I don’t like what Toyota has done to the 2022 Tundra models with the lighter duty setup and twin turbo V6, so I’ve been looking for a low mile 2020 or 2021 easy fixer on the insurance auction for weeks. But I always got outbid – they go for a lot of money even totaled. I got this one for about half of its retail price.
The truck had only 12,000 miles on it, but it had been in some kind of accident that damaged the right front bumper. Four of the airbags were blown and the right front tire was flat, and the suspension looked like it might be bent – it was hard to tell. And it was missing the keys, so it wasn’t able to start. Other than that, the truck looked new. I didn’t care for the color – white, but it had the limited package which includes quite a few options my current truck doesn’t have – keyless go, leather seats, navigation etc..
Anyway I didn’t have any luck trying to get a transport to Indy, so I had it towed over to a Toyota dealer in Vancouver, Washington ( just across the river from Portland) and had them make new keys for it. They replaced the flat right front tire with the spare. I also had them inspect the front suspension, which I thought might have some damage.
Well they got it running fine with new keys. On the inspection they told me it needed a new frame and new right front suspension. A new frame? Really? They sent pictures and from them it looked like the frame was scratched and the left upper control arm was bent. I couldn’t tell if the suspension mount was damaged, but there was a small dent in the shock mount where the control arm had hit it.
Based on the photos, I thought I could fix it and drive it home. Last Tuesday I bought an airplane ticket and planned to fly out, fix the control arm and drive the truck home. If I couldn’t fix it, well then I’d have to find somebody to transport it, and have to fly back home. The first problem – I needed parts. A control arm is easy to get, but the bolt that holds it isn’t. I couldn’t find one anywhere. Where could I get one in a hurry? Then I had an idea – well I actually have one – on my other truck! I took the control arm and bolt off my 2010 Tundra and wrapped it up in my check bag – as well as all the tools it took to pull it off.
So off to Portland I flew. I arrived at 1 am and stayed in a hotel just 1/2 mile from the dealership that had the truck. I was a little nervous about seeing it for the first time. I walked to the dealer and paid the bill for the keys and the inspection – and we went to get the truck and it wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. The guy went to get a jump box and I started looking at it. The airbags were still hanging everywhere which made the interior look bad. The right front wheel was cocked pretty badly and the bumper was rubbing on the tire.
The guy came back and said they weren’t going to let me drive the truck off their lot – it wasn’t safe. Oh boy. I argued with them for 1/2 hour and finally got them to put a jump box on it and drove it 1/2 mile to my hotel, where I had my tools and the parts. It was a harrowing drive. The airbags were everywhere blocking the steering and the views. The wheel was cocked crazy and the spare tire was rubbing on the bent bumper, and every bump clunked ominously. I was a little rattled.
When I got to the hotel I left the truck running to charge the battery. I got my stuff and checked out and then spent about 90 minutes trimming the airbags out of it. The steering wheel airbag, knee airbag and side curtain bags on both sides. That made it much easier to drive and see. Luckily there was a Harbor Freight tool store another 1/2 mile down the street. I slowly drove it there and bought a floor jack, jack stands and a tow strap. Then I fixed the truck in their parking lot. First I pulled the bumper out using the tow strap on one of their light poles. No more rubbing the tire.
I jacked it up and took the spare tire off, and cut the old control arm off with my battery grinder and a cutoff wheel. This was the point of no return. Fortunately there seemed to be no damage to the mounts – just the control arm and bolt. The new (well new off my 2010 Tundra) control arm went on easily. It only took two more trips into Harbor Freight to get some small items and it was fixed. After the repair the truck drove fine, but still pulled to the right pretty hard. It wasn’t sitting right because the aftermarket tires on it were bigger than the spare.
I decided I needed a new tire – didn’t want to drive 2000 plus miles on the spare. Turns out a tire store a couple miles away had an exact replacement tire. I asked them to put the new tire on and see if they could get it aligned. I could tell the suspension knuckle was slightly bent too, but I couldn’t get one of them right away. They shifted the alignment a bit, said it needed more work to align it, but it was tracking straight.
With that, I picked up some snacks at a local Target store and set out on my 190 mile shakedown run up to my brother’s house in Seattle. The truck ran perfect, and it didn’t pull one way or the other, but every bump told you the suspension wasn’t exactly right. I kept the speed fairly low and made it up to Seattle. I made it, but somewhere along the way I had a scare when alarms started going off like crazy and the truck shut off the cruise control, trailer brake controller, anti lock brakes and skid control. I finally decided that must be because the seat belt was jammed and I couldn’t put it on.
That evening I had dinner with my brother and we went on a nice walk in the city. The next morning I went to a Lowe’s parking lot – all my fixing was near a source of tools – and took the driver’s seat belt apart. In the accident it had worked as designed. An explosive charge had pushed a toothed rod into the retractor gear of the seat belt and jammed it. It took a couple hours to get it apart, and I finally decided to just use the jam mechanism to set it at the right length for me and use it without a retractor. It worked fine for the rest of the trip and my hunch was right – all the lights went off on the dash with the exception of the airbag light.
At that point I had visions of buying up this hot rod car I saw on craigslist and towing it with the truck back to Indy. I had to make a decision that it was just too ambitious to do it. If you see this Jay, sorry, I just couldn’t make it happen.
I started off Thursday afternoon on what would be an epic 2300 mile 2 1/2 day drive back to Indianapolis from Seattle. I stopped off at Glacier National Park Friday morning and then across Montana into North Dakota that evening. On Saturday I drove across North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and arrived at home in Indy at 2:00 am on Sunday morning.
I had a couple near misses going to Glacier. At one point as it was getting dark, I looked down and realized I didn’t have enough gas to get to the park and back out, so I stopped at a lonely station to fill up – still 100 miles from the park. I got into West Glacier at 11:30 pm local time – it had been 150 miles of two lane mountain road blacktop since the interstate. I saw a sign for a National Forest road just outside of the town and decided to camp for the night. Unfortunately it was dark and I really couldn’t see where I was. I know that Glacier is bear country. I decided to park the truck on a dirt road turnoff and sleep inside the truck. It turns out right next to a huge mountain and a beautiful lake, but I couldn’t see any of it. I looked outside and through the trees I could see the sky was clear and had the most beautiful dark starry sky staring down at me.
Before I went to sleep, I had a thought. Last year, Kathy and I got turned away from Rocky Mountain Park because we didn’t have a reservation. Surely they didn’t require a reservation here – it’s so remote… Well I pulled out my phone and had service – I looked up Glacier national park – and no you don’t have to have a reservation for the park, but you do have to have a reservation to drive your vehicle in the park! AAARGH!
I read all the fine print and it said you could get a backcountry camping permit and drive in without a permit. So I thought I’ll just go get a camping permit. They said they sell out early, so I decided to get up at 6 am and go to the ranger station. So at 6 am I awaken in the somewhat cramped back seat of the truck – It was a little cool but not bad. I drove a few miles to the park – nothing was open yet, but there was a ranger under a canopy asking if you had your car permit. I told him no, but I was going to get a backcountry camping permit. He said you can’t drive into the park to the ranger station unless you have a permit. So in other words you can’t get a permit, if you don’t have a permit! This is ridiculous. He directed me to an information area in a parking lot – which consisted of signs that told the same stuff that was on the internet. He also told me I could hike in to the ranger station – 2 miles – if I parked outside the park.
I sat in the information area for about 10 minutes contemplating my next move. I noticed I was next to the employee parking lot. Everybody was just pulling in, backing into a parking spot and going inside what appeared to be an administration building. Some of them came back out and drove into the park. I pulled into the employee parking lot, sat another 10 minutes and drove into the park. Pretty soon I came to the gatehouse – and it was empty! They weren’t working yet. It said you were on your honor system. Well, I had a valid park pass from last year. I drove in. In another mile or so I came to the ranger station with the camping passes. But I was in the park at that point without a vehicle reservation. I decided to drive on.
Glacier national park is connected West to East by a road called Follow the Sun Road. It’s about 50 miles from one end to the other – first starting to follow glacial lakes on either end, then climbing to a high mountain pass and then back down to a lake on the other side. The road and the lakes and the mountain pass were beautiful. I spent four hours on the drive, stopping at various turnouts for pictures and the occasional short hike. I couldn’t find parking at the pass summit where I wanted to hike.
I got out of Glacier on the east side and was immediately met with 10 miles of mountain road construction, which consisted of a temporary, rutted dirt road. It was not the kind of thing I wanted to drive over with a messed up front suspension. I got through it fine but it was 377 miles of two lane road back to the interstate at Billings, Montana. Then another 375 miles to the North Dakota line where I slept at a rest stop in the truck again. With the diversion into Glacier, I drove almost 1000 miles in Montana.
The truck ran great on the rest of the trip. The suspension still needs work. I drove 80 miles an hour most of the way and got between 11 and 14 mpg. I’ve ordered the parts and should have it looking like new in a couple weeks.