A Guy A Girl and a Trail: Adventures in a 4Runner Limited

NIce for your son to have playmates along.
We had Nasty Chinese Lantern Flies 2 summers ago they did a number on trees locally, last summer they kinda died out & this year nada??

 

Great posts! Putting us all to shame
Truck looks great as usual, and memories to last a lifetime. You sir are the man-

 

So the new mods...

Nevermind the disaster of a toolbox, soldering on connections for some electrical equipment


I got a powerwerx power meter, I put anderson SB50 connectors on it so I can plug it in inline to the solar panel and monitor live solar production. I wanted to do some testing on how much output I'm actually getting form the Bugout 130. In direct bright perfectly aligned sunlight it produces about half of its rated output, which is actually pretty good. However, for claiming it'll produce power during indirect light, shade, and even light snow, I can confidently call bull shit on that. Technically it produces **some** power but if one segment is fully shaded or if the panel is not in direct sunlight its more or less useless, like 3 watts of power output useless. If anyone is interested I documented a bunch of different scenarios of light n the panel along with actual live output on an intentionally discharged battery so the redarc will try to pull as much power as possible.

The alligator clips I put on a National Luna battery monitor. I don't want or need a permanently mounted solution, I can clip this on while camping and monitor power levels and it also has a low voltage audible alarm. I can't find a waterproof shunt based power meter so up to this point I haven't really had any idea how much juice is still available, this gives me a pretty good idea, plus it's informative to see how much the solar panel and/or running the vehicle will recharge the secondary battery.


Next up, Heat Shield sunshades all around. One of the best ways to increase electrical efficiency when running a fridge is to keep the heat away from the fridge to begin with. Reflective insulation doesn't lower the temp inside, in fact, I saw a really stupid test once claiming sunshade did nothing because the ambient temp inside was the same with or without the sunshade. Something sitting in ambient temps will eventually match ambient temps, however, sunshades will absolutely drop surface temperatures. That hurts to touch shift knob or metal seat belt buckle will not happen, the same goes for the fridge. Regardless of outside temp, something baking in direct sunlight will have higher surface temps. If you can keep the inside of the vehicle cooler longer and out of direct sunlight the fridge will be more efficient. I would like the vehicle specific fit to fit the vehicle better than it does, but whatever, they accomplish what they need to.






The attic net I'm a little disappointed with. She claimed it was going to be the same as the Raingler but it only has 4 mounting points vs 6 and came with no instructions and wood screws vs self tapping sheet metal screws. When it pointed out it was not the same as what we had discussed shes just said the Raingler is over engineered and to just use it anyway, her "out" was that she said hers was easer to install... she failed to mention its because 1/3 of the mounting points are missing. Not thrilled, had I known I would have just bought the actual Raingler for more money and gotten exactly what I wanted.


I didn't actually get a pic with all the pillar trims back on.



And finally, and this is the kind of embarrassing one... Finn Fab hood rack with traction board mounts.
It's flimsy, the powder coat sucks, it took forever to arrive, the traction boards mounts are a joke, so was the packing prior to shipping, the instructions are super generic and crappy, they say its all aluminum to save weight so the hood will still prop itself open... it won't. I couldn't find detailed pics of the product prior to buying and after doing so I'm far from impressed, plus its sooooooooo overpriced! Honestly its a pretty terrible buy. I'm not impressed with the product and it looks really stupid, however, once my bumper shows up I won't have any other real estate to mount traction boards so it is what it is, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it if you have other options. For those wondering I'm 6'2" and from in the driver's seat, it does block some of your vision, from my testing it extended where you can see ground past the hood outwards about 6 feet. My sorter wife on the other hand was like hell no this thing is stupid.




All in all the most recent round of mods has been a little disappointing.

 

At least we can count your honest reviews

 

Does the rear bumper you are getting hang the spare by chance? Mount the boards off the tire if you need to.
I'd rip that nightmare off the hood pronto! There has to be a better way. Shit man, store the boards in a bag and throw them in the back as a last ditch.

 

I have the SSO trailgater bumper coming. It’s a single swing arm for the tire and it has a fold down tailgate that will be our table for cooking/eating and a bench for gearing up to ski and mountain bike. The hatch ladder will have to go, it will not fit with the tailgate, otherwise I’d mount the boards on the ladder and the trasharoo on the tire. The rear view camera gets relocated to the center of the spare, so anything you mount to spare will completely block the camera but the trasharoo will move to the spare because the boards *can* be mounted on the hood. If I do the boards on the spare I can’t run the bag anywhere else.

Unfortunately with a nice hardshell big enough for a family of 3 (turning into 4) there is zero available roof rack space and room inside is at a premium. I definitely don’t want to be stacking muddy boards into a bag to be throw inside on top of everything. This is an ugly and expensive solution, but at the end of the day, it IS functional and that’s what really matters.

I’m going to look into relocating the camera somewhere other than the spare so it’s still useful.

 

Can't you mount the boards behind the trash a roo?

 

From what I’ve found having the trasharoo on the ladder having something narrow behind it really makes it a pain in the ass because the the ability to open it all the way at the top is severely impeded, so it wouldn’t be ideal, that may be an idea though. I’d have to see how far it would all stick out stacking everything on top of each other all in one place.

I will say I do like the rack on the hood gives me a flat place to lay down the solar panel without having to worry about a kid running over and stepping on it.

We’ll see though, I’m not opposed to trying that but really it’ll come down to whatever is the most functional. At this point it’s not really a daily driver because I don’t need to drive daily, once everything is actually here I’ll play around with different setups.

 

Sounds good man.
I don't mean to give you a hard time, just my honest feedback.

 

No worries, I appreciate your input. I think of a lot, but nobody thinks of everything. I’m all for brainstorming and feedback. I want whatever functions the best, regardless of who’s idea it was.

 

This little guy just keeps getting faster and faster! A GoPro mounted to the handlebars showing a 4 year old’s point of view really puts it in perspective. I love having singletrack right out the front door.

https://youtu.be/YHlFBNAl2hQ

 

Great job little man!! Loved he asked if 'We Passed Mom"!! Where is this & is it a specific bike track? He got some air!
What's the sound like a fishing reel letting drag out W/Fish on??

 

The Erie Singletrack trails are right outside my front door (technically it’s about 40 second ride from my garage to the trailhead). It’s split into 2 sections East and West. The west side is flowy trails that wind around and cross crisscross. It’s free and open to everyone (besides horses and anything motorized). That side makes for a great workout. From the top of the west side you ride like 1/4 mile of dirt road to the bottom of the east side. The east side is technically open to everyone as well but you rarely ever see anyone except mountain bikers. It’s all directional, the red line is your way to the top and then there are green, blue, and black downhill lines that get progressively harder with bigger and bigger features. From our house we generally get to the lower trailhead on the west side, wind our way across, around, and up, then we take the dirt road to bottom of the east side, red line up, then generally 2 loops (green down, red up, green down or green down, red up, blue down) then back down the house and that’s about a 5 mile ride. We do that almost everyday so long as I’m/we’re home and it’s dry.

He has a very high end bike in terms of small kids bike, the noise your hearing is the ratcheting mechanism in the rear wheel hub while coasting. Higher end hubs have multiple pawls, lots of points of engagement, and they tend to be loud. He does have a loud hub but on a bike that little the GoPro is only like 2 feet away from the rear hub so the camera really picks up a lot of it.

 

Sweet!!! I thought it was a freewheeling noise, just sounds so close to a fishing reel. 4yrs old !!!

 

Pretty freaking cool belt driven system.
The boy will be a ripper soon enough.

 

FINALLY! Actual production of my bumper has finally started.

 

I've been slacking on getting some pics up. It was time to go back to work, I flew out and spent a couple of weeks in a hotel in quarantine before I was cleared to actually go to work. Before I left my son wanted to get one last hike in and he wanted to do a trail with a waterfall. So, no new adventures for a bit, I have to actually be productive for a while instead of just spending my time dicking around in the mountains.



















And there's our waterfall.... lol









Top of the waterfall

 

Very inspiring and excellent photography!

 

Thanks

 

Part of our planing for having a second kid was to get rid of the Jetta for a larger vehicle. The 4Runner is the perfect size but to a point is has kind of turned into a purpose built adventure vehicle of sorts. It’s not the most practical vehicle and it gets terrible gas mileage, it will make it anywhere but we don’t necessarily want to drive it everywhere.

We were looking for an SUV big enough to fit 2 car seats (especially when moments backwards facing), a usable 3rd row, and still fit in the garage. We wanted a nice, comfortable, reliable, own-for-a-couple-hundred-thousand-miles midsize SUV, that’s not built off a truck chassis, and has some semblance of fuel economy. Our search brought us to looking for a clean low mile 2016 Toyota Highlander XLE AWD in any color but white.

- 2016 was the last year of 6 speed trans and port fuel injection before they changed to the somewhat problem prone 8 speed trans and dual port and direct injection fuel systems 2017 and newer- I don’t want to give up long term durability and dependability for systems that add cost and complexity to repairs in exchange for a very small bump in efficiency, if you want to keep it forever, start with keeping it simple and reliable.
- XLE trim level is the way to go because it’s as loaded as you can get (nav, heated seats, leather, 3 zone climate control, smart key, power lift gate, etc) without having to get driver assist systems or the huge panoramic sunroof. Drivers assist systems add significant cost to minor repairs and maintenance, plus they are more expensive to insure, and no manufacturer builds a good panoramic roof, they are all garbage and prone to leaks.
- AWD is a given, we’re avid Colorado skiers, AWD with snow tires is standard equipment for safe travel in the mountains during winter.
- Any color but white because even though Toyota builds great quality vehicles they have way too many issues with trying to make white paint stick to vehicles. The Highlander is NOT included in the white paint warranty extension Toyota put out on a bunch of vehicles, but even if it was, it’s just not something I want to deal with.

So, with a car in mind, I’ve been actively looking for about 9 months now. I started looking locally but after a couple months I expanded the search nation wide looking for the right car. I’m good with a vehicle 1,000 miles away in Georgia, but I’m not good with a vehicle 1,000 miles away from the land of road salt in the Midwest. It’s amazing how many cars I found that fit the description on paper, but when I dug into their history a bit they ended up being vehicles from the rust belt in the North East that got turned in at the end of a lease and went to auction before getting bought by an out of state dealer. An amazing large number of them had damage reported in CarFax as well, it was like the bumpers got banged up and they submitted it to insurance to fix it before turning in the lease. We did have 2 that got away, they both got sold out from under us while we were trying to work out a price.

We finally found a winner. 2016 Toyota Highlander XLE AWD, maroon with black interior - 29,4XX miles, it was purchased (not leased) locally, 1 owner, 5K, 10k, 20k, 30k, and 40k services were all done and documented by the Toyota dealership when they were due by time instead of mileage, CarFax looked great, super clean inside and out. As an added bonus it had clear bra, window tint, mud flaps, roof rack crossbars, and all weather floor mats for all 3 rows dealer installed prior to being sold new, plus it was spec’d with the optional second row captain chairs. During the used car inspection it got 4 wheel brakes and tires, oil change, wiper blades, and an alignment.

The price was a bit high, it was listed above KBB and NADA fair market value, and they were one of those “one price” dealerships that have a set price they will not negotiate but the car was to good to pass up over $1500. We bought it Saturday from the BMW dealer and my god, I had to deal wIth the laziest most condescending asshole of a salesman ever, he really seemed to have the “you’re just a dumb broke kid” mentality, it was a challenge to not just walk away, it kills me this prick is going to make a commission on “selling” me the vehicle when I’m fact I bought the vehicle despite having to deal with him.

Got her home:




When I got it home it was time to get to work on not. The dealership did the basics but they missed the chip in the windshield, a door seal falling off, and some corrosion starting on the negative battery cable that I made them fix before taking it home but so obviously didn’t trust their quality of work. They slathered on so much tire shine it splattered all over the entire on the way home and the whole interior and all the door jambs were fuckin drenched in this greasy slimy bullshit detailer spray. I started with detailing it inside and out and then started on maintenance and a very in depth inspection and maintenance to start preparing it for The long haul.

This greasy shit was all over the door jambs and the interior.


It’s always difficult to clean around emblems, and I flat out don’t like them, so debadging it was part of the exterior detail.


Cleaned up












Onto the maintenance:
- In depth inspection of everything.
- Replaced engine oil, oil filter, oil pan drain plug crush washer. The oil change was done during the used car inspection but who knows what oil they actually used, did they get 0W20 or did they throw in whatever they had in stock? I’d rather just replace it with 50 miles on the oil and know it’s correct.
- Replaced transfer case fluid and drain and fill plug crush washers.
- Replaced rear differential fluid and drain and fill plug crush washers.
- Replaced engine air filter.
- Replaced cabin air filter.
- It got new tires during the used car inspection but of course the dealer didn’t clean up the old wheel weight residue. I removed the wheels and cleaned up the inner barrels, got the tape reaidue off, then torqued the wheels with a torque wrench that still has a valid calibration certification. When taking them off I had found 1 finger tight lug nut they forgot to actually tighten.
- Set tire pressures, the 4 new tires were all 8 psi overfilled and the spare was 35 psi low! So much for the Toyota service department that had done all the maintances to that point and this dealers used car inspection, lazy jackasses!
- Topped off the coolant overflow bottle that was at the minimum mark, again, so much for the used car inspection. But I do have Toyota coolant on hand, I’d rather put that in than have them top it off with who knows what.
- Flushed brake fluid.
- Replaced remote batteries.
- Degreased and power washed the underbody.
- Took into my old work had my buddy do a 4 wheel alignment on it. They said they did it with the new tires, and technically it was in spec, but it was definitely a green it good so set the toe and go. My buddy that I worked side by side with for about 4 years actually dialed it in and get everything spot on perfect.

Really I did pretty much everything except trans fluid and spark plugs. I considered doing them but at just shy of 30K miles I didn’t really feel it was necessary, especially when Toyota charges like $25 per plug!





Old brake fluid


Fresh clean brake fluid




Inflate to 60 psi...


Its easier to just literally never check the pressure






Done!

 

Dude, looks mint. Congrats.
F the salesman douche bag.

 

It was seriously one thing after another with that guy.


This thing was just listed, they only have 1 pic of the car so knowing how quickly they had been selling I made an appointment for the next morning to come see the car. That night the salesman texts me and says the car hasn’t gone through the shop yet so it hasn’t had a safety inspection and we wouldn’t be able to drive it. I told him that’s fine I’ll drove out without my wife and check it out to see if it’s worth being big here back to see once’s it’s finished. I asked him if he had an idea of time until it would be ready and I never got an answer.


So the next morning I make the 2 hour round trip down to see the car. The guy was late for our appointment, when he came up he’s like ok let’s go try to find the car. I don’t know why he didn’t have this ready if he had an appointment to show it, the car should have been up front washed and waiting. So we get in a BMW and drive around trying to find it, we’re driving through the shop looking for it and we finally find it on the turn table. It’s been through the shop, it’s detailed, it’s ready to go, and the photographer is doing the photos for the website. I left my wife behind because as of late last night it hadn’t gone through the shop, but first thing the next morning it’s done and ready to go?


As we walk up the salesman says “so I’m not a Toyota expert, so I’m not going to be able to answer any questions you might have.” I’m thinking wtf kind of statement is that, how about “I’m not real familiar with Toyota but if you have any questions let me know, I can do some research and get back to you”. I guess this prick was lucky that he didn’t need to actually sell the car. So we’re standing there awkwardly while the photographer does his thing. Like 5 minutes goes by and the salesman says so what do you think, do you want it? I said I’m just waiting for this guy to finish doing his thing so I can actually get in it and drove it and check it out.


So we grab the car and take it outside. First he starts questioning what I’m doing when I popped the plastic engine cover off to inspect the engine for leaks, signs of rodents, etc. I give it a relatively quick look over and I ask the salesman if we can take it to service and have them lift it so I can look it over underneath. He’s like no, we’re not going to be able to do that. I asked why. He like well our techs are the best in the industry and every vehicle goes through an X point inspection and the car are brought back to like new condition, there’s really no reason you need to see under it. I’m like well in the couple minutes I’ve been looking it I’ve found the door seal falling off, corrosion on the negative battery terminal, and a chip in the windshield, I’d to see underneath to make sure there’s nothing else your awesome techs might have missed that you’re going to need to fix. So they put it up and I got to check it out.


Next is trade in evaluation. Long story short grandma was interested in our car. We told her we’d trade in her old 200,000 mile ‘06 Saturn and she could have our 60,000 mile Jetta. I drove the Saturn down, so they start checking it out to evaluate a price. Sales douche wanted me to go to the dmv, get it titled and registered in my name so I could trade it in myself. I’m like absolutely fuckin not, there is zero change I’m spending a penny on this car just to get rid of it. He’s like well if grandma and grandpa are on the title they will need to come and sign paperwork. I’m like correct... what’s the problem?


They agreed to fix the things I found but he wanted me to take it and bring it back at a later date. I refused. He’s like well typically we just include a we owe in the paperwork and we make an appointment to have the repairs made. I said I’m not driving 2 hours round trip to come back. I’ll put the deposit down, you will fix it, and when it’s 100% ready to go I will come back with my wife so she can see it and drive it, since that didn’t happen today, then we’ll do paperwork and take it home. They agree so I put a deposit down on it and I went home for the night. He starts texting me that night that everything else is done but it’ll be a couple weeks until their windshield guy comes so he want me take it anyway. I’m like no, we went over this multiple times, I’m still not willing to do that. I got a safe life quote for aftermarket glass and factory glass, told them to split the difference and take that off the price of the car ($685) and I’ll deal with the windshield on my own.


The next morning they agreed to give money off for the windshield if I would come that day. I said sure. From there he starts pressing me about numbers, how much we were going to put down etc. I had already talked to my CC company and told them to expect a large purchase and I got my credit limit extended. I told the salesman the down payment was going to depend on interest rates. In fact I had mentioned that multiple times by that point. He’s like yeah after we do the credit app we’ll submit it to the bank and we’ll pass along the best rate to you. We do the online credit app, dude calls us back and he’s like all right everything looks good, we got it submitted to the bank, we’re good to go for 5.25% for 72 months. I’m like no dude wtf is wrong with you? I’m like don’t even waste my time with that bullshit, literally 3 minutes of research and I’m seeing non-manufacturer CPO finance deal bank rates on regular used cars at like 3.6-3.7% all over the place. I’m like don’t call me back until you can figure out how to get a reasonable rate for credit scores well over 800. 5 minutes later he’s calling me back again, ok I got 3.5% and you can pick the term length. I said 3.5 is reasonable, we’re going to discuss the down payment quick and I’ll text him back in a bit. He was in a big hurry to try to paperwork done and ready for us to sign when we got there. I text him and I’m like ok with 3.5% we’re going to do another 14K on top of the 1K deposit, so a total of 15K down via credit card we’ll be there maybe 5 minutes.


We showed up and I’m like ok my wife is going to take a look at and then we’ll be back in with my credit card. Dudes like you can only use a CC for $1000, any amount above that needs to be a personal check. I’m like why the fuck have you never mentioned that up to this point? (I want my 2% cash back from my credit card!) I’m like I didn’t bring a check book, we don’t use checks for anything. We looked up Chase banks nearby and all of them were closed by then (3pm on a Saturday). He’s like well you wouldn’t tell me how much money you were going to put down you just kept saying it was going to depend on the rates. I told him if I put $1000 down as a deposit yesterday, literally anything else would have had to be via check at this point, but it’s my fault you couldn’t put that together. I’m like YOU failed to mention that until I’m standing here in the building trying to buy it. I said this is the second 2 hour round trip down here, I will not be making a third. I said let’s go do the paperwork for $15,000 down and when we’re done you can fond a porter to follow us home and they can pick up and bring back a check. He’s like no way, we can’t do that blah blah blah. I’m ok, go get the sales manager, I’ll explain to him that my lazy and condescending salesman is fuckin up a done deal because he forgot to mention this major detail and see if he’d rather watch us walk out or if he’d rather send some asshole to follow us home to pick up a check. He walks off all pissed off muttering under his breath. A few minutes later the sales manager is over there apologizing that they were clear about their process and since they won’t do the CC for that amount, they have a new sales trainee that needs some seat time in some different BMWs so it’s non problem to send him to follow us home and grab a check from us.


I never said anything about my background or anything like that until he insisted I needed an extended warranty and wanted to know why I wouldn’t buy it. I’m like because I have 12 years in a shop as dual brand master tech and shop foreman. He’s like oh... well you’d still have to buy parts, what dealership do you work at? I said I don’t anymore, now I do quality testing and development of preproduction and prototype vehicles and technology. I not concerned with parts. At that point it was just finishing some paperwork we really didn’t have anything else to say to one and other.

I didn’t come in with an attitude but I sure as hell left with one.

 

Nightmare.
Just a sobering reminder how YOU need to look out for yourself because no one else will.
I'm glad you are a guy that stands up for yourself, too many people don't these days and then play the victim card after the fact.
Trust, but verify.

 

Speaking of looking out for yourself...

Just a friendly reminder to everyone in general, when you get rid of a vehicle that’s not poverty spec, you need to do your own due diligence with wiping data. When I picked up my Highlander in the owners manual case was some paperwork showing the original owners names and address. The “Home” address in the nav was still saved aa their house, the address book had their work, kids schools, homes of relatives still stored, etc. and the homelink garage door openers hadn’t been cleared etc. I could have told the nav to drive me home, went to their house and got in through the garage. Dealers are supposed to delete personal data, obviously that doesn’t always happen.

Entune has an option to delete personal data - contacts, address book, the names of phones that were paired, home, recent destinations, etc etc etc. and wiping homelink is as simple as holding the first and third button down for like 10-15 seconds until the indicator flashes. The process is quick and easy, be smart and don’t rely on someone else to protect your info. Taking care of you definitely starts with you.

 

We thought our weekend adventure was over... not so much

https://youtu.be/vr8d5gI5aNM

 

good on you for stopping to help...

 

I didn’t understand why so many people are cutting between him and dresser, they are driving into the shoulder he’s standing on. It’s like wtf is wrong with you people, your making an unfortunate situation dangerous for everyone because you can’t stop for 30 seconds and help? People are shit.

I was just watching my mirrors while slowly creeping forward making sure there was a line of stopped vehicles behind me. I don’t trust the general population enough to stop in a lane on the highway and not get wiped out by a distracted driver, I wanted to make sure there was a buffer of a few stopped vehicles before committing to getting out.

 

People are so caught up in their little life that they don’t care about others.

 

Heading out Wednesday night