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

That’s quite the difference in size.

The left front did not go well. The lower bolt was seized solid onto the spherical bearing. Penetrating lube, air hammer, heat, no luck. Pulled the lower arm with coilover and cut it out through the misalignment spacers. This is what prompted Superpro lower control arms. One was off, needs an alignment at this point anyway, 135K on the lower ball joints and bushings. I was really tempted to do the Dirt King ball joint arms but they are just to much money for what you get.


The shock guards got pretty well sand blasted, I’m hoping powder coat will hold up better.

 

Today I picked up the front coilovers front from getting resprung, revalved, and rebuilt.


One of the flaws of King, they have used the same rod ends for a million years, so for the 4Runner application the sleeve fits over the bottom the shaft. The rod end and the sleeve need to be removed to disassemble the damper, well, dissimilar metals corrode to each other. If King would make a shorted shaft and a longer rod end it it would be a nonissue, but because of the design it IS an issue.


The spherical bearing I had to cut out of the arm.




The new spherical bearings.


Pro tip... a bearing CAN’T corrode if moisture can’t make it to it. I don’t really care if dirt and debris sticks to the grease on the outside, it seals the whole thing.

 

Product Review - SuperPro 5th gen 4Runner front lower control arms

I’m in the process of rebuilding the entire front suspension, I’m changing the spring rate, revalving/rebuilding the Kings to match, fresh JBA upper control arm bushings and ball joints, forged sway bar end links, and I started looking into lower control arm options. The drivers side lower shock mount bolt was totally seized into the king spherical bearing. I ended up dropping the lower control arm with the shock stick attached and cutting them apart. With 130K on the lowers I considered pressing in new ball joints and bushings into the old arms but started looking into full replacements. First I thought Dirt King ball joint lowers, but at $1,700 and 6 weeks to build that’s a really tough pill to swallow, especially when the lower arms aren’t the weak point of the front suspension to begin with.

I remember seeing a SuperPro lowers with a claim about a bunch of them being sold without a single warranty claim so Instarted researching those. I have to say it’s odd that superPro front lower control arms are available with a 3rd party vendors, but superprousa.com does NOT list a control arm for the 4Runners. I reached out to Apache Offroad about them looking for some info and got the following response:

“We have been asked a few times about who makes the SuperPro lower control arms, if the joints are oem sized, where they are made etc; and wanted to answer those questions.

The Arms and all components are manufactured in house at SuperPro, they are 100% Australian manufactured.

The bushings feature a lifetime warranty, the arm and joints have a 3 year warranty.

The Ball Joints are a high quality OEM spec replacement. They are OEM sized, and can be replaced with an OEM sized joint. Replacement Super Pros are available after warranty for $55 each.

These have been on the market for 30 months, and SuperPro has had zero warranty claims to date on them.”

They had them in stock ready to ship so I decided to give them a shot.

The actual metal arms themselves are exactly the same except the lower shock mount on the OEM arm is 1 piece of metal welded on and the Superpro is 2 pieces welded on. The fitment was great, no issues there, the only big glaring flaw is the “improved quality replacement camber bolts”. They are not a good design in my opinion. They used the same overall length of bolt as OEM but changed the design of the adjusters to a more traditional style, so the end result was a shit load of excessive bolt sticking out making it so you can’t use standard depth sockets, but deep well socket with a torque wrench don’t want to fit the front adjusters because of the front axles being in the way. To be fair I did not try to put the front bolt in backwards so the excess sticks out forward, I’m not sure it would clear my skid plate if I did that or not but I wanted to assemble is like stock and I didn’t want to bolt the threads stick out where there are exposed either way. I may just take a sawzall and cut the bolt length down, but I don’t feel like I should have to. On top of that the bolt heads have an odd finish, they almost look cast and not machined. I have a deep and a shallow socket of the same size, one fit on the nut, one didn’t. One thing I definitely I like is that the bushings aren’t bonded, that means you don’t need to torque them with the weight on the wheels sitting at static ride height to avoid loading the bushings, and the sleeves have a ribbed outer edge that will help them bite and hold their alignment position. Time will tell how the bushings and lower ball joints hold up over time. The ball joint castle nut is significantly larger than the stock one, not a big deal but worth noting, most of my sockets sets go up to 24mm and that wasn’t even close to fitting the new nut.

Overall impression - I’m not sure yet but I can’t say I recommend them. With Freedom Offroad having a very similar product (that I’ve never seen in person) at a significantly lower cost than these and OEM everything costing a little bit more money than these I really feel like they fall in a grey area of the market. I haven’t even taken it off the jack stands to a form an opinion beyond a first impression, but if I were to do it again honestly I’d just spend a little extra get known great OEM quality and reliability.

-OEM arms with OEM ball joints, OEM bushings, and OEM cam bolts run about $650.

-SuperPro arms with up-rated ball joints, SuperPro bushings, and improved quality replacement camber bolts are $540 plus $20 flat rate shipped from Apache Offroad.

-Freedom Offroad arms heavy duty OE style ball joint, hardened rubber bushings, and cam adjustment bolts (they are in the picture but not doesn’t specifically saw if they are included or not) are $340 plus shipping.

 

Did you ever get springs ? I ordered my king 700’s from summit and had them in 3 days. I have some billy 600’s here if you pay for the ride you can have them. But might check summit if you want actual kings

 

I bought them Tuesday night from AccuTune and they got delivered Friday. I brought them with pick up the shocks today and they swapped them quick before I left.

 

Progress. The revalved/rebuilt kings are installed with the new springs, the new lower control arms are in, the JBA updated ball joints and bushings are in, the full coverage splash guards are in. All that’s left is the forged sway bar links, that will be last after assembling the other side.

 

Did you keep the icon 2” rear springs after the bumper or did you change them out? My bumpers on order and I’m thinking the icons won’t carry the weight all of our gear which is similar to yours. Except that awesome freakin genesis base camp. I showed my wife that the other night and she loved it too. Once they are back in stock I’ll be ordering one

 

I haven’t changed the springs yet but Inhave new ones sitting here.

I have Toytec’s new extra duty super flex springs, forged end links, Dobinsons adjustable track bar, the shock guards are still at powder coating, and I should get the rear kings back this week from being revalved and rebuilt. I’m just waiting to do it all at once and be done with it.

 

Not sure if you mentioned this earlier, but are you doing anything special to the shock valving or keeping it "stock"?

 

Front and rear shocks are getting valving tweaks to better match the new spring rates and weight. I know on the fronts they were going to plug a bleed hole to effectively add about 15% to the dampening. In the rear they are plugging a bleed hole and removing the flutter shims from the valve stacks, this way it increases the dampening and it’ll hit the progressive ramp up sooner to help stabilize the additional weight.

 

Are you having Accutune do them, King, or someone else?

 

I bought them through Filthy Motorsports so they revalve for free during rebuilds. Filthy worked with King to determine the ideal valving for my exact setup but they were booked out months on the scheduling. They trade customers back and forth with 303 Shocks when the need arises so they worked together to get it done. 303 is the place Toytec used to sublet their rebuilds to. Filthy took the rears, and 303 did the fronts (to filthy/king’s specs). Both are within a 15 minute drive of my house so no shipping back and forth and a quicker turn around time.

 

Nice! Let us know how they feel when you're back up and running.

 

Definitely

 

Front suspension refresh is finished.
- King OEM 2.5” diameter remote reservoir extended travel coilovers (freshly rebuilt and revalved)
-King 3-14-600 front springs (replaced 550lb springs)
- JBA caster corrected upper control arms (freshly rebuilt with the updated Cerakoted high articulation ball joints, updated ball joint boots, and updated bushings)
-Superpro front lower control arms
-Overland Custom Design forged ball joint sway bar links
- DuroBumps bump stops
-Toytec braided stainless brake lines
-ARK full coverage splash guards

 

Are your 255/80s on the TRD Pro wheels rubbing those JBAs?

 

No

 

I got the rear end assembled last weekend.


Since I’m actually working locally for a change I took it into the facility I’m currently work at to do an alignment. First time in 5 years I’ve been able to do my own alignment again instead of having to pay someone to do it.

I wasn’t overly concerned with the precision of this alignment, the springs are all new so they will settle and my front bumper should be ready for pickup at HeftyFabworks this week so that will be extra weight going on, but ride height changes angles and with replacing the lower arms and all the alignment cam bolts I didn’t want to wait. Realistically in 2-3 weeks I’ll do again after the bumper is added and adjustments are made. Then I’ll really get it dialed in.

Before measurements at the new ride height

Eyeballing is for suckers, steering wheel level.



After measurements

 

While I had it in one of the drivers comes up to me with this awestruck look on his face and he goes “dang dude, that thing is amazing!” He’s looking it all over checking everything out asking questions, he’s like “that is an impressive build, its beautiful.... and to think this whole time I’ve been secretly judging you for driving that burgundy soccer mom SUV” (talking about my Highlander )

Current status:

 

Looks awesome!

 

Did you replace your panhard bar? It looks new so I’m assuming it’s aftermarket.

 

Yes, it’s an adjustable Dobinsons bar

 

You running 2” or 3” in the rear? I’m about to go 3” in the rear and am just on the fence if it’s needed or not.

 

I want(ed) to stay at 2” but unfortunately there’s no 2” heavy load, long travel springs. It’s sitting at almost 3.5” now, I’m waiting for the springs to settle before I decide to get with something else or not. It didn’t need much. The axle was off center about 3/8” prior to installing the bar.

 

Yeah that’s what I’ve seen as well with the 2” springs. I wonder if once it settles if you’ll need to adjust it again? Looks like I’m better off lifting first then seeing if it’s needed to recenter it as I won’t be getting heavy 3” springs, so I expect them to settle maybe slightly under 3” with my gear. Thanks man!

 

The springs all the way around are new and will settle. I should be picking up my front bumper this week and getting that and the winch installed so I’ll tweet the front ride height accordingly, plus I have the the dobinsons adjustable rear control arms coming as well. Everything will get adjusted in a couple weeks and then I’ll align it again.

 

Forgot to ask but did you add extended brake lines in the rear or do the stock lines work for 3” of lift?

 

With the milage I was going to replace the flex lines either way but I think the stock lines will work fine for 3” lift. I technically have long travel in the back so I went with extended lines (Toytec +2” stainless). You could bolt in the shocks and cycled the suspension without springs to see if one side fully compressed and one side fully extended was enough length. But that was more effort than it was worth when I was going to replace the lines regardless.

 

Today’s project





Some tin snips, a heat gun, dead blow hammer, and a 2x4 got them cut down and flattened out nicely.

Finished product


Then we hit the dirt


Had a snack in the shade


Then some bags (or cornhole as the hillbillies call it) with my nieces.