aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner

[OSSGuy]

Any chance this is related to the A/C cycling you guys are talking about?

A/C hot/cold - thermistor - read before replacing

I don't pay enough attention to my A/C to know if it's having this issue. Maybe one of these days I'll sit in the driveway with it running and see if it's showing the same symptoms.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

My 03' had a cycling issue, but it worked well enough to get by for years.
Back in Feb on my trip to AZ, I was in Parker to watch race qualifying, the AC would kick on and kick out w the light blinking.

Did some research on a mag clutch relay issue people were having with the 03'-04' MY and ended up finding a replacement relay at the local Autozone. The cycling issue has gotten a lot better.

Here is a pic of the old one

 

[aemravan]

thanks for the feedback folks!

Glad to report that we made our Solar Eclipse viewing trip to Arkansas and back with the 4runner not skipping a damn beat for the 37+ hours we spent on the road! Super stoked about it. Need to total up the miles, but it was probably a little north of 2000 miles we racked up since friday.

The AC was on for literally 80% of the time and worked amazingly cold with 0 issues.. could the cycling on/off still be an issue? Very likely... but for the time time being I feel like I'm just going to let it be.

Ended getting somewhere around 14mpg, which I was super ecstatic about considering that I was fully loaded inside and out with camping gear and supplies, water , extra fuel, and we were doing north of 70mph quite a bit. I was expecting way worse considering my last calculation was something like 11.8 mpg lol.

Now I'm scrambling to unpack and repack so my brother and I can go do 3 more nights of camping for the Grildlife event down in South Carolina. :banana:

 

[aemravan]

Definitely a trip for the books. Super stoked with how everything performed and worked out.

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[aemravan]

And a couple more

Didn’t take more than a couple cell pics for this eclipse. Figured the last one with my nice camera were decent enough to not have to reproduce and just live the moment for the 3 minutes we saw it

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[aemravan]

Couple of post trip updates:

Came across a tuned v8 ecu from MBP tuned , verdict still out for more seat time, but first impressions are solid. Crisper shift with better shift points, feels more peppy and has potential for slight increase in hw mpg.

Also decided that my brake lights are a bit dim in the day light if I have my running lights on so I threw in a 14 in dual led spare tire brake light. This should get the message across nicely lol. Mounting was a bit tight with my rear view camera.. will probably fabricate a different way to mount it later, but works for now.

Oh yea.. a day after the eclipse trip , my brother and I headed off for a 4 day camping trip for Gridlife south.. awesome trip, made me miss my RTT for sure .. his supra was still being tuned so we took both of my cars with his RTT from the jeep… now I’m looking at Ali express on some wedge style hardshells in the $700 range that could except some rails to still mount my Thule box when needed..

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[aemravan]

a quick sidenote with all these recent announcements/releases from Toyota/Lexus... Man.. I REALLY dig the 6th gen.. lol. Also the GX... AND also the Landcruiser lol.

Not likely to get into either.. not for a long while at least.. but could see one of those in our lineup for a non-aftermarket-molested family rig in the future..

In the mean time.. I already have crazy late-night thoughts of seeing about doing a slight facelift on mine :becky:

 

[awhitney1]

I like the 6th gen as well, but will keep with the 4th gen. I blew through my retirement to build up my 4th gen. I gotta save for retirement now.

a quick sidenote with all these recent announcements/releases from Toyota/Lexus... Man.. I REALLY dig the 6th gen.. lol. Also the GX... AND also the Landcruiser lol.

Not likely to get into either.. not for a long while at least.. but could see one of those in our lineup for a non-aftermarket-molested family rig in the future..

In the mean time.. I already have crazy late-night thoughts of seeing about doing a slight facelift on mine :becky:

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

a quick sidenote with all these recent announcements/releases from Toyota/Lexus... Man.. I REALLY dig the 6th gen.. lol. Also the GX... AND also the Landcruiser lol.

Not likely to get into either.. not for a long while at least.. but could see one of those in our lineup for a non-aftermarket-molested family rig in the future..

In the mean time.. I already have crazy late-night thoughts of seeing about doing a slight facelift on mine :becky:

I think the 6th gen looks more aggressive than the 5th and especially the 4th, but I still can't get over that there's even more plastic, at least thats the way it appears. Certain angles it looks great, and then others not so much.

So I'm on the 6th gen fan fence for now. Once somebody decks one out, and it's proven to handle larger tires/Armor/Gear, we'll see.

 

[aemravan]

Holy hell... I can't believe it's literally been over 2 years since I've last logged in and posted on this thing...

Figured it was time to check back in and give some updates if folks are ever reading back through..

Other than making it out to the outer banks 3 times in the last 2 years there's not been any notable trips other than daily driving to the grocery store and office. On the trip to OBX this March I lost the lift gate lock/latch actuator and had a hell of a time getting into it to unlock it. Note to anyone with cabinet build outs... maybe consider pre-running a release string to the manual override so that you have the chance to pop it open manually with ease.

That, and some other frustrations led me down the road of actually posting this thing for sale and coming within 1 day of selling it off to a gentleman in VA, but right before he came down he found out he would have to go through the DMV and have a formal inspection due to its salvage rebuild title status.. since I went back and cut quite a bit of stuff up to fit the 37's and the tacoma front end conversion I decided not to risk it and told the guy i wasn't selling.

Since then I decided to keep it, but make it a bit more street driveable and reasonable.. The project started off with pulling out the built-in cabinets that were just way too heavy in favor of some lighter 20/20 aluminum extrusion that I will build out to hold the drive and stove on some quick disconnects to easily remove out when not needed.

It then quickly escalated to also going through a large weight savings exercise.. the Coastal Rear bumper is coming off (will be for sale) in favor of the Ascend offroad hybrid rear bumper (holy crap the weight difference!) that also removes the rear cross member.

I am also tearing out the LC200 steering rack and double shear knuckle setup to go back to an all factory steering rack setup.. This goes on the list of things I wish I've never done (including 37s, but those are here to stay!).. the bumpsteer is manageable, but I want to run the factory sway bar for long trips, lift the front end up a bit (and I can't do that right now due to the bump steer) ets etc.

So.... essentially I am throwing even more money at this thing to undo all the money I already threw at it but I am justifying it with the fact that it is still only 2 car payment I would have made on the truck I was going to pick up... so there's that!

I should probably go back and post a few of the recent pics of this thing out at OBX.. they did come out pretty great, but now it's time for yet another evolution of the TacoRunner!

 

[aemravan]

I guess it's time for some more updates now that i've revived this thread..

Coastal rear bumper is off and sold locally. Holy hell was that thing heavy!
I went with the Ascend Fabrications rear DIY bumper kit... not the cheapest (though all the prices have gone up) but I was SUPER impressed with the quality of the kit... the hole thing came together on a small welding table in the garage and fit like a dream. Single swingout with a table for some expanded camping table-top space. Paint is drying, planning on doing a final fit/bumper cover trim this week.

My custom made wide fender flares didn't hold up too well and I decided to trash them... instead, I picked up some junkyard pieces from the junkyard to a 2006+ facelift cladding/rear bumper pieces. They are just shy of being as wide as my old custom ones .. but are super light and completely factory..

I ended up replacing the OME heavy duty springs back to dobinsons variable rate long travel springs (2-3" lift with 300lb added weight option). The rear ride height is back to a decent level and not the 7" i was sitting at once the coastal bumper came off lol. The ride quality is back to amazing.

I'll need to reverify, but on the way to dump some stuff I weighed in right at 5700lbs.. which is WAY down from where it was before..

Next up this week/weekend is tearing into the LC200 steering rack and replacing all of that with stock parts.

 

[aemravan]

I guess a few pics wouldn't hurt either (just wish it was easier to post them )