New member, new to 4Runners and off roading

Hello. I live in western North Carolina, am an old fart (65) who is retired and into hiking and photography. For the last 6 months or more, I have been planning a 2 month trip in late summer and early fall of this year to the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, southern Utah and northern Arizona. I have a little teardrop trailer I tow for camping. I will stay in a campground for a few days to a couple of weeks and take day trips around the area, then move on to the next campground in another area. I took a trip like this in 2019 to the Canadian Rockies and Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and was able to go everywhere I wanted with my 2011 Lexus RX 350. My golden retriever who went with me on that trip passed away in 2021. I'll make this trip with his successor golden who will turn 2 next month. I'll have to put her in local kennels around some of the national parks, which are very restrictive about where dogs can go.

In planning this trip, so many of the places I wanted to see in these areas required a high clearance 4WD vehicle and I was scratching them off my list. One day the light bulb came on that I should just sell the crossover and buy a used 4Runner to be able to go more places. I ended up buying a 2018 Limited with 60K miles from the original owner, red with tan interior. It looks and drives pretty much like new. I have driven on plenty of lousy forest service roads in crossover SUVs, but have never done any serious off road driving. I have a full day session coming up with an off road driving instructor in my area who has a big property with an extensive trail network of varying difficulty to learn the basics and that will leave me a few months to practice around my area before the western trip.

The modifications I am making to the vehicle are focused on making it as safe and easy to operate off road as possible, while minimizing the chances I will damage it and/or end up broken down in the middle of nowhere where a tow and repairs could run into the thousands and screw up my trip.

The modifications in progress are a set of 3 steel CBI skid plates (bare metal), replacing the factory running boards with powdered steel rock sliders from Metal Tech, and a Cali Raised LED Anytime Backup Camera kit that will add a front bumper camera to the navigation screen so I can see what is in front of me in situations where I don't have good visibility through the windshield. I don't want or need a roof rack, so I'm having the stock rails removed and the kit from Toyota put in their place to plug the holes. A 4x4 shop in my area that I've been working with is going to do most of the work in the next week or two when the CBI skid plates arrive. I will wait to post pictures of the vehicle until after the modifications are done. There are no signs of fluid leaks with the XREAS suspension and I like the way it handles, so at this point I plan to keep it in place.

I have been lurking and using a lot of the information on this website as a resource over the last couple of months to help me figure out what kind of vehicle to buy and what kind of modifications to make. So thanks to everybody who contributes. Sorry to be so long winded.

 

Welcome to the forum Don, sounds like some great trails. The Runner will serve you well. Oh, and you are not qualified to be an old fart until you reach 75. I got my qualification cake last year.

 

Welcome

 

Welcome

 

Welcome from Wisconsin!

 

Welcome to the forum Don - looks like you have a fun trip in the works. There are some good trails in your area too. There's a NC thread you might want to check out.

 

Welcome! I’m looking for an off road driving instructor and wouldn’t mind driving up to western NC from near Atlanta. Can you share their contact info?

 

Ken, the guy's name is Dan and his business is called Outdoors in the Smokies. His property and trail network is in Cosby, TN, just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His full day session is classroom instruction on the capabilities of your vehicle and off road driving, followed by driving some of his off road trail network through sections of varying difficulty. He leads that in his vehicle. The cost is $399 and it's limited to 3 participants. I believe there is one spot left on May 2 which is the one I'm doing. He also offers access to his 4WD trail network and primitive campground - $40/day for the trails and $30/night for the primitive camping, by appointment only. Here's a link to his website - http://www.outdoorsinthesmokies.com...DVf94Ji7ji_Ua2n0BseWBk7CQ9Nc2AcL3EgSetH6QkuJQ and here is a link to his Facebook page -

 

SkippyRunner, I posted in the NC forum. I have been on plenty of forest service gravel roads around my area (western NC, eastern TN, upstate SC and north GA) and have hiked and photographed a lot of the area over the last 10 years, but have not previously looked for real 4WD roads. After I have the armor installed on my 4Runner and get the 4WD driving instruction I'll look for 4WD trails around the area.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome from Arizona! That is a great intro and a well thought out plan.

 

Thanks very much Don! Can’t join you on May 2 but will certainly look him up.

 

Welcome

 

Welcome Don, nice to see younguns taking up back country driving. A couple tips that can reduce grief is 10 ply tires stand up well to sharp gravel and traveling in pairs increases chance of good outcome substantially.

 

Thanks for the welcome and the tips. My vehicle is on its second set of tires, Michelin LTX MS that only have about 10-15K miles on them. They're the same tires (in a different size) that I've put on a Highlander and a Lexus RX 350 and have driven on a lot of rocky washboard forest service roads, and they've always held up very well. Everything I've read about them said they are pretty good off road; some people, including on this forum, swear by them. I know there are better tires for hard core off roaders but don't know that I can justify them given that I don't expect to do much off roading near where I live. Most of my driving is still going to be on road, so I'll see how the Michelins perform off road on this trip. I won't have any other 4 wheel drivers to tag along with unless I meet some along the way, but most of the trails I'm looking at will have anywhere from a few to a lot of other drivers on them. I won't have a passenger who can help me with spotting, which is a big part of why I'm adding a front bumper camera.

I'm going to be pretty conservative about what kind of roads I tackle. I have the FunTrek books that cover off road trails for most of the areas I'll be going, and will stick to easy and intermediate trails. Their maps have the difficulty color coded for the entire trail, so for something like Black Bear Pass I might drive out and back to the pass which is rated easy to moderate, but I almost certainly won't be attempting the one way shelf switchback section that goes on to Telluride and is rated difficult. If I see a sign that says for experienced 4 wheel drivers only, that will be my turnaround point. I won't be doing any of the hard core rock crawling trails around Moab. I just want to use the vehicle to get to great photo and hiking locations, things like Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef, White Rim trail in Canyonlands, easy to moderate mountain pass trails in the San Juan Mountains, and some rocky/sandy/washboard roads in Utah and Arizona.

Edit - then I look at your vehicle configuration and see Michelin LTX, so that's encouraging.

 

Looks like you've got your bases covered Don, happy trails.

 

Welcome. When I had my limited, it was able to trek most roads and obstacles that I threw at it. Didn’t really do any hardcore off-roading.

 

For the places you want to go, 17" wheels and tires would serve you well. The taller sidewall will soak up the bumps better than the 20" wheels.

 

I've thought about that and wish the vehicle came with 17 inch wheels. With the cost of the vehicle and other things I'm doing right now I hate to spend another $2500 or so for a new set of wheels and tires (since I'd need 5 to change out the spare) given that my tires probably have another 50K miles in them. I might make the switch to 17" down the road when it's time for new tires, particularly if I can pick up a used set of 17" wheels from somebody who upgraded.

 

Welcome from the center of the bourbon universe.

 

Here's a picture of the 2018 Limited I bought a few weeks ago, taken on a short camping trip in the Smokies this week. The only visible modification is the Metal Tech rock sliders I had installed to replace the running boards it came with. Other modifications are a set of 3 CBI skid plates and an Anytime Backup Camera by Cali Raised LED. Next week I'm having the factory headlights and fog lights replaced with LED light kits from Morimoto and Diode Dynamics (Sport).

 

Sorry for the double pic. Was trying to put one in as the thumbnail with my user name.

 

no worries - it’s worth two looks - the Smokies are great!

 

Lots of black bear activity while I was there, particularly in Cades Cove. I posted some bear photos in the photography thread.

 

Welcome from Denver!

 

Thanks. I'm not going to make it as far north as Denver on my trip this year but hopefully will get up to Rocky Mountain National Park in the next trip west. Too many places to see in Colorado, Utah and Arizona.