URBAN.OPS PreRunner to 4X4 build & journal

Greetings, Ricardo here! CEO of #DIYFS! CA native, Baja/Desert guy. I wanted a truck for quite some time, but I was stationed in the east coats and was not going to put my hard earned money towards a rust bucket. I always wanted a 2nd. gen. but never had a chance to get one. Got orders to CA. so I knew it was time to start doing some research and hunting for a solid truck. I really didn't knew much about the options or versions. Knew there was a model that had a rear locker and was about it. I needed a 4 door due to the facts I have a family. Until this point I didn't even knew there was a 6 ft. bed. or a manual or etc. based on the research I set my eyes towards the TRD-OR DCSB V6 version, either manual or auto didn't care. Checked 1 3rd gen and it was already clapped out. checked a 2.5 gen but it was base model(5lug) and i was not interested in that. there were a couple locally but they were out of my budget at that moment (13k, 01/2020). My wife found one craigslist, sent a PM and we set an appt for me to take a look. it was an 05 PreRunner TRD-OR silver streak mica 4 DCSB in great condition, all services at the dealer, 102K mi. 1 owner, locally driven. test drove the truck and all was good, only notices the AC was not blowing cold, asked if she tried to serviced it, she said, "hell no! I am always cold" its 60-80 all year round in the area. we agreed on something a little less than my budget, we shook hands, went to the bank and seal the deal.


So far I knew I needed to troubleshoot the A/C, service the fade on the headlights, typical oils change, greasing, etc. as well I noticed the the upper compass was not working.
so officially this is the list of things i have done to the truck:

-Did a little research and found the following video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODLMPVmUu88 ) which I emulate and guess what, fixed the compass issue.

-Headlights were a little faded, I bought the harbor freight headlight service kit, followed the instructions and worked as a charm.
Edit: I highly recommend doing the cerakote treatment at that point I didn’t even knew it existed but work way way way better

-Replaced all the lights in the truck with LED(interior,exterior) got the stuff from Amazon and every single bulb is working great to this day. Obviously you will experience hyper-flash due to LED being lower resistance in comparison to regular light bulbs(i don't care).
Edit: went back to halogen bulbs on 08/22 on the headlights due to the oem housing is not design for LED’s and therefore you’ll not get a defined cut and concentrated beam. I went with Philips RacingVision GT200 H4...

$40 Philips RacingVision GT200 H4 car headlight bulb +200%, set of 2 White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KGH3JK8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share and they work fantastic! Sticking to this till the end of time.

-As mentioned before I am a Baja guy and having comms is a must out in the des, installed a Yaesu FT2980R with an MLS-100 external speaker and a Unimag from Rugged Radios.


-Installed a single row LED light bar from Amazon, I have used brand name bars in the past and honestly I cant afford the minimum difference it makes to have the brand name one's over the knock off as some say. Used the brackets of a 2.5 gen Tacoma (they were like 12 bucks,prime shipping) and cut in order so the light bar is tucked and out of sight. re wire the system so amber and white turn on at the same time. wired a Toyota type switch for a clean look.




-Wanted Bluetooth but did not wanted an aftermarket radio, did a little search on the internet and found that there's an add on box that attaches to the OEM radio AUX CD box and therefore you can connect to your phone and have Bluetooth connectivity with the OEM radio, ordered through eBay, arrived a week later, hooked it up, route the cables and boom, I got an OEM radio with Bluetooth for 50 bucks. works perfectly to this day.

-When I got the truck the front tires were brand new and the rears about 50%, so I went and tossed a set of 265/75R16 Goodyear TrailRunner AT's, lets be honest I drive 95% of the year over paved road, the tires perform pretty good and provide a great patch when lowered the PSI's.

-One of my hobbies is fabrication; I build some bed stiffeners and extra attachment points in the bed of the truck since the OEM are a joke and truly not a good idea to secure anything valuable to them

-Got a little tired of the lowered front end look of the truck, but I have never been a fan of lift kits, I am more in to the droop and functionality of the system than the looks. After research was done found out that the 3g Tacoma TRD-OR spring has a higher rate therefore in theory levels the vehicle without compromise to the IFS system. theory has been proven true by some forum members, i was able to secure one suspension locally of of a dude that bought a TRD-OR drove it home and installed 5100's, so pretty much I got a set of front and rear shocks with front spings for 100 dlls. ordered a set of top hats and installed them.
truck now sits leveled and a refreshed set of shocks.


-At this point the urge for a 4x4 started to kick in, Having a rear locker its cool and all but i know that eventually i was going to hit a gnarly trails and was going to get stranded. so naturally research kick in, and came across a couple of forums here pertaining to 4x4 conversions( I knew toyota was very cross platform friendly), first one I went through the whole thing if I am correct is libagui (he used a 4g4r with awd system), therefore I knew it was possible, came across some horror stories and some shops to avoid but again, I am a DIYFS kind of guys so I was going to be doing the whole thing by myself, in my garage, with basic tools and a transmission jack.

-After research and advice( @6 gearT444E ) I opted for the non ADD route with a manual transfer case. To me it made sense, since I did not wanted to rely on electrical components.

-The parts and price list I put together will be in the attachments.

-On march 2021 its when I got the first components for the conversion(transmission, transfer case and front differential) as soon as i had this items secured then i started gathering the secondary components and hardware. I put together a parts list with costs(this was back in 03/21)




-At this time @pdaddy put together this forum with his conversion steps and procedures which was a great motivation for making this a reality. ( https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/05-15-2wd-to-4wd-conversion-guide-for-dummies.716703/)

-if you're interested on converting your PreRunner to 4X4 you need to know the following: yes, its possible and works great, highly recommended to be a DIY job and the best recommendation i can give to you is to check on the threads and ask yourself if you're comfortable with what it takes to get this completed, its simple but it can be a little overwhelming depending on your skill set.

- I would do it all over again if necessary. Completed my conversion on 04/27. and took me about 12 hours to complete (worked at night so i wasn't interrupted by daddy duties or husband shores)

-more in depth info and photos can be found on post#62 and #84 of @pdaddy conversion post.


-By doing the conversion I have the ability of engaging my rear locker on any range. plus no ADD or range selector issues in the transfer case.

-A member posted a dobinsons snorkel, i bought it and installed it. I was aware the template is trash therefore took my precautions.



-After conversion was completed I knew that I needed to protect the bottom of the truck since my truck is not lifted, scrapping the bottom of the truck its just a matter of time.

-Started with putting together the home built engine skid plate 3/16" mild steel.





-Then LCA Skids, same thing home built 3/16" mild steel.



-After this was completed I was able to secure a set of wheels by selling 30 days of my leave upon re-enlistment. lol. would do it again if possible. i was debating between beadlocks or beadgrip and opted for beadgrip after seeing them perform. Method 704's in gun metal. truck changed a lot IMO.




-Did a little trip to West Camino Cielo



-After this trip I realized that I needed a little extra clearance and droop in the front. To my luck I came across this channel https://youtube.com/c/TinkerersAdventure. I am a firm believer of the work smarter not harder, so before making any purchases I decided to give the 1/2" spacers in the front a try and I was truly impress with the numbers. Thanks for the help and guidance Kai.



-After this I installed some rock lights, opted for White only (no RBG bs)1 per tire, 2 in the bed and 2 under the hood for a total of 8. and some chase lights yellow combo (off of amazon) activated by a split toyota type switch.





-After the west camino cielo little trip and noticed that I need rock sliders as well. lol. Did research just to find out that the prices are absolutely ridiculous. So I went to youtube and came across this video ( https://youtu.be/wbRDV70aFZo ) and got me motivated enough to buy the material to get this done. as well came across a post on IG for an OR meeting in San fernando valley, squeeky taco and some other dude from hardline land co. were going to be there and asked to measure their stuff with my measuring tape, tooks some notes and feedback from them to put together my design. i went with weld on's style. Paid a total of 210 dlls. for the material. 1"3/4 .120 wall. I don't have a bender so I asked who locally has a bender and @GHOST SHIP came in clutch.
designed something in the floor of my garage and then gave him the numbers, went to his shop, bent the metal, went home and got to zapp everything together.



-After that I decided that needed to fix the original cross member I put together when I did the conversion since it was about time to build a transmission skid plate.

 

-Lol, I messed up and posted while I was editing.

-So as I was mentioning, it was about time to re-do my cross member to gain a little extra ground clearance and strong attachment point for transmission and the later on transfer case
skid.

 

Sorry for the upside down pictures I just couldn't figure out how to fix it. So far this is how the build goes. Again, believe in yourself, its very rewarding when shit goes as planned. Cheers!!!

 

next thing planned is to do an AAL so i can get the truck leveled with the front. if someone has a R4T/DEAVER AAL laying around holler at your boy!

Edit: a local homie hooked me up with an old pack he had added 5 leafs, so I went and removed the overload and added 3 bottoms of that pack to my recalled fresh pack. I end up with 6 leafs and no overload. Truck rides nice and plush in the back

 

Before you go crazy buying expensive suspension parts, take a look and understand your platform.

https://youtube.com/c/TinkerersAdventure

 

Are the pictures gone?

edit: fixed

 

Did a transfer case skid plate with some metal laying around. Anything is better than nothing.

 

A friend hooked me up with a leaf pack he replaced with the dobinsons HD, so I’ll be messing around with my pack over the weekend to emulate the icon AAL. To gain 1.5” and removing the overload leaf.

 

Alright, do I had a couple of hours to get the leaf pack stuff done. I ended up using the 3 bottom leafs and removed the overload leaf from the oem pack. Drives just like I wanted nice and plush. Gained a total of 1.5” after not so friendly test drive. I love it!

 

Alright, so after now stirring leveled I knew I knew I needed to upgrade my suspension I was dead set on 5100’s all around. Gotta stick to reality of my budget. So I started up saving money for the shocks and 885 Old Man Emu springs since I am not carrying extra weight in the front. Talking to a friend he said: “dude I have a set of 5100 with 885 sitting all the way to the bottom ring(as I was planning on doing) sitting in the garage (he went 6112/5160’s), you can have em if you don’t mind running used shocks(he used them for less than 6 months) I was like hell yeah dude!
And that’s how I got my front shocks, then placed an order for the rears, once they arrived I removed the 3g suspension and sold it. Now I’m sitting nice and 2” higher with better droop, nothing bind, working smooth!

 

Did the A/C evaporator drain mod with some air line.

 

Ditched the stabilizer bad about a month ago. Not going back. I can tel the difference but it’s nothing sketchy. Not going back. Obviously me sitting on 885’s makes a difference than sitting on oem springs

 

Will be working on some stuff to gather some bucks to keep on modifying my truck. Day dreaming of a from Eaton front e-locker and some high clearance bumpers. I will be going to 33’s onces these tires are done.

 

Nice to see you get a solid start to a build page! Fixing its time to do the same after the 4x conversion! Looking good, Nice Truck my dude!

 

Hell yeah bro! I got some resentment when I noticed that my pictures disappeared out of nowhere. But had some time to fix it back up. Now I’m on the entrepreneurial mindset to come up with some extra bucks to keep the dream going.

 

Sorry for procrastinating in this thread. Let me try to remember what I have done to the truck:

1. Wheelers super bumps front and rear to include the u- bolt flip kit. Love these things!

 

2.- removed two rock lights i had installed under the hood to properly install a light strip with a NC switch held open by the hood with a bypass switch to engage while working during daylight.


https://youtu.be/eRsVtIBjcO0

 

3.- Installed and oil catch can, why? Why not!

https://youtu.be/kDYpmZMjDJM

 

4.- installed Whiteline LCA bushings and moog problem solver ball joint. Removed OEM bushing using the truck jack and pressed them using a friend press. Lower where the originals from 2005. One was shot the other one was good.

https://youtube.com/shorts/IhzEkSnkKNU?feature=share