mrdiehl

Hello all! I've been a longtime reader - but this is my first post. Main reason I wanted to post was to get some advice for my truck.

First a little background:

I've had my beloved '85 4Runner since around 2003. This was my Grandpa's truck. He loved it, but as he grew older he wasn't driving it as much - One day he told me he wanted me to have it. I loved him, and loved his truck - I was very honored.

My Grandpa has since passed away, and this truck is a real gem to me. He gave it to me with about 100k miles on it - it now has around 170k miles. My Dad and I have taken it all throughout Death Valley and have explored a fair amount of Southern California desert. It has been nothing but reliable and capable off road. It has surprised me countless times on what it could do - keeping up with guys with much more complicated setups.

Going forward, I want to have fun with it, but do my best to make it last. I have three kids of my own now (all 5 and under) and I am excited to take them camping in this thing - have adventures. While I am tempted to throw a tarp over it and just preserve it, it's more important to me that my kids have lots of good memories with this thing. Maybe someday when I have a little more money I will do a more complete restoration on it.

Work I've done so far:

The truck is mostly stock. The engine has been rebuilt (shortly after I got it). Front knuckles have been rebuilt (that was fun). I've done a fair amount of work on the interior - new seats, etc. I recently installed a Marlin Crawler clutch.
I am currently running 31" tires, but I'd like to go with 33" next time (I am hoping I won't need to regear my 4:10s to run those).

Here are the upgrades I am currently considering (in order of priority):

• Add an ARB front bumper w/ winch - Always wanted one. I think a winch is just good insurance when out solo
• Rocky Road Supersliders - Gotta protect the truck! I like that these are bolt on and they sit snugly to the body. Anybody have experience with these?
• OME Suspension kit - medium springs in the back, HD springs in the front (help offset the bumper)
• Selectable Locker in the rear - Since this is my DD, I want to be able to disengage the locker most of the time. I've been looking at finding a 4:10 elocker that I could install in the rear diff. However, I am a little intimidated by the need to modify the housing / doing the electrical stuff. I'm also considering the ARB air locker. The guys I usually ride with all have the ARB - I know that thing is solid, just expensive to install.
• Automatic locker in the front - Since I have the manual hubs, I figure I an auto locker in the front might be a good idea. Marlin Crawler seems to recommend the Grizzly Locker? I haven't had experience with auto lockers on the trail, but a buddy of mine says having these in his diffs was probably the best upgrade he did to his truck.
• Fix some rust around the windshield

Thanks for reading this far! Again, appreciate any advice you guys have for me. I will post pics here of any progress I make!

Here's the truck:

My dad and I installed a front receiver hitch so we could attach this winch (not mine). I'll post pics of the interior soon.

coryc85

Beautiful truck, great history, I love that it was your grandfathers. I'll give you some comments:

I love the ARB look on these 4Runners, and I don't think you can go wrong with their products, OME suspension also very popular, not many complaints that I've ever read.

On the rocky-road sliders, I have not heard much about these, I looked at the website, they look nice, they come powder coated, they are a bit pricey at $409, but not too bad. Most sliders in the $200 range that I have seen you have to at least weld the legs on and then weld them to your frame plus they are normally unpainted. So for bolt on sliders, that's probably not bad.

Lockers - yeah tough call there. I have an aussie in the rear, I don't really daily drive the truck and there is never snow or ice here in FL, so I'm fine with the parking lot clicks and occasional bang. I'd love a selectable, and like you found, toyota e-locker is probably cheapest option, but does require some housing modifications. There is another option called the Harrop e-locker, and you already know about the ARB...I think Grizzly has one as well, Zip Locker or something like that. In the front, if you are looking at the lunchbox type lockers, there are Spartan, Aussie, and Lokka. These lockers replace the spider gears and not the entire carrier.

Love to see whatever you do.

flg8r22

iTrader: (1)

Cool story and truck. Im digging the factory steelies. Best look ever.

coryc85

3 kids under 5! Full plate right there. I know my 2 boys love my 4Runner...not sure if mine is really heirloom quality to pass on to them, but who knows. It's loud, a bit uncomfortable, and usually hot in my truck but for some reason the kids enjoy the heck out of it. That's great though that you have memories of the truck being your grandfathers and your kids can grow up and make some new memories.

And Tony is right, those steelies just complete the look.

One more thing, I think you *can* run 33's with stock 4.10s, but I think you won't be entirely happy.

rustED

iTrader: (2)

Very nice 4runner, and equally nice story behind it! I agree with Cory's comments. ARB air lockers would be awesome if you can afford them. If not an E-locker would be a good choice, there are plenty of write ups both on the housing modifications and the wiring. arlindsay1992 just did a good writeup, If I remember correctly he didn't have any of the wiring and built his harness from scratch. Any of the other lockers that Cory mentioned would work fine too, I just personally always wanted a selectable locker, lol.
I'm with the other guys and really like your steelies, I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but my taste seemed to have changed over the years and I seem to appreciate the stock look more and more. Look forward to seeing what you do with your 4runner!

mrdiehl

Thank you guys for the replies. Glad you like the steelies! They are original to the truck.

I'm thinking I'll install the locker when I do the suspension upgrade, since the axles will be mostly freed up. Definitely new territory for me, so I'm hunting for all the information I can find. Appreciate that tip off to arlindsay1992's work on his lockers! That's a goldmine! He is doing great work on that thing. Really helpful to see actual pictures.

Looks like lowrangeoffroad.com has a lot of useful parts for doing the swap too (wiring harness, switches, studs, etc).

I8URSVT

iTrader: (1)

Where did you get the front receiver? Was it universal or specific?