Full-time living out of my 35k mile 1st gen!

Hey Y’all!

After getting back from a 2 month trip in Baja California, Mexico, I felt like there was no one better to share how stoked I am on my truck besides you guys. Thetruck has performed spectacularly, and this forum has helped me since before I even bought it.

I started building it out in January after graduating college with my girlfriend. By the end of February, we had crossed the border over to Mexico, where we spent most days camping and surfing.

The car didn’t see much dirt until Guerrero Negro, where I promptly got stuck in some deep mud looking for a sleeping spot in the salt flat. We got free, and then parked about 50ft away. I should have took that as a sign of impeding water levels, because the next morning I work up in about 1ft of sea water. We had taken the presence of another car as a sign of safety, but apparently they were about 2ft higher than us. After a panic attack from my girlfriend, and me being blessed with some drifting plywood, we managed to get to safety without the sea water submerging any essential components. We got it cleaned in town and stayed inland for a few days after that.

We spent many days ‘off the road’ with plenty of Baja being soft dirt and sand, but nothing too testing until we decided to take ‘El Camino Real’ or the 1 Highway. This is from Scorpion Bay to the East Coast, and looks innocent enough when you route your phone and it casually tells you to take this path. We were told by some local friends to not take ‘La Purimisa’ and by the time we came into town I was too stubborn to take the 4 hour detour around. Well… this path was about 45 miles of rock crawling, cliff hugging, tree scraping fun that took at least 3 hours.

All in all, the truck handled great, didn’t have a single issue (that I didn’t induce), came back with 35k miles on the odometer, and 2 happy campers.

We are currently heading to Alaska for some seasonal work, and then will beheading back South of the border this winter.

Ive been pleasantly surprised by my budget build. I got both my rear and front bumper off another tundra for $1000 right before we left (rustoleum didn’t stop the rust). I did an LED housing swap as well, but rarely drive at night so haven’t gotten to enjoy them much. The camper was less than 5k from USA Campers, with all accessories purchased and installed myself. The interior build was cheap besides the used domestic fridge, the Jackery we already owned, and the 8 inch RV mattress. I got a set of Open Country tires for $250, and haven’t had to do much maintenance besides fluids and the timing belt.

This truck was purchased last year for 10k at about 25k miles. Bring a trailer might have won if it wasn’t my dream truck.

 

That's some good livin' right there!!!!!

 

That is Spanish for "The Punisher"

Sounds awesome. Keep us updated with pics and vids

 

I think that may be a typo, i.e. M and S reversed (La Purisima, "the purest"), which is a town SE of Scorpion Bay where you can tee into the 1.

Either way, the sleeping arrangements look awesome! Sounds like a killer trip. Wish I'd done more like this when I was a younger man.

 

Damn son. Stick around.

 

That's awesome. How's the interior set up?

 

Is that sunset pic. with the dock taken at 'The Old Mill' in San Quintin ???
If so, that place is cool . . . been there several times trailering a boat & enjoying some great fishing.

Sounds like you're doing it right ! Enjoy.

 

Wow that's awesome, I'm jealous. I wish I could get comfortable enough to do that

 

You're very blessed to be able to live this way. Enjoy every moment of it. Thanks for sharing!

 

Enjoy while you can!

 

This kid is living the dream..
God bless him and the lady he lucked into putting up with him...

 

That's fantastic. I would love to see some more interior shots.

 

I admire you and the place your at in life! Enjoy!
Having said that be careful and don't ever get too comfortable down there. I love Baja, its probably my favorite place in the World. My first trip down there was an extended summer trip when I was 13 years young. I have been back many times. I have been every where on both the Sea of Cortez and the pacific side. As I said, I'm very familiar with Baja. On a quick trip to a fishing camp in-between Old Mill and Guerrero Negro, my father and I had decided to go fish the white seabass that had popped on the kelp beds in that region, it was a 14mile trip off the main road on a dirt trail that ended at the camp. At that time I was sponsored by some tackle companies and I had some high end fishing reels I was testing out. I had shown our captain in my naïve enthusiasm, bad move. Long story short, on our way out the following evening, we were greeted by three banditos who had blocked our passage at an area of the trail that was narrow and elevated. as we turned the corner, my jaw dropped at the site and before I could tell my Dad not to stop, I felt the back of my head hit hard against the seat as my Dad (ex-military, ex-cop, fulltime bad ass) punched the gas of his old Toyota p/u and somehow had navigated the front of their truck and the hill it was up against. How we didnt flip over, I will never know. It happened so fast! The next time we spoke, he asked me to tell him if they were in pursuit, I looked back and told him I couldn't see passed all the dirt and flying debris as he was going about 70- 80 miles an hour on this dirt road. Finally, we reached the main road; as the dirt settled, I could see they were gone. We headed straight for the border. My father said we could never tell my mother or wife otherwise we would never be allowed to go back down south! We never told them until years later on his deathbed, while relaying stories of his life. The actual full details are chilling as they had followed us along the different parts of the trail.
*Moral of the story: BE CAREFUL down there. I have been extended so many kindnesses by the people of Baja and Mexico in general but always be ready and cautious! Rare, but when it goes bad, there's little if any help. Sorry for the long story.
Oh, about a year later in the Western Outdoor news, Fred Hoctor (writer of Baja Beat) wrote a story about two Americans that had been jacked of vehicle and possessions- in the same vicinity, one killed the other survived and made it out on foot.

 

Pretty simple. Big bed, small fridge, and a pullout kitchen

 

It is! I did my first fishing trip there and caught like 8 yellow tail

 

Just posted one, but not much to see. Basically just a big bed and storage

 

Looks good!!

 

Nice !
I recognized the cinder cone / volcano or whatever they are called.
There's a lot of interesting history there . . . as well as the area being super fertile for agriculture.
Some of my friends would hunt black brant geese there back in the late 80's / early 90's . . . really good hunting.

Interesting trivia . . . . When it used to be called 'The Old Mill' the owner was 'Al Gaston' the inventor of the 'Black Box' used in the airline industry.
He was a really cool dude . . . his daughters worked there as well. When you'd be eating dinner in the restaurant , he'd come around to each table and ask how everything was . . . he'd say things like, "Do You Need Another Steak"??? , or "Would You Like Another Lobster Tail"???? . . . then he'd yell out to one of the waiters / waitresses and say, "Bring another steak / lobster tail to this table" !!!!

Lots of good times there !!!

 

(1) That Baja Beat website is amazing, I want to order some of his books.
(2) Thanks for sharing that story of your dad—what a boss.

 

-The Western Outdoor News was the Source back in the day. Fred Hoctor was the man, keeping us apprised of the latest info in Baja (I imagine he's long passed now, RIP).
Thanks Brother and your welcome, I will never forget that day and still can see their stern faces, there were three man, all three were out of the vehicle with their hands extended (in standing push up position). Looking back, I think Centrifugal force (or Devine intervention) kept us from flipping!
Thank you for the kind sentiment about my Dad- he really was a Boss!
*Just for reference, this would have been 1994- 1996 era somewhere around Castro's camp.

 

Not sure if y'all saw that in the same vicinity I mention in the story, three surfers were just killed last week. Apparently they were either wanting their tires or their entire truck. Crazy coincidendence. That northern Baja area south of Ensenada is very Dangerous, please beware. They shot all three surfers in the head and threw them down a well. More info can be Googled as this is a current investigation.

 

I saw that story. Horribly sad. I'm guessing they felt they had safety in numbers. Clearly not. I'd like to visit someday but it doesn't seem like a place I could take my wife.

 

I saw that and actually saved screencaps of it on my phone to share here, for exactly that reason. I just never got around to sharing, but here they are, along with the burned pickup they died trying to prevent being stolen, which led to them being shot and dumped in a well:

​

 

Horrible! I could not believe the news just a few days after I posted my story here. Happened in the same area too. My uncle always wanted to blitz right thru that northern Baja area. We would unofficially start our trips around Guerrero Negro ( about midway on the Pacific side), i think he knew this was a bad area. I told my Girlfriend about my post and seeing the story of the surfers, I couldn't believe it- so damn sad. I will never forget the one banditos face, I can't explain it, he didn't look human. He had a dead and emotionless expression on his face. I always felt at best we were going to be jacked and left to fend for ourselves but no telling how things would have played out. Over a damn set of tires or the truck....three lives seems a rediculous price. I'm just thankful they were too stupid to burn the surfers phone which Ultimately got them caught. Usually not the case.