Road Bull's 2002 SR-5 timeline.

[Unner]

I want to pick up one of those lithium self jump battery packs to throw in the back just in case.

I also carry one of these everywhere with me. A dead battery in the middle of no where is one of the worst ways to be stuck. I've never used it on the 4Runner, but I've used it on my dad's Tacoma, Mini, and my Supra. Every time it works perfect, and it still shows 100% after using it once. It's so much easier than cables too. It takes no time to hook it up, and there's no chance of someone crossing wires or something if you're trying to help them, or if they're trying to help you.

 

[MattJakobs]

I've had this for just under a year now. I've never needed to jump the runner with it but it's nice to have on camping trips. I have jumped my van more then a few times with it and it worked perfectly each time.

https://www.amazon.com/14000mAh-Portable-Emergency-Flashlight-Protected/dp/B072BLJF49/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514739120&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Beatit%2B600A%2BPeak%2B14000mAh%2B12-Volt%2BPortable%2BCar%2BJump%2Bstarter%2BBooster%2BBattery%2BCharger%2BPower%2BPack%2BVehicle%2BEmergency%2BKit%2C%2BCompass%2B%26%2BBuilt-in%2BLED%2BFlashligh&th=1

I’ve had this in my Amazon cart for a while. There was a TacomaWorld group buy on it a while ago and I haven’t heard any negative reviews on it. Just need to get it ordered before I actually need to use it.

It has been a weird weather year so far. I figure, at this point, anything is possible. Thanks for the compliment on the wheels. I dig em. If I was getting tires at the same time, I might have gone with 17". This opens up a few tire selections that are only available in 17". I don't need to now, but maybe one day I will change over. Yeah, Glue Stick is just a funny little guy. Those spaghetti rear legs and a Hershey Kiss shaped body make him a perfect mascot for photo bombing good pics.

I think I’ll be doing 17s because of more tire sizes. If I keep 16s, I’ll go 285/75/16s again but 17s will make me go 285/75/17, or 34. But that’s gonna be an expensive month with 5 wheels and tires.

We’ve had some weird weather here too. Some 70 degree days, some 30 degree days. No snow yet, minus a little furry here and there.

 

[Road Bull]

Switched to Master Pull synthetic winch line.

Last night a friend and I swapped out my steel cable and roller fairlead for 100 ft. of Master Pull 5/16th Superline, (breaking strength 21,700 lbs). I replaced the fairlead with a Factor 55 1.5" hawse fairlead and a Factor 55 Flatlink Expert shackle thimble.

I think next time I will go with a bit less line and go with a few extensions. This will make fitting it all back on a bit wiser. But we got it all on. I will need to practice my line winding technique to get it all on spooled evenly. The combination of AOR front bumper and Warn m8000 makes for tight quarters for this job. Not that big of a deal though. I just had to remove the four winch mounting bolts to slide the winch back a bit to access the fairlead mounting bolts.

Of note... if you are picking up a Factor 55 fairlead, make sure you have longer bolt hardware as the fairlead eats up a fair bit more threads. I suggest 1.5" as a replacement. This gives you plenty of thread to work with, but doesn't protrude past the face of the fairlead.

 

[Unner]

Last night a friend and I swapped out my steel cable and roller fairlead for 100 ft. of Master Pull 5/16th Superline, (breaking strength 21,700 lbs). I replaced the fairlead with a Factor 55 1.5" hawse fairlead and a Factor 55 Flatlink Expert shackle thimble.

I think next time I will go with a bit less line and go with a few extensions. This will make fitting it all back on a bit wiser. But we got it all on. I will need to practice my line winding technique to get it all on spooled evenly. The combination of AOR front bumper and Warn m8000 makes for tight quarters for this job. Not that big of a deal though. I just had to remove the four winch mounting bolts to slide the winch back a bit to access the fairlead mounting bolts.

Of note... if you are picking up a Factor 55 fairlead, make sure you have longer bolt hardware as the fairlead eats up a fair bit more threads. I suggest 1.5" as a replacement. This gives you plenty of thread to work with, but doesn't protrude past the face of the fairlead.

Looks really good!

I thought the manual for my Smittybilt said to wind steel cable neatly like you did, but to wind synthetic in a criss cross pattern to keep the line from pulling into the inside of the drum when it's under tension. That's how mine is wound, but I don't know if that's the totally correct way, or if that's just how Smittybilt says to do it. Does your Warn say anything about how to wind synthetic?

 

[Road Bull]

Olympic Run 01-14-18

Went back to the Olympics with a 4Runners of Washington FB group. Wow! Talk about a beautiful day! It was warm in the sun, mid 50's. We did a short trail run and did a bit of sight seeing stopping by Wynoochee lake and dam. It was cool to see a dam up close. Brought my special lady friend. Hahaha... We go to the meet location to pick up some sandwiches for lunch, and she finds a orchid plant she has to have. So it came along for the ride.

 

[Road Bull]

Olympic Run 01-14-18 pt. 2 (with better pics not taken by me)

Moar pics!

 

[Road Bull]

Tahuya run 01-15-18 with a GXOR Facebook group.

So after my return from a fun day out in the Olympic Forest, I noticed someone post about a group getting together to hit Tahuya the next day. I have been wanting to get out there for months, but it just never worked out. The last time I missed a big 4Runners of Washington group that headed out because I had just mounted my F5's and they rubbed bad just making turns to park, let alone off-road. So I sat that one out and had been kicking myself in the ass since. But I had gotten up stupid early for me 0615 hrs just to make the early Olympic Run.

So I went to bed and woke up at 0800 and the 1030. I was just scrolling through FB and noticed that some said that they were meeting up at 1300 if I wanted to meet them in Belfair, WA. at the Safeway. Yes. Yes, I did. I was mostly ready to go from not fully unpacking from yesterday's trip. I loaded up and headed down there.

I pulled into the parking lot a few minutes early and noticed quite a few built rigs. Quite a few GX470's. It turns out it was a GXOR FB group meet. They were all cool and had some VERY nice rigs. One of which was rolling 37 inch tires. There was one other 4th gen 4Runner there, so I wasn't the only one. Lol. I just kept singing, "Which of these things is not like the other?"

Oh! It was funny heading from the rally point to the teail head where we briefly needed to sort out directions in a small parking lot... at the Woman's Prison! We got security's attention pretty quickly. Hahahaha.. It looked like we were there for a Jail Break. Cue Thin Lizzy.

We got to the trailhead, aired down and began our run. All the pictures I saw from the last tahuya run had tons of water crossings that looked pretty deep. So i was a bit apprehensive about playing submarine in my DD. As luck would have it it wasn't that bad. The initial obstacles we're fairly impressive compared to anything that I've come across so far in the 4Runner. Lots of off camber turns tight Trail geometry and big whoops. I didn't want to be the weakest link in the group as I was running open diffs. As it turned out I did just fine and never got stuck and had plenty of clearance for all obstacles traversed. I think that was the most fun I had in the 4Runner off-road so far. Parts were challenging but all easily doable. The 4Runner did great!

 

[Road Bull]

Tahuya run 01-15-18 with a GXOR Facebook group. Part 2.

More pics.

 

[Road Bull]

Tahuya run 01-15-18 with a GXOR Facebook group. Part 3.

Ok.. A couple more pics from someone other than me.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Tahuya

Good to finally meet you and I'm glad you had a good time. It's crazy how much Tahuya has changed since I was last there just a few months ago.

 

[MattJakobs]

Pictures look awesome, Ryder. That scenery is like no other. Sometimes it’s nice to just get out and explore instead of doing some hard wheeling.

Man, going with that GX group would’ve been hard for me haha. My pants would’ve been pretty tight and I’d definitely be having thoughts of upgrading...

 

[4Runner4Leon]

I’ve had this in my Amazon cart for a while. There was a TacomaWorld group buy on it a while ago and I haven’t heard any negative reviews on it.

It might have been a fluke, but I bought one of these and it didn't even charge when plugged into a USB charger (which I had to provide, it didn't come with one), so I gave it a 1 star review and returned it.

I bought this one instead, and used it numerous times to jump start vehicles with no issues. It comes with everything you need, including the charger . https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D42TYFC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Road Bull]

Good to finally meet you and I'm glad you had a good time. It's crazy how much Tahuya has changed since I was last there just a few months ago.

Same here. Both your old page, along with Joe's (@GSPRunner) old page wanted to make me get out and see some of the cool things that you guys shared on your pages. What was Tahuya like before? Do they change it that often? I think a lot of pictures people posted on 4Runners of Washington FB page focused on a lot of the places with the most water. Now maybe that was right after some hard rains, but it wasn't too crazy.

Pictures look awesome, Ryder. That scenery is like no other. Sometimes it’s nice to just get out and explore instead of doing some hard wheeling.

Man, going with that GX group would’ve been hard for me haha. My pants would’ve been pretty tight and I’d definitely be having thoughts of upgrading...

Thanks Matt. I agree. The PNWhas a lot to offer. And it's NOT always about seeing how hard you can push it. I mean, it's REALLY NICE out there. It's okay to take it easy and try to take it in. The rig enables you to easily get out there to see what is hard to see from your couch. I will be making a good effort this year to get out a lot more.

It might have been a fluke, but I bought one of these and it didn't even charge when plugged into a USB charger (which I had to provide, it didn't come with one), so I gave it a 1 star review and returned it.

I bought this one instead, and used it numerous times to jump start vehicles with no issues. It comes with everything you need, including the charger . https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D42TYFC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cool! I'll definitely have to look into these a little bit more. They seem like they will come in real handy some rainy day.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Same here. Both your old page, along with Joe's [MENTION=82154]GSPRunner[/MENTION]) old page wanted to make me get out and see some of the cool things that you guys shared on your pages. What was Tahuya like before? Do they change it that often? I think a lot of pictures people posted on 4Runners of Washington FB page focused on a lot of the places with the most water. Now maybe that was right after some hard rains, but it wasn't too crazy.

I just realized I was out there on the 14th of January last year as well, haha... All of those big puddles were frozen over though!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/118613423@N07/albums/72157675586780563


It used to be wayyyy more mild. The entryway with the big mounds of dirt? That was a small staging area- almost totally level.

The "whoops" after the first steep downhill was a gravel road all the way through that rock/concrete section. Basically a gravel road until you got to where those first big puddles were.

The big "lake" area where Jonathan and Brian went through the rock garden used to just be the "lakes" and no rocks.

The last bit of trail we went on to exit was also just a dirt road.

It's cool. Making it have the more challenging obstacles will hopefully attract more folks to head out there. It used to just be a place where Bubba would head out with his buddies to get drunk.

Here's the old staging area (where those huge dirt mounds were now) and my buddy Eric's FJ80 (he was in the white GX, and I think wearing the same hat hahaha). The white Tacoma is Haans @ Adventure Ready here in Seattle.
DSC_0012 by Alex Wilson, on Flickr

And here's [MENTION=82154]GSPRunner[/MENTION]'s 4Runner going through those lakes... No boulders to be seen.
DSC_0106 by Alex Wilson, on Flickr

There are a couple fun hill climbs that we bypassed. Totally doable in your truck, but would have had you grinning for sure. Other than that, we did everything a truck without dual lockers, full armor, or a desire for body damage should have run.

 

[Road Bull]

I just realized I was out there on the 14th of January last year as well, haha... All of those big puddles were frozen over though!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/118613423@N07/albums/72157675586780563


It used to be wayyyy more mild. The entryway with the big mounds of dirt? That was a small staging area- almost totally level.

The "whoops" after the first steep downhill was a gravel road all the way through that rock/concrete section. Basically a gravel road until you got to where those first big puddles were.

The big "lake" area where Jonathan and Brian went through the rock garden used to just be the "lakes" and no rocks.

The last bit of trail we went on to exit was also just a dirt road.

It's cool. Making it have the more challenging obstacles will hopefully attract more folks to head out there. It used to just be a place where Bubba would head out with his buddies to get drunk.

Here's the old staging area (where those huge dirt mounds were now) and my buddy Eric's FJ80 (he was in the white GX, and I think wearing the same hat hahaha). The white Tacoma is Haans @ Adventure Ready here in Seattle.
DSC_0012 by Alex Wilson, on Flickr

And here's [MENTION=82154]GSPRunner[/MENTION]'s 4Runner going through those lakes... No boulders to be seen.
DSC_0106 by Alex Wilson, on Flickr

There are a couple fun hill climbs that we bypassed. Totally doable in your truck, but would have had you grinning for sure. Other than that, we did everything a truck without dual lockers, full armor, or a desire for body damage should have run.

Wow. It does sound like they changed it quite a bit. Good memory. It looked from my vantage point that that first "staging area" whoop was the tallest and most extreme of the transitions with the narrowest apex. I think Jonathan waved the rest of us off that obstical. l Someone put a fair amount of effort into putting that together.

That FJ80 looks sweet. Did Eric get rid of it for the GX? I've always loved the look of those things. I can't say how the feel to drive. I imagine the GX is a world smoother in that respect. I will have to check out Adventure Ready. I haven't heard of them before.

 

[Road Bull]

Oh god dammit...

The P.O. could have been easier on my interior. The cheap door fabric was peeling back ever so slightly. On a trail run, I was standing on my slider looking at something down the trail, slid back down in my seat and grabbed what, I thought, was the door to pull closed. Nope... just the fabric! Sweet. Originally I thought this is just fabric that's stretched around and stapled on the back side but it all kind of looks to be one foamy fabric piece seeming to be glued into place. I've been keeping my eye out for door trim panels that people are parting out.

I went to a cool ARB compressor / locker / tire repair class held at Mule Expedition Outfitter. We talked about the different compressor options and broke them down to their different components. They did the same for their ARB air locker. It was really cool, but just made me want to spend money I don't have... yet...

We also demoed plugging a punctured tire as well as repair damaged air lines on both lockers as well as air compressor lines.

In other news, I think I will need to rethink the issue of covering my winch line to protect it from sun and grime. I had bought some rubber type PVC material, but there is pretty much no room to work it around the spool. So that is sidelined for now.

I have a feeling that my tax return will not sit around long. LOL.

 

[Rancho5]

Sweet rig

Sweet ride! I just traded my 96 f250 with 300,000 for one just like yours (when you started out) with 150,000. I'll be following this thread for ideas for mine.

 

[Road Bull]

Sweet ride! I just traded my 96 f250 with 300,000 for one just like yours (when you started out) with 150,000. I'll be following this thread for ideas for mine.

Thanks man! Congrats on the trade. These are great platforms for tailoring to your needs, or leaving stock for that matter. Although it's more fun to change it up a bit.

Knock out the important maintenance first, then mod to taste.

Important maintenance items:
1.) Genuine OME Lower Ball Joints! (See 3rd gen LBJ failure threads. )
2.) Replace radiator or install a separate transmission cooler. (See pink milkshake threads.)
3.) Other items as time and money allow.

Welcome to T4R man!

 

[theesotericone]

In other news, I think I will need to rethink the issue of covering my winch line to protect it from sun and grime. I had bought some rubber type PVC material, but there is pretty much no room to work it around the spool. So that is sidelined for now.

I have a feeling that my tax return will not sit around long. LOL.

At least your getting a return. I owe. lol

As far as the winch cover goes here's an idea. Pull out five feet of winch line. Tuck the membrane between the spool and the line. Crank the winch in. That should cover the spool. If you get the turns down correctly it should also help hold the membrane in place. It'll leave some exposed but not much.

 

[Road Bull]

At least your getting a return. I owe. lol

As far as the winch cover goes here's an idea. Pull out five feet of winch line. Tuck the membrane between the spool and the line. Crank the winch in. That should cover the spool. If you get the turns down correctly it should also help hold the membrane in place. It'll leave some exposed but not much.

The IRS should at least send a thank you card. LOL.

Not a bad idea with the winch line. I should have opted for less length, and just have ordered an extension to go with. As it is, it's a lot of rope on that spool.