[williamteichroeb]

Current mods

Front suspension

-OME 885's/Nitrocharger 90021 shocks, with wheeler's 3/8" top out spacer
-wheelers pre-assembled strut assembly with new strut mounts and hardware
-JBA standard high castor UCA's

Rear suspension

-Dobinson variable rate heavy coils C59-677V
-Fox 2.0 performance series shocks for 2-3" of lift
-metaltech extended SS brake lines
-2nd gen 4runner sway bar end links

Summer tires/wheels

5th gen TRD 17x7 wheels, matte black
BFG KM2 in 255/80R17

Winter tires/wheels

5th gen 4runner steel spare wheels 17x7
studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT2's in 235/80R17


Armor

-Demello offroad front 3 hooped bumper
-Demello offroad DOM rock sliders
-shrockworks engine/tranny/xfer case skid package
-Prinsu full length roof rack
**wishlist....dual swing-out rear bumper!**

Lighting

-Baja Designs squadron sport combo light in bumper
-KC slimlites 130 watt spot beams
-Black Oak flood 40 watt pods on CBI ditch light mounts
-upgraded wattage halogen bulbs in low beams and high beams
-AOB and CH4x4 toyota push switches

Miscellaneous Mods

-Fog light anytime mod
-TPMS delete
-Toyota block heater
-KATS battery heater blanket 80Watt
-Amazon 2 to 1 connector for battery blanket and block heater
-Fumoto drain valve with short nipple
-Transk9 aluminum dog crate
-Amsoil in engine (5w30 in summer, 0W30 in winter)
-Amsoil 75w-90 in all gear cases
-Custom V-Bar snow chains for rear
-Diamond Back snow chains for front
-Recovery shackles and strap
-Keystone kinetic snatch strap and soft shackles
-Air down tool
-fire extinguisher with secure trunk mount
-Dobinson's medium awning

In the beginning

This is my build thread for a 2009 SR55 toyota 4runner. It had 49,000kms when I bought her in Vancouver, BC, September 2016. I had been looking for a 4runner for over 6months and was heart-set on only a 4runner or xterra. Glad I waited for this gem to appear. It was bought at the Hyandai dealership in Richmond. Who trades in a beautiful 4runner for a Hyundai?!? Anyways, their loss. Ended up paying $24,500 plus tax and fees. Because I live 1000kms away in Fernie, BC, I had a friend of mine go to test drive it and make sure everything worked. Thanks to him I found out about a few body blemishes that the dealership agreed to fix before I picked it up. I bought the vehicle a few weeks before I actually could find time to travel down to Vancouver as they weren't going to hold the vehicle for me. I packed my old cavalier, and dog with me and drove down to the Valley. I sold the cavalier the day before I went to pick up the 4runner. Only got $800 for the 04 cavalier, and man that thing was in great shape. Anyways, here's a pic of her the first moment we laid eyes on eachother.

[williamteichroeb]

After I picked Sanmyaku up (her name is "mountain" in Japanese), I knew I would lift her very soon. The stance just seemed too "grocery getter" to me and I knew I'd need more ground clearance to feel comfortable off-road. This would have to wait though, and I started out with some simple mods...

Within a couple weeks of owning her and started off with a TPMS delete, so that annoying TPMS light would go off with my winter set of wheels and tires.



The next mod to come was the "fog light anytime mod," so I could run all my lights at the same time. I also installed PIAA extreme vision bulbs.

I also purchased some hakkapeliitta 8 SUV tires with tire chains. This may be overkill for many of you, but in Fernie, BC, real winter tires are mandatory and definitely helped keep my family and I safe over the winter. Highly recommend Nokian tires!!

[williamteichroeb]

I decided another inexpensive, yet practical mod, would be some ditch light mounts by CBI and black oak 40 watt LED pods. I received the lights and tested to make sure they worked. Was super impressed by their brightness, as I'm sure my neighbours were not! The brackets came within a week later, and I began working to install them. They were super easy to install and only took about an hour, besides wiring, and plugging in new bulbs, I guess this was my first real mod. The routing of wiring took a good 5 hours though for the lights, and I ended up wiring them to an aftermarket switch that mimicked toyota switches and looked cool. The switch letters light up anytime the other switch lights are on, and the picture lights up when you depress the switch to turn on the lights. Turned out great.




I also had toyota do a transmission drain and fill, transfer case drain and fill, and front and rear differential drain and fill, as I'm sure the previous owner never engaged 4WD.

[williamteichroeb]

The next mod to come would be a lift. I did a lot of research and thought I would be quite happy with the daystar 2.5 front/1.5 rear. I ordered the lift myself for about 160 CAD online and agreed to pay a shop 3 hours labour to install it.

I gotta say, looking back in hindsight this was a complete waste of time and money and I was not satisfied with the gained lift. It still had quite a raked look to it, and I knew in my gut I would be saving up for a better lift in the near future. I also was disappointed in myself for not doing the work on my own. Anyways it did allow me to buy bigger tires and I liked that it at least sat higher.



Snow has been falling in Fernie quite hard, and I really gotta say, the hakkapeliitta's are amazing tires. The projectors on these 4runners are very nice as well... check out these pics of the beam pattern

[williamteichroeb]

After the daystar lift, I quickly sourced out what I wanted for wheels and tires. I had originally thought of getting the 265/75R16 BFG KO2's but started seeing more posts of people running 255/75R17's and 235/85R16. I quickly grew to love the tall/skinny look. I also quickly decided on the TRD pro wheels because I wanted a wheel that was hub-centric, and only 7" wide for my skinny tires. All the aftermarket wheels I liked were 8" and wider like the pro-comps and mickey thompson. Very happy with the TRD's. I bought 1 tire in a 235/80R17 to test fit on the 4runner. I liked it however I thought it might be too skinny and after more research thought the 255/85R17 at 32.1" and 10" wide was perfect and a little better than 9.3" wide and 31.8" tall. Very happy with the combo. Attached are some pics of both the 235/80R17 and 255/75R17's that I settled with. I ended up still keeping the 235 tire/wheel combo and use it as my spare as I sits higher up under the vehicle and allows more ground clearance while being more or less the same diameter.

[williamteichroeb]

Tax season came, and I knew I would be getting a really sweet tax return, so I decided to treat myself with a steel bumper. It was between 2 companies; Demello and CBI. CBI was pretty firm on their price and Demello was running a GB for XX% off plus free shipping. I couldn't pass that up, and ordered a 3 hoop design. I really want to say how awesome Tiffany and Jason were to deal with and how quick it was made, and sent out. I think the turnaround was about 2-2.5 weeks. I received in bare metal as I know a really good powdercoater in Ft. Macleod who would do the job for me for 300 CAD. I went across the border to Montana to pick it up.....man it was heavy and big. I don't know why I wasn't expecting that but it fit in the back with the seats down. Lucky me, didn't get charged CAD tax at the border. In fact, to date I haven't been charged any duty or taxes on anything and most of the time it's over 200 CAD (which is the maximum personal tax exemption). I dropped it off at the powdercoater's later that week and picked it up a couple weeks later to install. Install was pretty easy. Didn't need to do any extra modding or re-locating of any AC lines, etc, as it said in the instructions. The bumper, however, doesn't fit quite perfect and seems to be off-center as you can see from some of the photos. I'm sure if I hadn't said that no one would have noticed. But it bothered me slightly. I ended up trimming the plastic grill corner to allow more room for body flex. Jason confirmed I was sent the right one and we choked it up to the vehicle frame being slightly off.

Another shitty thing, was when I torqued one of the side frame bolts, it broke off, which was a 2 hr ordeal to drill it out. Luckily I didn't need to tap and die the frame, but man was I sweating. I went through 3 drill bits and easy-outs to get it out. I think the torque setting is too high and told Jason perhaps this is the case. He was so awesome and sent me new hardware free of charge to replace that one and the others that were torqued too much.

In the last photo it was the smaller side bolt that I'm talking about. Anyways solid bumper and I've gotten so many compliments on it and many metal fab guys have said how good the welds and design are. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

[williamteichroeb]

After about 2 months with the bumper, and missing my fog lights, I decided I'd hunt for a pair of lights to put in the bumper. After all my research I knew I wanted baja designs lights. I really wanted their squadron pro lights but couldn't justify the extra 200 for 40 watt pods instead of 20. Therefore I ordered the 20 watt squadron sports. Bailey at BD is amazing and gives a forum discount of 10%. Service was fantastic. Also inquired about a way to wire them directly to the OEM fog light harness. I assured me the adaptor that they make for the newer 4runners would work. I received the items in good condtion and packaged really well about a week later. Again, I drove across the border to Montana to pick them up (an hour drive away), and didn't pay duty or taxes!! YESSSS! Immediately checked that the lights and wiring adapter worked and it did...however, it worked in reverse. what I mean by that is normally the bulb would plug into the plug and snap in place. With these the polarity is reversed so it works but doesn't "snap" in place. That's fine with me and I just pushed it in as tight as it goes, and taped the plug to the adapter. It's never come apart and works beautifully. This adapter made the install a 10 minute job. Thanks Bailey!!

[DeepSea]

Nice! I always liked the 4th gen, especially moded

[williamteichroeb]

So......this was really exciting!!!!

I told myself if I lost 10 lbs I'd buy a lift kit for my vehicle.

It took about 1.5 months but I did it....in fact I'm an overachiever....I lost 11 lbs from 220lbs down to 209.

I had debated long and hard about all the lift options, and wrote down so many comparison charts with pros/cons/price etc. and narrowed it down to 3 options for the front

1) toytec boss or ultimate
2) eibach 620 lb springs with eibach pro truck sport shocks
3) OME 885's

I ended up going with the OME 885's with a 3/8" top out spacer and the softer nitrocharger 90021 shocks. I bought it from Wheelers offroad and had them install it on new strut mounts with hardware for an extra 100 dollars. I also got new shock bolts to replace my original hardware. I like to do this whenever possible because parts do wear out and I like the thought of all new hardware. I believe that if you have all the parts out, put the vehicle back together better than it was when you took it apart.

I also learned from my previous mistake that I wanted to do it right the SECOND time. I knew I would need new UCA's and after debating between SPC's, JBA's, and Camburgs, I opted for the JBA's. They had a rocky start with some design flaws, but all their new UCA's had rave reviews, especially on tacomaworld, and I really liked that the Castor was built into them (not adjustable) and that the balljoint was a very commonly sourced chevy 3/4 ton balljoin with tons of articulation and very easy to replace without removing the UCA. Spoke to the owner Marlin over the phone and he was very helpful. Shipped that same day. Only weird thing was there was a jesus DVD in the box when I received it. UGHHHHH I'm a devout atheist and don't like religion at all. But whatever, he's a solid guy with good intentions and makes a great product.

For the rear, I went with toytec superflex 2" coils with Fox performance series extended travel shocks. They say these shocks are for 2-3" of lift. I got the toytec coils from wheelers again, but found a wicked deal on the shocks at 4wheelparts and wheeler's couldn't come close to the price.

The day before I was ready to install the lift I thought I'd get a head start, so I took off my front and rear sway bar and skid plates. Man it felt weird driving around without sway bars. I kinda liked it but I wouldn't have wanted to have to do an emergency maneuver at high speeds. Luckily I was just driving around town at like 30 kms an hour.

I also knew this time I would do the install myself. This was MY build! I like to think I am a fairly intelligent guy and can figure stuff out. I did need to buy some miscellaneous tools that I was missing. I had all the bolts and nuts I knew needed to be removed soaking in PB blaster for about 2 weeks prior to the install so everything was pretty easy to remove.

I followed a few videos on youtube and used toytec's writeup as a reference. The most helpful videos were by "lowrangeoffroad" They have a youtube account and 3 very helpful videos for the 4th gen. One was an OME install, the other was an icon 5th stage I believe. Anyways here are some photos.

PS It really helped that my unit chief let me use the install bay at the ambulance station as it was raining that week and I don't have a garage.

[williamteichroeb]

After letting the springs and shocks settle on the vehicle for 3-4 days and light driving around town and over little curbs I took the vehicle in to get an alignment at toyota.

I was very specific about what I wanted and asked to talk to the tech who would be working on my vehicle.

I told him I wanted maximum castor, with the camber and toe at 0 or within spec. He told me I might not be able to get all within spec. I ASSURED him I would, and said I put new UCA's in specifically so everything could be back in spec. I also told him I had the cam bolts loosened earlier to install my lift and had everything soaked in PB for over 2 weeks.

He told me he wouldn't recommend castor that is too high and explained why he wouldn't recommend going above spec. He said something about shopping carts and how the front wheels wobble and said I could up end with that. I said fine, just get the maximum castor you can get within spec. We agreed to shoot for between 3 and 3.5.

Off to work he went. He got everything where I wanted and he thanked me for soaking the cam bolts in blaster. He said normally they see them seized so I was pretty lucky.

I ended up leaving the front sway bar off but installed the rear for safety reasons. I have driven it now about 3 weeks and I feel very confident with the ride and kind of like the front sway bar off. The vehicle tracks strait and has no pull to either side. I'm loving it. Ended up going with a friend on a little forest road loop to try the suspension out. It drives really nice. At time I feel like I should have gone with heavier springs or stiffer valved shocks, but it's so comfortable and I drive on road about 90 percent of the time so I made the right choice. I am expecially loving the rear. The fox shocks are the longest shocks I found for this application and I have yet to feel them top or bottom out.

PS I took before and after measurements from stock to daystar, and then from daystar to OME/toytec lift. I will summarize the results, but for anyone interested I have all the fine details (for those OCD like me)...:

gained the 2.5 front and 1.8 rear from daystar, then gained an additional 2.4" front and 1.7" rear from the OME/toytec lift.

In summary, going from saggy stock springs, I gained 4.8" front and 3.5" rear from this lift. I now sit at:

DF --38 3/8" edit...after 8 months installed the height measures: ** 38"
PF --38 1/2" 38 3/8"

DR --39 7/16" 38 5/8"
PR --39 1/2" 39"

I'm so stoked it's level.. I'll remeasure in about 2 weeks and see how much it settles, but for now it's perfect to me. Just on an aside I did have wheelers put in an OME trim packer in the DF coilver (5mm). No trim packer used on the rear.

[williamteichroeb]

Originally Posted by DeepSea

Nice! I always liked the 4th gen, especially moded

Thanks buddy! I just updated the build thread with the rest of my mods to date. Check it out

[williamteichroeb]

I thought I'd update my build thread with the latest. I have been driving around for about 2-3 weeks on the new lift and I'm loving it so far. Drives great, super smooth on road, pretty good off-road. No complaints yet. Some things have crossed my mind lately....namely wanting to upgrade to

255/80R17 BFG KM2 mud-terrains

I am able to score a good deal on them with free install/balancing and pretty sure I could get a good chunk back from my KO2's which are pretty much brand new. Here are my concerns:

1) it will be possible from all my research to install these with no rubbing whatsoever, because of my lift/high castor, and front bumper, but in the rear the mudflaps would definitely have to go. This is illegal in BC, and I don't want to do anything that will cost me money in tickets, or even worse a vehicle inspection, which they can give if they see deficiencies in your vehicle.

2) I don't know how well I'll like the mud-terrains for on-road performance. I quite like the KO2's and they perform beautifully in all conditions. Well, all conditions minus maybe the ice, but I'll always run dedicated winters where I live.


Lastly, I rechecked my lift height and there's some interesting changes I'm not super happy with:

DF ---38 5/8
PF ---39 3/8

DR ---38 11/16
PR ---39 3/8

basically my front passenger side has gotten higher....this would seem impossible. Except for the fact that I now have a full gas tank, and my driver's rear has lowered 3/4" but the passenger rear only 1/8". I'm going to take some measurements when my gas tank is empty and see if that changes anything.

Also just installed the fumoto oil drain valve and did an oil change. Going to run it for a couple hundred kilometers then drain the oil again and put amsoil in and an amsoil filter. This is my way of doing an oil flush.

[Kiefy4Runner]

sweet build man!

[wackyzacky110]

really slick build. you clearly know what the heck you're doing!

[blvck_sheep]

Nice build! What's your next mod?