3wbdriver's 2014 4Runner Build

[3wbdriver]

In the beginning there was a 2011 Tundra Crew Max TSS. I was perfectly happy with it except for the possible rare need for 4WD when I worked on land rigs. I took it in for a standard service at a San Antonio dealer in January 2014, and thought I would walk the lot while I waited. When I walked out the front door I was confronted by this rather aggressively equipped SR5 and it was a case of instant lust.



But the $7,000 price tag for the added lift/tires/wheels put me off more than just a little. So I went and walked the lot and found this 2014 Trail which was actually better equipped than the SR5 minus the lift. A few hours later I was headed back to the rig with a new ride. What is that they say about not shopping when you are hungry?

Mods to date (6/14/2017):
Bilstein 5100 kit - Fronts set at 0 w/OME 885 springs for 2" of lift, Rear Toytec 2" Superflex +10% springs
Black Rock D window 17x8 wheels
General Grabber AT2 265-70/17
Full Baja Rack
Budbuilt Skids
Shrockworks Step Sliders
Weathertech floor liners, vent visors, and bug shield
Southern Style Offroad Slimline Hybrid front bumper
ComeUp 9.5I winch w/synthetic line
CBI rear bumper
Cobra 75 CB w/Firestick antenna
Bushwacker Pocket Flares
Magnaflow 15584 cat back exhaust
AFE CAI
Smittybuilt Beavertail receiver insert/step
Beyond Cargo sliding cargo tray
Tepui Ayer RTT

Then: 1/14/14


Now: 6/14/17. I will edit this pic as I add stuff, so you'll have a direct comparison.

 

[3wbdriver]

A couple videos from May.

 

[Levidale]

Hell yeah! Nice rig!

 

[3wbdriver]

Several months ago I decided to try and create some overhead rod storage. I bought a pair of looped storage straps with S-Clips made by Nite-Ize. I then cast about looking for attachment points and settled on 4 D-ring picture frame hangars from Lowe's. I removed the rear hangars and the pair over the rear seat to install the d-rings behind them. The cargo area pair went in quite easily because the screw hole in the d-ring plate fit perfectly over a plastic stud on the hook. The front pair initially went in with some two sided foam tape on the back side of the handles, but that failed during the heat of the summer. So I've been without until I could figure up something better. I settled on drilling 2 small holes in the plastic plate of the handle hangars and using aggressively threaded wood screws cut to length to hold the d-ring plates in place. I used a pair of Nite-Ize 8" wire ties to set the tension on the straps and S-clips at both ends. That's a 7' rod closest to the overhead console. It stops about 3" short of the sun visor. I'm 6" tall and the right most rod just grazes the hair on top of my head. If it proves an irritant there is room to move 2 shorter rods more to the centerline of the interior. We'll see how it holds up long term.

 

[3wbdriver]

So I did a thing.

 

[3wbdriver]

I came, I saw, I surrendered. I got to the Appalachian Toyota Roundup in Tennessee Thursday afternoon and set up camp in the rain. After 24 hours basically trapped under the awning or in the tent I gave up Friday night, packed up between rain showers, and headed toward the house. I think if I had brought a ground tent I would probably have run some trails Friday during the day, but the weather had me discouraged from breaking camp. Something to consider when going where you know you will be camping in the same location all weekend. I had hoped to setup camp in a different location each night, but this particular park has one central campsite and everyone seems to be expected to use that one only. Here are a few pictures of the campground. No trail pictures obviously. I was told by someone else there on Saturday I made a good decision to leave. The rain never got heavy but was constant, and by Saturday the trails were just slop. And I'm not big on mud runs. I did partially salvage the weekend by visiting a couple museums in Birmingham and routing home via the Natchez Trace Parkway.

 

[3wbdriver]

It's been a kind of busy last month. I bought a 4x6' enclosed cargo trailer in mid January. I plan to relocate the RTT to that so I can use it as a base camp for the vast majority of 4 wheeling weekends I do. First mod will be a spring over axle swap which will require welding new spring saddles on top of the axle. All I need is a dry weekend to drop the axle and get it done. It has only been dry enough on weekends down here for the last 3 weeks to get it up on jack stands, and the one dry day we had was in the 40's. Which meant my 59 year old self would have been lying down on cold concrete for a while, and I wasn't going there. I do plan to keep the ability to use the RTT on the 4Runner on those rare trips when I expect to make and break camp for a different location each day. This is NOT an off road trailer nor do I expect it to climb Mt Kilamanjaro behind the 4Runner. Most of the off road parks I frequent have light duty trails to their campgrounds and I expect it to be able to survive those, or I will reinforce the frame so it can.

The other project was purchase and installation of a new Southern Style Off Road roof rack and the removal of the Baja Rack that entailed. It allowed me to mount a rack with a full flush to the roof fairing in front that is almost 4" shorter overall than the Baja Rack was. The downside is the new rack uses a slotted rail system that in not compatible with most Front Runner, Prinsu, or Ecotechne rack accessories. I have found that Rhino Rack awning mounts will work with it and hope to have that mounted this weekend. I will update as I find more accessories that are compatible with or can be adapted to the new rail system. Here are some pictures from what I have managed so far.

 

[3wbdriver]

Got the trailer spring over axle swap done earlier this week. It did as I hoped and leveled the trailer with the 4Runner. I've decided to frame the inside of the box with 2x4 lumber to provide a little more support for the tent and myself. It won't affect inside storage space and will give me a little peace of mind that the box will be strong enough with me in the tent. I'll post pics of that when I get it completed. Should be starting on it tomorrow weather permitting. Because it certainly wasn't today. I'm 3 weeks behind due to bad weekend weather since buying the trailer, and it's getting a little frustrating. I am mounting the spare on the right front wall down low but above frame level, and I have a 2.5 gallon/10 liter Scepter water can and holder inbound for the right front wall (easier for an older man to lift than a full 5 or 6 gallons). I'll also be replacing the fixed jack with a folding sidewinder jack, and at a minimum adding leveling jacks on the rear. Still brainstorming where to put them on the front.

 

[Kris022]

Great looking rig!!

 

[Hulk]

In the beginning there was a 2011 Tundra Crew Max TSS. I was perfectly happy with it except for the possible rare need for 4WD when I worked on land rigs. I took it in for a standard service at a San Antonio dealer in January 2014, and thought I would walk the lot while I waited. When I walked out the front door I was confronted by this rather aggressively equipped SR5 and it was a case of instant lust.



But the $7,000 price tag for the added lift/tires/wheels put me off more than just a little. So I went and walked the lot and found this 2014 Trail which was actually better equipped than the SR5 minus the lift. A few hours later I was headed back to the rig with a new ride. What is that they say about not shopping when you are hungry?

Mods to date (6/14/2017):
Bilstein 5100 kit - Fronts set at 0 w/OME 885 springs for 2" of lift, Rear Toytec 2" Superflex +10% springs
Black Rock D window 17x8 wheels
General Grabber AT2 265-70/17
Full Baja Rack
Budbuilt Skids
Shrockworks Step Sliders
Weathertech floor liners, vent visors, and bug shield
Southern Style Offroad Slimline Hybrid front bumper
ComeUp 9.5I winch w/synthetic line
CBI rear bumper
Cobra 75 CB w/Firestick antenna
Bushwacker Pocket Flares
Magnaflow 15584 cat back exhaust
AFE CAI
Smittybuilt Beavertail receiver insert/step
Beyond Cargo sliding cargo tray
Tepui Ayer RTT

Then: 1/14/14


Now: 6/14/17. I will edit this pic as I add stuff, so you'll have a direct comparison.
View attachment 26322 View attachment 26324

Beautiful rig buddy, love it

 

[3wbdriver]

I got the spare mounted this weekend and boxed in the inside of the box with a 2x4 frame to give a little more support for myself and the RTT. I'm still cogitating on how exactly to mount the RTT so it can be s simple swap between the 4Runner and the trailer for different trip needs.

 

[Kris022]

Looks good my friend. Looking for a simple swap solution as well. I saw where one person hoisted the RTT to his garage ceiling, which looked cool. But my garage opening is too small for me to get out if I have the RTT on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[3wbdriver]

Looks good my friend. Looking for a simple swap solution as well. I saw where one person hoisted the RTT to his garage ceiling, which looked cool. But my garage opening is too small for me to get out if I have the RTT on.

I have a HUGE homemade swing set made of 4x4 lumber that will do the job for hoisting. My intention is to use the same crossbars (80/20 Inc) between the trailer and 4Runner roof rack so I can simply remove 12 bolts and swap between them. I'll probably get the same welder who did the axle work to fab up a frame for the top of the trailer with the same mounting points as the 4R roof rack. Here are more roof rack pics.

 

[3wbdriver]

The trailer build continues with fits and starts. Last night and today I installed 4 stabilizing/leveling jacks. They should keep the trailer from rocking or shaking too much when I'm rolling around in the RTT. I'm piddling around with the interior layout a little bit. I'm trying to decide if the 2 water cans will go inside or on the outside of the trailer. Right now inside is winning if for no other reason than they will stay cleaner in there. Even if they would look "cooler" hung somewhere externally. The big Lowe's trunk in the middle is a work site tool trunk with an nifty internal table. I'll use it to store all the cooking and food supplies when I'm using the trailer. It takes up too much space in the back of the 4Runner so I won't carry it when only using that. I'm getting closer to how I want to mount the RTT. I'm thinking about a steel exoskeleton that will have holes that match the 4Runner's roof rack mounting points. Then I can leave the crossbars attached to the RTT frame, and just move them between vehicles as plans change.

 

[3wbdriver]

I got the RTT mounted today. With 4 weeks to spare for Lone Star Toyota Jamboree. A little fine detailing on the inside and it should be done.

 

[3wbdriver]

The trailer setup worked very well for the weekend at Jambo. everything you see in the camp came out of the trailer, and I was able to keep the load in the 4Runner down to recovery gear and coolers. As a bonus I scored a Foxwing style awning (strapped on the roof rack) that I will be adding to the trailer over the summer.

 

[Stoked]

I like the idea of a small, enclosed utility trailer for a RTT. I had never considered that. A friend of mine had converted one into a toy hauler once, with some fold down bunks, and hauled his side x side in there, but it would be way too big for my Land Cruiser. Something small like this could be nicely equipped.

 

[3wbdriver]

It doesn't seem like much load behind the 4Runner, but I do have to be careful with driving like a sports car. At only 5'7" of track width it has a high CG with the tent up there. It didn't get tippy on me but it sure looked close a couple times on off camber stuff getting the mile and a half back to our campsite. And I don't expect to ever use it as an off road expedition type trailer.

 

[Graeman]

A couple videos from May.

It appears that you have a sticker infatuation..

 

[3wbdriver]

2 camping and wheeling weekends in 2 weeks, but this will probably be the last until October. Temperatures during the day are just getting too hot down here now. We were worn out by Sunday morning.