Check with local/online dealers for Toyota remanufactured CV's. They can be hard to come by, but 1) they're OEM rebuilds and 2) the price is generally ~$150 per CV.

Speaking of CVs, I used NAPA brand new CV axles and they come with HD outer boots with lifetime warranty. NAPA has CVS with "standard duty" outer boots but their HDversion come with thicker outer boots. I'm not a hard core crawler or anything and only running 265 70 17s so not exactly stressing out these CVs. Just a FYI for others reading this thread.

Howdy,

I applaud your light weight overland build as I think people undervalue this particular attribute when they're slapping shit on their rigs. Weight is penalty and when you live at higher elevations, fuel economy tanks with each 100# weight that we add. Newton's law dictates that once an object is in motion is stays in motion so the weight penalty is primarily during starts/stops but lifting a rig adds air drag which also tanks MPG. We CAN'T win, damn it!!!

The NWTI bumpers I bought are NOT light by any means but interestingly enough, any 2" rear coil springs are at min 200 lb/inch where the OEM springs are 180 lb/inch. Unfortunately, what I found out is that she needed some serous "junk in her trunk" to settle the rear end down a tad. I went through three sets of shocks (before the bumper came to fruition) and they just weren't able handle the empty rear end. Even when I added both bumpers, they did NOT lower the rig at all What I noticed was that the front end would dip down too low and tagging obstacles on the trail but the ride height remained the same after the heavy bumpers were added.

Last week I switched from Bilstein 6112 600 #/in springs to Kings 700 #/in springs and moved up the higher grooves on the 6112s.

Anyway Mr Pirate, ping me if you wanna compare notes and such. Also, our local landcruiser club is having serious cabin fever and looking to do a run this weekend. Please go introduce yourself to our group and perhaps join in the run.

NM- High Desert Cruisers | IH8MUD Forum

For the rear bumper, I was actually thinking I might look at Coastal Offroad's option. They offer aluminum, but that is serious dollars. True North also does a low weight rear, but I'm not sold that it protects enough. Bigger issue is their rear recommends welding some tabs on the end of the frame. So far I have avoided touching the frame at all, but that may change.

I may ping you at some point. And I will definitely check out the Land Cruiser group. I've wheeled with one of their guys before when I tagged along with an offroad club. Just got to wait for everything to settle down. As much as I want to go make friends, I've got someone immunocompromised in my household so I need to be careful.

That price assumes you have OEM CVs to use for the core charge. Previous owner out crappy low quality ones on, so I was not getting that core charge back. Thus I bought new which hurt.

NAPA HD is a great option as long as you aren't lifted more than about an inch. Honestly, with my current lift I probably could have gotten away with napa, but decided I wanted to do it once, do it right.

Our rigs have negative CV angles from stock and lifting them 2" doesn't seem to really exasperate this angle, IMO. I hear the 3rd gens suffer more from any lift since they're already at a sharper angle from factory. Just a FYI.

I got sick and tired of having to get in the car, or pop in the key, to roll up the back window while camping. I loved having a rear lift gate in the back of my Isuzu, so when I saw this guide on the roll up mod I had to try it:
Back Window Up Hack with Factory Key Fob - Toyota 4Runner Forum - Largest 4Runner Forum

First of all, massive kudos dpodo. He figured this out in quite possibly the best way possible. I won't reproduce the whole thread here, but suffice it to say everything you need is in that thread.

My one addition to it would be to say just older the new connections. I fought and fought with trying different ways to slip wires in the back of spade connectors, and finally gave up, skinned a bit of insulation off, soldered my tap in, and wrapped in electrical tape. Worked like a charm.

If you camp with your 4runner, this mod is so worth it.

Video evidence of success!

How are you liking the Eibach kit? Holding up well?

We now get into the realm of reactive modding. This is a bad idea, don't do this. Generally, you want to think about what trails you want to drive, and mod to do those trails safely. I however, was an idiot and instead did this at the end of a trip:


Initially seemed fine, but a few miles down the road, VSC and ATRAC lights started blinking. The car would also in some cases suddenly lock the center diff. Oops.

Thankfully (?) the big problem appears to have self healed. No more lights, and I haven't had any in a while. Hopefully they stay away. I did however check all of my oils after the incident, and sure enough the rear diff had water in it.

To prevent this, I bought a diff relocation kit from @Berty_K here on the forum. Details on his kit are here https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3501328-post3678.html Yes you can build your own, but his came with enough hose to mount in the engine bay. so all diff breathers are easy to check.


Plus he posted his detailed instructions to the forum gratis, and I like to support people that help the community when I can. Installation was a breeze, and the instructions were great.

While I was at it, I decided to take care of another niggling issue and relocate my washer bottle. While I have *just* enough room in the wheel wells for my 255's, at full lock turning to the left I would sometimes rub against the stock washer bottle. Given I live somewhere with minimal rain, I decided to relocate the washer bottle to the engine compartment.


I used the kit available here: Windshield Washer Tank Relocation Kit — Silver Rhino Media. Again, could probably put something together myself (and his site has instructions on how to do this. However, this came with brackets to properly mount it, and was setup so you retain both the front and rear washer functionality. I could DIY it, but it was cheap enough it was easier just to order it.

Anyway, two easy fixes to annoying problems is always a win in my book.

The Eibach kit is great. It's a big step above a Bilstein + FJ coil kit, but manages to keep more of the stock geometry than the Dobinsons kits do. I would not recommend it for people doing real rock crawling/pseudo jeep builds, but for anyone wanting good on road and off road handling its great.

Only downside is the rear spring is not quite up to snuff. I think it needs taller springs in the back, but I don't mind a rake, and prefer it to be able to handle being loaded down with gear for a trip.

I've seen specials on the kit as low as 650, and at that price it's a steal.

In early September I had a friend from CA manage to luck into permits to White Rim Trail and Elephant Hill the week of labor day. I geared up from ABQ, met him there, and had a socially distanced adventure through Canyon Lands.



In that last picture, as I was coming back over SOB hill, I got stuck. I wanted to go over the obstacle one way, buddy convinced me of another line, I should have stuck with my gut xD. Oh well.

Anyway, when I got home, I had three things that needed to be fixed.

On the first, when I was going up hill, my radiator cap failed. Added some water, which was enough to get me out of the back country. Got a new cap and more radiator fluid in Moab and was good to go. My engine ran cooler after spraying fluid everywhere than my buddy's jeep did with everything working Moral of the story, after 175k miles change out your radiator cap.


The biggest thing that needed to be fixed was the rear control arm mounts. They took a serious beating, especially since the Eibach rear spring was seriously low. It looked like someone had taken a can opener to the mounts. Thankfully, no cracks and none of the main mount was bent. I bought some armor from MetalTech for them. Its a simple bolt on solution. Took me 20 minutes to install, and now its safe.



The other big issue was the rear springs. At one point, I parked next to a stock 4runner, and loaded down my rear bumper was lower than stock . So, I needed to upgrade the rear springs somehow. I looked on the forums here, and found some Sway-Away rear springs on the forum here. Bought them, replaced the Eibach springs, and sold the Eibachs on Craigslist. Costed me like 40$ net.


New springs are about 1 inch taller, and significantly stiffer. End result is a much nicer ride, and it can handle a lot more weight.

Great build. I really like your approach.

Sweet build. Will definitely follow this.

I was thinking of getting some Dobinsons for my runner but still gotta figure out what I wanna do with the thing, I know for sure I wanna do some overlanding and light crawling, I'll figure it out eventually.

Nice build, really like what your doing. You said that you had loaded a 265/70/18 spare. I dint think a tire that size would fit underneath. You running a factory hitch?

I am running a factory v8 hitch. I had to air the tire down to about 22 PSI to get it up in there, and then air it back up. It is super tight, but it fits.

I've actually been surprised how well the v8 hitch protects the spare.