iDRiVaT4R's 4Runner Trail

iDRiVaT4R · May 10, 2010

Bought this through Autoland Easter Weekend, delivered from Manhattan Toyota to me on the 4th of April.

2010 4Runner Trail Editions with KDSS, without Nav. Classic Silver

500 Mile Mark Exactly, Had some new shoes installed, Firestone Destination M/T 265/70R17's.

At approx. 700 miles, installed Spidertrax Spacers.

First Off Road Trip, Saturday May 8th in the Anza Borrego Desert.

For those of you that are local, Took S2 and took the Palm Spring Trail Exit.
Then went on the Seco Del Diablo Trail, down the drop off, and back up just for fun, then went through Fish Creek, then Split Mountain and came out onto Split Mountain Road.

The 4Runner handled Awesome, so nice to have a short wheel base vehicle again. I have been driving a 2008 Tacoma with Icon suspension and etc. for the last 2 years. Believe it or not, I only hit my skid plates twice and never got hung up. I did use a spotter, my mom, just to make sure I didn't do major damage to the 4Runner, since it's still stock height.

Here are some pics. The 88' 4Runner was my first vehicle, given to me by my dad when I started driving, currently it's my moms and she drove it on this trip.

I hate how the back door is like a vacuum for all the dust. Almost couldn't see out the back on the dirt trails.

We did take some videos with the Digital Camera, I just need to upload first then I'll post them.

Nathan

holders · May 10, 2010

Nice trucks in a great place.

kingpin748 · May 10, 2010

Aaahhhhh, you're wrecking the forum! Just kidding. Sweet truck. I wish I had someplace like that to go play.

Jesse1983 · May 10, 2010

looks like a fun day. even cooler that your mom went along to spot!

btw, you couldn't just use the spray to clean that rear window?

Ryan_S · May 10, 2010

I noticed the back window thing last weekend too. My Subi had a splitter kinda thing where part of the air gets blown down across the window and the rest goes over the spoiler, works great to keep the dust off, and it would probably keep the exhaust smell out too. Oh well. Can't have everything be perfect.

iDRiVaT4R · May 10, 2010

Jesse1983 said:
btw, you couldn't just use the spray to clean that rear window?

I could have, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. I just cant believe how much sand actually stayed on the rear bumper between the door/hatch exterior panel and the door seal. It basically just accumulated there.

Nathan

harper7 · May 10, 2010

Great pics and looks you and yours had a perfect Mothers Day weekend!I wish there was a giant playground like that around here. I'll have to see if my Mom will spot me and take some pics this summer.

The dust and dirt magnet of a liftgate hasn't changed from the last Gen.'s . Although they did get rid of that nasty wind buffeting noise with just the 2nd row windows down, at least below 60mph.

javendan · May 10, 2010

nice pics and thanks for sharing.

love the pics of the '88... i have one that i'm working on.

joel

Egstyle · May 11, 2010

Very nice! :bravo:

mountaindog · May 12, 2010

You have a way cool Mom!

MaylonTRD · May 12, 2010

Great pictures!

iDRiVaT4R · May 12, 2010

harper7 said:
Although they did get rid of that nasty wind buffeting noise with just the 2nd row windows down, at least below 60mph.

Yeah, what's up with that noise, I just re-read your post and realized what you were talking about, haha. I've noticed it like once I think in the 4Runner; I'm usually driving with windows up or front window down 3" and the rear window down 3", this creates a nice circulation effect. I would always get that noise it in my Tacoma, it's a really weird noise and I've never been able to explain it. It sounded almost like a subwoofer was inside my head. Really annoying! :redbrick:

TTown · May 13, 2010

That noise is common on a lot of cars. It literally hurts my ears when it happens.

iDRiVaT4R · Jun 1, 2010

Went Off road again on Sunday in Anza Borrego. Had to use the e-Locker 3 times just to get through obstacles. A-trac and Crawl stuff didn't seem to work good enough to get me through. I dented the front skid in some, also got high centered and pushed in parts of the gas tank skid. I opened my door and the dirt was within an inch of the black plastic piece under the driver door. It got dark so not too many pics of when I was temporarily stuck. This 4Runner is a very capable rigs, and I'm constantly being impressed by it even with stock suspension and stock size tires.

This massive rock scraped the front skid some.

Skid all bashed in.

This pic the rear tire is fully extended.

This pic the front tire is fully compressed.

Front KDSS Fully extended.

Rear KDSS fully compressed.

Jesse1983 · Jun 1, 2010

sweet pics :thumb3:

453030 · Jun 1, 2010

Awesome update. Great KDSS action shots. My Trail w KDSS has not yet arrived but I love the on-road ride; seeing these pics makes me see how great it will be off-road. Firestones look great too .

iDRiVaT4R · Jun 1, 2010

KDSS is well worth the money. On my last rigs I would just remove the sway bar/s altogether just to get the smoother ride and more articulation off road but the on road handling was sacrificed. This is the best of both worlds.

Just a little info of my thoughts of the Stability Control. Doing 30-40 mph on twisty roads and having the Stability control kick in half way through the turn is scary. All of a sudden the brakes engage and the truck wants to head toward the edge of the cliff. Happened a lot in this trip, freaked all my passengers out. On the way back I turned off both traction and Stability Control and it was way better. Drove it like a sports car, hehe. Believe it not, at one turn, I was going fairly quick and some type of stability control kicked in even with everything turned off. It must have some type of backup or something. I wasn't driving wreck-less or anything, just keeping up with my mom in my old 88' 4Runner 4 Banger. LOL!!!

iDRiVaT4R · Aug 30, 2010

Been a while since I have updated my own Build thread, anyways, here are some pics from Satur-day. First time going offroad since I purchased the Roof rack and the OW suspension.

The 4runner handled Awesome, as always. I lowered the tire pressure to only 30psi. The truck was solid and handled the terrain great. Ride would have been a little nicer on washboard if I lowered the tire pressure more since these are Load E tires, but oh well. The OW setup performed excellent, soaked up the large bumps, whoop-d-dos and the large boulders with ease. I had plenty of suspension flex still, even with the 700lb coils up front.