I've taken the truck out a few times now and overall I'm very happy with how everything works.

Last weekend I made a trip to Chinamans / Carnage BV, it was a fun trip but I did run into a couple issue's. When I got to the trail head the starter finally quit working, it's been acting up for a while now and finally died. I had to bump start it for the rest of the day, there were a couple times that got pretty interesting . I also realized how much my tires suck, there were a few lines that I used to take that denied me this trip, the tires just wouldn't bite on anything.

We ran Chinaman's first then went to exit of Carnage to see if anyone was coming up, we watched the last few rigs come up and decided to drop down the exit and run the trail in reverse. That was definatly a good time! It took us less than a hour to get down, including me putting my truck on it's side.

I've got to wait for one of my friend's to get his pictures loaded up, but here are a couple pictures of the aftermath.





Here's why some kind of engine bay protection is nice. It hit super hard in this spot, if I didn't have this tubing it would have smashed in the hood and fenderwell along with what was behind it.

 

I also managed to tear one of the front bumpstop's in half. I only have three trips on them so I'm a lttle disapointed. When I looked closer I noticed that there seems to be some kind of a casting flaw, maybe 4WP will warantee them

 

Little more damage to add to the collection

I've never thought about running Carnage backwards, how does it compare to forward (uphill)? I bet the exit is easier

 

It's nothing that a big sledge hammer won't fix.

Running carnage backwards seems to be quite a bit easier, gravity is a huge advantage. We ran it in one hour, including the flop.

On the other hand, it could be harder on your vehicle. You pretty much play pinball down the trail, it gets a little rowdy. As for the exit, it's easier but a hell of a lot scarier. Once you drop off the rock there's no stopping, whether you want to or not . It's just plain scary,... but fun .

On a side note, this was at the end of the day. We watched the last vehicles come up, then we dropped down into the trail. We also only had two rigs. I would not run the trail this way in the morning or day, Carnage is not an easy trail and it could be a total cluster if a group was going down while another was going up.

 

I've been workng on getting all my old film/negatives converted over to CD's. In the process I have found a bunch of old wheeling pictures and I also found these.

This was after the first build, right around 2003/2004. It's amazing how much things change.

 

I'm still saving up to get some new tires, so I've just been doing a lot of local wheeling (it's a good thing I live where I do!) Most of the trails are pretty easy but the senery is amazing.

These are about a mile from my house.

 

Here's another trail a few more miles away.

 

The rest of the pictures are over here!

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f100...beware-148462/

 

I've been working on getting all the details finished up. I got some new front bumpstops, they are the same brand as the rear bumpstops and seem to hold up better than the old one's.





I also had a issue with the transmission and transfer cases. The transmission output seal went out and dumped all the transmision fluid into the transfer case, there was a large amount of fluid flowing out of the transfer case shifters in a very short time. The transfer cases also leaked a little so I needed to re-seal them too. I tore everything apart, replaced the seal and re-sealed the doubler. I used factory Toyota sealant FIPG P/N 00295-01281 and the facory Toyota seal P/N 90311-32009. I took some pictures on a differant camera but I'm sure you can picture gear oil everywhere

Sealed back up

 

was your rig an auto at one point?

 

Yep, that was the first thing I swapped out when I started building the truck.

 

I'm also getting ready to order some new tires, but before I could do that I had to get a couple other things coming.

Both of the rear wheels were bent, one a little and one a lot. I lost a bead last summer and in the process it bent the crap out of the wheel. I was able to Hi-lift it back in shape and used a sledge hammer for the last little bit. It held air so I never bothered replacing it, until now. I ordered two new wheels from Summit racing, (15x8, 2" backspacing, reversed, raw) which are the same as the front.

Old





New



And to prevent the wheels from bending again I ordererd some rim stiffeners from Copperhead fab. These will weld to the outside of the wheel and keep rocks from tearing the wheels up.

 

never heard of wheel strengtheners... interesting

 

Let me know how the rim stiffeners work out for you. I've thought about ordering a set also (and Stauns when I get some $$$). What kind of tires are you thinking about buying?

 

I'll let you know how they work (even though you will see them in two weeks ) , I don't think they can hurt at all.

Finally, I ordered another set of 37" MTR's. (about 2 minutes ago )

 

Will you have the new MTR's by the Jambo? I just made some semi-large purchases myself today. You probably won't even notice them at the Jambo (ARP Hub and Knuckle studs, Longfield Cromo Hub gears, and the new TG Creeper Shackles

My wheels are pretty beat up on the edges, I'm guessing those rim stiffeners would work really well (minus the fact they'd slow me down even more down the road )

 

Yep, that's why I got the order in now. I'm just hopping I will get a chance to break them in a little before the trip.

The parts you ordered might not be super noticable, but it would be super noticable if you were to break your old hub gears, etc on Carnage. So to that, good job, your now ready for the nasty lines (I hope your ready for some more body damage! )

We will see how the wheel rings work, they are pretty light so I don't think I will be able to notice them (As long as they don't throw the off the balance, but I doubt that would happen. ) They should do a pretty good job of protecting the wheel, so I think in the long run they will be well worth the money.

 

I can't believe I've missed this until now. SICK build. Looking forward to getting schooled by you at Holy cross.

 

I agree

Me too

There should be a great showing of 1st Gen 4Runner's at the CO4RJ this year, from mild to hardcore and everything in between. I'd like to gather all the 1 gen 4Runner's together at camp for a lineup picture

 

wow! i just read this whole thread. thanx for posting up your progress over time so well. it was better than any stupid show i've seen on like the speed channel or watever. (i don't even have tv, i'm just sayin' it's been a good read)

my one question to you is, i see you installed the CO2, but i don't see where you're gonna mount the keg. what's up?