Unwired Adventures

Man-A-Fre Land Cruiser FZJ80 Auxiliary Gas Tank Install

Back in October, I had scheduled a trip into the area north of the Grand Canyon called the Arizona Strip. This would be almost a week long with nearly 400 miles of driving off the pavement.

I needed better range than the stock tank and jerry cans.

I drove out to Man-A-Fre and picked up this kit: Man-A-Fre LONG RANGE 24 GALLON 80 SERIES AUXILLARY FUEL TANK

I scheduled an afternoon for the install. It took much longer, see below for more:

Photo of all the parts except for the tank:


Original filler neck needed to be cut to be removed. Note: you need to cut this carefully since part of the bottom is used to connect to the new filler. I disconnected it from the stock tank first before using a cutting wheel. First cut must take place while in the vehicle since it's shape prevents complete removal.


Filler removed:


Switch mechanism is hitting the inside of the fender preventing switching. MAF gave me a bad filler neck:


No worries, Spector off road is not too far away (from my home). I picked up two filler necks from Spector Off Road. The one on the left was ready to install but has no unleaded nozzle restrictor. The one on the right has the restrictor but the previous owner did some modification to it, so I need to get it fixed and installed before my next smog check.


Correct filler neck purchased from Spector Off Road on the left. Bad one from MAF on the right:


Photos of the tank installed. Note: It's a Kaymar Rear Bumper:



Aux tank guage. Manual pump switch to pump gas from the aux tank into the primary tank. When you turn on the pump the yellow indicator light is on. It's odd to see your main tank gauge start rising while you drive.


Pull out to fill the auxiliary tank. Push in to fill the primary tank.


The kit comes with a fuel pump that has no easy way of mounting. So I got a different electric fuel pump from NAPA Auto Parts, part P74019 for less than $50 since it included a better mounting solution. I mounted it near the drivers side rear spring using an existing threaded hole.

All in all, I'm extremely satisfied with how the system works. It's wonderful to have nearly 50 gallons of gas on board. It makes for less worrisome travel with the much longer range.

The system worked perfectly on the week long trip on the Arizona Strip.

Here is the LC in Arizona far away from any gas stations:

My Favorite Photos from our desert camping trips

Lava Tube in Mojave:

Campfire:

Death Valley Racetrack:

Desert Big Horn Sheep:

Morning at Seventeenmile Point:

Another day on the trail:

Ballarat:

Desert Wildflowers:

Forgotten Cemetery:

Mojave Desert and Route 66

We camped at Seventeenmilepoint the first night:

The next day we visited the Lava Tubes:

The Cinder Mines:

We drove about a 1/3 of the middle of the Mojave Road:

We visited the Mojave mailbox and the Toad Shrine:

We tasted a Coyote Melon. It was horrible!:

We camped the 2nd night near the Beale mountains.

The 2nd day, Government Holes:

Bert Smith Cabin
Rock Spring
Goffs and the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association
Amboy

In Bagdad we found this engine on a siding. The door was unlocked, we took a peek inside. The engine was not running, everything was turned on and ready to go:

Then we located Mrs. Orcutt's Driveway:

We finished the trip with Dinner at the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs:

Mounting Hi-Lift on front ARB bumper

I used Fourtreks mounts for mounting the Hi-Lift. I wanted to keep it low, and outside of the passenger compartment.

When I first installed it, I had it angled towards the front (see last photo) but the headlights reflected too much on the jack so now it's all the way on the top.

The photo below was on a 400+ mile week long trip in the area north of the Grand Canyon. The Fourtreks mount to the ARB was solid. Although I needed to add a little bit of Blue Locktight to the Billet Aluminum Wing Nuts to keep them tight. A lock washer would probably solve it was well.

This is what I ordered: Modular Hi-Lift Mounts (1.875" (1-7/8") diameter-With Billet Aluminum Wing Nuts

Wilderness Wireless Internet on OAUSA Tonight

Have you been somewhere, perhaps camping or traveling and you need Internet access or need to make a phone call? Your cell phone or EVDO card has no signal bars and Windows wireless networks is empty of hotspots?

Tonight I'll be discussing this topic on the Outdoor Adventure USA Amateur Radio net on the Keller Peak, California repeater (146.385+ PL 146.2) or on the Internet at Echolink node KE6TZG-L at 7:30pm (Pacific).

We'll discuss several different satellite Internet services, satellite phone services, the SPOT Satellite Messenger and some discussion of using Amateur Radio satellites.

Long lines for the iPhone 3G at the Apple Store in Pasadena California

Many have been line all night waiting for the Apple Store to open. See the sleeping bag, that person was asleep when I took this photo:

Line was all the way around the block:

Windows blacked out before the store opening:

Waiting in line at the ATT Store:

Geese The Next Generation

My photo has just been posted in the LA Times Your Scene Section:

Next Generation

Landtank Seat Modification for FZJ80 Land Cruiser

I used this last weekend to add the Landtank seat modification to our two FZJ80's. It's quite a job so if you need to do it I'd suggest doing them all at once.

Both my wife and I are over six feet tall and the standard seat placement is needs just a couple more
inches.

Here are the 3 seats being modified (one other was done months ago):

Backyard work area:

Drilling out the stock mount:

Track removed. See the roller bearings:

Grinding down the stops top allow the track to move two more inches:

All done, two seats waiting for installation:

Does your seat go back this far?

The first one I did with inferior tools. This time I invested in a good grinder and it made the job much faster, easier and safer.

The extra 2 inches makes a world of difference. Much more space for long legs for both the driver and front seat passenger.

4x4 Automotive Laptop Setup Version 2

I've been running this setup since 2006 with good reliability (photo above is inside a 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80). I'm often asked which applications I'm running, so here they are:

Here's the list of software applications I run on the laptop:

TOPO!: Provides detailed topographic maps. Great for planning trips. Plus most all of the 4x4 trails are included in the maps. This is my primary map when traveling off road. This software is by far the best part of using laptop while traveling on four wheel drive trails. With the laptop's big screen and all the information in the map makes it so easy to find the names of mountains, mines and other geographic features. From finding old railroad grades, old cemeteries and many other interesting things while traveling. The TOPO! maps are images of the original USGS maps including handwritten notes and other information not found in any other mapping software (that I know of).

TOPO! on the left and MS Streets & Trips running simultaneously:

MS Streets and Trips: The latest version has voice prompts for driving directions (while on paved roads).

UI-View: An Amateur Radio mapping, position tracking and messaging application (APRS). With PMapServer7 and Precision Mapping Streets and Traveler.

Gpsgate: This application allows multiple programs to share one GPS. I can run MS Streets and Trips, UI-View, VisualGPSXP, Netstumbler and TOPO! all using one GPS with this program. I use the NEMA logging facility to generate tracks from my travels. NEMA files are also used for Geotagging travel photos.

VisualGPSXP: A software console for the GPS.

Satscape: A satellite tracking program. I use this to be notified of when certain Ham Radio satellites are in range for long distance communications.

RadioMobile: The ultimate tool to model radio coverage. Some examples in my Defcon entry.

GPS TrackMaker, G7toWin and GPSBabel: All the tools to move GPS, route, track and waypoint data between various applications and GPS devices.

CCleaner: Clean up temporary files and many other items in Windows. A real life saver.

AVG AntiVirus: Gotta have it.

List of various hardware for the laptop:

RAM POD III: A very nice laptop mounting system. I modified it slightly. I didn't use the little "fingers" to hold down the laptop. They interfered with opening and closing the laptop. I removed them and used Velcro. The laptop arm can be position over the center console so the front passenger seat can be used.

iGo auto notebook power adapter. A DC to DC power adaptor for the laptop. This eliminates the need for an AC inverter for the laptop.

Sprint EVDO: For high speed Internet access while on the road.

Wilson Electronics antenna: For the Sprint EVDO card. Gives a big improvement in reception.

Ubiquiti SRC: A high power 802.11a/b/g WiFi card used for wireless Internet access.

COMET 7.4dBi gain WiFi antenna: 2.4GHz antenna for the Ubiquiti SRC WiFi laptop card.

Keyspan USB Serial Adaptor: I needed an additional serial port on the laptop. One for the GPS and the other for Amateur Radio gear (Kenwood D700).

During trip planning I'll download waypoints and routes into my handheld GPS just in case I have a problem with the laptop:

Just in case all the technology fails, I bring paper maps and a compass:

Solving the email spam problem

I've had the same email address since 1995. I'm on every spam list.

I've tried everything. Finally the solution, was to let my Gmail account pick up the email from my mail server.

In Gmail it's in the Settings Accounts section.

Then I let MS Outlook pick up my email from Gmail.

This has eliminated almost all spam from my MS Outlook inbox.

I tried several other services, but Gmail has by far the best spam filter. Gmail also filters email attached malware and viruses.