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I've been lurking around and thought I'd share my "build"
Nothing major because I've always had the sense that the farther you get from stock the less reliable it becomes. All my mods are for function in the desert while retaining the ability to use most oem parts in event of a failure so I won't be stuck waiting on specialty parts.
1990 SR5 4x4 with a 22re and 5speed trans. 250k miles and still runs beautifully.
The pic that sold it.
I've always wanted a Toyota since I was a little kid. My dad had a 79 hilux and I loved it. I've always loved Ivan Stewart's race trucks and Dan Vance in the toyotas. I grew up on off-road and Toyota has always been my favorite.
I got the horunner for a trade from my first vehicle, a jeep Cherokee which I had done a few mods. Remote ressi shocks, springs, 33" tires, wheels, exhaust, some interior mods, but the thing wasn't all that reliable. It was fun to wheel with that straight axel, had gobs of power for the little wagon, just was tired of always having to work on it. So when I saw a friend wanted to trade his 4Runner for an xj I jumped.
Within the first week I had the 4Runner I went a little crazy. Bought new fox 2.0 with remote ressi, went wild with touch up paint under the body and cleaning the crap out of it, fixing little issues and a new windshield. The over the next month id do all the rest, well nearly.
First was shock install.
Front required new upper and lower mounts, made the lower tabs myself, and the uppers are actually Ford F-250 front shock towers I adapted to my frame. All welded in a gusseted in nicely. Wish I took more pics of the fab process.
Rears were easier. Had to make my own clevis to adapt the fox to the frame since all 4Runner shocks are pin tops. Made it out of 4130 chromo just like the lower tabs up front. Clevis looks like this
This was before I welded a grade 8 bolt through the top to simulate the pin top.
I was very meticulous with the set up since I didn't want any binding or rubbing or anything. Before mounting I removed springs and made a half bump stop to measure the stroke and whatnot of the shock to be sure I wouldn't bottom out on it rather than the bumps. It's amazing how little up-travel these things have and how smooth this runner is through the bumps.
Front was easy, cut off stock mounts, remove torsion bar, tack all mounts and cycle break tacks and grind smooth, replace mounts and cycle, blah blah till it's perfect and the blast em in.
Replaced my stock torsion bars with some beefy ass saw300m bars that sure help when the road gets chunky. And there's no time to hit the brakes.
After all this I threw in some BFG 33x10.5's cause I love the old school Toyota look with the pizza cutters. Plus less rotational mass and better MPG.
It came with such heavy stock steel wheels, I had general grabber at2's on it first. Each wheel tire combo weighed in at 88#. 88 effin pounds.
I then Went to oem offset 8s with general tires. Down to ~70#. To the offset 8s and bfg's ~60#then to outlaw II wheels, which I've always loved. REALLY wanted a set of AR23's for this build but couldn't find any used in good shape and didn't want to buy them new. All and all the outlawII and BFG combo I believe weighed in a few over 50# and gave it the more era specific look I was going for. And white letters out for the win!
After playing with shock valving and different bumpstop styles and trimming and angling to make more progressive and whatnot I got fed up and went with air bumps.
If you're also a desert guy, I know I know, bumps that close to the arm are a bad idea yadda yadda this isn't a damn trophy truck it's a weekend warrior. I set up my bumps to work best for me, which included easy mounting.
Since I was smashing on it quite a bit I added a frame brace to keep the lower arms from pulling the frame apart on hard impacts. Which there are plenty of
Other non suspension mods are lights, which I go back and forth on cause it's great to see the trail your on but I think extra lights look kinda silly and don't even get me started on LED bars that aren't placed tastefully.
At the moment I have a couple 100watt Hellas on the front cause the last trip I took was at night.
Other mods are stereo, viper alarm, fire extinguisher which every car should carry, spare in the bed since the mount was seized and had to cut it to get it off when I got it. New stock rear badges since PO sprayed em black cause stock chrome wasn't cool enough. Rear bumper removal and tow hitch placed upside down to keep it close to the body and used as a 'bumper' the side panels on the stock bumper kept ripping off on hard whoop sections. Finally I was done with it. Made an LED dust lamp mount in the stock bumper but it's not on the truck anymore so nevermind that. Made a sweet jack mount for a skid plate jack I made. Went through phases of removing carpet and replacing in the back of the runner since the sun has shrunk the carpet so bad. Need to make a new rear kit for it.
Has LEDs for the in cab lights. Most things of done to it are replacing little pieces inside the cab to return it to stock or make it a better truck. Wasn't it fantastic shape when I got it.
Painted the hood black cause I was tired of the glare from the sun in the desert. Made a CB radio mount but then removed cause I removed all the wiring to make it better and then never did it haha.
I stopped messing with the upgrades cause it seemed unnecessary for most of them. I've always juggled the idea of LT and a cage but then it wouldn't be a comfortable daily driver with air conditioning. I have a LT kit sitting in my buddy's shop waiting to go on, and i just haven't jumped the gun cause I know with how fast and smooth this truck is in the dirt with its current set up, if I went to LT Front and rear it HAS to have a cage in it. I'm not killing my passenger if I run out of talent.
My main goal with this truck was to make it very functional without making it obnoxiously noticeable. To make it able to hang with guys with mild LT set up and kinda prove to myself it's doable on a smaller budget with less effort and keeping things simple and easily replaceable. The only things in my suspension that aren't stock are springs and shocks. All links, rods, bushings, and arms are 100% oem with slight modification. Upper arms are ground down and gusseted to clear the socks so I could get the right shock angle. Rear is 100% stock with the shocks. With the time and effort I've put in with shock tuning and trying different oil weights and blah blah blah I nearly drove myself mad. But now I have a comfy camping vehicle that can blast whoops and take it a few feet off the ground and it's always stable and comfortable and has All the comforts of s stock sr5 4Runner.
Next is a cage from the B pillar back. Maybe a rear tire carrier when I get around to making a tube rear bumper. Going to build a tube bumper close and right below the stock front bumper. I really want to put cooled seats from a Lexus in it haha. Maybe build a better 5 link for it with stronger trailing arms and mounts since these are a problem when you go fast. I've already had to weld my mounts in the axel back on. If I do that I'll probably put some bypasses in the rear up through the floor. Depends if I can do it with enough room to still sleep back there comfortably. I camp a lot with my lady and my dog.
So I forgot I had a thread, I ended up going LT front and LTish rear
SAW torsion bars and SAW racerunner 2.5x8.5 front shocks with fox 2.0x4 bumps
Eibach coils and SAW racerunner 3.0x12.5 rear shocks
12.5 inches of clean travel up front with 4x4, can get almost 14 without CVs
14.5 rear travel
What LT setup did you go with up front? See I see the T-Bars in there I'm leaning towards blazeland or custom made? Just looking for some info as it's on my longer "to-do" list once I get other things figured out.
Dig the rear setup, do you worry about hitting those shock mounts on anything? They look to hang a little lower than the factory ones and with them moved in-board it seems like they would attract some attention from obstacles underneath.
52476467[/url]]Gotta say you've got some pretty big Yee-haw pics in there!
Has your suspension (or did it) hold up pretty good over the last few years?
My suspension has held up great over the past 3 or so years it’s been under there.
Originally Posted by COMTB;[url=tel:52476633
52476633[/url]]What LT setup did you go with up front? See I see the T-Bars in there I'm leaning towards blazeland or custom made? Just looking for some info as it's on my longer "to-do" list once I get other things figured out.
Dig the rear setup, do you worry about hitting those shock mounts on anything? They look to hang a little lower than the factory ones and with them moved in-board it seems like they would attract some attention from obstacles underneath.
Nice truck!
Phil
I made the lower arms and my buddy made the uppers. They’re extended and plated stock arms. Lowers mig welded and boxed and uppers tig welded and boxed. As far as the lower mounts out back, they have skids built into them, so I’m not incredibly worried about catching them on stuff. I don’t do a lot of rock crawling but I am slightly more conscious of line choice with them being that low. I had to move them inboard like that to get them to clear the panhard bar. Lots of old yota prerunners have them low like this so it’s not super uncommon. Not ideal, but it works.
Well I just tried to log in from a different browser real quick and for some reason my password that was saved doesn’t work anymore? Also don’t remember the password for the old email address so this is my new account. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
built a swing out tire carrier recently cause the spare doesn’t fit in the rear anymore with the big shocks.
also added an Eaton truetrac and revolution 4.88 gears. Kept the open diff out front though.
10-11-2015, 10:50 AM
