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

No problem, there’s a lot going on in here.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

 

excellent work

 

I got the passenger side lights wired up the same way as the driver's side so nothing really new to post about that but I took some pics of the side rails modified for the Aurora lights.

Before and after (the paint was freshly applied and still wet in the after picture.

 

I've been out of town for 3 weeks. I finally was able to grab a couple pics of the camping lights. Both pics are via iphone Xr with the camera resting on the door panel against the driver window. They put out a lot more light than necessary, they were a great deal for the price.

 

Thats awesome! That should not only light up the campsite but also the whole campground.

 

The goal is to not be at a campground

 

Riding with my little man then taking a break, hanging out on the roof having some water and a snack while we watched people ride.

 

I don't think I ever posted this, but here's the color match on the switches in the interior.

The top light goes on when the switch is activated and the bottom light goes on anytime the ignition is activated.

 

This is where I mounted the low voltage disconnect.


I gave it a ground connection and cut the existing power wire from the battery to the breaker and ran the disconnect inline. Like before I used closed-ended terminals and marine grade dual wall adhesive lined heat shrink. Heres the load side to the breaker finished.


A 10 ton hydraulic crimper with the proper dies makes for some very secure connections.


Cables are done.


I notched the positive protective cap for the wire off the battery and it's finished.

 

Thinkware Q800-Pro 2 channel dash cam with a hardwire kit for parking mode. 1440p front cam and 1080 rear cam with more bells and whistles than are really needed.




Making sure it’s a neat clean install, one thing often overlooked is to make sure cables are ran BEHIND the side curtain airbags, just poking the wire up under the edge of the headliner is not good enough.


Front



Rear with a custom mount I made.

 

I need to look into one of these as well

 

I don’t think I’ve ever linked a vid from Flickr so let’s see if this works.

Front vid sample at full res


Rear vid sample at full res

 

I’ve been talking about it forever, I finally pulled the trigger. They are expensive but realistically even a top of the line one is cheaper then a typical collision deductible. The first time you need it, it pays for itself.

 

That’s what I’ve been thinking as well. Just another thing to add to my list of stuff I want to do

 

Looks like good quality video. Does the rear mount screw go into an existing hole?

 

The rear mount I actually made out of a trim panel removal tool. I cut it up and ground it down rounded it off and I drilled a hole to run a bolt through it. I used the rear center headliner push pin hole to bolt into. I tapped the hole, put a 1/4” spacer between the metal and the headliner and then bolted through it to mount the bracket. So the layers are tapped steel roof structure, spacer, headliner, plastic bracket, bolt, and then the camera just attaches with double sided tape.

 

Nice!

 

SonI was just looking back to see how long ago I did that but detail. It was at the end of January.

Since the RTT is about to go back on I thought I’d but another coat of the sealer on before I can’t fit it in to park it in the garage anymore. So yesterday I washed it with soap for the first time since doing the big clean. I have to say I’m very impressed with how well that cheap sealer has held up.

 

The camera does have a GPS in it to stamp your speed on vids, inform you of redlight and traffic camera locations, and you can track the vehicle in real time with geofencing alerts. There’s no audible warning for speed. It all kinds of stupid driver assist warnings like lane departure and forward collision warning, there’s even a stupid one where it make noises at you alert you when the traffic in front of you starts moving... I guess that’s convenient for the assholes that can’t look away from their phones while driving? I don’t know I turned all the driver assist functions off and turned the down the sensitivity of what registers as an incident while driving. It doesn’t beep at me constantly anymore lol.

Edit - also it’s a 75 mph highway, I’m constantly right around 80 with no beep. It was just a coincidence.

 

Today I built the rooftop tent box. I still have to make the harnesses to connect it to the truck though. I changed up my plan a little bit. The circuit up to the roof rack is built to handle 35 amps. I’m going to use the drivers side camping light circuit as the power and ground for the whole box. Power goes in, it’s split by into 5 circuits with a small fuse block. The switches laid out left to right is left side camping lights, red tent interior lights, white tent interior lights, then right side camping lights, plus an always hot 12v power outlet.

 

2 separate interior lights, a red one and a white one.






They work.


My helper.


Right side lights work.


I ran out of wire loom, I still need to do the left side camp lights, and there will be some tidying up to do. I rushed it a bit because our first camping trip of the season starts today. My wife gets out of work in a couple of hours and we'll hit the road. 3 days 2 nights.


Grabbing some groceries for the weekend.

 

Have a great time and post up more pictures when you get back!

 

Here's our weekend trip to the Curt Gowdy State Park

Packed up and ready to go




We stopped for dinner at this place in Wyoming


Littleman was rocking out to the band playing




Getting setup


The interior lights came out great! Red doesn't mess with your night vision and it doesn't attract bugs.


The white light is bright.


The full moon was crazy bright, I've never seen so many shadows cast by the moon.


Watching some superhero cartoons in the morning.


We had cereal for breakfast (pro tip: individual single servings of almond milk don't need to be kept cold)


We were camped out right next to singletrack.


Lots of trails.


We started with a hike because it was really windy and pretty cold.

 

He was pretty excited to pet that dog






We didn't make it the waterfall, he decided he wanted to go back and get the bikes so we went back to the truck and ate some lunch.

 

Afternoon naps.


Grilling up brats and mac and cheese for dinner.






Relaxing by the fire.






Arclight LED interior lights


Camping lights


20 degrees out with dense wet fog, he bundled up for bed.


The lights looked like lasers in the fog.


Cold, damp, and foggy in the morning.


Frost on the tent.


Frost on the ladder.


We decided to call it, it wasn't going to be a good day for adventuring with a 3 year old.


Dash cam screen shot of the roads.


We had quite a bit of condensation to dry out when we got home. We played football while it air dried.

 

Looks like a blast. Those Arclight interior LEDs look awesome. Just something else to add to my list

 

So I’m away for work right now, it’s like 15,000 degrees out and humid and I’m in the middle of nowhere. I had the weekend to kill so I spent most of it researching and planing out phase 2 of the electrical build with a dual battery setup. This is the long term plan, it’s too expensive to just jump right in and do it all at once.

 

I've been out of town for a long while, I flew home on July 3rd in time to pack up and hit the road with my son for camping and biking.

 

Enjoy your time at home.