Forevers off-road adventures

Welcome everyone. Today marks one year of ownership for my 2015 SR5 4Runner.

I’ve loved the utility and capability of the truck, having used it to tow multiple times and explore the endless amount of mountain trails around Washington and Oregon.

I’ve been collecting parts over the past year, and plan to transform the runner into a more capable mountain explorer.

Stay tuned for regular adventure updates, and I look forward to hearing your comments

Modifications:


Suspension:
- Eibach Pro stage 1 lift
- Freedom off-road UCAs
- Cornfed 1/2” rear spacer

Wheels & Tires:
- Kenda Klever R/T 33x10.5r17
- TRD OR wheels blacked out

Armor:
- BodyArmor4x4 Hiline winch bumper
- BodyArmor4x4 full width bumper add ons
- BodyArmor4x4 Revo Rock sliders
- ARB full length skid plate bundle.
- Badlands D-ring shackles

Lighting:
- Road Shock 22” LED light bar
- Road Shock 42” LED light bar
- Raptor lights- clear

Recovery
- Smittybilt X20 10k synthetic winch
- Alltop nylon kinetic strap, shackled hitch receiver
- Bunker Industries traction boards

Miscellaneous:
- LaminX amber fogs
- PRO grill
- Baja Rack roof rack
- Blackout badges
- high clearance rear bumper cut

 

Photo dump from the first weekend I got the truck. I immediately had to see how the 4Runner stacked up against its off-road reputation. Here’s me getting after it, dealer plates and all.

 

A few months into ownership - testing out the ATRAC system here. I’m quite impressed, Toyota engineers got it right.

 

March of 2022. Out looking for snow. Didn’t get very far as the worn out chinese all terrains that came with the vehicle suck

 

Glad to see you’re using & enjoying your 4Runner…

Yup, get some good All Terrains or Mud Terrains is the first mod

 

I just installed some new tires a week ago, looking forward to trying them out this weekend !

 

Spring of 2022. Lots of forest road exploration, a trip to the Oregon coast, and a visit to Ladee Flats OHV out by Estacata Oregon. The trail system looks sweet, but is a little much for a stock vehicle.

 

Pro tip…. Trying to gauge the depth of a mud puddle? Your dogs will probably be happy
to help. Just not with cleaning the mud out of the car after.

 

What did you get?? Post some pics of the new threads

 

Welcome from Arizona! Those doggers are having a great outing.

 

@Dabigono Kenda Klever R/T. Have had them on for a week now. Haven’t been off road yet

 

July 2022. Out camping west of Bend, OR.

 

Cold and snowy camping south of Mount St. Helens. November 2022. My girlfriend and I built a makeshift bed in the back of the runner , and stayed pretty warm despite night time temperatures getting below 20 degrees. My goal for this current year is to design and build an elevated sleeping platform that allows for more room. At 6’1”, I have to sleep a little crooked in order fit in the back.

 

The last photo I took of the runner while stock, and the nicest photo I’ve ever taken of the truck. Playing around with my Nikon.

 

At this point, I’ve had the 4Runner for almost a year. So far it has proven to be a very capable vehicle. I’ve explored countless mountain trails, forest service roads, road tripped all over Oregon and Washington, and have had it on the bump stops towing fully loaded trailers. Not that I recommend the last part. While it will do it, towing isn’t the 4Runners strongest attribute.

The most apparent set back with the 4Runner, IMO, is the stock ground clearance and my stock 265 size knock off all terrains, which at this point were damn near slick bald in the front. Though, they were never good at tackling anything other than a rough forest road at most. There have been numerous times where I’ve had to pull an awkward 5+ point turn because I came up to an obstacle where I thought “if I only had a little more ground clearance… if I only had a bigger and better tire…” this became the norm after a while, and toward the end of 2022 I avoided going off road all together.

With that being said, enough was enough. Bring on the mods !

 

I’ve been collecting parts over the past year, with my initial plan being to throw everything all together at once. I knew at the minimum, I wanted a lift, larger tires, and a winch. I do a lot of exploring way up in the mountains, which is the last place you want to find yourself stuck, hours from cell service.

 

Suspension wise, I went with Eibachs PRO stage 1 kit. This kit gives 2.75” lift in the front and 1” in the rear. I also ended up adding a Cornfed 1/2” rear spacer to account for any settling while the back was weighed down from gear, etc. The front coils have adjustable snap ring perch’s to account for heavier weight, say from a front bumper, etc. The lift was affordable, and I’d read a lot of good reviews from folks who regularly off road with their Eibach lift. I ended up scoring a pretty good deal on them.

I knew that I would likely need UCAs, despite Eibach stating you can run the stock upper arms, and ended up with a set of Freedom off road UCAs, which I painted red.

 

I agonized over which size of tires to get for a long time. I flip flopped between choosing 275/70/17s vs 285/70/17.

275s would easily clear with the lift and are the lighter of the two. But on the other hand, they’re barely any bigger on paper compared to the stock 265s. 285s are the easy go to choice for almost every 5th gen I’ve seen, and I would be getting an almost true 33 inch tire, which was I what I wanted. But conversely, I’ve seen first hand the amount of work it takes to clear them on my buddys GX460, and I really wanted to avoid chopping body mounts and hacking away at fenders right off the bat.

I mulled over the idea of running 255/80/17s, and while I’m sure they’re the most practical choice, they just looked too skinny for me. I couldn’t get with the looks. I repeatedly thought “if only there was a tire that had the same width as a 265, but was taller”

after a bit more digging around, I found just that. Enter the Kenda Klever R/Ts. I had heard about Kenda through dirtbiking, my dad runs a set of track masters on his CRF450X. (Solid tire IMO, they hook up better than my starcross 5s). I had no idea they also made off road truck tires. They still seem like an up and coming brand in the off road truck scene, none of the major tire retailers carry them save Walmart. But Kenda had the size I was looking for, a 33x10.50r17. Which is the only tire in that size I’ve been able to find thus far. I wanted something a little more aggressive than your standard all terrain, but less than a mud terrain, so naturally the Klever RT (rugged terrain) was the only choice from there on out.

 

I ended up acquiring this bumper off of FB market place for only $350. It was in like new condition and was the cheapest way to mount a winch, cheaper than any reputable winch mounting kits I could find, let alone a brand new bumper. Plus, it comes with a place to mount a light bar, recovery points, and it just looked bad ass, with its protruding upper bar.

 

The rest of the mods I had collected at that point were mainly accessories, besides my Smittybilt X20 winch. They included black out badges, PRO grill, raptor lights, TrailGear roof rack, LaminX fog covers, TRD wheels, light bar, and other little odds and ends.

 

Build weekend was here. This is the pile of parts I had been collecting off and on throughout the year.

 

First step was painting the TRD OR Wheels I scooped up off of marketplace. After a thorough cleaning, I proceeded to sand down the surface. I used 200 grit for any gouges or rough spots, and 800 grit for the rest of the wheel.

after that, I applied two coats of primer, and probably a good 5 coats of paint, followed by an additional 2 coats of clear.

 

I wanted to paint my UCAs red, just as another piece that would stand out a bit against the white and black of the truck and compliment the other red trim pieces. Took ALOT of precise masking, but I’m happy with the final result. Included a before pic as well

 

Very nice!!! I’ve been wanting to do that to my OR wheels for a while. Which paint did you use?

 

Amazing job on your build. Keep up the good work

 

@Dabigono thanks! I appreciate the support. More to come soon

 

@golfguy It was some off the shelf gloss paint from Home Depot, I’ll have to check. That being said, I’d recommending using something a little more durable than generic spray paint. Engine block/VHT wheel paint might be a better choice. The stuff I used is a little flimsy and I anticipate it to chip a lot on the future, unfortunately.

 

Up next, suspension. No turning back at this point. The install was relatively straight forward. I had set the preload snap rings on the front shocks to the second highest setting in order to accommodate for the weight of the bumper/winch/etc. They needed a lot of compressing to fit them in. Ended up having to drop the front sway bar to get them to seat properly. For a moment, I thought I popped out a cv from forcing the lower A arm down to fit in the new shocks. But, 4wd still works thankfully.

 

If you know, you know.

 

The rear was a breeze compared to the front. Unbolt the track bar, sway bar, pull all the old stuff out, bolt up the rear spacers all the new components back in. Took far less time than the front. Solid axles FTW.