A Not So Brief History

I've always liked to travel, specifically driving to places, remote places. Motorcycling is

actually the best, you can taste the locations as you pass by. However, traveling by motorcycle is not, at this time, a viable option what with 2.5 kids, a wife and a 100lb dog. I like the idea of an RV, but they are too much investment for the limited time that I have available to travel. Speaking of investment, when we do travel we usually camp (hotels are expensive). So a vehicle that would be large enough to travel with the family, but not so big it couldn't be a daily driver, lend itself well to modifications to handle any road, trail, camp, etc, and be reliable is the idea.

I used to have a Toyota Tacoma;

Tuffy the Taco getting ready to school some Land Rovers!

I had modified it with; a 2.5" Daystar spacer lift, Rancho RS5000's all the way around, 32"

BFGoodrich Mud T/A's, a composite toolbox, and lots of recovery gear.

I liked the Tacoma a LOT!!! On the outside it was small enough for off-road trails, easy to

find accessories for and reliable. All in all, a very capable daily driver and trail vehicle.

I did not like the fact that as the kids got bigger than toddler size, the small back seat (and

that's being generous, more like back bench) did not suffice for trips of any length of more than

about thirty minutes.

I really wanted to work around the occupancy issues and try to make this vehicle

accommodate my idea of an expedition-type truck, however the lovable "Taco" fell victim to

the dreaded debt-to-income Nazi, aka the wife (Luv u Honey! :-)) when we were

looking to buy our first house. It really wasn't practical for the size of our family anyway and

thus, had to go.

Later on as things settled and we had been in the house a while, the vehicle issue reared

it's head and we had a short-lived affair with a Tacoma Double-Cab 2wheel-drive (but with the

locker). It worked until we had the nephews over and realized to go anywhere all together we had

to take two vehicles. Guys you know what happened next: The ugly mini-van question reared

it's head! NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily our savior came in the form of a

2005 4wd Pathfinder.

The Pathfinder has been a great little vehicle. It is able to handle moderate trails, carry the

family and all our gear on extended camping trips, but it has officially become mama's.

(Big Bend National Park, Texas)

With the Pathfinder shanghai'd, it seemed as though I would be left to suburban vehicular

mediocrity. Then by a twist of fate, a 2010 Toyota Tundra CrewMax 4x4 landed in our

driveway, and that's where the real story begins,... in a later post.