For several years our Taco Negro setup involved a fiberglass Leer topper and a rooftop tent from Cascadia Vehicle Tents. In some ways, this setup was fabulous but in others, not so much.
The tent was great in hot weather. Also, the dogs always had their own space in the back of the truck, which was perfect if they were wet or filthy. Those two happened more often than you might think.
However, that tent was quite noisy in high winds. Set up and break down times were less than optimal. And in cold weather, neither one of us were fans of an outdoor kitchen. I will go on record as saying I hated the outdoor kitchen. I remember being in Canada, making coffee in 40 degree weather while it was raining.
So when we had an opportunity to upgrade Taco Negro, we went for it. Our new setup involves a slide in camper from Four Wheel Campers. Now, when we started looking, roundabout November 2021, the wait time for a new Fleet model (which is the proper model for our Tacoma) was a whopping 18 months.
But once we started searching for used Four Wheel campers, things started to look a bit better. Fleet models in excellent condition were coming up every six weeks or so, all over the country. Late December we saw one for sale in western Colorado but it got away. In mid-January Michael claimed he’d found the perfect model.
In Santa Cruz, California.
“Are you sure?” I asked him. Because California is a three day drive from Fayetteville. Minimum. And he was in the middle of his teaching semester, so I would be the one to make the drive. Now, I work remotely, and my hours had been severely cut back at that point, but still. This would be a week with a LOT of driving. I tried to remind him that more Fleets would come up, surely, as this one was not the first we’d seen since we started looking.
Michael was sure. This one was it.
Okay then. We pulled the topper off the truck with the help of some friends and off I went. I had to hotel my way out west, because with no topper there was nowhere comfortable for me to sleep in the truck anymore. And my first stop was actually Denver, home to Juniper Overland. They’re an authorized Four Wheel dealer and I needed them to install the cradle in the back of the truck.
The Fleet is a slide-in camper, but it doesn’t just rest in the bottom of the bed. No, it rests on a cradle, which is also where the tie-down anchors are. And not everyone can install that cradle. Michael had made an appointment for me, for first thing on a Monday morning, because they Juniper folks couldn’t actually say how long the install would take. Probably about a hour, but if there was work ahead of me in line, then I might be hanging out in their showroom for a while.
Luckily the cradle install didn’t take long at all! As I waited, I got to climb inside the different models for the first time and was happy to learn the Fleet was awesome on the inside. Best of all, I was able to resume my journey west by 10am.
Gas mileage was incredible (for the Tacoma, anyway), even up and over Vail Pass. Something like 18 or 19 mpg! I also got to see an actual cattle drive – with horses and everything – along I-70 near Fruita, Colorado.
I left Fayettevile on February 6th and had the cradle installed on Monday the 7th. After stops in Salina and Barstow I arrived in Watsonville, California on Wednesday the 9th. That’s where the actual adventure began.
Scratch that – I think it began sooner, but I didn’t trust my gut. See, when I left Barstow I thought the truck was firing up a bit slow. It seemed to get a bit worse throughout the day and it made me so nervous. I did not want to break down on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere, California by myself. So my plan was to stop in Paso Robles for gas, since I was very familiar with the town and knew where the auto parts stores were, and get the battery tested.
After I filled up in Paso, I held my breath when I turned the ignition key.
It fired up with no problems. None. I didn’t need to stop again until I got to my hotel in Watsonville, so I kind of forgot about it. Told myself I’d probably been imagining it, anyway. After I got all checked in at the hotel I immediately took a nap. Around 6pm or so I headed back out with a dinner goal called The Tamale Factory. (There is a joke about this area, that all the white people live in Santa Cruz and the Mexicans live in Watsonville, except it’s kinda true, and I wanted real Mexican food.)
Anyway. I got in and turned the key in the ignition. *click-click-click*
Shit.