nmrunners build v2.0

Here's a few daytime shots. I love the approach clearance gained with this bumper!

 

Haven't had a whole lot of time lately to get out and enjoy the 4runner. Making the most of this 4 day weekend!

 

Made it out for a group trail run yesterday with a few local TW folks. Had a blast playing around in the VA mountains and really had a chance to test the new approach angle with the AOR bumper in a few spots. Unfortunately I didn't get any action shots of the 4runner but hoping someone else in the group did.

 

Finally got a few more pictures from the last trail run.





Hoping to spend time over the next few weekends wiring up an external fuse block, winch, and lights.

 

Well with all the current restrictions on travel and having a little extra time off work I was able to finally get together most of the parts I needed to clean up some of my auxiliary wiring. I'll post progress pictures as I get things done but for right now here's a shot of the parts I've gathered so far.


What I'm working with:
-Duralast AGM Battery
-SDHQ battery terminals
-4 Gauge Wire
-14 Gauge Wire
-Blue Sea Fuse Block (12 fuse terminal)
-Bussmann 120 Amp Breaker
-Bussmann 100 Amp Breaker
-Delphi WeatherPack 22 Position Connector Kit
-Rough Country LED Pods with Amber DRL
-Amak LED Rock Light Kit (8 pods)

Electrical always seems to be the out of sight out of mind thing for me so I really did a lot of research into a few other builds for this project. Ultimately I hope to keep it all from looking like a rats nest under the hood when I'm done .

 

Made some progress today on the fuse block mount. I can't take credit for this design as I borrowed it from Ripcord's V2.0 4runner build. I started out with a black acrylic sheet and cut and shaped it with a cutoff wheel to fit next to the factory fuse block under the hood. Next I used an angle finder to determine what my bends were going to be on the mounting plate and the support leg. Once I had my measurements I used a heat gun to help make the bends.


Platform and support leg


Side view with the support attached


Fuse block and breakers attached

I should have install pictures by this weekend. After I get this setup I can start working on my wiring.

 

nice!

 

Great looking truck! I had a Black '02 just like yours, hate that I don't have it anymore.

 

Thanks! Hopefully this one will be in our family for quite a while. Eventually we will upgrade and get my wife a newer 4runner and this will become the dedicated toy.

 

Got the fuse block mount installed over the weekend. Now to get the new battery in and I can start running all the wiring.

 

Finally got the 4runner in the garage so I can keep going on the electrical stuff, so today I installed the new battery and SDHQ battery terminals. I gotta say these things are super nice and provide plenty of connection options to run auxiliary wires to the battery.


I need to look at other options for my battery hold down since the factory one doesn't quite hold the new battery as snug as I'd like.

 

So to help hold the new group 35 battery in place I decided to fab up a new battery tray.


I'm hoping that the taller sides on this will keep the battery snug when the clamp is on top.

 

I wasn't completely happy with the initial battery tray so I took a stab at fabricating another one.


Painted and installed

 

Back in October when I tried installing the front ADS coilovers I ran into a problem with the resi hose fitting on the shock body hitting my All-Pro UCA's.

Because of this I held off installing them until I could figure something out. A few weeks ago I ended up pulling the trigger on a set of MCM Fab UCA's and recieved them this week. I got everything installed today and they work perfectly with the ADS shocks. I need to get an alignment now but my initial test drive felt great.

 

Went for a drive today after getting the alignment done. Everything feels great and I can't wait to get back out on the trail after this quarantine is over.

 

Looks sick, nice job. Did you cover the terminals with anything? I want to get those, nervous about dropping a wrench on those exposed.

 

Thanks man! I had the same concern about the terminals as well. I haven't covered them yet since my old covers basically fell apart. Ive been looking at picking up a set of these really soon.

 

Knocked out another install project this weekend on the 4runner. Finally got the winch mounted and wired up. We ended up going with a Smittybilt XRC 9.5 gen 3 with synthetic line.


The led light over the spool will be nice for any night time recovery situation.

 

I assume you purchased 4runner with the fender flares already installed, if so do you know what brand and size they are? What type of paint did you use for the back bumper?

 

The fender flares are actually the factory Toyota ones so I'm not really sure how wide they are? I want to say they are 3" IIRC. For both front and rear bumpers I used Rustoleum rusty metal primer and semi-gloss black paint.

 

Met up with the local TW group for another trail run. Had a blast exploring new places and testing out the new ADS front shocks. There was definitely a noticeable difference over the bilstein's we started with.

 

After yesterday's trail run I remembered why I hate mud so much, because it gets everywhere lol!

A little before and after under the hood.

 

I'm thinking of buying this suspension setup. How does it ride on and off road? How does it compare to your old setup? Thanks!

 

The old setup was great for what it was and lasted us quite a long time, that being said the ADS suspension has been a massive improvement over the Bilsteins! We've put quite a few road miles on the new setup and hit a couple of trails and I have been very impressed with the handling on and off road. The new front coilovers soak up rough rocky terrain with no issues and both front and rear have plenty of flex when getting into off camber situations. The on road handling feels much more stable now and is very comfortable on the highway and around town. I would highly recommend this setup to anyone.

 

It's been a while since my last update, but I've been slowly plugging away on my accessory wiring. Finally drilled out a hole in the firewall and installed Daystar's universal wiring boot and wired up the relay's and blue sea fuse block.


Now I just need to wire up my OTRATTW switches and install some fuses.

 

Got all the switches wired up today and the new RC LED pods installed in the front bumper. Next up will be the install of the LED bar and rock lights.


The new RC LED pods are a huge improvement over the ones that came with the bumper from Addicted Offroad and they have a cool amber DRL feature. If I knew how awful the light output was going to be with the pods from AOR I probably wouldn't have ordered them in the first place.

 

Just finished the install on my 2020 with the Smittybilt Gen 3 winch also; should I wire it to the main or my Odyssey accessory battery? The 2020 T4R doesn't seem to have much available in the way of extra room for added accessories on the main starting battery so I tried the accessory but it seems to drain my accessory down to wear it shuts off my Dometic fridge in the rear. Does the Gen 3 draw power even when not being used?

 

Well I don't have much experience with dual battery setups but, from the little bit of research I did about them was that the winch should probably be connected to the main battery and not the accessory battery. This is due to the high amp draw of the winch when under load and the ability of the alternator to keep the primary battery charged (since the vehicle should be on while you're winching). Depending on your setup the accessory battery may not recharge fast enough to keep up with the amp draw from the winch especially if you're running your fridge off of it too. To help with the lack of space for accessories on the factory battery terminals I would reccomend replacing them with aftermarket ones like these from SDHQ.

https://sdhqoffroad.com/collections...dhq-built-billet-battery-terminal-upgrade-kit

Lastly, the winch shouldn't be drawing any power when the remote isn't plugged in so that shouldn't be the problem.

 

I completed the rewiring of the winch; found all the same replies online. Thanks for the help. Still running into the issue of my Dometic fridge shutting off and the low voltage alert on the display. Happened again last night and the only additions to the system are the winch and the Heise LED in the front Slimline bumper. The LED is wired to the accessory battery like all my other accessories that run in the rear. I'm starting to wonder if it's the actual Blue Sea ACR not isolating the accessory battery. I'm going to do a full system shutdown this evening and do the ACR start up as if I just installed it. Go from there after that.

 

Hmmm, ya that is kind of puzzling? It does sound like its not isolating the accessory battery. Sorry I can't be of more help and I hope you get it figured out!