****Aiden James Customs - rear cargo plate****
Well, i took a risk with a vendor who has received some flak for poor customer service in the past on this forum. I started Looking at all the options for a rear cargo plate, including:
Goose gear (nice, but $$$$ and invasive install had me bumming)
Sherpa (requires drilling, not as many mounting holes pre-drilled and $165.00 shipping to socal, ouch!!)
and of course the DIY route (which my wife promptly vetoed…lol).
Then i found AJC. I read the review on trail4runner and was immediately intrigued.
AJC Gear Plate with Cargo Tray Delete 5th Gen 4Runner - Install & Review
Their cargo plate is:
1. Predrilled and T-nutted for all sorts of add-ons
2. Rhino-lined
3. Designed to use existing screw-holes and leaves carpeting/insulation intact
4. Light-weight
5. A simple square shape that doesn’t remove/mod existing trim.
6. Reasonably priced @ $350 + normal shipping cost
…and best of all, it’s already waiting in my garage due to a reasonably short lead/ship time. Quality looks to be top notch. It’s basically what i would have built myself if i had the time or patience, though i don’t think mine would have ended up as clean. Some might say that the cost isn’t justified, but you have to understand, my last two 4x4’s had me in the garage for YEARS (YEARSSS) working, wrenching, measuring, cutting, sweating, swearing, grinding, welding and toiling on tasks that seemed to never end and honestly had nothing to do with exploring and adventuring.
This 4runner is supposed to be a paradigm shift. A modest, thoughtful “buy once, cry once” build that pulls me out of the shop and into God’s country where my wife and i want to be. So, AJC came through, i’m very happy with their customer service and i’m hoping to install tomorrow for some secure gear storage solutions, before our first real trail ride on Saturday.
Here’s the one i got, non-3rd row/non-cargo tray:
AJC Gear Plate for 5th Gen 4Runner (Non-3rd row/Non-Cargo Tray) – Aiden James Customs
It’ll be a good shakedown of all the mods we’ve done in the last two months.