The Wild Crow - A Not So Wild Build Thread

jim65wagon

TundraBird1
Wow, OK it's been a while here, but let's update this thread here beginning about a year ago....

Sept 13, 2017

Two small modifications down.

Added the Unifilter to that, that, that, whatever you call it thing on the passenger side. You know the one that eats its own filter after a while and costs a bunch to replace. Hopefully I've kept that from happening with this:

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Also added the HD TechDeck. Haven't gotten the other parts to hang our phones from but that'll be ready enough to add later

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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
More from 2017

Here, I did a thing, finally....Here is a brief photo synopsis of our 9 Day GWNF trip (linky to it's thread)

Campsites
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Rocks
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Different Rocks
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Fire Towers
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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
November 2017

Jumpin! Jack Flash, it's a Gas Gas Gas

Two full days. Lots of swearing, some busted knuckles, and a couple of Homer Simpson "Doh!" moments and it's in - despite the rain and cold. The 34 gallon Long Range Automotive gas tank is in. And the truck still runs!

I'll apologize now for a lack of photographs, this took two 8 hour days to do - I'm slow, I know, but pausing to take pictures and I'd still be out there swearing....


I've had it for months, it's been lying in the garage waiting for the right time. Here I am with a few days off work and there's the plan. Install that tank!

Unwrapped and ready. Notice that front bracket? It's bent, had to be during shipping, but what can I do at this point but bend it back flat....

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Disconnecting the old stuff was painful, fat hands, fat arms, fat head means you can't see, reach, or twist turn connections to disconnect. This clip on the fuel pump for example.....I had to push that clip with a screwdriver (by feel not sight) and Beth had to pry it up with another screwdriver from the other side to break it free

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The old gas tank came out
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and I proceeded to install the URD fuel pump upgrade (in case I get a supercharger....but also to get a replaceable inline filter). URD's instructions are awesome. Well written and lots of pictures!
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I'd like to say the install of the new tank was easy peasy, but I'd be lyin'. The instructions are just large blocks of words. Sentence after sentence (paragraphs you say?) no pictures, no real detail. I read and reread and rereread. Ultimately, what really helped was pictures provided by @paranoid56 on the 34 Gallon Fuel Tank thread. A great big THANK YOU! to P56! I wouldn't have had such success without you!

Raising and lowering the tank multiple times to get the fuel lines right - seems the URD kit and the LRA tank don't like each other much but we got the lines run and the filter filtering. The brackets on the outside were relatively easy to bolt up. The front bracket wasn't bad. That rear bracket though! It's that slightly L shaped bracket in the tank picture. It's a pain to install. The tab mounts onto the OE tank strap hanger. The only way it mounted flat is the way I chose - but the tank holes didn't line up so I had to drill new ones and even then the OE bracket made it almost impossible to get the bolt and nut on. Here's me struggling to do so, one arm was wrapped over the exhaust with that index finger wedged between two brackets in a not comfortable fashion to hold the nut still long enough to start the bolt.....
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Once that was done everything got buttoned back up and I put 5 gallons or so back in. (BTW at 5 gallons the truck read absolute "E" on the gauge) Truck fired right up!

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I'll let you know how things work out but so far, the first fillup and the Ultragage reads 523 miles to empty......of course it puked down the side of the truck at shut off - so I'll need to figure that one out.....later......
 
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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
Just for kicks gets some shots of the inside of the gas tank. I took these before installation...

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On a secondary and unrelated note. My Baja Design flood lights had to be removed in order to pass inspection.......10 minutes tops to remove them.......10 minutes tops to reinstall.....
 
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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
June 2018

THE NON ELECTRIC SLIDE(RS)

The rock sliders are finally on. I bought these years and years ago for the Tundra. Never installed them. The stayed in the corner of the garage for about 8 years!

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I finally cleaned them up and welded some 3/16 inch plates to them. The plates allowed me to use the factory holes in the frame to make the sliders bolt on. They may not be quite as sturdy as being welded on, but I'm no rock crawler, and the Tundra has been driven for years without them to no ill effect. Like the skid plates they are a just in case reassurance for that time I do something stupid.....like dancing the Electric Slide.....

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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
June 2018

THE AIR NEAR MY FINGERS

Air, we breathe it, our trucks breathe it, our tires need it. I've been carrying around a Masterflow MV50 (or a variant thereof, I don't remember, I'm old and too lazy to go out and look) to air up the tires on the Wild Crow when needed. It's a good little compressor, stays in its little canvas bag until needed and it works. Who's to argue with success? Well, me.....

I've had this old ViAir 380C (again, I think but can't remember - maybe I'm an Air Head afterall) mounted under the hood of the Tundra for yeeeaaars. You see a theme here don't you?

What I like about this old cheap air compressor ( I got it off of Ebay back when that was a real shoppers paradise ) is that it has a 100% duty cycle. No big deal I'm sure, but that 20% duty cycle of the MV50 doesn't thrill me. In the back of my mind I can see me overheating that thing in a hearbeat and cursing at its cool down time.

So, we devised a way to install the Viair and its 2.5 gallon tank into the Tacoma. After removal from the Tundra, I spent a large amount of time cleaning things up. The years of road grime and Toyota's rust preventative undercoating made the tank and hoses a PITA to clean

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Elizabeth built a nice box to hold the compressor and the tank, while I refitted the tank fittings into more appropriate locations. The box itself mounts to the bed rails via some homemeade T-bolts

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In this position it's tucked up underneath the toolbox in the cap so it's not taking up any valuable real estate. It's actually a spot that's real hard to use to store anything, so this is a great option. It also keeps the compressor cooler by NOT being in the engine bay.

The ARB pressure switch (150psi if you please), air distribution manifold, gauge, and on/off switch are mounted in the toolbox directly above the compressor

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You can see they are tucked up high in the box so they shouldn't get inadvertently bumped/bent/broken/switched-on/switched-off or otherwise damaged - unless the truck goes upside down - in which case I have more to worry about than a broken are compressor.

It runs, shuts itself off at pressure, starts itself back up if needed and should make airing up after those moments of crawling over mall curbs eezy breezy.

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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
Well, you see Casper wanted to get his truck, his trailer and his wife all "off grid" being the kind soul that I am, I agreed to lead him to the wilderness where he could test his set up for a weekend and finally eschew those dreaded campgrounds.

A few thoughts came to mind:
It was a long weekend for Beth and I but they only had Saturday and Sunday.
The Perseid meteor shower was Saturday night (well, more than Saturday, but that's a meteorlogical thing)
And last year when we did our 9 days in GWNF, I thought it would be cool to photograph the trailer on the peak with the great view in the background.

With the truck and trailer loaded Friday evening we got out to Casper's house on Saturday morning and headed out for Harrisonburg.

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The plan was to take Dunkle Hollow Road. I knew we could get up that route with the trailers, and I didn't want to beat our stuff up going the Union Springs route.

So, up Dunlkle Hollow we went. As you know the left turn off 33 can be interesting if traffic is bad, but after that it's an easy gravel road until you get past Skidmore lake. After that we were able to let Casper get his feet wet, so to speak.

The road gets narrower and a little rougher (and muddier with the rainy weather) without being too challenging. That is until nature throws you a curve. In this case that curve was shaped like a tree. Casper and I put our heads together and came up with a plan. The tree was partially rotted and wedged between to others, with the winch we could break it and move it off the road.


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Once the trunk broke we all four picked up the end of it and rolled it out of the road. I thought Dunkle was a well traveled path but obviously we were the first in more than a couple of days.

On up the road we went.

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Everything is beautiful, in its own way and on the last real tight switchback the beauty came in the form of washout with a boulder in the middle and a tree along the side. I surmised that I could roll my left front tire over the tree leaving me enough room to drive around the boulder. My 53,000 mile BFGs had other plans. They didnt want to climb the tree. No forward progress. I backed up and moved to the right. The washout was deeper but I thought I could climb it. Again, no bite from the BFG's.

So I backed up and parked. We cut the tree with the bow saw (while Beth stacked some rocks in front of the boulder) until we could all heft it off the road. Taking my original route sans tree, and I was able to get up and around the switchback. The tires didn't like it but the ATRAC made them work it.

After parking my truck, I walked down to Casper and we did the smart thing.....we aired his tires down. You know how hindsight is 20/20? Now his tires were 20/20/20/20. It would've been easier for me I'm sure if I'd had the foresight to do the same. Alas, he made it look like a cakewalk.



We finally reached the summit, and my beautiful picture I had in my mind was obscured by pouring rain and fog.

Eventually though the rain let up and we set up camp, ate some wonderful chicken and a squash casserole, got to see a few meteors and had a great evening.

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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
You know if you've been there that Flagpole Knob can be quite busy. We had traffic drive past at all hours of the night. On Sunday morning, after coffee and breakfast wraps we all packed up. We headed off down FR85, a much easier path than the previous day, I'm sure Casper was OK with not having a challenge this morning. I did think to air down a little as a just in case, too little too late, but at least the ride was smooth.


We got to pavement, spent some time airing up and said our goodbyes. Thanks for the fun Carters!

After seeing our friends off, Beth and I decided to continue on to quieter lands, but first we went up on Reddish Knob. It offered a wonderful view of the storm coming in and we got hammered with it on the way down.


We decided on the Spruce Knob area of West Virginia. We've been there before but hadn't really explored too much, just enough to know of some decent campsites. We found ours on Gandy Creek near the Elza Run Trail.

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We set up camp for rain. We were expecting it and got what we expected. In spades, and buckets, and cats and dogs. Our rain set up is side awnings, an awning attached to the kitchen that leads to an EZ Up giving us a decent sized dry living area.

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We spent the next day chasing butterflies, running forest roads, finding campsites, short hikes to scenic things and just generally having a good time.

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Tuesday rolled around way too soon and we had to pack up and go home. Someday we will be able to do this sort of thing full time. Until then, it's back to work

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phsycle

Adventurer
You know if you've been there that Flagpole Knob can be quite busy. We had traffic drive past at all hours of the night. On Sunday morning, after coffee and breakfast wraps we all packed up. We headed off down FR85, a much easier path than the previous day, I'm sure Casper was OK with not having a challenge this morning. I did think to air down a little as a just in case, too little too late, but at least the ride was smooth.


We got to pavement, spent some time airing up and said our goodbyes. Thanks for the fun Carters!

After seeing our friends off, Beth and I decided to continue on to quieter lands, but first we went up on Reddish Knob. It offered a wonderful view of the storm coming in and we got hammered with it on the way down.


We decided on the Spruce Knob area of West Virginia. We've been there before but hadn't really explored too much, just enough to know of some decent campsites. We found ours on Gandy Creek near the Elza Run Trail.

img_6318-jpg.2860270


We set up camp for rain. We were expecting it and got what we expected. In spades, and buckets, and cats and dogs. Our rain set up is side awnings, an awning attached to the kitchen that leads to an EZ Up giving us a decent sized dry living area

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We spent the next day chasing butterflies, running forest roads, finding campsites, short hikes to scenic things and just generally having a good time.

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Tuesday rolled around way too soon and we had to pack up and go home. Someday we will be able to do this sort of thing full time. Until then, it's back to work

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Man, am I the only one that can't see the pictures? Looks like fun times, though (per video and words).
 

Wallygator

Adventurer
Wow, OK it's been a while here, but let's update this thread here beginning about a year ago....

Sept 13, 2017

Two small modifications down.

Added the Unifilter to that, that, that, whatever you call it thing on the passenger side. You know the one that eats its own filter after a while and costs a bunch to replace. Hopefully I've kept that from happening with this:

a14c052f730906d7b32b2b4d6a0a806f.jpg


Very nice build. I will apologize for this small hijack....This is the first I have heard of the air pump having an issue. Is this common? Also can you direct me to a part number for the filter and exactly how to do this mod? Thank you for your time!

EDIT: Found a part number....https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CJOTS...00-20&linkId=1036590b5a10647cd0ae5c85836b3a79

I have a 2016 4Runner and have never heard of this being an issue. After more research it seems the Tacoma definitely has issues with this. It looks to be the same pump as on the 4Runner so I wonder why the 4 does not have this issue? At least not from what I have heard.
 
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jim65wagon

TundraBird1
Wow, OK it's been a while here, but let's update this thread here beginning about a year ago....

Sept 13, 2017

Two small modifications down.

Added the Unifilter to that, that, that, whatever you call it thing on the passenger side. You know the one that eats its own filter after a while and costs a bunch to replace. Hopefully I've kept that from happening with this:

a14c052f730906d7b32b2b4d6a0a806f.jpg


Very nice build. I will apologize for this small hijack....This is the first I have heard of the air pump having an issue. Is this common? Also can you direct me to a part number for the filter and exactly how to do this mod? Thank you for your time!

EDIT: Found a part number....https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CJOTS...00-20&linkId=1036590b5a10647cd0ae5c85836b3a79

I have a 2016 4Runner and have never heard of this being an issue. After more research it seems the Tacoma definitely has issues with this. It looks to be the same pump as on the 4Runner so I wonder why the 4 does not have this issue? At least not from what I have heard.
That's the one! I didn't know it was an issue until I was on Tacoma World. For the cost of the filter I figure you can't go wrong by doing the mod.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

jim65wagon

TundraBird1
It seems SOS Concepts had a sale and I let myself get talked into participating. The sale was good, and with South Carolina only 460 miles away we decided to save shipping costs by planning a camping/fossil hunting trip.

We hitched up the Tundra. Yes the Tundra. We wouldn't have time for an install while we were at their shop sms the Tacoma didn't really have enough room in the bed to haul the bumper, gates, and the extra camping gear we wanted to take.

Our first night we spent at Claytor Lake State Park in Virginia. We had to visit our son for his birthday.
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The next day after our short visit and gift giving we moseyed south. We made our way to Brick House Campground in Sumter National Forest. And, yeah, I hear the Commodores in my head singing every time I think of this campground.
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The other campers were all hunters who has opted to pay the seasonal camping fee and as a result we were alone for the night.
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On Monday morning we got up and made our way to Laurens. And there it was all ready for us. We got it loaded into the truck after some brief advice and conversation with Eddy.
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Then we rolled on down to Givhans Ferry State Park and spent three days camping, kayaking and fossil hunting
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It was a great trip, we found many new places to explore, found some fossils, at some great dinners and just tremendously enjoyed ourselves
 

jim65wagon

TundraBird1
RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPERS?
Nah, these are steel, all steel baby.

I've wanted a matching bumper for the rear of the Wild Crow ever since we installed the front winch bumper. The factory chrome rear just looked out of place and I really disliked the placement of the trailer plug.

We needed (well, need is kinda strong since technically we didn't need a bumper) a good heavy duty rear bumper. We wanted something with a swing out, but we couldn't have a full gate with the trailer, we had to have a half size gate. Why a gate at all? You'll laugh but it's to hang a custom garbage/recycling/dirty laundry container. Over years of camping we've discovered that dirty clothes and/or garbage take write a bit of space and they'll both make the back of your truck smell funky. So we've got this idea to keep all the smelly stuff outside the truck. We'll let you know how that works out.

In the meantime, let's give this LA face a matching Oakland booty

With the bumper safely in the garage after quite the great vacation (we put just over 1100 miles on the trailer this trip) we finished out our work week (2 days for me).

Today, with the winds high we decided to get the install done. Removing the old bumper was fairly easy. Remove the license plate, lights, air lines and trailer plug.
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Eight bolts removed from the frame and two more loosened and the old bumper slid right out.

The new bumper slid right in with some slight and carefully loving taps with a mallet and a 2x4.
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Replace four bolts, and tighten those that were loosened
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And boom!
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The gates installed just as easily. They slid right into place and adjusted very easily. This is a very user friendly design.

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And now I've switched from singing the Commodores to Mix A Lot
 

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