Manny's Vicarious Adventures

Going to return Hellas. Lights are OK, but wiring harness/relay/light mount is too cheesy. Going with these: http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/1055940/00166
I can get 30% off for a total of $103 for the pair plus they are 100W and I have room to add a pair of 5" Apollo 55W spread beams which go for almost the same price. Should of went this route first. Hellas quality isn't like it used to be. KC has always been reliable. Harness is pre-terminated like my PIAAs were.

 

Rudy just left. Bought my bull bar. Drove all the way down from Ft Morgan. 13 CM Limited. $36K with very low miles. Bought 1794 rims/tires off a Ft Carson soldier(freedom fighter) .Yes he drove that far. $1K for the set. Pull offs the best deal. Showed me his CCP and .357 mounted by his seat. Told him about this forum. Has a problem with his "factory" hardware for his fiberglass tonno. Told him to take a pic and send it to me and more importantly sign up for better response.

 

Hey Matt, Your ride is looking sweet! I lost contact with you and was hoping I might hear from you again (initially from Craigslist). This is my first post on this forum but not quite sure if it's possible to PM and I have no email address to contact you. I have some great news...bought my first Tundra today! I'm looking forward to getting some feedback from you and others on how to dress it up a little! Jim

 

OK..................First of all it was very lame that I was promised these bumpers and were sold to someone else for less. Maybe the seller was on meth since his spelling on Craig's List was 6th grade. My main goal was to get possession and maybe turn a profit. I was ready to pay $800!! I knew that if I were going to actually use them I would have to upgrade my front suspension because the front bumper weighs about 220 lbs. The rear bumper is very tough and well built and good for recovery or pulling stumps. After seeing a Ranch Hand sport rear bumper up close, I decided that is what I want. Quite frankly if you live in the great white north, you would want to retain the front bumper as is. Moose proof. The bumper is quite massive. I would probably cut all the tubing off to lose a few lbs. This set is worth as is $ 1500 easily. Movin on.............

 

Update............. I have a new picture of my grille with KC Hilites Apollo Pro 6" with 100 watt spot beams.

Oops wrong grille.(this particular Jeep has the ideal four beams mounted) Thinkin about running with this same set up although high maintenance.






Grille pic #124. Will mostly likely put two 5" Apollo Pro 55 watt spread beams between the two 6" inchers which will be more than enough light. Maybe tempted later to try out a led light bar mounted just below the top lights.

 

Reserved the KC Hilites 55 watt Apollo Pro 5" spread beams and Pro Comp 20K lb 20ft recovery strap for only $32 with discount. (already have a 30 ft) Pick them up tomorrow. With PepBoys special 35% discount, the lights are are only $94 +tax. Need to make another run to Ranch Hand Truckfitter's store in the Springs to pick up another light bracket set. Might as well get this grille/light setup the way I want it before I move on to something else bigger.

 

Figured I might as well do this mod. I'll pick these up at ACE after work and install:

$7.99 mod + 10 minutes labor

 

My Westin Bull Bar's new home:

13 CM belongs to Rudy. I will bug him some more today to sign on.

 

I picked up the 5" KC spread beam Apollo Pro's and wired up the new harness. Going to the Springs Sat morning to pick up brackets and shoot the sh*t with the Truckfitter store dudes. I took a few picks to show how well made the harness is. There is more than enough wire. No skimping. Had not bought a KC product since 130 watt Daylighters for my new 1976 Bronco. My mistake. Still made in Williams,AZ USofA. Saving for KC light bar to complete the setup. Final price for the KC's were $95 and change. Well worth it.


The supplied relay is incapsulated
I know. Upside down
Proper gauge wires, 3 amp relay excitation voltage fuse and 25 amp relay load fuse
I could string the relay excitation wires/switch almost to the rear of my truck.
More than enough wire. All proper gauged/fuses

 

Those are gonna look good!

 

I really like them. Made of polycarbonate housings which makes them very light weight but still very tough. I was going down to Colorado Springs tomorrow to pick up another set of Ranch Hand light brackets. They are $40 a set plus tax. But... to drive down and back another $20 + in gas, so I went to ACE and looked around and bought some heavy duty .25 " x 1" x 12" steel bracing and fab'd my own brackets for about $17. Very sturdy. The braces are bolted to the mesh grille, like the other brackets, which is made of punched steel sheeting, not expanded steel cheap crap. Won't even flex a little. (Ranch Hand doesn't cut any corners) Will mount the spread beam Apollo's after work. Got some minor tweaking/aligning to do. Need to square it up. Got dark before I could finish. Definitely no vibration with this setup. Zero flexing. Probably overkill, but saved me $40 to be used for something else. (gas).

 

5 inch spread beams installed. Now thinking about installing small LED combo beam cubes below middle side bar/tubing with KC tube mounts. Will have them pointed at 90 degree angles so when I flip the switch I'll have side lighting on each side.


Can certainly tell the difference which lights are flood (middle) and the spots on the ends.
I may get some night shots tomorrow if I decide to go camping overnight.

 

Went up to the MTS today. It's edible mushroom season. Did OK. Will post pics tomorrow of trip and a pic of the mag light mod which is kind of neat. Mod listed on @csuviper mod list. What's really cool is I filled up tank before I left. Drove 132m round trip. Filled tank at same gas station when I got back. 8.02 gallons. 16.5 mpg! That's a first. Didn't push truck too hard going up. Downhill all the back pretty much. No doubt accounts' for good mpg.

 

First time I've ever seen a Ranch Hand on a Tundra. Looks sick!

 

Thanks. Ranch Hand also is now making some pretty decent steps for the 2nd & 3rd gen Tundras.

 

The weekend pics>>>>>>>>

mag light mod. Cheap mod.
Near Echo Lake. 11,000 ft
Echo Lake/my son
Nearby cliffs. There is actually a way to work your way down these cliffs but you can't see it from this angle. I actually was able to make my way down several years ago. Think 2006. Had my dog with me. Had to push her up in several places going back. Won't do that again. Maybe.
Very hazy day and cloudy
Mt Goliath ("only" 12216 ft)/Echo Lake at 10600 ft
Mt Evans/ 14,265 ft. You can normally drive to the top. Highest "paved" road in North America. Closed for guard rail repair above Lincoln Lake. Good idea. If you were to drive off, it's 800 ft straight down a shear cliff. Could ruin picnic plans.
"king" Bolete.Highly sought after edible mushroom. USA's porcini. Can get very large. Boletes do not have gills. They have pores. Most boletes are edible. There are some boletes found near aspen groves that have a yellowish/orange cap and have been known to make some people get upset stomachs. I leave those alone. Boletes are found at high altitudes now, for a few week window. The best. Nothing store bought comes close. Just do your homework before you foray for shrooms.
king B
king B
Large bolete, similar to king B but has yellow pores
Same as above
Hawk's Wing/Piney Hedgehog. Very delicious and good in omelets/stews
Underside of Hawk's Wing. Smaller one. They can get very large too, but can get a little bitterness to them when too big.

 

We actually found one Morel mushroom. Unusual at that altitude. We eat all the mushrooms. I know people who will gather mushrooms and drive on up to Vail and hit up the high end restaurants (pretty much all are high end) and the chefs will pay cash for all of it at the back door. Depending on how the shroom season is, you can get well over $100 a lb for certain shrooms like king boletes. I have harvested boletes that have weighed well over 7lbs, 10 inches across. (shrooms on steroids in CO) Not too many people tell where their favorite "spot" is. If you noticed I didn't go into too detail about exactly where I find mine. I have a primo spot I'm going to next weekend above Central City. I prefer them when they are smaller. Same for Hawk's Wings which quite frankly do not look edible at all but are very good. Truffles can be found here up in the mts., but you can't see them. Found a couple once by accident when moving some dirt/spruce needles. They usually bring the highest price. The French use pigs to dig them up.

 

Do you eat the ones that grow out of cow pies.....?

 

Liberty caps.Hallucinogenic. I was raised on a ranch in western Oregon. College years. heh heh. Colorado has some of the best hallucinogenic mushrooms on the planet. Not my thing. Although they get big money for them too. Not too sure about the legality. They look like the shrooms on Greatful Dead Posters. Big Red cap with white spots. Can't miss it. People foray just for those. Saw plenty of them this weekend.
They look like this:

You do realize that the hallucinogenic effect is caused by the mushroom's poison.

This is what you see when you eat too many of these: dancing and talking inanimate objects

 

One note about Mag Light mod. I had a 2 D cell black one. I had a ACE hardware coupon good Sat only. 50% off any non sale price purchase $30 and under, so I picked up the one in the pic for about $12 and gave my son the black one. I soon realized the one I gave my son had the cree LED and my new one had the Xenon bulb. Dang it.

 

I've never seen any of the mushrooms you've got pictures of here. I don't think we have many kinds in Texas, either that or I don't know where to look.

 

Depends on altitude, climate. Every state has some kind of edible mushroom. If new to the "sport" it is best to go with someone who is in the know. Where I go is the same places I go elk/deer/grouse hunting so I get a good workout at altitude before hunting season. I'll freeze/dry some to use later with game cooking. Check this site out:http://www.meetup.com/Texas-Wild-Mushrooming-Club/

 

Forgot to add these pics:

King Bolete barely popping up. Not easy to see. Got to have a good eye.
Morel (quite rare here in CO)
Close up

 

Those look crazy. I guess I haven't ever eaten any mushroom more interesting than a portabello from target... ha

 

Outside of CO/Rocky Mts, the best area is the pacific northwest up to southern AK. Morels are big time on the east coast though.

 

My dad lives in NW Arkansas and he gets a ton of morel mushrooms. He keeps them for himself. He said in the past year there have been a lot more people searching in his mountains.

 

Check this out: You can see why I was so surprised to find a Morel here in CO at 11000 ft. crazy. Only two spots notated in CO. http://morelhunters.com/