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

Smart Man on the brake fluid. I have used this brake fluid for years...its high temp stops rotors from warping.

 

This is one of the best thread and thank you for sharing it with us. Amazing work on your 4Runner.

 

This might be the greatest photography I have ever seen in my life!! Nice to see how “normal” people “live it up”!!

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

 

Here's the next adventure from last weekend, hiking a 14,036 foot peak in the clouds with my wife.















Hiking the Ridge to the Summit


On top of the clouds






At the summit


My wife taking a break in the rock wall shelter to get out of the unrelenting cold strong wind. It was about 40 degrees with a constant 30 mph wind.






The clouds were starting to break


As the sun came out and we made our descent to warming temps the gloves came back off

 

Click this pic, its a link to the video or taking the express way down. So much fun!
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That was the summit up there left of center still in the clouds

 

I just finished up an epic trip with my best friend, I have a ton of pics to go through, sometime this week I should have it posted. Both of us and the truck got a hell of a workout without much rest.

 

40 degrees?!?! I would kill to have highs in the 70s right now. Too damn hot here in TN.

 

It’s 90 at 5,500 feet in Boulder but the higher up you go the colder it gets 14,000 is cold with some snow year round. If it’s ever to hot at home we just go up the mountain.

 

Not close enough to the mountains here.

 

The past couple days I've been working on the dual battery setup.

I got the C4 Fabrication passenger side firewall battery tray painted and installed so it's not in this picture.


I made a cardboard template to figure out how much room I had to work with and transferred it to a 1/2" piece of HDPE.




Trying to visualize how I want the components laid out for a clean install with minimal wiring.


Test fitting and checking clearances with a rough layout.


I'm happy with the layout but I need to modify the hold down so there no interference with the wiring.


The top end is modified, the bottom end is not.


Proper clearance.




Countersunk bolts so it can sit flat


I got the bottom of the hold down trimmed for clearance and painted and then everything laid out to map the excess real estate to trim.


Trimmed down and wired up.









I need some wire loom and I have to find the paperwork and figure out the small wires on the Redarc, but the cables almost all of the wiring is done. Almost ready for install.

 

Looks really clean like always

 

thanks

 

Great fun. I’m jealous

 

https://aguyagirlandatrail.com/2023/06/26/no-time-for-sleep/

 

I spoke way too soon about being jealous

 

Dual battery setup is "done"

There's a power wire from the positive terminal of the X2 Power (rebranded Northstar for Batteries Plus) BCI Group 24F 76ah AGM dual purpose deep cycle starter battery to a Blue Sea 40 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, the power wire runs to the red battery input on the RedArc DC-DC 12 volt 25 amp dual input (DC and solar) charger. The brown power output wire on the RedArc goes to a BlueSea 40 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, a power wire goes to the positive terminal of the Vmax Tanks BCI Group 24 SLR85 85ah deep cycle accessory battery. A power wire from the accessory battery goes to a BlueSea 80 amp circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, a power wire runs to a BlueSea low voltage disconnect. From the low voltage disconnect, a power wire runs to the positive terminal on the power distribution module. The power distribution module ground wire connects to the negative terminal of the starter battery. The accessory battery negative terminal has a cable to chassis ground and a wire to the ground the low voltage disconnect. The blue wire from the RedArc goes to an ignition on reference under the dash. The orange and green wires from the RedArc are not utilized in my application and are terminated and weather sealed. The yellow wire off the RedArc is capped and weather sealed, it will be used as the solar input at a later date.

It's all together and fully functional. Everything is weatherproofed and fully sealed and I performed a voltage drop on each connection to verify everything is good. All of the aftermarket lights and accessories are powered by the accessory battery with the lone exception of the interior switch panel backlighting. While I ran the ignition on reference wire to the interior I also ran 3 additional power wires from yet to be utilized power distribution module circuits, one will for sure be power for a fridge, I'm thinking another might be to add 2nd row ower outlets/USBs.

Today a Noco Genius Gen 2 dual bank 20 amp battery charger shows up. It's a waterproof onboard charger that connects to both of the batteries. When plugged into shore power (normal house AC outlet) it will charge and maintain each battery individually while supplying up to 10amps per battery. I can ensure the batteries are topped up before leaving, and if we're at a campground or something with an electrical hookup we can run everything off an AC plug.

 

That’s great work

 

I installed the dual bank onboard charger today.

 

Hey man,

Really enjoying this thread. I literally registered here to say thanks and give you some props.

I stumbled on the thread while experiencing some insomnia one night. Totally a worthwhile way to spend 2 hours reading through the entire thread at 2:30 am. Glad you stuck with the updates.

My wife and I are about to move to Denver (Tuesday! ) and I hope to hit you up for some ideas on some of those lakes.

Any chance you’re a fly fisherman?

Keep up the good work.

Denis

 

Which lights were you running here?

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Where are you moving from and what partnor Denver are you moving to? I’m in Erie (Boulder).

As far as fishing, I definitely am not a fisherman, actually I’d go as far as to say I have less than zero interest in fishing of any kind but it certainly is popular out here.

 

Regular halogen high beams and low beams, a cheap 20” light bar in the grill (Freedom Designs from Rago), Baja Designs Squadron Pro driving combo amber fog light kit, and Baja Designs S2 Pro wide cornering amber ditch lights.

 

Moving from SF. Bay Area native. It’s not what it once was. We got a short term spot in LoHi - house search is Potter Highlands, Park Hill, University Hills and so on.

Understood on the fishing. It’s not for everyone.

 

Just a heads up there’s a general disdain for Californians out here. The wide spread mentality is that Californians flee their state because of how bad things have gotten from pushing such extreme politics for so long but then they come here and continue to push those ideals that ruined their state.

That and the amount of transplants from California and Texas that have have no idea how to drive in the snow let along mountains in the snow. Those 2 groups are not well received.

 

That’s understandable and nothing I’m unfamiliar with.

My family are from Oregon and I’ve dealt with the same generalized disdain from people in Oregon. I just show people who I am and don’t worry about it. All I can do. I don’t take it personally but I understand the sentiment.

I’m not a loony leftist and have heard all of the same politics cases made and don’t disagree. I’ve got Wyoming, Oregon and Kansas blood in me and my dad taught me how to drive correctly, so it is what it is.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

When I travel to Colorado I go out of my way to be humble and chill. So far been well received by the mountain biking crowd in Durango, which can be rough.

 

I’ve been meaning to get these pics up for a couple weeks. My wife took a day off of work so we could get out on a week day for a big hike. From the truck up to the first peak (14,270 feet) across the saddle over to a second peak (14,270 feet) and back down to the truck was a little over 9 miles with 4,000 feet of elevation gain.

We started early, the sun just up enough to hit that peak.




The morning sun peaking out over the mountains.












That’s our goal right there dead center. Don’t mind the weird iphone panoramic sky stripes lol

 

Mountain goat


The sun gets pretty damn potent when your over 2.5 miles above sea level.

My wife taking a little detour up the spire


My wife and a goat



A view of the saddle between the two 14ers

First summit

Top of the first summit looking to the second summit

 

Alost down the saddle



Up to the second peak






Looking back at the first peak


I’ve really been wanting to do the ridge route up this peak.

Second summit