I have been lurking around here for a while, always admiring the 80 series platform which would sometimes cause me to second-guess my decision to build my '99 4Runner over the past few years. It was a great truck and did well at satisfying the urge to 4x4, explore and travel. However, I finally found the excuse I had been looking for to sell the 4Runner and get an 80. Having just had our 4th kiddo, I needed a 3rd row seat, right? Right! Admittedly, I was also influenced by the solid axles, more robust drive train and factory e-lockers ... and I was tired of breaking CV axles on the 4runner.
Here's the rig as of July 2016. Just finished the engine rebuild, body lift, 3.1 crawler gears and 345s installed.
But it didn't start out that way....
A nice lady down the street had been driving her kids to school for the past 15 years in a '97 40th Anniversary FZJ80 (sage) with factory e-lockers. I informed her that i would be interested in purchasing her old gas guzzler if she ever decided to part with it. A few weeks later, she bought a brand new highlander. Perfect timing!
Well, now I am beginning to gather the parts to build this into the trail/expo rig that will take my family and friends on many adventures, from John Bull to Death Valley and maybe even Dusy Ershim and Moab someday. The goal is to outperform the 4Runner offroad and hopefully not pay too much of a penalty in fuel economy.
Here it is the day I got it (March 2nd 2015). 100% stock. 172k miles.
And here's what I got rid of to make way for the 80:
Here's the rig as of July 2016. Just finished the engine rebuild, body lift, 3.1 crawler gears and 345s installed.
But it didn't start out that way....
A nice lady down the street had been driving her kids to school for the past 15 years in a '97 40th Anniversary FZJ80 (sage) with factory e-lockers. I informed her that i would be interested in purchasing her old gas guzzler if she ever decided to part with it. A few weeks later, she bought a brand new highlander. Perfect timing!
Well, now I am beginning to gather the parts to build this into the trail/expo rig that will take my family and friends on many adventures, from John Bull to Death Valley and maybe even Dusy Ershim and Moab someday. The goal is to outperform the 4Runner offroad and hopefully not pay too much of a penalty in fuel economy.
Here it is the day I got it (March 2nd 2015). 100% stock. 172k miles.
And here's what I got rid of to make way for the 80:
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