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I'm also a big fan of the 33X10.50s. I also think your 4.10 gears are going to be good enough to run them but you can go with your regear project if you think you need it. I"ve been real happy with the way mine pulls it's 32X11.50s. I'm sure the Walmart guys can handle your project but it's always a good idea to have you a little old family tire guy in your pocket. I've got a little place near me that will do a mount and balance for $10 a tire and they use the old table top balance method, with no computer, that you never see anymore. I think, a lot of times, it's more about the guy doing the job than the equipment they use.
On the KO2s, I've bought just about every brand of tires for our foresters' pickups and the BFGs have given us the best service life and performance so far.
with my old runner (manual and 3.0) i needed 4.88 gears. those were the best. got me 18 mpgs on the highway flat land. I HATED 4.56s and 33s. 32s was tolerable. just my 2 cents.
I saw one this past week on Craigslist with the same or very similar stripes but in green tones. Im trying to find the ad to post up. Maybe it sold. Ill look on all my devices, im sure i saved it for you.
So, I woke up early Saturday and went to Tu's Tires in the West Bank her in NOLA. They've been around forever and had good reviews. They balanced the tires/wheels lug-centric no problem but when they installed them on the truck they just blasted the piss out of the lug nuts with the impact driver. I stopped the guy and asked if they had a torque wrench and he said yes. He went about his business blasting the lug nuts on with the impact wrench, no torque wrench. I considered raising a stink but figured I'd wait and see if they sheared off a stud, which they didn't...luckily. There were two missing studs already, I'll have to sort that out when I've got the wheels off next. The lowest psi they'd let it leave the shop with was 30, I ran some calculations and should be able to run 20-25 no problem given the weight of the truck and the load rating of the tire.
Man, these tires look good that and it rides so much better than before. It's a bit of a dog, I still want 4.88's but the truck is totally drivable as is. I was such a fan of the old KO's that I was skeptical of the new design but the KO2's definitely have more usable tread below the shoulder and significantly more sidewall protection.
I didn't get a chance yet to polish up the alloys I got from Charchee, can't wait to see them glistening! I spent most of Saturday installing an amp and speakers in the truck. I'll snap some pics this week of the install. The amp is tucked under the drivers seat and I did some pretty crafty (and annoying and painful) snaking of cables to clear the interior in preparation for rhino-lining. The interior panels are going to get marine carpet, the backside of all body panels is getting POR and the entire pan is getting rhino-lined. I love this truck with the top off, I live in Louisiana and I don't want rust. I need to get this thing on a lift and address any surface rust on the frame and apply Chassis Saver or something similar. Chassis Saver is like bloody tar though, there must be something better that doesn't go on a 1/2" thick.
Side note, I'm reconsidering the long travel up front, if only for the extra 3" width per side. With the new wheels and tires, I'm protruding a butt hair beyond the fender now. I don't really love the chunky fender flare look. Also, no wonder guys move the front wheels forward when the do an SAS, they aren't centered in the wheel arches from the factory! Blows my mind. My first thought was that it has something to do with turning geometry but the new tires rub the plastic fender well only at the firewall side and clear the front valence by a mile. Weird.
I've gotta decide soon though, BlazelandN8 should be back from Baja soon and if I'm going to order, I want to straight away as I've received all the other parts I need.
I saw one this past week on Craigslist with the same or very similar stripes but in green tones. Im trying to find the ad to post up. Maybe it sold. Ill look on all my devices, im sure i saved it for you.
Dude! That's amazing, definitely let me know if you find it, that could be a serious clue!
with my old runner (manual and 3.0) i needed 4.88 gears. those were the best. got me 18 mpgs on the highway flat land. I HATED 4.56s and 33s. 32s was tolerable. just my 2 cents.
What did you hate about the 4.56's on 33's? I don't mind the power loss from 4.10's with 33's around town but the revving is weird, I've found myself shifting back and forth between 2nd and 3rd heaps. Also, hills at highway speeds aren't great but not god awful. Better than I expected really. I thought 4.56's might be a good in-between the 4.10s and 4.88's.
Beautiful truck, love those new BFGs, they look a little more aggressive than the prev version. I have 4.88s and 33" KM2s, I like the 4.88s because at least here in FL, I can stay in 5th gear on the highway. I feel like with 4.56s, I'd have to downshift to 4th. No firsthand experience, but that's just my gut.
Here's those pics I was looking for. I worked weekends at a Toyota dealership in Orlando in the mid 80's and I remember the sold a bunch of regular cab pick ups with the similar paint scheme. They added 31's, a chrome roll bar, and a sun visor for the windshield. I'm trying to find some old polaroids. Here's that one on CL.
Talked to my dad who worked for toyota in the late 70s and 80s. he said that the dealership he worked for would send trucks to paint shops to have custom pinstriping and graphics put on. then they would add bigger wheels and rollbars and upsell the crap outta them. wiilling to bet thats what happened. but like ive said before, go to the dealership and speak to a service writer to get the factory build order. will list what all came on the truck when it was sold and that includes dealer add ons.
The new tires look great, makes me wish I had gone with 33's instead of 31's on mine, but I was in the same boat and not ready to change to 4.88 gears yet. It would have been a dog trying to pull some of the hills on the way to and from work. Your Runner's looking good,must be nice having the top off already, it's too cold and rainy here still.
Here's those pics I was looking for. I worked weekends at a Toyota dealership in Orlando in the mid 80's and I remember the sold a bunch of regular cab pick ups with the similar paint scheme. They added 31's, a chrome roll bar, and a sun visor for the windshield. I'm trying to find some old polaroids. Here's that one on CL.
Dude, I'm stoked you found it! My truck had a visor as well, gone now unfortunately. I think this might be be one of those trucks. It's a bummer seeing the state of the one on CL. Was that dude selling or parting out?
Talked to my dad who worked for toyota in the late 70s and 80s. he said that the dealership he worked for would send trucks to paint shops to have custom pinstriping and graphics put on. then they would add bigger wheels and rollbars and upsell the crap outta them. wiilling to bet thats what happened. but like ive said before, go to the dealership and speak to a service writer to get the factory build order. will list what all came on the truck when it was sold and that includes dealer add ons.
This sounds right. I'm on spring break (I'm a teacher, not a student!), I'll try to get to a toyota dealership this week to get a build sheet. I reckon this must have been one of those trucks. The stripes are painted on and I used to have a visor. I'll report back once I've got more info.
I'm considering lowering mine back down a bit, mostly hate jumping to get in it and I like the look
You know, I always figured that it was lifted 1-2" because it's got that goofy coil conversion in the back and the torsion bars cranked up to match but I just measured from the fender lip to the top of the rim and got 14" in the front and 14.5" in the back. This is stock, yeah?
I'm doing Chevy 63's in the back, I really hope I don't get too much lift. I'm hoping for 2" over stock.
Last edited by Heironymous Josch; 04-12-2017 at 04:11 PM.
Reason: Thought of something else!
Unfortunately, sometimes you've gotta take a step back before you can move forward. I'm backing out of the long travel up front. I just don't want to widen the track another 3", i love the SR5 alloys and don't want fender flares.
Nate at blazeland has been great, he's going to send me the idler arm brace weld-up kit to reinforce my pro-forge idler arm with brass bushings i got from 4crawler. Beyond that, I've got all new Moog ball joints and will likely replace the tie rod ends with moog parts and I've got a full polyurethane bushing kit for the truck from Energy. I plan to add ball joint spacers to match the lift I'll gain from the Chevy 63's in the back and I'm going to fit the truck with all new shocks and bump stops all the way around. Bummer there is I already had a set of Bilstein 5100's ready to install but they aren't going to fit a 2" lift. I'm kinda at a chicken and egg moment with the shocks too as I'm not sure how much travel I'm going to have after the suspension is modified. I reckon I can just buy shocks for a 1.5-2" lift over stock but I'm not sure what I'm going to end up with in the rear.
I'm sending the Cardone T-100 CV axles back and exchanging them for stock replacements. All up, with the shocks, axles and 3" spacers that were meant for the rear, I'm losing about $60 in shipping which ain't to bad.
Do I finish the chevy 63 swap and take some measurements? Drive around on the old shocks long enough for the new ones to come in? Also, with the added droop of the chevy springs, it looks like I'm going to need at least one longer brake line. Is there anything else that might fall out of range at full droop and, on the subject, what limits the droop in the rear, is it just the leaf springs and shackle?
Still got a lot to learn but I haven't screwed anything up yet! As always, thanks for stopping by!
Josh
Last edited by Heironymous Josch; 04-12-2017 at 04:35 PM.
Reason: I dunno
shocks would be the limiting factor in the droop for the rear. and then after, shackles. i think the 63s give you approx 3-4" of lift. a way to combat this is to do spring under axle instead of over. then use the longer shackles to give you your desired lift.
as far as the billies, if you opt not to use them, lemme know! i might buy em off of you!
With the SR-5 Rims (15x7 w/ 4.75" backspace) you shouldn't be crazy wide in track width when you go with Long Arms. I didn't quite catch the tire size, was it 33x10.50 or 33x12.50? I'd read up on BJ Spacers, do a search and find the thread I wrote on here, something in the title wham bam thank you Mam. The Chevy 63 leaf spring swap will give you between 4-5" of lift and be too much lift for LT or BJ Spacer. Keep reading and researching and you'll get it figured out.
03-31-2017, 04:17 PM
