Hey, my dad recently passed his 05 SR5 4WD onto me, and I have the mod bug. I only have around $800, so I want to know the most cost-effective tires and lift. As for the tires, I can't have dedicated offroaders, so they have to be decent on pavement as well. For the lift, I'm not crawling or anything, so it dosen't have to be extreme. I don't want to compromise on-road handling too much, what lift kit/height would you recommend for that?

I also want to paint the stock 16" wheels black and possibly the headlight housings as well. HID's are also a possibility. Advice on any of those mods would be appreciated as well.

Thanks, and dont be afraid to tell me how to spend my money.

EDIT: I've noticed the 06+ models have projector headlamps, while my car already has projector fogs. Could I buy a pair of 06+ headlights and retro the HID's into those? That would reduce the glare right?

You can get a daystar spacer lift for a few hundred and some GY Wrangler Duratracs which are a good AT tire. Tires are expensive though. If you want something more aggressive you might want to look into treadwright. I know a lot of FJ guys run those are swear by them.

Nitto terra grapplers are a popular, relatively cheap option. Also Hankook Dynapro ATM and Firestone Destination A/T aren't too expensive and they aren't too aggressive and have 50K mile warranties.

You can put the '06 lights in, you have to buy filler panels for $30 each (2) and a two $30 wiring harnesses if you want the blinkers and DRLs to function. If you buy an H11 HID kit, it will be pretty much plug and play but you should do the squirrel finder mod (do a search and you'll find it) to reduce the glare a little more. I think they have a pretty good cut off and people quit flashing their brights at me once I put the '06 housings in.

btw there will also be a small triangle at the corner by the grille on both lights because the grilles are different. If you clink the link in my signature you can see the triangle in some of the pics in my build.

Well I might be able to get my dad to go half and half on the tires if they will help traction in deep snow. As for the lift kit is this Daystar Toyota 4RUNNER 03-08; 2-1/2" Lift Kit "Full Package"; KT09115BK what you were talking about?

Go Cornfed 3/2 on the lift. It is higher than the Daystar and will never sag.

Thanks, your headlight setup is exactly what I want. How did you paint the housing? I'll search that squirrel finder mod and check that out.

Also, What suspension setup did you have early on in the build thread? If I am reading it correctly it was the FJ springs and what else?

Thats the other one I was thinking of! I couldn't remember the name.

Like rockwall said, go for cornfed.

Questions about the Cornfed spacers:

Should I go for the 3/2 or 2/1? How much more is the on-road performance affected with the 3/2 vs the 2/1?

At what tire size would the spidertrax spacers become nessecary?

It really depends on how high you want your rig and what tire size you're going to be running and because you said you're not going to do anything extreme you could get away with 32s. The real MPG hit is going to be when you get bigger tires.

Now on to the tires. Right now I'm on BFG Long trails, at a 28-29. I want to upgrade to 30-31. My dad said he would split the tires with me, so money is a lot less of an issue. I'm looking to spend around $600 total for the tires, $300 coming out of my pocket. I'm a little overwhelmed at all the tire and size selection for offroad-centric A/T tires. Could I get some ideas for tires that would work for me? Assuming I get the Cornfed lift and am running the 16" stock wheels.

I just baked the housings for 10 min each at 250 degrees, took the chrome part out, and painted with krylon fusion matte black.

Early in the build it was FJ springs with 1/4" toytec spacer (though most 4wd & v8 owners get 1/2" spacer to get the same lift). Now I have bilstein 5100s set to 0.85" and FJ springs. FYI I spent about $150 on the FJ springs and 1/4" spacers, then went back and spent $318 for the shocks and sold the spacers for $20.

What would be the pros/cons of the springs and toytec spacer vs the cornfed spacer?

Tons of info here.

Toyota 4Runner Forum - Search Results

Yeah there is a ton of info if you search around, basically the coils just improvement the ride & handling. You'll find more info if you search for coils vs spacers or something like that.

btw 03_4x4 I clicked the link, there was actually no info there!
not sure what keywords you searched but I guess the searchid's only last so long or are only accessible to the users who enter the search.

Well if the coils will give a better ride than the spacers I think I'm going to go wih FJ srings and the toytec 1/4" spacer, like gator had. The height he had his runner at was exactly how I wanted mine. Whats the max width/height tire I can get away with using the fj springs?