Something New Is Afoot - Building Our New Camper

An update from back in October. One thing Julie and I abhor is unnecessary man-made light in the backcountry. We use minimal outside light at night, in fact, as much as possible, we allow our eyes to adjust and use no light. So, imagine how we reacted to a new truck that turns on cargo lights, parking lights, brake lights, reverse lights, interior lights (even plays a musical tune) every time you open a door or lock/unlock with the remote. “Can we just get a big backhoe and bury this damn truck and its lights!” We could not/would not live with this. There is no way for the owner (us) to turn off this function through available controls/settings in the vehicle. This had to change. After mind-numbing and unproductive Internet time, I took the only glimmer of hope I found – Forscan – and initially used it to calibrate the truck to the new tire circumference. Testing with GPS while driving at various speeds confirmed accuracy. Using Forscan, I searched through many modules in the truck's computer until I found items called “police mode” and “silent mode.” In utter dread I was about to turn our new truck into a worthless brick with an unintended computer lobotomy, I changed items from “disable” to “enable.” This happened - in the instrument cluster display between (our '21 Ranger) the RPM and Speedometer that is controlled with the arrows on the upper left side of the steering wheel, this change added a new function. Now when I scroll to "Settings" and then "Vehicle" and scroll down through the options there is a new "Silent Mode" option with a box to the left that can be checked on or off with the center "OK". With "Silent Mode" checked our dreams come true. No more exterior lights, no more cargo light, no more interior lights. In silent mode everything operates normally once the key is turned on. Uncheck "Silent Mode" and the truck returns to its annoying old self. With “Silent Mode” we can now responsibly camp in the backcountry and not disturb and anger Mother Nature.

The adventure continues. Please check back for updates.
 
That is why I loathe the thought of ever needing a newer truck than our 2019 Tundra. It may be the last model year where everything has a physical switch, including cargo lights, interior lights and the truck bed light. Like you, we value the dark and do not need a carnival show every time we open the truck door. I am glad you found silent mode to ease your aggravations.
 
full


full
 
I was gonna mention forscan when I started reading your post but saw you already got there!

I have sounds turned off all the time in my truck when I open the door/start it.
 
Julie and I had two things to drop off at All Terrain Campers this morning. Actually - how could I forget - three things; Julie had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for Marty. We noted progress on our new camper. :)







ATC-Oct-2024-010-copy.webp







ATC-Oct-2024-011-copy.webp
Do you know what the black strips are down the sides of the roof framing? I don’t recall seeing those in past build photos.
 
How are you to safely drive down the road with all this tech.
Once again we can't use a cell phone while driving but all the tech you need to navigate
through is OK.
Go figure it's well above me. I have enough with my 2022 RAV 4,but I did figure out how to turn most of it off.
Maybe I am just an old geezer and don't want to admit it.
Have fun with the truck,glad you figured it out.
Frank
 
Last edited:
Speaking of tech, our 2018 Tacoma has a touch screen that is mostly ok to use. The mapping sorta works for navigating, but sometimes makes routing decisions than the phone maps. But it's handy to see where you are, especially driving solo. I wish it had better backcountry roads. In some places it's pretty complete, but others there are abandoned roads you can't drive, or missing roads. Also it's frozen in time unlike phone maps. I wish it would display phone maps like later cars.

By the way, Google maps wasn't showing the Saline Valley road in Death Valley in November! It used to. I gotta admit I love having maps on GPS devices.

The truck also has menu of items that display on the front dash, controlled with buttons on the steering wheel. Some are handy, like tire pressure and miles to empty. That's miles of gas, not miles of tire pressure, yuk yuk. Others are a pain to scroll by while driving.

New tech I really like includes rear view camera, adaptive cruise control, air conditioning, better gas mileage, warnings if someone behind is driving towards you... stuff like that.

The car I got before the truck was my first with several modern features:
  • cupholders (eh... not a coffee drinker),
  • electric windows (eh... my arm worked fine at least on the side I was sitting),
  • cruise control (yes!),
  • built-in radio (sorta good, but installing one was no big deal),
  • cloth seats instead of vinyl (eh... vinyl was great for cleanup),
  • air conditioning (so much quieter than open windows),
  • remote locks (good because I never locked myself out of the car, bad because the remote barely works after 16 years).
  • automatic transmission (yes! clutch hurts my sore knee)
 
Speaking of tech, our 2018 Tacoma has a touch screen that is mostly ok to use. The mapping sorta works for navigating, but sometimes makes routing decisions than the phone maps. But it's handy to see where you are, especially driving solo. I wish it had better backcountry roads. In some places it's pretty complete, but others there are abandoned roads you can't drive, or missing roads. Also it's frozen in time unlike phone maps. I wish it would display phone maps like later cars.

By the way, Google maps wasn't showing the Saline Valley road in Death Valley in November! It used to. I gotta admit I love having maps on GPS devices.
My 2022 has a decent sized screen but still has buttons for most features. One nice tech thing is via CarPlay I can run mapping software, including aerial imagery from my phone on the bigger screen. I can download an area ahead of time so service isn’t a limiting factor.
 
No, outter perimeter that the roof sheeting wraps over.

Yea i see that now on post 42, link to 42 below:
Black material is stapled on all, 4 corners. Maybe it is a interface to prevent wear from the welding seams?

 
Speaking of tech, our 2018 Tacoma has a touch screen that is mostly ok to use.
I have an ‘18 4Runner SR5. My truck has the optional navigation. Unless I’m actually using it, I keep the screen turned off.

I don’t have a data plan on my phone. I don’t like the net on the phone. I’ve got devices and wifi at home. And a small phone bill. I don’t feel the need for Google Maps to tell me what I already know, that the roads around here haven’t changed since the Model T was the hottest new car around.

The info screen between the tach and speedo on mine doesn’t have a readout for tire pressure. That would be nice, but since I don’t off road as often isn’t really necessary. I find it more useful to see how many miles I have left in my gas tank. Especially handy in stormy weather, and to determine if I should stop midway home from Reno for a few gallons of gas if I’ve been pushing a strong headwind.

Love the backup camera, my first. Especially handy since the majority of street parking in Winnemucca is diagonal and I always seem to be hemmed in on both sides by 4x4 heavy duty quad cab duallies.

I haven’t used the radio for years. All two radio stations in Winnemucca suck. An endless loop, automatic country station with a whole four songs endlessly played. The classic rock station has gone to classic heavy metal and incomprehensible grunge. I have a couple thousand tracks from ABBA to ZZ Top, with country, jazz, the Rat Pack, Motown and 50s on my phone that I stream with Bluetooth.

Yeah, bad knees made me go clutchless as well.

Yes, it is my hope that my ‘12 Outback and 4Runner will be my last vehicles.
 

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom