New to me: 87' 4Runner 4x4 SR5 22RE-5spd

[BLKNBLU]

I honestly like the original seats in mine. I would however pop in a set from an SR5 if I could run across some. They have additional side bolstering on them. Admittedly, mine are in good shape though, whereas yours are crushed. I'm thinking the 2nd gen seats won't slide forward (passenger side) like the 1st gen in case access through that area will be important to you. I imagine on a long trip like that, access will be important. I'm willing to bet that something that is a minor irritation at first can become a major PITA over time. Think about getting your current seats refurbished at a local shop. That could be cheaper (maybe not), provide a local businessman with some work, and keep your OEM equipment in place.

On the subject of access, I assume you are going to lose the 3 inch body lift. It likely was put on by someone in order to clear the 33's. With 31's you won't need it and can get a lower COG. You can also probably sell it. I'm not an enemy of body lifts by any means (some people hate them), in fact, I have a 1 inch on my truck and it really helps out in some cases to make a bit more room on certain repairs/maintenance. My thinking is more just for ease of you guys getting in and out of the truck. I started building mine into a rock crawler before I discovered the whole Expo concept. That is why it's so big and that is one of the major inconveniences on trips. Getting in and out, loading and unloading is all more difficult. I still like to rock crawl too so it's just going to have to do double duty for a while. I'll probably look for something more stock eventually to build into an Expo rig.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Yeah, I'll buy the body lift...

 

[Ruined Adventures]

we are planning about 6-9 months from now, so right around the beginning of summer 2012, are you planning to head up to the top of Alaska first to run the entire PanAm length? Im sure we could meet up along the way :costumed-smiley-007

Wouldn't that be summer of 2011? We're driving down to TDF from Texas, then driving the return trip all the way back to the Pacific NW...so during the last leg of the trip we'll decide if we will have the time for Canada and Alaska. I hope so, but we'll see where life takes us.

If your budget has the room, a bumper alternative is to invest in an Aluminess. They're very lightweight and strong, with more protection than a tube style...but definitely not cheap. Our plan is to sleep in the rig too. So I'm installing dual batteries to run 2 trucker fans and a fridge. I'm building a rear cage/soft top setup like the couple from ramblewriter.com did. Hopefully that will keep everything secure and breezy.

The guy I bought my Hannibal rack from had Scion seats and they were very comfortable and looked good. His didn't have the power options or anything so it seemed like an easy install. He was a taller guy, like 6'4 and he didn't like them because he sat too high and couldn't see out his mirrors. I'm 6' and I thought they were perfect so we might be swapping seats next month.

Really wish I new about that front end kit on ebay before I replaced all my ball joints...

 

[BLKNBLU]

Here is my budget buster idea.

Because I now have 35's on the truck, I can no longer fit the spare under the rear end and have been securing the spare in the back of the truck. No big deal for a day trip and actually preferable for a rock crawl trip. But for the long trips it really sucks. So I came up with this.

http://www.tiregate.com/hg_series_0.shtml

It also gives me a place for the Hi Lift which is another item that just always sorta gets in the way.

The starting point.

All fine and dandy. Seems pretty solid despite my concerns with the single mounting point.

Not so fine and dandy.

I spoke with Steve Schaefer of Sonoran Steel and we came up with this adapter. I can use it on road trips and keep the spare out of the truck. Seperately I can remove it for rockcrawling and maintain the high clearance of the bumper and keep the spare securely in the back of the truck.

Here it is mounted with 3/4 inch bolts through the bumper. Steve also sleeved those bolt passages for additional strength.

And the finished product.

And finally the point of all this is that it will allow me if I choose, to add an auxilliary fuel tank in the original spare tire location.

NW Metal Products makes one that I think was also sold by Downey when they were still in business. The upside is that it allows a stock size tire to still mount under the tank albeit lower. The downside is a kind of screwy filler neck up under the passenger wheel well. It is also gravity feed which can be a pro or con depending on your viewpoint. I like it because it is simple with no pumps or wiring or anything to break. Fortunately I live in AZ where anything goes with vehicles. It might be a complete FAIL in states with more stringent safety regulations. The NWMP one is expensive too... There are a number of other writeups out there for Ford and Isuzu tanks that serve as auxilliaries that require the removal of the spare. In my case, the spare is out due to size. Otherwise, I like the stock location for the spare and would strive to keep it. This might all be a moot point for you as you might not need the additional fuel capacity. If you're thinking about it though, keep in mind the issues that I encountered. It looks like a Marlin or Trailgear rear bumper will both have those same clearance issues as I had with the tailgate. It might be cheaper or at least an even steven deal to get a custom swing out bumper made exactly to your specs if you want to do something like this. Between the hitchgate and the fix, I have an embarassing sum of $$ wrapped up in the project.

 

[Ruined Adventures]

a spare 31" should fit in the stock location...my plan is upgrade to 31"x10.5x15's for the same reasons LaOutbackTrail mentioned. Call me aluminum crazy, but I'm really curious about a rear multicarrier made out of aluminum. The weight savings are pretty hard to ignore and after paying for a complete Tiregate setup you may end up in the same ballpark.

Two spares may be overkill, but may be necessary. I can't remember who, but I've heard of several folks needing extra spares on the trip because they had more than one flat that couldn't be patched :Wow1: I've had wild ideas about taking heavy duty innertubes to slip inside of unpatchable tires in a pinch, of course you'd need onboard air...but I've never attempted it and that's probably not even feasible.

 

[jh504]

Yeah, I'll buy the body lift...

I have one for sale dude. PM me.

Also, some 2nd Gens were two doors. I wonder if the seats came forward a little more on those? I LOVE second Gen seats. I am looking for some to replace my 60/40 bench.

 

[corax]

Any big advantage to upgrading to a 16" over a 15" rim?

tires that fit a 15" rim are much less expensive. I upgraded to T100 rotors and calipers and my 15's still fit fine with stock backspacing

a spare 31" should fit in the stock location... Call me aluminum crazy, but I'm really curious about a rear multicarrier made out of aluminum. The weight savings are pretty hard to ignore and after paying for a complete Tiregate setup you may end up in the same ballpark.

You can actually, just barely fit a 32" tire in the stock location. Interestingly, with the NWMP Aux Fuel tank, it should be possible to fit a 33" down there since the tire sits on an angle against the tank.

I'm not sure aluminum would be my first choice for a tire carrier or anything not 100% solidly fixed. Aluminum is not as fatigue failure proof as carbon steel is, so any deflection in an aluminum piece is a cumulative stress that adds to its eventual failure (cracks).

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Good to know.

tires that fit a 15" rim are much less expensive. I upgraded to T100 rotors and calipers and my 15's still fit fine with stock backspacing


You can actually, just barely fit a 32" tire in the stock location. Interestingly, with the NWMP Aux Fuel tank, it should be possible to fit a 33" down there since the tire sits on an angle against the tank.

I've got a 265 75 16 in the stock location, fits fine-ish. What is the NWMP stank?

 

[defrag4]

ya im thinking about ditching the body lift, perhaps going with 1" BL and the 2.5" OME mid-heavy suspension kit

Do you think mid-heavy will be sufficient? Not planning to put a bunch of crap in the back but I will be adding a sleeping platform, rear bumper, and perhaps a roof rack with water/fuel

Guess that is alot of crap after all now that I type it out

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

Sounds good to me. You might also look at doing the 63" chevy spring swap. Better payload, better ride, and better flex. And it should net you about 3" lift.

 

[defrag4]

yep your right, summer of 2011 :doh:

Just got back from this guys place, its like 4runner/minitruck/landcruiser/tacoma heaven, tons of old trucks that they can pick and pull parts from and Jeff knows just about everything about all of them

the toy connection
jeff olofsen
750 comstock street
santa clara, ca 95054
toyotaconnection at yahoo.com
cell 408-497-3479
shop408-988-4040
fax408-970-9779

Picked up a window regulator, shift boot, and bolt for the AC pulley bracket

He had some 2nd gen SR5 seats that he had modded to bolt right into the 1st gen but wanted $350 for the set :Wow1: I passed on those

you are right about them not folding forward though, apparently he modded these so they somehow did fold

They had some sweet trucks there and i couldnt stop drooling over them.

I found a guy selling a 2.5" medium lift set from OME on another board, I may pick that up if I can get it for the right price

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

I found a guy selling a 2.5" medium lift set from OME on another board, I may pick that up if I can get it for the right price

Do it. Then just add a leaf.

 

[BLKNBLU]

Points to ponder:

I'm not sure why you want lift. It strikes me that for your purposes it is more of a hinderance than a benefit. If you're thinking about added cargo carrying capacity then it might make sense. The OME stuff are fine products and I don't think you will have any problem with them. I'm not completely certain (and maybe Corax knows) but I think the mediums are a pretty straight across trade that net lift but not much additional carrying capacity. The heavies will add carrying capacity at the cost of ride quality (when the truck is unloaded). The Chevies will require significant fabrication work if that is a consideration and also move you away from "stock as possible".

Another possible solution is the ZUK Mod. Search it on Yotatech and you will find several threads about it. Here are a couple from Zuk's site:
http://gearinstalls.com/ ZUK's homepage with multiple writeups in the lower left corner if you scroll down.

A couple of the write ups
http://gearinstalls.com/dc.htm
http://gearinstalls.com/coilphilbert.htm

Some folks consider this totally hillbillie but most that have actually done it seem very happy with the results. To me an advantage is that you can get coils at different spring rates for different needs. Going to Argentina with a ton of gear? Put in heavies. Driving around the Rockies for backpacking trips with minimal gear? Put in something lighter. I would start off with getting rid of the body lift and swapping the 33's to 31's and see what your actual starting point is and go from there.

Wheels:
I don't think it really matters. The idea of reducing unsprung weight on the truck is a good one and alloys will help that. In reality though, the difference is pretty minimal and can vary depending on what you're replacing and what you're replacing with. I had those same rims you have and replaced with Toyota 15x7 alloys for IIRC an eight pound per rim savings. Now I have on those Lexus wheels in the pick above that are 16x8 and they are heavy suckers. I think they are only about a pound lighter than the steelies I replaced. On a long trip like yours the light weight savings of alloys could really add up, but in the end if the budget gets tight, I don't think it really matters what you run. As far as the break/bend arguement, does anyone on here know someone that broke an alloy rim or successfully bent back a steel rim in the field? I put a small bend in a steelie once and got absolutely nowhere trying to fix it.

My Marty Mcfly wheels LOL:

LaOutback mentioned and I would 2nd the notion to keep the roof clean if possible. I had to carry fuel on the roof once and it sucked. We were on a trip that would have no gas well beyond our ranges. I bought new cans and was able to just throw them in the back on the trip up so no problem there. I filled them and strapped them to the roof just as we set out on the trail and for the slow going on the trail they also were no problem though I constantly worried about them. For the highway trip home I didn't want the smelly fumes of the no-longer-new cans in the truck so I left them up top. I got into some really windy conditions and finally broke down and took them off and put 'em inside the truck again. Fortunately I was able to drive with the windows open for good ventilation and didn't have to suffer the fumes very much. If you think you need the extra capacity I would consider the aux tank or check out this cool bumper SOAZ made.

The fold down table is really handy and notice the water jug has a spigot on it which is also really nice to have.

 

[defrag4]

im digging that bumper, something like that makes sense to me over a roofrack, does anyone sell something similar for the 1stgens?

I am definitely going to remove the 3" BL, its overkill and unnecessary when moving back to 31" tires

I came across another guy who did that ZUK mod and it seems simple and cheap enough.

I am going to talk to a couple 4x4 shops around here about removing the BL and possible suspension work as it is beyond my skillset

Just got the AC pulley installed and reinstalled the belt, eveyrthing seems to spinning OK but not getting cold air, may just need a recharge

 

[corax]

What is the NWMP stank?

14 gallon aux fuel tank, I installed mine with a transfer pump so I didn't lose the 1" of ground clearance with the fitting on the bottom. It's wired with a flow switch so the pump turns off once the aux tank is empty (prevents pump burning out while making sure I completely empty the aux tank) - just need to be careful I don't overfill the main tank
my NWMP install - post #23
NorthWest Metal Products page

I'm not sure why you want lift. It strikes me that for your purposes it is more of a hinderance than a benefit. If you're thinking about added cargo carrying capacity then it might make sense. The OME stuff are fine products and I don't think you will have any problem with them. I'm not completely certain (and maybe Corax knows) but I think the mediums are a pretty straight across trade that net lift but not much additional carrying capacity. The heavies will add carrying capacity at the cost of ride quality (when the truck is unloaded). The Chevies will require significant fabrication work if that is a consideration and also move you away from "stock as possible".

OME claims a 1-2" lift with their rear springs, but add in normal spring sag with the age of these vehicles and you might be surprised at the final height. I nearly gained on 5" on my install, and that was with a level stance before I started (extended shackles) - I ended up taking the short overload out (really more of a spacer) and selling the extended shackles to bring the rear down. This was with stock front torsion bars and ride height (still had 1.25" of lift from the shackles in this pic)

My suggestion is to get the OME Dakars, as they still have overload leaves to handle weight, and see how you like them - I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you think you need an extra inch, get extended length shackles - a side benefit of longer shackles is that they'll rotate the pinion up a little and help prevent u-joint vibrations at highway speeds that you might get if you have too much rear lift without a "wedge" shim between the leaves and axle.