Steel City Racing: King of the Hammers 2019 Toyota 4Runner IFS 4600 Build Thread

[Charles4x4]

More good news! Given prior racer comments about using ALL synthetic recovery gear on the rig to keep weight down, I reached out to Bubba Rope a few weeks ago and this morning they agreed to sponsor us. So we're already adding another logo to the wrap as we speak!

We'll be using the Bubba Rope 20' or 30' Power Stretch recovery rope:
https://www.bubbarope.com/jeeps-and-trucks/bubba-rope-30-foot

And also the Bubba Rope Gator-Jay PRO Synthetic Shackles:
https://www.bubbarope.com/gator-jaws-synthetic-shackles/gator-jaw-pro-synthetic-shackle

Thanks again for Bubba Rope for being a part of this build!

 

[Charles4x4]

Our tires and wheels have arrived. As mentioned, we're running 35" Cooper STT Pros on 17" KMC XD222 Enduro Beadlocks. Can't wait to see how this combination performs at KOH.

Cooper STT Pros (Set 1 of 2):

KMC Beadlocks:

 

[WhiteBoomer04]

So excited to get out to The Hammers to cheer you on this coming year.

You mentioned Black Friday deals. I just bought my 40's (Cooper STT's) for my 4th gen from Discount tires. They had a 20% off sale for Cyber Monday. Too good not to grab that deal! Wyatt is doing the full solid axle conversion front and rear for mine, after yours and a few other trucks are out of the way lol.

RST and Otwell - good guys to deal with (as have been all your sponsors!).

Go Team SCR! How about some t-shirts for the supporters? Sell them and get a few bucks back lol (jking) :banana:

 

[Charles4x4]

So excited to get out to The Hammers to cheer you on this coming year.

You mentioned Black Friday deals. I just bought my 40's (Cooper STT's) for my 4th gen from Discount tires. They had a 20% off sale for Cyber Monday. Too good not to grab that deal! Wyatt is doing the full solid axle conversion front and rear for mine, after yours and a few other trucks are out of the way lol.

RST and Otwell - good guys to deal with (as have been all your sponsors!).

Go Team SCR! How about some t-shirts for the supporters? Sell them and get a few bucks back lol (jking) :banana:

SWEET. Can't wait to see your 4Runner on 40s! That's going to be amazing - like The Beast, but in 4Runner form.

We actually just finished our logo and are thinking of making some shirts for the team...

 

[Charles4x4]

And here's our brand new Steel City Racing Logo. We've integrated this into the wrap and may also make a few shirts for the pit crew and team.

 

[Charles4x4]

For Navigation, our team did a ton of research ultimately decided to go with LeadNav. Their software seems to really be taking off and it was nice to see how portable and versatile the setup is.

We'll be using LeadNav's app in conjunction with an iPad Air 2 (64GB Wifi + Cellular) per LeadNav's guidance. We installed a screen protector and put the iPad Air 2 in a LifeProof case for added protection during the race.

We'll use Ram Mounts to secure it to the cage at the A Pillar or Windshield bar for the Co-Driver. We also added the optional SkyPro xGPS160 receive to great boost our GPS signal.

 

[DZNUTS]

I wish someone would make some wider rear overfender setup to match the front


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[Charles4x4]

I wish someone would make some wider rear overfender setup to match the front


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Yeah, I have only see the wider flares from oversees. If we ran them, they'd be torn off pretty quickly so we are just going with stock flares (from salvage doors).

 

[WhiteBoomer04]

I wish someone would make some wider rear overfender setup to match the front


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I've seen a couple 4th gens over the years that cut back some of the metal skin on the rear and glassed flares on/in. Looked sweet but expensive.

 

[DZNUTS]

I wish someone would make some wider rear overfender setup to match the front


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[Charles4x4]

There should be more "fabrication oriented" updates with pics coming next week. In the interim, we took full advantage of Black Friday sale and picked up all of our safety gear and the last few comms items we are going to need.

Pre-Wired Impact Helmets:

Head & Neck Restraints, Alpinestars Gloves, Sand Skirts, Final Comms Cables:

Alpinestars Racing Suits:

Rugged Radios Handheld - One for the Co-Driver when out of the car and one for close-range communication at the pits:

All in compliance with the new Ultra4 Rules and recent changes.

Speaking of the rules, Air Bumps are now allowed in 4600!!! I guess they felt back surgery after races isn't popular for the 4600 class. Thank you Ultra4 and 2018 4600 Drivers for voting Air Bumps in for our class.

 

[Charles4x4]

I'm also excited to announce that we'll be sharing a Crew Chief, Pit Operations, and Pit Location with [MENTION=8568]RustyNailJustin[/MENTION] and Team 4619. Justin has been a huge source of advice and wisdom for me since Day 1 of this build and we're honored to be side-by-side with him and his 4619 team at KOH 2019. We'll be pitting somewhere outside the high-dollar, main pit area.

My co-driver for 4600 is a Professional Firefighter and EMT, so he, Justin, and the Pit Crew will fit like a glove!

Also, while Black Friday was going on, we also snagged a great deal on a Large RV for KOH week through Cruise America:

Probably not the best RV, but certainly the best value we could find for the week by far.

Finally, we locked down our race number for KOH. We'll be car 4602 for 4600 and 4400. I have 2 awesome girls and 2 awesome chocolate labs, so great things seem to come in 2's for me.

 

[Charles4x4]

Brand new pics of our Gen II Front RCV Ultimate IFS Axle Set. We'll be the first 4th Gen 4Runner to run RCV's Gen II axles. The Gen II set has a ton of enhancements over Gen I.

They are massive and rated for 40's with a Lifetime Warranty. RCV was the only choice for our KOH build and we were really excited when they agreed to allow us to run the first production set of Gen II shafts on our 4602 KOH bound IFS 4Runner.

These fit our 4th Gen 4Runner, but also fit Toyota FJ Cruiser ('07-'14), 4th and 5th Gen 4Runners ('03-Present) & Tacoma ('05-Present).

Thank you RCV!

 

[unevolved]

Very cool. What's different about those over the ones currently on their site?

 

[Charles4x4]

Very cool. What's different about those over the ones currently on their site?

Ask and you shall receive . Straight from the Engineers at RCV:

"Gen I Toyota axles had the following attributes:

Spherical Dana 60 sized outer CV joint (grease maintenance required)
Spherical outer CV boot
30 spline Porsche 930 inner CV joint capable of 28 degrees of angle (Dana 44 sized)
Dana 44 sized 30 spline to Dana 60 sized 35 spline 4340 center shaft

Gen II Toyota axles have the following attributes:

Dana 60 sized outer CV joint (no maintenance required)
Traditional CV boots on both ends
Dana 60 sized inner double offset CV joint capable of 30 degrees of angle
Dana 60 sized 35 spline to Dana 60 sized 35 spline 300M center shaft"

 

[WhiteBoomer04]

Dang! Perfect for your setup. arty:

Not sure I'd want to run them on a non-comp rig tho. The nice thing about CV axles that break is it saves the gears in the diff from exploding. I'd rather have a trail fix on CV axles than destruction in the diff carrier. Weakest point wants to be the most accessible in a breakdown situation.

 

[Charles4x4]

Dang! Perfect for your setup. arty:

Not sure I'd want to run them on a non-comp rig tho. The nice thing about CV axles that break is it saves the gears in the diff from exploding. I'd rather have a trail fix on CV axles than destruction in the diff carrier. Weakest point wants to be the most accessible in a breakdown situation.

Thanks. Yes, we actually talked about this a ton with our team. Our impression is that the 8" Diff is stronger than most people think (except in Reverse). The OEM setup weak link is certainly the CVs.

With the RCV D60 Equivalent CVs, the weak link will shift to the 8" Diff, but we believe the Overall Front Axle Strength increased substantially - enough to survive KOH and beyond.

We're hoping for No Weak Link breakage at all going forward . If we're proven wrong at KOH, we'll have to find some way to slip a stronger front diff between the subframes and IFS for future races, which is going to be really tough.

 

[Charles4x4]

Everyone seems to love LeadNav software, but I've had a few questions about the iPad connections. Here's what we are using:

LifeProof Audio Connection (I have to pull hard to get this out):

LeadNav Ruggedized Power Cord:

GPS is connected via Bluetooth. We'll be heat shrinking any connections to these wires. Hopefully these connections will prove strong enough for KOH conditions in testing.

 

[Charles4x4]

Quick update from Marlin Crawler's shop. The front Nitro 4.56 Gears and ARB Air Locker are in!

Buggie of Parts:

Tear-Down Pics:

New Nitro Gears and ARB Air Locker Install:

[MENTION=93846]BigMike[/MENTION] also had the team upgrade us to a Marlin Crawler Solid Spacer for better pinion strength.

More updates coming soon.

 

[Charles4x4]

Update:
1) The Front Diff is Done. This included Nitro 4.56 Gears, Front ARB Air Locker, and other various Marlin Crawler Internal Upgrades:

2) Our Icon 2.5" Front Coilovers (with Remote Reservoir and Adjustments), Front 2.5" Air Bumps/Mounts, 2.5" Diameter 12" Travel Rear Shocks (with Remote Reservoir and Adjustments), and Rear 2.5" Air Bumps/Mounts are in hand:

3) I spoke with LeadNav again and Damian convinced me to spend a bit more and swap from the iPad Air 2 (3 Core A8X Processor) to an iPad Pro 10.5 (4 Core A10X Processor). Otherwise he feared that we would experience Lag or System Reboot issues during the race. So I returned the iPad Air 2 and LifeProof case and picked up a iPad Pro 10.5, LifeProof case, and Screen Protector. We definitely didn't have the budget for a new Pro 10.5, so a refurb will have to work (the one I got had really high reviews and a 90-day warranty).

4) We had another call with our Wrap company - SoCal Exotic Wraps - and finalized all of the details for the design, wrap, logos, etc. It'll take us 2-3 days to complete the wrap the week before KOH.

5) I can't remember if I've already covered this one, but I worked with Aeromotive to eliminate any potential fuel starvation issues by integrating their new Jet Siphon technology from their Apex Phantom kit into our Phantom 200. We'll now have fuel pick-up at the Front and Rear of the fuel cell. I'll be installing this and a ton of other small things when I am in CA in January giving the team a hand.

With 44-Days till KOH, we still feel good about our timeline. Given various delays, we'll likely now only have 1-week or so for testing and tuning before the race. But it will be done and will be ready to race! I've learned that every small delay definitely adds up. It's not ideal, but that's racing!

I'm really thankful that our core team is so close. Many of the key players are also great friends. We all communicate multiple times a day and work together really well to solve issues as a team.

The final handoff to RockSolidToys (Atlas II, Rear Suspension, Driveshafts, and Other Small Items) and Otwell Fabrication (Cage) is now set in stone for this weekend!