UpperLeft Expeditions build and adventure thread!

[Roaming the West]

Hey all, my family got our 2016 SR5 in early December. We split from our 00’ Limited 3rd gen due to us growing and wanting more comfort and space. Boy, what an upgrade! I’ll be updating this thread with build posts, adventures (we go out every weekend) and problems! For now - here is a pic of her stock. I’ll be uploading more pics of what we have already done as well as what is on the list!
Thanks all!
-Shawn

 

[Roaming the West]

Hey OB Community!

I want to start by sharing the first and most practical mod we did on our 4Runner. There is a lot of back and forth about headlights. What’s the best for “brightness” best money for your “buck” and what’s not going to blind others drivers. We opted for the HID route. Now, I will say most new 4Runners have the option to change the angle or “line” of the halogen housings. I would recommend this no matter what bulb you have. This will keep you from blinding other drivers. We went with the DDM Tuning Plus 35w Premium HID Kit, Slim AC Ballasts w/ High Output Bulbs in color 4500k. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the install process- I will say these are not plug and play you have to do a bit of work. First issue I ran into is there were no directions. A few YouTube videos later and talking to my buddy I was able to figure out what goes where and flipping this and reversing the polarity on that. In the end we got them to fire. Second issue was the OEM dust covers hold all the wiring for the harness inside. I had to drill a 1” hole to fit the bulb in - that didn’t work. I couldn’t drill any bigger or the rubber/silicon grommet wouldn’t be snug. So I sniped the wire and with a help from a buddy we got it re soldered together and they work flawlessly. I ended up tucking the ballasts above the fender. There is a little plastic cover that slides off. I used some double sided 3M take and got them to hide away nicely.

The result is we love the output of the HID’s. There are plenty of plug and play options out there, and next go around we will definitely be spending a bit more for the convenience of plug and play!