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

Spot the 4Runner

 

My wife and I went up in the Colorado balloon.








Spot the 4Runner

 

So who is following along on this? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not concerned about the number of likes I get or whatever, but it’s on page 3 and there has been next to no interaction. If you guys are interested in this thread I’ll keep if going, if you're not I won’t bother. I’m good with it either way, let me know.

 

I'm enjoying it. It's neat seeing the same places I've been to through a different eye. Cool that you've been up in the balloons, to. I'm in Broomfield on HWY 7 so we see them all of the time.

 

Nice build and trip reports. Keep it coming

 

Dont quit now!!!! lol
I was watching that

 

Alright cool, I'll keep this going.

This was a trip from late August. We felt he was old enough so we took our son on his first camping trip. We camped out up on the Guanella Pass. Night time at 11,000 feet gets cold but we all had a great time. We've been putting off camping waiting for little man to get a little older and he loved it.

 

Prepping for the campfire
https://youtu.be/zN8Sgrunmuw

 

Let’s talk about maintenance.

I understand it’s a little overkill but this is the routine maintenance schedule I follow for my vehicle:
Every 5K - Engine oil and filter change, tire rotation, grease all the fittings, inspect everything.
Every 15K - Front, center, and rear differential services, trans service, clean and oil K&N air filter, and replace cabin air filter.
Every 50K - Power steering flush, spark plugs, coolant flush.
Every 2 years - brake fluid flush.

I recently rolled 100,000 so I this week I went through and did everything listed above. I’ll get into some of the details, hopefully others can find the info useful, but also so I have everything in 1 spot to reference back to. I feel like I spend time tracking down same info over and over every time I need it.

Brake fluid:
Did you know the generally accepted lifespan of brake fluid under normal operating conditions is 2-3 years?
Let’s starting with the basics: The brake system is hydraulic system, hydraulics work on the principal that because fluids can not be compressed is very effective and transferring and applying massive amounts of pressure.

On the simplest level you apply pressure to the brake pedal, that pressure is increased and then a lot of hydraulic pressure goes through the brake lines to the pistons in the caliper, the pistons then squeeze the pads against the rotor causing huge amounts of friction, the friction causes the vehicle to slow down. A by product of friction is heat, and a lot of the heat gets transferred back to the fluid. Brake fluid has a pretty high boiling point but track use and/or abuse can cause it to boil. When the fluid starts to boil air bubbles show up, and while fluid isn’t compressible, air absolutely is. When the fluid boils the pressure you apply to the pedal is used to compress the air instead of transferring pressure to the fluid so it can apply the brakes. The result is the brake pedal dropping to the floor while minimal braking is actually happening.

The brake system has a cap but it’s not sealed system. As the pads wear the pistons sit further and further out, the fluid in the reservoir takes up that extra system volume as the pads wear. Because it’s not a sealed system it’s susceptible to moisture and condensation. Moisture in the brake system can rust out components from the inside which can result in catastrophic failure with no visual warning signs leading up to it and it lowers the boiling point of the fluid. To combat that, brake fluid is designed to be hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture. There is only so much moisture it can absorb before the fluid is considered saturated, as it absorbs moisture it lowers the boiling point further and further and it gets significantly worse once it reaches its saturation point. This is where the service life comes from.

Flushing out your brake fluid is pretty simple but it is a safety system so caution must be taken and double check your work. I always use 2 big bottles of fluid for the flush and I note the fluid level when I start and set it to the same level when I finish. If it’s midway on the scale and you fill it, when you do the brakes and reset the pistons to the fully retracted position you will overflow the reservoir.


Start with the reservoir. Flushing the fluid out of the brake lines with old fluid from the reservoir is not really beneficial. Take the cap off the reservoir and suck as much fluid out as you can - even a cheap turkey baster will work. Suck the reservoir down as far as you can and then fill it to almost the top with fresh fluid.
The shortest path is the path with the least resistance so I start at the left front. Open the bleeder and stick a piece of vacuum line on the nipple to direct the fluid into a container, with the cap off the reservoir it will have a pretty quick consistent drip. (Personally I use a mighty vac with a fluid catch and apply a little bit of suction to the bleeder just to speed the process up over letting it gravity bleed). Keep topping off the reservoir the level drops. I use an entire big bottle on this step, this ensures the reservoir is fresh clean fluid for flushing the brake lines with. Close the bleeder, your done with the reservoir and the first wheel. From there one at a time open a bleeder and flush about 1/4 of a bottle through the remaining 3 bleeders leaving you a bit for if you need to top off the fluid back to where you started when you’re done.


You will see a difference in color with old fluid to new fluid.



It’s important to note that the bleeder screws are just blocking or unblocking a fluid passage, they are more or less small hollow 10mm bolts. They don’t carry a load, they aren’t attaching anything, don’t go crazy tightening them, they don’t need much.

Brake fluid will eat paint if it’s left to sit on a painted surface so when you’re finished make sure to clean up. A lot of people think brake clean/brake parts cleaner is the way to go, it’s not. Because the fluid is hygroscopic you literally rinse it right off with water, it will remove it completely and immediately by hosing it off or hitting it with water from a spray bottle. Brake clean smells, it’s highly flammable, it’s more expensive, and it doesn’t clean up brake fluid as well as plain water does.

Now the 5th gens are a bit different than most in the sense that they use an accumulator (basically because the 5th gen is an outdated dinosaur of a vehicle). Because of the accumulator system after flushing the system like this you will get ABS and traction control warning lights in the dash briefly once you start it up and apply the brakes to make sure they hold pressure. It with trip a fault in ABS system for low pressure on the accumulator. You can clear it with any scan tool, code reader, or mobile app that can read the ABS system.

Differentials:
The process is the same on each of the 3 diffs. Pull the fill plug first (you don’t want to drain it then find out you can’t remove the fill plug and now it has to be towed) and then drain plug. When the fluid is done draining put a new crush washer on the drain plug and reinstall it. Through the fill hole add fluid until it drips out of the hole and it’s filled. Replace the crush washer on the fill plug and put it back in. Doing the 3 diffs you’ll need one of the big copper crush washers, 3 of the rounded silver crush washers, and 2 of the flat silver crush washers - your local dealer should stock them. Note that even if the fill and drain look the same if one of them is magnetic it goes in the lower hole, the drain hole. 6 qts of fluid total will get all 3 diffs done with a little left over in case you spill some. I use Mobile 1 or Valvoline Synpower - whatever I find in stock locally but either way, a good quality synthetic 75W-90 gear oil with GL-5 certification on back is what you want.

Transmission:
There are 3 plugs (drain, check, and fill) and you want to make sure the transmission is fully cold when you start the process. Pull the fill plug, pull the check plug, then the drain plug (in that order, again you don’t want to drain it first then find out the check or fill plug won’t come out or it’s stripped or whatever). After it drains put the drain plug back in with a fresh crush washer. Put the check plug back in with the old drain crush washer and use a fluid pump to dump 5 qts of Toyota WS fluid in the fill hole and put the fill plug back in. Start it cold, shift through park, reverse, neutral, drive, then pack up through the gears to park and repeat a handful of times, just a couple seconds in each to help circulate fluid. Then let it idle in park and monitor the trans temp (scan tool or something like OBD Fusion app with the Toyota enhanced diagnostics and a Carista dongle). When trans temp reaches 100-105 degrees pull the check plug back out while its idling and let the excess drain out the check hole. Once it slows to a drip put the check plug back in with a new crush washer and you’re done. Simple drain and fill. The fill plug has a reusable rubber o-ring. The check plug is the 5mm hex one on the pan, “CHECK” is actually stamped into the head of the bolt. I believe the recommended interval is 60K for heavy load usage, and I don’t thing they recommend a fluid change for normal usage. It’s not a full system flush, the system as a whole takes 11.3qts if everything is dry and all the fluid is out of the torque converter. With a drain and fill you’ll get 4-4.5 qts of fresh fluid in it. They say don’t worry about pulling the pan to change the “filter” since it’s just a metal screen, I would still recommend it.

 

My son was two and half and were finally comfortable with taking him camping for extended trips, my wife wanted to look into getting a camper. Originally she was thinking a pop up camper as she’s not all that comfortable with the thought of ground sleeping in a tent in the natural habitat of many very large predators. So we started to looking into it and research them. Te first glaring problem is they are big, if we got one we would either paying a monthly fee to store it somewhere or filling the garage and having to park the vehicles outside. We also found out that a lot of soft sided pop ups are restricted in bear country in Colorado. A hard sided pop up adds even more weight that we’d have to be pulling though the mountains, at high elevation you're already down on power. The cost isn’t terrible but they are pricey for something decent. If you opt for something with a shower and bathroom inside your cost goes up more. In my opinion if you don’t go for the plumbing what’s the point of spending all that money, weight, and storage space for a tent on a trailer that we'd have to dragging all over the mountains, and not being able to access some of the dispersed camping because its to rough of a trail to get a pop up in and out. Campgrounds in Colorado seem to fill their reservations pretty far out as well. It just didn’t seem like a good option for us.

So, we decided to revisit the idea of a roof top tent. It’s relatively light weight, its quick and easy to use, you can set it up anywhere – pavement, dirt, on rocks, in flooded area of mud if need be, whatever. Where ever you can get your vehicle, you can setup the tent. There no huge camper to store, there minimal weight, being up high puts my wife’s mind at ease, were not restricted in where we can take it, and above all else its convenient and easy, and let’s be honest, if it’s a chore to use something you’re less likely to use it.

So I’m picky, I’m very critical, that’s no secret. I do quality testing and development of preproduction and prototype vehicles and technology for the high end lines of a very large automotive group, it’s literally my job to scrutinize, nitpick details, and find flaws in things and analyze them. When it comes to buying stuff, especially aftermarket upgrades and parts for my vehicles I buy high end because I want qaulity, I don't want to pay a bunch of money for something that doesn't lie up to my expectation of quality.

On paper I really liked the iKamper Skycamp ( ) but it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. I really wanted to check it out in person before spending that amount of money on it. iKamper gave me the name of the only authorized retailer in the region and he’s just a short drive from Boulder. I called him and we planned for me to come out and check out the tent in person. It’s a very small one man show of a business, little shop, very personal, and he was an awesome guy. I spent over 2 hours there with him going over everything I can say in all honesty it exceeded my expectations. The build quality great, the thought that went into the design is fantastic, the attention to detail was above what I was expecting, and it’s even roomier than I anticipating. Lots of simple things add up, like the entire fabric portion is replaceable so if something happens you can replace the fabric instead of the entire tent, there’s a little lip spoiler at the front edge so wind doesn’t catch and try to create a gap for dust to get in while driving, the shape of the hinged lid area when opened is perfect to fit a pillow and provide a few more inches of extra room that you don’t expect to be there. The sky light design, the high thread count 2 layer fabric that has a small air gap that works like insulation, the available “Rocky Black” finish which is a Rhinoliner bedliner type of coating on the hardshell for extra protection from UV rays, rock hits on the highway, and branches while off roading. Its literally a minute to go from fully stowed to setup ready to use. There's lots of cool little stuff that kinda flys under the radar and you don't see in pics or reviews.

I’ve checked out a bunch of the common tents Cascadia, Tepui, ARB, and the build quality doesn’t compare. Most of the soft shell tents come out of the same factory in China slightly tweaked and rebadged for whatever company. I even looked at a very high end Roost hard shell and checked out Alumacab, they were great but hugely expensive and only sleeps 2. The iKamper one is the first 4 person hardshell roof top tent I’ve ever seen and they nailed it. iKamper actually started on Kickstarter with the mentality the current roof top tent offerings are not good enough and they got a massive response from people wanting bigger and better. After seeing it in person, messing with it, scrutinizing it, setting it up, taking it down I was sold on it.

Originally we were going to pick it up from their warehouse in Chicago while we were going to be out that way but pans changed kinda last minute and we ended up ordering from the pace we went and checked it out at.

 

Trying to organize the camping stuff.


We got a bunch of these crates and filled them up. They all latch, relatively heavy duty, all of the tan ones have 0-ring type gaskets to keep dirt, bugs, and moisture out. The big one is the camp stove, pots and pans, things for cooking. Of the smaller boxes one is stuff for cleaning up and rain gear. One is for non temperature relevant food. One is for tools and fire stuff. One for clothes and toiletries, etc etc etc. I still need to get them fully organized all labeled.

In the pic there’s leveling blocks and wheel chocks that will be used with the roof tent but there’s also the ground tent, rain fly, and 2 cots that won’t be needed ones the roof tent goes on. There’s 3 chairs in there, 6 gallons of fresh water, yeti cooler... everything but sleeping bags which will just go on the floor in the back seat. It all stores up nicely under the cargo cover with room for more but we wanted to be able to have everything in there without it looking like we have anything at all when it’s parked.


Not bad.

Now I needed to add some more garage storage, I’d like to have it all up on shelf so it’s just fill up the water, grab some food, and toss the boxes in back so we can on our way, a little more spontaneous and less planned out.

 

Before the new tent it was time to get a roof rack. This is the whole thing beginning to end over a multiple months.

So now that it’s done and over with, here’s the story of my Prinsu rack from beginning to end, in reality the whole thing dragged on fr months.

I was looking to get a flat platform lightweight but strong roof rack to run a roof top tent on. I was planning on picking up the tent in person during a road trip we already had planned to for family wedding, I figured kill 2 birds with 1 stone and avoid paying shipping for the tent. But that meant I had a date that I needed everything in my hands by - August 30th, August 31th at the absolute latest because we were leaving that afternoon. I was deciding between Prinsu or Southern Style Offroad, I called them both up and Prinsu said their next batch of racks would be ready to ship out next week and they could guarantee delivery by my deadline. SSO said I’d would be looking at about 8 weeks before a rack would be ready to ship. Simple, Prinsu it is. So that same day, August 16th, I placed the order for the full-length rack and an 1x1 bar. The website says you need a 1x1 bar for behind the antenna but it wasn’t clear as to if it came with one or not. I figured just get the order in, buy it and if I didn’t need it I’d return it, no big deal.

The following day I get an order confirmation email stating “Your sales order is attached. Please review the list of items on order to make sure everything looks correct. Please also note the ESTIMATED SHIP DATE. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your order or when it is estimated that it will be fulfilled please contact us.” and the attached invoice showed September 6th as the ship date, a full week after the deadline we had just discussed. I responded back asking what was up with that, I said I’m actually paying MORE money to buy the rack directly from you guys vs some of your authorized retailers that are offering free shipping ($105 savings) because you fit my timeframe. I said if you can’t meet the timeline you agreed to yesterday just cancel the order, if I’m going to miss having it for my trip either way I’d rather buy the SSO rack, and at the very least I’d save some money buying indirectly from a 3rd party retailer. They said not to worry it, it’s an automatically generated generic message and it will still be ok.

August 24th it ships and August 28th it got delivered. I knew it was out for delivery so I start pulling the stock roof rack off and cleaning under the rubber strips prepping for installation. The box is here, I open it up… 2 side rails, a bunch of cross bars, wind deflector, and not a single piece of hardware to assemble or install any of it. I call them up and talk to them about the missing hardware and to ask about the 1x1 bar. They said it comes with one 1x1 bar already so a second one is not needed since they forgot to ship it anyway they were just going to refund the cost of the added bar and they would send the hardware out priority mail. I reminded them about the situation and why I went with them, they agreed to overnight the missing hardware. That money for the bar they end up just flat out stealing from me, over time they just kept saying they would refund it then it turned into claiming they already refunded it, my paypal account showed clear as day they were lying.

The next morning August 29th, about 9:30am UPS is at my front door with a package of bolts. I open it up and start taking inventory of what I have. The rack doesn’t come with a parts list or instructions of any kind. The website has a PDF of install instructions but as a customer you never get a list of what you’re supposed to receive to make sure you have it all. There is a big plastic bag labeled “T4R4 ROOFRAC MOUNTING KIT” and inside it is multiple other smaller bags of sorted hardware. That’s when I see the smaller bags.... “T4R4-RR / T4R5 3/4 & 7/8 (RR)- MOUNTING HDW” and sure enough it’s the wrong hardware! There’s no rivnuts, it’s missing the spacers and hardware for the front mounting point and there’s not enough crossbar hardware. It wasn’t the hardware kit for the full length rack. I call them back again and the dude said he didn’t know how it could be wrong because he personally grabbed it yesterday and put it on the mail. The big bag was the correct one but the contents were miss packaged. So again they send out hardware next day air early delivery.

The next morning, August 30th another overnighted package of hardware showed up and would you believe it… it’s the wrong hardware, another set of hardware for the wrong rack. Luckily with 2 bags of incorrect stuff I had enough parts to assemble and install the rack. That’s where things got really bad. It was a total pile of junk and the fitment was a joke.

It’s like they got things kinda close and then just called it good enough. The width of the roof varies by a couple inches front to back. In order to make 1 length of crossbar the rack is straight and square, it overhangs the sides a bit on the back and sits above the black roof channel rubber trim in the front. That’s perfectly understandable and acceptable. My issue is the mounting tabs are all roughly 3” long and they have slots that’s are 1.75” long. It’s such a generic solution and it’s an eye sore. The middle tabs for example, the bolts sit damn near all the way out to widest points and there’s a bunch of tab that sticks out for no reason with long unused slot that serves no purpose other than allowing an opening for water to get into the bolts via the gap. I’d like to see the entire rack about 1/2” wider than it is but with smaller mounting tabs that are drilled like they are actually meant to fit the vehicle vs huge generic tabs with slots for more adjustment then you could ever possibly use. In one of the spots the mounting slot is so out of place the bolt it actually bottomed out against outside of the slot, it’s so far over the washer can’t sit flat without being bent up against the side rail. The front were your supposed to drill into the roofs drip rail, the mounting tab isn’t even over that section of roof, if you centered the rivnut in that Chanel you would not be able to bolt the front of the rack down straight. One cross bar mounting hole on the drivers side rail was so poorly cut it didn’t go all the way through so there was still metal that blocked the bolt from being used. The last thing I wanted to do (or should have to do) was take a dremel to a brand new powder coated product because they didn’t build it right. Aluminum doesn’t rust or anything but I don’t want to give the powder coating an open edge to start chipping from. How did this make it past quality control? The metal for the mounting feet on the side rails were inconsistently bent. The passenger side had sharp angular creased bends where as the drivers side was a more gradual bend, that meant the installed heights were about 1/2” different and rack was crooked, the different in height from left to right was so drastic that the little right side spike things on the front edges by the wind deflector actually hit the roof. I think this is where the recommendation about using fender washers as spacers comes in... of course none of those are included. To get it resemble anything close to level I had to stack washers under the spacers so high that bolts were too short to actually thread in. Plus the “flat” rack is concave from front to back to which defeats the whole purpose of why I bought it.

Disaster of a product, it a bad design with even worse execution. I reached out to them with pictures and info and got no response, I was leaving the next day and I needed a response on what they want me to do. I followed up the next morning and still no response. So, I said screw it I’ll rig it up enough to function for the trip to pick up my tent and I’ll make my own solution for front feet because there wasn’t a chance in hell I was drilling into my roof to permanently mount that piece of shit to my 4Runner.

Eventually they responded back and assured me some new side rails would fix all my problems. They sent them out and I will admit it was better in the sense that the both rails were symmetrical in their bends so some of the problems were addressed but most were not. Plus when I looked them over I found spots of powder coating missing. I complained about it not having full coverage of the powder coating (I explained previously why I was not willing to accept an open spot in the coating previously when I said I wasn’t going to dremel the mounting hole open). Their response was that its normal and its unreasonable to expect their powder coated items to be fully powder coated.

4 shipments in, still a crap product doesn’t meet their product description or my expectations, and they still kept my money from the extra crossbar they didn’t send so I opened a paypal dispute. Prinsu/CBI offered $50 back based on the fact that their cost on the powder coating is only $8 per rack, which is probably why they missed spots, they said it’s was a more than generous offer. Obviously, after calling around I could not find any reputable shop that would repowdercoat two separate 6-7 foot long pieces of metal for $50. Or they offered to let me return it but I’d be on the hook for all the related shipping expenses for this order…. being out hundreds of dollars in total sending scrap metal back and forth just to be back at square one? Oh boy, lucky me!
They sold me a piece of shit at a premium and then flat out STOLE my money for extra parts yet PayPal said I don’t have a claim because they did in fact deliver a product to me....

I ended up opening a claim with the Better Business Bureau about theft and a product that did not meet their websites description or my expectations. Finally after months and involvement from the BBB they sent a prepaid return shipping label so I could mail all their shit back to them for a 100% full refund. The stipulation Prinsu wanted to add is they asked that I not “slander” their company and any negative reviews had to be removed before they would issue the refund. I ended up buying a Southern Style Off-Road full length rack to replace the Prinsu during Black Friday while hoping they would actually go through with the refund. I meticulously documented every item and how it was all packaged and sent that to them as the item shipped. I wanted to cover my ass because I was worried that if I didn’t they would try to pull some shit to weasel their way out of giving a full refund.

I did eventually receive my refund and while I won’t “slander” the company I have no qualms informing others of my experience doing business with them and buying their product. Joke of a product, joke of a company. I have nothing positive to say about either and would not recommend them.

The roof changes width and the rack is a fixed width because of the cross bar length. Instead of making the mounting feet relevant to the width of the vehicle they are all huge with a long slot. There is no reason for this tab to stick out so far and have that much room for adjustment that couldn’t possibly be used, ever.



Why are the middle mounting tabs stick all the way out when the bolts align at the outer most area on both side.


Which leaves a nice open slot for water to get down into the spacer with an inner diameter to big for the bolts. I guess they assume enough sealant can make up for the design flaw.


This is top notch quality control right here.




Drivers side bend


Passenger side crease


Which makes the pointy piece not even close to clearing (sitting on the middle and rear spacers, no front spacer in pace to bent the rack up and make it even more concave)


I couldn’t fit enough washer to even it out left to right, with this many I could get 2 threads on the bolts.


Height difference left to right



As flat and straight as a Home Depot 2x4! With the rack being that concave the tent which has actual flat rails doesn't fit very well and makes all kinds of squeaking noise. I fully expected equal weight distribution across like 6-7 bars, that was not the case.

 

Tent pickup!




Littleman was pretty excited to check it out

 

Quick random mod, with big ass rear dampeners, especially with remote reservoirs they are mounted up side down in comparison to stock. That means the shafts, although hardened and strong are susceptible to impacts from debris, especially rocks on high speed dirt and gravel road. The most common cause of needing a rebuild in a setup like this are impacts on the shaft causing a burr that tears up the shock seal. You can replace the shafts and rebuild the shocks with seals for relatively cheap, but its money, time, and effort I don’t want to spend and down time I don’t want to deal with.

These steel shin guards make for some cheap insurance. They come in bare steel so I just brushed on a couple coats of the same “tractor, truck, and implement” paint I used on my frame before mounting the sliders.

 

This thread is awesome, thanks for posting all of this! Lots of great info and even better photos. Very cool.

 

I definitely do. My job requires a ton of travel so I work in rotations but it leave me like 14ish weeks off a year. A lot of that time is spent adventuring with my little. I love being able to show him new things for the first time.

 

Thanks

 

Yes keep posting pictures and where you go. I enjoy looking at the pictures and reading this.

 

3 things seem to make haters come out... Modifying a Limited, 255/80/17 tires, and when I explain why a lift on the 5th gens IFS doesn’t add any clearance for bigger tires.

 

We had a nice little road trip in October- 11 days, 2700 miles, 5 states.

 

Totally not creepy at all

 

Taking the scenic route




More bugs than expected for October

 

Great pics. Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to leave the flat lands and head for the mountains.

 

255/80/17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers


After the road trip I got new tires put on. I figured I'd wait until after the road trip rather than immediately putting a couple thousand miles on the new tires.


When compared to 285s they are a little taller (33.3”), slightly narrower, a little lighter weight, less rolling resistance, less rubbing/clearance issues, less stress on steering components, less scrub angle, and with a slightly smaller contact patch there is more weight per square inch on the ground which results in more traction in many situations. Unless you spend a lot of time in sand and mud where floatation will help, this is a better tire size. From purely a performance standpoint a 255/80/17 is a better choice than a 285/70/17 for hard packed surfaces, dirt, rock, pavement, and snow. It’s becoming a more common size on 5th gens, but it’s not widely popular, too many people get caught up on the look of wider tire. I did a huge amount of research and found it was clear that the vast majority of people who have actually tried 285s and 255s on 5th gens prefer the 255s.


One other thing worth mentioning is that tire manufacturers have a recommended range of wheel widths for each tire size and while I understand lots of people run 285s on rims narrower than recommended, it’s nice to have the correct fit that the tire manufacturer intended.


As far as K02’s go, I had the vibration issues with them, I went through a few tires when new to get a set of 4 that would actually balance out and not shake. After a year or so I developed a steering wheel shimmy under anything but the lightest of brake pressure at speeds over 40-45. I always assumed it was rotors, no big deal but the pads were still in great shape so I decided to just live with the shaking and steering wheel vibration until I got some more life out the pads. Getting rid of the K02s and replacing them with Ridge Grapplers totally cured 100% the vibration under braking. I know the K02 build quality sucks but I’ve never seen a tire (without an shifted belt, delamination, or some kind of obvious visual failure) cause a brake vibration prior to that. Wet traction wasn’t great, snow traction was actually pretty poor for something with the severe duty (3 peak mountain with the snow flake) emblem but they meet the legal requirement of a winter tire.














I was not looking forward to getting the res installed because this was the first time in my adult life I was going to have to pay somebody else to mount and balance tires for me. I was really apprehensive about it and wouldn’t you know Discount Tire was nice enough leave a TPMS sensor loose after doing a "complimentary TPMS seal kit replacement" so it took all of about 12 hours to have a full on flat with the new tires.


https://youtu.be/1EzhaclX0uo

 

Nope.

 

Nice, I’m close to you then. I’m in Erie by the mountain bike trails.

 

I'm a little late to the thread... please keep it rollin.! I recognize a lot of the country that you're posting... great pics.! It's a beautiful state we live in.

 

I'm up in Fort Collins... we just might have to organize some off-roadin sometime..?

 

Stock vs not