Adventures in 4Runner'ing

[DaveInDenver]

LOL. What you mean is 'TE'. That is where money is. No money in S and M (Oh man, here come the jokes, ).

Nah, we in the 'E' love when the 'S' guys bring us work they've done. They try so very hard to make things work, they really do. The 'M' people usually do OK when they end up writing code.

 

[DouglasVB]

LOL. What you mean is 'TE'. That is where money is. No money in S and M (Oh man, here come the jokes, ).

Especially not in the A in STEAM... That's the newest sell on STEM/STEAM. Bring in the artists, etc. It's a good goal and ambition, but I think that there are issues with there being enough jobs for artists, mathematicians, and scientists that pay enough to justify the higher ed costs. That's a discussion for another day though.

 

[DouglasVB]

Ideally already up and running with Mentor tools, but if someone has experience with Altium or Cadence it's not too difficult to figure out DxDesigner and PADS. And doing a 2-layer through hole in Eagle doesn't count as real experience. I don't know the experience level they'd be looking for on the engineering side. Probably not totally green but couldn't say for sure. Besides me there are two other EE and we're all at the same point, been around the block for 10 or 20 years.

Hmm I might know a few people out in Oregon with that level of experience but probably no fresh grad will have it. Is the salary for that position too low to get people interested in moving out here? I've seen that in other companies in metro Denver where they are willing to pay about $10-20k less than market rate even without cost of living adjustments. With rent prices going up so much, that's going to make it hard to convince engineers to keep moving here without a premium salary.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Hmm I might know a few people out in Oregon with that level of experience but probably no fresh grad will have it. Is the salary for that position too low to get people interested in moving out here? I've seen that in other companies in metro Denver where they are willing to pay about $10-20k less than market rate even without cost of living adjustments. With rent prices going up so much, that's going to make it hard to convince engineers to keep moving here without a premium salary.

Yeah, we're in Loveland and not real close to metro Denver so the compensation is adjusted for it. It's on the left side of market scale, between the 25th percentile and median. There would be pretty much zero incentive for relocation. OTOH the cost of living is somewhat lower, although not much anymore.

But legal weed.

 

[DouglasVB]

Yeah sounds like HR needs to readjust expectations. At best, you'd get someone between jobs who will be actively interviewing while you pay them to come up to speed and then leave for a much higher paying position.

I'm actually in a meeting right now with business leaders from the region discussing the skilled worker gap and how to address that. The businesses all want to have high skilled workers accept low skilled pay via training low skilled workers to do the high skilled work. Interesting.

 

[DouglasVB]

Because I'm going stir-crazy with work today, I want to stir the pot.

What tires should I get for my truck? I'm going 35".

For rims, I can either

• keep the current sock aluminum (I think?) rims although I'll need to find one more so I don't have the rusty steel spare on my back bumper once that's installed someday. Stock size is: 225/75R/15
• find a set of take-offs from an 80 series. Stock size is: 275/70R16
• order something after-market

For tires, this will mostly be used for 4x4ing in Colorado with the very occasional long freeway drive to California.

So what tire and rim combo should I get for 1) best performance (yup, leaving that nebulous!) and 2) ease of finding tires in the future?





(Yes, hoping to call some shops today to get the SAS swap work initiated. We'll see if I find time in my schedule.)

 

[DaveInDenver]

It's unlikely you can use your stock steels with 35" tires. You have 6" wide rims and you really need something wider. There are several Toyota stock wheels that can run various 35" tires but the stock mini trucks aren't one of them. The ideal tire for them IMHO was 33x10.50 MT but that's not an option for you. The only tire that comes to mind that might even work are the 34x10.50 Swampers. Going to a 16" or 17" rim would give more choices, too.

ETA: My mistake, you have the alloy rims, which are 15x7. You can squeeze a 35x12.50 on them, although they are below the recommended minimum width most tire manufacturers are going to suggest.

 

[ScaldedDog]

What wheel size are you thinking? I'd suggest 17", and you'll have lots of options for tires. Are thinking AT or MT? I assume the latter, given the SAS, dual cases, etc.

Mark

 

[DouglasVB]

It's unlikely you can use your stock steels with 35" tires. You have 6" wide rims and you really need something wider. There are several Toyota stock wheels that can run various 35" tires but the stock mini trucks aren't one of them. The ideal tire for them IMHO was 33x10.50 MT but that's not an option for you. The only tire that comes to mind that might even work are the 34x10.50 Swampers. Going to a 16" or 17" rim would give more choices, too.

ETA: My mistake, you have the alloy rims, which are 15x7. You can squeeze a 35x12.50 on them, although they are below the recommended minimum width most tire manufacturers are going to suggest.

Okay get rid of those rims!

 

[DouglasVB]

What wheel size are you thinking? I'd suggest 17", and you'll have lots of options for tires. Are thinking AT or MT? I assume the latter, given the SAS, dual cases, etc.

Mark

I'm open to wheel size suggestions. The 80 series rims which I should be able to get for cheap are 16" but I'm willing to move up to a 17" rim for a wider tire selection.

I have no opinion on AT vs MT right now. Maybe I should run a full street tire to stress people out

I'm thinking MT is probably where I should head based on my expected usage.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm open to wheel size suggestions. The 80 series rims which I should be able to get for cheap are 16" but I'm willing to move up to a 17" rim for a wider tire selection.

I have no opinion on AT vs MT right now. Maybe I should run a full street tire to stress people out

I'm thinking MT is probably where I should head based on my expected usage.

I dither between AT and MT. I usually run an AT and it boringly does everything I need but I think I want something more aggressive so I get an MT and realize they mostly just kind of suck for pavement and snow, which is really what my truck does daily (commuting to work and skiing & cycling trailheads).

IMHO it depends on how tough you intend to beat on the truck regularly. With a SAS and dual cases you'll be able to do hard trails with the aggro AT treads just fine. With the upside of being more highway friendly for overland or less demanding tasks.

OTOH, since it's not your daily driver then you won't have the downside of listening to the drone for hours and hours if all you intend to do with it is harder trails.

 

[AxleIke]

I'd suggest 17" rims. Its where the market is heading.

I'd also suggest 37" tires. You have a small motor, and with ARB's and longfields, you will be plenty strong to run those without breaking. Up to you though.

 

[DouglasVB]

I'd suggest 17" rims. Its where the market is heading.

I'd also suggest 37" tires. You have a small motor, and with ARB's and longfields, you will be plenty strong to run those without breaking. Up to you though.

If I get 37" tires before Squishy doses, he's going to get jealous!

17" rims sounds good to me. Any recommended brands or whatever?

 

[DouglasVB]

I dither between AT and MT. I usually run an AT and it boringly does everything I need but I think I want something more aggressive so I get an MT and realize they mostly just kind of suck for pavement and snow, which is really what my truck does daily (commuting to work and skiing & cycling trailheads).

IMHO it depends on how tough you intend to beat on the truck regularly. With a SAS and dual cases you'll be able to do hard trails with the aggro AT treads just fine. With the upside of being more highway friendly for overland or less demanding tasks.

OTOH, since it's not your daily driver then you won't have the downside of listening to the drone for hours and hours if all you intend to do with it is harder trails.

Good points! I'll have to ponder more. One thought I've had is to ditch my Subaru and go only with the Toyota...

 

[ScaldedDog]

If I get 37" tires before Squishy doses, he's going to get jealous!

17" rims sounds good to me. Any recommended brands or whatever?

Most of the 17" wheels are 9" wide and have 4.5" of backspacing. The width will work for lots of tires, but you'll want to make sure the backspacing will. When I had 35s on my 4runner with Toyota axles I had to run spacers up front, even with 3.5" backspace wheels.

I'm personally a fan of Raceline wheels, but run Cepek on mine because they were less money. $6 worth of roofin' tar beadlocks and I was done.

Mark

 

[DouglasVB]

Most of the 17" wheels are 9" wide and have 4.5" of backspacing. The width will work for lots of tires, but you'll want to make sure the backspacing will. When I had 35s on my 4runner with Toyota axles I had to run spacers up front, even with 3.5" backspace wheels.

I'm personally a fan of Raceline wheels, but run Cepek on mine because they were less money. $6 worth of roofin' tar beadlocks and I was done.

Mark

I'll have 1.5" spacers on the front wheels to have the tires even front-to-back (running a 1988 rear axle and a 1985 front axle that have different widths). It looks like stock I'd have 3-3/8" backspacing but with wider rims and bigger tires, I expect I'll need more backspacing?

 

[DouglasVB]

Pretty sure I should get this guy's rims and wheels combo on my truck. Will make it great for 4x4ing!

 

[DouglasVB]

I called Joe today (FINALLY had a break) and he's working up a quote. Never heard back from Addicted Offroad.

 

[DouglasVB]

Quick update:

I picked up some Chevy 63" leaf springs today. They're 3+1 spring packs.

I also got the 5.29:1 high pinion gears from Squishy! today.

Now all that's left parts-wise is a few bushings that Joe has on hand and the high pinion differential from Old40Dog. My backup plan for the high pinion differential in case Old40Dog hasn't had the time to swap over his axles yet is to get a differential and flange from Marlin Crawler. They advertise having brand new Toyota cases for sale. And flanges.

My expectation is that the work will start to be done the first week of May. Wohoo!

 

[DouglasVB]

On the subject of tires, I have decided to go with 35" tires. I also am planning to stick with the stock rims (15x7) for now. I'll see about going over to Yoda Jim's at some point soon to pick up a 5th alloy rim to match my other four rather than have a rusty steel spare.

Right now I'm leaning toward a Pro Comp XTreme MT2 tire. I am also considering a Goodyear Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar tire, a BF Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2, or a Toyo Open Country M/T. I'm aware that the recommended minimum rim width on all of these tires is one to two inches wider than what I have but from my reading on a variety of forums (ih8mud, pirate 4x4, etc.), it seems that people have good luck with putting these tires onto the same rims that I have. Has anyone experienced otherwise in the club?