Fall 2016

The Dolphin RV, built in the 1970's until early 1990's, cornered the market on small, affordable, and practical recreational vehicles. As a young couple who loves the outdoors, we knew this fit our needs perfectly. After looking for a few months on classified ads all over Southern California, we finally found one less than 20 miles away!  Our new 1990 Dolphin was in very good shape, but was still very much a remnant of the past. We made the decision to renovate and it ended up being a much larger project than we had imagined. It started with a complete removal and replacement of the crusty old carpet. After the painstaking removal of an endless number of staples, we managed to rip all of it out. Our next dilemma was painting the interior. It was the midst of summer, we live in the high desert, and the RV had old wallpaper that came off in pieces so small that The Sistine Chapel would have taken less time to complete. Thankfully, we found some oil-based paint from the hardware store that, when applied in two coats, completely sealed and filled any memory of the ugly wallpaper. We also repainted the cabinets to finish the white-on-white clean look.

In a competitive industry where profit and productivity often supersede innovative design, it can be difficult to find a company willing to risk pushing the cookie cutter molds aside, to build a truly unique and high quality product. As it turns out, the City of Colorado Springs is home to one such company; Hefty Fabworks. Chris and Dan Hefty have been building innovative armor solutions for Toyota trucks and SUVs for 9 years now, and their popularity is growing like wildfire. While lead times can be a little long, they are definitely worth the wait, as these men and their highly skilled crew put profit margins by the wayside and quality engineering to the forefront. I’ ve personally been 4 wheeling with these guys, and trust me when I say they are willing to push the envelope to find any improvements that need to be made before final products are released to their customers. Their newest and ongoing project truck, a 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road, is no exception of the creativity and skill they possess.

Most OEM parts that make up my Land Cruiser have performed for 23 years and 283,000 miles. Durability and reliability is a huge part of why we drive our Land Cruisers. I struggle to think of non-wearing parts that have failed except the head gasket which failed at “only” 226,000 miles!

My Wife, Dog and I drove the Pacific coast from Baja, MX to Chile, then crossed over to Argentina and Uruguay in our 2001 Toyota Tacoma. We Slept in our roof top tent and cooked on the tailgate, traveling for 16 months. Surfing was one of the highlights of the trip; these are some of our favorite spots.