Truck ADD strikes again...

[CreeperSleeper]

And yesterday I got to drive the truck for the first time since February! And now I am stuck with a dilemma... Last year I planned a bucket list trip to take my Dad to Rubicon Trail. The idea would be no trailers, Ultimate Adventure style. We would drive our wheelers from Portland, OR to Loon Lake, spend a few days going through the Rubicon, and drive home. And we are supposed to leave in four days.

After the epic thrash fest to get my truck back on the road, here is where I'm at:

1) When I went to weld up the exhaust I cut off, I found coolant running out of the passenger side. Not much, but it is obvious I have a leaking head gasket or a cracked head. There is no coolant in the oil and I'm not blowing bubbles into my coolant overflow. Also, the truck runs amazing. My solution to this is buy some head gasket in a can to throw in the toolbox just in case and run it for now.

2) The nasty noise that I thought was a throw-out bearing is still there. However, it is also load dependent (like a u-joint). I replaced the u-joints already, so I'm at a loss to what the noise is. Maybe a pinion bearing? It sounds like it is coming from the trans area, but it could be. I can't think of anything in the trans that would be making noises like this. The t-cases are new, so that wasn't the issue. My thought for now is pull the rear driveshaft and drive it around in front wheel drive and see if the noise is still there. I'm really not sure what the implications are of this if I just ignore it.

3) My fancy ham radio won't turn on. I'm really hoping it's the cheap Chinees cable I used for the remote face.

4) My speedo stopped working. No idea why. Didn't bounce or anything, just quit.

5) Three of my rock lights aren't working. I originally thought it was a bad ground, but it may be a connector. Not a huge deal.

6) The exhaust leaks where I tried to weld it back together. It's a POS, so I will probably just wrap exhaust fix tape around it for now since it will be replaced eventually.


With that knowledge, I need some advise. I'm pretty stressed out on what to do and completely out of time. Here are my choices:

1) Pack for the trip and send it. It's a Toyota and should be fine, right? And I have towing coverage on my insurance policy.

2) Bag the trip. It's just too much of a risk with the issues the truck is having. I just flat ran out of time and hopefully we can reschedule without getting a divorce. LOL

3) Modify the trip. Borrow a trailer and tow the rig to Rubicon. It will totally kill the spirit of what I was trying to do, but at least I will get to show my Dad the trail he has always dreamed of.

 

[Hooligan]

I’m a bit risk averse, hitting the trail with known bad items…I can’t do it.

For #1, not as simple as a hose or bad gasket?
#2, could be throw out or pilot bearing, have had both go bad and they make a racket. Not ideal, but I’d spend the hours pulling trans and replace both.

Other items aren’t biggies, unless you send it as is, then for sure I’d get HAM going since you’ll need it.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I’m a bit risk averse, hitting the trail with known bad items…I can’t do it.

For #1, not as simple as a hose or bad gasket?
#2, could be throw out or pilot bearing, have had both go bad and they make a racket. Not ideal, but I’d spend the hours pulling trans and replace both.

Other items aren’t biggies, unless you send it as is, then for sure I’d get HAM going since you’ll need it.

#1 - Maybe... All I know it that coolant was dripping out of the cut exhaust. Maybe 1/8 cup after over a month. The engine runs great and you would have no clue there was an issue if I didn't cut the exhaust to pull the trans.

#2 I JUST replaced the clutch, flywheel, throw out bearing, and pilot bearing. I thought that was what I was hearing before the clutch swap, but those didn't fix it.

 

[Hooligan]

Oohhh, I missed water ”in” exhaust , thought it was down the side of the exhaust. if you haven’t driven it much, your sure that is not just normal combustion byproduct? Not unusual to see modern cars at the signal light with water dripping from exhaust.

Starter not retracting?

 

[CreeperSleeper]

If it would have been condensation or water, I wouldn't be concerned. This was coolant.

The starter is fine. The noise is when I'm driving

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I found some stuff out last night:

1) In regards to the head or head gasket issue, I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing I can do about it right now. If I wouldn't have cut the exhaust, I never would have known there is an issue. I will be nice to the engine and save up money to fix it right.

2) The drivetrain noise is still a mystery, but I did find that the t-case was hitting the body. I made a bit more room with a hammer and prybar. That made the noise a lot easier to pinpoint. I believe it is in the driveshaft. I will try to confirm that tonight, but that is a lot less worrisome.

3) The cable I used to remove mount my Ham radio face is faulty... Radio works fine attached to the base. Easy peasy.

4) The speedo extension between the factory cable and the t-case broke. I doubt if I can get one tomorrow, so GPS speedo it is.

As of right now, I'm gonna send it. Rubicon or bust!

 

[MurderYota]

Nice set up for gear in the bed. One question though, you don't carry a spare on the trail?

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Nice set up for gear in the bed. One question though, you don't carry a spare on the trail?

Thanks! It works out really well. As of right now, I do not carry a spare. I will be building a spare carrier that slides into the receiver hitch, but that is on the back burner.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

I will have a full report for you guys later... Trying to get caught up at work. In the meantime, here is a little teaser my buddy made:

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Okay, I have a little bit of time to get started on this story. The idea for this Rubicon trip was something that was brewing in my head for years. My Dad always talked about wanting to do the Rubicon Trail. I have been hearing about it since I was in grade school. Four years ago I was able to experience the Rubicon first hand with my wife and the desire to bring my Dad increased seven fold. With my wife's blessing, I set a date to take Dad to the iconic trail. I invited a few friends and the plan evolved into an Ultimate Adventure style trip: No trailers allowed. Then my buddy Mike (@Notontheforum) had the idea to make the trip even more epic... He was going to drag his pop-up tent trailer through as well!

Rubicon Day 1:

We were planning on meeting up with Mike at his house in Hillsboro, OR at noon. That should make a nice and easy drive to Ashland, OR for the first night (about 295 miles). Leading up to this day, you have read the issues I was dealing with. Dad checked all of my bolts and marked them with a paint pen while I programmed the Ham radio. We were as ready as we will ever be and showed up to Mike's about 15 minutes late.

Mike was also dealing with his own issues. His truck got back from the shop three days before we were supposed to leave and as we pulled up, he was still welding on the pop-up! The poor guy had been at it for two weeks straight trying to get that trailer ready. We helped him finish the last few things and we hit the road just after 3 pm. With a quick stop at a fellow club member's house (Brian @tonsofun) for the custom sticker for the trailer, we were ready to go!

We hit the road knowing that Ashland was going to be a haul time wise. We pushed all the way to South Eugene (125 miles into the trip) until we needed to stop for fuel. At that point we realized that Mike's 4Runner was puking gear oil. A quick assessment found that oil was coming out the hole for the speedo cable, which was MIA. It was also bleeding a bit out of the t-case seal, but there wasn't much we could do about that. We found that a water bottle lid, duct tape, and a hose clamp pretty much sealed the hole. We topped off the gear oil and were back on the road.

We pushed hard to Roseburg (185 miles in), now that we were even further behind. In Roseburg we got a late dinner and realized that now my truck was bleeding gear oil as well. After looking at my truck, it was determined that I over-filled the cases and gear oil was coming out of the vent when I was pushing the truck hard. No big deal, just annoying.

We topped off Mike's cases and figured out that we should stay in Medford instead of Ashland. Mike never got the chance to buy food for the trip and Medford had better stores for the morning. Fair enough... On to Medford.

We pulled into Medford around 11:30 pm and found that there was some sort of baseball tournament going on. Therefore, all of the hotel rooms were occupied. After almost an hour, we were able to track down a room (a story in itself) and finally get to bed. We only made it 285 miles... Our own Ultimate Adventure was shaping up to be all we thought it would!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 2

Mike got up early and ran to the store to pick up food for the trip, then we got on the road headed to Ashland. Jerod (@2ndGenToyotaFan) and Matt (ThreeEyedBandit) were going to meet up with us at 9 am at a gas station in South Ashland, then we were going to continue to the Rubicon!

There was a little smoke going over the pass.

But we pulled into Red Bluff, CA without incident. Matt and Jerod both had A/C, Mike realized that his wasn't working for some reason, and my truck never had A/C... it was hot and we knew it was only going to get hotter. We decided to grab lunch and make a plan on which way to go. After some discussion, we decided to head to Georgetown and go in at Wentworth Springs. After lunch we migrated into the parking lot so Mike could top off the gear oil in his transfer case.

Mike's 4Runner and trailer (aka: Thelma and Louise):

Jerod's 4Runner (aka: Green Bastard or GB):

Matt's FZJ80 (aka: Tiny Dancer)
somehow missed getting a parking lot pic

My Pickup, which still doesn't have a name....

All topped off and sweating again, we hit the road...

This is where the details get a little fuzzy... Did I mention it was hot? Dad and I cooked ourselves on the way to Georgetown. Somewhere along the way, we figured out that the power lead to Mike's A/C compressor came undone. The result was his A/C started working... I was jealous. And slightly delirious.

But we made it to Georgetown without dying. This was our last chance to top off the tanks and head into the woods.

We then continued down Wentworth Springs Rd to South Fork Campground. We were greeted by an idiot with a bullhorn announcing our arrival, but the river was awesome.

And camp wasn't too bad after the idiot passed out...

After 640 miles in two days, I was so excited to be on trial the next day. It was kinda surreal that we were here and that Dad was with me. I couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to share it with.

 

[flexy flatty]

Anymore on this trail report? I’m curious to see how the pop up fared through the trail.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Yes! Sorry for the delay... I will try to get more up today. My family has been down the last three weeks from another run in with the Rona.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 3



We were able to get all packed up and aired down at our campsite with only a little bullhorn involved, so that was good. However, we were itching to get on the trail!



From the campground, you pull back onto Wentworth Springs Rd, which immediately turns to gravel. It didn't take Mike too long to realize he needed more air in the trailer springs and less air in the trailer tires! I gotta say, the airbag suspension he designed for it works really well!

After what felt like way longer than it should, we pulled into Wentworth Springs.

And my Dad started to truly get a feel for the amazing scenery that makes Rubicon so special.

This was it! The official start of the Rubicon Trail! And Mike was going to pull a pop-up camper though it! SO EPIC!

For those of you that don't have the Rubicon Trail memorized, here is the map with the major obstacles listed. It may help you follow along as I'm telling my story.

After leaving Wentworth Springs Campground, we made it as far as The Slabs before Matt realized he had a problem... He reworked the rear suspension of his 80 to be a wishbone 3-Link and it was loosing up on him as the suspension flexed. One of many quick tightening sessions and we were rolling again.

And then we all got a taste of what we were in for on 1st Blood...

And it was about here when Mike's spare tire carrier decided it didn't want to be part of his bumper anymore... We got it all secured to the trailer and carried on, but we decided that pulling cable was probably a better idea the 2nd gear, 5k RPM bumps. LOL!

And we continued on finishing 1st Blood and Post Pile...

At around Monument Rock, Jerod radioed saying he thinks something is wrong with the trailer. Sure enough, we bent both axle spindles so the tires were towed out. Honestly, with all of the thoughts on what could go wrong with the trailer, that one was not on our radar! So that was a good time for lunch and to make a plan. The views didn't hurt either.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 3 Continued



We decided that our best plan of action would be to make it to Loon Lake. We could camp there and find a place to leave the trailer. I was a little sad that I was going to have to set up a tent, but we also had to pull the trailer 650 miles home! So on we went, being as gentle as we could to the trailer axles.

Here is the Loon Lake Intertie.

... and out to Loon

With only a few mild adjustments needed...

As I was leading us down, we came across a well built 4th Gen 4Runner pulling a trailer. I was admiring the rig as he drove by and I see his mouth drop. He looks over at me with this dumbfounded look an his face, points to Mike, and exclaims "That guy's pulling a f@&*ing pop-up!" Dad and I started laughing so hard, he was almost past all of us by the time I could get on the radio. Apparently he never said anything to Mike, just stared in disbelief... Or maybe admiration. Yeah, let's go with that....

A few more pics...

And we made it to Loon Lake dam.

We were able to find a really cool camp spot right on the lake where Matt could hopefully fix his issues once and for all. You can see just how much everyone in our group trusts hi-lift jacks... LOL!

All went well and we got to enjoy some amazing views before calling it a day.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 4

The day started off with us re-organizing the trucks. Since we weren't going to have the trailer any longer, it took a little adjusting. We then took off for Ice House Resort to top off our tanks and park the trailer. We made it about a mile and realized that this was a suicide mission with the trailer spindles being bent so bad. Coming around corners the trailer would change lanes by itself! We found a wide spot on the road to pull off to try and straighten them. It took a lot of winching with snatch blocks and creative geometry, but we got it done.

The fix worked great! Even though we just eyeballed the adjustment, the trailer pulled fine for the rest of the trip. After we filled up with $5.90 per gallon gas (!), we headed back up to Loon Lake to start the Rubicon Trail (again)!

I let Dad drive across the slabs... And that was the end of him wanting to be in the driver's seat. LOL! He was afraid he was going to hurt my truck...

Through what used to be Gatekeeper... It was at this point Matt stopped to see if his fix last night worked. It did.

I believe this is coming up Walker Hill, heading to phone tree (which had no reception)...

All in all, everything was going smoothly. The rigs were working great and we were cruising right along. That is until we saw a group of Jeeps hanging out around Soup Bowl. We stopped and watched one lady in a JK play around on it for a while with, then they all left. I got to say, it was pretty interesting hearing Jeep people talk about the people in their group... I'm glad I hang out with Toyota people!

Then it was our turn to put a tire on Soup Bowl. Jerod hit it first and tried many lines, but kept getting denied. We all told him it was because he stepped down to metric 35's. LOL!

After a while, Jerod finally called it. I thought I could see the line, so I walk back to my truck. Double low, 2nd gear and I walked right up it! Total one-shot that nobody was expecting. We got a couple videos, but no still pics. Needless to say I was STOKED!!! I grabbed a drink and floated on cloud nine to watch the rest of the group.

Matt was up next in his 80. He fought with it a while, then powered it up. Again, we were taking video, so no good still shots. By this time Jerod was getting bothered by the fact that he didn't make it. He decided to hit it again a bit to no avail.

Mike was the last one to put a tire on Soup Bowl. He worked at it a bit, but only have a 4.7 single case was hurting him. All in all, this was the outcome:

The roll was pretty soft, and luckily nobody was hurt. We were able to get him back on his tires quickly, so there was minimal oil in the cylinders. The hi-po 3.0 fired right up and never missed a beat.

We decided it would be a good time to find a place to camp for the night... We ended up bypassing Little Sluice and found a nice spot in the shade. This gave Mike time to reorganize his yard sale and make a duct tape window.

 

[00nissanguy]

Love the trip report. Makes me want to get down there even more

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 5

Man oh man, I am doing a really crappy job at telling this story in a timely manner! I apologize....

The next morning we broke camp in not much hurry. Mike wanted to check over everything, so he stayed in camp while the rest of us back-tracked the Little Sluice bypass so we could put a tire on Little Sluice.

By the time we met back up with Mike, a slightly broken Jeep was towing a very broken Jeep back out towards Loon Lake. The tow-er was only 2wd and the one being towed ripped his link off the frame. We didn't have a welder (and we were in fire season even if we did), but we help secure the axle a bit better and wished them luck.

From there, we continued on the trail...

Going through Vee Notch, the drain plug on Mike's front end came out. We still have no idea why or how it happened, since there were no marks that it was hit. Anyway, we noticed that all the fluid was dumped out. We ended up finding the plug, re-filling the front end, and cleaning up the spill. However, it did make for some nice poser pics.

At this point, we were at the decision point of Indian Trail or Old Sluice Box... Of course we had to go down Old Sluice! It is the actual trail...

We all made it though without too much incident (though once again, I didn't have to winch cough), and made our way down to Buck Island Lake for lunch. We hung out for a while and swam near Buck Island Dam. After enjoying the lake for a bit, we all decided we should push on to Rubicon Springs. The plan was to camp there and enjoy some time relaxing.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 6

This day we did... Nothing. LOL! We just hung out at Rubicon Springs and relaxed. It was amazing!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Rubicon Day 7 & 8

After our day of rest, we packed up in the morning and headed up Cadillac Hill. Of course we had to take our poser shot at Observation Point!

And the rest of the trip out was uneventful, however we did have a BUNCH of oncoming traffic. Apparently everyone that was helping set up for Jeep Jamboree was heading in... Other than that, we just made our way to the trailhead to air up.

The plan was for all of us to caravan out to South Lake Tahoe. Jerod was meeting a friend there for lunch, Matt was going to make his trek home via 395, and Mike and I were going to go get Mike's trailer at Ice House Resort. And we almost made it too....

After saying our good-byes, Mike and I got the trailer and headed for home. We spent the night near Red Bluff and just ate up the highway miles. We never had any more problems along the way.

I honestly can't express how amazing this trip was. I am so blessed that we got the opportunity to do this!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Wow.... Talk about neglecting a thread! Sorry guys... My life got really crazy since my last post, so the truck (and everything else) sorta moved to the back burner. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

I added axle shims to try and fix my driveline vibration. They didn't really help, but I also found that my rear shocks are completely gone. So it looks like I have some stuff to sort out once I get the new garage and house set up. I also acquired an 8274, so I will need to build a new front bumper. I am also loosing power steering intermittently, so I will have to start messing with that too. (You can hear it complaining in the video.) However, once the divorce is finalized I should be able to start spending money on my trucks again! LOL

However, last weekend we trailered out to Cline Butte OHV in Central Oregon for @tonsofun's bachelor party and got to play around. It was a blast! Here are some random shots of my truck playing (in no particular order):

Video of me climbing a ledge.

 

[Will Scarlet]

Video of me climbing a ledge.

Embeded so you don't have to go to YouTube:

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Thanks!

 

[CreeperSleeper]

As you can see in the video, my power steering pump is not happy. I don't have any pics, but I was able to get the pump replaced last night... Everything should be good to go wheeling this weekend!

 

[cchambers13]

Love this truck!

Are the Kanati's any good on wet rocks?

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Love this truck!

Are the Kanati's any good on wet rocks?

Thanks! I love it, too. Just an all around great truck.

The Kanatis work very well on wet rocks. They are by far my favorite DOT tire to run here in the PNW valley. I have club members that avoid talking tires because I love these Kanatis so much. LOL

 

[DWT]

That fridge has been in my garage for 15 years. LOL! I keep telling my wife that when that fridge dies, I will need to hang the doors on the wall...

I miss Timbercrawler, but I stayed out of the NSFW threads. I met a lot of good people, some of which are still close friends.

TC was a fantastic forum when tim wasn't around. Once he came back and banned me for exposing his bullshit while he deleted things before letting me back in and I walked away I heard it just kinda died. Too bad, he should have stayed away, I'd have stayed around and they place would still be cool. Oh well.


Nice truck, my favorite generation as well, I still miss my old truck but I will build another one day.

You know it's OG when there is a 36" TC sticker across the doors.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

She got to hitch a ride and play in some mud for the weekend!

Not many pics, but it was a lot of fun. The clunking noise is getting worse and all the things I need to fix, I still need to fix. However, she just worked like she always does! This truck is the perfect trail truck recipe IMO.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Wow... Almost a year since my last post... I'm doing amazing! LOL

I ended up getting a Warn 8274 with a 1980 build date about a year ago. I slowly (really, really slowly) rebuilt the winch with some upgraded parts. I have always wanted an 8274 on my own rig, so I figured it was going to go on the gray truck... Eventually.

The winch has been mostly done (it needs power wires made and the rope spooled back on), but that is where my motivation stopped. Oh! I also sold the bumper and winch that was on the truck to help pay for the 8274 and rebuild. As a result, the truck has sat pretty much all year. My sorry excuse for a garage doesn't allow much room without moving everything around, so I wasn't very motivated to finish the project.

Well, the Saturday before New Year, my son and I were watching a rock crawling video on YouTube. That pushed my 4yo son to bust out his RC crawler.

Which led to bigger obstacles...

Which led to him asking me multiple times when I was going to take him rock crawling in the gray truck. He has been out with me in the LX, but never in the actual crawler wheeling hard. Even though I told him we would this last summer... I'm a horrible, unmotivated Father!

As a result of the guilt trip, a hairbrained idea was formed: I called my Dad (who actually has a shop) to see if I could trailer the gray truck out to his house, stay the weekend, and start a new bumper build. He was in! (I think it is important to note that my Dad lives a little over three hours away. And the most direct route is over Mt. Hood. What could go wrong?!?)

So I loaded the trailer and left Friday afternoon to shoot over the pass... With the first big winter storm nipped at my heels. Maybe we should have done this four months ago when I finished the winch. LOL!

By God's grace, I did actually beat the storm over to Dad's, but the pass was supposed to get hammered all weekend. The forecast called for measuring the snow in feet, not inches.... But anyway, back to the truck.

We started by adding NW Trail Innovations frame reinforcement bracket that I ended up acquiring somewhere. The old bumper had mangled my front crossmember from hard winch pulls and I needed all the strength I could get for the monster 8274!

Then we cut up an old Trail Gear bumper I acquired somewhere for the mounting placement and winch plate. After a lot of careful measuring and adjusting, we stacked an 8274 winch plate I acquired off of eBay.... And did a lot of burning metal.

And here is the end result!

A Warn 8274 is a HUGE winch. It is very tricky to make it look right on a Toyota Pickup without butchering the grill and radiator support. I think we got it pretty good. Maybe next summer I will decide on how I want the wings to look. LOL!

After a blitz fab weekend with my Dad, I loaded everything back up to head home. Due to the storm, I was forced to take the long way and avoid the pass. I'm happy to say the LX did great and I made it home safe. Seriously, my only complaint with the LX is the 8.5 MPG towing. LOL!

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Holy fuck thats a huge winch!