 4L was in the wiring was done being modified and about 85% hooked up, it had a "new" ax15 trans and a NP 242 transfer case with both 4x4 high/low and AWD, it was around this time that I decided the 2 single cab pickups were not the best city commuting vehcales, so I traded the dodge which while being 100% ok mechanilly wise, had started rusting pretty bad on the bed and a few other spaces. and its replacement was a near mint 1982 ford Granada.

 

[Wiggilez]

cont. my first post was getting long, so I decided to split it up.

unfortunately this post is going to start off on a bad note. about a year after getting the Granada I was rear ended at an intersection. insurance decided that it was cheaper to give me money then fixing the car, and I can't do body work, so I took the money. using that money I bough this beast.


this is the 1985 ramcharger that replaced my 82 granada. (this picture of the truck is when I finally got it running the next few are from a bit before that) also you can see my grnada in the back ground a few days before it had to go :(









so for a bit of backstory on the ramcharger. I knew of this truck for many years, it was a couple house down from where my ex-girlfriend's parents lived. we stared out as co-wokers at a local pool in 2011 started dating in 2012, then broke up later in 2012 just after graduating. then a little over 2 years of no contact we met at a mutual friends party and a few weeks later we were dating again. but that's unimportant, what is important is that the ramcharger is still there. fast forward 3 years to june 2017. my granada has just been wrecked and I'm looking for a new DD as the jeep is still being worked on and the ramcharger is STILL there. So one we were at their place for supper and we were having our post supper pet walk and I see someone in the front yard of the house where the ramcharger is parked.

I asked the man if the truck was for sale, he siad that it was his fathers but if I wanted that I could leave a number with him and that he would call me back in a week on weather or not it was for sale. So a week goes by and i don't have an anwser, I assume that it not happening so I start looking online for a replacement DD then 2 weeks after that just as I'm starting to run out of both time and patients on finding a new DD I get a text from the guy

" 100$ as is not running or 500 running but it might take us a week or so to get it running"

I text back "I'll take it for 100$ i'll be there this afternoon to pick it up"

My ex's dad is a pretty big car guy as you can tell from the 68 chevy pickup next to the RC in some pictures. So when I tell him that the guy is willing to sell the truck + the parts to fix it for 100$ and he offered me his garage to fix it.

The guy included set of new timing gear and chain with the truck saying that what took the truck off the road was that it jumped timing. so with that I decided that even if the engine is junk I'm only out 100$ so I bought the truck.

A week later I have it up and running, only the issue wasn't the timing, it was a missing roll pin in the distributor that held the gear in place for the spark timing. so 13$ later with a new gear and roll pin my 113$ ramcharger was terrorizing the streets.

it was also around this time that though I was nearing complietion on the comanche I was also losing interest in it.



here is the comanche about a year after buying the RC with it being no further along then before, and me having lost almost all interest in it. then a few months later I sold the comanche to a co-workers son who was looking for a parts vehicle for his comanche.



thus once the comanche was sold and the weather was nice it got replaced with this, a 1986 XR4Ti, and my ramcharger became my winter/adventure vehicle.

then over the next year and a half I mounted a winch to the front of the RC and took it on some simple trips, but nothing to extreme as it was only 2wd.

then in late 2018 I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse. and that wil be the start of my next post.

 

[Wiggilez]

so back in late 2018 an uncle of mine had recently bought a new tundra and was selling his old one. He had let me know this over a few drinkings, a few more drinks later and I let him know I wanted it.

so in early 2019 I booked a one way bus ticket to his place, and almost a day later I was bacl home with this.



a few week later I installed a front mounted hitch so that I could reuse the old winch I had on the RC, then once summer hit I was back out camping and exploring after a few year of not doing anything. ( other then the one trip I took with the RC that I have no pictures of for some reason)















cooking myself some lunch on the trail.



these are some pics from my frist trip just a few month after getting the truck.

unfortunalty the rest of 2018 was pretty uneventful. however I had a big trip planned for the summer of 2019.

the trip being a visit to Moab



























this was my big trip for 2019, a 2 week trip down to moab :) I had a lot of fun, but I think the next time I go down I'd like a slightly more capable truck as well as to go with more then just myself.

 

[Wiggilez]

resersved

Also Ipromis to go through this and clean up the spelling at some point.