Light upgrades for mild off road?

Hi everyone! I’m new here and I wanted to come on here and ask for some help. So I recently got a new job which requires me to commute and most of which that commute is off road and very steep hills for about an hour…the drive honestly sucks. But I wanted to ask and see what upgrades I can do for my car so it’s a smoother ride? I have a level kit for it also but with the amount of off road I’ll do with all the bumps I fear a level might not be the best and instead do bilstein 5100’s? I am not sure. Anything would be helpful, I also don’t want this drive destroying my car so I would like to kinda of make it more off road capable and am in the market for some new tires also!
Also lastly, I was wondering it anyone has attached some cell boosters? I also don’t have service out on these roads and would like some sort of signal in case something happens.
Sorry this is long thank you to anyone in advance!! Any advice is appreciated.

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! Bilstein 5100's will help with the terrain. As far as tires, any good all-terrain tires should work. I don't know what to tell you about "cell boosters", what does your cell provider have for boosters? Good luck, sounds like a fun job... getting to off-road every day.

 

Welcome

 

I’d look for a suspension that is designed to handle the bumps at some speed, I spend a god amount of time on some logging roads in the summer, and went with Ironman setup, as it was designed for Australian Outback.

check your air pressure as well, lower will not bounce as much. For the phone or communications, get a sat phone or some sort of CB/GRMS type setup.

 

Personal locator becon

 

https://eibach.com/products/pro-truck-lift-stage-2r

Love this kit, night and day difference compared to stock.

 

Welcome

 

I would pass on the bilstein 5100 and go with Eibach, but i wouldn't level/lift. The Eibach should be between the soft stock shocks and the hard Bilsteins. My favorite stock size tires would be the Good Year Duratrac, super versatile and with Kevlar.

I have not found a good Booster, but i have added GMRS and Ham radio to my 4R, and with some luck people will be listening.

 

Welcome!

First off your stock 4Runner suspension is more capable than most individuals realize. Tires would be my first consideration so depending upon the type of terrain and season there are specific tread (block) types for specific conditions but for the most general usage an 'AT' style will be more than enough (barring deep mud holes and crawling on rocks.) As for suspension, would you care to share what trim level your 4Runner is? Also worth asking/mentioning is whether you are/will be carrying additional cargo on your 'commute'?

Driving offroad there's not much you can do to smoothen out the bumps to where it feels like driving on a modern highway as softer (compliant) suspension will help but handles like crap at highway speeds and vice versa. There are solutions to get the most of both worlds but those are pricy so a compromise has to be made with budget in mind. Can you give us a better idea as to the terrain type other than 'bumps'? Something along the lines of a trail technical rating would be helpful to know, both for anyone else whom can provide input but also for your edification.

As for Cell signal boosters, something to keep in mind that with today's high bandwidth signals (5G...) those frequencies tend to bounce around in canyons and get absorbed more readily by trees, etc. 'Line of sight' rules apply so depending upon the terrain that you'll be in you may find a booster may not provide much help. Now if you were in open desert that's a different story. Typical 'radial' range from a cell tower can be anywhere from 1/4 mile to a mile in dense urban environments and at an absolute maximum of 25 miles - line of sight in open country. A signal booster can only act as a 'repeater', boosting the relayed signal to where your phone sees a stronger link but doesn't necessarily mean you will have full bandwidth speeds. Example would be say your phone is barely getting a single signal 'bar'. Your signal booster wouldn't see any stronger signal necessarily but outputs enough to where your phone thinks it has multiple signal bars. Download link rates would can be slow but uploads can be much improved by the booster. Now on the more recent Apple iPhones (mine's a 14) there's a mode where you can send text messages via (SOS mode) satellite, not sure but I would assume androids can do the same. Here's a handy Cell Phone Tower Map website that you can search out what cell towers are in your area, cross reference against topographical terrain map(s) will give you a better idea of what to expect if you do get a signal booster.

When traveling the outdoors its a good thing to become more familiar with GPS navigation/coordinates, take an evening to 'map out' your route so that if there is an emergency you'll have some general GPS coordinates of your location. I always carry a GPS receiver, it's a Garmin GPS Map 67i that has an SOS feature (InReach) for emergency coms.

That's all for now, just get out there and have some fun with your rig, reach out to some local 4x4 clubs in your area. Here in California one can search the Offroaders website for clubs across the state, certainly there would be other websites in your state you could search. A larger reach could be through Overland Bound.

 

wow thank you everyone for these awesome replies! A lot of good stuff here

 

Eibach Pro lift/shocks, Good AT tires, Rock Sliders (if it’s more than fire road) and a WeBoost will make the ride better and keep you out of trouble.

 

After watching a good amount of 4WD 24/7, I have come to the conclusion that a good set of tires, quality recovery gear and off road driving skills are the most important factors.

 

Biggest difference in ride quality off road, more than any suspension or tire upgrades, is made by airing down your tires to about 15 psi. However, you'd have to inflate them back to normal pressure for pavement.

 

From someone who lives in the outback where paved roads are few and far between....

best thing you can do for ride quality is air down. My tires pretty much stay at 25 psi when on dirt roads, and I've programmed the TPMS system so it doesn't alarm unless tire pressure gets lower than that. Huge difference in ride from having the tires at 35 psi. But the rougher the roads the more you need to air down.

Cell phone boosters are rarely any help when there's no cell towers around. Either get one of the new phones that allows you to text via satellite, or get yourself an InReach unit, either stand alone or built in to a GPS unit. That gives you reliable communications (text) no matter where you are. For years I carried a satellite phone but they priced themselves out of my reach.