RockyRunner's 2007 Limited Build

[Rocky Runner]

RockyRunner's Build Thread
_________2007 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited_________

Designer, photographer, and a little obsessed with the outdoors...

Most recent photos: July 5th 2019

How it started: December 28th, 2019

Upgrades & Modifications

Suspension:
Dobinsons 2.5" MRR Series Shocks
Dobinsons Front Coils
Dobinsons Rear Coils
SPC Upper Control Arms
SPC Improved Cam Bolts
Durobumps Bumpstops Front & Rear

Wheels & Tires:
Method NV 305 in Matte Black
BFG KM3 (315/70/17)
1.25" G2 Spacers

Armor:
Demello Single Hoop Front Bumper
Custom Rock Sliders

Exterior:
Sherpa Equipment Co. - Princeton Roof Rack (Formerly Rocky Mountain Racks)
Tepui Kukenam Sky 3 Explorer Series RTT
44"ExtremeLED X6S Lightbar
3" ExtremeLED Scene Lights
ARQ 180 Degree Awning
Goal Zero 50w Solar Panel w/ Custom Brackets
Smittybuilt XRC 9500lb Winch with Factor55 Ultrahook

Little Goodies:
Diode Dynamics SL1 LED Bulb Replacement
QYT Mobile Radio w/ 19in Magnet Antenna


Looking forward to keeping track of the truck and share some adventures.

 

[Boort]

RockyMtn_Runner's Build Thread
_________2007 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited_________

Designer, photographer, and a little obsessed with the outdoors...

Most recent photos: February 19th 2019
Upgrades & Modifications


Exterior:
Rocky Mountain Racks Princeton Roof Rack
Tepui Kukenam Sky 3 Explorer Series RTT
38"ExtremeLED X6S Lightbar
3" ExtremeLED Scene Lights
ARQ 180 Degree Awning
Goal Zero 50w Solar Panel w/ Custom Brackets

Have you posted up any details on your Solar Panel and bracket system?
I'd like to see how you integrated it into your rack system and ran the wiring.

Boort

 

[Rocky Runner]

Time for a refresh...

Picked up a 2007 Limited V8 to replace my beloved 3rd gen. Our business has started to involve a bit of commuting so I decided to find something that was a little more "comfortable" yet still as capable. I was planning on switching to a Tacoma, but when a family member found an incredibly well priced V8 4th gen I couldn't say no.

But there was one little issue...

The truck had received a few hail dents in its past, and when the PDR guys were told to stop work on it, they just threw all the parts in the back. So the truck was pretty much disassembled but had all of the parts. The only thing that was actually missing was the front bumper. Knowing I would be replacing it anyways, I walked away with the truck.

I spent the whole night making progress on the truck and was surprised at how fast it went.

Old and New Together:

 

[Rocky Runner]

Roof Rack Install

Being that I own a roof rack company, Rocky Mountain Racks (Now Sherpa Equipment Co.), it seemed fitting that it would be my first addition to the truck.

I am sure I will have a few too many roof rack related posts on this thread... I should go ahead and apologize now.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Suspension Goodies

It wasn't too long after that I started to collect all of the suspension components.

Decided to go with the Dobinsons 2.5" MRR Series Coilovers and Extended Travel Rear Shocks/Springs.

Then picked up the SPC upper control arms. The guys over at SPC really know what they are doing when it comes to these arms. Couldn't be more excited to be running them. They will be a big part of being able to run the tire and wheel setup planned for the truck.

 

[MrSeth]

Dude, that thing is GNARLY. I see you've wheeled with Alex (flemster), we gotta wheel sometime this summer!!!!

 

[Rocky Runner]

The next week was a double whammy... the tires, wheels, and tent all showed up at the same time.

Finally got my hands on a set of BFG KM3's and [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] finally talked me into a set of 315/70/17. I also snagged a set of Method NV's from 4WP during one of their sales. Even got the chance to learn how to mount and balance my own tires.

New home away from home... Tepui Kukenam 3-Man

 

[Rocky Runner]

Install Day

It was finally time to get everything on the truck.

Knowing how much trimming was ahead, first we started by pulling the whole front end apart and removing the flares. This really sped things up and gave us more room to work.

We then pulled all of the old suspension out of the truck and removed the stock upper control arms. Once that was done we setup the new SPC uppers and got them installed. Now that we had the new arms in we could put the tires on and cycle them to find where they would rub. We even had a little supervision from [MENTION=7992]Ripcord[/MENTION] himself.

The problems:
It quickly became clear that I had ordered wheels with the wrong backspacing and in hindsight I wouldn't have ordered 4.75 backspaced wheels. When we went to adjust the lower control arm for the higher amount of caster, we noticed that the lower cam bolts were actually seized up as well. I decided that was a battle I would have to fight another day.

Up first was the body mount chop. We opted to go with a more aggressive cut but it should clean up nicely once I can get around to plating it. We then cut a little bit of the bottom corner of the flares. I am sure I will have to trim these quiet a bit more now with the added spacers.

Once we had it all cut, we installed the new Dobinsons coilovers. Man oh man was it a pain in the but to mount the resi's in a place that the tires could not get to. We havent totally tested it yet but we were able to fit them in the small cavity at the front of the fender. On the passenger side this location houses the washer fluid bottle.

Once I have figured out if this works I will do a more intensive write up on fitting these wheels and tires.

The next day I picked up a set of 1.25" hubcentric spacers to solve the control arm clearance issue. We also got the rear suspension installed pretty quickly after we picked up a coil spring compressor. It was great getting to see the truck finally come together and flex a little on the jack stand. We couldn't get too crazy without bump stop extensions and extended brake lines.

I then rushed the truck off to get an alignment from one of our buddies. Got a bit of bad news instead. On top of the cam bolt being seized, the tie rod inner and outers were also seized. Our buddy made a few calls and some how managed to get a parts order in just in time to get the parts delivered by early the next morning. We threw them in really quick and got the alignment squared away.

I can't thank all of my buddies enough for helping me get all of this stuff on the truck so quickly! I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Dude, that thing is GNARLY. I see you've wheeled with Alex (flemster), we gotta wheel sometime this summer!!!!

Yeah we spend a little too much time together these days now that we own a business together. We are always looking for an excuse to get out in the mountains.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Have you posted up any details on your Solar Panel and bracket system?
I'd like to see how you integrated it into your rack system and ran the wiring.

Boort

I don't have a picture of it on this truck just yet. All I had to do to get it to mount up to our racks was drill a couple of holes in a piece of angle and then bolt it down with carriage bolts. I am currently working on a better bracket that allows these to sit level with the tops of our crossbars.

As for wiring I typically ran it down into the B pillar and back to the Goal Zero inside the car. I left it this way because I liked the idea of quickly being able to detach the panel if needed and point it in the proper direction.

 

[momo.75]

Looking good Will!

 

[foldinglemon]

Did you do the rest of the dent removal yourself or left it as is? Ours, unfortunately, looks like a golfball from a hail storm a year or two ago.. Yours is looking great though!

 

[Rocky Runner]

Did you do the rest of the dent removal yourself or left it as is? Ours, unfortunately, looks like a golfball from a hail storm a year or two ago.. Yours is looking great though!

From what I can tell the PDR people must have worked out the majority of them before getting to the more "expensive" hard to reach ones. I think they told the insurance it was going to cost more money and they told them to just send it off to auction. There are only about 4-5 dents left on the truck and as a whole it looks pretty clean.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Updates

Well i've been slacking off on updates for quite some time now. Soooo here we go.

The last couple of months have been spent getting the truck ready before its first big shake down run. There has been a fair amount of trimming left to get the tires clearing when off road. It's been a long process of flex, mark, cut, and repeat.

The main issue has been the rear plastics. I needed to take about another 3/4" out of the rear bumper and trim inside the top of the fender. I am planning on solving this with some bump stop extensions so I didn't cut anything that was metal.

I also picked up a set of sliders from a local shop, Flat Irons Fabrication. He isn't making sliders anymore and I happened to pick up his last set. The next day I took the time to wipe them down and get them painted up. I went with 2 coats of Rustoleum Self-Etching Primer and then 3 coats of their textured bedliner. I have to say I am quite satisfied with the finish and quality all around.

The following weekend I roped [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] into helping me actually get them on the truck. He's been killing it with the welder and did a great job getting these buttoned up for me. I decided to go without any angle on the sliders as I use them quite often to get to the things on my roof and wanted as much surface area for standing as possible. I am not totally worried about clearance as I plan to be sliding around on these bad boys anyways.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Bumper

A few weeks later my Demello bumper finally showed up. While many speak highly of the company, I couldn't be more disappointed in the customer service that I received. My 4-5 week estimated lead time quickly turned into 16 weeks. I do understand that things happen and sometimes things run over, but a company should at least care to have a dialog with their customer as to why their order is so late.

With all that being said... The bumper is actually really nice. It is clear that they make a quality product. We were about a week out from our first trip so we tried to rush getting the bumper powder coated but it couldn't be done. I opted to just throw the bumper on the night before the trip and run it bare steel. Little did I know I would fall in love with the silver color and opt to have it paint matched later.

 

[Rocky Runner]

Trip Report: Easter Weekend

Finally the first trip with the new truck since the build started. [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] and I have been looking for an excuse to get away from the shop for a while now. One of our first customers decided to share his secret spot with us and a few of our friends. The first camp spot of the year was located along the Arkansas river and it didn't disappoint. [MENTION=57546]4-Ripcord[/MENTION] also tagged along and we got the chance to see his new camper in action.

Selecting a trail for the weekend proved to be difficult as there weren't a whole lot of options in the area for a group of nine rigs. We opted to run a quick loop on Chinaman's and it didn't disappoint. I was a bit worried about how the truck would perform without anything other than ATRAC. It handled everything like a champ and pretty much rolled through most of it with the 35's. The torque and power of the V8 took a little getting used to when crawling up obstacles. I was certainly happy to have the sliders as they got quite a bit of use on this trial.

Couple of shots by [MENTION=57546]4-Ripcord[/MENTION]

A few more by [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION]

After that we said goodbye to a few rigs and made our way back to camp for the night. Came across this old bridge and couldn't resist stopping for a picture in the water crossing.

The next day we made our way back to the Denver area but couldn't help but make a quick stop on an old backroad to enjoy what we thought would be the last of the Colorado winter.

[MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] knows how to capture the V8 where it shines.

 

[Formidable]

Killer build and stunning pics. The man has skills.

Trip Report: Easter Weekend

Finally the first trip with the new truck since the build started. [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] and I have been looking for an excuse to get away from the shop for a while now. One of our first customers decided to share his secret spot with us and a few of our friends. The first camp spot of the year was located along the Arkansas river and it didn't disappoint. [MENTION=57546]4-Ripcord[/MENTION] also tagged along and we got the chance to see his new camper in action.

Selecting a trail for the weekend proved to be difficult as there weren't a whole lot of options in the area for a group of nine rigs. We opted to run a quick loop on Chinaman's and it didn't disappoint. I was a bit worried about how the truck would perform without anything other than ATRAC. It handled everything like a champ and pretty much rolled through most of it with the 35's. The torque and power of the V8 took a little getting used to when crawling up obstacles. I was certainly happy to have the sliders as they got quite a bit of use on this trial.

Couple of shots by [MENTION=57546]4-Ripcord[/MENTION]

A few more by [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION]

After that we said goodbye to a few rigs and made our way back to camp for the night. Came across this old bridge and couldn't resist stopping for a picture in the water crossing.

The next day we made our way back to the Denver area but couldn't help but make a quick stop on an old backroad to enjoy what we thought would be the last of the Colorado winter.

[MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] knows how to capture the V8 where it shines.

 

[Flemster]

FINALLY!!! Killer job documenting everything so far. Putting my build thread pics to shame.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Nice truck, nice pictures.

Be mindful of that rear axle, 35's don't play nicely with the stock gears. I've seen it more times than not on the forum when moving to 34's or 35's and taking them on hard trails, R&P grenades; my brother's and mine included. And no we don't wheel like crazy people. Nothing a solid pinion spacer won't remedy.

I'm jealous you made it through Chinaman's. When I was there I blew a CV boot and turned around. Then a jeep guy drove by asking what the issue was; 'stupid IFS problems'.

 

[momo.75]

Awesome pics! When everything calms down i want to get out and get some better pics.