BlairB's 2008 4Runner: My Long-Travel, Do-Everything Rig

[BlairB]

I picked up this 4Runner new and it has slowly evolved into this long-travel, do-everything (for me) rig. As it stands, it is almost ideal for everything my wife and I do and has taken us all over the western US. Over the years it has seen at least 5 different front suspension set ups's, easily as many in the rear, and I have slowly built up everything I have had break or fail me.

It now lives a life of 100% adventure and is typically only driven for camping trips and to visit the dirt.

The Rig

The Build Details

Suspension/Tires/Etc...

• Total Chaos +2" Long Travel Race Kit
• King 2.5 LT Coilovers
• Timbren Bumpstops
• King 2.5 Extended Travel Adjustable Rear Shocks
• Custom CSS Variable Rear Coils
• Rear Durobumps
• Rear Medic Links
• Overland Warehouse Brake Relocation Bracket
• 4crawler 1.5" Body Lift
• Spidertrax 1.25" Wheel Spacers (rear only)
• FJ Cruiser Wheels- Black
• LT255/80/17 BFG MT KM2's

Armor/Reinforcement

• Demello 3-Hoop Winch Front Bumper
• 4x4 Labs Rear Bumper
• RCI Full Skids
• DMZ Fab Motor Mount Gussets
• Total Chaos Spindle Gussets
• Total Chaos Coil Tower Gussets
• Total Chaos Cam Tabs
• the_josh Rear Lower Arm Mounts
• the_josh Heimed Lower Arms
• Shrockworks Sliders
• Kurtfab Diff Bracket

Outfitting

• Engo 10k Winch
• Viking Synthetic 5/16" Winch Line w/ Safety Thimble
• Baja Rack Victory 4x4 Roof Rack (just installed)
• MaxTrax
• Dirty Parts Dual Battery Kit
• Custom Rear Drawers
• ARB Zero 63 Fridge on DFG Tilt Slide
• Odyssey 1500TH (Aux)
• Toyota Truestart (Main)
• 48" Hi Lift
• 10gal Frontrunner Footwell Water Tank
• Danchel 6.5x10' Awning

Lighting

• 40" Rigid E2
• LightForce Blitz 240's- 75w HID Conversion

Communications and Navigation

• Kenwood TM-D710A
• Diamond NR770HB 2m/70cm Antenna
• Diamond K400 Hatch Mount
• Garmin inReach SE
• iPad on RAM seat mount

 

[WrightRunner]

Very cool T4r. How do you like your Demello front bumper. My T4r is sitting in their shop as we speak. they are doing my suspension.

 

[BlairB]

Very cool T4r. How do you like your Demello front bumper. My T4r is sitting in their shop as we speak. they are doing my suspension.

Thank you! Definitely one of my favorite additions to my 4Runner. I actually picked it up from their shop and always had great experiences when dealing with them. Also, in my obviously non-biased opinion I think it is the best looking bumper for 4th gens!

 

[Daniel Etter]

Nice 4Runner!

 

[BlairB]

Nice 4Runner!

Thank you! It has been a fun project.

 

[DaveC]

Hey Blair,
Nice rig. I'm trying to figure out how much to lift and mod my 08 4Runner.
I'm in San Fran. can I drop by and buy you a beer while you tell me all about it?
Could also do with advice on mechanics to do the mods around here.
Dave.

 

[pierceg]

Thats a nice setup

 

[Traveler]

Just cool

Sent from my XT1254 using OB Talk mobile app

 

[BlairB]

Finally updated the first post with some current build info!

 

[BlairB]

By the way, if anyone ever wants a good excuse to upgrade their suspension. "So this doesn't happen for a third time" sure seemed to work with my wife.

Two broken UCA bolts. One on the White Rim Trail in Utah, one deep in BLM near Death Valley around 10pm. Also a good time to note, if it breaks on one side, replace the other too. Both times we were very lucky and didn't break anything else.

 

[Boort]

@BlairB

Two broken UCA bolts. One on the White Rim Trail in Utah, one deep in BLM near Death Valley around 10pm. Also a good time to note, if it breaks on one side, replace the other too. Both times we were very lucky and didn't break anything else.

Holy Carp! I'm amazed you sheared off that bolt and did NOT bend anything else. Did you actually have spares with you for the trail repair? Is this common enough that I should be Carrying spares?

Boort

 

[BlairB]

@BlairB


Holy Carp! I'm amazed you sheared off that bolt and did NOT bend anything else. Did you actually have spares with you for the trail repair? Is this common enough that I should be Carrying spares?

Boort

I don't think you need to worry about it too much. I think the issue was related to my Fox coilovers and Camburg 1" UCA's. Apparently when All Pro initially developed the shocks with Fox they ended up putting a little too much travel (or so I hear) and as a result the suspension travel was limited by the bolt contacting the UCA when you fully drooped your suspension. My guess is after years of that, it finally gave way (twice). Definitely shouldn't happen, but I doubt others need to worry about it. That bolt doesn't carry a huge load, just keeps the suspension together.

The first time it happened I stole a bolt from my bolt-on sliders and used some washers and bushings to make it work. Second time I did something very similar but happened to have another longer bolt with me. I now keep a small variety of long bolts, washers, bushings, etc... with me and figured I can always shorten them with a hacksaw.

Here is the fix from the second break.

 

[Boort]

I don't think you need to worry about it too much. I think the issue was related to my Fox coilovers and Camburg 1" UCA's. Apparently when All Pro initially developed the shocks with Fox they ended up putting a little too much travel (or so I hear) and as a result the suspension travel was limited by the bolt contacting the UCA when you fully drooped your suspension. My guess is after years of that, it finally gave way (twice). Definitely shouldn't happen, but I doubt others need to worry about it. That bolt doesn't carry a huge load, just keeps the suspension together.

Thanks for the heads up. I'd not noticed the long travel setup when I first commented. I'm still impressed at the forces in play to Shear off that bolt. (something like 150kPSI for a standard Grade8, don't remember the numbers for the Grade 10+ stuff.) Good thinking on grabbing one from your Sliders.

Boort

 

[BlairB]

Thanks for the heads up. I'd not noticed the long travel setup when I first commented. I'm still impressed at the forces in play to Shear off that bolt. (something like 150kPSI for a standard Grade8, don't remember the numbers for the Grade 10+ stuff.) Good thinking on grabbing one from your Sliders.

Boort

These failures were what convinced me to go long travel. I wanted to make everything stronger (gussets, new LCA's, UCA's, etc...) and pretty quickly the LT started making sense.

I was shocked when it happened too. I still think there was some issue with the bolts. Both times I was actually cruising slowly, so it was even more surprising. And there was definitely some head scratching as I starting trying to search for a way to hold the UCA to the spindle. I was happy to find something pretty easy to get off!

 

[collinrach22]

Great runner. What is the tire carrier you used before the rear bumper went on? Looking for somthing like that!

 

[BlairB]

Great runner. What is the tire carrier you used before the rear bumper went on? Looking for somthing like that!

@collinrach22 Thanks! That was a CBI fold down tire carrier. I just tried finding it on their site, but couldn't. Not sure if they still make it or you need to look out for one used.

Overall it worked great for the time I was running it. Can be difficult to access the back since you need to fold the tire down, but it is worth it to carry a full size spare.

 

[BlairB]

Realized I am way overdue for updating this thread. Updated the first post with current details on the rig. Since I created this I have changed to Lightforce 240's with 75W HID's for distance, built a new drawer system as a COVID project, switched to a Victory 4x4 roof rack (not pictured yet), changed a few minor things in my suspension, rewired pretty much everything and have solar waiting to be installed.

And a photo from Death Valley a few months ago, because why not.

....and my drawers, which I am pretty proud of for a first real wood working project.

 

[Boort]

built a new drawer system as a COVID project, switched to a Victory 4x4 roof rack (not pictured yet), changed a few minor things in my suspension, rewired pretty much everything and have solar waiting to be installed.

Drawers look Sweet. would like to see your wiring setup and how you integrate the Solar.

Boort

 

[BlairB]

Drawers look Sweet. would like to see your wiring setup and how you integrate the Solar.

Boort

Thanks Boort! My wiring isn't anything special (photos below). Generally it was just cleaning up about ten years of "I will just quickly wire this HAM/fridge/rock lights/etc... for this trip and clean it up later."

My Dirty Parts dual battery setup has been flawless over the past ten+ years. When I redid my wiring it was really trying to simplify things. Overall I cut out probably 20-30 feet of wires and took out a few switches. I run my aux lights off the main battery on three switches (rock, roof and bumper HID's) and have my bumper fogs wired into factory fog lights. My winch and ham radio also run off my primary. The only thing running off my aux is my ARB fridge since it is the only item that runs when the vehicle is off.

As for solar I am going to run two 50 watt (each) flexible solar panels on my rack perpendicular to each other since it allows me to maximize how I personally load my roof. My original plan was to run it to a single Renogy solar charge controller that goes to my aux. If somehow my primary battery dies my Dirty Parts kit allows me to jump start myself (have done it a few times before when my vehicle was in long term storage).

More recently I have been thinking of getting a dual battery charge controller that allows you to charge my primary first and switch over to my aux when that is totally topped off. I keep going back and forth on if I should stick with the Renogy I already have though.