What did you do to/in your 5th Gen today?!

[Titanpat57]

Went out for some air...

 

[TOY2G]

Removed my old turn signals (nice looking but lacking in quality) and replaced them with some higher quality dual LED

The triangle ones have gone out on me a few times, due inpart to the 28 gauge wire they use.

So now I have these.

Old (nicer looking IMO) lights, before swap for reference.

 

[kaditron]

just a quick LED swap on the puddle lamps.

 

[JayceeP]

just a quick LED swap on the puddle lamps.

What antenna is that and how does it perform? Nice LEDs too.

 

[duketrader]

Certainly not as cool as F1scher's the storage system right above, but I leveled the rear floor with a basic platform. It's basic, bit it will serve its function for camping back there.

Any way I can see some more pics? Specifically, how level the platform is with the ramp-hump that connects the floor to the folded down back seats. Also, can you share measurements? I have tried to build the exact same thing and have failed every time.

 

[DesertDog]

Any way I can see some more pics? Specifically, how level the platform is with the ramp-hump that connects the floor to the folded down back seats. Also, can you share measurements? I have tried to build the exact same thing and have failed every time.

It is nearly perfectly level with the ramp-hump. We put out sleeping bags/pads back there, and it worked really well. I'll see if I can take more pictures today, but got lots of things going on.

I was inspired by boulderER in this thread. I made a few adjustments to the measurements on mine to adjust for my Husky cargo liner, which I figured I wanted to keep in place at all times.

I used 15/32" plywood 4' x 4' shelving, cut to 42.25" x 40". I mounted the cut board onto 2" x 2" x 36"mitered baluster posts (the angle is nice for dealing with mounting tight to the ramp/hump). You need to lay out and find exactly where you want to mount the posts, as I don't have specific measurements, I just marked what worked. I used 8 6 x 1 3/4" inch wood screws to mount the posts.

I used precut cheap indoor/outdoor carpeting (not available in black, so I bought tan to try to match the Husky liner and the other half of the interior), mounted with double sided tape and staples. The project ended up costing about $55.

 

[AZrunner11]

A wash and wax after hitting the trails at the Great Smokey Mountain Trail Ride.

 

[kaditron]

What antenna is that and how does it perform? Nice LEDs too.

Thanks man! Well its just a little antenna that looks like a bullet, tapped to an FM booster.

 

[3wbdriver]

[MENTION=105481]3wbdriver[/MENTION], please report on how Canyons is. I've never been to that off road park, but would go if it's cool. Looks like you had a good time today. Hill Country drives are very nice. It's really an unknown part of Texas to people from out of state.

Lots of fun. I only have Barnwell Mountain Rec area to compare to from the Jamboree a couple weeks ago. I still haven't made it to Hidden Falls yet. Canyons is 400 acres, mostly up and down or narrow trails through the bottoms. Rocks everywhere. Pretty technical, very low speed. Your setup will do better than mine and I was still able to do 90% of what the group ran Saturday. I even tried out the CRAWL function a couple times. That is a really nice function if you feel like you're in over your head. I have already figured out the Nfab steps have to go and I need to start looking at sliders if I'm going to keep doing these parks. I dinged the steps a couple times getting over obstacles and got a scuff on the rear bumper cap. I did opt out of a couple obstacles that just looked a little over my or the 4Runners capability, but I am new-ish to this too. I was the only 4Runner in the group. There were 2 FJ's, 2 80 series Land Cruisers (old warriors), and one Jeep Unlimited there also. The more experienced people in the group really seemed to enjoy the change from Hidden Falls.

 

[KCcarguy]

I fab'd a new hood hinge CB antenna mount yesterday. My old one was too flimsy and this one is much beefier (1/8' steel). I got to use a plasma cutter....which felt very manly, lol.

 

[cbielat]

Steering Vibration Gone?

Over the past few weeks I've had some steering vibration after a day of wheeling. Nothing new. Stopped into a Toyota service center for another wheel balance and alignment. They didn't do a thing and were happy to take my $140. Over this past weekend I had cleaned out my brake calipers and wiped off the pads and removed some gunk and greased both drive lines. Waxed and torqued my wheels from 85 to 95 ft lbs. Vibration has vanished and I'm hoping I didn't speak too soon. Any thoughts about this?

 

[STX4Runner]

Lots of fun. I only have Barnwell Mountain Rec area to compare to from the Jamboree a couple weeks ago. I still haven't made it to Hidden Falls yet. Canyons is 400 acres, mostly up and down or narrow trails through the bottoms. Rocks everywhere. Pretty technical, very low speed. Your setup will do better than mine and I was still able to do 90% of what the group ran Saturday. I even tried out the CRAWL function a couple times. That is a really nice function if you feel like you're in over your head. I have already figured out the Nfab steps have to go and I need to start looking at sliders if I'm going to keep doing these parks. I dinged the steps a couple times getting over obstacles and got a scuff on the rear bumper cap. I did opt out of a couple obstacles that just looked a little over my or the 4Runners capability, but I am new-ish to this too. I was the only 4Runner in the group. There were 2 FJ's, 2 80 series Land Cruisers (old warriors), and one Jeep Unlimited there also. The more experienced people in the group really seemed to enjoy the change from Hidden Falls.

Looks like a good place. Hidden Falls is fun too. It's big (about 2,300 acres) and has a wide variety of trails, but I will have to check out Canyons soon. I hope your go pro attached to the side of your rear bumper survived those tight trails!

 

[ScoutDog]

Steering Vibration at 60 MPH

Over the past few weeks I've had some steering vibration after a day of wheeling. Nothing new. Stopped into a Toyota service center for another wheel balance and alignment. They didn't do a thing and were happy to take my $140. Over this past weekend I had cleaned out my brake calipers and wiped off the pads and removed some gunk and greased both drive lines. Waxed and torqued my wheels from 85 to 95 ft lbs. Vibration has vanished and I'm hoping I didn't speak too soon. Any thoughts about this?

IMO, It's a design defect that Toyota can't seem to correct in their T4Rs. My 2011 is bone stock OEM and it's had that 60 mph shake since I have had it. It's very pronounced on worn roads which have studded tire wear. New roads seem to lessen the shaking, but it's still there at around 60 mph. The dealer has blamed tires, wheels, alignment but it's still there at around 60 mph. I believe it's some sort of harmonic affect in the front end design of the T4Rs. It's the only annoyance I have with my T4R. One shop said they might toe in or out the tires to stop the shaking, but that would eat up the tires premature. Hopefully, someone will come up with the silver bullet to fix the 60 mph shake.

 

[3wbdriver]

I hope your go pro attached to the side of your rear bumper survived those tight trails!

Lol. Funny you should point that out. It got knocked off before we had gone 100 yards down the first trail. I stopped and remounted it in the same place and set my dr side mirror to watch it. In fact I set both side mirrors to watch the rear tires. The trails were that narrow in places that I wanted to make sure I wasn't abusing the sidewalls. The camera was folded back at one point so I was recording the side of the trail for a few feet. But otherwise it weathered the rest of the day fine. Some of the videos show just how close it came a couple times, and the thumbscrew below the camera actually dragged coming down one slope. I won't be able to post videos for a couple weeks yet. I'm back on the rig and their bandwidth is too choked up to try too upload from here.

I really don't know how I managed to coat the entire wheel area with mud. There wasn't much mud there to speak of....

 

[RasJeff]

Hit 50K on the way up 101 to SF for work today. :rockon:

 

[Jono.ful]

those LCA's are sexy

those LCA's are heavy! had to use a jack to lift them in today. both stock LCA's together weigh about what one of TC units does

got my radflo c/o's and of course the Total Chaos LCA's bolted up today. the sway bar relocated bracket is garbage though, none of the holes lined up properly, and it eventually got to the point where it was easier to delete the sway bar entirely than modify the brackets. driving without the front sway bar is definitely interesting. the local club has a 3 day trip to the mountains coming up, should make for a good evaluation.

 

[adam2562]

IMO, It's a design defect that Toyota can't seem to correct in their T4Rs. My 2011 is bone stock OEM and it's had that 60 mph shake since I have had it. It's very pronounced on worn roads which have studded tire wear. New roads seem to lessen the shaking, but it's still there at around 60 mph. The dealer has blamed tires, wheels, alignment but it's still there at around 60 mph. I believe it's some sort of harmonic affect in the front end design of the T4Rs. It's the only annoyance I have with my T4R. One shop said they might toe in or out the tires to stop the shaking, but that would eat up the tires premature. Hopefully, someone will come up with the silver bullet to fix the 60 mph shake.

I dunno if it's cause I was on duratracs and now put my oem rims n tires on for a road trip but I feel like I'm riding on clouds.. I've also added a diff drop kit.. those r my only 2 factors that I'd contribute to it riding better if I had to point at something

 

[joneseyyy]

Couple pics from this weekend. Check the blog for the complete writeup.

 

[AirspeedX]

those LCA's are heavy! had to use a jack to lift them in today. both stock LCA's together weigh about what one of TC units does

got my radflo c/o's and of course the Total Chaos LCA's bolted up today. the sway bar relocated bracket is garbage though, none of the holes lined up properly, and it eventually got to the point where it was easier to delete the sway bar entirely than modify the brackets. driving without the front sway bar is definitely interesting. the local club has a 3 day trip to the mountains coming up, should make for a good evaluation.

Nice!! Where did you pick up those LCA's Jono?

 

[mfregeau20]

Ordered my Canvasback for my T4R today.

Thanks to [MENTION=6163]phillyd2[/MENTION] for having it in his build thread, can't wait.