So I am posting this just as reference for members.
I recently made the jump to 35s and I have yet to gear my 4runner. I was pretty adamant that in my situation gearing was not needed.
Almost every post regarding 35s leads to people saying you NEED to gear to 4:88s or 5:29s etc etc
I wanted to get some more driving time with the stock gears/35s before I made any definitive claims, and I believe I have come to a conclusion.
For my situation, driving style and environment re-gearing is definitely NOT a must-have. My truck still drives great around town, and on the highway. Sure it needs some more throttle in certain situations but I will not be re-gearing anytime soon.
on to the roadtrip...
I left from Phoenix, AZ and drove to San Diego, CA which is roughly a 350 mile one way trip, with around 4800ft rise in elevation at certain points.
The only time my truck was stressed out was during a few of the really steep climbs. Ask anyone who has driven this route and they will attest to the severity of this climb. Not to mention it was around 105-110 degrees. Many cars were pulled over on the side of the interstate, but the 4runner was a beast.
This was the only point of the entire trip when not having gears was really noticeable, and if you are frequently driving in these situations you might WANT to re-gear.
On top of this I recently had both of my cv boots tear/rip off. I debated not going because of this but I decided to tough it out. No issue there
she made it back home safe and sound with absolutely no issues.
no comment on my MPG