IM A HORSE - Definitely not a build.

[cynicalrider]

At least the motorcycle riding pants will keep that receiver hitch from breaking your leg too awfully bad. In all seriousness, great thread.

Ironically I actually never notice it's there. I def expected to smash my shins on it a bunch though.

Took my son to do some trails down in Virginia for his first multi day offroad camping trip. They all were trails I have done before a couple times in the Tacoma so I wasn't super concerned about difficulty.

The first trail we did was Bald Mtn trail (also known as Big Levels) and we did that solo because our friends were coming past midnight that night. The trail was easy but still fun.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I decided to try an optional line that i've done in the Tacoma before.

Tacoma:

IMG_0806 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_0809 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

But this was several years ago at this point.

And how the Bronco ended up.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Easy fix with a high lift but I was stressed about trying to get to camp before dark to make my son some dinner.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Thankfully we got to camp before dark and no one was at the spot I hoped to snag.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

After he went to bed I enjoyed a nice smoke with a great view.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

The next day we started exiting the trail only to have my buddys LBJ bolts back out on the trail. Thankfully they didn't get lost and nothing got damaged.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

I was curious on what would be ideal pressure on these tires on 17's and it looks like 16-18 or so seems to be the sweet spot. I need to go down to 10-12 psi on my Tacoma with 315/75r16's to get the same sidewall flex.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

From there we went to the next area we would explore and camp at. This is a trail up to Flagpole knob and is the hardest way to get there. On the way we saw these guys with a flat and they asked if we had OBA. So I helped them swap the tube and we aired them up to seat the bead. Felt good to help out fellow riders.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

We actually never made it all the way up to FPK because we found a cool campsite I've never used before. The views at the fire were gorgeous so figured might as well make camp there especially since we were losing light.

My son was really into helping stack the rocks to build up the fire pit.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

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[cynicalrider]

The next day we did a big loop that took us through a bunch of water crossings and up some dirt switch backs.

Breakfast views:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Lunch spot:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Some of the many creek and stream crossings:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Caught a gorgeous sunset back at camp. We camped the same spot again so we didn't have to tear down/setup again.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

by MJH Creations, on Flickr

And the final air up for the trip:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Key takeaways from the trip:

I need more storage/better organized storage. For only myself, my son and my dog we were packed to the gills.

The toilet/double duty bags got SO MUCH more use than I usually did because when a kids gotta poop you gotta setup fast/can't go dig a cat hole in every location.

The Bronco is as capable as I hoped it would be out of the box and the suspension was awesome flying on the hairpins, but I def have less ground clearance on the Bronco compared to my Tacoma on the same size tires.

My son is a little badass and enjoyed the whole trip. It even got down to like 34* the last night. Stoked to do more trips like this with him in the future.

 

[cynicalrider]

Some videos:

 

[redone17]

Awesome! I’m headed down to SC from NY leaving Sunday. What’s the second trail with the water crossings?

I was planning on checking out parts SCAR (SC Adventure Route). But, have some time to explore in either direction.

I found Back of the Dragon - which sounds like a fun drive. But, in interested in more off-road. Guess I should dig into onX a bit.

 

[MyDogGoldie]

wow,
that fire ring with the view,
Bagel Sandwich

Priorities Correct!

 

[cynicalrider]

Awesome! I’m headed down to SC from NY leaving Sunday. What’s the second trail with the water crossings?

I was planning on checking out parts SCAR (SC Adventure Route). But, have some time to explore in either direction.

I found Back of the Dragon - which sounds like a fun drive. But, in interested in more off-road. Guess I should dig into onX a bit.

So a lot of these trails are part of the Shenandoah and Allegheny overland loop which is a fun loop to do with some MAJOR water crossings. But the road with this one is here:

38.55908, -79.27612

 

[redone17]

Awesome! Thanks. Staying in Dayton tomorrow night. Planning some exploration for Monday on our way down to Columbia.

 

[cynicalrider]

Awesome! Thanks. Staying in Dayton tomorrow night. Planning some exploration for Monday on our way down to Columbia.

Dayton, VA? If so there is the most fun way up to FPK a stones throw from there. It's called Union Springs Road. That's where that shelf obstacle was.

 

[redone17]

Dayton, VA? If so there is the most fun way up to FPK a stones throw from there. It's called Union Springs Road. That's where that shelf obstacle was.

Awesome. That sounds great. I’d be interested in a day trip loop and would like to get back on the interstate by early afternoon (we are about 6 hours from our final destination).

I’ll let you know what we discover.

 

[redone17]

Only got to do Reddish Knob to Braley Pond because we were headed south. But; it was a nice drive and put some ideas in my head to visit the forest for some family summer trips and do some deeper exploring on both sides of the valley. Such a beautiful part of the country I’ve never explored. Thanks for the leads.

 

[cynicalrider]

The current next project is getting this RC hidden winch setup installed. I spent the majority of the time so far fabricating mounts for the solenoid and isolator, as well as finding a solution to actuating the free spool clutch without opening the hood.



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53627952945_8efe4c9e14_4k.jpg



Brackets in design/testing:



53627509496_f9fc052ef1_4k.jpg



53627509531_4b323a59de_4k.jpg



53626339812_bb75ea3758_4k.jpg



53626339827_dc1762e612_4k.jpg



And the completed products:



53627678375_d84fb4c5c6_4k.jpg



53627233131_a31025be75_4k.jpg



53627562099_1f146c9dec_4k.jpg



I am really trying to think through my solutions and not rush anything. Half the work on the Tacoma I am redoing came from not knowing better or rushing before a trip.

^^ Quoting above since that was part 1. ^^

I finally got this winch install finished. Being that I have the 2.7 relocating the oil cooler alone took about a day. Big shout out to @xtreme_exploder for pointing out the modifications he needed to keep the rear shutters. And another shout out to @tobyw on the idea of how to mount the solenoid.

I had a couple goals for this project and reasons why I didn't want to go with a high mount. First I felt like high mounts on modulars look out of place to me. They stick out too far for my taste and block the grill. But the downside to the hidden winch is not being able to easily free spool.

So my solution was to clock the clutch forward so I can drill a hole in the skid and get something in there to turn the clutch. Ultimately I cut a socket into a shape of a tool, drilled a hole through the clutch handle and bolted it on, I was trying to keep the setup lightweight so there wasn't a bunch of weight hanging off the handle.

Overall it came out exactly how I hoped it would. I can activate and freespool the winch without ever needing to open the hood, the solenoid is up high and away from the majority of dirt and mud, and it's power is not on constantly, only when triggered via an aux switch.

Enough rambling, here are some photos of the project:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Shutter clearance:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

A little extra protection on the oil cooler lines from that crossmember:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

I'm a stickler for clean wires. It's nice to be able to make them myself at the required lengths. Went with 2 AWG welding wire (Smittybilt uses what would be close to 3AWG) :

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

And final products of everything:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

 

[cynicalrider]

A couple new necessary additions. First I installed the M2M attic tray my wife got me for my birthday. The fact that it tilts down made it a no brainer for the choice to get for this type of storage solution. I could never run the typical shelves because of how I mount my fridge and how it opens. This will be my go to recovery gear shelf and I am going to maybe see if I can mount my jack to it too.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Now I thought this was going to be a simple install compared to most of my projects until I realized I needed to partially lift the rear top in order to mount the brackets to the top of the roll bar. Which also meant I now need to remove the OEM roof rack that I've never removed before and also fought me the one time I attempted to blindly. Overall it was easy to remove but the damn rubber gasket was suctioned so hard to the hard top it made me work for it. I ket thinking here was some fastener I was missing that was holding it on.

I also have never seen the truck with the roof off so that was cool to see and enjoy. I'll likely slap the roof rack back on soon though but I might enjoy some time being able to remove all three panels instead of just the front.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Lastly was installing the lights from IAG with the new module.

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Really excited about this one since it was nearly impossible to buckle my son in at night.

 

[KRAKEN]

Great looking Bronco... well played.

 

[cynicalrider]

Quick little mod last night to get more visibility in the trunk. Went with an RGB style light so I can use red when I sleep in the Bronco and get up in the middle of the night but still have white light to see stuff in the trunk.

Off/stock:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

On:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Red:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

I have another set of lights I want to get for camp/cook lights.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Quick little mod last night to get more visibility in the trunk. Went with an RGB style light so I can use red when I sleep in the Bronco and get up in the middle of the night but still have white light to see stuff in the trunk.

Off/stock:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

On:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Red:

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

Untitled by MJH Creations, on Flickr

I have another set of lights I want to get for camp/cook lights.

Great addition Thanks for sharing!

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