Prepping for the first camping trip of the season!

So Summer break for me officially started about 2 weeks ago and I have been slowly prepping my Toyota Pickup for its first camping/wheeling trip at Uwharrie National Forest. The trip was originally planned with me taking my Jeep in mind, but plans changed, and the Toyota will be doing camping/wheeling duty this go round. Since this trip was a bit of a last minute type deal I have been scrambling to get some work done on her for the trip. The trip is planned for Memorial day weekend so the 25th and 26th. I wanted to finish up wiring up some new offroad lights and build a roofrack before the trip. I recently purchased a Hobart Handler MIG welder so building parts will be a bit easier and the welds look soo much nicer now. I also picked up a bunch of metal yesterday to start on building the rear bumper for a tire carrier and jerry can swingout, but unfortunately it will not be done before the trip. Now that I am on Summer break Expect more updates!

Current State of the little Pickup

So I bought my little Toyota Pickup a little over a year ago. Boy how it seems that I bought the truck just yesterday. The little truck has gone quite a long ways since the day I purchased it. Shortly after purchase I got the truck tinted. I also bought an addicted offroad front bumper and leveled out the suspension a bit. I then later on bought a soft top for her and traded my jeep's rear bumper for a set of 32s and some cash to boot for other upgrades. As she currently sits, I have an addicted offroad front bumper on it, Blitzpro LED light bars, OME lift kit with Marlin Crawler front shackles to level it out, Can-back soft top, herculined inside bed, 32inch dynapro MTs, Alpine Headunit with Kicker 10inch subwoofer, and rockford Fostgate Speakers. I also installed an alarm system with Keyless entry and Remote start on her aswell. I am in the works of purchasing some metal and designing a new rear bumper on CAD to hold a tire and jerry can. More updates to come!

The story of my Little Toyota Pickup

So here is a little overview of my current project and expedition rig, the 1984 Toyota Pickup. A little over a year ago I found myself once again shopping for a good vehicle that I could drive on a daily basis without it crapping out on me. I at the time owned my 1990 Jeep Cherokee which got horrible gas mileage and was nolonger what I considered a dependable daily driver and my only other vehicle a 1985 Firebird was nowhere near the stages of being streetable. So one of them had to go in favor of a more fuel efficient vehicle that I could drive on the 40 minute commute to school and 40 minute commute back. It was a hard decision letting one of my beloved vehicles go, but it came down to which one I had more money into and which one was well actually drivable, so the poor Firebird was put up on Craigslist and then sold the following week to a gentleman in Kannapolis. Now comes the real story, while browsing Craigslist trying to find a vehicle that met my criteria I had little to no luck finding something within my price range. Because of the cash for clunkers program good used cars were harder to find and the ones that were good, the owners wanted entirely way too much for something that had 300 thousand miles on. One such vehicle did catch my eye though, a 1984 Toyota Pickup in next to immaculate condition. The owner had restored the vehicle using all quality parts and this was reflected in the price tag at the top of the page of $9000. It had brand new everything, transmission had been rebuilt, engine was bored out and rebuilt using LCE parts, axles were regeared, the bed replaced with a brand new one, body panels were replaced, and the entire truck and chassis was repainted and reconditioned. The entire suspension and drive-train had been gone through and replaced. I looked the ad over several times and thought about calling the number but knew I couldn't afford anything close to $9000, my budget was a solid $4500 a whole half of what the guy was asking. So I promptly closed the browser and forgot about the truck. A week later on my way to campus still driving my loud gurgling Jeep I stopped by a friend's house to pick up a textbook he was lending me I saw the Toyota Pickup from the ad. It was sitting on the side of the man's house peering though a car cover. Seeing the owner outside washing his other truck, I decided to talk to him about the truck. To be completely honest I had no intentions of ever buying the truck that day, just wanted to know more about it that was all. Anyhow I talked to the owner who was a very friendly older gentleman telling him I had some interest in the truck but could not afford the truck outright on my own. Talking to him you could tell he was passionate about his trucks, I guess he too could tell I had a burning passion for Toyota trucks, and promptly asked if I wanted to take the truck for a test spin. I declined saying I couldn't afford the truck, nor knew how to drive stick. He insisted that I atleast allow him to give me a drive in it so I did. Upon getting back to the house he asked how much I was looking at spending on a truck to which I said $4500 explaining that it was all I had being a college student and after selling my Firebird. He looked me dead in the eye and said if I wanted he would sell me the truck for $4500 that day, but I had to promise to take care of it. So that is the story of how I acquired the truck.


Originally my truck started life out rolling off the assembly line in Japan and then imported to the United States where it was sold at a dealership in Raleigh North Carolina. It was a pretty basic SR5 model 4WD Toyota Pickup with bucket seats. It came with manual crank windows, a full glass in the rear, manual hubs and a limited slip rearend.

Mods the day of purchase:
-2.5inch old man emu lift with HD rear springs
-LCE Header
-LCE Cam
-Rebuilt Engine bored .20 over
-Medium duty Clutch kit
-Axles regeared to 4.88
-Extended Drive-shafts to compensate for the lift.
-Fiberglass Bed from Canada

The following are pics on the day of purchase, yes the tires were tiny but that wasn't a huge deal.

Introduction

My name is Sam, currently I am a student attending UNC Charlotte. I own two trucks that are in various stages of modifications. One is my 1984 Toyota Pickup that I plan on building for mild trail riding and mostly camping and exploring. My other vehicle a 1990 Jeep Cherokee has been my offroad truck from day one and is now pretty much a dedicated trail vehicle. Well those who know me, know that I am a big traveler. I love to travel and explore all sorts of cool new places. Whether its taking long road trips or just exploring somewhere local, I love to get out and find cool new places to see. So I started this blog as a little side project, kind of a personal project of mines if you will. I plan on documenting all of my traveling/expedition related experiences. I thought this ought to be a good way of maybe looking back later on and seeing some of my goals come to life. With this blog I hope to share my experiences and possibly inspire others to go out and enjoy the outdoors.