Have you actually reached the limits of your 4Runner's capabilities?

All these years and have never been. Have many friends who plan their time off around trips there.

 

Sounds like a good case study. I'm sure lift vs no lift and weight distribution plays an important role. The Limited with stock 20" wheels would probably win this contest.

 

There are dunes in Michigan i've been meaning to check out eventually. I don't know if it's my thing, but it does look pretty fun! I do enjoy blasting around on the beach I have access to up on the river here in Wisconsin. It's pretty awesome just booking it in circles and trying to drift the turns.

 

This is why my roof basket went away, and everything heavy is centered in the vehicle as much as possible. I bet with skids and sliders and heavy-ass tires, I'd hang with a Limited.

 

Sorry for the hijack, got a little carried away.

 

I agree, I only bought the 285's cause they looked cool. Probably someday when I get a little older I'll have the spacer lift removed and replace the 285's with 265's or 275's. It's just been fun with the higher stance and bigger tires but certainly not necessarily.

 

I have come to the conclusion that cargo weight limits provided by Toyota are more about guarding against rollover potential than what the rack and roof can handle, weight wise. just one mans opinion after days and days of research.

 

I actually did go to Glamis a couple of weeks ago...





The day we went over, the wind was blowing at over 40 mph and the dunes were deserted due to dangerous conditions. I had my elderly parents with me and they were not too keen on running the dunes, lol.

 

I was reading this thread and the post about wishing the 4R had an inclinometer like the FJ got me to thinking.... And here is my Home Depot solution from my woodworking shop....

magnetic base and has many uses....

 

I've thought about trying to add an FJ gauge cluster to my Runner too...it couldn't be too difficult, right?

 

Every time I approach a hill..

 

This thread inspired me to buy this. Best place I could find to mount. I like how it’s in my line of sight.

 

My first thought. Look Mom.......no hands

Good job.

Any idea where RED line is?

 

The short answer is yes I have hit the 4Runner limits. Here are the things that I have done:

- Destroyed my stock tires within 1k miles of ownership (they are not meant for Arizona off-roading). This was done trying to go up a hill with 4wd. Needless to say I didn’t make it and had to back down the hill.
- Went through some deep snow that was higher than the bottom of my driver door. Had to push snow out of the way to open it and spent 5-10 minutes digging myself out.
-High centered on my aftermarket skid plates on snow and Ice trying to get around someone who had a 2wd vehicle on a road that only was wide enough for 1 car. That took about 40 minutes to dig out of.
- Towed ~4K pound trailer in the middle of summer up from Phoenix, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ.

So what am I doing about it??? Well I did these things intentionally (not being stupid) so I can see the limits of my vehicle. I was in a controlled environment within 3-5 minute walking distance to the house (except for the towing of the trailer).

- The 4Runner pulled the trailer just fine but honestly it would have been nice to have bigger gears at the time. I am upgrading my gears from stock to 4.88
- While I am getting the re-gear done I am getting ARB air lockers installed (being done right now and should be picking up Monday).
- replaced the tires with more off-road capable tires. Also getting a winch in the event I ever get stuck like I did in the snow again.
- getting a 2.5 inch lift and bigger tires along with max tracks and recovery gear.

I think that should allow for more capability. But tbh the stock does a pretty good job.

 

mine hasn't, nor likely will get close to it's design limits. I'm a flat-lander from Florida...we're up in Bryson City,NC right now and have done several day trips to Grandfather mountain and through the Smoky Mountains to Gatlinburg and these road (which I know are relatively tame) scare the bejeezus out of me at times. driven them several times over the years in everything from Blazers to Siennas and now the 4Runner and I still picture myself rolling down the side of a mountain in a glorious fireball.

 

Somewhere between 0-45 degrees lol?

 

This sure would be nice to know. Of course, everyone's 4runner will be slightly different depending on lift, added weight, and location of added weight.

Plus, momentum can tip you over even on level ground, so a slip while tilted could increase the chances of a rollover. I think about that sometimes when I'm blasting around in circles on the beach trying to get the 4runner to drift.

 

yes. financially. they are not really giving them away.

 

TOP HEAVY ? not sure that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbiqdUlnWbc

 

If you french fry when you should have pizza’d, you’re gonna have a bad time lol.

 

I wish they had gotten the actual rollover on video. Not quite sure what happened there. Maybe it was top-heavy, maybe it was a knucklehead line choice. Or perhaps a hole or something was hidden under the snow that caused a corner to drop or the vehicle to slide and send it over.

IMO a greater concern for me than top heaviness is the lack of suspension travel in the front, not being able to keep all 4 wheels on the ground is not good for stability.

 

^^^agreed! That guy seemed to be moving a little fast to me. Maybe he was very familiar with the trail? Otherwise, it looked a little reckless, and probably just a matter of when, not if, that guy was going to have an accident.

 

Yup! I noticed he was really moving too. I seriously thought the video was sped up for a second there.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I tend to go a bit slow, especially in off camber stuff. And, more so in unfamiliar territory.

 

Agree with each of your observations and comments. Guess we'll never know because the videos comments are turned off.

THE END

 

I wonder why they're shut off?? The operation to flip him back over looked pretty slick. He probably should have given it a minute for the oil to drain out of the cylinders before re-starting it.

It would be nice to see what happened. I wonder if that was at Cleghorn. I see there was a Tacoma rollover there recently with one of the worst recovery efforts I've seen. And, it sounded like a 4runner had rolled in the same spot even more recently.

 

If comments were open at first? He was probably getting all kinds of abuse(such is the net). Which is to bad, because there's a lesson in there somewhere.

 

True!

But, you can't post video of someone doing something stupid on the internet if you're not ready for the shit-storm. It's like hitting the ignore user button here. You miss out on everything, not just the dumb comments.

 

Parts of the video do appear to have been sped up, including the guy’s ascent in the beginning of the video. Snow can make some of those Cleghorn off shoots a bit sketchy. Combine less than desirable environmental factors with a ‘hold my beer’ and ‘gotta get it for the gram’ mentality and anything that can go wrong likely will.

 

So true.