The delay in our work schedule actually comes at a perfect time, as October has traditionally been the month Denise and I take off with my sister and her husband for our annual camping trip. We’ve missed a number of years recently, so we were happy to make this trip-and we needed a few days off too!
First, the Mud Taxi was in dire need of some attention, so I had a couple days worth of work to do on it. I finally finished the windshield washer project that @monkeyswrench and I have been working to put together over the last month or so. And it came in handy on this trip for sure! I’ll have to do a follow up post on that.
Another item that really needed attention was the mud taxi’s auxiliary fuel tank that resides between the frame rails under the floor. Because the explorer gets such terrible fuel mileage, and comes with a fairly small factory gas tank, years ago we had found a spot on the vehicle to install a custom built gas tank that holds about 8 gallons. It is perfect for extending the vehicles range when exploring Far off places that are nowhere near gas stations.
This gas tank needed a new gasket installed on the filler cap, as gasoline had completely destroyed the old rubber gasket. And-as I would soon find out the hard way, the fuelline from its fuel pump to the transfer port had gone completely rotten, making it less of a fuel line and more of a soaker hose.😬😬
Here’s what the auxiliary fuel tank looks like all put back together and it’s leaky fuel lines repaired.
The fuel pump that is dedicated to the auxiliary gas tank pumps fuel up to an AN port that is located next to the factory fuel filler behind the door. Here you can attach a short piece of hose to either fill another vehicle or put the hose in the factory, filler neck, and trans fill the vehicle.
After a bunch of maintenance and then packing the poor mud taxi over full of camping gear, it was ready to go and so were we. Unfortunately, the mud taxi is really geared toward traveling in the dirt and is no longer really well suited due to its age for extended freeway travel. So it has become a little bit of a trailer queen.
On this trip, we would also be taking one of our ranch dogs – Hulk-to go camping with us. Hulk is a girl dog and earned that name when she was born Green. That’s another story for another day, but it turns out that Hulk really likes to go camping and travels surprisingly well for a dog that is used to roaming free. She’s great company.
Hulk weighs in at nearly a hundred pounds, so I’m not really sure how it is that she fits in the tiny space allotted to her in the truck, and I really don’t understand how it is that she’s comfortable, but she seems comfortable and loves going with us and pouts whenever she doesn’t get to go. Seeing as I’m a big pushover when it comes to her, we take her whenever we can. 😄😄🤷♂️
And now, here are random pictures of our little adventure!
Here is a cool old cabin/tack shed/corral ruin site:
I’ve got some more pictures I’ll add later when I get a chance.