Arttie's Build and Adventures. 15TEP

Arttieboy

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After a week of this mundane driving to and from work and two weeks of rain here in NC. I felt compelled to tackle some light mods to my 2015TEP. I started blacking out the grey valances that I hate and stock rack. Valances are plastidiped and rack is truck bed rhino lined.

I did some light trail riding at first because I haven't ever driven the runner offroading had to test her legs. Picked up a hitch hiker who I now believe lives in my garage some where. (Don't tell my wife)

I found some local trails I wanted to tackle but first had to stretch the dogs legs and mine.

Fast forward weeks later. The weather broke and I had some time off. Did some parts shopping online and found what I wanted for my runner. 5100's all around on hankook dynapro 265/70/17s. All great prices on Amazon. I also have another project I am working out on in the garage. 2010 370Z 40th anniversary edition. https://vimeo.com/142267190

I installed a k&n cai and Armytrix valvatronic exhaust system. But back to the runner.

Time to adventure in the woods and get lost and muddy. (Note: the hood glare issue is easy resolved cheaply if you get it dirty).
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Every great story
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Had to try my best to flex the suspension without sliding down the muddy trails haha or so I told myself haha.
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Most challenging spot I found. Walked it, not very steep but deep channels and large pot holes from others getting stuck and digging in. It was wet muddy and washed out. Couldn't ask for a better spot to test out crawl control and terrain settings. Well the runner made light work of it. I was expecting more resistance and challenge but found east with Kdss crawl and terrain controls engaged. Truly need to find a location to test the runners strengths and weaknesses.
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For hours later of trail adventure realizing it was later than I thought I had to stop and let the dogs stretch there legs again found an awesome field to do just that.
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Some where in these picture are two very happy dogs playing tag haha. One hour later it was time to get lost further in the woods haha.
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And then this happen. A cross road with five options. Don't you hate when this happens. I wanted to chose them all but I saved the adventure for another day. It's now noon and time to feed the doggies. Homeward bound till next time.
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More to come in the up coming weeks. Stay tuned. Next time I'll remember to charge and pack my actual camera equipment. Sorry for the cellphone pics.

The end result of my four plus hour venture into the unknown. Just found out about image limitation at the end of the post sorry pics won't follow story any longer as I have to remove and resubmit.
 
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Dogs lost in the adventure. Don't worry they are both trained and the Doberman is very protective of his little brother.
 
Now we wait for my wife to get home and discover what we have been doing. She will be mad because we didn't take her... Guess I'll have to go back out and hit new parts of the trail :).
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In all great experience offroading the runner. Stock duhlers. Did better than expected. Still hate them to death but I will ride them till the tread is gone because I don't want them sitting in my garage for years to come. They caked up with clay and mud a lot but kicked it off as we drove. Toyota you build great off road machines for a dying breed of adventures. Stay dusty and muddy guys. Never lose the adventure.
 
"(Note: the hood glare issue is easy resolved cheaply if you get it dirty)."
True. Keep a shine on your boots not your hood.

We ran Dynapros on our FJ (GSJ15). They worked fine. Just had DiscountTire install a set today on our TP. Very good results for them as well in the Nov.2014 Consumer Reports' analysis of All Terrain tires.
 
For what it's worth (free internet forum opinion), if you plan on playing in the mud much you'll be well served to sell those stock highway tread tires and get a set of decent all-terrains. I personally kept my Duelers almost until they hit the wear bars. But the store-label Cooper AT3's I finally upgraded to made a massive difference in how much spinning I have to do to get through mud.
 
Yes I can't wait to get rid of these stock tires but I'm going to drive them till they are dead. One I paid for them when I bought the truck new. Two I don't want to sell them, not that anyone would buy them. Laugh out loud. Three I don't want them taking up space in my garage. I have other things I will purchase in while I wait for these craptastic tires to die. Gobi roof rack and ladder from the current group buy I hope. 5100's all around but those will wait because truck is still brand new I want to drive a while and see how it feels stock and figure out what I want and need to do the driving I like. This will be a slow build just like my sports car. I also don't want a cookie cutter rig like I've seen through the the forums. No offense to any one.
 
[MENTION=100704]RockyMountainT4R[/MENTION] I miss my fj so much. The 4Runner is cool but I really enjoyed the fj more for a number of reasons.
 

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