What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

Spent about 5 hours laying under car with goggles cleaning off the frame and under body before i put a fresh coat of wool wax on. Everything that could possibly hold mud was full to the top, going to hit it all again with some degreaser tomorrow and hopefully undercoat and get my skids on sunday

 

What color / pattern wrap are you going with?

 

Another weekend, another camping trip

 

1 yr later, just got the ditch lights and light bar on

 

Dogs were scratching up the rear cover so I added some aluminum diamond plate and made a ramp.

 

Finally installed the little Dongar power splitter for my dashcam. Now to run the idiotic rear camera cable through the car to plug into the front cam...I need a new dashcam. 2nd time I've installed this one in a vehicle. I built one for the old square body Suburban using wifi and arduino. Might just do the same here, now that I have the power tap installed.

You know, I never thought much about dashcams until about 5 years ago when road rage people started doing all sorts of dumb stuff in front of me. Now, I'm like, tell it to the camera buddy, insurance co wants to know all about your comical behavior.

 

Another LED headlight bulb test in progress. 2019 TRDPRO.

 

Lift and 33s installed today.

 

Like the others having a ??? moment regarding turning KDSS on/off, I’m also confused.

I thought the kdss light on the dash was to indicate failure (like loss of hyd pressure in system), not on/off status

So, if you can turn kdss off, what exactly is its “off” state? Would off be maximum articulation, or maximum sway control?

sombody mentioned google says turning it off makes it so it doesn’t fight your suspension. Not sure I understand that.

This seems kind of a mysterious mod, not sure of the point. And not sure how it can be “off” if the hydraulic rams that hold or slacken the sway bars respond hydraulically based on the relative positions of each wheel.

 

I’m so confused! Part of the purpose for KDSS is specifically to allow for greater articulation…as in when you are crawling….below 12mph. What am I missing?

 

The point of this mod is too have full articulation >12mph.

 

Every time I think I understand the KDSS system I get knocked down. So, you’re saying if over 12mph, both rams lock down the sway bars, regardless of what the wheels are doing relative to each other?

If that’s the case, it sounds like a kdss equipped 4runner at 15 mph might have a rougher ride over uneven terrain than a non kdss, given those fat sway bars. It would be interesting to test ride them back to back at 15mph over rough terrain.

 

Oh, you seem to understand it just fine. It rides like a tank compared to non-KDSS, but definitely has less body roll. There have been many times I regretted getting the KDSS. You’re kinda limited on skid plate, control arm skid, sliders, and suspension options, add in the price and complexity of the system and I’m glad the dealership knocked off the price enough to where I really didn’t pay for that option.

 

After a long couple of weeks gave her a bath. Nothing like a clean rig!

 

Wheel one.

 

Sway bar looks funny Maby bent? Changed oil and about to undercoat noticed I got into my wheel pretty good also lol

 

We’ll have to stop on the wheels. Toyota cross threaded all the lug nuts on my passenger front wheel. One snapped completely off and another is completely trashed inside

 

Just had my fuel pump recall done. So I removed the skid and then checked the tank threads for the straps specifically for that reason. But wheel lugs. Come on Toyota it’s a shame

 

Yeah I’ll be taking them the broken studs and lugs Monday. Just got back from the parts store. I picked 6 new studs and and had to buy a whole set of lug nuts just for the three until discount opens tomorr

 

How do you screw up a full threaded stud that bad

 

Looks great! Quick question. What size are your “33’s”; they look bigger than 285 70/17’s. If they are 285’s are they the SL, C, or E rated Wildpeaks? I’m trying to decide what to get for my ride; I want the C’s, but they weigh 64 pounds vs the SL’s which weigh 51. I’m on pavement 98% of the time.

 

Bear with me, still wrapping my head around this. So above 12mph, kdss completely locks the swaybars down.

And below 12mph, kdss allows the fancy cross flowing hyd system to do it’s thing and respond to the wheels movements to either lock the swaybar down , or slacken it for max articulation.

All of this genius engineering to control sway under 12mph? Seems like a waste. Do turns below 12mph even cause significant suspension deflection for swaybars to do much of anything?

Why did toyota bother with the fancy hydraulic crossflow stuff? You would think the whole benefit of kdss would be at intermediate speeds where it could give you sway control or artic depending on relative wheel positions.

It would have been easier to make those rams self contained electrically operated rams from the beginning. A button operated on/off system- then again, toyota would have prob made the button not work above 12mph lol

edit: this link says the hyd movement is electrically modulated….but if all the wizardry is locked out at 12mph, then it still seems kinda not as useful as I first understood it to be. And not as simple either (from a design pov)

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/news/articles/kinetic-dynamic-suspension-system-kdss-explained/

 

Not sure how this turned into yet another KDSS bashing thread. I'll let one of the resident KDSS experts (@Thatbassguy ) answer your questions about how useless KDSS is. The nice thing about mods is that not everyone has to "get it". If you dont get the point of why anyone would want the ability to turn off KDSS >12mph then this mod is def not for you.
I don't get the point of raptor lights on 4Runners but thousands of others do so i just get on with my life.

 

By being an asshole with a 300ft/lb impact gun and zero fucks to give?

Jason

 

Sorry if it came off as bashing…Im actually not bashing KDSS. It’s more me being in the “grieving process” that KDSS apparently is not what I thought it was lol. Because if it truly locks down the swaybars completely at 12mph, then it’s not as useful as I thought it was. Unless Im still not understanding the system correctly.

If it locks down at 12mph, then I absolutely understand the usefulness of the switch you bought.

Edit: your thoughts/review on the mod would be appreciated as a matter of fact. Especially how it does on rough gravel/dirt at medium speeds

 

I'm not really sure why they chose 12 miles an hour exactly, but I guess the point is that above 12 miles an hour you're not going to be doing anything that requires heavy articulation. Below 12 miles an hour is when you want the sway bars to be able to disengage and move freely.

So yes it is actually quite useful. Due to the partial disengagement at low speed they are able to use a stiffer sway bar which makes the vehicle feel more stable in curves at speed. So you are getting two benefits with kdss. The added off-road articulation at low speeds is the main purpose. The ability to use the thicker sway bars for better control at high speeds is a secondary benefit.

I believe the hydraulics were involved because the original system was entirely passive. Once they added the electronic controls it became more complicated and potentially more problematic. I thought I recalled reading that they were going to be going to an entirely electronic system at some point, which I think potentially could be even better

 

Cleaned it up some wash,clay,polish,glaze, Ceramic, seal and wax and Im beat and clean the engine bay....

 

Pretty much. I’m taking the snapped and horribly de threaded one and the gauled out lug nut to Toyota tomorrow after I drop the truck off at the wrap shop and see if I can talk to tech 459 and not go in to jump his ass but let him know that this ain’t going to fly and if he’s that over doing his job then move on and not screw other peoples crap up.

 

I view KDSS as similar to the Jeep's electronic sway bar disconnect. On the highway, sway bars are nice to have. But on the trail, maybe a little less useful. KDSS should effectively disconnect the sway bar on the trail allowing greater articulation.

By comparison and in the motorcycle world, off road riders didn't like the way ABS affected trail performance. The easiest way to disconnect it was to cause it to fail by adding a switch to the rear wheel speed sensor. Judging from the harness, it puts KDSS in a failure mode. Over the years, ABS in motorcycles has gotten better and with the introduction of riding modes, the rider can better control how the ABS works and if you don't like ABS at all, most bikes let you turn it off completely.
Unfortunately, KDSS is an all or nothing thing-it works as it does so the switch makes perfect sense.