Homage to Sunny

rich

rich

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Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
463
Hello Everybody,

Life got busy and I haven't been posting for a while but I'm back. I have had the new truck for a year now and haven't posted a shot. So here is the new Tundra with our '89 fleet on it but it's not your average '89 Fleet we have redone almost everything including the nice new siding and roof courtesy of ATC. If you want to see what the camper used to look like it is the same camper as the one in my avatar. This shot is an homage to the classic Sun Man shot in this same area. When I get more time I'll try to throw up some trip reports.

gallery_236_340_299621.jpg
 
Very nice, Rich. Looks like the truck is a limited edition. Sweet. We find our new Tundra, even with the 5.7 engine, gets better mileage than our old one truck. I guess it is because the engine isn't working as hard. You are going to have to change your avatar and signature now. :D
 
Good to see you back Rich, nice shot and congrats on the new rig. Nice to see you made it up to the "ridge". Look forward to the pics as we did not make it up that way this year.
 
Nice combo. Mud looks great and the backdrop is...awesome. We are sipping our morning coffee right now, it's cold and rainy/snowy and we're kind of depressed now. Thanks. I just mentioned to her that it's only a 2 day drive if she wants to quit her job!
 
Very nice, Rich. Looks like the truck is a limited edition. Sweet.


Good eye ted it is a limited. It is far more truck than I thought I was going to get but I was at a friends wedding in Portland and found it on auto trader out in Idaho. It was a cheap ticket change to move my flight from California over to Boise instead and a beautiful 10 hour drive through the desert home. The folks in Idaho really didn't appreciate what this guy had done to his truck so he was having trouble selling it there. I got it for $4k under blue book. Even with the nightmare of bringing an out of state truck into California (which I will likely never do again) I still came out ahead and I love the truck.
 
Good to see you back Rich, nice shot and congrats on the new rig. Nice to see you made it up to the "ridge". Look forward to the pics as we did not make it up that way this year.


Thanks Sunny,

It was packed up there the weekend we went, we got one of the last sites available. I met a guy who had driven in there in a 2010 Nissan Z. He was crazy, it's not that bad of a road but it was rutted up pretty good for a Z, he said his Mom was from Wyoming and taught him how to drive like that. He had rooster tails of mud running up both sides of his expensive sports car so I gotta hand it to him, most guys with those cars don't let them get more than 5 miles away from the detail shop.

We also drove the old coast road and got a backside view of the Bixby bridge which was awesome! The only real bummer is that Big Sur is the least dog friendly place I've ever been. You really can't take your dog on any of the trails so we were stuck walking dirt roads instead of exploring the parks.

All and all a great area and we will definitely go back.
 
The new siding and roof look great! Ditto on the Tundra, but now you are a target for running board jokes.


LOL - true but they did help me getting in and out of the truck when I injured my back recently so they aren't all bad
 
So what kind of mileage do you get with this rig.

I have a new 2011 Tundra and will be ordering a Grandby this month for spring delivery. Kind of curious to see what difference the FWC makes. The mileage with the truck alone is pretty impressive - almost right on what Toyota advertises.
 
The entire Ventana Wilderness allows dogs, where the vast majority of trails are in Big Sur. I have probably hiked hundreds of miles back there with dogs.





Thanks Sunny,

It was packed up there the weekend we went, we got one of the last sites available. I met a guy who had driven in there in a 2010 Nissan Z. He was crazy, it's not that bad of a road but it was rutted up pretty good for a Z, he said his Mom was from Wyoming and taught him how to drive like that. He had rooster tails of mud running up both sides of his expensive sports car so I gotta hand it to him, most guys with those cars don't let them get more than 5 miles away from the detail shop.

We also drove the old coast road and got a backside view of the Bixby bridge which was awesome! The only real bummer is that Big Sur is the least dog friendly place I've ever been. You really can't take your dog on any of the trails so we were stuck walking dirt roads instead of exploring the parks.

All and all a great area and we will definitely go back.
 
The entire Ventana Wilderness allows dogs, where the vast majority of trails are in Big Sur. I have probably hiked hundreds of miles back there with dogs.


I read the same thing about Ventana before we left but from what I could tell most if not all of it was landlocked by the parks so you had to travel through the parks to get to it. I read a bit on the parks website that if you had a multi-day backcountry permit with you then you could have your dog on leash on the park trails to get to the Ventana wilderness boundary but we were just on a quick 3 day trip.

If there are some good dog friendly hikes down there I'd love a tip because we will definitely be going back.
 
So what kind of mileage do you get with this rig.

I have a new 2011 Tundra and will be ordering a Grandby this month for spring delivery. Kind of curious to see what difference the FWC makes. The mileage with the truck alone is pretty impressive - almost right on what Toyota advertises.


Mileage is a mixed bag with this truck but the FWC makes almost no difference to it at all. In my T-100 the camper really knocked the mileage down but it was a bit underpowered for the job. The 5.7 with the new frame and suspension on the newer Tundras doesn't really notice the camper. I have airbags mostly for safety but I don't think it needs it for the weight, I have them mostly to prevent excessive body roll in the event of evasive maneuvers.

On long hauls on the highway I can get it up to 15.8 MPG according to the on board computer and 16.2 according to my own calculations so the computer seems to be set at accurate to conservative. I live in a small mountain town so it is mostly driven on back roads and hills and for that kind of driving I get 13.3 MPG. When I put the camper on it drops to 13 so I'm losing .3 miles to the gallon with the camper on which is negligible in my opinion. The mileage overall on the truck leaves a lot to be desired but I just couldn't handle the racket of the diesel since this is my daily driver. I tried hard to buy the diesel but couldn't do it. In a few years once the new fords with the super quiet diesel have been time tested and come down in price I might revisit the diesel idea.

If I leave the truck in my wife's hands for a week I'm sure it would come in at higher than the 13.3 but I like my 5.7 liter engine and I have trouble keeping my foot out of it :)

I have a degree in environmental studies and run my own green real estate brokerage so my other car is a Prius and I use that to assuage my guilt over blowing a bunch of dead dinosaurs out the tail pipe just because I love to hear the rumble and get a kick out of a truck that will actually roast the tires and pin my head back against the seat. I guess I haven't left all of my 16 year old self behind :)
 
I find it encouraging that the FWC doesn't reduce the mileage substantially. Our Tundra was new this spring. I think Toyota has improved the mileage a bit. After about a 7000 km break in period, I measured the mileage at 23.9 mpg. That's in imperial gallons so it would be about 19.9 in US gallons. I have a streamline cap for the back which might help a bit but I was carrying about 800 lb in the back and it was in the mountains. Toyota advertises 24 mpg highway up here in Canada. My onboard computer estimated exactly the same which was interesting. I was also trying to as efficient as possible and wasn't using cruise. What was interesting about the onboard computer estimate was that although the mileage was accurate, the tank still had about 3 gallons in it when the 'estimated remaining distance' was at zero. Seems like Toyota has thought about letting us get too close to zero.

If I can keep the mileage over 20 mpg Imperial with the FWC on the back, I'll be happy.

I had the dealership install the TRD rear sway bar and Bilstein shocks. This makes the Tundra a much better tow and backcountry truck than my old Dodge.

Oh, ya! My other car is a Corolla. You're right, it reduces the guilt :rolleyes: .
 
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