Duke - 2016 4Runner Limited Build

[BlueNikola]

Hello everyone!
I'm brand new here, and I thought it fitting to set up a build log for my beloved car. My goal for the vehicle is to build up something that I can hit decent trails with and still make it to work on time the next day.
It's name is Duke. It's a 2016 4Runner Limited, and I've been beyond impressed with what it can do! It's taken me to some really cool places, like plane crashes, abandoned mine ruins, alpine lakes, and other such curiosities. But first, a little bit of backstory...

I originally started doing very light trails (Switzerland, Rollins Pass, etc) in a 2010 Ford Escape. It was pretty well modified, a small lift, 31's I managed to squeeze in, and some pod lights gifted to me by a friend. But after a quarter million miles and my 6th cylinder parting ways with the engine back in February, I decided it was time to finally get a vehicle a bit more suited to what I wanted to do. Hence the 4Runner.

So, lets dig in. Originally, I bought it with ~203k miles and an extremely decent maintenance history. It drove like the newer 5th gens I test drove, and it had features I wanted in my daily driver. Below is a picture of the vehicle, fresh off (on?) the lot.

So of course, the first thing I did the very next day was take it out to West Magnolia and Switzerland Trail to test it out.


It came with okay enough tires, but the 20" rims didn't exactly let me air down to the extent that I wanted, and a suspiciously timed nail in my tire shortly after I bought it gave me the perfect excuse to upgrade. As such, I got 17" rims taken off of a 2018 ORP, and put on Duratrac RT tires. At the same time, I deleted the XREAS from the system and replaced it with Bilstein 5100's, with a 2.5" lift up front and a 1.5" lift in the rear. Below is the final result, featuring Rollins Pass. Ignore the temp tags, I was still waiting on plates. Additional bonus night picture for ya, too!





This of course gave me the courage to try some new trails, mainly Bunce School Road, the T-33 Plane Crash trail, and Democrat Mountain. Most of which the 4Runner did well on. However, on the T-33 trail I took some heavy damage to my rear bumper and rocker panel after snagging it on a rock, and some light damage to my front bumper as I was nosing into a rock to get over it. Which brings me to my future plans.

The suspension is tired after what is now 210k miles, a lot of the components are still original and the front ball joints are beginning to knock. I plan to do new UCA's to bring my caster back into the acceptable range, new LCAs for the new ball joint and bushings, and I might consider new sway bar links while I'm at it.

For non-maintenance work, I hope to soon replace the front and rear bumpers with those from any trim except the Limited to give me slightly better approach/departure angles, a low-profile exhaust since I seem to scrape it constantly, and add some lighting behind the grill since I seem to mainly run at night. I'm also considering rock sliders with a spot for me to step onto, I'm a whopping 5'4" on a good day so this thing can be a bit of a struggle to get into at times.

If any of you have recommendations, please let me know! I'm VERY new to this whole off road thing, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants.

 

[Corbet]

Welcome to the forum.

I wouldn’t waste any more time sourcing some sliders. Sounds like you’ve already kissed your rocker panel. Hopefully not too badly. Otherwise it sounds like you have a good plan already. I’d ad some sort of communication system. Either GMRS or HAM if you want to dive in deep. We have a lot of licensed club members but honestly GMRS is probably the better decision moving forward.

 

[On the RX]

Sliders! I usually suggest running the factory bumpers until they are trashed and then upgrade to aftermarket. Then move to suspension to support the extra weight.

 

[Hulk]

Radio choice - a quick description for your options.
HInt: start with FRS. It's easy and no license is required.

 

[BlueNikola]

I'm back with an update!


I just replaced my upper and lower control arms. I won't lie, the new uppers are... Cheap. However, my little brother has been wheeling on the same brand/type on his '04 Tacoma for a good long while without issue. As someone who just started paying student loans, I wanted to try it out before I inevitably have to buy better UCAs. I did also reboot my passenger side CV joint, and things went relatively smooth.

To address some of the replies, I already have FRS radios in the vehicle as carryovers from my previous "build" but I am thinking about switching to GMRS. I'm already working on the licensing for it, and I do like the idea of having the radio hardwired and not having to worry about keeping it charged.

For rock sliders, I'm currently looking at the All-Pro bolt-on sliders. They mount up to the frame, and as far as coatings go I plan to hit it with a basic Rustoleum paint job. The theory is that I can touch it up pretty easily when it gets scratched.
Next on the list is to trim my bumpers and rocker panels. The Limited trim has a very low-hanging chin, and I am constantly smacking it as I nose up to rocks.

From there, the next thing I need to do is install lights. I was gifted some KC HiLites C3 spots by a friend that I want to mount behind the grill, but I need to figure out a mount for it. Perhaps it's the perfect job for my 3D printer? Below is a photo of the WIP design for the mount.


All of this is in preparation for a four-day trip to the Alpine Loop. I'm doing a bit of an extended version via Stony Pass and Carson Road (At least the portion of Carson Road that's marked as full-width), and the hope is to get some really excellent night sky photos under the dark skies of Gunnison. I'm hoping to get good photos of Andromeda while I'm out there!