Well, 3rd time is a charm I guess. After building a 3rd and 4th gen it's time to build a 5th Gen. Just bought a 2010 trail less than two weeks ago. Starting small at the moment still trying to fully pick a color scheme but for now I'm digging the tri color red/orange/yellow from the 40th anniversary editions.

This build will be focused on family camping and light offroading in Idaho. My son is 17 and mostly does his own thing now so it will mostly be just me, my wife, 8 year old daughter and our border Collie mix Emerald.

Lift won't have to be much, maybe a 2"-2.5" toytec? I already feel pretty tall in this... Feels lifted though apparently it's just stock.. I'm measuring 22" hub center to fender in the front and 23" in back. If you have a comparable TE let me know what yours is lifted or stock please.

Started small with LEDs to brighten the interior and one of the tri color grille badges. It's a clean one owner. A little bit high on the mileage but great maintenance records and all done at the dealerships in Utah. It's clean. Really clean for a 2010 anyways.

Tapatalk won't let me login, so pics will be coming shortly, when I get home and move the pics to my laptop.

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So its been snowy and rainy the past week and a half since I bought her, so she needs a bath... so the pics aren't great. One pic I think I moved too quick before the camera focused and then the others actually show the dirt really, really well. lol, Ill make sure to get some better pics up soon. its a start I guess.

How bout the difference on those LEDs vs the normal bulbs.. still not a ton of light in the cargo area. I have seen a few people add some LED strips to the back and that is definitely on the list. I already have some LED strips so Ill go pull up @Antman build thread and see about wiring those in.


More to come...

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Welcome to the 5th gen! Can't wait to see what you do with it.

The trail editions were the coolest of the 5th gen bunch. Can't wait to see it as it changes along.

Great choice on your 4Runner

I have its twin - mine is a 2011 I bought new & so far its been bullet proof!

So I went to Toyota to get the maintenance records the other day. Glad I did. 60 some odd pages.. One owner. I learned a ton about the 4runner and the people that owned it.

I learned they were super nit picky and did almost all the maintenance at Toyota, even down to buying the tires there multiple times. I learned that they reported every single noise and loose clip etc.. :-) Good for me. I feel like I got a unicorn. I learned that at about 100k they bought black TRD wheels and put those on it, only swapping back the trail wheels when they traded it in. And, at Toyota with a parts guy we took a look at the Runner and concluded that I do have stock rear springs, but I have Bilstein adjustable coilovers up front. After reading the maintenance I saw that they had Toyota install a "3rd party" Cornfed spacer in the back as well. So its not stock suspension as I suspected. on my way back I took it through the car wash and got a few cleaner pics of it.


Initial plans:
1. Storage/Sleeping platform that maintains the back seat for the kid. It has to be and easy to convert from sleeping to be able to quickly get back on the road

2. Sliders, mostly for protecting the body and also as a step for the wife and kid.

3. new audio deck that can handle both audio and phone calls at once without having to disco from one to do the other. Alpine?

4. onboard air and/or battery. Need to be able to power a few things all night without worrying about starting the car in the am, so probably a Jackery or something similar and solar charger.

5. refrigerator. Done with the ice and cooler thing lol.

6. Window and door screens to keep out bugs and let us put the windows down while car camping. have an idea for a back tailgate mosquito net kinda like a skeater beater that for the whole back gate. Itll be like one of these
for the whole back tailgate

Those are the priorities for now. Subject to change.

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So I got a bonus and I have a few mods in the works right now. Its a little different this time. Last two times I kinda focused on the "appearance" mods outside the rig that more people notice. Lift, armor, bumpers etc This time, I need to focus more on some of the less visible mods first. Got to get stuff ready for camping season.

To start. Spidertrax.

Bottom pic with spiders on the left, w/out on the right.

More to come this weekend. Had a few packages delivered this week and have one coming early next week.

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My hub to fender measurements are exactly the same as yours. And I have a 2” lift front and rear.


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Thanks @4skrunner !! I finally figured out (from the service records) what lift I had, but didnt know what size. I figured 2-3... I didnt know for sure, but everyone can tell its lifted.

So, after a lot of thought, I pulled the trigger on a CarTrimHome T10 V2.1. I wanted the volume knobs so I went for the V2.1 instead of the larger 3.0 screen. After much thought, I decided instead of going with the silver that matches the interior of my 2010, that I would go with the black. So this is a 9.5 inch screen, of all the head units from Alpine, Pioneer and Kenwood in this 500-600 price range, they are all 6.75-7" screens. That is also before you buy the wiring harnesses. I paid about 550$ shipped and it comes with all the wiring harnesseses and trim you need. For the 2010 non JBL, non touch screen, I had 3 connectors from the vehicle harness that were left unused. There were 5 connectors I did not use from the T10 side (two of those were related to the backup camera which for the 2010 Trail is in the rearview mirror). Pretty much all the functionality, except for party mode is functional so far.

The sound is amazingly better considering the speakers are not great (will upgrade those eventually). The screen is crisp, clean, vivid and is super responsive. My son has a Kenwood DDX276B head unit in his Corolla and he paid 250$ from crutchfield and another almost 250$ for the wiring and trim. Thats about 500$ and his unit is slow, does not have the capacitive screen (it has resistive), does not have Android Auto etc. For a similar price (within 50$) the T10 is heads above. Dont get me wrong, I love Pioneer and Alpine and I loved Panasonic decks when they made them, but quality is quality. Whether it will last a long time remains to be seen. But looking at the reviews from the current Alpine, Kenwood and Pioneer head units, I would have to spend 1k or more to get a comparable stereo. If I did, it wouldnt be custom for my 4runner and look stock.. it would be a floating deck that neither my wife or I prefer. Take a look. Listen for yourself. I will try to do a review in 6 and 12 months and see if I still would make the same decison. for now... take a listen, look and then you decide.

Twenty One pilots on Youtube on the T10 V2.1 (via Wifi in my garage)
CarTrimHome t10 sound/video check, T10 v2.1 in a 2010 4runner - YouTube

Lecrae video on Youtube on the T10 V2.1 (via Wifi in my garage)
CarTrimHome T10 head unit 4runner- Sound/Video test - YouTube

My quick thoughts on the new head unit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqMJjY2Lu5I&feature=youtu.be

Overall, I love it. Its so quick, has so many features and works so well with my OnePlus 10 Pro 5g. The screen is sooo much better than any of the domestic decks, including my sons Kenwood. The colors are resolution are amazing in contrast. FYI, I use Plexamp on Android Auto and I was surprised it worked so well. Most people use Spotify or Pandora. How many people use Plexamp, let alone use it on Android Auto? I have my own media server and Plexamp serves up my nearly 15k songs.

I did buy a 5$ a month data sim from Tmobile for this deck, but I just got it today and haven't figured out how to configure it yet. Right now the internet for youtube, facebook etc. only works in the vicinity of a Wifi network.

The group on the CTH (Cartrimhome) facebook page was SUPER helpful. Sevag Merdinian (the owner? from Canada) stands behind this product and responds super quickly.

I havent taken any pics (only video) since I put it in, but wanted you to get a pic of the "before" during install.

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Since I just had video on the last post, finally got some pics.

Updated the launcher from the stock one to Nova Launcher and then added a personal photo as my background.

Still working on trying to get the SIM activated in there. Would like to not have to use a hotspot off my cell phone and the Data only Tablet plan for Tmobile is only 5$ a mo...

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Over the last few weeks I have done a few mods, but also added some camping gear for camping this spring/summer which will be incorporated into the sleeping platform/storage that Ill be building.

So the list of Mods in the last month or so:
Yakima Rack: Had this on my 3rd gen, held onto it since I sold the 3rd gen about 12 years ago, used it sparodically on the Highlander
Infinity Reference 3.5 speakers -to replace those 1" tweeters. They didnt quite fit exactly, so I cut some metal speaker bracket and made a small extension to mount the other bolt. MASSIVE improvement. I saw a thread where people were going with the Subaru tweeters (which are still only like 1.5" or 2") for 110$+ when these were 55$ and have significantly larger magnets.
Kicker CS series 6x9's. in the front door - Sound great. You can go to Crutchfield and actually listen to how they sound vs. various other speakers. One of the reasons I went with Kicker was because they were affordable and had matching 5.25 speakers that I will eventually put in the rear door and tailgate.
Ecoflow Pro w/160w solar panels- Went with this option as it was one of the better deals on Amazon, but also has a higher capacity solar charger. Check it out. Also saw a 5th gen owner on Youtube that spoke highly of them.
Phillips 48Quart Car fridge/freezer- Check out my post in the Fridge/Freezer thread. The fridge stays in my office and keeps drinks cold for me there until I will need it for camping. I just ran a test with the Ecoflow maintaining the fridge at 37/0 and it lasted for just over 15 hours. Granted the room was a constant 70 degrees, while they may be a bit more sporadic while camping.

I did find it interesting that the last two times I modded a 4runner I started with the visible/exterior mods and stuff for more hardcore wheeling. This time I am focusing more on light offroading, functionality and what will make things more fun/easier during camping and trips.

My next few planned mods:
Sleeping platform/storage setup
Roof rack mounted Awning- this one will be important at Bear Lake (little to no shade)
Tune (better throttle response and mpg hopefully)

Here are a few pics...

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