Growing up my dad owned Chevy Blazers starting with his 71 followed by an 85 and finally an 89 before he moved on to a later model 4Runner. We lived in Colorado so I grew up wheeling the trails in Colorado and in my early years we visited the Needles District of Canyonlands several times a year. Easter in the desert was the norm. I have pictures of me as a little guy sitting in spare tires in camp. I didn't get a lot of opportunities behind the wheel but learned a lot by watching. My dad, and most of the people we wheeled with, were anti damage and worked very hard to keep their trucks showroom clean. We have a lot of pictures of the first dent in the old 71 Blazer.
As a result of how I was raised in the wheeling world I'm also very careful to avoid damage if at all possible with my trucks. I am not a mechanic in skill or at heart so the foundation of my builds was to overbuild and then wheel with care. The result is that I have been wheeling since 2001 when I was just finishing up college and have never had a major trail repair. My complete list of broken parts during wheeling trips include a worn out u-joint on my 85 truck, a broken twin stick (was a manufacturing flaw), a few leaks after an engine rebuild that required a gasket to be changed.
I started with a mostly stock 85 truck with 32 inch tires and a 3-1/2 inch Pro Comp lift that had blocks in the rear. Once I graduated and got a real job I upgraded to a 4-1/2 Superlift with new rear springs, 33 inch tires, a Detroit locker in the rear, Truetrac limited-slip in the front, 4.88 differential gears, and a single 4.70 MC transfer case. I also bobbed 13 inches off the bed. I didn't have any sliders or any rear bumper, but it performed great and on the trails that I ran in Moab I only touched the rear end a couple of times (I think it was twice at the Golden Crack). I opted to not get a full locker in the front because I didn't want to push the stock birfields. I was fairly new to the world of building Toyota's as my "dream rig" had always been to build a TJ with a Rubicon Express lift.
The next step in the build process was Longfields and an Aussie front locker along with ARP hub studs and Longfield hub gears. There was a nice improvement in performance with the full locker in the front and I no longer had to have any concern for the front axles. I really didn't do anything else to the 85 truck until gotrocks sold me my current 89 4Runner, the family rig, and offered to do the build for me if I got the parts.
He did the SAS using the front axle out of my 85 truck, my rear differential was swapped in, and the 4.70 transfer case. The new parts included Alcan springs all around, adding a dual case, sliders, a Marlin rear bumper, high steer, Bilstein stocks, and 35 inch tires. Somewhere along the line I got ARP steering knuckle studs but I honestly cannot remember when it happened.
I really have not done much to the 4Runner after the original build beyond swapping to Rancho 9000 shocks after spending a week in Moab bottoming out the Bilsteins. I don't run bumpstops (probably should) but don't have the issue with the Rancho 9000s installed. I bottomed twice in a week on the last trip and with the Bilsteins it happened on almost every ledge that I dropped off of.
Between the two trucks I have been to Moab 9 times for week long trips, for 8 of them I drove from Washington State, and I've made 1 trip to the Rubicon on the road. Until my son was born in 2011 the 85 truck and 89 4Runner were daily drivers, but carseats in the back of the 4Runner is a pain in the rear end so it's now a third vehicle and sits in the garage most of the time. I've managed to toe the line of daily driver and off road rig fairly well.
If I could do anything over it would be to get more firm springs from Alcan as I've learned that my soft springs really don't control the axles as much as I would like when climbing steep things in Moab. The 85 truck had rear springs that were approaching angle iron for flexibility and it climbed like a goat. The 4Runner has more weight at the back so the combination of weight distribution and soft springs really is a disadvantage when climbing. The 4Runner does ride better so I'd love to just split the difference.
Now that it's a 3rd vehicle and doesn't get driving much at all I'm thinking that my next tire choice could be a little more aggressive. I've always been a happy camper with BFG muds, but am likely to get someone like a Irok next if I can convince myself that I won't just wear them out on the highway going to and from the trails.
I'm more of a store bought type of guy than most of the forum. I've had a local shop do the majority of the work that gotrocks didn't do for me. I don't enjoy wrenching so I have always tried to get the best the first time and be done.
I'll post a link to the builds at a later date...
