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2000 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4WD

Powertrain:
- 5VZ-FE DOHC 24-valve V6 engine
- 5-speed manual transmission

Performance:
- Deckplate Mod
- True Flow Air Filter
- URD short shifter

Off-Road:
- 2.5" Tundra/OME lift
- BFG AT KO 265/75/R16
- Factory rear locker
- Stubbs rock sliders with custom inserts

Exterior:
- 99-00 Limited 5-spoke alloy wheels
- Yakima rack for mtbs and kayaks

Interior:
- Husky Floor Liners
- Maglite Mod
- TRD shiftknob

Electrical:
- Pioneer headunit w/IPOD connection
- Manual/Auto control of power antenna via switch
- Cobra 19 CB in DIN below stereo
- Napa Orbital battery
- Dell Axim X51V PDA with bluetooth GPS, ProClip/Seidio powered mount

Lighting:
- Hella Micro de fog lights, converted to HID
- Illuminated center console and rear climate control with green LEDs
- Superflux LED footwell illumination
- Superflux LED dome light
- Custom high-power LED hatch light

[paddlenbike]

I made some minor alterations to my suspension setup and I am pleased with the outcome.  I am running the Sonoran Steel #7 2.5" lift which uses Tundra coils up front with a 3/8" top-out spacer and OME 890 coils in the rear.  The truck sat perfectly level unloaded but tended to sag when loaded for a trip.  I removed the 3/8" spacer up front and the lift has now settled to following ground-to-flare measurements: 37.25" front and 37.5" rear with 265/75R16 BFG tires.  The 1/4" of rake in the rear is not noticeable, the truck still looks level when loaded and some minor amount of wear and tear on the front-end has been reduced by lowering the lift. 

If you have a relatively stock truck with a stock front bumper and no winch, you may want to consider running this lift without the front top-out spacers.

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Photos from the 2007 UltimateYota Pismo trip:
(photo by 4x4Mike)

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Thought I would show off some of my work with LEDs.

I built some current-regulated LED modules to illuminate the floor areas when you open the doors:


Another pic

You might also note the illuminated rear climate control (and cupholder area). 

I also added a high-powered Cree LED to the rear hatch to illuminate the ground when the hatch is opened.  It provides a crazy amount of light for unloading the 4Runner at night and really works great for cooking in camp after dark.  It comes on automatically when the rear hatch is opened.  It is mounted in an Acura Legend door light housing and looks very factory.



I have really enjoyed these lighting modifications.  I tend to store a lot of stuff in the footwells on wheeling and camping trips--stuff is so much easier to find at night with these additions.

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A few more recent pics...






I have not modified anything on the 4Runner for the past year--it is working really well as-is.  I've waxed it and wheeled it, that's it!   

[paddlenbike]

The stock running boards did a great job of keeping the sides of the 4Runner rock chip-free.  As soon as I removed them and installed rock sliders, rock chips started showing up in the paint.  I took one trip to Death Valley with the open rock sliders and picked up about 40 rock chips per side.  (Traveling hundreds of miles on gravel roads at speeds up to 83 mph (by gps) does a great job of blasting paint off just about anything.)  In an effort to preserve the 4Runner's paint I cut out steel inserts and welded them into the voids of the rock sliders.  Here is the result:







It took a lot of work to match the bends of the sliders.  Tubing benders have a tendency to push the outside of the bend further out before bending it inwards (if that makes any sense).  Stubb's sliders are built on a jig and have extremely high quality control, but each of the six steel plates were still just slightly different.  The welding itself took no more than about 15 minutes.

So do they work?  Shortly after completing this project I took a trip to the desert (Joshua Tree) for 4 days of wheeling.  Even though the sliders had 2-3 coats of primer and 6 coats of paint, the gravel blew through it all and left me with this:


You will note tons of chips in the bottom of the plates, and yet none of those rocks made it up to the body.  Keep in mind those chips are from one extended weekend of wheeling, so clearly over the lifetime of the vehicle the paint is going to stay much nicer.   

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[paddlenbike]

I ended up picking a really good year (2000) and the original owner did a good job picking the right options:

• The truck is a base SR5.  The manual transmission was not available on the Limited and this year 4Runner (2000) was the last year Toyota ever offered one.
• 2000 is the only year that you could order the large painted fender flares as an option.  (These became standard equipment on the 01-02 Sport Edition 4runners, but not available as an option)  They look like the flares that come on the Limiteds but without the plastic door clading.
• 2000 was also the last year that the e-locker was available on the 4Runner.

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Death Valley

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The road that keeps going forever: