Corax's 1st gen RN61 4runner

[4Rescue]

Of course Not man... It's a 1st Gen 4Runner... More ground clearence has never been seen on a 4wd Bummer about your trans man. hope you get the thing back in and running soon. This weather is making me ITCHY to go out and abuse my truck eh

PS Any word yet on re-locating farther up north mate???

Cheers

Dave

 

[corax]

stupid $5 project

I was bored and reading build threads the other day when I stumbled across these pics of a bar across the rear side windows. I sent the truck's owner a PM asking about them and this was his reply:

The bar is actually a Toyota part, it was mainly in the Surf's of that time, they are held in place with a screw at each end, and where your hook inside between the rear window and the sliding window, remove that hook, and that is the forward mount, and where the screw goes into the rear section the is a small hole already in the canopy. That is the rear mount for this bar. It is a very sturdy mount believe it or not. Where Toyota have put the screws it is very strong, I have used it for carrying ropes and hanging clothes on trips and even used it to hang camping lights. The heaviest thing that has been tied to them is a 25ltr jerry can for drinking water. I tied the handles of the jerry can to the rails to stop them from falling over when we went camping a few times, and they have never pulled out yet.

So cool, I can make something like that and gain a little bit of utility in the process. Take off the front coat hanger thing, whatever this is . . .

. . . and pull the tiny little plug out for the rear screw with a flat blade screwdriver (I never even noticed this before)

I bought some 1/2" conduit, cut two 31" lengths and hammered the ends flat on a piece of concrete with my ball peen hammer. 3/4" conduit will be too wide to fit between the raised lip in the front mount, so stick with 1/2."

Make sure the flat sections at the end are on the same plane, not that one flat is twisted a bit from the other or they won't sit flush against the mounting surface - a pair of channel lock pliers can twist them back into alignment if needed. I also had to mark and clearance the tube a little bit for the front of the window frame (behind the roll bar).

The mounting holes on my 4runner are 30.25" apart, so holes were drilled in the appropriate spots. A bit of Rustoleum Hammered paint and they were mounted. The front screw is #10 x 1/2" long, I used the screw that was originally up front in the rear hole.

One of my future plans is to figure out lower mounts (maybe to the shell bolts) and attach some cheap wire shelving vertically to hang a few light weight MOLLE bags on

 

[Soobarubin]

Man I love your 4Runner! Wanna take a cool trip to Rathdrum, wire up that sweet porch/deck light system in mine and then explore around? :elkgrin:

But in all seriousness, I do really like that truck, I'm taking a lot of ideas and inspiration from it! Keep up the good work!

-Jaren

 

[corax]

Thanks! Coeur d'Alene is on the list of places I want to check out eventually . . .

 

[Toyotero]

Wow, I dig those window bars.... and I can't believe that I've never seen them before!

 

[PirateMcGee]

Thanks! Coeur d'Alene is on the list of places I want to check out eventually . . .

it's one of my favorite places......

 

[corax]

I really like the LED lighting in the cab too, any pictures of it at night?

These are probably about as accurate of a photo as I can get. 4x flexible LEDs for rear interior lights

and the rear "porch" light - it's not as wide of an area light as I would have liked, but it's still useful, especially for lighting up the tailgate when it's down. I'm thinking I may switch the reverse lights from regular bulbs to these cheap LED driving lights, then I could leave them on without fear of battery drain and get wider coverage.

 

[corax]

I added another bar to the top of both rear side windows using (2) #10x1/2" screws at each end. They're surprisingly sturdy and I don't expect 'em to ever pull out - I can rock the truck on its suspension by pushing on these without any movement from them.

The reason for the top bar is so I can mount a piece wire closet shelf between the two to attach MOLLE/PALS bags. As long as the wires are 1" center-to-center these bags will attach easily and securely.

Finished product with the thick vertical wires bent over for mounting. I temporarily mounted it with wire ties, but it seems secure enough as is. If it comes loose, hose clamps would be the final solution.

I may try to find some wire shelf with thicker horizontal wires. The wires on the long span bend a bit easily, although the MOLLE/PALS gear, when properly strung up, will distribute the weight to each wire its attached to. The other problem has to do with stringing up the MOLLE/PALS gear with the wire shelf install on the shell - there's not really enough room to work. I think if I can find thicker gauge shelf, I might make the piece bolt on so the gear bags can be strung up and then the panel bolted on.

 

[Magnum Johnson]

I like the LED's, looks like I will need to do something similar in my truck.

 

[sctracker]

These might make your life a little easier. I like them and pretty much everything else maxpedition makes. All their stuff is top notch, but also top price so.

http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/3-TacTie-Pack-of-4-34p351.htm

 

[corax]

These might make your life a little easier. I like them and pretty much everything else maxpedition makes. All their stuff is top notch, but also top price so.

http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/3-TacTie-Pack-of-4-34p351.htm

Maxpedition definitely makes some top notch products. It looks like those straps are for MOLLE packs that don't already have the straps attached. All the ones I have use the "Natick Snap" with permanently attached mounting hardware (type 1 in the article below)

This article does a good job describing the different ways of attaching MOLLE gear: http://www.gear-reviews.net/Articles.php?action=detail&g=content1219307080&pid=1193

I also just recently heard this company -> http://www.tacticaltailor.com <- which is based out of Lakewood, Washington. Ironically, when I stopped by the surplus place to pick up my first aid pouch, a bunch of the used bags had Tactical Tailor labels on them. They seem to hold up well - no torn stitches or fasteners, just regular wear.

 

[corax]

Got a few more minor projects finished lately. I installed dual power outlets in the back - these are fed by 10 gauge wire from the battery and are "constant hot"

I also moved the grab handle from the driver rear to the driver front and put my Mag-Lite where the grab handle used to be (another 4Crawler inspired mod). One of the original grab handle screw holes were used on each clip with a hole drilled for the 2nd hole - I've hit bumps at speed that put my spine through the top of my head and the light stayed in place so I'm not worried about it coming loose very easily.

While I was back there I finally mounted my extinguisher to the roll bar. 2" u-bolts kept me from having to drill through the bar and will keep the extinguisher from ever coming loose on its own.

When I replaced the transmission a few weeks ago I broke both sway-bar end links. I can tell the difference in cornering and without them there's a lot more tire squeal. Since I like to drive fast, Energy Suspension 9.8118 end links are the same size and work perfectly.

I realized at the Oregon Trail Rally that it'd be nice to have my comm's speaker up high instead of in front of the center console. A short length of 1" aluminum angle and a few minutes with my Dremel gave me the solution. I'll probably end up buying another speaker and having one side for the CB and one side for the Ham radio - the sound is much better with them up there.

The piece of angle is just sandwiched between the rearview and the roof

 

[RBx]

Nice, i always look forward to your mods, handy stuff.

 

[corax]

Thanks! I have a few more projects in the works yet - just picked up a snorkel head and also started giving serious though to a front winch bumper with a removable winch cradle that can be transferred to the rear if needed like this one. How cool would it be to have one winch that can work in the front or back?

 

[washington taco]

Front/back winch cradle is a great idea!