Hey all, I've been taking it slow on modding the 4Runner trying to stay near stock to keep from spending unecessarily as well as use the parts I paid good money for from Toyota in 2017. That being said, I'm to the point where I'm looking at either buying a full set of skid plates or a front bumper + winch to give me more protection/safety while I'm out on the trails.
1. Has anyone added full skids to stock suspenion? Does it sag your front even more or is it a pretty even distribution?
2. As for the bumper + winch, I'm fairly certain this will dip the front end. My question is, do I need to do a full replacement? I'm not necessarily opposed to it but it seems drastic for adding ~200lbs to the front end.
So far, ground clearance hasn't been an issue for me so a lift would be purely cosmetic at this point. What kind of suspension components do you think I should be looking at in this situation?
What do you want to drive? You don't need any mods to go places and I cannot think of one trail I would drive with a steel bumper that I would not with the stock one. If you need a winch because of offroading in forested areas in spring and the like, you could use a hidden winch mount or purchase a slimline bumper if you are using the winch all the time. But then you would want to replace the front coils and, better, the front coils and all shocks. Or you can wait for summer.
Once you know what you want to drive, the question is how often and with whom. Lots of people seem to get bad experiences early and then give up. I go solo. If you go out a lot on any more-than-easy 4x4 roads, you will be hitting because of distances, fatigue, kids, whatever. If you go out a lot with folks with Rubicons on 37s, you won't keep up in rocks so you may think you need mods whereas you need more time and different company. If you have a good spotter you need less, if you go with no spotter, you will need more. And so on. If you add aftermarket skid plates, you lose ground clearance up front. So they better be 3/16 steel. A full package of aftermarket skids and also sliders had no discernible effect on the front coils in my case though there may have been a 1/4 in clearance loss due to the coils.
Then it is a matter of speed, comfort, and load. Here in AZ, a performance suspension would not be a luxury. The front stock coil springs are too soft for the desert and stronger shocks would help. In Montana? Eh. For load, short of getting into Australian style over-landing, the 4R does not sag too much for moderate trails. As for difficult rated trails, a heavy load is a bad idea except for those where the difficult sections are low end and infrequent.
If you decide to get into very difficult trails, few of which are driven for anything other than the sport, then that is a different conversation that probably begins with "why not start with a Rubicon." Still, some folks here have driven very difficult trails without their vehicles looking anything like Instagram rigs.
On forums, mods are grossly overrated and done mostly for looks and much less commonly for function. And mods produce mods. The more you mod, the more you will mod: it is very hard to stop once you start. First, because you disturb an existing equilibrium and then you start figuring out how to compensate. Second, because it can become obsessive, so once you have improved X you start thinking about the entire alphabet.
The worst thing, imo, is to do things halfheartedly and cheaply and to forget that mods can impact safety and more under the right set of circumstances.
Above all, the idea that a 4Runner needs anything other than tires, air compressor, and a shovel to go offroad while pushed around by self-interested parties is hilarious. But it is true that going often can make you transition from need to want, justifiably so. In that case, it is best to identify the needs as you go and then improve carefully understanding what further mods, if any, the first one might drag with itself.
