Is it me or are 4Runners actual dust magnets!? (plus, another question.)

Hey y'all! Long time no see since I've posted here. Wishing all my 4Runner family the best over in the East as y'all recover from Hurricane Helene and Milton. I'm about three months into ownership of the girl, and I've been noticing just how much dirtier she gets compared to the other cars.

Maybe it's the white paint, but especially the hatch and rear cake up with road dust like no tomorrow. Now I'm worried about rolling down the rear window and getting all that junk inside. Haven't hit any loose gravel roads either, just paved roads. I wonder if the roof basket has anything to do with it, but I doubt it does.

Been wanting to get some insight though as to why it is.

P.S. I've also been wondering if anyone's had a problem with not being given the roof basket keys when buying a 4Runner. I'm facing this right now, I even contacted the dealership and they were STUMPED about not having the roof basket key on them, which I found really odd. I guess stuff happens but anyone guess as to what happened there? I have a roof key on the way through Amazon thankfully but I found it a bit interesting.

 

4Runners definitely collect a lot of dust on the rear hatch and bumper area. Word of caution, I had my rear hatch window down a few inches and the dust that collected along the glass and the weather stripping caused etching on my glass. I bring a dedicated rag and sometimes a “Swiffer” to clean up the dust on the glass during off-road trips.

Good luck with locating keys for the roof basket.

 

My T4R collects a lot more dust on the rear hatch area than my old TJ. It’s all about aerodynamics I guess. I’ve started taking along a compact battery powered Makita blower to clear off a lot of the dust before opening the hatch or after I leave a gravel road. That dust also gets into the hatch. Popping out the plastic handholds on the bottom will reveal a nice layer lining the bottom. Once in a while or after a lot of dusty driving I use a vacuum cleaner in one opening and a long tip nozzle for the air compressor in the other opening to clear it out.

 

Somebody needs to invent some fans in the rear airdam to blow the dust away. It's amazing how much dust collects back there.

 

This will sound bizzarro, but I was at our grocery store a few weeks ago, walking back to my T4R in the parking lot after shopping. I spotted another T4R 5th gen further out in the lot and noticed something hanging down underneath it.

Well curiosity killed the cat so I went closer to check it out. Here it was a very large diameter stiff cable hanging down from mid frame touching the ground. I got down on my hands and knees to further inspect. It was purposely bolted on the frame.

So curiosity further killed the cat so I tried waiting for its owner to return to ask them just WTF this was about. Turns out I was sorry I did because the guy turned out to be an asshole, asking what I was doing by his truck. I said oh that’s my 4RUNNER setting over there and I was just wondering why you have that big cable hanging down under your 4RUNNER.

Well he was pretty short with me but he did volunteer that it helps keep dust from accumulating on the truck. I replied ohhhhh-kayyyy…. Thank you sorry to bother you. And I walked away. He wasn’t very friendly about it.

So I thought that was weird. He must think it helps ground the vehicle and dissipates static or something- eliminating
some if not all the dust accumulation???????

Hell I don’t know. Guy seemed like a weirdo. I wouldn’t think it would be a smart idea. Wouldn’t the Poh-Leece notice that and pull him over if they noticed it? It seems to me the cable would probably throw off sparks if driving fast enough. And be especially noticeable sparking at night???

Incidentally, his 4RUNNER was that dark blue, and was pretty clean. Weird deal man.

 

NGL if someone is crawling around and hanging around my 4runner when I'm in the store and then trying to strike up a conversation, I would be pretty on guard too, these days who knows if it's someone trying to carjack you

 

OK thanks. Noted. Other than that, what does anyone think about that Bozo’s idea? Is anyone else doing this? Apologies if so. lol! (Hopefully he not a board member here, lol!)

 

Yeah people are weird. I tried to talk to people I parking lots asking how they liked theirs before I bought mine. Some were cool others like while the heck are you talking to me. lol.

I agree about dust though even every day driving or parked in my garage it gets a lot of dust.

 

In years gone by, like a decade or more ago, I remember seeing regular passenger cars on the road with a cable sort of thing hanging from the frame towards the front of the car touching the road.

 

You are old. You're thinking about "Curb Feelers"

 

I AM old...

The wire, or cable or whatever it was, was hanging from the centerline of the car, maybe under the engine. I remembered seeing these quite a bit for a long time, and then never again really as older cars were retired for newer ones.

@Borracho Loco I might start calling you "Pops" 'cause I don't want you feeling left out. After all, you remembered curb feelers, not me!

 

Aerodynamics, or a lack there of.

 

The ground straps are a thing. I beleive it is to dissipate static so you don’t get a shock when entering/exiting. I’ve seen them on company vehicles working around chemicals or gases.

 

My giant brick

 

I'm sorry your offroad vehicles are getting dusty.

 

Agreed. I've been told that I'm a very friendly person, but if I find someone kneeling behind my car, looking underneath, unless they are informing me that I'm dragging an animal carcass, there is no way that conversation is ending well. Some behavior crosses the line to the point where no amount of explanation and curiosity will overcome initial "WTH" reaction. Crawling underneath a stranger's vehicle qualifies.

 

My best friend Jim (RIP) drove 3/4 ton Dodge pickups for most of his adult life and he always had a thick rubber strap hanging from the rear part of the undercarriage to the ground. He said it was to prevent dust on the truck..... something to do with static electricity. Despite his best efforts, he never was able to explain this to me in a way that I could understand and believe it. And his trucks never looked any less dusty than anyone else's.

 

Makes sense. Airplanes have something similar…static wicks on the ends of wings and control surfaces to discharge static electricity back into the air.

Hmm, I wonder if rubber, being an insulator, would accumulate static, instead of discharge it.

 

In the old days when I was working on B-52G airplanes, there were no static wicks on those. The airplane would take lightning strikes during low level bomb runs (training) and dang near blow the wingtips off sometimes. We had one that took a lightning strike and it blew a hole through both sides of the vertical fin where the HF radio couplers were. When we got up the with a cherry picking, we could stand in the opening! Other times the lightning would hit the nose radome - one time at the very tip of the nose, there was a perfect "plus" sign or cross - three inches across. Touching it with my finger, it went right through! Lastly, I was doing an inspection on a B-52 and noticed that one of the external tanks at the wingtip (looks like a drop tank) and on the aft end of the tank, it looked like it had been shot by a bullet. Under magnification, one could see that the hole was melted aluminum. The scary part was, the fuel used back then was JP-4 (not Jet-A) which was a 50-50 blend of Jet-A and gasoline! Very volatile!

 

That’s pretty surprising they didn’t have any! I wonder when they started becoming common place?

 

Thanks for your service and maintaining those aircraft!

 

For sure I saw them on F-16s, and possibly F-15s back in the early 70s. There were times when I flew on the B-52s as an official crew member. When there was lightning in the area, it could be heard on the radios and interphone. Back when those airplanes were manufactured, there wasn't much thought given to lightning, or what Boeing later called HIRF - high intensity radio frequency. Over time with airliners being struck by lightning frequently, a lot of attention was paid to bonding every piece of the airplane to create a path for electricity to travel and then exit the airplane via static dischargers that were sacrificial - and easily replaceable.

 

@mac1usa thank you! I started working B-52s when I was barely 18, and have continued maintaining aircraft to this day. I always felt it was my calling in life. I will never be rich, but what a satisfying career.

I have done things to airplanes that would blow most people away.

Ever seen the Boeing 727-100 installed on the balcony inside the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago?

 

I know exactly how you feel. My vision was never good enough to be a pilot, and I was never in the military, but I've been an aviation nut/ nerd my whole life. I consider myself lucky that my dog and I got to fly nap of the earth in a Chinook, I've been dropped in the middle of nowhere in a Huey, and I've been hoisted in a basket into an HH65 Dolphin.

 

Thank you for your service!

My vision was not good enough either. I did take flying lessons in my teens and twenties, but other than takeoffs and landings, I found it boring. Looking back on it now, I would have had a much more comfortable life as a pilot. But I am very satisfied with my career.

 

Thank you as well!

"Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man. Landing is the first." I only did a few hours in a Cessna before I ran out of money, but working the traffic pattern was an absolute blast. And I agree with you, there are more important things in life than money, if you're satisfied with your job, it's way more rewarding.

 

I believe in my heart that it is what I was born to do. Both my father's side and my mother's side were engineers of some sort. What I do is as natural to me as breathing. I feel like I am lucky, because I know people that hate what they do for a career. I just couldn't imagine that.

 

That's awesome! I wish I could say the same. I enjoyed parts of my job and at first I was happy with it, but as the years went on I liked it less and less, and now that I'm retired I regret my career choice altogether. Good for you for finding something you enjoy and sticking with it, that's excellent.

Since we've totally derailed this thread (Sorry OP!), here are a couple photos :

 

Oh, I moved around a lot doing all kinds of things. When I went to the airlines, I worked as a flight control rigger for a few years, then worked the engines (on the airplanes) for a few years. Then I went to structural repairs for a lot of years. Big projects and small repairs, I loved doing those. Then came 9-11 and reductions in force. I went to the machine shop for at least five years and did a lot of cool stuff there. Then went to avionics out on the line (meaning the gates on active aircraft because I already knew the flight decks and autopilots). Then my last job with the airline was moving airplanes around by taxiing and high power runups and fan balancing.
After that, I left the airline because of a better offer.

I took care of a small fleet of Bell Helicopters for a tour operator in San Francisco. At first, 3 Bell 206s, then several 407s and a 427. Covid killed that business.
I was also working corporate jets during the helicopter maintenance days - Dassault Falcon 2000s.

I still take care of the corporate jets. I enjoy those.

 

I guess we hijacked this thread about as well as anyone could!!