two years and 35,000 miles later

It's easy to let a lot of time pass, and to lose sight of how much things change. In looking back at my last entry, it occurs to me a certain amount of my 'insights' were a lot more about learning how to drive (and let me tell you: Montana terrain is a quick and sometimes abrupt teacher), and not so much to do with the Sienna specifically.

A fair amount has changed over the last two years. The Sienna now has close to 127,000 miles on it, almost 48,000 miles accumulated since I purchased it two years ago March. Has it really only been two years and change?

Damage-wise over that time, I've:

• put another dent in the tailgate through incautious backing while hitching
• hit a deer at 20mph while towing the Escape
• rear-ended an SUV in East Helena at about 5mph, also while towing
• backed into some idiot's overlong pickup with extended hitch connector (left a nice square-punch in the right side of the rear bumper)

Given the mileage and somewhat rough use the Sienna gets (SUV stands for Sport Utility Van, in this case), I suppose I've gotten off pretty good overall. Right now, it's up for about $2500 of auto body work, and that doesn't cover fixing the dents in the rear gate or the rear bumper. If I wanted everything fixed, it would come out pretty close to the van's bluebook value. On the other hand, this is just the reality of owning a vehicle that's 18 years old and only about 25% 'used up' in terms of Toyota quality. Cost of ownership and upkeep on a well-used tool is just a reality. I'm glad I have the means to do so.

Speaking of Sport Utility Van (or #techmountainvan, to match the similar #techmountainman moniker I've used for a while), I've realized some nice improvements during this third summer of adventuring around southwest Montana:

• after considerable research, I decided to swap the tires from the Nokian Entyre to the Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015
  
• while the Entyre is an excellent, long-wearing, and quiet tire, it doesn't have the sidewall rigidity to do well on gravel and other medium-intensity offroad activities, and it definitely does not have the tread for decent traction on loose terrain
• I had to run the Entyre at 40psi to for it to stand up under the Sienna's weight, whereas the Geolandar is right on at rated 35psi (and even then, seems a little too lively sometimes)
• it bears mentioning that I had one flat with the Entyre tires, and that was due to running over a large and pointy rock out at Bear Trap Canyon; this was probably made more likely by having to run them at a higher pressure
• surprisingly, the Geolandar is not appreciably louder than the Entyre - it 'sings' pleasantly on very smooth pavement, but is otherwise acoustically indistinguishable from the Entyre - and my gas mileage has been roughly the same, so it's a win all the way around - the Geolandar is a little less comfy, but vastly superior for 'pavement-free' conditions
  
• I added a weight-distributing hitch, the Fastway E2-600 roundbar
  
• this was a long time coming, and pretty much any towing situation with a soft-suspension passenger vehicle will benefit from it (those sensible Canadians at Escape Trailer Industries require one if you buy an Escape from them directly)
• air bags are certainly helpful by themselves, reducing the total range of rear-end suspension travel; but they do nothing in terms of taking weight off the rear-end, which dramatically improves handling and braking
• it's hard to exaggerate how much the handling and solidity - the feel that the van and trailer are a single unit - is improved with the E2
• I got the E2 over cheaper options because of the ease of hitching, and because one can back up or do particularly sharp turns without having to disengage the bars
  
• I had Rising Sun replace the front brake rotors and shoes with Toyota OEM equipment
  
• this was an expensive repair, but the warped rotors that were on the van from the start were causing truly unsafe levels of vibration, especially when coming down passes with the trailer
• I had the rotors machined down two years ago to reduce the warp, but over time, this just left less metal in some areas, and thus sped up the re-warping
• the new rotors and shoes are amazing, and even under prolonged braking, there's not the slightest shimmy or imbalance
  

the "it's been a while" 3-month update

I've been tracking my mileage via Fuelly for pretty much the whole time I've had the Sienna, and am pleased to say that, through a substantial investment in upkeep and learning to drive better, I've been able to maintain a solid 20mpg average gas mileage.

As I was reviewing my history on Fuelly, I got to thinking about this blog, and that I haven't been quite as dedicated to it as I'd intended, so figured I'd take a few minutes over this long weekend to share some experiences. Some of these aren't so much about the Sienna specifically as they are about an observant but novice driver refining his skills...

• I've put almost 7,000 miles on the Sienna since beginning this adventure, most of which has been since mid-April, when I started averaging about 600 miles per week
• about 5,000 miles ago, I put the van in the care of the excellent Missoula-based Master Techs and had pretty much everything flushed, changed, or fixed that needed it
• this included replacing the timing belt, which made a big difference in power and gas mileage
• in any situation where power and acceleration are important, keeping overdrive disabled is a good idea - yes, you use a bit more gas, but those 200 horses are pretty drowsy when overdrive is enabled
• related to the overdrive concept, I've also learned where and when to use cruise control - some of my best mileage has been using cruise control on flats and mildly rolling terrain, and then switching it off when the terrain becomes steep enough that it alarmingly kicks into overdrive and high RPMs to maintain the speed you've set
• for mountain driving, which I've done a lot of up and down Bridger Canyon north of Bozeman, shifting into the '2' low gear is super helpful for maintaining 30-35mph coming down from summit
• a front-wheel drive vehicle on moderate mud (say 1" or deeper) or a grade of more than 4-5% on loose gravel is pretty sketchy. A late spring cold snap about 6 weeks ago brought a good inch of snow down at 6000 feet, and pulling the trailer was suddenly a much more complicated proposition
• sadly, I put my first dent in the Sienna when backing up a little too zealously to hitch up the trailer; there's now a nice thumbnail dimple near the bottom edge of the back hatch where I ran it into the Jayco's hitch :(
• I've slowly refined the tire pressure and airbag inflation scheme that provides an ideal combo of smooth ride and good handling at up to 85mph
• cold tire pressure of 40 psi (Nokian EnTyre), which usually equates to 43 psi hot, at given air temperature
• and 20psi in the air bags
• the balance to be struck here is reducing the tendency to easily oversteer in crosswinds (tire pressure too high), the van 'jumping' slightly when hitting the leading edge of bridge concrete at over 75mph (also tire pressure too high), and the sense that the rear-end is livelier than the front end (air bags too high)
• generally, the Sienna has been a fantastic towing vehicle, assuming one can accept that acceleration is never going to be great with 2600-ish pounds of trailer - it was definitely a smart decision to install the Airlift 1000 airbags, as well as the higher-end Curt brake controller.

a blog's auspicious beginning!

So, this is the introductory post to a new blog I'm kicking off today, in honor of (no laughing, now...) My First Car!

Yes, after nearly 32 years of avoiding the 'Merican rite of passage that is obtaining a driver's license and owning a car (though I technically co-owned several cars over the last 11 years), continuing adventures in the amazing state of Montana have necessitated this as a practical exercise.

(Truth be told, this was part of the plan as early as 2012, but it took getting a job 200 miles east of where the family will continue to live for the next year to overcome my considerable Stability Inertia.)

During late February and throughout March, I set to buying and learning volumes about the 1999 Toyota Sienna LE, a vehicle deserving of the accolades which it receives. The main point of this blog is to share the various tidbits I gather along the way, which are many, and which have required significant digging in odd corners of Toyota-dedicated forums to find.

Before I share more in individual posts, I'll provide the baseline of what I started working with:

• a very well-maintained van with unusually low miles at 79,002 when I purchased it
• it had been garaged for the bulk of its 15 years in the second owner's possession, and used (by their account) only for family trips
• the only cut-rate thing about it was the 16" steel rims (not an OEM size) with well-worn Hankook Zovac HPW401 snow tires, which resulted in a wheel 0.4% smaller in circumference than the OEM 15" rim with 205/70R15 tires

So, if you happen across this blog, I hope you will benefit from the coming chapters resulting from my obsessive autodidactic tendencies!