mcharfauros: Mike’s Truck and Wife’s 4Runner stuff

15Jan2018

We got some snow, so my wife and I decided to just take a drive on some back roads. Nothing crazy just a quiet enjoyable time for us.

A few shots from that morning.

 

17Feb2018

My wife was getting irritated with me not fitting her truck with upgrades. I ordered a set of Stealth Custom Series Stealth 6’s along with a set of 32” Goodyear Duratracs picked a weekend and got the mounted.


Had to cut off the UPS guy on his route since it was a surprise and didn’t want them delivered to the house.



DTD kinda went nuts with the tire shine

 

In addition to the wheels/tires setup, I was working during the holiday season to secure a new Eibach Pro-Truck Lift Kit for the 4runner. I was initially told from Eibach that the kit would be ready the last week of December 2017, then turned into 2/23/2018, After numerous release dates getting pushed back on 2April2018 the kit finally arrived. The kit included ride height adjustable front struts, new springs front and rear, and extended rear shocks. It was a good starting point for the 4runner.

 

14April2018

I took the 4runner to the diy shop on post to try my hand at installing the lift kit. It was way easier than I thought. I just took my time, triple check all the torque specs, and before I knew it I was done. I was pretty stoked to have it all done, I called my wife to come take a look at the finished product, she was happy with the look, but still worried about it since it was the first time I ever attempted something on this scale. She gave me a thumbs up, took it in for an alignment, and we where good to go.

 

Over the months of March - April I did a few things here and there.


Picked up a set of Baja Designs Squadron Sport LEDs for fog lights.



King Front set showed up.



Told my daughter that the King shocks are my babies, so she hooked them up with a sweet sleeping spot.



Heading to Mod Day at @G.T. ’s shop became kinda my thing at least once a month. This is his epic RHD Diesel LC.



GT’s beast of a rig.



Met @ChandlerDOOM and his killer rig.



Who has 35’s on a trailer? @G.T. doesnt do shit half ass!



Toyotas everywhere at GT’s shop! Great place to get some shit done, mostly shoot the shit.



Spares finally arrived.




Picked up a rack in pretty bad shape, had it media blasted, then hit it with a fresh coat of rattle can Rustoleum to call it good.



Stacking parts. Wife getting irritated.

 

6May2018

My family and I just got back from Sunday Mass, and I get a text from my buddy asking if I wanted to go wheeling. Our other buddy Steve just completed his suspension overhaul and wanted to take it out on some tracks. I told him “heck yea, I’ll be there in an hour” they also wanted to see how the ARB Rear Summit Bumper turned out since they’ve never seen one.

Now being new to the Offroad scene my truck isn’t built up as well as my their rig’s, so the name of the game was pretty much try and keep up with them. They are both twin locked, on 35’s, with full @TOTAL CHAOS built OEM length front suspensions. So off I went to meet up with them.

I don’t know how those guys on Instagram do it, they seem to have a plan to get all the great shots while wheeling. For us as even as a group It’s hard to take pictures when you’re out there wheeling but we got a few pics from that Sunday.


All in all it was a pretty awesome day, I got to learn more about safety, technical driving, evaluating terrain and obstacles. These guys have been doing this for a while, so getting great info from their experience was great. Long story short, the Black Taco with the little 31” tires hung in there, I passed on 3 tracks they killed but for the most part the truck did everything I asked her, and handled it exceptionally. My biggest takeaways were knowing the capabilities of both myself and the rig, which are a direct reflection of experience and money put into the rig.



@G.T.




@MO Tacoma

 

Night shift

 

2June2018

I got these Relentless Fabrication Hi-Lift Jack rail mounts. They came in the mail around lunchtime so it was the perfect 5 minute mod for the day. I really dig the design, and love how the built in reverse lip can rest on the ledge of the inner bedside, allowing the weight of the jack to be supported by the ledge, rather that the rail alone. I will however look into stainless steel t-slot nuts, after dealing with the steel black oxide ones in the past, I’m over them.

 

Since I have a rear locker, is it okay for me to run a light bar? Either way, I went with The @SDHQ OFFROAD Built Behind The Grille Dual Bar Mount, paired with a Baja Designs S8 30” Amber Light Bar mounted on the lower side. I really like the look, and DRL feature, as far as functionality I really can’t say, since I haven’t taken it out on the trail yet, but definitely looking to get it dialed in Off Road in terms or real world trail use. I have since pulled the light bar in search of something conducive to wheeling.

DRL Backlight on Baja Designs S8



Amber Driving/Combo

 

Thanks to Craigslist again I came across a front and rear set of ARB Summit Bumpers. The title said “2015-current Tacoma Bumpers”, so after some digging they were definitely for 3rd gens. I couldn’t believe it, so I called the guy and he said yes they were still available and that he just needed them gone. The problem was that it was six hours away up in Indiana, so I talked to my wife about it, and she gave me the green light.

The Craigslist post screen shots.

28April2018



The story I got regarding these bumpers is that ARB stopped by 4 WP in Indianapolis in route to an event and wanted their demo truck fitted with new gear prior to arrival at the event. The guy I spoke with said the ARB guys just left the old bumpers there and didn’t say anything about it.




The story was sounded far fetched but when I compared the pictures of the truck in the shop, and the truck on the ARBUSA website, I could see they even had the same license plates. So off I went to pick them up that Saturday.

ARB Demo Truck in shop at 4 WP

 

5May2018

Back tracking a bit.

After sitting on the bumpers for week, I decided to give it a shot and get the rear bumper fitted. I didn’t get much photos of the process, because if any of you know anything about ARB’s instructions they are long drawn out and the bumper has a million pieces. It took me roughly an hour to inventory the hardware, another hour to give the instructions a once over. Before I knew it it was lunchtime and only managed to remove the OEM Bumper.


This hole is the only cutting I had to do just behind the lower rear fenders in order to run a support beam from the chassis to the wing panel that wraps around the truck at the ass end corners.



With the main tube fully secured to the frame, everything else kinda fell into place. I torqued down everything and buttoned up the loose ends, and finally finished up while the sun was going down. Again I didn’t get a bunch of pics of the installation since I was being rushed to attend my daughter’s prom picture photo shoot.

 

5June2018

Thanks to the old inter web on eBay I came across a mislabeled listing as a “WAREN 90340 WINCH” which was actually a Warn Zeon 10K Multi-Mount Winch system. Doing more digging and communicating with the seller I was able to retrieve the serial number and cross reference it with Warn Customer Service directly. Warn assured me this was a genuine Warn product, and would fully back the warranty should I ever need it.

Additionally they recommended changing the line to synthetic and changing the fairlead. Feeling confident in the information I gathered I used the Best Offer feature on eBay and negotiated a price of $750 with free shipping. I knew I wouldn’t come across a deal like this anytime soon so I jumped on it. If my math is good I figure if I can replace the line to synthetic with genuine warn products at retail cost it would still be cheaper than if I purchased a Warn Zeon 10S. Since I don’t have a high clearance winch bumper yet I figured this one can be put on the “get to later pile” all in all I was pretty happy and proud of my purchase, and love my new “WARREN WINCH”



Made in Merica!I support it!



Looks good, Chicks digg it, and it’s New!

 

22June2018

Still at it.

After stacking parts since March I finally had some time to upgrade my suspension. Once again I found myself at @G.T. ’s shop. With the help of some awesome Taco guys @MO Tacoma @HIYota who have become really good friends. We started early, in order for me to make a hit time with the alignment shop, we dropped the truck off and got some Mexican food while we waited for the truck to get the alignment sorted out. All in all it was a good day, Good times with good friends.





Steve @MO Tacoma did a great job with the eyeball alignment, when I got it back from the alignment shop, all they said the adjusted was the toe.

 

Reading the 4.88 threads, had me in the hunt for some Nitro 4.88’s. Came across a set with exactly 8,797 miles on them. Shout out to those cool guys out in Cali, for getting them out to me quick. Mike with Marlin Crawler went with the Nitro 5.29’s, thought I’d take a shot in the dark and ask if he still had em. Been sitting on them for a while. Uncle Sam has me doing stuff, but got back and ran them through the hot wash to look for any flaws or any obvious damage. Looks like everything checked out. Huge thanks to @BigMike for setting me up with these.

 

Damn dude, I was actually curious what he had done with them after he went bigger. Kind of ironic you ended up with em...

 

Yea, I hit him up after he started running the Nitro 5.29’s. He checked the shop, turned out they were sitting on the bench still in gear oil.

 

I've been following his build for a while. Way before the MarRack and the RCLT was conceived. His truck and mine are almost identical at the start, except his had the auto climate control.
Went 4.88's myself over christmas...

 

Nice, same here. I don’t think I’d go as far as he is going. But definitely interested in the MarRack, or something along the lines of a 100 series LC rack

 

@G.T. @Tacomania @mcharfauros I vote the title of the thread be changed to “Mike, the man of deals and steals”