A Guy A Girl and a Trail: Adventures in a 4Runner Limited

Hiking in the snow on July 23rd

 

This goat followed us around for a while waiting for us to pee on stuff. They want you to pee on rocks so they lick it up.










Spot the marmot

 

Wow, I wish I could have a breath of that air!! Are you a real “agent” like FBI or somethin?

 

The problem is there's not much air available up that high when you try to take that breath lol.

No I'm not an FBI agent but that has kind of been a running joke. I work in quality testing and development of preproduction and prototype vehicles and technology for the luxury and exotic lines of a specific auto group. Given the nature of the job, every aspect of everything I do is secret. With the non discloure and confidentiality agreements legally I can't tell people what exactly I do, where I do it, or who I do it for, then add in very extensive work travel and serial numbered tamper-proof stickers blocking the cameras on my phone, and people are convinced I'm a secret agent of some kind. That's where the Agent comes from, the outside part is obvious... I love the outdoors and I spend as much time as I can there. Agent_Outside started as a name for Instagram, from there I've started using it more places.

 

Like don’t show anybody pictures of a new Z28 so they sell more six-cylinders?

 

Ask me again 4 years after I leave my job lol. That’s when I’m allowed to discuss things because at that point everything I’ve been involved with will have been unveiled to the public.

 

Great thread Agent!

Many buy a 4Runner with the intention of doing exactly what you're doing...but end up crawling the mall instead. Good to see you're able to get out there! Nice that you can add some biking and kids activities as well.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

 

https://youtu.be/ifXRQ-jtDHQ

 

Awesome!
Little dude is about ready for an upgrade. Going so fast he even had some head shake. I foresee a mountain bike under the tree for him this year.

 

Yeah he’s about ready for an upgrade. He’s got the balance down time to learn to pedal.

 

I decided to beef up the wiring for the circuit that will power the fridge, this is from the fuse in power distribution module to the plug and play connector for the circuit.


Running the wiring to the back.




Now to figure out how I want to wire it- hardwire it with a connector, or install a 12v power outlet, and either way where should I put it when I have the JBl system. I do want the fridge on that side because that’s the side with the child seat, meaning we never fold that side seat down flat.

And since I was working in the engine bay for the first time ever I cleaned the engine bay a bit. Just sprayed it down with foamy engine cleaner and then rinsed it with water.

 

Running wiring and planning out a slide mount.


I only have 3 rivnuts on hands so I had to order more but here's the plan. I made a cut a board out of 1/2" birch plywood and shaped it slightly to fit snug up against the passenger side trim. I'm going to put 2 or 3 rivnuts in that crossbar to mount th front of the board. I verified its open under neight the bod so I'll put 2 or 3 more in the back along with metal spacers. I'll cut out holes in the styrofoam layer for the spacer to pass through. I cut the insulation off the underside of the trunk carpet where the board will sit to reduce the height a little bit. Right now I'm still waiting on the fridge slide to continue, its held up being shipped out of FL because of hurricane Dorian causing problems. Once the board is mounted I'll line up the slide to have it as far forward and the side as I can without anything hitting anything. When the mounting is figured out I'm going to use pronged t nuts inder the board to mount the slide from the top. I'd trim down the board as much as possible then Bedliner the whole board to keep it protected and waterproof. With this setup when I take it out for ski season its 4 quick bolts to remove the side and no other hassle.

It should right about here, it'll still clear the privacy cover.




I got the wiring almost buttoned up yesterday. Its ran, it's grounded, and I put some temporary terminals on it to just to turn it on so I could verify the wiring. Dometic has a hardware socket kit thats 25 feet of 10 gauge wire, seeing as I'm running one of the smaller fridges and my run of wire is only about 17 feet or so I opted to go with 12 awg. the temporary hook up was to verify the wire is gauged ok to not impede function. As the fridge compressor starts the max voltage drop on startup is right around .28 volts, that'll work fine. 0.0 is ideal but not worth running like 6 or 8 awg. The performance will be just fine, the one potential concern is the battery protection could kick in earlier if it thinks the battery is lower than it is because of a voltage drop. But, I have everything aftermarket running through a low voltage disconnect right at the second battery so I don't need to utilize the fridges internal battery protection.

I realize I didn't take many pictures, I'll try to grab a few more today, especially if I finish up the wiring.

 

Not at all a hidden gem. In fact it’s seen so much foot traffic you can’t just go anymore. Your required to go to the town, pay for a permit to hike it, and get shuttles in and out from there.

 

I went out of town for a few days and then got sick. Today I finished up the car side wiring. Still waiting for the slide to move forward from here. It should get delivered Thursday, we’ll see how much I can get done before I go back out of town again.

 

This is mostly for my own future reference since I just bought service parts again.

Differential Service Parts (front diff, rear diff, and transfer case)
6 - 75W90 GL-5 quart
1 - 90430-24003
2 - 90430-A0003
3 - 12157-10010


Trans Service (drain and fill)
2 - 35178-30010
5 - Toyota WS Trans Fluid

 

https://youtu.be/ha4L7yUlTdk

 

I got the fridge install finished.

I was kinda planning out the space. I didnt have enough rivnuts on hand so I had to order more but this was the gist of it. I wanted to to do 3 rivnuts along the brace and 2 towards the back with spacers.


Rivnuts installed


I cut off the insulation from the underside of the carpet where the board would sit to give it a more solid surface on the hard foam under the carpet and bring the overall height down a hair.


I countersank the 5 holes to mount the board the to the floor of the body so it sits flat and flush and for the side to attached I used pronged t nuts that were glued and hammered in. Then I coated the board with black primer/sealer scuffed it up and hit it with 4 coats of bedliner.


I cut holes in the thick foam for the spacers to slide in, then I cut small holes in the trunk carpet for the bolts to pass through and I cut out a section of the Canvas Back liner so it can just be permanently sandwiched in there and mounted up the board. Its super solid, it doesn't flex or move.


From there I bolted up the DFG Offroad slide.



I checked to see how long I'd need the wiring before cutting the 12v plug off and installing an Anderson SB50 connection.


When I was planning everything I was measured known dimensions out with a tape measure and made some assumptions about the unknowns and it was going to be to close to tell if it would fit with the privacy cover or not. I'm happy to say it all came together exactly how I had hoped.
You can retract the cover and the fridge can be opened and closed as it sits. With the cover in place, it can be slid right out and opened.



https://youtu.be/ww_coqVU87g

 

We already got to put the fridge to good use tailgating for the Chicago Bears visit to Denver, they pulled off a win in a thriller.



It's so nice having always the perfect temperature drinks ready to go.

 

Royal Arch, minutes from downtown Boulder

 

Valmont Bike Park

 

It was time for brakes on the 4runner.

I live in the Colorado mountains, I have some extra weight and bigger tires on the 4Runner, plus I tow from time to time. My brakes don’t have it easy so it was logical to look for an upgrade over stock, especially given the cost of stock pads and rotors. When it comes to parts I always buy OEM or I upgrade. I started researching and decided to go with the Powerstop Z36 brake upgrade. Powerstop recommends that kit for a vehicle with larger than stock tires, added weight, or for towing at least once a year. It's a pretty complete package - pads, rotors, and hardware and on forums and facebook groups, I was seeing a lot of positive reviews and recommendations for it. I also decided to replace the stainless steel brake lines with the kit from Goodridge. A reputable brand, even Tirerack sells them, and their kit was actually for 6 lines, 1 per wheel and the 2 flex lines from the body to rear axle housing. I got high-quality DOT4 fluid and I was good to go.

Everything ready to go.


I thought I'd start with the stainless steel lines first. I was matching everything up to make sure it was right and notice a major, MAJOR, problem. The new bolts that came with the new lines to bolt the banjo fitting onto the rear caliper are dangerously undersized. You should have quite a few threads to screw in before you get to the point of collapsing the crush washers... this pile of hot garbage has 2 threads exposed.

This is dangerous, its an accident waiting to happen and there's not a chance in hell I would install this on any vehicle. This is extremely likely to end in catastrophic failure of the brake system. My mind was blown at the level of oversight here.


So the lines are a bust... we said screw it I'll leave the lines alone for now and we'll just do the brakes.

My helper and I started to tear everything down.


Turns out the Powerstop kit wasnt any better than the brake lines!

There was all sorts of debris in the zinc coating just waiting to get embedded into the brake pads. I've never seen a worse finish on new brake in my 15 years of working professionally in automotive.




I installed the pads and went to put the caliper pins in, but wait a minute... they aren't long enough to actually come out the back of the caliper.


So I reused the stock hardware to properly secure the pads and found another interesting tidbit.

This is how a pad should sit, the friction material stops just short of the edge of the rotor, especially when there a slight chamfer on the edge of the rotor. You want flat surface on flat surface.


But the inconsistencies in the build quality of the pads left the friction material hanging just a hair over the edge of the rotor. This is not acceptable.


At that point, I had enough. I said screw all this stupid crap and took one of the over vehicles over to Toyota and just bought all new OEM parts.

I definitely got my money's worth out the old brakes.

Front


Rear


We got the new pads and rotors installed, flushed the brake fluid, and adjusted the parking brake.



Because I've seen it asked about a decent amount I decided to take a quick video of how to adjust the parking brake so it grabs strong and stiffens up the parking brake pedal. Hopefully, this can help someone out.

https://youtu.be/it4BMOrM41g

 

Wow, that sucks. I was also looking at the Powerstop kit. Guess I won't even bother. Thanks for the video on the E brake adjustment.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

 

I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Originally I was leaning towards the DBA 4x4 survival rotors with Hawk LTS pads but then shopping for them it was $1000+ setup. I didn’t feel like it was going to be a drastic enough difference over stock to warrant like $400 extra so I kept researching other options.

On the bright side with Amazon Prime it shipped free directly from Stoptech and you get hassle free returns. I contact them Saturday, said it was junk. They sent a return label, I boxed it back up and dropped it off at UPS. Within like an hour a credit was issued and it cleared and was back in my account by Wednesday.

 

Hey Agent, like someone above I just registered with the forum so I could tell you what an amazing, awesome thread this is. I'm sitting here reading about your adventures in the mountains while sitting at my desk on Wall St. in Manhattan...I feel like someone in a John Denver song lol

I'm hoping to get a 4runner in the next 6 months, I will definitely drive out there to get you to work on it

 

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it. I'm glad I could inspire. And trust me I get it, I grew up in Chicago and then moved to the mountains with my wife when I was in my mid 20's. I'm over big cities yet I spend a lot more time in Manhattan than I'd like to.

I don't think I've ever posted pictures on here from out there because it didn't in any way include the 4Runner, but there are always adventures to be had, you just have to get out, explore, and find them. There are some pretty hiking trails and stuff a short way outside of NYC, well in terms of distance anyway, the drive still sucks. I also brought gear and did a couple of segments of the Appalachian Trail while I was out there.

Since it's actually on topic heres some of my adventures a stone throw away from Manhattan...





Leave no trace kinda went out the window...

 

I grew up in NW NJ in what we call mountains a stone's throw from the Ap Trail, love it up there

 

All 5th gens are 4 wheel disc with a drum parking brake. The inside of the rear rotors are the drum. And yes I got a full refund.