A 5th Gen Long Term Review
- Thread starter TOPDECK
- Start date
harper7
Senior Member
Great write-up and honest review! :bravo:
You mean the wheel well flares?I'm having a hard time trying to vision where that gravel wear is myself. I have logged literally hundreds of miles on gravel roads,usually pretty fast too, and mine look nothing like that with only a few small rock nicks.What tires ,as maybe they were really picking up the gravel to throw compared to my knobbier tires KM2 tires. I do have a bunch of branch scratches on mine but that's on me and the dang mesquite trees down here.
I'm going to start a separate thread to see if we, as a group can come up with solutions for the somewhat minor problems/concerns you mentioned and others have.
TOPDECK
New member
I will take a better picture tomorrow to give more context. I drove it today and took another look at that damage. It is quite bad. The paint is a lot more chipped than I thought. In the picture in the review you can see some white specks on the smoother black paint. Yup, those are chips.
I think most of the damage came in Nevada. We literally drove right down the middle of the state on a series of dirt roads. Nevada's forestry roads and old back mining roads have a particularly rocky quality to them. There are lots of medium sized rocks mixed in the silt and loose gravel. While I was driving I could look back in the side mirror and see them flying from the rear of the vehicle.
But hey, I had to make time. And if I slowed down, the car would hit the perfect speed in which the washboard in the road (like a waveform) would perfectly coincide with the rebound rate of the shocks and it would feel like I was; A: going to shake my spine through my skull or, B: completely lose control of the vehicle.
Oh well, we made it on time, and my...well my back is always messed up.
03_4x4Runner
Senior Member
Running in the desert at higher speeds with all terrain tires definately chips the paint like that. All terrain tires seem to pick up more small rocks and throw them. I had the running boards off my 03 4runner on one long desert run with BFG all terrains and it looked like someone started sandblasting the bottom of my rocker panels. It also is chipping my wheels.
4Run4YourLife
New member
Just curious what you mean my "Long Term Review"? Are you going to update your review every 10,000 miles or so? How long to you plan to drive your 4runner?
Fantastic writeup! i've been meaning to do something along the same lines, I rarely get offroad as of now, the tr4 is primarily a kid hauler atm.
I would have thought the t4r would come with more protection on the flares. Our Tacoma came from the factory with that 3m type clear plastic on the front quarter of the rear flares and on the body just in front of the flares. Exactly where you have the damage.
I would have thought the t4r would come with more protection on the flares. Our Tacoma came from the factory with that 3m type clear plastic on the front quarter of the rear flares and on the body just in front of the flares. Exactly where you have the damage.
TOPDECK
New member
Here are two more contextual photos. I have enhanced them a bit so you can see the damage better. The plastic is quite chewed up. On the leading edge and toward the bottom it looks simply sandblasted and is very rough. If you look close enough you can see flecks of plastic hanging from the rest of the trim.
