TW's active 4runner builders BS thread

Very Nice! Love your approach to eliminating the LBJ.

 

Done with the arm. Just need to add steering to the LBJ adapter
Tease 4 by Connor Rhoades, on Flickr

 

Dilemma time! Been back and forth on this. Curious to hear everyone's opinion.

So I currently have a modified 4th gen and just picked up a TRDOR 5th gen last weekend for daily driver duty. Planning to keep the new one for "the long haul." The 4th gen needs some work (suspension, ball joints, A/C, radio, seat re-stuffing, etc.) but overall is in solid mechanical shape.

Now that I have the 5th gen, the 4th gen is basically going to be a once-a-week driver for shits, and an off-road vehicle as much as I can get it out on the trails. Might drive it if we get a blizzard or any crazy weather, but mostly it'll sit. I love the truck dearly, but realistically if I did skids, sliders, tires, and bumpers, the 5th gen could do just about everything the 4th gen could off-road.

Herein lies the dilemma: keep the 4th gen, or sell it and dump the money into mods for the 5th gen (and the loan)? I figure if I sell the 4th gen, I can do most of that stuff (skids/sliders/tires) and still have some money to put away or into the loan.

Logic says sell the 4th gen, do some mods to the 5th gen, and stick to somewhat lighter wheeling than I prefer, but don't subject the truck to serious damage in any way/shape/form. But my heart says keep the 4th gen so as to not beat up the new one, and...well...since I really do love my 4th gen 4R.

The catch is that I'm planning a wheeling trip out west for 2020 so I do want something reliable, comfortable, and easy to drive for the multi-thousand mile trek out west and back, but I am hesitant to do so in the new truck (which will be ~2 years old then) since it is and will be my daily driver for the...well, as long as I can predict. The 5th gen would certainly be easy to drive out and back, since the 4th gen is a bit of a handful on the road now, but I'm struggling to decide if it's possible to wheel the 5th gen and not subject it to any heavy damage. If I'm going out west, I want to run "the fun stuff." But I also want to enjoy the trip, and not worry about any of the issues an older truck might have. A tough call, indeed.

So the question is: sell the off-road truck and jeopardize damaging the vehicle I need to commute ~100 miles/day in, or keep the 4th gen and deal with the problems (i.e., dump some money into it) and sell it after the trip out west? Curious to hear some thoughts on this.

 

That's an interesting idea. I'll consider it. But in all truth for what I paid for the 4th gen (an absolute steal, modified and everything for below the price fo what the truck itself should have been) and what I can get for it, I won't be really saving anything by dumping it in favor of a 3rd gen. And it would only increase my worries in having to maintain an older vehicle (which is where most of my problems with my 4th gen come in). I'll definitely think about it...need to see what kind of prices the 4th gens are going for.

 

How much does the 4th gen really need? I'd be hesitant to take a brand new vehicle out there and beat on it, but I'm sure it'd do fine. Are the repairs to the 4th gen repairs you'd have to make to even try and sell it for a reasonable price? If so I say make the repairs and keep it for this trip at least.

 

ive enjoyed beating on the 4th gen more and more. It just takes it like a good girl.

 

I don't think I would *need* to do any of the repairs to sell it. But it needs: suspension ($5000-1k minimum), air conditioning fixed (no clue how much), radio is shot ($300+), driver seat needs to be re-stuffed ($100). Nothing major major, but it adds up. Whereas I could probably sell the truck for $7500-10,000 and put half that into modifying the 5th gen and know that it doesn't and won't need repairs for a long, long while. But in light of that, I'm very hesitant to wheel the 5th gen in fear of damaging what I rely on to get to and from work every day.

 

i saw, you abuse yours worse than Ike.

Mine is more 1st gear bouncing off the limiter in the sand

 

I think the whole radio system is shot. I get mostly static through the speakers and sometimes the volume will display 12 regardless of how loud or quiet I make it. Probably needs speakers and a head unit.

The seat I have a guy who can re-stuff it. Was easier than junkyard hunting around here. Pickings are few and far between.

 

radios on the 4th gens are pretty damn easy to swap.

 

Uniballs are like 1 3/8” I think. They’re an odd size Kartek carries. Bolt size is 9/16”

 

In light of the responses to this thread I'm thinking I'll keep it until after the trip out west. Then sell it and start on the 5th gen...

 

im just not a big fan of the 5th gens. Too small inside and no V8

 

I mean, 5/8’s is only a 16th more. Using a higher grade bolt with larger yield strength is preferred because of steering.

Something like an F911 should be perfect.

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Heavy-16-18-Thread-Inches/dp/B01AO7DCKI

 

Gotta say, I love mine. Then again, my 4th gen is a V6 too so I don't miss the V8 since there's no V8 to miss.

In my dreams I have a 5th gen with the 5.7L from the Tundra. Oh man would that be sweet.

 

Ya but think about the load on a 4-link. The load doesn’t come from suspension cycling. It comes from the tire hitting a rock that isn’t directly tangent to the tire and parallel to the plane of the vehicle. And that load from hitting a rock is directly against that dual shear link bracket.

Now take that load and translate it to the way it is mounted acting as a LBJ. The majority of the force is the moment about the LCA mounts when the tire hits a rock or a curb. And that’s only if the steering doesn’t take any of that load first. Yes the Uniball supports the weight of a vehicle, but it never sees direct load other than that. Your shocks and bumps insure that the load that bolt sees is fairly linear with minimal peaks. It doesn’t see the same load a link bracket would.

 

Now think about the stock setup as well. The stock LBJ fails from fatigue. A ball joint supporting the corner weight of a vehicle fails over time and is further fatigued by the stretching of this plastic cup it sits in my over extending the joint it self.

The other way we have all seen it fail is the 4 bolts shearing. That comes from that maximum load scenario. A rock hitting the tire at one that is not tangent to the tire, allowing the tire to roll over it, but rather the tire translates this load into the wheel, hub, suspension components. That shear hits the 2 little pins and 4 bolts directly. And over time they will fail.


In my LCA, that 9/16” bolt takes the place of that joint fatigue, which will not occur.

The 4 bolts are still in place and taking that max load case, but there is not also a weld bead holding that adapter plate on to the spindle.

 

You view 5/8’s as adding 20% more tensile strength as opposed to 9/16”. I view 9/16” as adding 20% more tensile strength than 1/2”. Then again this is a proof of concept. My personal thoughts and load calculations tell me that this is plenty. Especially when you compare what it in the market place right now. Do you know how thin the stock taper is on the ball of the LBJ? That is direct tensile load and the joint still fails first.

If my kit runs KOH and the bolt does fail, I’ll buy you a beer. But right now, I care more about steering angle and clearance. I can only measure so much before welding a kit up and bolting it on. Maybe I have plenty of steering clearance, and I can go to a bigger bolt. Maybe I don’t. I intend on finding out.

 

Well I can’t find anyone to weld up my mount or the new dmz mount so it’s gonna stay broken till mid next year. Kinda a bummer but at least I won’t need a car so it broke at a good time.

 

It’s at my parents house in la and I have a short two week period to get it fixed. I hit up buddies and shops and no one is available in my short time period. Maybe I’ll just part t out when I get back and build something else.