[Renegade_Medic]

Thanks, yes it totally changes the appearance to take them off.

As for the relay/module, I saw that as well, I'll probably order one. I won't be watching DVDs while going down the road, but the wife might enjoy it and also be able to use the functions that you have to be in "park" for.

[Black798]

@Renegade_Medic , how do you like the wildpeaks so far? How are they wearing and whats the performance off road like? I have a set in the 265/70 variety that Im getting mounted in a few weeks and haven't been able to find many reviews on them but they looked promising when I ordered them back in October.

[Renegade_Medic]

Originally Posted by Black798

@Renegade_Medic , how do you like the wildpeaks so far? How are they wearing and whats the performance off road like? I have a set in the 265/70 variety that Im getting mounted in a few weeks and haven't been able to find many reviews on them but they looked promising when I ordered them back in October.

Warning: Long post ahead.

TLDR: I like them alot and they look great, but had a bad tire initially, it was replaced. Possibly hard to balance tires (unlikely). Good offroad performance in dit and light mud for sure, haven't had them in deep or clay-like mud. 8/10, would buy again.

The whole story:
I really like them. I had an issue with a tire that was out of round and wasn't discovered for quite some time. I'd guess that I have around 5k miles on them at this point and hardly any noticeable wear. Actually, just a shade over 1/32" of tread is worn. I have had a very hard getting them to balance. I am not sure if it's actually the tires, my lift, or some other issue.

I had an out of round tire that every "expert" who looked at it said you have X issue, not a tire problem. I replaced all kinds of things from U joints to CV shafts to bearings and not any noticeable change. I finally took it to another dealership and had them use the haweka flange adapter to balance them, which was a whole huge argument with their tire balancer guy (who I helped train to use the Hunter machine). He didnt think it was necessary, i argued it was because of the ongoing balance issue. He finally relented and used it. Amazingly (not) 80% of the vibration was gone, I just had a steering wheel that vibrated like a back massager, instead of the whole vehicle. I just figured I had a bad front wheel bearing or some other issue to track down.

One day I had the 4Runner jacked up and had all the tires spinning in gear, trying to check for a rattling sound that sounded like a broken bearing (CV dust shield came off its perch) and discovered that my front tire was bouncing like a yo-yo. After contacting Falken Tire, i took it to Discount Tire for the confirmation that it was out of round. I asked them not to look at the other tires because they were perfectly balanced. They took all the tires off and Reba landed them for me, how thoughtful. So it was back to not driving properly again. They confirmed the tire was out of round. They ordered another tire for me and after 8 days (was told 2 days) it showed up. Then they measured the tread and I had just over 1/32" of tread worn off. Falken only warranties the first 1/32" of tread against out of round.
So the fight with Discount/falken began. It should have been caught by any of the 10 people that checked the balance on the tires and it wasnt. So now I was stuck with a bad tire that they should have caught a long time ago. We went back and forth and finally the manager agreed to prorate the remaining tread. So I spent $45 to get a tire replaced that they should have caught on day one.

It still vibrated, but much less violently now. So I bought new wheels, it was a good excuse. Still some vibration. I had to have them balance the tires by putting the weights on the outside (dynamic balance). It looks bad, but honestly it's the only way to balance truck tires. It is now 98% vibration free.

Sorry for the long post, but I want to be as thorough in documenting these tires, because like you, I found little to no information on them when researching. I'm much happier with the tires than I am with Discount Tire, with whom I have spent several thousands of dollars over the past 5 years. Also, they are pretty light for their size, and when paired with my new light wheels my average fuel economy has increased substantially, from 17 hwy to roughly 20-21 @70 mph.

Good luck and remember dynamic balance and if you have any vibration, check them yourself, quickly.

[Black798]

Originally Posted by Renegade_Medic

Warning: Long post ahead.

TLDR: I like them alot and they look great, but had a bad tire initially, it was replaced. Possibly hard to balance tires (unlikely). Good offroad performance in dit and light mud for sure, haven't had them in deep or clay-like mud. 8/10, would buy again.


Good luck and remember dynamic balance and if you have any vibration, check them yourself, quickly.

Thanks for the reply. Im pretty excited to get to try them out and I think Ill be able to get a good feel on just about all terrains sense Ill be running down from Bozeman to Moab beginning of March. Ill be sure to post a review in my build thread.

[Renegade_Medic]

I've been super busy and haven't really had a chance to mess with the 4Runner much lately. I did install a backup camera, which was not too hard. It was gross though, as I ran the wire under the carpet with 18 years or other people's filth under there....





I got the sliders in and cleaned them up. They are much larger tubing than I anticipated. I think that I may be missing parts. I don't have any plates that would mount it to the frame. Either they came off in transit (entirely possible because the "packaging" was a joke) or All Pro forgot them.

What I thought they would look like:



What I got:









I'm going to give them a shout tomorrow and see what they say. I guess I can find some plates, but I thought they would be ready to paint and go on. For paint, I inquired with a couple powder coat places locally and I will not be doing that. It was about as much as buying the sliders to them coated, or more. I am thinking some black tractor implement paint with hardener.
I got some small flood LED lights to put up on the roof rack for some lighting, just haven't had time to put them on. I also got some "quick fist" clamps that I'm going to mount to the inside of the liftgate to mount a shovel and an axe so they are handy, but not in the way. I did consider adding a Smittybilt GEAR MOLLE rack and bags to the area, but I don't think the struts will hold them up with stuff in it.

This is the rack, I had one in my first Jeep and it was actually damn handy.
Smittybilt GEAR Wrangler Tailgate Cover - Black 5662301 (07-17 Wrangler JK) - Free Shipping

I have been fantasizing about various front (and rear) bumpers, and I was wondering if anyone has every used or know anyone who had a Northwest Trail Innovations DIY bumper, seen here:
1996 - 2002 Toyota 4Runner Open Top Weld Together Winch Bumper Kit

I really like the design, but I'm not sure if it will work with the factory Skid plate. I read it somewhere while researching, but I don't see why it would be affected.

Thanks for stopping in!

[austinmarti]

Originally Posted by Renegade_Medic

I've been super busy and haven't really had a chance to mess with the 4Runner much lately. I did install a backup camera, which was not too hard. It was gross though, as I ran the wire under the carpet with 18 years or other people's filth under there....

What camera did you go with? I have a similar Pioneer head unit (albeit several years older) and wouldn't mind putting in a backup camera.

[Renegade_Medic]

Originally Posted by austinmarti

What camera did you go with? I have a similar Pioneer head unit (albeit several years older) and wouldn't mind putting in a backup camera.

I got this camera:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005Q...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the install, I mounted it on top of my hitch, just under the bumper. I mounted it with JB weld. If you are going to mount it on top of something, make sure you flip the camera module over first before you attach it. Don't ask how I know that. The image quality is ok, not great but for $30 I am happy and if it gets damaged, oh well.

[austinmarti]

Originally Posted by Renegade_Medic

I got this camera:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005Q...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the install, I mounted it on top of my hitch, just under the bumper. I mounted it with JB weld. If you are going to mount it on top of something, make sure you flip the camera module over first before you attach it. Don't ask how I know that. The image quality is ok, not great but for $30 I am happy and if it gets damaged, oh well.

I got that camera and found out the same in my testing -- the camera is upside down (depending on how you mount it) by default.

I drilled into my license plate and mounted it about even with the top license plate mount holes.

Wiring through the rear door was a pain.

[Renegade_Medic]

Finally got the sliders on!
I feel like it's been a massive undertaking to get them on the truck, but they are on. I opted to paint them with tractor implement paint, with hardener, and it turned out ok. It's really more of a test to see how the paint holds up, for future projects. I made the mounts and finally heard back from All-Pro, they said it isn't necessary. I guess the sliders are going to be super supported now. I didn't need to shave any pinch welds, they have plenty of room. I'm uploading a bunch of pictures, I couldn't find many that showed how far out the stick.













I also did my wheel bearing this week. The set I ordered from eBay with seals worked great. I also had the machine shop put new upper ball joints in. Total bill from the machine shop for both front wheel bearings and upper ball joints was $130, for 2 hours total time from drop off to pick up. About one third the price of any other shop closer that I asked.





I also thought it would be a good idea to replace the longer rear sway bar end links with longer ones. I have read that the 2nd Gen rears are preferred. I found them to be a little long, honestly. They seem to sit close the lower control arm. I'm going to find a stock 4runner in a parking lot and take a peek under it. I may move these to the front and put the front in the back.





It drives great with all the suspension replacement parts. I does still seem to have a rear end vibration. Thinking it could be from the axle being shifted over, from the too short trac bar.

[Renegade_Medic]

So I ordered a new Track bar/ panhard to try and solve a vibration I can't seem to pin down. I think this was the problem. I ordered one from Sonoran Steel. It looks and works great, and was shipped quickly. It went on with no issues. The hardest part was installing it at the correct length. The axle didn't want to shift back under the 4runner straight. It was staying pushed out pretty far to the passenger side. I enlisted some help from my partner ( another yota guy) and we used a big ratchet strap on the passenger tire to the driver frame and started cranking away. It's pretty close, but I want to move it over a bit more. The plan is to set it up for ideal ride height (just below empty weight). When I load it up for camping, the OME 891s sag considerably. HEAVY DUTY.... yeah.... so I'm going to supplement the springs with some air lift 1000 bags before we start doing any serious long distance travel.
Here is the new track bar in place. It took probably an hour tops to do it. I still need to cut off the old drop bracket.










I also noticed the other day, the inlet side of the factory exhaust is starting to rust through. It seems like a good time to put a new muffler on. After a lot of searching around and comparing sound clips, I decided on the magnaflow muffler. I got a 14 inch one after hearing lots of reports about it being almost as quiet as the stock muffler. I would beg to differ. It is fairly loud, and these aren't motors that sound especially good, in my opinion. I wish I had gone with an 18 inch body instead. I put a resonator tip on it and it did help quiet it down inside a little, mainly the tone it helped with, volume wasn't too bad. It does have a very minor amount of drone, which was my main criteria honestly (hate drone). It sounds pretty mellow, which is a good thing to me. Would recommend the magnaflow, Maybe an 18" if you want it to be quiet at all.

[Renegade_Medic]

Alright, with a trip coming up next week to Colorado, I figured it would be a good time to get a winch. I Hadn't really planned on getting one yet, but I don't want to get stuck in an unfamiliar area without one. I opted to get a Smittybilt XRC 9500. I had one on my Jeep and used it twice, one to remove a tree and once to help out someone who needed just a little tug to get traction. I had no issues with it, but really didn't use it much. I plan on getting about the same amount of use out of this one as well...



I went ahead and clocked the gear box so that it's easier to operate inside the bumper. I don't have money for a legitimate bumper, so this one will be going inside the Fat-Lip. I noticed when I had it apart to clock that it says TMAX HT. I know TMax is another winch, perhaps it's a shared part?





Then I dug into the frame rails. I always see oh just use an angle grinder or butterknife or whatever to cut the horns off. That was not my experience. I used a sawzall, grinder, pry bar and sledge to remove them.



I plan on making some inserts that go into the frame and are bolted through the frame in multiple places. I've read that with the ARB bumper you have to remove a couple inches of the frame rails? Is that for 96-98? I don't think there's much to remove on these...





Welds are starting to get better... And Ran out of good wire, of course, so using Bird SH** wire...



So next I started working on the bumper. I opted to just remove the whole "grid area". I also thought it would be a good time to paint the lower valence black while its apart.





Tomorrow I will mount the channel and hopefully put it all together. Pretty Excited. Also I ordered a Borla ProXS muffler (19"), the magnaflow is just too loud for me. I'll be throwing that on and doing some small maintenance stuff before we leave.

[austinmarti]

What does it mean to clock a winch? Having trouble finding an explanation anywhere.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Renegade_Medic]

Originally Posted by austinmarti

What does it mean to clock a winch? Having trouble finding am explanation anywhere.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Finally, I get to impart some knowledge.

Clocking a winch is when you rotate one, or both, ends in relation to the mounts. Some people clock the motor (not sure why), I rotated the gear box, so I can get to the clutch engagement lever easier since it will be under the bumper. You can also clock some alternators to have the plugs in certain positions, where I first learned this.

Generally how they look:



How mine looks with the handle clocked:



Have a great weekend and watch out for the SXSW'ers.

[Renegade_Medic]

Mounting the winch under the bumper is no small feat. It was a complete pain. It's just a hair too tall for the bumper to sit perfectly. But, it's on. The mount is welded to the little rails, which are both welded and bolted to the frame rails. The solenoid box is off to the side, so it can be accessed without having to open the hood or anything else.

Bumper all cleaned up:












Hopefully I never have to use this, but it's there if I do. Also the Heavy toytec springs ride better with the extra weight up front (go figure).

[austinmarti]

Looks good! Haven't seen many stock bumpers with winches.

Also, thanks for explaining the winch clocking.