qrohlf's 2000 SR5 Natural White (aka "Bear") build thread

[qrohlf]

I spend 3-4 months per year on the road, living out of my vehicle and rock climbing. Planning to build this out as a function-focused rig optimized for use as a portable base camp.

The story so far:
- Purchased rust-free at 168k miles in Astoria, OR
- Taco antenna mod
- Installed Sony XAV-AX1000 CarPlay head unit
- New set of BFG KO2 265/75/R16 tires
- Minor fixes to solve some codes and annoyances (new throttle position sensor, O2 sensor re-grounding, AC flush)
- Tundra Brake Upgrade (199mm Caliper)
- Lifted (OME 880/906 + Bilstien 5100)
- LBJ replacement
- Radiator replacement (just in case)
- Killed the door dinger
- Sherpa Adventure Co roof rack with custom end caps
- Yakima Skyrise roof top tent with custom mounts
- Rear slide-out kitchen build (detail thread)

Upcoming projects:
- Locking hatch struts and a custom around-the hatch awning

Pics:

 

[Green Link]

Great looking 4runner! Keep us in the loop!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[apohl17]

Ah, the Iceberg's twin. A lot cleaner than my Natty White '00 SR5 when I bought it! Can't wait to see what you do with the build and see where your runner takes you. Welcome :cheers:

 

[qrohlf]

Just got back from a long trip to the west coast, with stops in Portland OR and Squamish BC. Was camping out of the rig for a total of 1 month, 10 days.

Rig did great, but I had a day where I didn't fully screw in the drain plug on my cooler and over the course of a day a bunch of ice-water dumped into the cargo area. It pooled on my cargo mat and I sopped it up with my towel and kept on trucking. Unfortunately, I had cut a slit in my weathertech mat previously in order to fit the cargo area d-rings through it; this led to about a half liter of water dripping through the slit and soaking into the carpet and carpet underlayment. Mildewish smells a few days later let me know something was wrong.

Instead of trying to shampoo the carpet/underlayment, which was pretty far gone, I picked up a couple of rolls of Dynapad soundproofing pad (advertised as waterproof & mildew-resistant), dried everything out thoroughly, pulled the stitches to separate the seat-back carpets from the cargo area carpeting, and replaced all of my cargo carpeting with the Dynapad 1/2" foam/butyl mat, with a new hole-less weathertech mat going in on top:

Also replaced the cheap rubber flat gasket in my yeti cooler with a proper o-ring. I feel like I'm fairly future-proof against this situation happening again. The cooler fix should substantially reduce the probability of leaks, the new un-slit weathertech mat should contain spills to above the mat, and the waterproof dynapad should avoid any mildew or similar damage if I do end up with water in the base layer of my cargo area again in the future.

 

[qrohlf]

199mm Tundra Brake Upgrade went in today. All the part numbers are in my research thread. Here's the accounting:

- Calipers (NAPA A1 Cardone black powdercoated remans) - $195.18 for the pair
- Rotors (Toyota OEM) - $126 for the pair
- Pads (Toyota OEM) - $58.24 for the pair
- Shim Kit (Toyota OEM) - $18.75 for the pair
- Brake Fluid (Valvoline 3/4) - $7.99 for 32 oz

All-in parts cost: $406. It would have been nearly $100 cheaper if I could have gotten the same calipers from Rock Auto, but unfortunately they no longer ship to Boulder for tax reasons. Bummer.

Install went smoothly. A breaker bar would have been super helpful for loosening the old caliper bolts, but I made it work with a ratchet. I did end up grinding down my dust shields very slightly in one spot in order to fix some rubbing with the new rotors, not sure what the deal was with that. I had a dremel on-hand so it wasn't an issue.

Braking felt solid and precise during my test drive/bed-in, we'll see if the shimmy is gone the next time I'm coming down from the mountains.

 

[qrohlf]

OME 880/906 lift on Bilstein 5100s went in yesterday and has made a world of difference in how this thing drives.

Didn't have the tools or the time to do it myself so I let Slee Offroad in Golden take care of it, money very well spent. They exclusively work on 4Runners and Land Cruisers all day every day. Not a paid advertisement of any kind, they just were a pleasure to do business with and if anyone here needs suspension work done on the front range, I'd recommend them.

Also did the LBJs, so that's nice peace of mind since I believe mine were OEM at 180k miles.

Will post a few pics and hub-to-fender measurements with the new setup soon.

 

[qrohlf]

Been steadily getting this thing ready for a couple months of life on the road this winter (Indian Creek for Creeksgiving, then down to Mexico to climb in El Potrero Chico until the end of Jan!)

The biggest new addition is a roof top tent. I was able to pick up a discontinued-model Yakima SkyRise tent for about $770. This is my "solve for stopover" - most of the time living out of the rig, I'm base-camped in a nice comfy ground tent for 2-4 weeks at a time, but the RTT is going to come in super handy for 1-2 night stopovers while I'm on the move.

The Yakima mounting hardware was both over-engineered and didn't seem like it would hold up (way too much plastic and too many failure points). Instead, I direct-mounted the tent to a set of Sherpa Equipment Co. heavy-duty crossbars for a really clean, low-profile mount. Will post pics when my film gets back from the lab.

I also killed the door dinger today, which is almost definitely the single best ratio of time/money to quality-of-life improvement I've achieved with a mod to the truck.

Next project in the pipeline is a slide-out kitchen that I'm building around a 22" Partner Steel stove.

 

[Vansnxtweek]

Super clean 4Runner man, I love the white! Love what you're doing with it.

I have to ask, do you leave your doors open often or something? Curious why you'd want to kill the dinger. It does get on my nerves as well, but I don't leave the door open with the key in often.

Excited to see what else is in store.

 

[qrohlf]

I like to leave the radio on (key in ACC position) sometimes when I’m shuffling gear or cooking out of the back, and the door dinger was super annoying. Now I can run the radio and use the doors without getting dinged at constantly.

 

[qrohlf]

Quick pic from a recent camping trip. Custom RTT mounts are doing great.

 

[qrohlf]

Kitchen drawers build was completed a couple weeks ago, and I've already done about a week of camping with it, in Escalante Canyon and Indian Creek. So far, I'm super happy with how it turned out, it's made food prep dramatically more efficient, with zero gear shuffling required to start cooking!

I've got a ton more photos and details about the kitchen build in this thread: Super clean cook drawer build

 

[Rallysport]

Nice real world jack of all trades build

 

[qrohlf]

Been hanging around northeastern Mexico for the past two months on a rock climbing trip, here are a couple photos for your enjoyment! (climber in the picture isn't me)

I'm posting on Instagram semi-regularly, give it a follow you want to see more stuff like this.

 

[danwyl]

Is that El Potrero Chico? Looks like some really cool rock out there!

 

[qrohlf]

Yep, it's Potrero! Headed out to El Salto soon, will be posting more pictures on IG!

 

[levee-11]

Quick pic from a recent camping trip. Custom RTT mounts are doing great.

Nice, I really like the look of the 4Runner with those tires. Do you have any rubbing with them?

 

[Fishwerks]

Awesome photos dude. Looks like the truck takes you to some good places.

 

[qrohlf]

[MENTION=78892]Fishwerks[/MENTION] - The tires are 65/75/R16 KO2s, haven't had the opportunity to test at full flex since the lift went in but I haven't encountered any rubbing. They're not really that much bigger than stock, the tread pattern is just kinda chunky; they look more aggressive than the diameter would suggest!

 

[qrohlf]

Back in Colorado for a quick pit stop. Ditched the RTT in favor of a more USA-friendly setup: sleeping platform inside and a big cargo box up top for all the mountaineering gear I'll need to haul for spring adventures. Getting the timing belt replaced this week, then it'll be off to Indian Creek for some desert climbing.

 

[qrohlf]

Been seeing a P0420 code on and off so I replaced the rear O2 sensor.

Spent the better part of 2 hours trying to get the previous (original) sensor off, then gave up and the local shop guys took care of it in 15 minutes for 30 bucks. Lesson learned.

Front sensor appears to have been replaced at least once, so we'll see if just doing the rear solves the issue. I am curious to see if replacing the front would improve my MPG, though - I have no idea how old it currently is.