Desert Dawg build...what a switch!

Picked up a silver SR5 Premium yesterday. Using your build as a guide. All I'm going to get is:

-Gobi Rack
-LED light bar (don't need the grill ones)
-Running boards
-Tinted windows (when I find someone to go below the limit)
-Getting plasti-dipped rims and emblems in October
 
Drove over from Pagosa Springs to the turnoff for Elwood Pass. Spent the day traversing the trail the entire distance up to the Pass, over to Summitville, down to Wolf Creek Pass and back over to Pagosa Springs. You start out around 7600 ft. and go up from there along the San Juan River.







The trail was actually well maintained until about half way up where you definitely need four wheel drive and higher clearance. The pictures don’t show it, but some of the trail was actually moderately challenging with steep climbs up loose, sometimes wets/slick, rock and large boulders, but nothing that the 4Runner or other moderately outfitted 4x4 couldn’t handle. The route was beautiful with lots of scenic moments, and quite a few river and creek crossings. The tires gripped tremendously although they do like to pick up and throw smaller stones. Unfortunately, I was the one driving so didn’t get too many chances to jump out and take some action shots.







 
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I only had to use low range a couple of times to keep the slow momentum when the trail got fairly steep with lots of rock and only a few places had deep mud due to some runoff spilling over.









Elwood Pass was breathtaking and the pictures don’t do it justice, but it was so cool to be at over 11,600 ft. and nobody else around!





 
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Love your build. This is one of the cleanest on the entire forum. In my top 3 for sure.

Thanks PhoRunner...really appreciate the compliment!




Picked up a silver SR5 Premium yesterday. Using your build as a guide. All I'm going to get is:

-Gobi Rack
-LED light bar (don't need the grill ones)
-Running boards
-Tinted windows (when I find someone to go below the limit)
-Getting plasti-dipped rims and emblems in October

Congrats on the new rig; let the fun begin! :cheers::cheers:
 
This



looks better than this...

TRD PRO.jpg

Maybe Toyota should hire you to lead the next rebuild.
 

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Feedback on build so far:

So on the drive up from Albuquerque, NM to Pagosa Springs, CO the truck drove and rode great! No alignment issues and no constant corrections; the truck did great and provided a comfortable ride for the whole family. The truck also has plenty of power in the higher rpm ranges so no issues when I needed to pass or maintain speed up long grades even at higher altitudes. I averaged just under 16 mpg which included sustained highway speeds and lots of climbing up to the higher elevations.

The Cooper ST MAXX tires were amazing. They provided plenty of grip on the road even when traveling under wet conditions, and were fairly quiet even up to over 80 mph. Off road, the tires really performed well too! Again, plenty of grip on both dry and slick rock, no issues through mud and stream crossings, and didn't tear up over rough boulders. They do pick up and throw smaller stones when on gravel roads however.

The Toytec BOSS suspension performed flawlessly and gave a great long distance ride as well as comfortable ride over the rough stuff. Plenty of clearance for the deeper ruts and larger boulders with no unwanted noises, scrapes, or complaints from the system.

The Toyota Multi-terrain select worked great especially when needed during very steep, loose rock climbs. Again, the entire package worked very well and provided for a very nice highway trip and moderately serious off-road excursion as hoped for!

 
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Pulling the trigger

Bored....lol.


Going in tomorrow to trade in my '06 Tacoma for a '14 T4R Trail Prem. Your T4R is downright clean and good looking. It's my new motivation. Anyone want to buy a Tacoma with only 76k miles? :jk: I'm excited to get a new project...albeit it a slow project. Thanks for the motivation!
 
Going in tomorrow to trade in my '06 Tacoma for a '14 T4R Trail Prem. Your T4R is downright clean and good looking. It's my new motivation. Anyone want to buy a Tacoma with only 76k miles? :jk: I'm excited to get a new project...albeit it a slow project. Thanks for the motivation!

Welcome to the forum! And thanks for the great compliment! I am glad I could help motivate you towards getting a new T4R...lol. Looking forward to seeing how your new rig and build progresses!
 
so any trail video's yet?

Yeah, but haven't been home since my trip to download it yet. I saved one portion when a black bear ran out right in front of us and then freaked out and ran back into the woods...lol. Hope I got it!



I wonder how many people you have influenced.

Ha...not near as many that others on this forum have (including influencing "moi"...lol) but always good to hear if I was able to contribute!
 
D dawg, do you have your front coils raised all the way to 3inches? Or about 2? Not sure if you had problems after installing the 285s st Max
 
D dawg, do you have your front coils raised all the way to 3inches? Or about 2? Not sure if you had problems after installing the 285s st Max

I'm not d Dawg of course but I have the toytec boss with superflex HD 2.5" HD rear coils in my v8 04, with the same tires. I originally had spacers that rubbed like a mofo all the time and it drove me crazy. Took em out and no problems. My coilovers are at the height set from the box with no problem. Haven't even had to clearance the body mount, just had to cut the crap out of the fenderflares and push the liner forward.
 

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D dawg, do you have your front coils raised all the way to 3inches? Or about 2? Not sure if you had problems after installing the 285s st Max

TE+6; my coils are set at the 3 inches. The only issue I had was trying to get the 285s aligned within accepted alignment spec after the lift; took a couple of tries but all is good now. I have no issues at all with the setup!



next time you pass through Colorado, let some of us know. We are friendly here and I'd definitely go wheelin with you.

That would be awesome! If I ever get closer to Denver or even the Grand Junction area, it would be great to hook up with some northern CO members (although I have yet to meet up with some southern CO wheelers while there too...got to get my act together...lol). Thanks WODWorldwide!
 
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Took the 4runner up to the Conejos River valley in southern CO for some fly fishing over the long Labor Day Weekend. The truck did great although I did have to tax the 4.0L engine a lot more than my past trips as there was a lot of high speed passing on the long and curvy mountain inclines due to the heavy RV traffic. Finally felt a bit disappointed with the 4Runner power since, although adequate, it was definitely lagging when pressed. But got us there and back with no issues.

Once there, we had a blast catching a fairly decent number of rainbow and brown trout (up to 20 inches or so). I took the 4Runner out for some wheeling but really didn't happen upon anything really worth mentioning except I did get a couple of off-road shots:











My brother-in-law (foreground) who is a professional fly fishing and bow hunting guide helping me undo my casting disasters...lol:






Also took a drive over to Chama in northern NM for a walk around. You can board the Cumbres-Toltec narrow gauge railroad there. We just took some photos and had a beer at the one old local pub.







 
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:sad panda:

still no trail vids :(

lol....yeah, I kind of screwed up; I didn't download the more interesting files in time (like the bear, of course) and so the dash cam over wrote them with the new files. Then the Marcus 4 stopped recording because it said it had "no enough space"....really, that is what it said instead of "not enough space"...lol.

Anyway, I had to delete the remaining files on the 64GB SIM card and now it's recording again. It sort of confuses me because I thought the Marcus 4 would record continuously over any old files and so not sure how I have "no enough space"...lol.

Also, for the life of me, I cannot get the downloaded Registrator Viewer to upload any of the files I did save. I also need to figure out how to edit the files down to something reasonable and then host somewhere online. I have not tried posting my own videos so this all new to me. :smashputer:
 
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