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Took a 2000 mile trip from Portland Oregon to my ancestral homelands in the tiny remote town of Winifred Montana in my 1990 FJ62!
I heard a strange hissing gurgle coming from my dashboard vents about 100 miles away from home. This ended up being the "swan song" of my AC -- the last noise it made before venting my precious R12 into the atmosphere through a break in the evaporator. My wife and I are the kind of people who will tolerate some discomfort for the sake of adventure so it was windows down from that point forward.
Last fuel up before reaching Great Falls, Montana:
If you ever find yourself in Great Falls, be sure to visit the Sip N Dip tiki bar which has actual mermaids performing in a pool right in front of you!
After Great Falls, it was time to head up to the camping spot in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Central Montana is full of vast, rugged landscapes that are occasionally broken up by evidence of agriculture.
My great-great grandparents built a homestead in this area around the turn of the 20th century. Though they gave it a solid effort, the isolation, poor soil, and harsh winters were unbearable. They eventually moved to nearby Winifred, which had been built at the terminus of the Milwaukee Road rail line in 1913 and became the only town for 40 miles in any direction.
My dad grew up in the area and was so fascinated by the landscape that he became a geologist. Our camping destination was a 3 mile hike away from Bakers Monument, an ancient cinder cone that he surveyed and wrote his senior thesis about. While hiking out to the monument, I found a nice sized chunk of fossilized bone that likely came from a huge predatory marine animal.
Bakers Monument was named after a local outlaw who operated a prolific horse rustling business. He used the monument as a lookout on his way to Canada where he would sell his stolen horses to the RCMP at a premium.
After the camping trip, we took a detour over to Stafford Ferry which uses two winches to carry motorists across a remote section of the Missouri River. The ferry is operated by the county year round and is free of charge -- just drive up to the bank and someone will walk down from the house to shuttle you across.
The dirt out here is a fine powdery clay that turns into a sticky "gumbo" whenever it rains and can make roads completely impassible. If you are able to go however, the views of the Upper Missouri Breaks are stupendous.
I just got back from my trip late last night and am still reeling from the number of repairs to the AC system that I need to make now.
The evaporator core is compromised where the high and low pressure lines feed through the firewall. I haven't dismantled the dash to see how bad the damage is, but it may not be repairable. Anyone know if Toyota is still making the AC evap core?
This totally sounds like me with everything I do in life!
Sure Ed, it's DER-13950 from Summit Racing. I had to make my own brackets to fit it in there. Theres a few minutes worth of 10+% grade on my commute and today I pulled over at the top and hopped out with my infrared thermometer to check temps. I had 190 at the cooler inlet and the fan was running. I drove the remaining mile or so home and the fan was off when I got home. I got some thermocouples and a digital display that I'm going to play with in the next week or so to get some better numbers on temps.
Be sure to swap that pulley. Pretty sure the one you have pictured needs to be swapped w/ the stock single v belt pulley.
Winifred. I drove there once from Arkansas to float the MO River. I'd read a story prior in National Geographic where they interviewed some people in the bar. I went there and mentioned it to them and they had a puzzled look until someone said, oh....those were the people in here with the camera's. A good memory and I'd love to go there again. Was 20 years ago.Took a 2000 mile trip from Portland Oregon to my ancestral homelands in the tiny remote town of Winifred Montana in my 1990 FJ62!
I heard a strange hissing gurgle coming from my dashboard vents about 100 miles away from home. This ended up being the "swan song" of my AC -- the last noise it made before venting my precious R12 into the atmosphere through a break in the evaporator. My wife and I are the kind of people who will tolerate some discomfort for the sake of adventure so it was windows down from that point forward.
Last fuel up before reaching Great Falls, Montana:
If you ever find yourself in Great Falls, be sure to visit the Sip N Dip tiki bar which has actual mermaids performing in a pool right in front of you!
After Great Falls, it was time to head up to the camping spot in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Central Montana is full of vast, rugged landscapes that are occasionally broken up by evidence of agriculture.
My great-great grandparents built a homestead in this area around the turn of the 20th century. Though they gave it a solid effort, the isolation, poor soil, and harsh winters were unbearable. They eventually moved to nearby Winifred, which had been built at the terminus of the Milwaukee Road rail line in 1913 and became the only town for 40 miles in any direction.
My dad grew up in the area and was so fascinated by the landscape that he became a geologist. Our camping destination was a 3 mile hike away from Bakers Monument, an ancient cinder cone that he surveyed and wrote his senior thesis about. While hiking out to the monument, I found a nice sized chunk of fossilized bone that likely came from a huge predatory marine animal.
Bakers Monument was named after a local outlaw who operated a prolific horse rustling business. He used the monument as a lookout on his way to Canada where he would sell his stolen horses to the RCMP at a premium.
After the camping trip, we took a detour over to Stafford Ferry which uses two winches to carry motorists across a remote section of the Missouri River. The ferry is operated by the county year round and is free of charge -- just drive up to the bank and someone will walk down from the house to shuttle you across.
The dirt out here is a fine powdery clay that turns into a sticky "gumbo" whenever it rains and can make roads completely impassible. If you are able to go however, the views of the Upper Missouri Breaks are stupendous.
I just got back from my trip late last night and am still reeling from the number of repairs to the AC system that I need to make now.
The evaporator core is compromised where the high and low pressure lines feed through the firewall. I haven't dismantled the dash to see how bad the damage is, but it may not be repairable. Anyone know if Toyota is still making the AC evap core?
I have the adjustable tuff dog steering damper. How do you like the shocks?
I think they're great. I've got about 14k miles on them and no complaints on road or off. They are quite a bit heftier than the stock shocks and seem to do a great job when loaded up heavy on rough stuff and still ride nice on the road.
