Kyle's SR Access Cab Build

Finally got around to swapping my front and rear diff fluid after my break in. The rear diff took about 3.2 L of oil (8” rear) and the front took about 1.5 L. I also decided to swap my T-Case fluid with straight 75 W just to keep them all on the same service interval. The rear drain plug definitely had some shavings but nothing out of the ordinary for new freshly-broken-in gears. Also for anyone swapping fluids out of the 3 mentioned reservoirs I’d recommend replacing all gaskets and crush washers (there’s a small kit that gives you all the gaskets for all 3).



New crush washer compared to an old one:

 

I’ve been towing my boat quite a bit and am very surprised at the improvement with 4.88’s. The truck doesn’t bog as much going uphill and the MPG is fairly close to when it was a stock rig. I think the 4.88s are about perfect for 33’s, if not it’s a little overgeared when I don’t have lots of weight on the truck. I might play around with adding a tad more weight when I’m not towing. In the meantime here's the boat which turns 1 year old today:

 

Got the JBAs installed. Unfortunately that long thru-bolt is the absolute worst part of the entire suspension. I’d rather replace struts and leaf springs than take that thing out again.

 

First alignment with the JBAs:

 

Spent some time detailing today. Definitely need to do some sort of paint protection on this thing soon:

 

Loving the way the truck bed is coming together. Allows me to have some very useful tools around while not cramping space.

 

How bad was it? I have an access cab!

 

Pretty miserable seeing as the drill bits dulled very fast and the aluminum roofing ended up rounding such that even a new bit couldn’t bite very well.

 

Did you do a pilot hole first??? How bad were the riv nuts? Seriously my only complaint about an access cab is not having an easy way to do a roof rack.....

 

Yep I did a pilot hole just like the instructions asked and it didn’t help anything other than to center the bit.

The rivnuts aren’t difficult. Make sure to drop a ton of RTV in them before and after. I live in Oregon and haven’t had a single drop of moisture get through.

 

Thanks! Guess I will use multiple bits till its the correct size when I do mine!

 

Maybe a step bit would have helped now that I think about it.

 

Update: I have recently moved from the PNW to Salt Lake City! I will be here for 1 year before moving back. I plan to explore all over Utah in the short time I’m here. The benefit of the move is that I’m now in a house with a private drive and garage.

To kick things off I have been buttoning up my electrical work — soldering all joints I originally crimped + heat shrink and looming. I know it’s one of those boring projects, but it’s nice to have the truck in a private spot so I can take stuff apart for multiple days.

The truck is almost 1 year old and thus I thought it was time to do a decent detail. I used some iron desolver to get rid of some of the rail dust that was setting on my roof and on my hood after the drive here. You can see how much crap was on there! All the purple stuff is metal that embedded itself into my clear coat.



I then finished w/ the trucks first clay bar to get rid of all the grime that has built up over the year, and then gave it its first wax. This thing is better than new!

 

Since I got the TRD Pro fog lights I’ve been eyeing another solution. I drive a lot of dirt roads for hunting and now that I’m in UT there’s going to be a bunch of snow in the winter. I really loved the amber lights on my Jeep so I pulled the trigger on some Diode Dynamics SS3 Ambers in the Sport version. They came very well packaged!



I had a set of TRD OR bezels laying around from a kind member on here — remember my truck is an SR so I never had fog bezels to begin with. The swap took about 45 min being careful not to snap the Pro bezels bc I’m reselling. We’ll see how they work real soon:

 

Haven’t updated the log in a while! I’ve been busy working on my home powerlifting gym and hunting back in Oregon. Only notable update is I finally blacked out the last piece of chrome inside the truck:



At the same time my partner picked up a new ride... really excited to have a 2020 4Runner SR5 Premium in the family:

 

Over the weekend I completely remade my foglight harness so there's no crimping along the main harness + everything was heat shrunk and loomed. I didn't take any pictures since it's just a boring black harness, but I can sleep better knowing that harness will probably outlast the truck now.

The other project I finished was an overhead light to work under the hood at night. I started with some cheap LED strip from Amazon and soldered some 16 ga extensions to be run to my switch + relay panel. I heat shrunk over the joints, applied some 1/8" split-loom, and then heat shrunk the loom to the end of the strip.



I picked up a piece of aluminum from Lowe's, cut it to shape, bent it to a 90, and drilled holes for my hood light switch:



I then painted it black, mounted my switch, and connected my adhesive overhead light's wires to it. I put loom over the harness and then shrink wrapped it so it'd stay in place and provide a bit of weather protection. I think it turned out great!



The adhesive LED strip's wires were run through the drain holes of my hood and are barely noticeable. However, I need to reinforce a couple spots close to the light itself. I ordered some adhesive zip-tie anchors and will place them at the yellow spots marked here -- you can see it peeling back already:



My fuse/relay panel has been a workhorse so far in my build! I'll be doing the weather protection for the panel this week.

 

4 days of devoting my lunch break and after work hours to this project and it's finally done. Every single accessory wire on my truck has been loomed and soldered. All wire runs were overhauled to make them more efficient and protected from the elements. I am happy to see there's no more loose wiring just hanging around my truck! Granted I had to re-do an entire fog light harness, I added hood struts, plus I added a custom under-hood light.



Here's a closer look at the driver's side. I hid the large-gauge wires for my fuse/relay panel and my air compressor as best I could. I ended up routing both positive wires through the factory positive terminal cap (the red rubber thing) and now you can barely notice them. The two thick ground wires were connected to the factory chassis ground so that my negative terminal is completely clean. Back towards the fuse/relay panel you can look closely and see a bunch of looming along with my new relay cover.



On the passenger side it's easier to see the thick wire loom I ran along the back of the engine bay to protect all of the cross-engine wire runs. I left the 40A in-line fuse in a fairly easy-to-service spot. Eventually I'd like to upgrade to some Bussmann Modular Fuse Holders, but I won't be able to do that before winter.



Next up is my dash cam which will be here tomorrow.

 

Blacked-out the stock roof rack and put some new wheels on the T4R this week:

 

An unexpected upgrade but we will take it! Loving the new wheels:

 

Explored Canyonlands all day today.



and now camping outside of Moab for the first time. Surprisingly was able to snag a hidden camp spot next to a little lake with no one around!