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

Just out of curiosity, why did you change the to bushings? Generally aftermarket sway bar bushings is a harder durometer rubber that in effect, stiffens the sway bar, which fights axle articulation - not necessarily a bad thing, it’s better for on road, just not for offroad.

 

Subbed, living that beautiful CO life vicariously through you!

 

I had ordered them before deciding on suspension. I had read some reviews that they helped in stock form with nose dive and just made the vehicle feel more planted. I never got around to installing them (out of sheer laziness) so I decided to go a head and do so with the lift. I like the fact they are greaseable, but the rear one near the gas tank is impossible to get grease into due to clearance so I may end up just pulling them and going back to stock.

I am interested in the sway bar ends you posted, so that might be something I look into here soon.

 

Awesome, good to hear! I don’t plan on adding weight for a while, so I don’t want to put heavier springs that I don’t need. I have a stock front end. Thanks for info

 

Fair enough.

If you’re going to do the link jump on them now. They have been out of stock for a LONG time, I got tired of checking back so months ago I signed up for the email notification for when they were back in stock. They just got back in stock a few days ago so I jumped on it. Get them while you can.

 

Happy to help

 

Off topic note - I typically surf this site from my phone, so it’s condensed version of the forum list, I’m on my iPad now and it shows more information. That’s crazy this thread has over 106,000 views! I had no idea.

On topic note - I bought my first and only cosmetic mod that serves no functional purpose, it’s strictly aesthetic. A bullet proof fabrication front grill. I saw this picture of a pre facelift with the same hefty fabworks bumper I ordered, prerunner hoop and all, with the PBF grill and I needed to make that happen over the chrome bar lol.

 

I got a few things in today.

I stopped by Toyota and picked up all the seals and gaskets to reseal the valve covers and spark plug tubes.

Gear America shackles with isolators came.

Front sway bar endlinks came.

And it’s not pictured but so stopped by Toytec today since they are about half an hour from me and picked up an ARB tree saver strap.

 

I’m debating about buying some more parts. When I was doing the water pump I found the belt tensioner pulley grainy feeling and it spun kinda loud. The pulley is not available separate from the tensioner. To remove the tension the alternator has to come out. I’m debating about just throwing a new alternator in while doing the tensioner, 140K miles and it’s coming out anyway, might as well right? If I go that far on top of all the recent maintenance and refreshing I’m thinking I might as well throw a new fuel pump at it before I do the gas tank skid right?

Unfortunately the tensioner, alternator, fuel pump complete assembly, gasket, and sealing ring comes out to almost $900 total. Kinda pricey realistically throwing an alternator and fuel pump at it as preventative maintain a will bring this thing up to pretty much brand new levels of expected reliability. New fluids and filters in everything, new cooling system, new tune up parts, fresh valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube seals, fresh brake lines, rebuilt and revalved suspension with new springs all around, sway bar links all the way around, all the brake hardware, alternator, and fuel pump.

Thoughts?

 

Since you’re keeping it for the long haul I’d go for it.

 

If you’re going to be removing those parts anyway, replacing them makes sense. Once you get it all done and over with you’ll be glad you went ahead and did it.

 

Sort of a random question, not sure if you’ve covered it, but do you have any plans to re-gear once you get the bumpers on?

 

No immediate plans to but it’s on the radar for sure. It’s going to depend heavily on how well the 4R works for us as a family of 4. If an offroad trailer works it’s way into our setup at some point, regearing will for sure be a part of that, but we’ll see how happy it is handling the the weight of everything.

 

Round 3!

 

You definitely need another set of hands a friend of mine came over to help with the bumper install yesterday.


Caught with her pants down lol

 

I didn’t get a pic of it on yesterday so I grabbed one tonight. Bumper #3 was just the main frame, all the bits and pieces need to be swapped over. I opted to do that after for a few reasons. First off, weight, it’s easier to get on without the extra weight of the of the tailgate and swing arm. Second is that the tailgate and swing arm block the rear plate and I wasn’t ready to spend the time wiring up the license plate/plate light/camera relocation. I figure I’d keep it legal for now. This weekend I’ll get back to it.

It’s crazy that it gained 7” of bumper clearance (not including the mud flaps) behind the rear wheels.

 

Looks badass so far!

Congrats!

 

I actually forgot the main reason for just getting the structure on, to get the second big ass crate out of the garage so my wife can park in there lol.

 

Is that gap on the rear brake light that bad or just the angle and lighting make it look bad.

 

The body is bolted to the frame via big rubber bushings that absorb harshness, in turn the body flex’s in relation to the frame. With a steel bumper mounted to the frame you NEED to have about 1/2” gap to allow for flex or you’d tear up the body and crack the taillights when they impact the bumper during flex. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the word but it’s absolutely necessary. It does tend to stand out more on lighter colored vehicle where you clearly see the body inside, dark colors hide it better.

 

Got back to work on the bumper yesterday. We pulled it back off, prepped and painted and the body, got the rear foglight housing mounted, the reverse light housing mounted, the tailgate and swing arm swapped over get everything setup and adjusted. It looks so much better with the body painted black in the gaps.

Today I’m going to start on the electrical. I’ve decided the cleanest simplest way to power the reverse light and the license plate light is to tie into the wiring for the tow hitch trailer plug. This way I don't have to route wires out of the body so theres no potential for water leaks running wiring into the vehicle. Unfortunately the plate light that came with the bumper is a cheap little $8 POS that doesn’t even appear to be waterproof, I ordered a replacement but it won’t be here until later in the week. I’ve decided I’m going to control the rear foglight via the factory fog light switch since it currently doesn’t do anything.

 

Looks great!

 

Thanks

 

Was it worth the wait? I’d say so, looks killer

 

To be determined. For starters they didn’t follow though on issuing a partial refund for all the trouble, instead they said just keep the old bumper frame and sell it.

The product itself is awesome, the design and the build quality are top notch but some of the details fall short. For example the “bolt on” tow hitch can’t actually be bolted on. They included bolts with washers and nuts but the nuts aren’t necessary because all of the bolts for the hitch tie into the frame.... but all the included bolts are to short to use with the bolt on hitch. it’s like the didn’t realize the bolt on hitch still ties into the frame in all the places the stock hitch did. Some of the wiring and extras have been updated but the directions clearly don’t reflect that. I had to grind the tip of the bracket that the swing arm striker attaches to, with the weight of the spare it understandably sags just a hair, that’s why it’s adjustable, but with the pin adjusted the top corner of the bracket hit the swing arm instead clearing it and tucking inside. I had to grand just a hair off. The swing arm is an optional upgrade, because of that they don’t have a hole for the wiring to go through the bumper to the swing arm. I’d like a hole drilled before powder coat, not after. The license plate light that was included is a POS, it doesn’t even look like it’s waterproof, it’s $8 on Amazon. My biggest complaint is that you can’t actually use factory lugs for the spare. The plate the wheel studs are mounted in is to thin so the lug bottoms out before it even makes contact with the wheel. I had to grind about 3-4 mm off the end of the lugs so they could actually get tight against the wheel. I haven’t tackled the rear view camera relocation yet but their instructions certainly don’t include that you will have a big 3/4” x 3/4” where the camera is and you will need to find a way to seal it. Same thing with the old bumper brackets, you take them off but then it leaves holes in the body for water to get in. No plugs or anything included, hell there’s not even a mention that you should find a way to plug the holes.

I’m lucky in the sense that I can take care of all this stuff and come up with solutions on my own, but for the price and a 10.5 month wait, I don’t feel like I should need to do any of that, let alone spend any money to make it happen.

 

Damn, agree with you. I figured all of that would have been spelled out in the install instructions.

 

Rear bumper wiring progress - reverse light and rear fog light are done. Plus I installed the remote start today while I was working under the dash I installed the remote start as well.

https://youtu.be/Cd1pByaP-SU

 

Part 2 of the wiring

https://youtu.be/abGGKRGqDYg

 

Finished up the wiring, and a better way to do rear view camera relocations

https://youtu.be/EAA2bEHiOSw

 

Great job!! Nice and clean.