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History of 4D.

Trail edition with the rear locker.

Bought her brand new from the dealership. First vehicle I have purchased new.

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-Storage compartment extension
-Entune stereo lockout override
-Brake light flasher (to prevent being rear ended, again)
-Instrument auto dimmer (Chinese edition)
-Tint -- 30% 3M Premium on front two windows only
my 2014 4runner Tint, thoughts and advice
-Front Daystar top hat spacers (Removed after I realized what a huge mistake it was)
-Front OME springs on stock shock absorber (strut assembly)
-Black TRD rims
-Rear storage/leveling floor
-Front splash gaurds
Upgraded my inner fender splash shields
-285 70 R17 Bridgstone Dueler Revo 3

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First modification I did was chop a cross brace out of the rear storage compartment. This allowed me to stuff more things way back there. I also relocated a relay box.

I used a compact hacksaw and cut through the spot welds. Filed all the sharp edges.

[97BlackAckCL]

Curious what kind of stuff you are storing in the jack location

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Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

Curious what kind of stuff you are storing in the jack location

I have a warm insulated jacket, rain jacket, snow pants, some basic clothing, ratchet straps, first aid kit, and a bunch of other small stuff.

The area I was able to gain access to by removing the cross member allowed me to fit the jackets, pants and few other things. I don't store anything heavy back there as it could dent the outside body wall above the wheel well.

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This was a great trail that was about as far as I would push my 4runner without any modifications or airing the tires down.

The downhill only part of this trail was the best! Not for the faint of heart.

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This the first generation of this project. I would eventually like to build a plate aluminum version. But a wood version is what this is and it works fantastic.

Bought everything at home depot and Lowes.
5/8” fancy plywood
2 Piano hinges
Black home depot utility carpet
Long metric bolts (to replace the cargo D ring bolts)

I do not own a table saw so all the cuts were done at Lowes with their fancy vertical table saw (Love that thing)
I used 5/8” plywood held together with piano hinges. I pre drilled all the screw holes for the hinges, laid down the carpet and screwed the hinges on top.
To attach it all to the truck, I utilized the existing cargo tie down attachment points. I shimmed it up with an additional strip of plywood and rough cut 2X4 pieces. I spent a considerable amount of time trying different combination until I got pretty close to level with the back seats when they were down. The back seats are not completely level from one side of the car to the other so I had to compromise.

My next additions:
Putting a latch somewhere to hold it closed when there is nothing on top of it.
Fabricating a divider between the back seats and the storage area. Right now, it is a thin flimsy piece of wood backing. It will eventually be aluminum.

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The goal of all this lifting business was to try and level the front end similar to the rear. Why you ask would I spend hundreds of dollars to just make it level? Simple, I am crazy. But I feel less crazy when I see so many people “lifting their vehicles” 3”, 5”, 10”. If you look at any thoroughbred off road machine, you notice that it is as low to the ground as possible with the biggest tires within reason. So basically, lifting is just for show, just like rims, bumpers, lights, and all the other junk we bolt to our rigs.

I originally installed some top hat spacers in the front and quickly regretted it because of the CV axle binding-top out and the teeth clenching spring bottom out. The silver lining was I got to drive around and feel the suspension lifted a little with the stock shock absorbers. With the spacer, it felt like it stiffened the suspension up slightly. Which worked out great because I felt the front suspension was softer than the rear. So this setup was top hat spacers, stock springs, stock shock absorbers.
I looked into Dobinson springs and they had what I was looking for. A front spring with similar rate as my stock springs, but a little longer (to give me the slight lift I wanted). But Dobinson does not have a strong presence here in the states yet, so I looked at their Aussie neighbor Old Man Emu. They have a similar spring, and Slee Offroad, right up the street from me stocks them in their store! This was a no brainer. Slee is an excellent company and have been around for a while.

So I yanked those spacers off and installed the OME 2883 springs on my stock shock absorbers. I found a cool trick online for removing a spring from a coilover without a compressor. Just put a jack stand under the frame caddy corner to the wheel you are working on, jack up the suspension where you want to remove the spring, take the wheel off, loosen the three bolts at the top just a bit, then jack up the suspension until you see the weight come off the bolts. Then support frame under the wheel you are working on with another jack stand and slowly lower the lift. You will probably need to loosen the lower control arm (LCA) bolts to get them to swing open far enough. Look up some videos or pictures and it will explain it far better.

The stock measurements (no lift) at the running boards:
FP 18-1/8"
FD 19-1/4"
RP 19-1/8"
RD 19"

Then with my OME 2883 springs installed:
FP 19-1/2"
FD 19-1/2"
RP 19-1/4"
RD 19-1/8"

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Just go some new 285 75 R17 Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3. Rubs on the front fender when reversing. Looks much better than than stock Dunlops. Got 70k out of the factory Dunlops down to the wear lines on three of the 4 tires.

[AggieOE]

Looks good! I'm similar to you and like to maintain smaller lifts on my 4Runner and Jeep. I lifted the 4Runner out of convenience since I wanted to replace the front shocks anyways. Plus the CV axles were almost reversed when stock. Now they sit just a tad the other way.

Looks like you're have rubbing though? How bad is it? Do you notice much of a difference with the larger tires in mileage?