Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Having one successful storage box build behind me for my old Jeep YJ Wrangler, it was time to build a storage box for my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser. The storage box I built for my Wrangler was very simple. It was basically a box with one very large divided drawer that was bolted into the cargo area in place of the rear seat. In the storage box, I was able to store and provide easy access to all my tools, spare parts, recovery gear and spare fluids. Having all the above gear stored in a storage box allowed me to carry additional stuff (tent, sleeping bag, food, cooler, clothing, etc) on top of the storage box, basically doubling the cargo space. Gone were the days of having everything piled on top of other stuff. With the storage box, with a little creative packing, I even had room for my dog to ride in the back.

I purchased my 80-series Land Cruiser to be able to carry my family, my dog, and my adventure gear. The only way that this was practically going to happen was by building a storage box for the back of the Land Cruiser. In addition to the extra storage capacity, my needs list included an interior sleeping platform for my solo camping trips as well as having a place to install an auxiliary battery for my FJ80. Unlike the newer models (1993-97) of the 80-series Land Cruiser, there is no easy way to install the second battery on a 3FE powered (1991-92) FJ80 without heavily modifying the engine compartment components.
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It amazes me on how many vehicle based expeditions that occur on a regular basis. And with today’s technology, its so simple to share adventures with readers around the world, no matter your location.

I was just turned on to another in-progress two-year vehicle dependent expedition that began in Australia and is currently in Asia, and will travel through Europe, South America, North America to Alaska before finishing up in New York City next year.

In their own words:

“The World by Road is a group of individuals embarking on an around the world expedition dedicated to promoting awareness of the diversity of people and cultures of the world. Through adventure, education, and interaction with aid organizations, The World by Road challenges the traditional beliefs of our global community via the road less traveled”

You can follow along on their website at at The World By Road.

Donations to help support the expedition can be made at http://www.theworldbyroad.com/help_out.php

Over on the forum, there is a great discussion on Hand Winches. Manual winches (also commonly known as “come-alongs”) are a great alternative (but not a substitute) for a vehicle mounted electric, hydraulic or PTO winch. Hand powered winches can be used alone or in conjunction with your vehicle mounted winch in those especially sticky situations. Of course, just as with a vehicle mounted winch, the use of a manual winch will require additional recovery gear such as straps, tree savers, cable or winch rope, d-shackles and recovery points on your vehicle.

See the forum discussion at Hand Power Pullers.

For those of you living in the Pacific Northwest (mainly Washington and Oregon), there are a couple of upcoming 2007 Christmas tree runs that may be of interest to you.

Join us for a day of fun of looking for that special Christmas tree and hopefully some time in the snow. Even if you already have your tree or you’re putting up a plastic tree, it’ll be a good time.

The first Christmas Tree Run is on Saturday, December 8 and we will be meeting in Cle Elum, Washington. For details, see the forum discussion at Christmas Tree Run NORTH - 12/8/07

The second Christmas Tree Run is a week later on Saturday, December 15 at the Estacada Ranger Station, off Hwy 224 just West of Estacada, Oregon. For details, see the forum discussion at Christmas Tree Run SOUTH 12-15-2007.

If you’re in the area, I hope you can make one of the two runs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARB Rock Sliders Now Available For the new Jeep JK 2 Door and 4 Door Wrangler

Seattle, WA November 26, 2007. ARB 4×4 Accessories, Australian based four-wheel parts
manufacturer, is proud to announce another great product for the newly released Jeep
Wrangler JK. ARB is world renown for engineering and manufacturing near indestructible body
protection equipment for a wide variety of vehicles around the world, and the new ARB JK
Wrangler Rock Sliders are no exception.
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When I purchased my 1992 Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, the previous owner informed me that the four wheel drive system did not work. I knew the transfer case was a rebuilt unit so I figured it would be something simple such as a switch or a relay. Little did I know that I would spend hours trying to troubleshoot the problem. Hopefully this article will walk you through all the diagnostics needed to check the complete center diff lock (CDL) electrical system so you can figure out the problem much faster than I did.

You might ask, why did you spend hours diagnosing the problem? My answer is, I don’t like to spend money replacing parts when the part being replaced was not the problem. I’ve been a victim of paying people to do just that. Never again.

As in all repairs on the Land Cruiser, you should purchase the factory Toyota Repair Manual and the Toyota Electrical Wiring Diagram for your specific year of vehicle (order the factory manuals at techinfo.toyota.com). A Chilton’s or similar service manual won’t cut it when you are diagnosing specific issues. Invest the money in the factory manuals. It’s worth it if you (or your mechanic) does any diagnostics or repairs on your Land Cruiser. Purchasing the correct manual will pay off only after a few repairs because you will be diagnosing problems and not throwing parts at the problem until it is fixed. The reference for this article was the USA version for 1992 model year Toyota Land Cruiser. Even though there are similarities between all 80-series, there are differences between the various years of Land Cruisers and world markets so be aware of this when making repairs to your Land Cruiser.
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A Happy Thanksgiving to all. Be safe where ever your journey over the holiday weekend takes you.

For those of us who can only dream of such adventures, we can live vicariously through the travels of Dave Connors. Earlier this month (November 2007), Dave set out on a ten month journey through two continents, eighteen countries, and approximately 14,000 miles. His solo overland adventure (driving his 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser) began in Salt Lake City, Utah and will take him through Central and South America to his goal of completing the adventure in Ushuaia, Argentina.

Dave is posting almost daily updates on his blog at On the Road to Ushuaia.

For those of you who want to see the SPOT Satellite Messenger in use, Dave is sending his waypoints via the SPOT to his blog which are readable with GoogleEarth.

For more information about Dave’s adventure, visit http://www.expeditionamericas.com

Toyota FJ Cruiser Wheels on my FJ80 Land Cruiser

Ever since I purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I knew I wanted to replace the factory Toyota 15 inch alloy wheels and 31/10.50 BFG AT tires with larger tires and wheels. The primary reasons for wanting to complete this upgrade included:

• The “C” load rating of the 15 inch tires were being pushed to their limits with the weight of a fully loaded and accessorized 80-series Land Cruiser. I didn’t want to trust them very much longer on a 6000 pound vehicle.
• There are very limited tire sizes that will fit a 15×7 wheel. I wanted to run narrow 33 inch tall tires.
• I wanted to increase the ground clearance by a inch or more. Every inch in the vertical direction helps with a 112 inch wheelbase.
• The 31/10.50 tires looked very small in the abnormally large wheel wells of a 80-series Land Cruiser running the medium weight Old Man Emu (OME) suspension. Even my wife thought the tires looked small.
• In the future, I want to install a full float rear axle from a later 80-series Land Cruiser which requires a minimum of 16 inch wheels to clear the disk brake rotors and calipers.

With that in mind, I was planning on eventually acquiring an inexpensive set 16×8 black steel wheels and purchasing some narrow 33 inch all terrain tires to fit. My plan was to hold off on the tire and wheel purchase until I had the opportunity to regear my axles from a 4.11 to a 4.88 or lower ratio.
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In case you missed it on forum, Toy Man posted a awesome trip report of a recently completed two week guided overland adventure through the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico. This was definitely NOT your typical tourist/resort trip to Mexico we all hear about.

Read the entire trip report at Mexico 2007 Trip Report.