We’re excited to “officially” transition to our new adventure rig, although it hasn’t really been much of a secret if you follow us on Facebook. Before I get into the details, I’d like to discuss a few things about our “old” truck, which has been called several names over the years: Expedition Machine, Bush Pig, Tripod, to name a few. Well, it will be retired this summer and eventually put up for sale.
It is still running strong and has never let us down or left us stranded over the ten years we’ve owned it, and I mean that quite literally. It’s been an amazing machine and allowed our family to explore large chunks of North America, including the Arctic Circle in Alaska, the red rocks of Moab, and Colorado’s Alpine Loop – and all corners of BC of course.
As much as we love and will miss this vehicle, it has rolled over 400,000 kms and it was time to come up with a new vehicle plan to carry us forward the next decade…
That brings us to our new truck… We considered a few options, although the field was limited as we now have four kids who come along with us on our travels. Toyota has some strong contenders, between 80 and 100 series Land Cruisers, 4th gen 4Runners with the 3rd row, and even the crew-max Toyota Tundra. Do I dare I say we even looked into a diesel Ford Excursion? So, what did we go with? After being in love with the Sequoia, it was a no-brainer to pick up a newer one. With 8 seats, Toyota reliability, and an even more powerful V8, it was hard to go with any other option! After shopping for months, we came upon a 2010 SR5 4×4 in great condition and relatively low miles. Knowing the market at the time, we jumped on it right away and purchased it the next day. Over the following months we gathered parts and researched the modifications we wanted to equip the truck for our travels.
While the new truck is not finished, it’s coming along nicely and we’ve already hit some trails and been out off-road camping with it several times. The power is insane and the truck feels extremely nimble for it’s size. While crawling over rocks, visibility for tire placement is quite diminished over our previous Sequoia – good thing we always have a few spotters with us! The independent rear suspension, combined with the centre locking differential and traction control, does not seem to hamper it’s ability to mount obstacles, perhaps even better so than the older truck (likely due to better/more modern traction control). Being an SR5 trim level, there was no factory rear airbags to mess around with, which made doing a proper suspension lift much easier. We took a slight hit in payload capacity and fuel mileage, but overall the new unit is working out extremely well.
A modification list for the new ride is available HERE! We hope to see you out on the trails and backroads soon!
EXPEDITION BC 