Well it was a relatively fun day... sort of...

We ended up checking out Edison Butte OHV (Snow Mobile area during the winter) and running up there. The entire trail is "Most Difficult" and very technical, not something a stock 4Runner could have done (even BackOff and I had trouble on some spots). It took us much longer than we figured and was a bit more challenging than we had assumed.

I'm not very good with taking pictures, so I do apologize for that... The trail for the most part was fun (aside from some issues I'll touch up on below)

There's was one spot I had scouted real quick and had forgotten to take a sharp left when cresting over a small hill, oops. Almost dropped into a collapsed lava tube... I guess that's why you let the crazy guy go first! (Honestly I was about to tell BackOff to watch out for that when I failed to heed my own advice, DOH!)






Luckily I had stopped the 4Runner after I realized where it was going and BackOff helped get some tension backwards so I could get back on trail without issue.

There were a couple spots where it was so tight I scratched/scuffed my wheels, that was a bummer...

But no where near as bad as my idiocy as we tried to make up time on the last half of the trail. We were on a nice stretch of basically flat forest and so we picked up the pace to about 25-30mph and I thought I had pulled the 4Runner far enough to the left to avoid the 2ft diameter by 20~25ft long dead tree on my right side... I was very wrong. It caught the outer edge of the tire, bumped the 4Runner into the air a bit and when she landed shoved my wheels to negative camber (the SPC UBJ pushed in, despite being 250ft.lbs torqued) and I am fairly certain I bent the spindle on the passenger side. BackOff and I managed to lift the wheel, pull the UBJ back to outer position, use one of his 3/4" wheel spacers to give enough room for the wheel to turn and get her ready to limp home...

Another 5~10miles down rough trail until the fire road bypass which was another 9miles from highway 45... That was the most physically and mentally demanding driving I have ever done. But we got her back to the main road for AAA to collect her and drop her off at the dealership.

(How she looked while we waited for the tow truck to come


The rough visual I did on the trail/side of the road looks to be the spindle is just bent to hell, I'm not sure about the LCAs or UCAs, also a bit concerned about the UCA mount that goes through the shock tower, but I won't know the extent of the damage until I get it on a rack tomorrow and go over the damage with the auditor. So that's gonna be fun, at least it's my day off tomorrow so it'll be a bit less hectic to get this taken care of.

Hopefully if the damage is as localized and repairable as I think it is, I might be able to get the 4Runner back on the road by this upcoming Sunday. If not, I'll still organize the trip for you all this Sunday and maybe do a ride-along or something.

dang Paul. I would say you bent a tie rod too. Hopefully its just bolting some new stuff on but not a lot.

Ouch! Hopefully it's nothing major.

Oh man, looks painful. Hopefully its just one or two parts that are messed up and does not cost you too much.

Big OUCH! They do say our spindles are weak for flight scenarios.

Glad to hear your ok and the ride ( in general ) could have been worst out come.

That was a KRAZY sunday.
Trail should be named "The Destroyer", NOT for stock vehicles.
I barely cleared most of the trail. Made it out with some fancy new pinstripes, dinged up passenger running board and scuffed up the center xmember diagonal supports, nothing major.
Was getting a 'clunk' on the driver side front when the suspension would drop fast, need to check that and a new knocking noise in the rear passenger area.

BlackWorksInc was having one of those days when all the stars line up against you.
That shot in the lava tube BlackWorksInc is teetering precariously on the edge, the front passenger wheel is in the air, hard to see in the pic, sliders and skids saved the day. If not for the sliders he would still be out there right now. I think I yelled out loud as I saw the rear end go sky ward, looked like it was just going to do a nosedive and roll over. YIKES!

Then that damn drunk tree trunk just jumped out and took a bite out of BlackWorksInc's 4runner. That was a WTF are we going to do now moment.
Lucky to get it rolling. Good thing he had a Boyscout with him, as I take everything but the kitchen sink.

Did we mention the fact that the tow truck broke down on the way...2.5 hours later. Was cool got to hang out and chat a bit though.
Then as I got rolling homeward I notice the low tire pressure light come on, but made it home.
Wow what a day, am I tired today.

I will see if I managed to get any decent pics. I just had a cheezy little minicam I was using.

Tie rods actually look good, the UCA and LCA look okay as well. The spindle not so much.

It was a fairly localized impact onto the passenger front tire, the edge of the log caught the edge of the 35's head on and popped the truck in the air, the suspension just isn't designed to take a hit like that.

I'm thinking that may be the majority of the issue... Hoping it'll be up and running by Sunday; but if not I'll still organize something for you guys this Sunday and we'll see if I can make it somehow.

Wow! Were you going for this look?






I'll be game next weekend, but as noted above, bone stock, so I'll skip Edison for now!

Glad you guys made it out ok!

You know my friend and I were talking about how I'd love to see someone photshop a 4Runner like mine with 35's to look lowered and hella flush while we were at my dealership working out the details! LMAO

Side Note-

BackOff and I were talking and perhaps Cline Butte would be best for you guys since it looks like there will be a mix of Stock/Experienced/InExperienced vehicles/owners. It has a lot of "Green" and "Blue" trails so it should be a good mix for people and has a lot of bypasses. I'm down for other suggestions though.

What time were you guys thinking of meeting up Sunday? Deciding if I should get a room in Bend or just head down in the morning

Cline sounds great. A little moisture late in the week cannot hurt, either.

I think this is on 35's. And that's just the wheels!

I would say probably about 09:00~10:00 since the skill gap is varying and some learning is involved, that way you're not ending up like me and BackOff where it took longer than we realized and we didn't want to be on the trail at night.

Fred Meyer's parking lot off 3rd street is a good meet-up spot, grab gas, snacks, shoot the shit, ect.

Sounds good. I'm in the experienced, but also new category.


I sold my FJ40 10 years ago May (still sad)

Other than a few trips on some logging roads since then, I'm back to new.

I've taken the 4R in the dirt a little bit, just the push the buttons and turn the knobs. There's a lot of cool technology in this thing that will clearly allow me to get stuck even deeper in the woods!

I'm sitting on modifications for now. I suspect the tires will go first. But I am too cheap to get rid of new ones so soon.

I gave my wife the 4Runner to drive this week. I've not had a new car since 2001, and I want her to be the first to put a ding in the paint. She thought I was just being nice, letting her drive it.

Edison Trail

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one more, Kwohl Butte Shelter and Mt. Bachelor.

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