My 00' Highlander build

[habanero]

Sorry I had missed this so long ago, Did you make it out last year? Any big trips this year?

We did make it out last July, we brought both trucks out and had an awesome time, plus I was not the victim of any burrito farts!!!

So far this year we did a short backpack at Big Bend NP and visited Carlsbad and White Sands before having to get home, but that was driving the diesel jetta because no wheeling and up to 700 miles on a smaller tank than the 4Runner. Unreal.

Surely we'll be headed out your way again this summer, talking 2 trucks again, not sure of the where and when yet. If you see the blue and an imperial jade 4Runner mini-convoy say hi!

 

[Unner]

[MENTION=95069]TBuzz[/MENTION]

Hey Chris, how've you been?

I was scrolling through your build, and saw you went from LC Tokicos, to Icon 56505s. What were your thoughts on the LC Tokicos vs the ICON 56505s?

I'm running the LC shocks right now, and I have the same issue that you had of the centering washers wearing out, and causing noises. I'm a little worried about them doing more damage to the shock mount, and I've been debating upgrading my suspension recently too. Appreciate any info you can give me!

 

[TBuzz]

[MENTION=95069]TBuzz[/MENTION]

Hey Chris, how've you been?

I was scrolling through your build, and saw you went from LC Tokicos, to Icon 56505s. What were your thoughts on the LC Tokicos vs the ICON 56505s?

I'm running the LC shocks right now, and I have the same issue that you had of the centering washers wearing out, and causing noises. I'm a little worried about them doing more damage to the shock mount, and I've been debating upgrading my suspension recently too. Appreciate any info you can give me!

I've been pretty well thanks for asking.


I don't think the Icons are valved properly, too much rebound. In retrospect I don't think I got any improvement until I went with ADS. I have been them running front and rear for the last year or so. The ride improvement with these shocks is quite noticeable on the street and more so with a little speed off road. However with the sway bars on it still acts like it has sway bars on which obviously limit the independency of the IFs or rear to react freely. So what's the point of have the good shocks and running sway bars.
I would recommend replacing those washers and not worrying about it though. Modifying these trucks beyond a certain point is a slippery slope of performance improvement and simply wasting money. You can only get so much much change in performance while retaining the sway bars. Between the sway bars, the ifs, the gas tank and the rear link design I'm all for just KISS with any recommendations on this truck after my long costly journey. Truck runs great but it should After everything I've done to it. I'll bet that your truck will do any trail that you would find yourself on with anyone else in an IFS truck. I have never been with anyone with bigger tires that got further or up anything I didn't and I have never been with someone that couldn't do a particular trail because of lack of build.
I see it all the time and remember I'm in SW Colorado. For example, I'll leave silverton in my heavily modified truck up engineer pass and get there not more than 10 minutes faster than the stock 3rd gen behind me. There's laws, people, safety and the general not being a trail douche that is somewhat a governor on the enjoyment of a more expensive suspension.
That being said I do see people mostly during Fjsummit that don't seem to be aware of such things.

 

[Unner]

I've been pretty well thanks for asking.


I don't think the Icons are valved properly, too much rebound. In retrospect I don't think I got any improvement until I went with ADS. I have been them running front and rear for the last year or so. The ride improvement with these shocks is quite noticeable on the street and more so with a little speed off road. However with the sway bars on it still acts like it has sway bars on which obviously limit the independency of the IFs or rear to react freely. So what's the point of have the good shocks and running sway bars.
I would recommend replacing those washers and not worrying about it though. Modifying these trucks beyond a certain point is a slippery slope of performance improvement and simply wasting money. You can only get so much much change in performance while retaining the sway bars. Between the sway bars, the ifs, the gas tank and the rear link design I'm all for just KISS with any recommendations on this truck after my long costly journey. Truck runs great but it should After everything I've done to it. I'll bet that your truck will do any trail that you would find yourself on with anyone else in an IFS truck. I have never been with anyone with bigger tires that got further or up anything I didn't and I have never been with someone that couldn't do a particular trail because of lack of build.
I see it all the time and remember I'm in SW Colorado. For example, I'll leave silverton in my heavily modified truck up engineer pass and get there not more than 10 minutes faster than the stock 3rd gen behind me. There's laws, people, safety and the general not being a trail douche that is somewhat a governor on the enjoyment of a more expensive suspension.
That being said I do see people mostly during Fjsummit that don't seem to be aware of such things.

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting to hear your impressions on the shocks, and the point about the swaybars. I have no plans to remove mine because my truck sees a lot of pavement. That's a good point too about the diminishing returns past a certain point. That's certainly true. I'm sure my truck is overbuilt for what I normally do.

I replaced the washers today, $6 a piece from Toyota... One of these days I need to ride with someone who has a real nice/expensive suspension set up and see if I can even tell a difference from what I'm running now. Part of the desire to change up the suspension might just be that I'm running out of things to do to the truck at this point. It's pretty much "finished" minus gears/lockers, but that's not really in the plans anytime in the foreseeable future. I wish we had all the opportunities to use our vehicles down here that you guys out there have. Then I'd never want to work on the truck, only play!

 

[SDmtnbkr]

Absolutely love your rig! Thanks for keeping this thread up, I really loved going through it. You comments have helped me decide two things I was really on the fence of.... I was really leaning towards 295's but was trying to justify the 10lbs/per tire weight increase over 285 Duratracs, for only .4" of total tire, so .2" of additional clearance. From your comments of how noticeable the weight is, I'm definitely going to run the 285's. I'm running Sequoia wheels as well.

The second thing is.... that I'm definitely moving to Colorado after I'm outta school in a few years! Your photos are just stunning! I lived in Littleton for middle school/Freshman year so CO has always been on the mind, but after reading through your thread, I definitely want to move back. This time I'd want to be more in the mountains though.

 

[TBuzz]

Motivated to SELL

Hello 3rd gen people..It’s been fun but have lost interest and it’s got to go. Motivated to sell or trade for something. Could be a stock truck plus cash on my end or yours depending what truck it is. Save someone the time and money to build one. Asking $15,000 as is. Thanks for looking.