Beginnings
My love affair with 2nd Gen 4Runners began fairly ignorantly as the extent of my wish list was only 4 things:
1. It needed to be a Toyota
2. In needed 4 wheel drive
3. It needed to be a 5 speed
4. It needed a have a V6
I was clueless to anything else...
Bigger tires: "huh?" Lockers: "whats that?" Winch: "Don't talk about my sister that way!" Roof top tent: "I prefer to sleep IN my house" 3rd Gen 4Runner: "can't afford one of those"...
This was before I had discovered the world of formalized world adventure travel, Overland Journal, Expedition Portal, Yotatech, and all other influential resources that shape ones vision of the ideal rig or at least what to do with the one you have.
But at the time, and being blissfully ignorant, the 1995 4Runner I found for sale in parking lot at my school was everything I had ever dreamed of.
$3600.00 later she was mine, complete with 165K on the clock, a few "leaks" to quote the seller, and bald tires. She wasn't perfect, but what love is?
A few days later new BFG ATs upgraded the "Maypops", white lettering out, and it was time for mud. I didn't know any different, so I never even considered a different tire size, or how white lettering out really wasn't my
preference as my tastes refined. All I knew was she was a truck and she could go in the dirt, and I would no longer have to feel such a pavement pansy when it snowed!
I was promptly out getting stuck in the central Florida sand, and loving every minute of it. When you are small town dirt kid at heart, it is pure elation when you buy your first 4x4! Especially when having been pavement bound. My previous vehicle was a single speed road bicycle, and my car before that a very urban VW Jetta.
A move to Montana from Florida really help that warm fuzzy satisfaction of being a 4x4 owner in the mountains justify my pride.
It was these simple pleasures of owning a truck, that for all I knew could take me anywhere I wanted to go.
Then came the fateful day I found an early copy of the overland journal at a Prescott coffee shop. Soon after I was addicted to Yotatech, looking for ways to take my simple rig to the next level.
I will say though, it was always the hope and hunger for exploration that inspired upgrades to the truck, not upgrades that inspired the need to use them.
Next post will include the latest evolution of my "Vehicle Philosophy", and why the 2nd Gen 4Runner fits the bill... in more ways than one. And later on, detailed list of my repairs and modifications, the trucks pros and cons, and few products I have found essential.
Tour on! :elkgrin: