brian2sun
Elite Member
What’s up T4R! It’s been a long while since I’ve done anything to the 4Runner, but I gave it some love with all the down time I’ve had during this pandemic (I’m a working musician, so I went from playing about 10 gigs/month to only playing 3 shows since last March). Thank God for PUA assistance, haha! Anyway, first I installed a cop style spotlight in the A pillar last summer. It’s nice to have a point-able high power light, especially when trying to find campsites in the middle of nowhere at night!
Next was wheels and tires... I’ve been on 35s for many years now, and while they were great off road, I use my truck mainly for camping these days much more than rock crawling. My 315 MT/Rs were also about 8 years old and only halfway worn (I only put 3K miles/year on the 4Runner nowadays) and they would just not balance well anymore... honestly these MT/Rs never really did balance right, even when they were new. I did NOT want to have to deal with my steering wheel shaking at highway speeds for several more years while I finally wore these tires out! I figured I could still sell them for about $100 each (which I did) and that would pay for almost half of the cost of some new tires.
I went with the new Toyo Open Country AT3s in 285/75R17 (34s). I also picked up some 17” FJ Cruiser 8 hole wheels and painted them black. I had stock 16” 5 stars before and I wanted 17s because there are so many more choices for tire sizes and load ranges for 17s than there are for 16s. I only lost about .75” in tire diameter, but I gained a lot of other stufff... I got some noticeable power back, as well as mpgs! And these tires are about 10xs smoother and quieter than the MT/Rs. They’re a pretty aggressive A/T, so I have no doubt they’ll still do great off road, but they’re sooo much better for everything else. Another plus is they are 3 peak mountain certified for severe snow. I also got them in load range C so they ride so much nicer. I could not be happier.
Lastly, I just picked up a used drawer system/sleeping platform off a guy on Facebook. It’s build very solid, and I even beefed it up a bit more with better hooks to tie it down and put more support under the sleeping platform. It’s pretty low profile (about 6” tall), so I still have plenty of headroom to sleep on it, and I was able to fit a surprising amount of tools and spare parts, etc... in it! I also has 2 more shoebox-size storage compartments under the tubs in the pics. I got it for about what it would have cost me in materials and time to build it, so I’m stoked! I also finally found a nice spot to mount my shovel on my tire swing with some quick fists!
2021 marks 20 years that I’ve owned this truck and I love it more now than ever!
Next was wheels and tires... I’ve been on 35s for many years now, and while they were great off road, I use my truck mainly for camping these days much more than rock crawling. My 315 MT/Rs were also about 8 years old and only halfway worn (I only put 3K miles/year on the 4Runner nowadays) and they would just not balance well anymore... honestly these MT/Rs never really did balance right, even when they were new. I did NOT want to have to deal with my steering wheel shaking at highway speeds for several more years while I finally wore these tires out! I figured I could still sell them for about $100 each (which I did) and that would pay for almost half of the cost of some new tires.
I went with the new Toyo Open Country AT3s in 285/75R17 (34s). I also picked up some 17” FJ Cruiser 8 hole wheels and painted them black. I had stock 16” 5 stars before and I wanted 17s because there are so many more choices for tire sizes and load ranges for 17s than there are for 16s. I only lost about .75” in tire diameter, but I gained a lot of other stufff... I got some noticeable power back, as well as mpgs! And these tires are about 10xs smoother and quieter than the MT/Rs. They’re a pretty aggressive A/T, so I have no doubt they’ll still do great off road, but they’re sooo much better for everything else. Another plus is they are 3 peak mountain certified for severe snow. I also got them in load range C so they ride so much nicer. I could not be happier.
Lastly, I just picked up a used drawer system/sleeping platform off a guy on Facebook. It’s build very solid, and I even beefed it up a bit more with better hooks to tie it down and put more support under the sleeping platform. It’s pretty low profile (about 6” tall), so I still have plenty of headroom to sleep on it, and I was able to fit a surprising amount of tools and spare parts, etc... in it! I also has 2 more shoebox-size storage compartments under the tubs in the pics. I got it for about what it would have cost me in materials and time to build it, so I’m stoked! I also finally found a nice spot to mount my shovel on my tire swing with some quick fists!
2021 marks 20 years that I’ve owned this truck and I love it more now than ever!
