atlastrekker.com

I changed my mind. The truck is for sale, and I’m buying the GMC 4×4 van.

The more I got to thinking about it, the more it made sense to do it. The extra room, the ability to live fairly comfortably in the van while on any one of the various road trips I have planned just makes sense. The more I thought about sleeping in the back of the truck with my two kids, the more I didn’t like the idea. There’s just not enough room in there. I like the thought of being able to sleep in my vehicle without having to pull all my gear out to do it. There’s been several times I’ve longed to be able to do this, while sitting out a mid afternoon thunderstorm.

Since the van is lifted with nice 35″ TXR tires, has a very strong running engine and transmission and will need little in the way of repairs right off the bat, I’ll be able to move right into making it livable on the trail and the road. That makes me happy.

Here it is:

What do you think about this? Comments, please!!

I’ve been thinking a whole lot about the post I made a while back, and have decided to stick with the vehicle I have. The truck is just too cheap to maintain, too reliable, and I’ve grown pretty attached to it. So, instead of starting over on a whole new project, I’m going to put the money in the Toyota.

The plan will be to totally go through everything from the ground up. I’ll start with the axles, since they are in need of the most attention at this point. It has some leaky seals and could use a brake upgrade and hopefully some locking differentials as well. I’m going to plan on going with a full locking differential in the rear axle, and a selectable locker in front, but if I can find a couple of factory e-lockers for a good price with matching gear ratios I’ll definitely jump on that. Selectable locking differentials (especially in the front axle) will lessen strain on drivetrain components by acting as an open differential under normal conditions, but at the push of the button I’ll have a fully locked up differential that will not allow a tire to spin seperately of the other side. For a vehicle of the type I am building this is ideal.

Brake upgrades will include the common vented rotor and ifs caliper swap for the front axle, with a newer dual reservoir master cylinder to help squeezing them. The rear axle is a toss up at this point, because I will be swapping in a wider IFS rear axle with bigger drum brakes. I would like to swap to disc brakes in the rear, but I will only do it if I can get it done with a parking brake that will keep the original parking brake cable. I’ve used after market transfer case parking brakes before and I won’t do it again.

Suspension will get some upgrades, I’m looking for around three inches maximum of lift. I’d like to run two sets of tires. Wide 35′s in maybe Toyo flavor, for the trail and then keep the 33′ MT/R’s for the rest of the time. Most likely I’ll go with Chevy 1/2 ton springs in the rear and then swap the rear springs to the front axle after I add a couple of extra leaves to the pack. New shocks and a u-bolt flip kit will finish it off.

Steering upgrades will be huge. I’ll swap in a power steering set up from an IFS truck, then add high steer-cross over steering with 3/4 ton Chevy tie rod ends and billet steering arms. This will be a huge upgrade to the old manual steering box and push -pull steering arms.

From there, I’ll move on to the transfer case and transmission. It’s important to me to keep the bench seat in my truck, so the best conclusion I’ve come up with at this point is to get a tranny and transfer case out of an early nineties truck, and put a 5.0 to 1 gear set in the transfer case, as well as a twin stick shifter. This will give me the ability to have low range two wheel drive, and give me a fairly low final drive ratio. I’d like that ratio to be around a hundred, if I can. The newer transmission will give me a strong 5 speed tranny, a great swap that will make driving on the freeway at 4000 RPM in 4th gear for 600 miles much better for milage and wear.

The engine is still in great shape mechanically, so I’ll give it some upgrades and keep it simple. First will be a weber 32/36 DGV carburetor with a snorkel and upgraded air intake system. The only other upgrade I plan on is to the electrical system. A high amp alternator is a sound investment, I’ve been researching people who have swapped in GM 100 amp alternators and at this time I’m thinking that may be the way to go. Luckily there’s room in the engine campartment for goodies. I’ll be adding a second battery with solar trickle charger, and an air compressor. Hopefully I can find a good york compressor at the junk yard, then install an air tank under the bed and run lines forward and aft with quick disconnects to use air tools or inflate tires.

I already have a Warn 9000 pound winch, so in the near future I’ll fabricate up a front bumper for it. While I’m doing that I’ll go ahead and weld up a rear bumper and some rock sliders to protect the doors. Nothing too fancy here, the idea will be to keep it stout and simple. What I have in mind for the rear bumper is to set it up for the option of adding a swing out tire carrier with some jerry can mounts and a mount for the Hi-lift jack.

Lighting is great for those adventures that go into the night. The truck currently has three 12 volt sealed beam tractor lights under the body. One on each side under the door shining down and one facing aft hooked into the back up lights. This set up has proven useful and reliable. Additional lighting I plan to install will be two HID lights on the front bumper for off road driving, LED strip lighting in the camper shell for camping out, and one more sealed beam tractor light facing aft on the top of the camper shell for campsite illumination.

Camper shells are increasingly hard to find for this vintage of truck. I may have to spring for a new model, but I’m attempting to avoid it. For now I will keep my eye out on craigslist and classifieds for one that will work. Once I find one, I’ll add a roof rack to the top with some extra lighting to help out in camp and on the trail.

Moving to interior mods, The cab of the old truck needs some loving. I’d like to get a newer bench seat and have it re-upholstered in some canvas or other durable material. I’ll also redo the carpet and dash, as well us upgrade the control panel in the dash. The new dash panel will house switches for the lights and lockers, a stereo and 12 volt lighter type plug. I’ll also be on the look out for a good quality roll cage for the interior as well.

The bed is going to be my home on many occasions, so I’m going to try and make it pretty comfortable. I’ll do a sleep shelf of some sort, with drawers underneath, but I want this to be easy to remove and place in storage so that I can use the bed for hauling when not in use. Insulating the camper shell and running a couple of stips of LED lighting make sense, as well as installing a power box with a power inverter to run a laptop or blender.

I’m excited about the prospect of actually getting to do some good quality things to this truck. It’s been so great to this point, I’m sure it will last for a long time.

As previously mentioned, I am a bit up in the air over what I want to do for an expedition vehicle to get me through the next couple of years. I love my faithful Hi-Lux, it’s been a great companion on lots of great trips, but it’s getting to be time to do some work on it, or move on to something else. I really don’t have a problem with working on the old Toy, it’s a very easy rig to work on and parts are still very cheap. It’s also quite reassuring to see the very same truck driving around in every country I’ve been to so far. This most likely means getting parts in these places would be not too big a deal.

Now here is where I run into problems. As many of you know I have two kids. My daughter is six years old now and has traveled many places with me since she was about three years old. She was very well potty trained and could talk to me about what was going on, and traveling with her so young was never a problem. Now my son is two and a half years and he will definitely be ready to follow in his sisters foot steps. So that means a minimum of one adult and two kids on a trip in a little truck and it doesn’t take a genius to see that room becomes a problem really fast. The kids gear and clothes don’t take up too much room at this point, and we can all sleep in the bed of the truck pretty comfortable, but the problem is the seat in the cab. It’s tight and not much fun on a long trip, especially ones that are in and out of the cab routinely for weeks at a time like I have planned for this summer and on into the future.

At this point I’m kinda wondering what my choices are, and what I could find to fit my budget. I’ve narrowed the choices down to three of solid contenders and would like to see if I can get some input from friends are readers if at all possible.

The first option is to keep the Toyota truck, make it as comfortable as possible and fix all the little things that have been coming up as well as carry out the upgrades that would make it more capable. This would be the simple is good route that’s been working for a couple of years now.

Second option is to buy and build a friends 1979 Chevy Van. This is no normal van, though. It’s a 3/4 ton 4×4 converted van with an almost new motor that is mechanically as sound as the day it rolled off the lot and is plenty stout. While it’s probably not as capable as the Toyota, with it’s 35″ tires and the addition of a winch and air lockers this rig could go anywhere I would ever really care to go. The real benefit is that there is all that room inside. The van has four captains chairs, which would be just fine for my needs, and then there is plenty of room to fabricate a sleeping area with maybe some type of slide out drawers for storage. The addition of an awning and a roof rack would be about all that would be needed to make for a pretty good trip anywhere. The only thing I’m not quite sure of is parts availability south of the border, but I hope to have a solid answer on that here in the near future from my buddy down in Panama.

Good examples of this are sportsmobile and quigley

Maybe something like this:

Third option is a 1996 to 2004 Toyota 4runner with a V6. These are my favorite vehicles out there right now. The engines are a perfect mix of power and fuel efficiency, the running gear is fairly stout for a newer vehicle, and they are comfortable to ride in for hours at a time. Parts are everywhere here in the US and as far as I can tell in most places south of the border, which is a good deal. The only real set back I see to these is that they are a little small on the inside, and fitting three people with gear could be a concern. A build up would probably include a roof rack, and definitely include an e-locker and suspension lift, with some 285′s, as well as a winch on a warn front bumper and some other good armor. This would also be the most expensive route, I would add.

So there you have it. These are the three choices for expedition vehicles I have somewhat decided on. Let me hear what you think about my ideas, or just tell me I am totally off, and what you think I should do. I hope to have something at least in the starting stages of development by June of this coming year, so the time to decide this is now. What do you think?