3000 miles of winter in 2weeks?

[liljlandon]

Come April of 2010 (long ways away, i know) I get to have my grad present. Ive thought long and hard on it, and at this moment the most feasible thing to do is drive up and around lake superior and back home.
Google Maps
I plan to do this as the spring thaw begins, atleast i think. Im not to versed on Canada winter/spring. Around here we usually get one last snow in early april.

The passenger includes the missus, which I plan to propose to on this trip and our over ambitous dog who has to pee every five minutes.

Being a truck with two passengers that need to stop every 5minutes I want backroads. I plan to get lost once or twice, adn thats where you guys come in.

I need a self sustaining vehicle, and i believe mine is as capable as anyother toy.

Have;
84 Lux'
22R
Aussies F/R
Custom Rear bumper
Elec Fan
31's
What I have in progress;
Roll Cage
Sliders
Front Winch Bumper
Low profile Skidplate
What I think I will need;
More lights
Better heating system
Some type of RTT or In bed tent.
Winch
GPS
Multiple batteries
Lots of ibeprofen

The missus requires it to be warm at night, and the dog needs more move room. Im thinking i can make a canvas camper top using my rollcage adn some of Grandmas legendary sewing.

That leaves me to find an alt. mounting spot for the spare tire. I do not want it in the factory location, as i plan to put an Alt. Fuel cell there. Im thinking about beefing up my tailgate and mounting it there. Has anyone done this?

On the course of winches. Would you guys recomend Elec vs. Hydro? Ive never seen a Hydro one ran on a Mini. Is there a reason for this? It needs to work in COLD conditions and preferably have decent line speed so i can be warmer!

GPS is amust have. Is it cheaper to go laptop or personal?

Ill have redone my tires again, and will for the 3rd set in a row have a TRXUS. They are legendary in the snow.

Is the engine going to beable to stand the conditions? Im going to get a block heater for sure. I plan to run it off of a remote deepcycle battery.

Alt. energys? Can solar power be utilized on my college budget?

Lastly, is it hard to get into canada? I can legally drive over there correct?

Im only 17, have dreamed of Austrailia since I was 6, but have had the real world thrust at me a little to quick for that to happen...

Thanks guys! Im positive I will have more questions later!

 

[justbecause]

-im new to the toyota stuff- and i know NOTHING about snow... (deep south we dont get any of that stuff down here)
i have a question to you... where did you find a girl that is willing to drive through what sounds like a frozen hell (dont get me wrong id give both balls and a leg for an adventure like that) but you cant argue the conditions are guna be rough... back to the question where do i find this type of said girl (does yours have a sister?)

good luck getting it done!

(something i do know a little about, you gota get something bigger than 31s lockers will get you a long way but if you cant get rubber to terrain nothing else matters)

1 last thing if you start makin yr way to Australia hollar back at me ill help out with fuel money!

 

[liljlandon]

Although I agree with you on the bigger rubber parts, I pride my stock looking toyota because of what it will do. Although, I admit, I would love to go bigger, I just dont want to get into regearing the diffs an such yet! Im thinking about 4.56 or 4.88 as a possibility after everything else is done!

*Adding a question;
Is it worth it to go lower in the tcase? Its snow so Im thinking not. But she did mention MOAB...

ZRHEARD: Will do, but Im hoping to land a big job in Toyota, So i might go over there for free

 

[Hank]

You can drive around Superior in a station wagon in April. It may snow, it may not. You will want a passport for you and the missus. You will need a bit of paperwork on the pooch to get in to Canada also.

Canada
Tips for Driving Across the U.S. Border into Canada - Travel Tips for Crossing the U.S. / Canada Border
Canada Pet Passport Dog Immigration Quarantine Travel Information

Those links should help. Don't worry about 31" tires. They will be fine. When it REALLY snows up there 40's won't do crap for you.

 

[justbecause]

i thought about something last night, old military trucks had a solar charger for their batteries they called it trickle charge
might be able to find one of those old systems pretty easily on e-bay or maybe someone in the 24 volt section will know more about it

 

[liljlandon]

You can drive around Superior in a station wagon in April. It may snow, it may not. You will want a passport for you and the missus. You will need a bit of paperwork on the pooch to get in to Canada also.

Canada
Tips for Driving Across the U.S. Border into Canada - Travel Tips for Crossing the U.S. / Canada Border
Canada Pet Passport Dog Immigration Quarantine Travel Information

Those links should help. Don't worry about 31" tires. They will be fine. When it REALLY snows up there 40's won't do **** for you.

Thanks, It may be pushed into december though... (im hoping... Shes not so sure...) The dog should be good on everything!

i thought about something last night, old military trucks had a solar charger for their batteries they called it trickle charge
might be able to find one of those old systems pretty easily on e-bay or maybe someone in the 24 volt section will know more about it

Well, I was thinking on this too... It would be to much of a hassle to deal with. So im thinking about running a 3 Batt setup.
One is engine only. NOTHING else.
Two is oil heater, acc. lights, acc. fan, etc.
3 is going to be a deepcycle that can be ran down to nothing and charged back up ALOT that way i can run a heater for the majority of the night.

I came up wiht a cool tire rack, now i need to decide to put one or two on it!