Hey what’s up everyone, my name is Mike-
I’ve viewed many threads on here, but this is my first time actually posting. My friends have been on me about documenting my build and posting it somewhere so here I am.
This is my 1998 4Runner sr5. (No e locker unfortunately) Being New England based my goal was to build something small and nimble enough to handle our tight trails, while being capable enough to handle our mixed bag of terrain as well as still being a “reliable” daily driver. If you’re from the area you’ve probably heard people joke about how the rocks seem to grow out of the ground every year. We have lots of rock gardens, boulders, granite slabs, sticky mud, water crossings, and wicked tight single track trails that you’re going to pinstripe every body panel with trees on the way through.
*NOTE- I’m not documenting basic maintenance and such that happened in between this stuff. It’s been gone over a million times and I don’t think anyone wants more pictures of a timing belt job.*
This is what I started with, this is the first day that I bought it. I immediately ordered wheels and tires as these were dry rotted and one of the wheels was cracked. I also removed the running boards at the same time.
I went with d hole steelies and 265/75/16 Hankook dynapro at/m’s. I knew these would fit at stock height without any rubbing issues.
I knew my shocks were pretty blown and my rear springs had some sag to them, and I knew for damn sure that I didn’t want to have a LBJ failure. Next in line was some suspension upgrades. Here I went with bilstein 5100s upfront with eibach springs.
In the rear I used 4th gen 4Runner 5100’s with a set of toyec superflex springs from a 5th gen 4Runner that I got from a buddy and welded in a PCK from eimkeith, this was just more logical than taking the time to make one myself. This gave the rear about 3.5” of lift and the front around 2.5” of lift. While I had the front end apart in threw in a set of sankei 555 LBJ’s.
Spent some time in the woods and did some camping.
Fast forward through a beautiful New England fall and a rough winter. Not much happens during this time for me- I coach high school wrestling which takes damn near all of my time.
I notice that my rockers had been hacked by the previous owner. They did the ol’ fill it with spray foam, bondo, sand paint. Welp, they salt the roads here heavier than they salt the fries at your local McDonald’s. So I cut out my rockers and dog leg and welded in some rectangle tubing I had laying around the shop.
Here I should probably stop to mention a little about my background. I’m a welder by trade, the majority of my experience being in aerospace and custom sheet metal fab as well as motorsports. I run the shop I’m currently at and I do all of our CAD work, operate our laser jet, all of our tig welding and handle mig welding and the press brake when needed. I’m fortunate enough to have learned as much as I could over the years, and spent time learning to fabricate. I like to make as much of my own stuff as a reasonably can.
I’m old school in the sense that when somebody starts talking about building something, I except to see one off stuff, not just a bunch of bolt on parts.
Again, nothing but some maintenance happens after this for quite some time. i did get a bunch of wheeling in though when i wasnt busy training and competing in Muay Thai.
my cousin ends up getting a shop and buys a tube bender, he tells me let’s build you some bumpers. I’m all for it! My goal here was to build something strong, yet fairly light, good approach angle, and I could mount a winch on. I really didn’t like any of the other tube bumpers on the market. They either stuck out like a fat lip, or just were over complicated with tube work. I like things simple.
Playing around and trying to make the vision in my head come to reality.
This is what I came up with for awhile.
Some things would soon change. I got a 12k harbor freight winch on sale for $150. Installed that, made some light tabs to mount some bumpers lights.
I also had moved up to 285/75/16 general grabber AT/x’s.
Next at task was building a set of skid plates. Not having skids was holding me back from running the trails I knew I was capable off. Once again, I didn’t really like what was on the market, I also knew I could make them myself for free, So I got to designing. I wanted simple, with a flat bottom and easy mounting.
Temporarily mounted until I got my permanent fasteners. All 7gauge mild steel.
Right after I finished this up I said well… might as well tackle my rear bumper, so I made quick work of that.
Still wanted to build a tire carrier but I was waiting on parts to come in and I wanted to go hit the trails. So I temporarily threw the bumper on.
I’ve viewed many threads on here, but this is my first time actually posting. My friends have been on me about documenting my build and posting it somewhere so here I am.
This is my 1998 4Runner sr5. (No e locker unfortunately) Being New England based my goal was to build something small and nimble enough to handle our tight trails, while being capable enough to handle our mixed bag of terrain as well as still being a “reliable” daily driver. If you’re from the area you’ve probably heard people joke about how the rocks seem to grow out of the ground every year. We have lots of rock gardens, boulders, granite slabs, sticky mud, water crossings, and wicked tight single track trails that you’re going to pinstripe every body panel with trees on the way through.
*NOTE- I’m not documenting basic maintenance and such that happened in between this stuff. It’s been gone over a million times and I don’t think anyone wants more pictures of a timing belt job.*
This is what I started with, this is the first day that I bought it. I immediately ordered wheels and tires as these were dry rotted and one of the wheels was cracked. I also removed the running boards at the same time.
I went with d hole steelies and 265/75/16 Hankook dynapro at/m’s. I knew these would fit at stock height without any rubbing issues.
I knew my shocks were pretty blown and my rear springs had some sag to them, and I knew for damn sure that I didn’t want to have a LBJ failure. Next in line was some suspension upgrades. Here I went with bilstein 5100s upfront with eibach springs.
In the rear I used 4th gen 4Runner 5100’s with a set of toyec superflex springs from a 5th gen 4Runner that I got from a buddy and welded in a PCK from eimkeith, this was just more logical than taking the time to make one myself. This gave the rear about 3.5” of lift and the front around 2.5” of lift. While I had the front end apart in threw in a set of sankei 555 LBJ’s.
Spent some time in the woods and did some camping.
Fast forward through a beautiful New England fall and a rough winter. Not much happens during this time for me- I coach high school wrestling which takes damn near all of my time.
I notice that my rockers had been hacked by the previous owner. They did the ol’ fill it with spray foam, bondo, sand paint. Welp, they salt the roads here heavier than they salt the fries at your local McDonald’s. So I cut out my rockers and dog leg and welded in some rectangle tubing I had laying around the shop.
Here I should probably stop to mention a little about my background. I’m a welder by trade, the majority of my experience being in aerospace and custom sheet metal fab as well as motorsports. I run the shop I’m currently at and I do all of our CAD work, operate our laser jet, all of our tig welding and handle mig welding and the press brake when needed. I’m fortunate enough to have learned as much as I could over the years, and spent time learning to fabricate. I like to make as much of my own stuff as a reasonably can.
I’m old school in the sense that when somebody starts talking about building something, I except to see one off stuff, not just a bunch of bolt on parts.
Again, nothing but some maintenance happens after this for quite some time. i did get a bunch of wheeling in though when i wasnt busy training and competing in Muay Thai.
my cousin ends up getting a shop and buys a tube bender, he tells me let’s build you some bumpers. I’m all for it! My goal here was to build something strong, yet fairly light, good approach angle, and I could mount a winch on. I really didn’t like any of the other tube bumpers on the market. They either stuck out like a fat lip, or just were over complicated with tube work. I like things simple.
Playing around and trying to make the vision in my head come to reality.
This is what I came up with for awhile.
Some things would soon change. I got a 12k harbor freight winch on sale for $150. Installed that, made some light tabs to mount some bumpers lights.
I also had moved up to 285/75/16 general grabber AT/x’s.
Next at task was building a set of skid plates. Not having skids was holding me back from running the trails I knew I was capable off. Once again, I didn’t really like what was on the market, I also knew I could make them myself for free, So I got to designing. I wanted simple, with a flat bottom and easy mounting.
Temporarily mounted until I got my permanent fasteners. All 7gauge mild steel.
Right after I finished this up I said well… might as well tackle my rear bumper, so I made quick work of that.
Still wanted to build a tire carrier but I was waiting on parts to come in and I wanted to go hit the trails. So I temporarily threw the bumper on.
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