The install went fairly well. Lots of wire fishing!
I decided not to install the foot kick switch.
Once I had all of the wiring run and the struts and brackets changed I held my breath and connected the power wire.
The LED in the control box blinked about 17 times or so and went out. I pushed the rear button and nothing happened... No beep, no movement, nothing... It was about o'dark thirty so I called it a night.
The next morning, with a fresh set of eyes, I went through the entire install and disconnected/reconnected every plug and re-verified that I had a good ground.
This time the system beeped and started to close when I pressed the rear button. When the liftgate closed it did not latch. "No biggie", I thought. I just need to adjust the latch.
The system will give you two beeps when the liftgate closes but does not latch and a single beep when it does.
Now I began to look at the latch. It appeared that the latch on our 4Runner had always been rubbing on one side. Apparently when we manually closed the liftgate it did not matter. The power system, however, did not like the extra drag. I spent the next few hours trying to adjust both the latch loop (the stationary part at the bottom of the opening) and the latch receiver in the door. I even tried reaming the holes in the receiver mounts in the door to give me more movement.
The best that I got is now if the door is all the way open and I push the button, the door will sometimes latch when it closes.
But, if the door is only half way open, (as the door is opening you can push the button to stop the door) it will latch consistently. Go figure.
The struts seem to close with more power and authority from the half open position. When you close the door from the fully open position the struts seem a little tired when they get to the closed position.
During the hours that I was trying to adjust the latch I must have actuated the system dozens of times. Now the struts sound different than they did at the beginning. They are a bit noisier and click a bit. The liftgate is moving at the same speed and the fully locked/not fully locked ratio is about the same.
I always used the buttons (the stock hatch button to open and the rear button to close) to move the door.
Overall, while the concept is cool I am not sure about the reliability or longevity.
If this does not end up working out, going back to stock is easy enough.
I finally got around to making a video:
YouTube