4rNCMTMs '19 Runner build & adventure thread
 

Hello, I have been here for a while and felt it was time to share what I have done to my '19 4Runner.

I purchased the 2019 4Runner TRD Premium in December '18. After trading my my '10 Tacoma I was without a fun vehicle for a while and drove mundane Honda's and a Volvo for 8 years.

I started upgrading the first weekend I had the vehicle. I don't remember everything in order but will do my best. I started with what was always meant to be a good plan which of course always change over time.

First I did a lot of electrical work. I mounted an SPOD Bantum 100 amp fuse block and 12 position Blue Seas fuse block for different things moving forward. I made a simple mount for the fuse block and attached it to the fire wall on left side engine bay. I ran 2 wires to back left for future use and 3 to back right. on the back right I installed a dual 4.8v usb charger and a 12 v plug. In the center console in back i also ran an always hot dual 4.8v usb charger for my kids ipads. finally I ran 3 sets of wires into dash for future use. All of these wires will be used for radio's, USB in dash, fridge, etc. Finally, I also installed the Genesis dual battery system with 2 Odyssey batteries. I ran the digital battery inside and mounted it in the overhead console in an empty spot. It fit very nice with zero modification.

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I know not everyone likes the Genesis system, but for me, it's simple and fast I do not discount that it's expensive and the same result can be done buying parts separately and building it. When I installed the dual batteries I also installed a large anderson plug (now sits inside front bumper) for jumper cables. I have never used but they are there if I need them to help someone else. I also installed some Baja Design fog lights into the fog light pockets, more on these later.

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All of the above wires came into the vehicle through the firewall on left side. The future SPOD CAT7 wire went through the right side firewall.

In that same first weekend I installed an ARB dual compressor and ran it through the Bantum for a very easy install. I used the 4x4 Labs mount for the compressor. At this point I left the air connection on top the compressor as it was too easy at that point. I also did the obligatory diff breather upgrade for rear diff and e-locker. a very simple job with some vacuum line from napa.

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Fast forward to February / March 2019, I installed BudBuilt ultimate sliders (these things are beyond stout and saved me a few times) and ARB front bumper along with FN Wheels in blue which I love and Nitto Ridge Grapplers in 305/70/17. As soon as I was done with this BudBuilt did very nice BMC and installed a full King suspension, Total Chaos UCA, rear panhard bar along with upper and lower rear arms. Did I need all that stuff in the back, no as the vehicle only had 5k miles on it at the time but why not. Also at this time I made another mistake having 4.56 gears installed. ECGS assembled everything and BudBuilt put it back together. I will explain the mistake later.

As for the front ARB bumper I can wholehearted say I do not recommend installing it alone as it's not fun. I did it alone and it's one heavy SOB after the winch is installed as well (warn evo 10s) In any case this install was a many month ordeal for me. When I first got it on, it just wasn't high enough even though I cut per the ARB instructions. well let's just say it wasn't good enough so a few months later I can much more and moved the bumper up about 1/4" on the side and maintained being level across and back.

For the rest of '19, not much else happened other than some simple short trips into the mountains when I could which wasn't enough last year as work was very strong in '19. In December of '19 I did a lot of sound proofing of the truck. I did the front doors, full floor, fire wall, and read deck lid. I used two layers and it made a very nice difference. This as others know is a big job after removing all seats, door panels, carpet, etc. Maybe one day I'll do the roof to, I just do not see the need at this point.

So now moving into '20 this is when some more fun has started and some may not agree with what I have done and that's okay. I think the first thing I did this year was just mount some LP9's on the front bumper. I must say Baja Design customer service was phenomenal through out that process as my first lights arrived damaged. I also connected these to the SPOD after making my own wiring harness.

First I finally got around to installing my midland mxt275 GMRS radio which I did hidden inside the center console and ran cable from that to dash to plug in microphone and remove when not needed. Here I needed a better way to mount the antenna and thought it was a good time to reuse by BD fog lights which have been lying around unused since I installed the ARB front bumper. After a little research I settle on the SDHQ ditch light brackets. they shipped super fast and I like how low they sit to hood compared to others. So I had to make some simple U shaped brackets to install the BD lights and installed the antenna on the inside of fog light on this mount and it works great.

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this was such a tough job it required some refreshment after.
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once again my fabrication skills at work
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Next, around March of this year I purchased not one, but two LFD rear bumpers as I also have a '12 Limited 4R. Truth be told, I live about 5 minutes from their factory.

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Very quickly on that one, it has Shrockworks front bumper along with the LFD rear (no swing outs), BP51 suspension and SPC UPC. Both the bumpers were painted to match the Blizzard Pearl and that was quite an ordeal and lesson learned but now it sure looks good. I moved my trail wheels to this one and installed 285/70/17 General ATP's. So now back to the '19, I installed both bumpers myself, but did have help from LFD on the second one as an extra pair of hands helps when mounting it. I had the swing arms for the '19 powder coated blue to match the wheels and I like the outcome. At this point I also moved the compressed air connection to the front bumper and installed a Baxter oil filter relocation kit. I like this kit a lot, just didn't have right tools to make lines so the fittings go a bit beat up but I really do not care so long as they work which it does.

Mounting the Baxter was fun. I made 3 prototype mounts and let's just say I do not have the tools at home to do this stuff but I made due with what I have. I mounted it on the front left of the engine bay and it took some creative work.

one on right was the final mount.
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here's a work in progress photo.

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Regarding back up camera it will be mounted in the middle of the spare tire carrier and will be done this week and I will post of picture of that in a few days. To make the wiring of this easy, I purchased the C4 kit. It takes some time to run the wires, but it is not hard and they leave you plenty of wire for flexibility for camera mounting.

Shortly after I was done installing the bumpers, i took my truck back to BudBuilt for stage 2 of the build. Back in December of '19 I purchased a URD supercharger. I was taking advantage of this Covid '19 situation to get some more work done. So off to BudBuilt for Rob and Chip to install the supercharger. Also at this time, and back to one of the mistakes I mentioned above; we removed the front diff and sent it back to ECGS for them to install a Harrop front locker. In hindsight, I should have just bit the bullet when I did the 4.56 gears and done the front locker and it would have saved some money and time.

Since there was a lot of plumbing with the supercharger we took this opportunity to look at how I had bantum mounted along with what is now multiple fuse blocks. I had started the installation of my small car audio upgrade and change in electrical plan from above. Now, I have 4 fuse blocks (2 80 amp and 2 100) and the bantum on a custom mount. This mount after some discussion back and forth with Rob and Chip was made by Chip at BudBuilt. I'm very happy how this came out. Plan in future is to also add a second bantum under the first one when I need more capacity. To make all the this work, Rob moved the day time running lights hardware and wiring to behind the master cylinder making for a lot of room under the mount for the future second bantum. So now back to the 4 fuse blocks and what are they for:

1. original 100 amp 12 position Blue seas fuse block
2. new 80 amp for first amplifier
3. new 100 amp for additional Blue seas fuse block in trunk area
4. new 80 amp for second amplifier to be installed in future

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With the addition of these fuse block we ran 3 new 4g wires into the cab through right side fire wall boot. this entire change really cleaned things up and has future proofed the vehicle for whatever i want to do in the future. Now the hard work i did to add those 5 pairs of wires to the vehicle in the beginning can be changed / removed, but there is no rush to do that.

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On to the small audio upgrade. I decided to install a Kenwood 9906XR with dash cam. After far too much research I chose the Kenwood for it's ability to play Flac and DSD music files. I'm still playing with this part as at home i have about 8 terabytes of flac and dsd music files. In any case at the same time I installed some focal KX2 separates. I put the crossover in the door and amp under the driver seat. To make the amp fit i had to move some the electrical connections under the seat. So now you may ask what amp really needs an 80 amp fuse on it. Well I decided to bi-amp the front separates and have done so with a Mosconi 4x155 class AB amp. I mounted the tweeters in the stock location which took a little work but I am very satisfied with the final result. My only challenge here and my fault for not reading on here before hand and learning that the metra dash mount crutchfield sells is not very good which I confirm. so after trying with that one and really not liking the fit at all I purchased the Scosche and have painted it. I think i have something like 10 coats of paint and top coat on it and have sanded it between coats up to 2000 grit. It looks very nice.

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Now this brings us up to May and June where my truck has gone back to BudBuilt to go under the knife for some fun surgery. As I write this the work is being finalized on a beautiful tummy tuck. This means the center cross member has been removed, transfer case clocked, driver side cat moved up and exhaust replumbed. When the full set of stainless skids are put on tomorrow I will have fully flat bottom. On this job, Bud and Rob are doing and have done amazing work on the adapter plate to get the transfer case clocked, exhaust, etc, all to gain about 3+" of ground clearance without increasing the tire size. Below are two pictures of the work in process.

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After all of this great work at BudBuilt, we still have one more thing we will be doing in the near future making this vehicle even more capable than it already is and then I will stop modifying this vehicle and have a lot more fun with it. I have some ideas on other things but they will go on the back burner for now. Some may say you never stop and I agree but I have purchased another toy now; a 2013 Landcruiser.

ah I forgot a few things and there is probably more beyond what is below.

I also have a full length LFD aluminum roof rack. super easy to install and overall even if I have not used it a lot I like it when I do.

I also have the marlin crawler HD LCA cam tab braces. these welded on by the BudBuilt when it was up there getting the supercharger installed. these things are super beefy and welded so they will probably last longer than the truck and provide incredible protection. I'll get pictures of these up in a couple days.

Going back to the supercharger, it doesn't make the truck fast it just makes it more enjoyable to drive. Especially in the mountains when I no longer have to downshift to climb them. In hindsight maybe should have put it on my '12 which doesn't have all the emissions restrictions the '13+ has. I bet it would be much more fun in the lower rpm's. as it is now the power really comes on a 3500 rpm+

Really enjoyed reading about your build process. Thanks for sharing! Really liking the work done on "flattening" the bottom!

Would you happen to have any photos of how you installed the GMRS radio? Still havent installed mine and thought of putting under the passenger dash.

I also have the Marlin LCA braces/skids. Never thought I'd actually hit the skid but ended up dinging it last week in a rock garden. Thankful to have it.

As soon as I have it back I will post some pictures of the radio install as I can not find any. Really it's about 12" or so behind the 4wd shifter on the passenger side. I used industrial velcro to hold it in place. I connected it to an always hot wire from my 12 position blue seas fuse block in the engine bay. Maybe one day I'll just connect it to my second bantum when I get it. For the mic, I ran a cat5 cable from the control to the dash. On the bottom right of the steering wheel there is a blank holder where on the Limited they have the "party" button or whatever it's called. There I installed a female rj45 connector to plug in the microphone. This way for everyday use or when parked at the airport for a while I can just disconnect it and nobody sees anything.

New photos of build process including tummy tuck
 

Here are some new photos of my '19 with the newly completed tummy tuck and a comparison with my other '12 Limited.

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'19 side view
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'12 side view showing big difference
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'19 underneath side view with all skids on
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'19 the magical increase way to increase ground clearance with out large expense of larger tires or other expensive lift
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I really wanted to get out and enjoy these two machines today but had some routine things on both of them.

A big thank you to the team at BudBuilt for an awesome job on the tummy tuck. We have one more fun thing to do in the near future.

Better photo of 4 circuit breakers and Spod installation which is beautiful

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left side of engine bay with compressor, fuse block, and oil filter relocation
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finally a photo of the URD Whipple supercharger
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to close, some may notice I no longer have the roof rack on my '19. I removed it today and have sold it to another member, who will enjoy it in Colorado. I had no issues with the rack, just wasn't getting the use out of it and have a different intermediate plan for both the roof my 4R and LC.

'19 tummy tuck compared to '12
 

To follow up from yesterday's post, here's a side by side comparison showing ground clearance. for back ground both have the same lift height only difference is tires. '19 has 305/70 while the '12 has 285/70 which is only a 0.8" height difference so 0.4" on frame height.

As you can clearly see in the photos, the '12 has 12.875" to the underside of the exhaust crossover and even less to the supports under center crossmember which are closer to 12.5"

To the same point under the skid plate on the '19 where the new raised center cross member is, is 17". This is an amazing increase in ground clearance under the vehicle.

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Love the work and write up. Trying to see in your pics but hard to tell...KDSS or no?

No, I do not have the KDSS.

Nice builds x2! What color blue are your FN wheels?

Thank you.

They are the only blue they provide. I've matched it to Cobalt Blue RAL 5013. It's not exact but since Dustin told me it was a color made only for them this was the absolute closet and indistinguishable match I could find.

Walk Around Video
 

It's been a while since I've put any thing in here. Here's a walk around video of it in it's current state which it's been in for about a year. This the first time I've done something like this so I hope it's helpful / enjoyable for someone.

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Battery Relocation
 

It's been a while since I've updated this but I'm now close to starting something fun.


This is the first step in my next project.

I have removed my Genesis Dual battery system from front drivers side and designed and installed a new battery box behind the second row seats. I took all the important bits from the Genesis system and installed them under the center section of the new battery box.

This has been a very long project for me. It started with cardboard and mocking up the design. I spent 1.5 days doing this and finally settled on a good concept and then sketched it up in 2d and finally folded flat so it could be programmed into cad to be cut and then folded. Bud at Budbuilt managed the cad work, cutting and ultimately they did the welding on the internal pieces.

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Given how much work previous work I had done on wiring everything in my 4R this was an even longer process to remove and rewire just about everything. I easily removed at least 50' and 15-20# of wire. the only hardware I removed was one circuit breaker, which I have decided I will not use as it was for a future who knows what. I originally had 4 4 gauge wires doing through the drivers side firewall and all the rest from original l fuse block position going through passenger side fire wall.

Now I have 2 1/0 gauge wires going through passenger side and a 2 gauge and a two 4 gauge going through driver side. The 2 1/0 gauge wires are used for the connection to alternator and other for my winch. On driver side the 2 gauge is to connect the fuse boxes to the battery and then one 4 gauge coming back up to the front the Spod, and other the compressor. It took quite a bit to squeeze the 2 gauge and 2 4 gauge down the drivers side. It was much easier getting the two larger 1/0 gauge wires down the passenger side.

In any case, why the 2 gauge connected the fuse boxes. Well originally I temporarily had the 1/0 gauge connected with a bolt to the two fuse boxes and I was only getting about 12.3v. When I changed and added the 2 gauge and directly connected the 1/0 to the alternator it's back up to 13.5-14v

I test fit everything in the back two times and finally removed to paint which I wasn't planning one. The new batter box is connected using 4 M10 x 1.25 bolts in the pre-existing holes for the 3rd row seat. It's a very stout connection and is certainly not moving regardless what side is up.

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