Greetings from herscman in Maryland

Hi All,

Just want to say I'm glad to be joining your forum. I bought my 4Runner a year ago and I've been looking for a place to share ideas and thoughts about Toyota good and bad topics. My truck is an 08 Sport with a 4.7 engine. I do a little towing so I wanted a little more muscle to help out. I haven't done any upgrades to it yet. I did have the front brakes replaced though. Seems there has been numerous problems reported on Carfax even though the truck only has 78K miles. I did some research before hand and bought pads and rotors from DBA and rebuilt calipers from NAPA. Time will tell if I chose correctly, I guess. Anyway, I'd be glad to answer any questions about my truck if the come up.

herscman

 

welcome

 

Welcome! What do you tow?

 

Welcome from FL

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome! ​

 

Welcome.

 

Welcome from Colorado

 

I tow an older MasterCraft ski boat, 1978. It weighs a little over 3K fully loaded. The trailer doesn't have brakes on it so I wanted the best brakes I could find for my tow vehicle. The Carfax on my truck said it's had new pads and Rotors either replaced or resurfaced 3 times in 73K miles. That seems crazy to me. I've been told that 4Runners have undersized brakes to start with and the rotors warp easily. Mine is a Sport and it has the larger rotors on it so that probably helps. DBA pads and rotors are supposed to be able to handle the higher temps. I guess this summer will let me know I've made the right call. Here in Maryland the temps in July and August get to the mid 90's. That's probably average in a lot of places, but making unexpected hard stops in those temps will likely warp most rotors. Any thoughts or comments are surely welcome.

herscman

 

Welcome! I'm located in Maryland as well!

 

With that much weight it may be wise to just convert the trailer to having brakes. For maintenance and also safety reasons. Maybe research what that would cost vs what new brakes would cost on the vehicle. Or just use this summer as a test and reevaluate after the season.

 

I've thought about adding trailer brakes, and have done a little research. The problem as I see it, do I go with hydraulic or electric? Both are subject to problems since the wheels are under salt water when I launch and retrieve the boat. Salt water corrodes everything it touches, there aren't any freshwater lakes within 3 hours of me. Either setup would require regular maintenance just to keep them working. I would really like to get some feedback from someone that has run into this. I'm sure trailer brakes would be the answer, but choosing the brakes that are going to give me the least amount of trouble seems to be the big question.

herscman

 

Yeah I don't know. I have never owned a trailer that sees a lot of salt water but I know there are lots of trailers that do see salt and have brakes so...Hopefully someone will chime in.

 

Welcome from Missouri