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My friends, welcome to this episode of The Outback Gear Review. I hope you all are doing well. Today for this adventure, this is a big one. Because this marks a big change for the channel. That's because this is the very last camp out with the 4Runner. That's right, everybody. It is time to pass this on to someone else. It is time for a different type of overland vehicle. Every couple of years here on this channel, sometimes even more frequent than that, we switch it up. With this adventure, we are camping out in the middle of nowhere, hopefully at a really nice campsite. For now, I need to drive and find that campsite, and I will bring you all back as soon as we find it.
My friends, we have made it to the campsite that I was hoping was available. This place is beautiful. The last time that I did an overlanding trip to this site, it was a long time ago from what I remember, and it was in bad shape. Just tons of garbage. It was unbelievable. Garbage that I'm not even going to talk about because you all don't want to hear it, but it was pretty nasty. Luckily, right now, it is in pretty good shape, which is surprising considering how far out in the middle of nowhere that we are.
Is it really time to let go of the 4Runner? The answer is yes. When it comes to my YouTube channel, every couple of years since I started it, I have switched vehicles. This channel practically started van camping long before it became popular. We had an old Dodge Ram van. That thing was fun. I called it Turtle. It was big and slow, green. It looked like a freaking turtle. We had a Nissan Titan, a Toyota 4Runner, an army truck, a Toyota Tundra. We had an imported Japanese Land Cruiser. We had this. And now, everyone, it is time for something different. Out of all of the vehicles that I've had over the years for the channel, I have to say this 4Runner has been the absolute best.
I really do love this vehicle. And if I wasn't doing YouTube, if I wasn't trying to make interesting content, I would keep it. But, because I do make content for YouTube, it is time to switch things up. For now, everyone, I'm not going to tell you all what I got, but I can tell you this. It is larger than the 4Runner by a lot. I decided to do something that, well, basically to get something that I've always wanted. Will it be a good fit for my channel? We will find out soon enough. In a few weeks, we will begin doing some overnight camping with the new vehicle. But, the focus of this trip here is all about the 4Runner and saying goodbye.
This has been a fantastic vehicle. It's given me zero problems. It's done everything that I've wanted it to do, and it has done so very easily. Not one time have I felt like this was holding me back or anything like that. Let me take that back. There's one thing that I don't like about the 4Runner, and that's the size of the gas tank. I want to say it's around 18 gallons. It is small. And that means you basically have to live at the gas station, and I don't like that. If it was up to me, I'd rather spend more at the pump and go to the pump less often. That is the only thing that I dislike about this vehicle.
Outside of that, it has been great. Over the years, we have put 22,000 mi on the 4Runner, all of them adventure miles. It's been a good vehicle. I figured we'd go ahead make some coffee, top off this. Plus, the coffee that I have is cold. So, we'll make some hot, add it to the cold, make it lukewarm, and that's the way I like it. I'll tell you what everybody, it is a beautiful day. Right now, it's about 61°, low humidity, around 15% in the shade it feels quite a bit cooler than it really is.
There's a nice breeze coming through the forest. Feels good. Really, really good. Unfortunately, the burn ban that I mentioned in the previous episode is still in effect. That means we cannot have a campfire. That's the one unfortunate thing about this trip. Later on tonight, it's going to get cool. Some would say even cold. The low tonight is around freezing, around 32°. For myself, I consider that perfect, but with those cooler temps, I would love to have a fire. Unfortunately, that is not something that we can do. An Ozark Trail hatchet. That's broken. The handle has broken off. Folks, if I had a dollar for every Ozark Trail hatchet or axe that I have found out in places like this, well, I'd still be poor, but I'd have maybe
15 bucks. Anyways, forget I even mentioned that. That didn't work out, but I do come across these all the time. There's a few signs of someone going to town with this, but it's not too bad. Every time I come to this campsite, or even any sort of campsite that I frequent, oftentimes there's signs of human activity, not just garbage left on the ground, but unfortunately, people love coming out with cheap crap like this and just tearing the forest apart. This tree over here, you can see that somebody has taken this hatchet and has beaten on this thing. There is a tree that was cut down over there. I don't know if they did it with this or not.
It's possible, but that's one of the worst things, one of the things I really hate about going camping. I love the entire experience from beginning to end with the exception of when I have to see the handiwork that people do. 99% of the time you don't have to worry about people tearing up the forest, but there's that 1% and that 1% can be so destructive. Yeah, I just hate that. With this campsite here, all in all, it's in good shape, but that tree there, it's been hacked on. That tree over there, it's been cut down for no good reason. And unfortunately, that's just how it goes. From a distance, that tree looked like somebody had taken a hatchet to it, but upon closer inspection, that's not the case.
That tree has been shot up.38 special,.45 auto. The tree over there has been cut down with a hatchet. It might be the same group, could be a different one. Who knows? It's one thing to do that on private property and it's something else completely to do it on public property and that is essentially what this is. It's just another example of humans being humans, unfortunately. Luckily, outside of this mess, this is a nice campsite. It looks good. I'm glad to see that every tree hasn't been chopped down or shot down or blown up or pulled out of the ground with an old truck or something like that. When it comes to national forests, anything can go. Anything is possible. I
have personally seen it all over the years. And all of it, in my opinion, is disgusting. Wolfpack, hit the like button right now. Strength and honor. It is a beautiful day today. Like it's beginning to get warm, still kind of cool, but I could tell we are very close to this becoming extremely hot. This area that is at this elevation even in the spring, it could be really, really warm here. It really is amazing that it is around 60° today. Feels good. It's about to begin getting hot down here, and at the same time buggy. With this trip here, we're avoiding both, but our adventures down in this area are about to come to an end.
Right now, it's 60°. Next week, it'll be in the 80s here. 80 and humid, more than likely. Heck, it is supposed to be 80° up where I live, around 4,000 ft in elevation. That means down here at 2,000, 1,500 ft in elevation, it's going to be really, really warm. Too warm, too hot, too hot for me. I don't like it. I'm going to go up, not down, right? And we'll chase the breeze, chase the elevation, and try to stay as cool as possible. I mentioned a little while ago that camp has been fully set up, and that's true. The back of the 4Runner, I already have it ready. And this is basically how I've left it over the years. I have my sleeping pad, sleeping bag, pillows, all
that stuff. All I have to do is just hop in and it's good to go. Later on tonight, more than likely, I will fire up a heater inside of this. One more campout inside of the 4Runner. Already, I have an offer on this 4Runner from a dealership, and they are offering me basically what I paid for this, even though this has 22,000 mi on it, even though there are some scratches, namely on the back where I get in and out of the vehicle. The reason why they're offering so much for this vehicle is because this vehicle is in demand. This vehicle is old school compared to the new one. The new one has a lot of fancy
tech that, plain and simple, a lot of people don't want, which does make some sense. I get it. With that being said, though, don't think for a second that this isn't a computer on wheels because every modern vehicle is essentially that. There's a ton of processors, there's a ton of systems running, a ton of computer chips, hard drive space, and so on. This may not have the fancy tech that the newer versions do, but still this is a computer on wheels. There's no such thing as a bare-bones vehicle any longer. Everyone, Susie has been busy baking. And what I have here is known as the world's best banana nut muffin. I've had one of these already, not today, previously, and I can tell you it's true. These are the best. Homemade,
from scratch, no garbage, with coffee. Let's go. Oh my god. I don't want anything for dinner but these. How many can I eat before I become a glutton? I'm not exactly sure what the math is on that, but unfortunately, I don't have any more, so I guess that solves that problem, but these are incredible. The secret ingredient is brown sugar. If you are interested in making these, if you want the recipe, shoot me an email and I will send that to you. Unfortunately, there's not enough space in the description box to post the recipe, so don't go looking for
it there. So, if you want the recipe, you have to shoot me an email. I personally respond to every single email that you all send in, so if you don't hear from me, that means your message was not received. Send it again. Anyways, this is amazing beautiful Susie. Thank you so much for making this and for sharing it. That would be quite interesting if she made a bunch of these and kept them all for herself. That would say something about our marriage. I can't be in a relationship if they're making tasty things and not sharing them with me. It just wouldn't work. That everyone was amazing.
I think the last time that Susie made muffins, I don't remember if I forgot to mention in the video that you guys could write in ask for the recipe. I'm pretty sure I did, but unfortunately for this one individual, he wasn't paying attention. So, he sent me an email ripping me a new one because I didn't put the recipe in the description box. I wrote him back. I was like, "Listen, buddy. There's not enough space in that description box for the recipe. You could have just asked for it." Send. You're not getting the recipe. No soup for you or no muffin for you. Like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. People are funny, aren't they? With the viewers who write in and they act like that, I wonder where they get that level
of self-importance from, that ego, right? Strange to me. Could have just asked for it. Happy to give it to you. If you would have paid attention to the video, I'm pretty sure I said I would share the recipe. Anyways, anyways, I want to thank you all so much for being really good people, right? With a large channel like this one here with all of the people sending messages and emails, I mean, we're talking about like a fraction of a percent of those who are like heads, douche bags, jerks, whatever you want to call them. The vast majority again are incredible people and I'm thankful. Thank you all so much for being a part of this community.
This cheers is for you. It's a shame that we can't have a fire tonight. The temps are perfect for one. But unfortunately, it is way too dry right now. Talking about the burn ban, there is a wildfire currently burning in this national forest. I'm not 100% sure where it's at in relation to this place. It's at some part of Pisgah that I've never heard of. I'm not even sure exactly how big it is. It must be far enough away that I can't detect any smoke. It certainly doesn't look hazy to me, so. Over the years, I have stayed at this campsite maybe half a dozen times, something like that. The first time that I came out
here and discovered this site, I was driving that old army truck of mine. That was a big truck. It wasn't a half-ton or a 3/4. It was a ton and a quarter. That truck is referred to by the army as a 5/4 ton truck. Very long, very wide, super heavy, super slow. That was the slowest damn truck. It went nowhere in a hurry, but it sure was a lot of fun. The only thing that I didn't like about that truck, and it had nothing to do with speed because in general, you can't drive fast on these mountain roads anyways, so I was constantly underneath that truck wrenching on something, trying to get something to stop leaking, or I was having to take it in to someone who could actually fix the problem. During the time that I owned that truck, I had
fun with it, but it was in the shop constantly. Just non-stop work. That was an old Detroit Diesel army truck. Yeah, it's fun. And maddening. It was fun and maddening all at the same time. Everybody thought it was the coolest thing. And I ended up selling it for more than I actually bought it for. You know, when it comes to like selling vehicles, I've had really good luck. Often times, I break even or I make some money. With the army truck, I actually made a little bit more than what I paid for it. The same goes for the Japanese Land Cruiser, if you all remember that. I love that vehicle, but it was right side drive. And I just could not get my brain to figure that out.
It just felt like I was constantly going to drive off the road or plow into the other person in the other lane. It was very off-putting. And naturally, with enough time, enough experience, you would get over that. But Susie, she wouldn't drive it. And because of that, we decided to get rid of it. It was fun while we had it. That thing actually ended up in California somewhere. I brought it here to the US. I sold it to a company, I believe, in Charlotte. And then it was sent to California. Dinner tonight is amazing. We have some short grain Japanese rice with some Hawaiian chicken and pineapple. And folks, it is amazing. In addition to that, we have some Japanese sake straight from Japan. And this is some crazy expensive sake.
My buddy Greg, thank you so much. He worked this out so that I can have this. I'm not going to go through what exactly it took to get this here, but yeah, Greg, my friend, thank you so much. Cheers, buddy. Cheers, Forerunner. Oh, yeah. So smooth. I love sake. That is awesome. Talk about the perfect way to wrap up the night. Because we can't have a fire, there's no point of hanging out in the dark not doing anything. So, I went ahead, made dinner, and here we are. It is nice to be here at this campsite, the final trip out with the 4Runner. When it comes to the next vehicle for the channel, I'm going to continue with simplicity.
I'm not going to do big overland builds, nothing like that. You've likely noticed that with my camping, my style is very simple. I like to do camps and setups that make sense for not only myself, but the vast majority of you all. To me, it doesn't make sense to go out and purchase like an $80,000 truck and then put a $40,000 camper on it or something like that. All that stuff is super expensive. For me, personally, it doesn't make sense. And I don't think it makes sense for a lot of you all. Not many people that I know are going out and spending $200,000 on their rigs. It looks good on YouTube, but in real life, most people don't do that. And that is why I keep my camps simple.
And that's because that's what the vast majority of us do. Keeping it simple, at least somewhat inexpensive means that you're going to have more fun, less stress. You very easily can go out and spend a ton of money, and in the end, you're not going to have any more fun than somebody who is camping just like this. When it comes to your adventures, it's not so much about the gear, the equipment, the vehicle. It's more about being outside, the solitude, the peace and the quiet, the memories that you're making with others. Or at least that's the case for me. As it stands now, the sun is about to go down and basically as soon as it does, we are done for the night. The back of the 4Runner, it's ready to go. Got the
heater set up. I got some lights set up. And I'm ready to kick back and watch a movie. Tonight I'm watching the movie, I believe it's called Hell or High Water. Is that right? When it comes to watching movies, about the only time that I get to watch them is when I'm out camping. Now some people are like, "Oh my god, I cannot believe you're playing on your phone, you're watching movies when you're out camping." You have to keep in mind, most people do not camp as much as I do. Most people do not go camping once a week, every single year in and year out. That's what I do.
I do that for you all. I say that, but the truth is I do it for myself, too. I love it. This keeps me grounded, right? And at the same time, appreciative for everything. I'm sitting here. The sun's going down. It's beautiful. I don't have to listen to any vehicles, nothing like that. It's just me and nature with my friends, good food, some good sake. Life is good and there's a lot to be appreciative for. I just got a text message from Susie stating Amazon is broken down in our driveway.
Oh, no. I just got a picture. And it's a guy who's delivering Amazon packages in his Jeep Wrangler. That's what it looks like. I am not a fan of Jeeps. If you have one, if you're a fan of Jeeps, that's great, but my experiences with Jeeps has been very, very poor. In fact, I don't know anybody who's had really good experiences with a Jeep. Me personally, I would not own anything Jeep or Dodge. No way. I think back to the pandemic. If you remember shortages and whatnot, all of the dealers had shortages except for Jeep and Dodge. If you went by a Ford dealership, there wasn't much there. Toyota, the same.
Chevy, the same. If you would go by a Dodge dealership or a Jeep one, the parking lots would be full. And that says a lot. I know. Controversial thing to say, even though most people would agree that Jeep and Dodge have issues when it comes to reliability. Anyways, everyone, I'm going to kick back, enjoy the sunset, enjoy my sake, my dinner. I will see you all in the runner later on tonight.
Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Currently, I don't know, it's about 6:15 or so, 6:20. The sun is coming up. I'm waking up. The vehicle is warming up. I'm warming up some coffee. Life is good. I slept good last night. No complaints at all. In fact, I don't think anybody drove that road last night. We are out here by ourselves. It is a beautiful morning everybody. No way is it 32 degrees, but it's chilly. I would say upper 30s, lower 40s. Not 32, not freezing, but still chilly enough.
Again folks, I slept great. I ended up watching that movie last night, Hell or High Water, and it was fantastic. It was really, really good. The sun is coming up and I'm ready for it to warm up. It's not freezing cold, but it's chilly for shorts. That's okay though. Here in a minute I'll have to hit the road. There is some place that I need to be by 11:00 so I need to go home, take a shower, and then go do that. This has been an awesome adventure, an awesome campsite in the middle of nowhere, peaceful and quiet. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a good farewell to the 4Runner.
This really has been a fantastic vehicle. And in many ways I'm going to miss it, but it is time for the next adventure machine. Soon I'm going to be sharing with you all of the details. Stay tuned. It's going to be fun. It's going to be different. Not too different, but you know, different. I didn't buy some like crazy like Mercedes military off-roader or something like that. But still, it's going to be fun. Every time I get home from one of these adventures in a national forest, I'm always a little bit amazed that I didn't get a flat tire. If you were to come out here with a magnet and just go over the parking spaces here, the parking
area, you would find hundreds of nails and all sorts of sharp objects. Never ever go into a national forest without a way to change a tire. You have to be able to change a tire, otherwise one day you will be very sorry. It's a shame that we can't have a fire right now. It's understandable, but still having a fire right now would be awesome. Talking about fires, the other day I was watching this camping video. This guy, he makes it out to his campsite, it's raining, he sets up his tent, and he goes to start a
fire, a campfire, and he can't do it. Everything's too wet, he doesn't have good enough fire starter, and it's also raining. In the next scene, he is driving down the road going home. So, he drove out into the forest, pitched his tent, couldn't get the fire going, and then left. With no excuses, no talking, it was very weird. Yeah, it was very weird. It was a weird video. I wish I could stay here all day, but I can't. I got to go, and that is my sign. Now that the sun is up, folks, I got to hit the road. This adventure is over.
Well, everyone, this adventure has come to an end. Thank you all so much for joining me. I really do appreciate it. As far as the 4Runner goes, it has been a really good vehicle. But now, we need to look forward to our future adventures. Oh, yeah. If you had a good time on this trip, please hit the thumbs up. I do appreciate it. That's a great way to support this channel. You can, of course, join the Wolf Pack and support this channel with Patreon and YouTube. Also, make sure to check out my second YouTube channel, A Quiet Place Adventures. You will find a brand new adventure there every single Monday.
Have a great day, folks. Strength and honor.
