South Carolina BS thread under new MANAGEMENT and lives in SC

I thought black Betty was my inheritance!

 

My daily is mostly built: suspension, 37s, and front bumper. Just gotta add the winch, rear bumper, and buy a matching spare 37”. I have everything except the 37”. Derp. Then she’s done. For a long while.

I’m constantly looking at other vehicles. I guess I’m just preparing for my mid life crisis. If anything happens to this rig, I might go cray and surprise y’all.

 

Let’s start from the beginning, well since I left SC in late 17.

2013 Tacoma. Bf already had a truck with 400+ HP and he hated my 4 banger. She gone, sold private party.

Lexus IS wagon. 2JZ was fun as shit. Got a decent price on it in Cali. It was 3” off the ground. Think the roads are bad in SC. It’s worse in AZ. I scraped in every parking lot and daily in my own driveway. Insurance cost was insane. She gone, sold private party.

18 4runner offroad premium. She was nice but the interior is outdated. Comfy seats for longer drives. Once altered(lifted, bigger tires, armor), she turned into a slug. I mean, they’re slugs before alterations. 15mpg was meh. She gone, sold private party.

18 Subaru Outback touring. This thing was nice inside. Brown leather was gorgeous. Hated the eyesight. Apple car play was great. Then she started to be not so great. CVT sucks. She struggled getting up to speed when entering interstates. I wish I could’ve paid more for a non CVT, I would’ve kept it. She gone, traded her for the next thing.

2016 Inferno Tundra. I prefer dailying something a little bigger, makes me feels safer. AZ has awful drivers. Bought pre-COVID, then went to work from home. She didn’t fit in local drive thrus, specifically Salad and Go which is my jam. Every new drive thru I’ve seen is getting smaller and smaller, I get it, city life problems. I had to do a 7 point turn to get around from the order sign to the window. It was awful. My foster dog didn’t fit in the backseat unless he sat sideways and that wasn’t going to happen. Interior sucked. Also way more outdated than the 4Runner. Found a dude in a local tundra group looking to buy a replacement for his totaled truck. I already knew I was over the tundra and planned on selling it in the spring. Shot him a message. Asked for retail pricing, he got me down $500 and we made a deal. I miss the color, that’s my only regret. She gone, private party.

Went a few months without a vehicle while we had hundreds of conversations about what I should get. We were both work from home and I just drove his truck when I needed to get groceries or whatever. We talked about needs, wants, uses, suspension, maintenance, etc. He also upgraded from a 16 2500 Power Wagon to a 19 (new leftover) 2500 Laramie Cummins. Having a real key vs key less was annoying. Ended up coming to the conclusion that I wanted something I could modify easily, something we are familiar with, wanted all of the creature comforts and technology we already know, something that could wander/adventure easily. Soooooo, I found a steal of a deal on something because they listed it as a manual but it was actually automatic. Fully loaded at a decent price considering the lack of inventory over the summer. Thanks COVID.

Spoiler

Never thought I’d buy a jeep. But it’s very nice. I was smart and got the extended warranty(insert jeep jokes here). The suspension on Toyotas sucks. Ryan has had more Toyotas than any other brand out of his 30+ vehicles, but we were tired of spring compressors and IFS. I could technically fit 37s stock on the rubicon. I did opt for suspension change. Only complaint is that it came out higher than advertised. The Warn and full size 37” spare should help bring it down a little more. My parents visited a couple months ago and the interstate got shut down a couple months ago, instead of waiting hours or taking a 4 hour detour, I was able to take dirt most of the way home. I was surprised how well she handled. I mean, it’s what she’s made for.

We mostly used his truck for road trips. It’s our preferred method of transportation. Did a trip to Montana and Wyoming in the 4runner, it was fine but gas mileage sucked, even when taking it easy. The Subaru went to Colorado, but we drive after dark so it was scary. You drive through a lot of country or reservations out west. Never know if a drunkard, deer, dog, or cow will hop out in front of you. Anything would’ve totaled the Subaru so we went back to only using the truck. We bottomed out the rear suspension through NM on state highways. It was wild.

I’m more than happy to talk about the 4R regarding pricing, differences in trim, armor fitment issues, etc. if you’re on the fence. I did the most research on the runner out of all of my vehicle swapping.