Outdoor Adventure USA

John,

Thanks for sharing that story. You still with the same girl? She sounds like quite a catch. Most I know of would have been shouting bloody murder, not making jokes.

OLLIE wrote:John,

Thanks for sharing that story. You still with the same girl? She sounds like quite a catch. Most I know of would have been shouting bloody murder, not making jokes.

New gal, same truck. Ain't that how it usually goes?

I married the new gal, and she even got her ham license while we were first dating. Now THAT's love!

If only I could get my wife to get interested.

NotAMog wrote:John,

I'd like to hear about your Tacoma. I bought an '04 Tacoma standard cab 4x4 with the 2.7l 4 cylinder and automatic transmission. I'm interested in ideas to build it up. It's always useful to hear the real world experiences of others with similar vehicles. From your avatar it looks like your's is a 1st gen Tacoma.

(All - Don't worry, I don't have any plans to get rid of the Pinzi)

What have you done to your Tacoma so far? I always thought the '01-04 models were the best looking of that generation, still compact, finally available with four doors, and I still prefer them over the newer Tacoma's that just look like Chevy's (or maybe Chevy made theirs look like Tacos?)

Actually I'm on my way up to Oregon this weekend to drive it down. I've been looking at potential upgrades, been reading the TTORA list, and got some recommendations from Cruiser Larry.

Are your new wheels 15" or 16"? I was thinking of getting a set of OEM 16" take off wheels with 265/75x16 BFG tires. I need to research the wheel and tire issue some more since I see that some people with stock 16" wheels are going down to 15"s with a higher profile tire. My research is indicating that I will want to do a suspension upgrade so I could go with 255/85x16" if I really think it's worth while.

I have the stock Tacoma 15" alloy wheels, 31.5 goodrich TA/KO tires. I would definitely lean towards higher profile tires, but that's just my hangup.

I'm likely going to replace my suspension in a few weeks with Old Man Emu light load suspension kit.

will probably also put a new intake filter system in. I'm tired of replacing stock filters so often. I need something serviceable.

I doubt I'll want to change much else after these items. I don't do very challenging trails, but the stock suspension is pretty terrible even for that.

I got the Tacoma today. I didn't remember everything that was on it since I had only riden in it a couple of times previously. It has a very weird option mix. It turns out that it has the 265/70-16 BFG tires and fender flares, a tach but no clock, and no power windows or mirrors. I suspect it has the cold weather package being that it was originally sold in central Oregon and it has a really big group 24 battery.

I'll be curious to find out how your suspension and air filter upgrades go.

When I bought my Tacoma new, I decided against most options for the sake of keeping it simple & reliable on the trail. I don't mind the manual windows, and lack of sunroof, but I hate not having power mirrors.

I'm glad I got the basic stock AM/FM cassette; now I can easily play MP3's with a cassette adapter! a CD player would have screwed me there. And I also pipe my FT-857D audio into my stereo system via the same adapter. Makes quite a difference, far easier on the ear than my hidden headrest speaker.

Is yours 5 speed? I've owned one auto tranny, and never will again probably. Just another of my hangups..!

Its an automatic. I would have preferred a stick.

My Uncle originally purchased the truck for hunting and fishing so, like yourself, he didn't want any unnecessary options that would go out when you're on the trail. He probably only went out hunting a few times after buying the truck. It just turned over 12,000 miles on the way down to California. I'm sure this is the longest trip its ever been on.

I find that the crank windows are not too much of a pain. The handle is well placed and the windows go up and down with only a few turns of the crank. I had a Taurus and a Focus with manual windows that were a real pain to use. The cranks were mounted close to the floor and it took a lot of cranking to raise and lower them.

great story.

OLLIE wrote:If only I could get my wife to get interested.

i'd suggest getting our wives together in borrego but i have a feeling that might result in having the opposite effect of what we'd like.