Cool build or overkill?

Perspective and expectations +1

There's definitely something special about the 4R, for me I love it in stock form all the way to the extreme builds. Mine has to be a daily driver also (for now) so light mods for camping 3 - 5 days at a time. Working towards a little more eventually. (better suspension, bigger fridge, things that would make sense for my purpose).

Now for Sandy Cats purpose $20K is just the very beginning...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9xk6-Y1w84

 

I think it just comes down to what you want to do and how comfortable you want to be etc. When i first started going camping here it was at known trail areas or park camp sites and I was using a $70 tent and $40 cooler camping for 1-2 nights. Now I go way out 70-100 miles away from the nearest gas station or house and hunt/camp. It is nice to have a fridge and not need to go back to civilization for a week while still being able to grill steaks and have cold beer. I would rather not have to eat Mountain House meals if I don't need to, or feel barely prepared going that far out so for me the mods were worth the investment.

 

This sums it up very well!

It's all about personal preference and your concept of "overlanding."

Most of my trips are only a few days, so a cooler and a tent and basic camping gear are plenty. I've also built a decent sleeping platform for occasions when I'd rather sleep in the 4Runner.

If I regularly spent multiple days or weeks in the woods, I'd definitely be looking at a fridge and solar setup (I'm actually considering this now, as I was lucky enough to acquire some solar gear that was being given away by a very generous member of Tacomaworld). I'd also redesign the platform to optimize storage, and probably step up my cooking gear.

No matter what your situation is, it's a good idea to choose what you carry carefully. You don't want to be dragging around hundreds of pounds of unnecessary gear. But, you also don't want to be in the middle of nowhere and not have something you need.

 

This is overkill. Anything less extravagant than this is not killing enough.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwEVtFrxy6J/

 

Lord have mercy... at that point just custom make one of these rock-crawler buggies and it will probably be a hell of a lot less than an actual brand new 4Runner and then to just completely destroy it. Hell this one I found is $29k and it includes a trailer.

 

^But the 4Runner has a 2JZ. It can decimate all after you put fifteen grand* in it.

*2001 dollars

 

+ overnight parts from Japan.

 

I don't think my poor 1GR-FE can keep up

 

I overnight parts from Japan for my 4R and Tacoma, nothing overkill there.

 

This might be a dumb question, but for the long travel suspension you'll replace the lower control arms with longer ones like this guy clearly did. This pushed the front wheels further out.

What about the rear? Do you ride around with front tires that stick out more? do people use spacers to fix the look?

Also, I have not seen much for rear long travels kits. Anyone have a link for anything or do people just kinda make these custom?

 

I always figured if I need to go off the road and camp for a while, I will just take my gas 4WD F250 with the crew cab long bed and 48 gallon oem fuel tank. At some point people just need to decide if the solution to carrying a lot of stuff is just start with a vehicle that was designed to...carry a lot of stuff. it comes stock with 33 inch Load E AT tires, just under 3k of payload capacity, dana super 60 front axle, Sterling rear axle with locking diff, all for...3k more than my ORP, brand new.

 

Yes most just have a wider front. Some people may put spacers on the rear, but if really offroading I don't think you can safely put a large enough spacer back there to even it out.

There are rear LT kits but not in the same sense as it just extends travel for the straight axle like the metaltech kit. The front is IFS which is why it needs the extended arms and axles to allow that travel.The right way to make up for it would be to get a staggered wheel setup or even better just straight axle the front and upgrade the rear axle to match and get rid of IFS.