Boy am I slacking on maintaining this build. PLENTY has happened to the rig since April of 2022. Photos are floating around the Instagram, so be sure to look for them.
Since April, I attended and taught at the MOORE Expo in Springfield, MO. It was a no-brainer to go as it's within about 4 hours from home. Camped with the KC Toyota Club alongside a river for the weekend, enjoying the colder nights, comfortable days, and good company. Ended up doing some exploring in the nearby Ozark NF. Managed to provoke a slow leak in the steering rack, so that was not fun. I finally replacing it after a few months of dealing with the leak.
Apart from the usual maintenance of oil changes, gear oil change, tire rotate, greasing driveshafts, air filters, wipers, etc, There really wasn't much else needing to be done. I picked up a set of Valley Tech sliders and coated them in Steel-It. While I am impressed with how the coating holds up so far, it did not seem to penetrate well under the kick out step plate. I guess I'll just have to either re-coat it regularly or will just switch to a bed liner-type coating. I attempted to fix/clean up the booboo from my trail time in Arizona in 2021. Managed to straighten the pinch weld out on the rocker and coat it in near factory color paint. Sliders promptly went on and were a much appreciated addition. After removing the side steps when I first got the rig, it was always an annoyance doing anything on the roof rack, as well and entry and exit, even for my 6ft 1in frame. Even put them to the test when running trails near Estes Park in August while I was there for OXMW. Very happy I got these solely for the protection on these few trails we ran. For this trip, I also modified my drawer/fridge slide setup to be able to accommodate 2 people sleeping in the back of the rig, which proved to be a great modification and expansion of our capability. Still some kinks to work out with it, but these are already being worked out as we speak. One other major improvement made for this trip was the addition of some AuxBeam LED pods on the front bumper. This made navigating trail in the dark easier, as well as finding camp.
One aspect we worked on while we were in Colorado for this trip was a remote work setup. I borrowed a friend's Ecoflow battery generator pack to be able to keep the laptop and cellphones charges for some remote work. With the good signal we had, we hotspotted to the laptop and were able to attend video conferences, as well as do additional work as needed. While this isn't the best for when we might have poorer quality signal, the ease of use has us convinced we should snag our own battery pack generator like this and address all other needs or issues as they arise. We also both realized we need better sleeping gear. Our self-inflating pads from 4 years ago still hold up, but our bodies desire something with a bit more comfort and loft. I suspect we will be scooping up some 3in or thicker pads after testing out a few at the expo.
2022 was a slow year for anything camping or overlanding related, unfortunately. I did spend 10 days in a beach house on the beach for a much-needed family vacation. Not my cup of tea as I do not like the beach other than swimming, but we all had a good time. I spent a bit of time figuring out the ADV motorcycle thing which might have taken away from the 100 and and camping.
Some rig goals for 2023 are as follows (apart from normal maintenance):
- HD rotors and pads
- front hub rebuild (new bearings, races, gaskets, etc)
- re-boot or replace CV's
- replace cracked windshield
- fix lock actuator on driver side door and replace window motor as it seems to be on the fritz when it is hot out
- replace factory roof rack with one from Sherpa
- replace my DIY drawer system and Tortuga fridge slide with a drawer system from Dobinsons
Things I'll probably save until next off-season:
- Rust patch work
- Replace all u-joints in driveshafts
**If I feel compelled to go through my photos of the rig, I'll post them up in an additional post. Thanks for stopping by!
