Rig of the Bi-Week - THE POST

[iortechnology]

Now that I screwed this up once and lost everything... I'm doing shorter chunks for this post.

This truck started out as a 1984 Extended Cab SR5 truck. Since then, it's had a few things done to it... from myself and the previous owner before he split for graduate school in Pennsylvania.

This first shot is the POST getting up the big ledge above Holy Cross City in Colorado. For some scale, those are 37" Toyo tires biting at the Rocky Mountain granite. From my memory, the ledge has a first step of 5 feet or so with two other big steps above it just to keep things interesting.

 

[iortechnology]

So some basic stuff first to start off.

ENGINE:

The truck runs a 22RE motor conversion from a later model 4Runner. Motor has been bored, has the TRD header and cam shaft, AC conversion, IFS power steering conversion.

SUSPENSION:

6" rear springs from All-Pro Off-Road. 5" front springs from the same. Damped out by Bilstein remote reservior shocks at all four corners. Marlin Crawler 3" spacers in front to match the rear IFS axle.

AXLES:

The front axle is locked with a Lock-Rite locker. It spins Bobby Long 30-spline axle shafts to AISIN hubs. In both diffs are 5.29 gears. Rear axle is locked with a Detroit locker. It spins chromolly axle shafts and is stopped with disk brakes.

BODY:

Bed was bobbed 14 inches to match the new 4-door Tacoma bed length. That way I can run a SoftTopper canvas top to keep dogs in. The front end has tubbed fenders to fit the 37" tires under full compression. Pictures of that later.

GOODIES:

Premier Power Welder. Optima Red Top battery. Sirius satellite radio. R&M Specialties underhood shower with manual throttle control. SoftTopper canvas top. CB radio by Cobra. LED interior and bed lights. PIAA headlights. Dual transfer cases with 4.71 gears in rear case and disk parking break on rear case. Marlin Crawler sliders and transfer-case skid plate.

Pictures and descriptions to come!

 

[iortechnology]

So this is the rear disk setup. I got this through All-Pro this spring, and have been happy with it in the end. It runs metric GM calipers onto Toyota vented rotors. Braided steel lines are provided with the kit, and make the final installation really nice. Note that they are just long enough... but that's how custom truck parts are isn't it.

I put up a post about them when they were first installed about a loud noise under light braking. Seems to have just been a break in issue, as the noise has totally disappeared at this point.

When I put these rear disks on I did the FJ-80 master cylinder swap. The combination of the larger master cylinder and the better braking power are great when using big tires like my Toyo 37x14.0 ones.

 

[iortechnology]

Under the bed I run an Extreme Aire High Output electric compressor. This compressor is routed through a custom welded "air tank" to increase my pressurized air volume before it's taken out at the rear corner of the tailgate as shown. The custom air tank holds about 5 gallons of uncompressed air. With this setup I am able to inflate each tire from 5lbs to 26lbs at the trail in approximately 3 minutes.

 

[iortechnology]

Emergency brake issues are handled by the All-Pro transfer case disk brake system. This works great in all situations that I've needed it in, and I would highly recommend it to any of you looking for a clean setup on your own trucks. The only downside is that the rotor acts as the "nut" for the rear driveshaft bolts, and getting that first one started can be a real pain out on the trail.

The cases are supported by a Marlin Crawler 3/8" thick mount/skid plate. While it works fine, I do get some rattle on the low passenger side corner. In all fairness, the fact that the rocks have dented that section of the plate doesn't help the issue.

The rear case has a 4.73:1 reduction kit in it from Marlin with the MC07 bearings. This is a change from the Advanced Adapters 5:1 gear set that I had used in the past - the bearing eventually failed on me because of the highway mileage that this vehicle sees.

As a note, this truck is DRIVEN to all trails that it does. I put about 40,000 miles on the truck each year doing outdoor photography with my wife and three dogs. We frequent New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah trails each year, with special trips to big spots like the Rubicon every few years as well.

 

[iortechnology]

Under the hood there are a couple of cool toys. The first to speak of is the Premier Power Welder. Nice system of course from all of the reviews, but man - if you ever get the chance to use or own one of these systems, go for it. The welder runs off of a custom wound alternator that fits on the factory mount and feeds a box that allows the user to transition between welding, 120 volts and normal 14 volt operation. It's a sweet system.

Next there is a R&M Specialty Products underhood shower. This runs the engine coolant through a heat exchanger using a small 12V pump shown in the third picture. Slight relocation of the stock charcol canistor and everything still fits. There are hose quick disconnects mounted under the front passenger fender. Anybody after a steaming hot shower after a cold camping trip? Yeah, I laughed the first time I heard of one too. How about after a day of trail wheeling? Throw in a few hours of a grinder and grease, and now get offered a hot shower out on the trail. After the first one I got, I was on the phone ordering one myself.

 

[iortechnology]

A shot of the quick disconnects on the passenger front fender. Pretty nice not to have to open the hood for a hot shower. On the other picture is the drivers side front fender showing the tubbing that I did to keep the tires from punching up into my floor board. While a total pain in the butt to do that project, I was able to keep the stock location of the EFI computer and the fuse block under the steering column.

The third picture is an interior shot showing where I put my manual throttle control next to the emergency brake handle. This controls the engine idle speed for the welder and for the shower. The CB radio I run is also shown to the right of the satellite radio system, which is nice because it hides the whole CB system out of view. The hand unit controls all operations of the radio.

 

[iortechnology]

Some action shots before I close this thing down. These are from Holy Cross and the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.

 

[iortechnology]

And a few shots from Mount Blanca 4wd trail in Colorado this spring.

 

[iortechnology]

Some more from Blanca

 

[iortechnology]

Spare tire carrier and one from the 2007 Chile Challenge in Las Cruces NM.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

Very Nice!!!!!! I'm questionless.... Hehehe

 

[Bear80]

who did your double c rear drive shaft?

 

[iortechnology]

Jesse at High Angle Driveline did the rear shaft. The front shaft is a custom DOM shaft made of 1/4" wall tubing with the long travel kit from Marlin Crawler.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Sweet!

I've hiked Blanca a few times, always impresses me that trucks are able to get up there via the trail. I really like the hot shower, I think I need one now.

Dan

PS-glad to see you've got the "right" color license plate.

 

[BikerTrash]

Man, that is awsome. Really encourages me to try to do some more work on my 4runner. My poor old truck is pretty beat though

 

[bigarms23]

great looking truck