1SilverRunner's Build and Adventures Thread

Took some beauty shots while I was picking up the mail.











The 4R is still on daily driver duty for now. I picked up an on old corolla I may turn into a commuter. Once I do that the 4R will be a full time adventure rig... Less miles means I get to keep it longer. It also means I may be able to justify that regear, 35s, and possibly a long travel kit in the next couple of years...

For now it's the best of both worlds. Gets anywhere I need to go both on and off road. Looks mean while doing it too!

 

Turns out this corner is a lot of fun after 5" of snow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITxX8pBpXVU

 

What spring load did you go with for the Dobinsons and how are you liking their suspension overall? I'm looking at theirs but with the C4 bumper and winch totaling about 150lbs it's right on the line of medium and heavy load springs.

 

Initially I went with their “heavy” 700lb springs. This was too much for my setup so I ended up swapping them with some Apache 650lb springs. It’s much better now!

I wish Dobinsons offered a 650… I think it’s the sweet spot for the low profile bumper/ winch setups.

current setup is
Dobinsons IMS extended travel shocks:
(Front: IMS59-50574 w/ Apache CF220 Springs)
(Rear: IMS59-50575 w/ C59-677v Springs)
All apache links. Extended rear brake lines.

 

Another 22 hour road trip to California!


Middle of winter and a three month old baby now tagging along. This meant no camping, and no real off roading. Just cruised from north Texas to southern California with one hotel on the way. 4Runner kept it comfortable! With baby formula station on board!


Can’t go to the capital of 4Runner mods without something planned… and my rear bumper needed attention.

Here’s the old setup. Nearly three years old at this point. Has protected my quarter panels and bumper countless times… About a year ago during a wheeling trip it took a hard hit. I dented the bar and bent both sides upward quite a bit. Since I knew my in-laws in California live nearby the shop that sold me the kit, I figured it’d be the perfect time to have it redone.

I preemptively chopped the rear bash bar off back home. Plan was to stop by 80% Off Road’s shop to have a new bash bar installed with the factory bumper cover.

The old setup after some abuse. (See page 1 post 25 for initial install)


Attempt to bend it back:



Rocked it this way for a year or so. But the damage and poor color match of the ‘limited’ bumper cover always bugged me. These issues certainly had me considering redoing it for a while. So I reached out to 80%’s owner, Nick. Set this up a couple months ago to make sure he’d have availability for me during my stay in California.

Arrived in southern California with no drama. Spent a week with the in laws, then headed over to Nick’s shop.

80% Off Road impressed the hell out of me. Here’s a little photo dump of the process:







Opted for some larger side hoops as well as DOM instead of HREW. Every mounting point was plated as well. This one will be much stronger and should hold up to my terrible driving much better!

Nick’s welding really puts mine to shame!



Nick at 80% Off Road is one hell of a fabricator. I’ll post more pictures of the finished product soon but I’m super happy with the results.

This setup is much stronger and looks better than ever!



Parked up back in the in-laws garage:

 

That looks sharp. Did he use Rustoleum pro grade bed liner? It looks powder coated. Welds look amazing.

 

Looking good bud safe travels!

 

Yup. Honestly this finish is better than my old raptor liner. I’ll be curious how it holds up. Luckily it’s easy to touch up.



Agreed on the fab work. Talented guy for sure.

Thank you!

 

That finish on the rails looks great. I may need to reconsider spraying mine with hammered matte.

Good for you keeping the adventures going with the baby. Enjoy.

 

Thanks! The baby definitely slows things down. But that’s probably a good thing!

I was surprised by that paint. Definitely going to pick some up. Might re do my sliders with it... Looks great and dries super fast!

 

Its as close to powder coating in a can that i have seen. Touching up my sliders its tough to tell what is PC or touch up.

 

Here’s some more photos for the 2026 California road trip. Had a great time with the family!

Made sure to stop every 2-3 hours to feed the little one. Diaper changes were typically done in the rig as well. This was our fuel stop right after leaving Ca. Even though it was late the dining area was open in the attached Wendy's. This allowed everyone to get out and stretch their legs in anticipation of the next 16 hours on the road.
Side note: Wendy's Tendy's got a solid 4/10. In their defense I just had two whole weeks of eating proper food! So the gas station wendy's didn't exactly hit the spot.


Definitely one of the stand-out moments on the trip was cutting through Tonto National Forest. The aptly named bee-line highway is a beautiful scenic drive we got to experience on the way in. Unfortunately on our return home the weather was a bit grim. I looked at the approaching mountains and route and figured I needed to make a judgment call on where to stop next.


Luckily there was an OHV pull off which made a safe impromptu change/ feed and rest area for my 3 month old. Looking at Gaia I realized we were about to gain 5,500 ft of elevation in the next hour. That meant the nice 60 degree outside temperature would drop drastically. So I made sure to give my daughter a good stretch before the next leg of the trip. We stayed in this OHV area for a couple hours before embarking into the mountains.


Reaching 7,600 feet here we saw plenty of snow on the side of the road. Freezing and fog conditions made the drive a bit more treacherous so I kept the 4R in S3 around 50-60mph for the majority of this climb. My wife stayed in the back with my daughter here since no one really wanted to pull over on a two lane mountain highway in these weather conditions.



Wish I had more pictures of this trip to share here. But honestly the main goal of this one was to spend time with my in-laws and make sure they got to meet their grand-daughter during this time of her life. It was certainly a successful trip and I'm sure we'll have more family adventures soon!

For now though, it's time for Jambo prep. Coming up in about a month so I'll be busy making sure the rig is ready for the hard trails. Probably not gonna take the wife and baby to that... That trip will be for the boys! Wild trails, roudy rigs, and some time for the boys to be boys.
Jambo 2026 incoming

 

sounds like a nice trip bud! I registered for the jambo thing, God I hope nothing weird happens at work and I can go to Gilmer with no isssues. Looking forward to meeting you even if it is for the Saturday piece. I'll PM you to confirm for sure.

 

Hell yeah man it should be a good time. Jambo has turned into a can't miss event for me. If the job denies the vacation I'll hit em with the classic "oh, well I plan on eating gas station sushi tonight so I may not make it in"

 

Finally got a chance to test out the Dometic I got a smoking deal on during black friday.




Right now I have it plugged in to my EcoFlow Delta 2 which is getting fed 12V power while the rig is running. I'll have to install an AC/DC converter soon so it can charge properly, but this method worked for what I had planned this weekend.



Fridge worked great to keep my daughter's formula and a couple of cheese cakes cold while we went to a car show! Later in the day we planned to head over to my parents place and have dinner. Having the fridge in the rig is 10x easier than dealing with bags of ice and risking soggy cheese cakes! (No way the wife would ever forgive such a blunder)

Here's the rig parked up near the Gas Monkey Car Show. (Installed the Gobi ladder the night before as well)



Had a great time at the car show. My daughter is still too young (4 months now) to know what the hell was going on here! But the wife and I had a fun seeing all these classic cars! Some of which were highly modified...









And some were beautifully restored to factory condition











Pretty awesome to take the wife and show her a bit of the car culture I grew up with. Thanks to Gas Monkey for putting on the show and thanks to the people who brought their cars out and participated. It was a great time!

 

Ngl, I’m digging the widdle wadder

 

Gathering parts for some wiring upgrades before installing my AC/DC converter, aux 8 Gang switch panel and some cheap rock lights.

I've been fixing up a little corolla as a commuter and one of the things I had to do was replace the corroded terminals and some corroded ground wires. This fix/ upgrade on the commuter tempted me to do the same for the 4Runner...

In effort to future proof this rig and also allow it to handle the additional load of a winch and auxiliary lighting I've decided to move forward with a "big 3 upgrade"

I have some SDHQ upgraded terminals as well as some sky high 0 gauge OFC on the way. The plan is to upgrade the chassis ground, engine ground, and the alternator charge wire. Less resistance means less load on the charging system when running auxiliary lights or winching. Should help the alternator live a bit longer and add some safety/ longevity to the rig as well. Excited to get it done!