[superman3043]

Hit the trails at Patriot Mountain to shake down my brothers new Jeep over the weekend. Great time. Truck performed flawlessly.




















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[superman3043]

Shade over 230k

Trimmed the the rear bumper and body mount some more and massaged the pinch welds further for more clearance. We’ll find out if it’s enough but all good so far. Didn’t take pictures.

Added some new yellow pods in the buckets. Replaced my expensive white cubes with inexpensive ones because I thought I had an issue but just turned out to be a wiring issue. Oh well. Old ones have been repurposed.



Installed a GM diode fuse for the alternator. My Yellow top only lasted 30k miles and 5 years where the stock Panasonic went about 90k and 5 years and the red top about 110k 5 or 6 years. Wanted a red top but the store had the wrong post configuration so I bought the O’Reilly store brand AGM battery made by East Penn/Deka. Had issue with the Yellow Top and found out from a FB group that it could be because the vehicle charging systems don’t put out enough for AGM batteries. This diode is supposedly the quick fix. Have to rework it a little to fit but not a big deal. Hopefully it helps.

Installed (black one with diode marking)







Seemed to have picked up about half a volt reading at the ECM and OBD.

Replaced my cheap ($10.16) iJDMTOY flasher really with a cheaper ($9.95) one from Diode Dynamics. Turned out the first one was bad all along. Right side was always hit or miss. The DD one even came with a potentiometer so you can adjust the frequency. Happy with it.

In an effort to add more splashes of color to my monochrome front end after the fogs, I added a retro style badge and after not finding emblem offerings on the market that I liked decided to make my own. Called up the buddy with all the toys:





Ended up going with the white for now



That’s all.


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[superman3043]

Pics from our epic weekend adventure of wheeling and camping. Did some Hurricane Creek, Pisgah, and Cataloochee.






















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[superman3043]

232K Update

Truck always gets a little something for the holidays.

I repurposed my old Rigid Dually’s. One I wired up to the Raptor as an auxiliary reverse light and this one I used as a chase light one the Runner



Got a Getta Grip shift knob





Replaced my signal lights with some brighter ones





Got some Budbuilt skids







Painted my calipers because the parts store one oxidizes like crazy





Went wheeling at Old House Gap Road with freinds



Got a 4 tire air down/up system from MidAtlantic Off-road



Inherited more armor from King Sling and Austin. BAMF LCA Skids and Budbuilt Diff Skid







Durobumps





That’s it for now. Fuel tank skid probably next and gears later this year.


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[awhitney1]

What kind of new turn signal lights did you get?

[superman3043]

Originally Posted by awhitney1

What kind of new turn signal lights did you get?

Amazon baby! Went from a single LED that came with the bumper to a 9 LED. I would notice people pissed off a lot as if I didn't signal for them while turning because they couldn't see the dinky little blinker. This is a huge improvement, however I still don't think it's super obvious depending on the situation. I just think that the small size and amber color just aren't very visible in high daylight situations.

[awhitney1]

Thanks man! What about that head unit? Looks nice!

Originally Posted by superman3043

Amazon baby! Went from a single LED that came with the bumper to a 9 LED. I would notice people pissed off a lot as if I didn't signal for them while turning because they couldn't see the dinky little blinker. This is a huge improvement, however I still don't think it's super obvious depending on the situation. I just think that the small size and amber color just aren't very visible in high daylight situations.

[superman3043]

Originally Posted by awhitney1

Thanks man! What about that head unit? Looks nice!

Check out my thoughts here at post #710 when I installed it a little over a year ago. I think it all still holds true. I really like it. I've since paired it with a new backup camera that is really nice. Front camera when off-road is also amazing. And I had to go in and re-connect all of the steering wheel control wires with nice soldered connections because the quick-tap type ones were very unreliable. Haven't had any issues since. I still really like it. Looks like this particular one is no longer available only because I'm sure it's been replaced with the latest and greatest. If I were in the market, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, especially at the price. Or I would get the 10.1" screen or the Tesla style vertical ones. Hope that helps.

[superman3043]

Changed all my tie rods (inner and outer) over the weekend and made a couple discoveries/observations.

First this rental tool for the inner tie rods is pretty awesome.




Next, I ordered Pro-Forged parts that were marketed by Rock Auto as “heavy duty” parts. I don’t think they sell them any more. Anyway they look very similar to OEM in design (left side) maybe even a little flimsier and the OEM tie rods are a known weak point on our vehicles. Much less beefy than the one I removed (center) which was a Moog branded part. My assumption is that the thicc bois like the Moogs, Becks, and Mevos are the same thing as the Sankei 555 that are so popular. Matter of fact I know that these Moogs were a JDM part from the documentation that came with them. I almost stopped the job and left all of my current parts on as they weren’t in bad shape at all.

However the engineer in me started questioning “why would they do this?”. From a design/manufacturing stand point it’s actually more expensive to turn the neck down than not. So it’s gotta be there for a reason. Only thing I could come up with is that it’s a designed in weak point to protect the rack perhaps but that’s just a theory. I went ahead and put all the new parts on and kept the old ones as trail spares as I was already in there and at the very least the boots and balljoints were a little tighter/nicer.




The outers that I pulled off were AC Delco branded but again JDM and actually clearly marked with “555”. Looked very similar to my new one which was not marked and did not come with JDM documentation.




Aligned and tires freshly balanced/rotated and she feels incredible. I think just about everything underneath the truck is less than a year or so old now. On to other things.


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[aemravan]

Awesome build man, loved reading through this. And looks like you're not all that far from where I am in Charlotte, maybe i'll run across your truck at some point.

You got me sold on the front fenders, those looks awesome. I'm now considering selling my factory fenders while they are freshly painted and in good shape and picking up a set of these in their place.

I have contemplated the whole Long Travel/SAS vs Mid Travel thing as a next suspension step and I'll tell you what.. after reading through your thread I'm pretty much sold on a similar Mid Travel kit to keep it simple and not overbuilt.

I locked myself out of the whole SAS because I have some RCV axles on the way along with a full gusset kit for the front. That should get me as close as I can get to the SAS strength as a fraction of the work and cost.

King was my first choice, but I have also eye-balled the Icon coilovers as well. Now to decide whether I want to do the FJ tcase/regear/lockers or more suspension work..

Anyhow, great build man.

[superman3043]

Originally Posted by aemravan

Awesome build man, loved reading through this. And looks like you're not all that far from where I am in Charlotte, maybe i'll run across your truck at some point.

You got me sold on the front fenders, those looks awesome. I'm now considering selling my factory fenders while they are freshly painted and in good shape and picking up a set of these in their place.

I have contemplated the whole Long Travel/SAS vs Mid Travel thing as a next suspension step and I'll tell you what.. after reading through your thread I'm pretty much sold on a similar Mid Travel kit to keep it simple and not overbuilt.

I locked myself out of the whole SAS because I have some RCV axles on the way along with a full gusset kit for the front. That should get me as close as I can get to the SAS strength as a fraction of the work and cost.

King was my first choice, but I have also eye-balled the Icon coilovers as well. Now to decide whether I want to do the FJ tcase/regear/lockers or more suspension work..

Anyhow, great build man.

Yeah buddy!! Thank you so much. Was just looking at a post of your earlier with a pic of your Supra at the BP by the outlets and was like "I know that place". I work literally 6 miles from there. Love your truck as well. Surprised I haven't seen you around yet. Not that many 4th Gens on 35's running around here.

Yeah, I love my NcNeils and Kings. I'm sure SAS or maybe RCLT is still in the future down the road. No rush though. She's a toy.

We need to get up some time though man, for sure!

[aemravan]

Originally Posted by superman3043

Yeah buddy!! Thank you so much. Was just looking at a post of your earlier with a pic of your Supra at the BP by the outlets and was like "I know that place". I work literally 6 miles from there. Love your truck as well. Surprised I haven't seen you around yet. Not that many 4th Gens on 35's running around here.

Yeah, I love my NcNeils and Kings. I'm sure SAS or maybe RCLT is still in the future down the road. No rush though. She's a toy.

We need to get up some time though man, for sure!

Small world, haha. Are you on the Queen City Toyota FB page? I always get a kick out of finding someone local on a random forum I found through google lol.

I live down in south charlotte off of the rea road exit but work the opposite way out towards Monroe so thats probably why we haven't run across each other yet.


After reading through your post and going on a 2 hour suspension search I decided to pump the brakes a little and finish the drivetrain first. I'm gonna be hitting up ECGS about their complete clamshell/3rd member builds with 4.88 gears and the Harrop Elocker in the rear so that I dont have to mess around with getting an arb pump and running air lines and all that.. Really want to lock the front as well but finding it hard to drop another 1300 bucks on the front locker.. so I think for the time being I'll just leave it open and spend the money on the FJ T-case with the twin sticks and the tacoma ADD front diff so I can roll around in 2wd and try and recoup a bit of the MPG that I have murdered with all the current mods.

But anyhow, we'll definitely need to meet up at some point, would love to check out the ride in person.

[superman3043]

Originally Posted by aemravan

Small world, haha. Are you on the Queen City Toyota FB page? I always get a kick out of finding someone local on a random forum I found through google lol.

I live down in south charlotte off of the rea road exit but work the opposite way out towards Monroe so thats probably why we haven't run across each other yet.


After reading through your post and going on a 2 hour suspension search I decided to pump the brakes a little and finish the drivetrain first. I'm gonna be hitting up ECGS about their complete clamshell/3rd member builds with 4.88 gears and the Harrop Elocker in the rear so that I dont have to mess around with getting an arb pump and running air lines and all that.. Really want to lock the front as well but finding it hard to drop another 1300 bucks on the front locker.. so I think for the time being I'll just leave it open and spend the money on the FJ T-case with the twin sticks and the tacoma ADD front diff so I can roll around in 2wd and try and recoup a bit of the MPG that I have murdered with all the current mods.

But anyhow, we'll definitely need to meet up at some point, would love to check out the ride in person.

No I'm not in that FB group. I am in the 'Carolina 4Runners Off-Road Group' though. I've actually met some of my closest local friends till this day on this forum.

Yeah, I'll be doing ECGS built 3rds as well, probably around the middle or latter part of the year. Any reason you decided 4:88 over 4:56? Just curious how you landed on that. I'd like a front locker as well, but I go back and forth on it. To your point, the upgrade from A-TRAC to locked front is really hard for me to justify at that price point especially from the amount of real world use I'd get out of it.

Starting to talk about putting together our next ride. Will keep you posted.

[aemravan]

Originally Posted by superman3043

No I'm not in that FB group. I am in the 'Carolina 4Runners Off-Road Group' though. I've actually met some of my closest local friends till this day on this forum.

Yeah, I'll be doing ECGS built 3rds as well, probably around the middle or latter part of the year. Any reason you decided 4:88 over 4:56? Just curious how you landed on that. I'd like a front locker as well, but I go back and forth on it. To your point, the upgrade from A-TRAC to locked front is really hard for me to justify at that price point especially from the amount of real world use I'd get out of it.

Starting to talk about putting together our next ride. Will keep you posted.

I was stuck on the SAS route as a long term project, but after coming across the RCV axles I decided that as awesome as SAS would be it would appear to be more practical to keep the daily driver down to earth with some added reliability and if I want to get into something more serious to just find an older, beat up 4runner or tacoma that is already SAS for a crawler.

Gearing wise.. honestly my first thought was 4.56, but reading through a whole lot of posts on different platforms it seems like its a 50/50 split with guys who have gone 4.56 and love it vs the other ones say they regretted not going bigger. I was even suggested 5.26 which for a daily driven truck is overkill. So I figured to set myself up for future 37's (which I am VERY highly considering going to eventually) i would up it just a bit and go with 4.88.

However, now that you asked, and I did some actual calculating, it appears that the 4.56 gear would actually be ideal, even for 37's... at least according to this calculator lol
Gear Ratio Calculator

With the above calculator, my current 35" setup on 4.56 gears would actually be under-geared compared to the factory setup... and 37" would be right back to OEM specs.. so I'm glad you asked, because it looks like I'll definitely go the 4.56 route instead, having the V8 really didn't make too much a difference going to a 35 anyway.

[superman3043]

Originally Posted by aemravan

I was stuck on the SAS route as a long term project, but after coming across the RCV axles I decided that as awesome as SAS would be it would appear to be more practical to keep the daily driver down to earth with some added reliability and if I want to get into something more serious to just find an older, beat up 4runner or tacoma that is already SAS for a crawler.

Gearing wise.. honestly my first thought was 4.56, but reading through a whole lot of posts on different platforms it seems like its a 50/50 split with guys who have gone 4.56 and love it vs the other ones say they regretted not going bigger. I was even suggested 5.26 which for a daily driven truck is overkill. So I figured to set myself up for future 37's (which I am VERY highly considering going to eventually) i would up it just a bit and go with 4.88.

However, now that you asked, and I did some actual calculating, it appears that the 4.56 gear would actually be ideal, even for 37's... at least according to this calculator lol
Gear Ratio Calculator

With the above calculator, my current 35" setup on 4.56 gears would actually be under-geared compared to the factory setup... and 37" would be right back to OEM specs.. so I'm glad you asked, because it looks like I'll definitely go the 4.56 route instead, having the V8 really didn't make too much a difference going to a 35 anyway.

Yep, all fair points. I think we all wrestle with those thoughts throughout the evolutions of our builds. Super happy with both of my trucks currently with only gearing on tap for the Runner and Deavers and 37's for the Raptor (eventually Kings as well but much later), but that's short term visions. We'll see what the future holds.

I've also made all those considerations with the gear ratio, but every time I dig in, I always land back at 4.56. And yes, totally agree. V8 with 35's feels still really good to me. Even with all of my recent weight additions, I can definitely feel the weight, but she still doesn't seem to mind gearing wise.