Happy New Year from Expeditionr
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Well it’s officially 2013 and time to ring in the new year with some new content. I have several alteration projects lined up for our demo vehicle, Dirthog, all of which provide the FJ Cruiser with some very useful upgrades. There are a few newer projects that are still in the ground-work phase while others are near completion or completed. Due to an overly hectic holiday schedule and other time constraints, the written portion of these projects has been somewhat delayed but should be available soon. I don’t want to go into too much detail just yet but I hope you’ll be just as excited as I am to follow along with us once the project details and photos are ready to go. That being said, I opted to do something a little different for this post. Yes, that’s correct. Poetry. In the spirit of the new year, here’s a little poetic prelude to the forthcoming upgrades. Enjoy!
Expeditionr Reveals Secret Identity of Newest Family Member
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Although some of you are already aware, I thought I’d share some recent news with the more extended Expeditionr readers out there. In case anyone is confused as to the status of our immediate family here at Expeditionr, there are actually two families to speak of: 1) those of the human variety and 2) those of the mechanical or automotive variety. While we had an addition to the human team just over two years ago, the more recent news involves a new addition joining the automotive side of the house. This newest member, who shall remain nameless for the moment, has been drafted to the automotive team in order to provide two much needed services – towing and hauling. So as fate would have it, even though this recent turn of events was more coincidental than planned, the timing worked out quite well and our new member is settling in quite comfortably so far, quickly building a foundation of loyalty through steady and reliable contribution.
Expeditionr Goes Green
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This is just a quick update for any readers who may have visited recently and found the site in a state of transition. It’s been over a year since the last major overhaul to the Expeditionr web site, and I’ve been wanting to upgrade some of the site options for several months now. In keeping with the seasonal changes, I decided to do some Spring cleaning and spent the last few days updating the site software to incorporate a brand new “green” theme. This update serves to spruce up the site’s outer shell significantly from a visual perspective and provides some brand new features that should make visiting a bit more interactive.
Expeditionr and Software Application Upgrades
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Unlike my other blogging sites, Expeditionr is the one place that tends to leave technology in the dust. To be more specific, the topics of conversation at Expeditionr tend to focus more on mechanics and mud than on database applications and web design (welcome to my alter ego). But on occasion, despite my efforts to keep these worlds apart, I find the two areas unexpectedly overlapping in a Venn diagram like fashion. The last 10 months or so have been fairly occupying between work and software projects, so I haven’t had a lot of extra time to detail and document here at Expeditionr. Like the content, software updates to the site have also been lacking, potentially exposing the site to exploitation. Luckily, a recent reduction in life’s pace allowed me to return to writing, albeit on a limited basis. The extra time also allowed me to update the site software and various software modules behind the scenes. Now that things are a bit more caught up around here, I’m able to return to my regularly scheduled content updates. Or at least that’s the plan for the moment.
Pads and Canvas: Rain-Proofing Metal Tech’s Tube Doors
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The Coal Mine Cruiser Classic (CMCC), is an off-roading event for Toyota Land Cruisers held annually at Rausch Creek Off-Road Park (RCORP). Like the FJ Northeasters (FJNE) event, the CMCC attracts a wide variety of folks, both new and old to the off-roading community. The entrance requirements are a bit more stringent than some of the other sponsored events, but it’s still a whole lot of fun and a great way to meet people with a similar interest in this type of activity. It was during the second day of the 2010 CMCC event, when I discovered that heavy rain and Metal Tech tube doors should not be mixed. Having purchased my Metal Tech tube doors only weeks prior to the event, I decided it would be simpler to remove my stock doors, prior to my departure for the event. So with the stock doors tucked away safely in my garage and the weather forecast indicating only a small chance of rain, I drove the two hours northward to RCORP full of enthusiasm and excitement. In hindsight, I should have been a bit more prepared.
Mettle and Steel: Pushing the Limitations of Driver and Vehicle
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Stepping outside our comfort zone is something that most people will avoid doing unless absolutely necessary. There are those lucky few who seem to thrive by living life on the edge, but for most of us, there’s something truly unnerving about moving into unexplored territory. I guess I’d place myself somewhere in between. I like to push my limits because I feel it improves me as a person and allows me to grow and learn from the experience. But I’m also cautious when I take these steps and prefer to feel my way around before jumping in head first. This is true for many aspects of my life and off-roading is no exception. Every time I push my limits as a driver or the physical limitations of the FJ, I get nervous, but over the years I have discovered a few tips and tricks that help to reduce the stress.
Expeditionr Now Available on YouTube
As the number of Expeditionr videos increase, we decided it was time to put together a section on the site where visitors could view them. So the brand-new Videos Section was born. The main reason we opted for a dedicated section here on the site was to allow visitors to view all Expeditionr-related content under a single roof, rather than be redirected elsewhere. This also allows us to relocate the content in the future without any interruption to the viewers. That being said, for the moment, almost all of the videos are hosted on YouTube. So if you have already have a YouTube account and wish to subscribe to our video feeds directly through YouTube, you can visit our channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/expeditionr. For the remaining non-YouTube users, or those visitors who prefer to visit us directly, all video content will now be available here at the site by clicking on the Videos link in the top menu. All the videos have been added in reverse chronological order making it super easy to view the latest movies. Be sure to check back often for updated content and don’t forget to leave us a comment or two if you’re feeling spunky!
Expeditionr Gets a Voice: New PodCasting Feature Now Available
For those visitors who prefer their content in a downloadable format, Expeditionr has a brand new feature that will make content on-the-go a whole lot easier. Thanks to a recent upgrade, Expeditionr content is now working with Odiogo to provide readers with a brand new text-to-speech option. Thanks to Odiogo’s full-featured podcasting services, every article hosted on Expeditionr will soon have an MP3 streaming option. This is a great feature for the visually impaired visitors or just those folks who prefer listening over reading. Automated audio podcasts have come a long way in the last few years and the end result is actually quite palatable.
For our regular readers, this exciting new feature goes into effect immediately for the latest articles. However older content may take a bit longer to convert, so please be patient with us as we work through the remaining content. If you’re visiting the Expeditionr web site directly and would like to try this feature out, look for the podcast player just below the title of the article you wish to hear. Click the triangular playback button and in just a few seconds the player should begin streaming audio content for that article. It’s just that easy! So now that you’ve heard from us, we’d love to hear back from you. Be sure and stop by soon and check out our brand new podcasting feature and let us know what you think.
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Mods and Ends: A Compilation of Mini-Mods for the FJ Cruiser
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As I head into year five with my favorite mechanical buddy, I am proud to announce that I have officially achieved my goal of bringing this site’s textual content and photos up to the FJ’s current status. I’ve scoured through nearly all of our photographs and can now confirm that I’ve completed documentation on all of the major modifications. There are still a few minor modifications, however, that have remained in hiding thus far. The main reason I have not yet addressed these items is that no one single mod was worthy of an entire article. But rather than just skip these upgrades entirely, I’ve decided to compile them all together into a single mini-mod article. Although a few of the below-mentioned items fall into the pricier category, most of these upgrades are either do-it-yourself type mods and/or modifications that fall into the quick and cheap category. In the end, whether your mods are major or minor in nature, it is the combination of the alterations that makes each person’s vehicle their own. So without further delay, here are a few of mine.
Expeditionr Gets a New Theme
There’s a lot to be said for consistency in life. For a lot of us, the day’s pace is tracked through a step-by-step set of procedures that take us from waking up in the morning to setting the alarm clock again that night. Repetition has it’s place in life but every once in awhile, I like to mix things up a bit and break the trend. In the spirit of adventurism and spontaneity, I decided it was time to change the visual theme of the Expeditionr web site. When the site was originally created back in late 2009, I opted for using WordPress as my blogging engine behind the scenes. I still hope one day to build a fresh site based on my own code, but time is limited and WordPress works quite well. So for the time being, it will remain in place as the foundation for Expeditionr content. In addition to all the other beneficial features of WordPress, the 3rd party support for themes is tremendous. This gives WordPress authors a wide variety of different themes and styles from which to choose. After sifting through several hundred themes yesterday, I finally found one that fit to my liking and the underlying thematic content of the site. So without further ado, I present to you, the recently updated Expeditionr.com!
Expeditionr: Now Available on Twitter and Facebook
This post is for those of you who utilize Twitter and Facebook to keep in contact with your friends, family and other favorite activities. For anyone who is interested in following our progress here at Expeditionr, you can now subscribe to @expeditionr on Twitter for the latest updates. We also have a Facebook fan page now for anyone who wants to follow us there. Alternatively, if you don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, you can always subscribe to our Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed by adding www.expeditionr.com/feed to your favorite feed reader. All three of these methods require an account of some sort, but signing up only takes a few minutes and gives you access to all the other cool features that these services have to offer. Or if you’re one of those types that prefers to keep your web travels to a minimum, you can simply continue following us by visiting this site. Zero hassle with 100 percent of the return.
Every Now and Then: An FJ Cruiser Flashback
As I was digging through photos for my latest articles, I happened across an older directory that has not seen activity since early 2007. I’m speaking, of course, of an image repository that has remained largely isolated over the last four years. Like most things in life, memories fade all too quickly and in our haste to move into the future, we often forget to appreciate the past. I’ve spent the last four years performing a variety of modifications to my FJ Cruiser. Some were minor projects that I completed in less than an hour. Other upgrades required multiple days, even weeks before they reached a state of completion. And though I have yet to reach the solid axle conversion stage, I’d still rate the extent of my particular modifications somewhere between medium and high. It’s quite amazing how the FJ has transitioned over time.
For those of you who have yet to be bitten by the “mod bug”, these pictures might seem all too familiar. But for me, there are a pleasant reminder of where it all began. If the FJ had a story to tell, mine would have started here. I’d had the FJ less than a week when these photos were taken and it brings back fun memories when I browse through the photos. Quite frankly, I don’t remember another time when the FJ looked this clean. I’ve become quite used to the mud and dirt residue throughout. It’s part of history now and a big part of my daily life. From the day I picked it up at the dealer, my enthusiasm for the FJ Cruiser platform has only grown, and I have Toyota to thank for it. So here’s to Toyota for building not just a vehicle, but a legacy that will hopefully continue for years to follow!
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A Name In Vain: The FJ Cruiser Gets Re-Branded
I call this one a mini-mod. It’s one of the few times I’ve actually done something purely for fun. I’ve never owned a vehicle that inspired this much enthusiasm before, so the thought of a vanity license plate just didn’t make sense before now. But after nearly 3 1/2 years and more than 60k miles in the rear view mirror, I decided it was finally time to give my trail buddy a more glorified title – an identity of sorts. I was looking for something fun that didn’t come across as preachy or too obnoxious.
Using the Maryland Vehicle Administration (MVA) online license request utility I began the process of narrowing down my choices, many of which were already taken. In the end though, I think I came up with a plate that fits my FJ’s personality to a “T” and manages to bring a little more life to an already thriving vehicle. Behold my newly re-branded FJ, casually known to friends and relatives as “Chunk”, now formally and officially known as the “Dirt Hog”. It was an exciting day for both of us as we stood proudly with our new name tags.
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Trunk Monkey: A Revolutionary Idea
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I don’t normally segue too far from expeditionary- or off-road-related topics, but every once in awhile I come across something that either makes me laugh or think harder than usual. I realize that everyone’s sense of humor is different, but I thought the following compilation of advertisements might be worth sharing with others since it made me chuckle. The Trunk Monkey ad campaign was put together by the Suburban Auto Group and due to the overwhelming popularity of the ads, many of them have made their way online to sites like YouTube. Whether these are old or new to you, I bet you still get a good chuckle. Enjoy!
Mods vs. Cashflow: How to Benefit from Limited Funds
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Most of the folks I know who spend any amount of time modding their vehicles will tell you, once you start, it’s difficult to stop. I don’t think I’d go so far as to draw up a “drug addiction” metaphor, but for many of us, the modifications tend to grow from minor cosmetic upgrades into full-blown mechanical makeovers. Not surprisingly, the extent of funding available for mods can have a major impact on the quantity and quality of the upgrades selected. But in my opinion, a limited budget can actually be beneficial when selecting and prioritizing which mods are completed, and in what order. In order to encourage others that may be interested in modding on a budget, I’ve compiled a quick summary of suggestions and points of view that might help.
Project Builder’s Block Means No Photos
I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I looked back through our photo collection, only to discover a gap of almost 11 months between FJ Cruiser upgrades. My plan when beginning this blog was to revisit the upgrades as a series of events, chronologically, in a step by step format. Looking back, I now realize that a combination of family, finances, full-time college and work left me little time to fiddle, let alone plan my next vehicle upgrade. So I’m sorry to say you all will have to wait another eight months until I get around to posting more.
Just kidding.
That would be cruel.
Luckily, that gap has long since passed so I can dive right back into the magical madness of modding. I’m off to dig through some more photos to see if I can sort out the dates and times of various upgrades. With that large of a gap there’s going to be some guesswork in the time frames but I’ll do my best.
UPDATE: Okay, after doing a bit more research it seems that I simply failed to capture eight months of upgrades on camera. I thought that was a little odd. I found photos taken in February of 2008 that show several major modifications, mods that would have required additional upgrades prior to their installation. But apparently, I have no photos to prove these mods ever took place. Weird. Since most of the products in question are commercially available to anyone, I’ve decided I’ll just end up adding some photos from the vendors’ site to help illustrate when I need to. Stay tuned for another post later this evening…