Dirtco's 1999 4Runner Build

[TBuzz]

Man is your truck looking great!! I love the one pic with it parked at the cattle guard. Bummer finding with your rear housing. It looks, just like with everything else, you will make it bigger and badder than ever.

I will have to read back as you may have stated. But I'm curious if you think the damage was caused by a specific event in particular? Does the housing have to sustain an impact, other than heat from welding, to be bent? Which direction was it bent? How do you determine a housing is bent?

Continually impressed, TBuzz

 

[Ula'Tek]

Dude, that is awesome!

It's no wonder you're worried about warpage. Those mini stitches should minimize that, but a tiny bit is almost unavoidable since that's a shit-ton of welding to be done.

Bombproof when you're done.

Beautiful! :clap2:

 

[Kryptoroxx]

Well done on the welding!! Bet that took a good minute to do.

You've got yourself quite a truck now lol. I wonder how much of it is still somewhat stock.

 

[the great him]

nice orange metal fab tool... personally i like a chop saw or band saw, but hey to each their own.

that axle looks sexy! you should be ok for now. you know at some point with all the weight you are adding to this thing in armor and the like you are gonna need to get with [MENTION=59542]Singtoe[/MENTION] and 4.7 this thing... or do a SCd 4.0 swap. -oh wait i forgot you did that weight reduction process -cutting out the fenders to make room for the 36s (which turned out awesome BTW and even though i doubted it would look good, i was wrong).

 

[BrazilianT4R]

The Husquarna is being used only on the skids, if you look again.

 

[Dirtco]

First of all sorry for the late reply guys, I've been spending all my spare time working on the 4Runner so internet time has been scarce. I've been taking pictures of the progress but I'm going to hold off on an update until I have time to upload pictures.

Man is your truck looking great!! I love the one pic with it parked at the cattle guard. Bummer finding with your rear housing. It looks, just like with everything else, you will make it bigger and badder than ever.

I will have to read back as you may have stated. But I'm curious if you think the damage was caused by a specific event in particular? Does the housing have to sustain an impact, other than heat from welding, to be bent? Which direction was it bent? How do you determine a housing is bent?

Continually impressed, TBuzz

Thanks!

I'm not sure when I bent the axle housing. I was so busy getting moved into my house last fall that I didn't do much wheeling. I noticed that the 4Runner started handling like crap after the first snow fall, it's possible that it bent when I hit the tree last winter but I think it was bent before that. Maybe last years Jamboree?

The alignment sheet tipped me off, when I tore into the rear axle I found that the rear axle shaft wasn't centered and it was rubbing on the side of the spindle. The FROR full float kit is pretty sensitive to a bent housing because of how tight the clearance is between the spindle and axle shaft.

Dude, that is awesome!

It's no wonder you're worried about warpage. Those mini stitches should minimize that, but a tiny bit is almost unavoidable since that's a shit-ton of welding to be done.

Bombproof when you're done.

Beautiful! :clap2:

Thanks man!

Your right, some warpage is unavoidable. I've just been taking my time and trying to keep the heat down, the axle did warp a little more than I had hoped for but I heated the opposite side and was able to bring it back. It's not going to be perfect, but it should be close enough to handle well and not wear the tires.

Well done on the welding!! Bet that took a good minute to do.

You've got yourself quite a truck now lol. I wonder how much of it is still somewhat stock.

Yeah, I have a ton of time in it! I could only weld around 2" at a time before I let the housing cool down to room temp.

It's all roughly based around the 4Runner platform, and it doesn't have a solid axle or long travel. Having said that I think the only things I haven't modified yet are the transmission (besides the cooler) and the transfer case.

nice orange metal fab tool... personally i like a chop saw or band saw, but hey to each their own.

that axle looks sexy! you should be ok for now. you know at some point with all the weight you are adding to this thing in armor and the like you are gonna need to get with [MENTION=59542]Singtoe[/MENTION] and 4.7 this thing... or do a SCd 4.0 swap. -oh wait i forgot you did that weight reduction process -cutting out the fenders to make room for the 36s (which turned out awesome BTW and even though i doubted it would look good, i was wrong).

Your right my 4Runner isn't light, which adds to the stress on the rear axle. I honestly don't see myself doing an engine swap to this truck. While the extra power would be nice for towing the trailer, I don't see the rest of the drivetrain holding up. I'm pushing my luck the way it is!

 

[liveoffroad]

just want to clarify for my own understanding, judging by the location of your truss you are bending the housing front-to-back? I always assumed they bent in the up-down plane due to loads and whatnot.
unrelated question, i know you have coils in the rear so axle swaps are a lot more work, but are you happy with the FF conversion or would you go a different route next time? I'm debating puting money into a 3rd gen tacoma housing (full float, disk brakes etc) or going the LC80 route... which would have to be centered to fit. i'm not sure what the best "budget" rear axle would be. Just thought i'd get your 2 cents

 

[Volcom]

just want to clarify for my own understanding, judging by the location of your truss you are bending the housing front-to-back? I always assumed they bent in the up-down plane due to loads and whatnot.

You're correct in that they mostly bend up and down. But putting a truss on the top of a third gen 4Runner axle with all the brackets on top is next to impossible. Next best place is the rear of the housing.

 

[Dirtco]

just want to clarify for my own understanding, judging by the location of your truss you are bending the housing front-to-back? I always assumed they bent in the up-down plane due to loads and whatnot.
unrelated question, i know you have coils in the rear so axle swaps are a lot more work, but are you happy with the FF conversion or would you go a different route next time? I'm debating puting money into a 3rd gen tacoma housing (full float, disk brakes etc) or going the LC80 route... which would have to be centered to fit. i'm not sure what the best "budget" rear axle would be. Just thought i'd get your 2 cents

Like Aaron said the axle tubes usually bend upwards from the stress of hard hits and excessive weight, the weird thing about this last axle is that the left axle tube bent towards the front of the vehicle. Thats why I was thinking that it might have bent when I hit the tree last winter. The hard brake line on that same axle tube was also smashed completely flat from a rearward rock hit (like I was driving in reverse) and there was some nasty gouges in the steel, I just have a hard time believing I could have backed into a rock hard enough to bend a housing, that would be one hell of a hit and something that I would remember.

While both of those axle swaps would work well, I would just buy a Diamond axle and be done (I sure wish I did), and here is why. By the time you buy the FROR full float kit your pretty close to the price of a Diamond housing, minus axle shafts. Everything from the housing out is the same whether you run a Diamond or the FF kit, so the cost there is the same. The LC80 axle would be cool, but your going to need an axle alignment bar and pucks to center the diff, and your still going to need custom axle shafts.

 

[Dirtco]

I finally got a little time to upload some pictures and post an update. The truss work is done. When it’s all said and done I went through over five pounds of welding wire, all an inch or two at a time!

Once the main truss section was in place I braced the lower control arm mounts, and cut an inch out of the lower shock mount (like the last axle).





I also tied the LCA mounts into the lower shock mounts





Upper truss plate and UCA gussets





And I also installed a fill and inspection port to the top of the axle

 

[sar4x4]

Nice work!

 

[Dirtco]

And here it is all painted and ready to be installed under the 4Runner





Old housing removed



New housing installed!

 

[Dirtco]

I wanted to make a few modifications to the belly pan section of the skid plate before I reinstalled it. The first was to make an access hole for the transmission drain plug; snow wheeling and towing my trailer around is hard on the transmission so being able to drain and fill the transmission on a regular basis is important. I used a hole saw to cut the hole, then I welded a section of tubing around the hole to add some strength and keep ATF from running down the skid plate when I drain it.



Next, I added some more bracing to the skid plate. I installed three sections of ½” solid bar previously, but the skid plate still deformed. This time around I added two more sections of angle iron on top of the previous bracing, we'll see how it holds up.

 

[Dirtco]

As you can imagine it’s been a time consuming project getting the axle ready and under the 4Runner, during that time I have also took on a few smaller projects (mainly while the axle housing was cooling, and between welds).

I didn’t like how the Limited emblems looked on the side of the 4Runner, with the black bedliner the chrome emblems stuck out. I removed them, but found that they had been installed when the paint was still soft and it made a small depression. So I looked around and found these, the black and chrome tie the truck together and they look stock.





The next project was filling the holes on the lower rocker panel. With the position of the rock sliders it was going to be a major pain to fill every hole, so I decided to spot-weld a trim piece that would cover the holes.

Before



During



And after

 

[Dirtco]

And then I made even more work for myself...

I didn’t like how low the rock sliders sat now that the plastic cladding was gone, here is what I’m talking about.





So I decided to angle the sliders up towards the body. This would A. clean up the body line, and B. add over 1 ½” of additional clearance. That’s pretty much a win-win, except for the extra work that’s required.

 

[derpiful]

Definitely like the look of the angled sliders vs the flat ones. Added clearance is always a plus!

I assume you're bringing this to the Jamboree? If so, I can't wait to see it!

 

[Dirtco]

Definitely like the look of the angled sliders vs the flat ones. Added clearance is always a plus!

I assume you're bringing this to the Jamboree? If so, I can't wait to see it!

Me too!

That's the plan, I need to wrap up all the big stuff before I can make the trip down there. I've been working my ass off to get this thing ready for the trip, as long as I don't have any unforeseen issue's I should be there.

 

[Fishwerks]

Gawd damn how is everything you do so clean.

 

[liveoffroad]

new axle looks great man. also i'm loving the way you angled the sliders... looks really nice!
another unrelated question, you've had 2 sets of tires on there now, do you use normal weights to balance them? i've used internal beads, clip-on and sticky weights and none seem to work after i air down a couple times. kinda getting frustrated with always having tire wobble on the hwy. what do you use?

 

[arvina]

Two weeks and 106 pages later I can finally comment at the end.
Dirtco you deserve an award. This is a truly inspirational build. The quality, attention to detail, and craftsmanship are the top top notch. I hope my runner can be half of what your's is. I look forward to the future evolution of your truck and I can't wait for some wheeling pictures!
Also have you ever been to wheeler geologic area? It's south and a little west near Creede. The trail isn't all that hard (I made it in a stock 1990 Cherokee) but the end is great camping and totally worth the drive.