Crowdad Build

[mccamp82]

Travis, man, I'm really blown away at all the work you did all at once (the diffs, trans filter, seals, timing, etc). It seems so daunting to me, but I'm glad you have all that experience now for me to pull from...haha. I love your 4Runner, man...totally inspiring to me. Also, those photos from the Sierras are freakin sweet. Now you need to get you a good new lens to go with you on these trips.

What's the next upgrade? New tires or some UCAs?

 

[crowdad]

Travis, man, I'm really blown away at all the work you did all at once (the diffs, trans filter, seals, timing, etc). It seems so daunting to me, but I'm glad you have all that experience now for me to pull from...haha. I love your 4Runner, man...totally inspiring to me. Also, those photos from the Sierras are freakin sweet. Now you need to get you a good new lens to go with you on these trips.

What's the next upgrade? New tires or some UCAs?

Thanks Ches. Get you one of them there 4wds and we can upgrade your diffs too!

You basically just cost me like $1800 with all those upgrades you enticed me with... I really need to get some new tires on the 4runner first as I am going to move my current KM2s to my old z71 truck since it's tires are bald.

Before anymore mods I need to chase down some electrical/ grounding issues. I have engine noise coming through my speakers.

 

[mccamp82]

forgot to ask....

What did you do with the original 3rd member with e-locker?

 

[highcj5]

very nice build. I have some 8 wraps sitting in the garage and some tundra billies and eibach springs on the way. what rear shocks are you using? the old ome shocks? love your travel pics to by the way. :cheers:

 

[crowdad]

What did you do with the original 3rd member with e-locker?

Sitting in my garage waiting for some one to trade me money for it! 4.30 gearing and elocker ready to go!

very nice build. I have some 8 wraps sitting in the garage and some tundra billies and eibach springs on the way. what rear shocks are you using? the old ome shocks? love your travel pics to by the way. :cheers:

Thanks High! I appreciate it. It is a decent setup at least compared to my all OME. I still have my OME shocks in the back and really need to swap them out with some Icons or bilstiens to compliment the LC coils. The OME have almost 110K on them anyways... it is about time!

 

[1da4]

Everything underneath is sooooo clean, I'm so jealous. I've done a little cleaning myself but it looks nothing like this. Fantastic work

 

[crowdad]

Everything underneath is sooooo clean, I'm so jealous. I've done a little cleaning myself but it looks nothing like this. Fantastic work

Thanks! I had most everything in the front taken apart so I figured it would be a great time to clean it all up! Some pieces, once they were off, I did a couple light coats of black enamel on them. That really made the difference.

 

[crowdad]

New UCAs

Whenever I was redoing my front end I had intentions of replacing the upper control arm ball joints on both sides. They were both original, loose and the passenger side was leaking. Well it seemed at the time there was a shortage of them in America because I scoured the web looking for a place that sold Toyota ball joints for the UCA and could only find one. I replaced the one that was leaking and drove the truck for about 6000 miles.

After doing the process of replacing just the ball joint I decided to just replace the entire UCA... 100X easier! I went with SPC UCAs with the greaseable zerks.







The ride feels quick and responsive after doing these and I think the added movement is going to be really nice off-road! Can't wait!

 

[crowdad]

Good News Bad News

Well after lots of talks with my wife, she has convinced me to get a new vehicle. I have been torn about it and was very adamant about keeping the 4runner. I have had many memorable adventures in this truck. Brought home my first 2 kids in it, done 5 Ultra Canoe races in it and seemingly took the entire thing apart and put it back together. I love this truck and know it inside and out.

I started by placing an order for a 2016 Tacoma TRD Offroad 6spd manual. The wait was pretty long though and the tacoma forum was littered with bitterness and complaints about the new engine and tranny and overall build quality. So I started looking at other options. That list included a 100 series LC, 2016 Jeep Rubicon, and 2016 4Runner Trail Edition.

LC was a tough sell for the wife as they almost all have over 100k miles, the Jeep (6spd Manual) was fun for the 2 days I got to drive it but lacked cargo capacity and overall utility.
That left the new 4runner. I have never been a huge fan of the new look they came out with but it was an easy sell once I drove one. It felt superior to the new Tacoma as far as overall build quality and had a much bigger rear seat.

I think my son was more sad than I was once I started looking at other vehicles:


In the end I found, from an extremely helpful salesman at Charles Maund in Austin, a Nautical Blue Metallic Trail Edition Premium with no extra options.





Its new home:


The 97' was sold the next day.

Thank you 3rd Genners for easily the best car forum on the internet. I will be over on the 5th gen side for now and creating a hopefully more thorough build for my new CROWDAD 4Runner.

 

[SnowLizard]

When you get a change, post up a link to your new adventure thread.

it's a bitter sweet story, but your build will continue to inspire.

 

[GSPRunner]

Good luck over in the 5th gen forum!

 

[Unner]

Not what I was expecting at all. Good luck with your new 4Runner, I hope the 3rd gen went to a good home!

 

[crowdad]

Not what I was expecting at all. Good luck with your new 4Runner, I hope the 3rd gen went to a good home!

I know. In all honesty it wasn't what I was expecting either. I got to sell it to my friend who will make this his 3rd 4Runner.

Good luck over in the 5th gen forum!

When you get a change, post up a link to your new adventure thread.

it's a bitter sweet story, but your build will continue to inspire.

Thanks a lot guys! 5th gen side is really kicking right now and am pretty excited to be over there. There is probably a little more internet squabbling over there compared to the 3rd gen side but its still pretty tame compared to other Forums I have been a part of.

Here is a start to my new thread. It hopefully will be a little more detailed since I am getting it going as I am starting the build:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/220466-crowdad-build-2-0-a.html

 

[MountainsRcalling]

Great build thread, I found it only today and read the whole thing in one sitting only to find an ending that was not what I expected. Good luck with the new runner and please keep posting the adventure pics!