Kwik's Mall Crawler

Well, not so much an update for the 4Runner but more like one for myself; put in my 2 weeks at work yesterday which will end 10 years in the car business!

Will be going to school for welding, actually 2 possibly and I'll be using my GI Benefits to pay for schooling.

With a new house being built as well, the 4Runner will be neglected for quite some time.

Least she got new floor mats this morning -



With new seat bottoms, if I replace the front seat backs, the interior will look way nicer.

(excuse the dirty interior)

 

Best of luck with your new adventure!

 

Thank you!

It's been nerve wrecking these last few weeks, especially this last day or two, but with a strongly supportive wife, in-laws, and friends, I'm making a huge transition.

Going from 11hr work days, 5 days a week, making great money (at the cost of free time), to going to school 4 days a week, and having weekends off which will match my wife's schedule.

And we're counting down the days until our new house is built which is expected to be done by Feb of '22.

I'll still update this thread as needed since I'll still go wheeling as often as I can, just no real upgrades for the meanwhile.

 

Loved the build thread so far. You have given me some ideas as well as reaffirmed some I’ve already have. Is that first pic Carmel? I remember parking right there on our spring break trip to Big Sur this year. I have this pic of my wife coming in to park right there.

 

Yep!

What's funny is, I live only 20-30 mins from that spot.

Been all over the fire roads out there and several hours further south off 1.

 

To think, I wouldn't have had an update for awhile.

Got to meet up with a good friend I haven't seen since our wheeling trip to Utah.

He had an extra Bud Built skid plate he had been holding onto for me for a bit.

This thing not only offers a ton of coverage, but it's heavy as hell -



The unique thing about the way this thing mounts is that Bud Built provides a small cross member type bracket that attaches to the rear of the steering mounts -



Creates a nice and strong stable mount.

After a little bench pressing, I easily got it on -





As you can by the edges, 3/16" is really thick and strong for a skid plate.

Fortunately when I went to visit, Harley chose not to kill me knowing I'm highly allergic to cats

 

Little bit of wheeling with some friends -











Self-clearance mod -

 

Decided to finally take care of my damn CV axle seal that's been leaking for god knows how long. I will say, it gave me an opportunity to check out my CV axles as well.

I've run well over +12k miles on these and have to say, I've really put them through some paces. Nowhere near as hard as some of you guys with your crawlers, but I definitely would've broken a cheap store brand axle for sure. I do so because 1. these CV axles have a lifetime warranty and 2. I have 3 OEM CV axles on standby.

Anyway, here she is coming apart -



CV axle seal pulled, you can see the clear fluid dripping -



And the CV axle itself -



What had intrigued me was not only are they marketed as "extended travel" CV axles, but what I later found out about their design -



And last but not least, the CV axle itself. Awesome to see the assembly actually extend and collapse -

https://youtu.be/oKcnKuKpPOg

Their only weakness it seems is, the quality of boot provided.

I intend to, install OEM CV axles on both ends and getting my O'Reilly's replaced. Before using the new axle however, I will replace the boots with a higher quality variant.

 

It's been a real minute since I've updated this thread!

Well, a few months ago, my in-laws surprised me with this -



I had talked about how I didn't like lugging around my old water setup. Sure it was nice having a large tank and pressurized water that used an RV water pump, but this was lighter and much more convenient.

Sherpa Equipment Co. bracket coming in handy to mount it up on my roof.

And here it is all set up; fucking mint -

 

Fast forward to last week, a few days before our weekend camping trip, and I heard a sudden loud tapping from the engine bay.

It occurred in the parking lot as soon as I got off of class, and with no other plans, I figured I'd take care of it right away.

Popped the hood, and noticed my spark plug boot was sort of fluttering meaning it wasn't seated all the way. Tried to seat it to no avail, it was already attached to the plug.

Anyway, I found some dual electrode plugs and some wires (just for the hell of it) and got right to it -

 

And fortunately, all was well for this weekend as we hit up Universal Studios -



We stayed at a hotel for the night as we waited anxiously for the next day to go camping -



We spent a few days there, but seeing as how we were several hours from home, we thought we'd take advantage of a little field trip.

Off to the museum -





Coming back was nice; though I'm a backpacker and prefer the simple things...it's nice coming back to a little luxury. It's still pretty primitive to others really, but I'm the complete opposite of your typical glamper -

 

Little update to my black beauty; external storage!

Introducing the Roam Adventure Co 83L case -







Now for those wondering, I've conducted a highly scientific study in a controlled environment to asses just how many IPA's can fit comfortably in the new case.

The answer, 75 with room in between for ice -





Now for those wondering, since I said this will be external storage, I purchased these mounts from Sherpa Equipment Co which allow me to mount this case without any permanent modification to the case. If you look closely at the left and right edges of the case with the lid open, you'll see slots that go through the case. A metal bracket is inserted into the slot, and mounts at the bottom outside the case to the rack itself.

My only gripe is that, everything Sherpa Equipment Co uses is allen head yet this time for their mounts, they went ahead with metric head; why?

Easy remedy with a trip to Home Depot which I'll do tomorrow. Here you can see the metric head next to the allen head -



And, after a nice 6hr drive to my storage to grab a few things, I got home and mounted this bad boy right up -







My only complaint is that the interior height isn't as tall as I'd like it to be. Really, this isn't surprising considering how low profile it is.

This could also be attributed to things like my old Coleman 2-burner stove, +11 year old tent, and other bulky items I've yet to replace.

Here you can see I was able to stuff my stove, quilt, sleeping pad, Bronx' sleeping bag, and my poncho liner. Pretty much everything needed to sleep sans tent -



I do have an ultralight tent that'd easily fit in my case, but it's not large enough for the 3 of us.

Here's what 5 days camping for 2+1 dog looks like -



And for your viewing enjoyment!

 

Good thread. I like your truck and the changes you've made, simple yet purposeful. I plan on selling my 07 Tacoma soon and replacing it with a 01-02 4runner SR5 4x4.

 

Thank you! Been meaning to update this thread with some pics I took this last Sunday with some friends.

 

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed this post and how you chronicled things!

 

Sunday morning started with a rendezvous at AM PM, and after a few hello's, off we went -



Crazy to think that we went from dry and sunny to snow within 25 minutes of driving -



Snow had already reached knee high depths and it only got deeper the farther we went.

Someone made an ugly ass snowman. Wonder if it was a 'colored' snowman...or woman...you know cause one can't assume nowadays



Love the snow -





However, we weren't the only ones that were out.

We had to stop and take a break because a couple of Jeep owners on 40s were not only digging deep ass ruts and getting stuck, but one kept overheating cause he kept bouncing off the rev limiter -



We took a small snack break, took a piss, and bullshitted while we waited and off we went again -



And then it happened again

We're not the type to get in the way in case anyone wanted to pass by...not like you could anyway with the Jeeps taking a ton of room. So we parked and decided to have lunch -



At this point, the snow was coming close to waist high.



We had gone pretty far and we had already been out for a few hours.

What I didn't snap pics of was when 2 of my buddies got stuck in those very deep ruts the Jeeps left behind. Took a bit shoveling them out but we got out without any more than self-recovery.

So when we headed back, we ran into another pair of Jeeps; one of them was stuck.

After some shoveling (it was 2 girls and 1 guy, they weren't able to do much) we got them out -





One interesting fact is that there were actually 3 Jeeps; apparently 1 of them had to leave as they punctured their oil pan. Well, we were several miles out already so I can imagine they won't get far.

Heading back, I decided to lead and have the 2 Jeeps go behind me, while the rest of my friends followed behind them -



And here's that oil trail -



We did have to stop and pull to the side as we ran into some opposing traffic -



After a nice drive, we made it to the pavement -







Just ahead of this bend, before we took off for home, was that 3rd Jeep. All out of oil and an engine that'll surely need replacing.

Was a fun trip that's for sure and a good way to start the new year.

 

Thanks!

 

The snow trip looks like fun, barring the Jeep slow downs. It seems like operator error that made the Jeeps less than adequate for the jaunt in the snow.

 

Did a bit of a thing.

Back in the day, I would upgrade the audio of every vehicle I had. From a head unit with +4V preamp outputs, to time alignment, components running off their own amps, and custom subwoofer enclosures.

Now, I was just happy to get just a tiny bit of oomph without sacrificing any space.

Enter the Kenwood KSC-SW11 -



At 5" x 8" it's tiny really. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a subwoofer but more like a mid-bass driver.

Install went without a hitch. Five minutes in and it's easy to see how one can quickly take apart the entire center bezel and all -



After setting the crossover and gains appropriately, I was genuinely surprised at how well it sounded.



If you haven't noticed, you'll see that my center bezel and shifter console don't match.

Well, that all changed when I finally decided to install the extra center bezel I had laying around -



Unfortunately, a few parts were broken and in worse shape than my current setup so I went ahead and yanked it out -



And I went ahead and swapped over those good parts -



Looking so much better already -

 

Nice work. It was a good read. So happy you are enjoying your 4Runner and making it look pretty good if I say so myself.

 

Thank you!

Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference.

 

Got her smogged and a quick vaccuum. Not like the inside ever gets dirty really -















Hope the next owner takes really good care of her

 

So your selling it?

 

Was, I mean I've gotten offers over my asking even.

Posted it for $12k, and as soon as I said pending, I've received up to $14k in an offer.

Trading it for a vehicle I want, and getting cash on top.

 

You getting another 4Runner?

 

80 series Land Cruiser instead