Just completed 4,500 mile trip - Observations

Wife and I just spent the last two weeks on the road exploring the PNW, with most nights spent camping in the 4R. We logged just under 4500 miles, starting in NM and making our way through UT up to OR and WA. Primary goal was to find a place to relocate now that all the kids are out of the house while visiting family along the way. Elevation ranged from 7k feet (here at home) down to sea level, with a few mtn. passes sprinkled in.
Temps ranged from pleasant - 70s or so in the Gorge area - to pretty f**king unpleasant. Thankfully, I took some measures before we left to mitigate heat in the 4runner while sleeping. Still, 109 degrees is 109 degrees. And while Nautical Blue is nice on the eyes (subjective, I know), it is HOT when baking in the sun.

Trip prep: Except for building out a basic camper setup, I didn't really do much to prep the truck. I rotated the tires and hit all driveline zerks with some fresh grease and that's about it. I also dropped the spare to inspect/check inflation and lube the lift mechanism. In retrospect, I would have swapped in some fresh oil before we left. As it was, I hit my 10k mile oil change notification on our last day - I would have liked to have had the peace of mind of fresh oil during the trip, especially given the heat. Oh well.

Observations: 4R ran flawlessly. Seats were comfy enough even on the longest drive days - longest being 13hrs (Santa Fe to Knolls recreation area, UT). I'm 5'10" and a buck fifty and my body is just on the south side of 50 and I had no issues with the seat the entire trip. Nice. I've had Toyotas in the past that I wouldn't have been able to say that about..

Per the trip computer, we averaged 19.2 mpg there and back. I haven't calc'd by hand yet, but that number is promising. Especially considering the extra weight from my camper build out. I'm running E-rated Falken Wild Peaks in stock size and ran them at 50lbs. Overall, I was really happy with the handling, though braking performance was compromised a little due to the extra weight and extreme road heat on some stretches. I kept it in D with cruise on while on the flats but found myself in S4 in some of the passes and switchback stuff. I was able to maintain a pretty consistent 2000-2200 rpms.

If I had a small gripe it would be the nav system as it just wasn't up to task on a lot of the routes. That's what Apple and Google are for, I guess!

All in, a fantastic time and fantastic performance from the 4Runner. Even got some quality offroad time getting to a few of the camping spots.

 

50 psi is quite a bit

 

I run them higher when loaded with the extra weight - like the slightly firmer ride and less rolling resistance. I monitor closely and have yet to notice any accelerated wear. Run them at 40lbs when empty.

 

good observations. I have a '19 SR5 and my one and only gripe is the seats. I'm 53 so my bones are getting more particular, but even my 18 y/o son and his friends complain about the rear seats. wonder if they're different in the TRD vs the SR5 (?)
As for mpg, mine shows 19.2 no matter how far or how fast I drive...not sure if accurate or they do like Chevy's gauges and just throw up random reading.

 

Nice post. Thanks for sharing. I did a few-day round trip of about 1900 miles and had a similar experience. Averaged 20 MPG per the computer, but I was loaded with stuff only on the trip up, not back. Though I also got stuck in one epic traffic jam for an hour with the AC blasting due to the heat. Re AC, these trucks have a heck of a lot of interior volume to cool, but I've found the AC fine if you run recirc and give it time. I would however consider getting darker tint on the rear windows and insulating tint on the front.

Seats quite good. One of the better driver's seats I've had. Wife likes it too and she's picky about that.

Sometimes chose S4 on hills (or trans dropped me into 4th, espec. when using adaptive cruise). Used mostly CarPlay for navigation, one reason being that the built in nav was for some reason set to avoid tolls -- that made for some crazy long routes and I didn't figure out why until later.

Only real complaint was the amount of steering correction needed and tendency to follow the crown of the road. I plan to max out the caster, when I next get an alignment, in hopes of helping with straight-line stability.

 

Interesting observation re AC - I had same experience. And had no idea 4runner NAV programmed to avoid tolls - makes sense!

 

Good question, I'm also curious if seats are the same. And speaking of Chevy, I had a 2005 2500 HD & it had the most comfortable seats I've ever been in! You could have 10,000 miles in those things in a single sitting.

 

Having driven several different trims, I'm pretty sure all the seats are the same but for the material -- cloth, vinyl or leather-- with one big exception. At least on the 2020 MYs, the Limited drivers seat has a bunch of power adjustments that include the angle of the seat bottom. This has been a big plus for me. I'd be uncomfortable if the driver's seat was just like the passenger seat. Its seat bottom is too low and not angled back enough (ie not enough of a 'bucket seat') so there's not enough support under the thighs for me. I think many others have had the same complaint, which is why there's a market for "seat jacks" to raise the whole seat and/or front of those bottom cushions.

 

The proper inflation for stock size LT tires is 44 PSI on our trucks. That is based on the GAWR so unless you're overloaded, bumping up the pressure isn't necessary. 6 PSI isn't a ton overinflated, so probably no big deal. Just throwing it out there.

Sounds like a great road trip! Where are the pictures?

 

Good write up! We also just complete a 3k mile trip. Similar observations with braking with more weight but overall mpg in the high 18s, low 19s and really did a great job. I was never sore from the longer days.

I actually used my nav the whole trip and it did great. Spend some time in the settings and make it yours!

Hopefully you found a potential place!

 

Avoiding/not avoiding tolls should be in the settings. I've never known a nav system to not have that. Toyota's navigation sucks I've been relying on my phone (Waze) more and more, it's always updated.

 

Yep, I found it in the settings after that trip and changed it so it doesn't avoid tolls. IDK why it seemed to have been set to avoid tolls as the default.

Agree too that the OEM Nav isn't great. But it does have some features (eg distance to next rest stop, visually showing all gas stations near your route) that I either don't have or haven't figured out how to set in Apple or Google maps.

I've also liked having OEM Nav as a backup, for example when out of cell service range. On one trip I did out in the country, the phone stopped loading maps and directions but the OEM Nav continued to. I think the phone based systems tend to require both GPS and cell service. There may be a way around that problem, but I don't know what it is.

 

With a phone based nav app, once you set it up to navigate to your destination, do not ever exit the app if you are out of network service. Otherwise it will need to re-establish a cellular data connection to the map server to start over.
Sometimes the apps crash for no reason and you’re hosed. I usually run 2 or more just to compare their routing for fun. And usually Waze for traffic and LEO notifications. I rarely use the OEM nav anymore but I may start again to use the distance to rest stop info.

 

Same on the A/C. It's just nowhere near as good as my '08. Much weaker in both temperature and air flow out of the vents. It takes forever to cool off in hot weather.

 

Copy that. Unloaded, I usually run 42 lbs on these E-rated Falkens. With some extra weight loaded in the back, and when keeping with traffic on the 80 mph interstates, my sweet spot is 50lbs - firms things up a bit and handling just feels a little 'sharper', if that's even a thing on the 4runner.

 

Awesome, glad I'm not the random oddball! And affirmative, very likely landing in the Gorge area on the OR side.

 

Lol! Yeah, they're surely not "sporty." I am pretty happy with how mine handles for a brick, especially with a few hundred extra # at all times.