Nautical Blue Build Thread (Big Blue) - 60K mile review - lessons, regrets, etc.

It has been over 4 yrs building and messing with little "blue" and many of you have asked that I should get a thread of its own so here it goes. The intent is to share and pass onto others lessons (good and bad) on all the different products and choices I have made over the years.

Purchased in 2021 (Venture model - 2020) - had 9K miles in it. Previous owner was trying to mod it (added the "Bro badges", mild lift etc. I caught by some fellow members here for leaving the "Bro" in it but this gave me motivation to turn this into my "Own" Big Blue build which I wanted to be unique and special.

Disclaimers:

1. This build is a result of this community and all the advice I have received and read in here.
2. I'm a weekend warrior - you don't need to have all of this stuff to off-road.
3. Take your time - mods are addictive and
4. Big thank you to everyone that has contributed - so Many to mention here -

Day 1:



Build List:

Suspension:

• Old Man EMU BP-51 Front and Back w/Medium load rear spring coils (Icon 2")
• SPC UCA's
• Front Sway Bar disconnects by Apex (Nice to have)

Tires and Wheels:

• Falken Wildpeak AT3 - 285/70/17 - First Set - OK
• Current Tires: Mickey Thompspn Baja Boss - 285/70/17 - Good for offroad
• Relations Race Wheels, RR7-H with -12 offset

Exterior:

• Full rook rack and ladder by Wescott Designs
• Front light brackets by Rago Fab
• Illuminator light brackets by Rago (Roof rack back left side)
• Diff Breeders by ARB
• Panhard correction bracket
• Undercoating - with VG-104 (recommended)
• K&N filter - not worth it - I know!
• Nano Ceramic IR - Avery Dennison - Window Tint
• Morimoto Lights - Front and Back

Interior:

• Molle storage panels by Rago Fab
• Rago device Dash Mount
• Victory 4x4 Mounts on driver and passanger side
• Several phone mounts
• ScanGauge III (nice)
• Upgraded rear hatch lift gate struts (ladder is heavy!)
• Boom blaster horn swith (featuring la Cucaracha)

In the Engine Bay:

• Odyssey 34-PC Battery
• SDQH Aluminum billet battery terminals
• Switch Por 9100 w/tray
• ARB twin compressor (recommended)
• Midland Radio

Recovery & Protection:

• Smittybilt X20 synthetic rope winch
• Factor 55 fairlead and flatlink
• SSO low profile bumper
• Weekend warrior recovery kit
• RCI- skid plates - entire vehicle
• RCI- rocksloders

Engine Performance / Drivetrain / Others:

• Magnuson Supercharger (mix feelings)
• Pedal "pretender" will remove soon
• Powerbrake - Big Breat Kit - Nice!
• Regear to 456 ECGS (nice)
• OTT Tune (medium, oh yes!)

at 60K.

I will be adding pictures below of the most relevant mods and additions - and of course feel free to ask any questions. Would I do it again? Probably. Out of the 60K miles I have off-roaded at best 1000 miles, most of it in AZ, TX, some trips up to Yellowstone. The 4R is so capable off-road, getting off the trail and back on the Hwy without any issues is a great feeling. MPG however isn't so great after you have added so much stuff like here, but I try to look the other way.

 

Great mods. Very tasteful and not over done. Well, except for those raptor lights...

That color is great. I came very close to buying a Nautical Blue Slo Runner. Oh, I wanna hear an audio clip of your horn

 

I'm curious why your sig says TRD Pro if you have a Venture...

Nice truck!

 

Let's do some pictures of the most relevant mods and my takeways on them:

Suspension:


So far so good - I think the OME-BP51 has held really well. I am running like 2" at front and 2.5 in the back. I will be upgrading the rear coils though -

Underarmor:

Skid plates from RCI - much needed if you are planning to offroad-
There are some signs of usage - and while I have been labelled a mall crawler, mine does get to see the mud from time to time. This is the one

Here is one --- where I broke the stock "rock sliders" and upgraded to the RCI sliders. Good product.

On the wheels:
The RRW and the MT baja boss - they have been good - the Mickey Thompson are a bit loud for my taste - but boy, they are good offroading -

 

Because the previous owner added these Pro/Bro badges in there and I never bother to take them out - and some not so friendly member took a shot at me for mislabelling the unit and my handle here, so I left it alone out of just being stubborn. I think the mods I have added have giving it at "different status", I hope.

 

Heck, you can call it anything you like. This is a real TRD Bro though:

 

I have done all the regular maintenance in this thing, I don't go to the dealer and never have looked back. There have been some jobs that have been way more difficult than I could handle myself but good friends and neighboors always show up and give me a hand when possible. The Maggie when new - at 21K miles. So far so good, only a few small issues with the tensioner and the pulleys, other than that, no issues.

Here is at 60K from a few weeks ago on the way back from AZ

Every oil change I take my time to clean the engine bay and I use "gentle compressed air" to blow dust away, check hoses, and just remove dust and dirt and it seems to work. Not a big fan of pressure washing engine bays, don't think this is a good idea, IMO.
I maybe a little OCD with the cleaning but it doesn't take that long.

The midland radio installed was interesting - the SwitchPro has been very good and I like to keep clean all my wires and stuff. I was going to add another battery, but decided not needed, for a weekend warrior this isn't needed IMO.


Undercoating was probably not needed for where I live and travel to, but I had a 2nd Gen Taco that developed rust quickly and this left a bad taste and I went all in with undercoating -
my prep - it was a pain doing this, but I wanted it to be done right.
when it was new - almost like a satin look - it has held well. The chasis.

 

So you did it for spite? NOICE!!! I can respect that.

 

My favorite mod:

The 456 gears from ECGS - what a difference it makes and after tuning this thing the truck drives so much better. I have a sister that has a stock 4R - 2021, and I drove it for a few days the other day, i don't think I could ever drive one like that.....anyway, this was worth it and I recommend it.

 

The guy was nasty and it was just my second or third post. I was excited and just giddy like 5 yr old playing with his new toy. Everybody saying welcome, etc, like we greet new members that come here for advice and for the first time. And this pal just nailed me because "Nautica Blue" is not a PRO color...blah..blah, and that I was pretending etc..etc. Call it what you want, who cares right? I have a tacoma TRD Pro too, (that one is for real a PRO). Anyway, so I left it alone. There was one nice moderator at the time that came to my rescue, I won't forget that. True Gent!

 

Some of the interior stuff:
So this thing was not new to me....and I got tired cleaning the cheap "leather look-alike" material. So one day I went to the local "true-leather" guys and said: Give me something that looks nice and I can clean easily because I know I'm going to spill crap on it. And they game this:
front
And the back seat

The back of my unit carrying some of my junk. The rago fabrication products are good.

 

My second best mod:

The breaks from PowerBrakes - they do perform better than OEM's. Yes, they are not cheap and maybe not needed for some, but I felt like after adding so much weight with all the crap I have listed above, that better brakes were needed. when new....

When used....at 50k miles


The third best mod:

The scangauge III is a neat tool IMO, I'm kind of "let's look at the data" type of guy, and the Scangauge has those features that can help you understand what's happening with your unit. It has helped me clear CODES as well that for some reason show up after a long day of off-roading. Recommended. Don't look at the MPG on this picture (this is what breaks my heart and wallet when driving the 4R). I get 14 or 15MPG at best on the HWY -

 

On the not so good mods:

The previous owner had a TRD Pro exhaust in this thing. It was awful IMO, loud and too much drone to my taste. this is the PRO I took out.

I thought I could find other systems that I would enjoy much more but the real truth is that I wasted too much time and money trying other exhausts systems (Borla, AFe, Gibson, a cheap MagnaFlow) the AFe (what a waste this was). I ended up putting the stock OEM exhaust and boy my ears are so much happier.

The lights:

I don't know, you get carried away with these mods and these builds, and some things look cool and nice, but do you really need them? I got Baja Lights throughout the truck and while they look cool and seem nice, I haven't used them that much. My off-roading gets done during the day! At night I'm doing other things. These are the light "semi-on" The morimoto are OK, but maybe not needed either. Just taste really.

I think that's it for this thread guys. I will just answer questions and move on. My eyes are on a LandCruiser these days.....Lc200 Heritage Edition (uhmm...) If I had the time and of course the $$$, I think I would jump on that project. But got to focus on other things. I can thank enough all of you guys for the feedback and experience - so many of you have contributed to my unit and I will always be very thankful. God Bless you all!

 

I think your mods make it more capable for off roading than my real Pro. Great looking rig and probably my favorite 4runner color. I don't have a problem with the badging, if anyone gives you crap, tell them to go off road with you, see if they can keep up.

 

I noticed your rotors have a slot or groove. Usually that is discouraged off-road. In muddy environments it can be a problem. Any issues where you are? Maybe a “dry” climate makes this a non issue in your case.

 

No, never had any issues with mud or wet conditions. They seem fine to me.

 

Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBlTb12YqKE&t=39s

 

Way to properly represent the city of Houston.

 

Is that an NC State sticker on the back glass? Nice.

Very impressive write up and build.

 

Ok Gang - on the mods that have literally kicked my a$$ from a DIY point of view:

The swaybar disconnect links by Apex Designs. This is a super nice to have if you are offroading and you want to have extra flexibility and more articulation. I believe the new 6th Gen 4R has this on electronic version as well as the 4th Gen taco and LC250. It is a push button and you are done. Us on the 5th Gen, we have to go thru the manual procedure of going underneath and disconnect and hope nothing goes wrong after that. The creator of the product gives a fair warning that if you are not a DIY kind of person, best to take this to a professional shop. I was stubborn and literally spent one week with the 4R in the garage trying to do this myself. I ended up getting my neighboors help but I got it done! It wasn't because one thing is understanding what to do, and another one is having the skills and natural ability to do it. Anyway....on the relevant pics for this mod:

This is the problem - the swaybar fixes both wheels for the most part, without the swaybar you get more articulation.

The installation:

Nice looking product - very well done. Several videos out there on youtube. Recommend you get familiar with it if attempting this yourself.


Got everything setup in jacks and already removed the swaybar etc. A task that I thought would take 1 day, it took more...don't ask why.


The right side with the pressure system thing on the left side.

Left side done.

I have tried the product already three times during my offroading adventures and I can say it does make a difference. Don't forget, you get done on the trail - air up and PUT BACK on the swaybar. I can tell at higher speeds if I have the swaybar connected or disconnected. Some folks don't care, but my boss here at home didn't like the feel without the swaybar.

 

Thank you! yes, Wolfpack all the way. Ironically, I drive a blue unit . That sticker and the red stiching on the seats is the only RED i got going in the 4R. The unit I should be driving is Borracho Loco's. But there were no reds at the time, so here we are. I do have a red unit but on a taco 3rd gen - you will see it later on this thread. Just warming up.