[alex_bg]

Hello guys,
we finally got my wife’s new toy/family hauler. Had to wait about 2 weeks because there was none in CO in the configuration we wanted. Super white on black TRD Off-Road Premium without KDSS and sunroof.



While waiting I purchased the blackout emblem kit on eBay and had a friend of mine with a body shop paint the TRD red, to give it a little accent.



I also got the Black Friday deal for a Morimoto hid kit but honestly I’m disappointed. The color is nice, the cutout is nice but I just feel like there’s not enough light on the road. It probably sounds weird but I’m definitely not a fan and would be looking for something else. For the DRL/high beams I went with the DDM Saber and those I love! The output is really good with tons of light.

Also for Black Friday a dealer in FL had a deal on the TRD PRO wheels and I was able to grab a set in gray for $600 and some change, I thought that was crazy good deal. The red TRD on the center caps should go well with the red TRD writing above.



I was looking and wondering what tires I should go with. I wanted original size but A/T since we go up the mountain a lot and need something that’d be good in snow. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a set of DuraTracks because they had a rebate of $200 on Tirerack plus I get $60 off for picking them up in their distribution center but then found an even better deal. I was able to grab a set of Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 265/70/17 for $463. That was the best price I can find and they seemed to have great reviews so I hope I like them. They should be here soon, can’t wait to install them.

You can probably tell by now that I love searching for deals when buying stuff. Next I need to figure out what to do with the diving while breaking. I find it really weird there’s so much of that. I also have a 2012 Tacoma and there’s nothing close to it on the truck while breaking. Super weird but not hard to address.

Anyway here’s couple more pix. We took it up the mountains the second day we had it and LOVED it. I honestly don’t think it’s so underpowered like a lot of folks say. It’s not a race car or anything but it’s not that bad.

[Hydguy]

KDSS eliminates the nose dive pretty well.
Never seen an ORP without a sunroof down here.

[alex_bg]

Originally Posted by Hydguy

KDSS eliminates the nose dive pretty well.

Never seen an ORP without a sunroof down here.

That’s what I heard but figured for the $1900 that KDSS cost, I think it was that much, I could do a lot of things to the suspension and still eliminate the dive. And yeah I think one of the reasons we had to wait was because pretty much all of them have sunroof.

[r32]

Nice looking ride.

When I bought my 4Runner, I wanted a sport without a sunroof. I was told I would have to special order from Canada to get one because they don't ship non-sunroof models to Western US. Maybe it still holds true.

Just had no desire for something I don't use and will eventually leak from sitting in the sun and salt air.

[EJ1---]

Love the pics!

[soccertoad]

Great version of the 4R. Curious as to why you didn't want a sunroof?

[thennen]

Originally Posted by alex_bg

Hello guys,
we finally got my wife’s new toy/family hauler. Had to wait about 2 weeks because there was none in CO in the configuration we wanted. Super white on black TRD Off-Road Premium without KDSS and sunroof.



While waiting I purchased the blackout emblem kit on eBay and had a friend of mine with a body shop paint the TRD red, to give it a little accent.



I also got the Black Friday deal for a Morimoto hid kit but honestly I’m disappointed. The color is nice, the cutout is nice but I just feel like there’s not enough light on the road. It probably sounds weird but I’m definitely not a fan and would be looking for something else. For the DRL/high beams I went with the DDM Saber and those I love! The output is really good with tons of light.

Also for Black Friday a dealer in FL had a deal on the TRD PRO wheels and I was able to grab a set in gray for $600 and some change, I thought that was crazy good deal. The red TRD on the center caps should go well with the red TRD writing above.



I was looking and wondering what tires I should go with. I wanted original size but A/T since we go up the mountain a lot and need something that’d be good in snow. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a set of DuraTracks because they had a rebate of $200 on Tirerack plus I get $60 off for picking them up in their distribution center but then found an even better deal. I was able to grab a set of Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 265/70/17 for $463. That was the best price I can find and they seemed to have great reviews so I hope I like them. They should be here soon, can’t wait to install them.

You can probably tell by now that I love searching for deals when buying stuff. Next I need to figure out what to do with the diving while breaking. I find it really weird there’s so much of that. I also have a 2012 Tacoma and there’s nothing close to it on the truck while breaking. Super weird but not hard to address.

Anyway here’s couple more pix. We took it up the mountains the second day we had it and LOVED it. I honestly don’t think it’s so underpowered like a lot of folks say. It’s not a race car or anything but it’s not that bad.

Gotta say the red TRD with the black OFF ROAD is my favorite accent that you did. Good job there. Also, after buying my 2019 TRDOR, the OR wheels have become my favorites. I like the Pro wheels, of course. Just a preference. But nice rig!

[Leman77]

The TRD logo looks great. Way to keep the Mrs happy! 👍🏽

[alex_bg]

Thank you all for the kind words! I really love how the 4Runner makes you want to go outdoors and explore new places. Makes me thing about that even when just driving to work.

Originally Posted by soccertoad

Great version of the 4R. Curious as to why you didn't want a sunroof?

Thank you! There are couple reasons, first one being me and my wife are pretty tall (I'm 6'3", shes 5'11") and we like to have headroom. I noticed that the passenger seat cannot be adjusted up/down like the drivers and it sits kind of higher than the drivers. Also its something that we never use. I honestly dont like driving with windows down because of the dust that gets inside, noise etc. plus like another member mentioned above I feel like its just something that can cause problems in the long run. Although that point is not really valid in the case of Toyota. My parents had a Rav4 with a sunroof and never had a problem in the 11 years they owned it.

Originally Posted by thennen

Gotta say the red TRD with the black OFF ROAD is my favorite accent that you did. Good job there. Also, after buying my 2019 TRDOR, the OR wheels have become my favorites. I like the Pro wheels, of course. Just a preference. But nice rig!

Thank you! My idea is to also paint the gray plastic front and rear valances black as well as the area around the front grill. I'll attach a pic later from my phone. Should look really nice once done, I hope. Which reminds me, how hard are those to take off? I want to do it as soon as possible and bring it to my friend so he can paint them. I also like the wheels but two things I dislike are there are many 4Runners that have them (not that there are no trucks with the TRD ones but I feel like there are less) and also they sit too much inside the fender. I know I can do spacers but I'm not a big fan of those as they can cause vibrations that can be hard to deal with.

Originally Posted by Leman77

The TRD logo looks great. Way to keep the Mrs happy!

Thank you! Trust me it was a long conversation (some times arguing) because I really wanted a GX460 instead but at the end I figured its her vehicle, I have mine so it'll be just better to make her happy. Plus she said I can do any mods I want to it so I was like eh okay why not haha.



BTW I was talking with a friend of mine and told him that I'm not happy with the Morimoto LED bulbs I installed and he said that I'm not getting good light because even though I have projectors they are not designed for that kind of bulb/light. IDK if thats true or not, but I think that it makes sense. So I was looking around and found those: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...ect_restrict=1



have any of you guys installed them? I'd love to heard some feedback before I pull the trigger.

[mynameistory]

Hang on, which ones did you buy? LED or HID?

Neither one is technically optimized for a halogen projector headlight (the 4runner low-beam).

However, most people have good things to say about companies like Morimoto that engineer their products to match the stock beam pattern as closely as possible without introducing glare to oncoming drivers. LED replacement bulbs are just starting to become legitimate (prior to today's tiny, multi-point LEDs they had terrible beam pattern and short throw). I'm super happy with my 2stroke 2.0's, they are a marked improvement over stock halogens and don't require any work to install. Make sure to aim them correctly. The HID kits usually require cutting the dust cap and installing ballasts/relays. They're also so bright that most people aim them way down to avoid blinding traffic.

The full retrofits you are asking about require you to pull apart your headlight to mount HID-specific projector lenses. I do not have any input about them, but others on the forum might.

Remember that the point of headlights is to illuminate the road and obstacles in a way that gently transitions near and far, light to dark- not to create a dazzling cone of light 20 feet on the ground in front of the truck. Your eyes won't be able to see anything outside of this cone and you'll be hitting deer in no time.

[Mastbo]

Looks great! I also dig the red emblem - white is the best canvas in my opinion for stuff like this

[alex_bg]

Originally Posted by mynameistory

Hang on, which ones did you buy? LED or HID?

Neither one is technically optimized for a halogen projector headlight (the 4runner low-beam).

However, most people have good things to say about companies like Morimoto that engineer their products to match the stock beam pattern as closely as possible without introducing glare to oncoming drivers. LED replacement bulbs are just starting to become legitimate (prior to today's tiny, multi-point LEDs they had terrible beam pattern and short throw). I'm super happy with my 2stroke 2.0's, they are a marked improvement over stock halogens and don't require any work to install. Make sure to aim them correctly. The HID kits usually require cutting the dust cap and installing ballasts/relays. They're also so bright that most people aim them way down to avoid blinding traffic.

The full retrofits you are asking about require you to pull apart your headlight to mount HID-specific projector lenses. I do not have any input about them, but others on the forum might.

Remember that the point of headlights is to illuminate the road and obstacles in a way that gently transitions near and far, light to dark- not to create a dazzling cone of light 20 feet on the ground in front of the truck. Your eyes won't be able to see anything outside of this cone and you'll be hitting deer in no time.

I got the H11 Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0. Again I do like the color and the cutout is perfect, pretty much exactly the same as the stock bulb, I just feel like there isn't enough light. Honestly when I think about it, I feel like my problem is that I'm coming from a BMW with adaptive HID lights to the 4Runner and there is just no comparison between the two no matter what. I agree LED has come a long way, couple years ago I would have not even considered them. I will probably hold on for some time and see how I feel about them in a month or two. Maybe I should go ahead and get the Rigid fogs and run them with my low beams, we'll see. Bottom line for me is: its 2019 and over $40k truck, Toyota should have done a better job with the headlights but oh whale, its not the end of the world.

Originally Posted by Mastbo

Looks great! I also dig the red emblem - white is the best canvas in my opinion for stuff like this

Thank you sir! I totally agree, I also think that on lighter colors its easier to see exterior details and body lines and I like that, hence our last 4 cars have all been white.

[mynameistory]

Originally Posted by alex_bg

Bottom line for me is: its 2019 and over $40k truck, Toyota should have done a better job with the headlights but oh whale, its not the end of the world.

Agreed. I think part of that is that the truck hasn't been redesigned for the better part of a decade.

You might be happier with HIDs or a full retrofit. I'm waiting on some Phillips fogs myself.

[21jacob21]

Congrats! Truck looks awesome!

[tkmarch2]

Nice CO photo