GlennC

First post here, hope its in the right section. I'm looking into a 1997 4runner as my next project and I had a heap of questions that don't seem to be in most FAQ sections and I was pointed here by a buddy with an old solid axle runner.

I'll start with a little back-history on what I have and what I'm getting for what I need - and I'll absorb advice from there. I had 1991 runner, totally stock with downy HD springs and some awesome flood lights. I found during wheeling/camping it obviously wasn't enough to get me where I wanted to go. Fast forward - bought a 1998 cherokee. Put a 6 inch lift, winch, all of the goodies on it. It's no doubt going to be great at offroading but anybody who has driven a 6 inch lifted cherokee in the city knows how much fun that can be without doing tons of costly work to drop every single aspect of the suspension. I would be willing to do the work and spend the money, if it wasn't a jeep. It's riddled with issues and I'm already missing my yota.

Basically what I'm wanting is a decent truck to boot around in the city plus camping and wheeling 10-15 times per year. I know IFS isnt the best for wheeling, but I figure the compromise for the rest of the year I can deal with it. My main questions are as follows...

Most lifts I see for front/rear on the 4runner don't seem to add up. You can get the LC 9 wrap coils for 4.5-5 inches rear lift, but then the only options for the front are coil overs which seem to give a max of 3.5. How can you level it out on the front that extra inch? I plan to do the panhard bar drop and diff drop as well, I want this to be a do it once do it right sort of deal.

Winch options seem minimal - other than a fully ARB style bumper is there nothing else available to maintain the factory bumper but add a winch plate on without going custom? Again, I've sifted through what seems like 100's of offroad part supplier sites and can't come up with anything.

Until now I've never owned an auto, but for the sake of the fact I have both the car and the bike in manual I was condsidering getting the 4runner as an auto. I've heard great things about the 3.4L motor over the 3.0L on previous generations but I can't seem to find any information of the durability of the automatic transmission. Can anyone chime in with personal experience if they are prone to failure?

Last and not least, I've seen too many types of lifts to comprehend. I looked at the "ultimate most complete lift" link I saw on here for the 1996, which looks great but maxes out at 3 inches or so, is there any way to get to the 4.0-5 mark without major modification or hurting the CV angle too much? Maybe a product I'm missing?

Thanks! I just want to keep up with the jeep guys on the trail this year and do it all with the reliability of a yota, instead of the famously horrible reliability of a jeep.

Sorry for the noobie post!

GlennC

Nobody? Mostly want to know about winch options and reliability of the auto...

cpizzle42

First of all the lifts, Why do you want to go so high? What size tires are you trying to clear? I clear 35"s with about 2 inches of lift. The higher you go, the more problems you are going to have ball joints, tie rods, gas mileage, needing 4.88 gears or lower, driveabilty around town.

As far as IFS over solid front, for the 10 times a year your going to play in the dirt, the IFS wont limit you.

As far as auto transmissions go, I have never had a auto 4runner, but I have had a tacoma with a auto. They are good, but I was always wishing for one more gear while towing. Someone else can chime in here that has an auto runner.

There are maybe about half dozen smaller companies offering winch bumpers. You just got to search. Or have a local fab shop build you whatever you want.

GlennC

Reason wanting a decent lift is that I found I was very very limited by clearance especially on the front skid plate and back bumper of my old runner. Alot of the terrian I tackle when I do go wheelin' is muddy and very uneven. I tore off the skid on my 91 countless times and off a drop I don't want to ram my back bumper up into the body. 33 would be where I would like to be, 35 would be nice but that sounds like it would really hurt power and gas economy.

I would never be towing anything bigger than a broken jeep out of the mud, gearing shouldn't be an issue for me.

I've seen a number of the smaller ones just looking in the past week. I think my best option is just going to be hiring out a welder to make up a plate that wraps around the side of the frame as I've heard the endcaps on the frame are incredibly weak on these runners.

Thanks for the input!