Hunting in a 4Runner

[Poser]

Probably more shipping than I want to deal with, but if anyone is in the 4 Corners area with V8 4th Gen 4runner, I have a pair of laser cut WeatherTech front floor mats, a (unused) OEM Serpentine Belt (you do carry a spare serpentine belt around, right?) and a Haynes manual with all of the torque specs etc that I'll pass along.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

It’s a Toyota, so bring plenty of extra gas…

 

[K9kodi]

Make sure you have a full size spare

 

[257_roberts]

I did the 6112/5100 upgrade on a 4th gen and it was a significant ride improvement. I will add, however, that one of the front 6112s started leaking inside of 2 years. That doesn't mean they all leak, obviously, but I replaced the stock suspension that had 250k on it and it had never leaked and by the time I deleted the stock Xreas suspension and installed aftermarket, it was a significant investment so that was a bit disappointing.

Have a 2019 taco and the stock suspension was leaking after 15k miles. I do a lot of gravel/FS roads... just to say driving conditions do matter.

 

[Jakeb]

Just got home from our first trip in it to CO. 1300 miles one way, I averaged about 19 mpg at about 76mph. Took my wife and 7yo.

We spent time in Creede, Lake city, Silverton and a day in Ouray at the hot springs pool, 7yo wore the slide out. We did the bachelor loop out of Creede, some exploring around lake city then up engineer pass and down to silverton. Beautiful country.

We spent 2 nights sleeping in the back. I trimmed a full size memory foam mattress to fit and made a plywood platform to cover the drop in the back. Worked well though it was tight with 3 of us.

Picked up an Amazon cargo carrier, I kept a 65 yeti on. It did surprisingly well and I was even able to just barely open the back hatch. It survived the bachelor loop but took a pretty good hit coming down engineer pass on a tight switchback. Got bashed pretty good but I was able to ratchet strap it good enough to make it home. It was nice to have, but I’m undecided if I will get another one for hunting with yet. Though it is convenient.

I aired down my 265’s to about 22psi. It did everything I needed it to, it’s just a little rougher ride going over the rocky sections. I’m not sure if going to 285’s for my next set or if trying 15 psi is the better route.

I picked up a headliner net that straps to the grab handles. Definitely the best addition. We stored jackets, snacks, binos, toys, pouches. Basically anything we needed easy access to that was out of the way. We all 3 could reach our items easily from our seats.

 

[Poser]

Just got home from our first trip in it to CO. 1300 miles one way, I averaged about 19 mpg at about 76mph. Took my wife and 7yo.

We spent time in Creede, Lake city, Silverton and a day in Ouray at the hot springs pool, 7yo wore the slide out. We did the bachelor loop out of Creede, some exploring around lake city then up engineer pass and down to silverton. Beautiful country.

We spent 2 nights sleeping in the back. I trimmed a full size memory foam mattress to fit and made a plywood platform to cover the drop in the back. Worked well though it was tight with 3 of us.

Picked up an Amazon cargo carrier, I kept a 65 yeti on. It did surprisingly well and I was even able to just barely open the back hatch. It survived the bachelor loop but took a pretty good hit coming down engineer pass on a tight switchback. Got bashed pretty good but I was able to ratchet strap it good enough to make it home. It was nice to have, but I’m undecided if I will get another one for hunting with yet. Though it is convenient.

I aired down my 265’s to about 22psi. It did everything I needed it to, it’s just a little rougher ride going over the rocky sections. I’m not sure if going to 285’s for my next set or if trying 15 psi is the better route.

I picked up a headliner net that straps to the grab handles. Definitely the best addition. We stored jackets, snacks, binos, toys, pouches. Basically anything we needed easy access to that was out of the way. We all 3 could reach our items easily from our seats.

You had good timing. The super high winds + some lightning pretty much set everything on fire this weekend. Huge fire in Ouray in inaccessible terrain, 3 fires in Dolores, a fire directly threatening Leadville, another on the Utah/CO border and also one in the Gunnison area. 3 firefighter fatalities, too.

Engineer Pass has gotten a good bit rougher just in the last 2-3 years, Lots of debate on what is causing the roads to deteriorate so much from year to year: total traffic volume or side by side gearing as a potential culprit. The only option to deal with that is for the county to do some rock grinding every few years, then the ORV community gets all up in arms about turning technical roads into dirt roads, though those roads were built for function, not for the purposes of being a ORV park. I usually air down to 20 PSI on 265s for those roads. 15 is probably fine, but anything less than that is getting into bead lock territory IMO and you defintely want to keep the speed under 20-25 mph if you hit a flat stretch or get back on the highway without airing back uo. You will of course get more sidewall with 285s, but you're gas mileage will also go down.

 

[Jakeb]

You had good timing. The super high winds + some lightning pretty much set everything on fire this weekend. Huge fire in Ouray in inaccessible terrain, 3 fires in Dolores, a fire directly threatening Leadville, another on the Utah/CO border and also one in the Gunnison area. 3 firefighter fatalities, too.

Engineer Pass has gotten a good bit rougher just in the last 2-3 years, Lots of debate on what is causing the roads to deteriorate so much from year to year: total traffic volume or side by side gearing as a potential culprit. The only option to deal with that is for the county to do some rock grinding every few years, then the ORV community gets all up in arms about turning technical roads into dirt roads, though those roads were built for function, not for the purposes of being a ORV park. I usually air down to 20 PSI on 265s for those roads. 15 is probably fine, but anything less than that is getting into bead lock territory IMO and you defintely want to keep the speed under 20-25 mph if you hit a flat stretch or get back on the highway without airing back uo. You will of course get more sidewall with 285s, but you're gas mileage will also go down.

Yes! We just missed the fire, it started on our way home. What’s crazy is the day before we got rained on pretty hard not very far from there. I guess it’s just so dry.

Are you familiar with that area? Do you mind if I PM you a few questions?