Builds '88 4runner (ntsqd) (1 Viewer)

[ntsqd]

This truck is a DD, a light duty solo exploring rig, and a tow'd for behind our '95CTD/Hallmark. I've been debating FROF's floater kit, with locking hubs, just to make flat towing that much easier. I'd be OK with it not also being an RDB conversion, but I suspect that isn't possible. To keep the track width the same it involves a custom, narrow rear axle housing & related axle shafts. I don't recall the numbers, but doing the std. conversion on an SA width rear housing still ends up wider than the track width of an all stock IFS rear axle. For the price of all of that I could buy a pretty nice flatbed trailer, but then I'd have yet another trailer to store, fend off people wanting to borrow, etc. and I don't want that.

I use the same user name everywhere, RDC, CK5, Expo, AA, CB, \6, etc., etc., etc.

 

[joseywales]

I’ve been on ExPo for more than 10 years, so I knew you from over there as your an old timer there too. I would love the free wheeling rear, but I think I’ll just disco the rear shaft if I flat tow, and try to use the trailer more. My wife thinks bringing it on the trailer is so much worse than flat towing, but with the trailer, you’re not wearing out expensive tires, putting miles on (not a problem if I disco), risking driveline damage if something goes wrong. I also get the bonus of being able to back up! That’s not always simple with a flat towed rig.

What Hallmark do you have? I’d really like a K2/Ute hybrid, but wife (coincidentally named Ute) wants the hardside luxury that is a Northern Lite 9-6. I love it too, when we are camped. When we are driving I pine for a Hallmark!

 

[ntsqd]

The issue with disco-ing the drive-shaft has two points; if you only DC at the rear of the shaft you then need to make sure that it can't fully extend the slip joint & fall apart when you tie it up, or if you DC both ends now where do you put a dirty, likely greasy drive-shaft? The final irritant with dropping the drive-shaft is the do-gooders who think you have a problem and want to help.

Currently I use safety wire for both the anti-extend and the tie-up, and I bought a second set of companion flange bolts/nuts/washers from Marlin that live in the bottom of the center console - just in case.
I have visions of making a bracket that slips over the round cross-member that I then bolt the drive-shaft to. What I haven't yet solved is how to keep it from over-extending. I'll be under it quite a bit in the near future doing the OBA compressor wiring and maybe a solution will present itself.

Then there's dealing with the lighting, but I think that I have a plan for that too. Thinking to split the stop lights from being common with each other, and place a relay between them so that when the brake light signal comes from the truck they work normally, but when it comes from the tow-rig they work like domestic lights do. Since we have a little camp trailer that I'd like to be able to tow with the 4rnnr I'll be doing my relays light conversion box (instead of the cheesy converters that fail annually) and I'll just roll that function into the box.

We recently bought an '03 Cuchara XL. I found it on CL in Flagstaff, PO had the original Bill of Sale to a couple from FL! It is quite a bit heavier than our previous 6.5' Phoenix, but it has a shower & commode and room to store shoes which were all must-haves. Storing of shoes seems odd until you each bring a couple pair and there's no where to stash them where you're not tripping over them.

 

[joseywales]

Shoe storage is definitely a must have! We travel from BC to Colorado, Arizona and Central California pretty regularly in late sept and over the 2-3 week trip we can see everything from snow boots to flip-flops.

I’m going to use the trailer as often as possible. If I disco I’ll be very careful to secure the shaft.

As for lights, with my CJ7, I spliced a 4 wire trailer plug into the tail light wires, and then ran a 4 wire from under the hood back to the splice. I would just swap from one plug to the other for towing or driving. The extra tow cable got secured between the rad and grill when driving.

 

[ntsqd]

With the separate turn signals and common brake lights on Yota's that CJ7 wiring plan won't work. Could use the turn signals as brake lights when towing, but then the brake lights would be amber instead of red. Which is why my planned relay shenanigans.....

The other option with two variants, that I've given some thought to as well, is to have totally separate towing lights.
Option A is to add a 4 or 5 pin trailer light socket to the rear and run those wires up to the grille where a jumper would make the leap across the tow-bar. Then have some torsion mount truck type tail lights bolted to some magnets, and have a short wiring harness that plugs into that socket at the rear.
Option B is to put those towing lights permanently in the rear bumper and run the wires up to the grille as per Option A.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

It's not cheap, but here is another option: Trail-Gear™ Rear Disconnect - Yotamasters

 

[ntsqd]

I looked into that a while back. Aside from the obvious downside of it being a TG* part I didn't get the impression that its designed to run disconnected for extended periods of time. It is really only intended to do front digs and not a lot more.

*Don't get me started on TG's founder. I remember when he was just an IT guy at UCSB and an All-Pro fanboy posting on the ORC yota email list. Man, there were some good people on that list. He wasn't one of them.

 

[pappy]

I looked into that a while back. Aside from the obvious downside of it being a TG* part I didn't get the impression that its designed to run disconnected for extended periods of time. It is really only intended to do front digs and not a lot more.

*Don't get me started on TG's founder. I remember when he was just an IT guy at UCSB and an All-Pro fanboy posting on the ORC yota email list. Man, there were some good people on that list. He wasn't one of them.

Umm, wonder if it's the same guy that was at All-Pro, and moved to Trail-gear. I took my truck in to All-Pro for x-over steering. He took a look at my truck and called my 33" tires "training wheels?"

 

[ntsqd]

He was at All-Pro, then he moved to Marlin, then he started TG. I suspect he did that using proprietary info gained at both places. No proof of that, but some TG's early product were clearly clones of A-P and Marlin's stuff. I can give his name in a PM if desired, don't think it appropriate to post it here.

That comment could have been either he or Jon Bundrant, All-Pro's owner. Such a comment from either wouldn't surprise me.
That's the problem with behaving badly in commerce, some of us have really long memories. I bought Patch about summer of '97 and have been involved in various yota online exchanges ever since.

 

[KLF]

He was at All-Pro, then he moved to Marlin, then he started TG.

Sounds like Chris G.

 

[PAToyota]

posting on the ORC yota email list. Man, there were some good people on that list. He wasn't one of them.

Yep - the ORC list back in the late '90's is where I got my start. Funny the names that go back to that period.

 

[joseywales]

Option A is to add a 4 or 5 pin trailer light socket to the rear and run those wires up to the grille where a jumper would make the leap across the tow-bar. Then have some torsion mount truck type tail lights bolted to some magnets, and have a short wiring harness that plugs into that socket at the rear.

I’m officially stealing that idea if I flat tow. I’ll just make a mini light bar that slips into the receiver on the 4Runner.

That's the problem with behaving badly in commerce, some of us have really long memories.

I called a new “4Runner only” parts place in Vancouver BC the other day, and the owner spent the entire call telling me how he could sell the parts I wanted to an insurance company for double what they were really worth, and then when I pressed him to see if he even HAD any of the parts, he hung up on me! I’m sure he’ll be in business for a loooooong time!

 

[jgranthevagrant]

I’m officially stealing that idea if I flat tow. I’ll just make a mini light bar that slips into the receiver on the 4Runner.



I called a new “4Runner only” parts place in Vancouver BC the other day, and the owner spent the entire call telling me how he could sell the parts I wanted to an insurance company for double what they were really worth, and then when I pressed him to see if he even HAD any of the parts, he hung up on me! I’m sure he’ll be in business for a loooooong time!

any info on that "new" 4runner only place. I'm north of you in burnaby.

 

[joseywales]

any info on that "new" 4runner only place. I'm north of you in burnaby.

I PMd you so we don’t clutter ntsqd’s thread up. What the heck IS a ntsqd anyway??

 

[ntsqd]

That is a long story that has no real point. Short form: Its all of the vowels removed from "nut squad". Where that came from is the long story.

 

[joseywales]

I love it! Fits my family to a tee!

 

[ntsqd]

OK, time for some pics.
Power center + radios, partial of the Jensen Tractor HD stereo, Icom V8k 2m, & Cobra 75 (chromed connector on top of V8k). Unseen behind the V8k is a dedicated fuse panel for all of this and the power ports:

Switch panel & OBA system pressure gauge. The end pair of switches are for accessory lighting, Left-Middle switch is a pneumatic switch for the front ARB, Right-middle is for the rear ARB, system gauge is semi-hidden behind the p-brake handle:

Puma OBA compressor; large hex -12 AN cap is where the inlet hose fitting will connect to the compressor, that aluminum heat shielding is actually that - aluminum heat shield from the steam turbine power plant that I used to work at. I took this pic after just having driven for a 1/2 hour, the frame in front was hotter than the aluminum nearest the muffler:

Puma air tank; the compressor and the tank arrived bolted together but there was no room anywhere to keep that. Some 5/8" spacers made from 1/2 pipe moved the spare's locating spars down far enough that the tank could be attached to them and have some clearance to the underside of the floor. Can also see the ARB solenoid repurposed to be an un-loader valve. With the compressor not running it vents the line between a check valve at the tank and the compressor so that when the compressor starts it's not immediately pumping against tank pressure.

EDIT:
Adding a pic of the power and air control systems. Regulator step system pressure down to ARB pressure. Black tube in kind of a horizontal '?' shape is the vent for when the ARB's are turned off. Has a sintered bronze muffler/filter screwed into the bottom of the bulkhead fitting. The 285 series breaker is main power for the compressor. The Fuse box next to it is for the fuses and relays for various light systems, and for the headlight relay system. The isolated stud in front of the breaker is hot via a fusible link off the battery post, and all other systems draw their power from it. It will eventually get a vacuum cap over the end of it. Can see the OBA pressure switch next to and kinda behind the regulator, and on the far side of the green OBA system tube is the safety pop-off over-pressure valve.

 

[ntsqd]

I've been hearing an occasional clunk in the RF suspension for a while and suspected it was worn UCA bushings because the UCA's were the only original front suspension parts left. I have a theory that some BJ spacers may result in the same ride height with less pre-load on the T-bars, so I've installed new UCA's and some of Roger Brown's spacers. Still rocking those horridable RS5k's. I have not spent enough time with it partly apart to figure out exactly how I'm going to get the Bilstein 7100's in there.

We'll see what tomorrow brings, I'd decided not to install the OME rear springs, but I need to do something about the lack of rear bump-stops. The bracket on frame was cut for the "zuki mod" and now there's nothing for the OE bumps to hit. I'm prepping for an up-coming trip where I'll have a lot of weight in the rear and I'm thinking that maybe I should put the OME's in there.

 

[ntsqd]

Well dang! Brand new, but been installed and not wired or used ~year old pressure switch isn't working. Jumpering past it and the compressor does. Seems that my re-purposed ARB solenoid is also working as planned because the system built pressure and I was able to lock the rear ARB. Guess I'll have to order another switch. Thinking this one:

MPS25-1C-P200D | Mechanical Pressure Switch: 40 to 200 psig set point (PN# MPS25-1C-P200D) | AutomationDirect

MPS25-1C-P200D - ProSense mechanical pressure switch, 40 to 200 psig set point, 316 stainless steel piston sensing element, Buna-N O-ring seal(s), SPDT 3A,...

www.automationdirect.com

EDIT: Ordered the pressure switch.

 

[ntsqd]

Almost forgot about this, the need for the sleeve out of the front spring eye bushing to go between the front spring bolt and the OME bushings. As I don't want to make it so that I can't swap the OEM springs back in, I'm turning some sleeves from mild steel.

Pressure switch is here. After I have the rear suspension buttoned up, hopefully today, I'll install, test, and set it.