I got a pretty decent deal on a 2003 a few months ago. After living with it a few months to make sure the basics were solid I'm ready to start making it mine. Overall plans are OME 3", rear air locker from ARB with their onboard air, winch, K02s although honestly I had a good experience with cheap Chinese Patagonia on a 4runner, rock rails, and eventually a rear bumper with swings for cans and tire. Roof rack, I think rooftop tents are dumb, but I want a cool guy dorkel so everyone knows that this truck is for radical cats only.
These things take time and if I put $10k in parts and mods on a truck I got for $6k all at once it'll feel weird. So here's the conundrum; typically I'd start with lift and tires to start having adventure time. The center locker makes me feel warm and fuzzy and a come along sucks but goes a long way to unscrewing bad decisions. The "problem" is that it has nearly brand be Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires on it right now. Like, probably around 3k miles on them on the top end. I hate to throw away or take a haircut on such nice rubber and I'm thinking of doing winch and lift and some other items first and seeing how far we can go with these tires which are as non-aggressive as possible. The image of a stock height or even lifted LC with a winch and lockers is weird to me. Especially because where I'd be going is mud heavy and even the rocks get pretty coated. That said they're quiet and fresh tires and maybe the winch and lockers will make up for the weakness of the tires?
What sayest the horde?
These things take time and if I put $10k in parts and mods on a truck I got for $6k all at once it'll feel weird. So here's the conundrum; typically I'd start with lift and tires to start having adventure time. The center locker makes me feel warm and fuzzy and a come along sucks but goes a long way to unscrewing bad decisions. The "problem" is that it has nearly brand be Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires on it right now. Like, probably around 3k miles on them on the top end. I hate to throw away or take a haircut on such nice rubber and I'm thinking of doing winch and lift and some other items first and seeing how far we can go with these tires which are as non-aggressive as possible. The image of a stock height or even lifted LC with a winch and lockers is weird to me. Especially because where I'd be going is mud heavy and even the rocks get pretty coated. That said they're quiet and fresh tires and maybe the winch and lockers will make up for the weakness of the tires?
What sayest the horde?
