I purchased my 1998 4Runner Limited for $5,500. Pictures from the small-town car lot I found it at:

 

The same day that I purchased the vehicle, I had the following parts on order:

• Wet Okole Seat Covers
• OME Shocks/Springs (881/890)
• 285/75-R16 BFGoodrich A/T

I was amazed at how comfortable and capable the truck became with these modifications. It drove around town and on the highway like a brand new vehicle, and was very capable on the trails (especially given my lack of experience).

 

I have now been driving the truck daily to work for roughly 6 months and it has been extremely reliable and a ton of fun. I have taken it to the trails as often as possible and have had a blast every time. I haven't enjoyed a vehicle this much since the Ducati Monster I had in college.









I recently installed a 4Crawler 1.5" body lift and polyurethane bushings to replace the stock bushings which were completely disintegrated. This cured a minor 'shimmy' the truck had on the highway.

 

New Years Day, 2009

 

 

Stubbs HD-SKO Sliders

 

 

 

This happened at work recently:


Awesome.

 

Added 4 Cragar Soft 8 wheels with (horrible) Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ.

Took my dad and brother on their first off road adventure and they both had a blast. My dad drove most of the time and is now looking forward to getting his '96 Lexus LX450 out on to some trails in Seattle where he lives.


Me up & over.


The last shot of me driving, as my dad took over soon after.




See my hand directing dad to go right? He took the easy way out and went left. Doh!




It was a bit of a strange feeling, watching my own car weave it's way through the trail.






Spotting Kevin. It was also his first trip out in his FJ - he's hooked and has a lift on order.


Kevin up & over.


Brian up & over and another Budbuilt advertisement...

 

Installing an ARB Bumper. Rolled the 4Runner out of the garage to clean up behind the bumper really well before painting back there. Bumper mounts are all set to cut and weld up on Tuesday to compensate for the 1.5" body lift.

 

 

Removed the crap Mickey Thompson MTZs (good riddance) and put my BFG ATs back on. This is in the Ozark National Forrest in Arkansas, March 2011.

 

At 180,759 miles, Monique (as my 4Runner came to be called) suffered a blown head gasket in the Ozark mountains at 95 F. I was towing a 2,200 lb trailer and had approximately 500 lbs of stuff in the 4Runner itself. Due what I believe to be a faulty coolant temperature sender (seach the forums, this is common - PLEASE REPLACE YOURS!) I was unaware that the slight hissing sound I was hearing for approximately 10 minutes at 65 mph was my coolant boiling. the temperature gauge didn't budge until the coolant was already gone and the damage had been done.

The car came to a final rest about 3/4 mi from a Toyota dealership (no joke...). I was going to have them check the car out when I saw Starla - a 2011 Tacoma TRD Off Road in Magnetic Gray Metallic...



The dealership was happy to take Monique and we ended up striking a pretty good deal.




The last picture I ever took of Monique (in the background...out of coolant...):



Goodbye old girl. I'll miss you.