Time to "give back"...
I've been mostly researching (lurking) on this forum, with a few posts and PMs as I planned and designed my lift. I bought this truck in 2014 with the intention of using it as a family overlanding rig. I went into it knowing that 2nd Gen Sequoias are a booger to build into a reasonably serious offroader, but my 3 kids are all adult-sized, and our typical 3-7 day outings require a lot of gear/food/water. Additionally, we generally go long distances to our adventures, and so highway comfort is just as important as off-road functionality. I tried a 2012 Ford F250 Diesel Crew Cab, but it was way too big to go some places we wanted to go. Sweet truck, but not the right tool for the job. I also had a '98 3/4-ton Suburban for quite a while. Also decent, but not right for us, and started to require lot's of maintenance.
For all those reasons, we went with the Sequoia, and have been pretty happy with it. You get A LOT of truck for your money buying these things used. But, we quickly outpaced it's stock capability. Here we are last year in Colorado...
I'm running about 1000# of gear when we're loaded for the back country (gear, water, food, fuel), plus about 750# of bodies (mostly my fault). That's after refining some gear to shave weight, but we're also working on trimming more weight as we come up with creative solutions including on-the-fly resupply. Yeah, I know we're well over the truck's load capacity, but I have talked to Toyota and various off-roading professionals, and given the truck's towing capacities, and the specifics of our upgrades, we're confident that the truck can handle what we're doing with it.
So, after much research, and helpful input from Stom_m3, MtnClimber, and Tip Toe Over The Mt. (sorry if I'm forgetting anyone who provided suggestions), and expert guidance from Sierra Expeditions in Mesa, AZ (among others), this is what we looked like on this year's trip to Colorado.
Here's what we've done to date:
Leather steering wheel cover (the steering wheel was pretty sun-baked when I got it)
Baja Rack Mega Mule (mounts right to the stock cross members)
Front rotors - DBA Brake Rotors Street Series T2 (2724S)
Front pads - Hawk Truck/SUV Brake Pads (HB589P.704) SuperDuty Brake Pads
Tires - Nitto RidgeGrappler LT285/75R17E (incl spare) (33.8")
Wheels - KMC XD Series Turbine 17x9 5x150 +18 OS (incl spare)
SPC Front Upper Control Arms (model 25490)
Custom rear springs from Coil Springs Specialties +57% +3.00"
Radflo 2.5″ Front Coil-over (Eibach Springs) with 7/8" shaft
Radflo 2.5" custom rear shocks with 7/8" shaft, remote reservoir and custom mounts (apparently there are two different mounts on these rigs, and I have the less common of the two)
[FONT="]Bushwacker 30912-02 Toyota OE Style Fender Flare[/FONT]
LED bulbs throughout the cabin and doors
The astute viewer will note that we painted the chrome grille black (satin black trim paint and appropriate primer from an auto paint supply store), and also blacked out all the badges (Plasti-dip). While the fender flares came in black, we painted them to prevent fading, and to match the grille and trim.
Due to challenges with the shock mounts, we took delivery from Sierra Expeditions (they're great btw) the day before departing for Colorado. Had just enough time to run out to the desert to test it a bit, and then home to load up.
Bottom line, we LOVE it. It performed better than I imagined, even fully loaded...
Rides fantastic on the highway, less bouncy than factory, but not "trucky" (like the F250 and Suburban).
Tires are surprisingly quiet for what's basically an AT/MT hybrid, ride great on the pavement, and performed superbly off-road (dirt, gravel, lots of mud, and wet rock faces in precarious circumstances). The 33.8" fits in the spare-well (very tightly), but is now my low point (12" clearance).
The lift came out about 3" in the front, and 5" in the rear. I'm expecting the rear will settle a bit as I really only want 1-1.5" rake and hope it will level when loaded (Coil Springs engineers expected <1" rear end drop when fully loaded).
I've tried to be thorough, but feel free to ping me with questions.
I've been mostly researching (lurking) on this forum, with a few posts and PMs as I planned and designed my lift. I bought this truck in 2014 with the intention of using it as a family overlanding rig. I went into it knowing that 2nd Gen Sequoias are a booger to build into a reasonably serious offroader, but my 3 kids are all adult-sized, and our typical 3-7 day outings require a lot of gear/food/water. Additionally, we generally go long distances to our adventures, and so highway comfort is just as important as off-road functionality. I tried a 2012 Ford F250 Diesel Crew Cab, but it was way too big to go some places we wanted to go. Sweet truck, but not the right tool for the job. I also had a '98 3/4-ton Suburban for quite a while. Also decent, but not right for us, and started to require lot's of maintenance.
For all those reasons, we went with the Sequoia, and have been pretty happy with it. You get A LOT of truck for your money buying these things used. But, we quickly outpaced it's stock capability. Here we are last year in Colorado...
I'm running about 1000# of gear when we're loaded for the back country (gear, water, food, fuel), plus about 750# of bodies (mostly my fault). That's after refining some gear to shave weight, but we're also working on trimming more weight as we come up with creative solutions including on-the-fly resupply. Yeah, I know we're well over the truck's load capacity, but I have talked to Toyota and various off-roading professionals, and given the truck's towing capacities, and the specifics of our upgrades, we're confident that the truck can handle what we're doing with it.
So, after much research, and helpful input from Stom_m3, MtnClimber, and Tip Toe Over The Mt. (sorry if I'm forgetting anyone who provided suggestions), and expert guidance from Sierra Expeditions in Mesa, AZ (among others), this is what we looked like on this year's trip to Colorado.
Here's what we've done to date:
Leather steering wheel cover (the steering wheel was pretty sun-baked when I got it)
Baja Rack Mega Mule (mounts right to the stock cross members)
Front rotors - DBA Brake Rotors Street Series T2 (2724S)
Front pads - Hawk Truck/SUV Brake Pads (HB589P.704) SuperDuty Brake Pads
Tires - Nitto RidgeGrappler LT285/75R17E (incl spare) (33.8")
Wheels - KMC XD Series Turbine 17x9 5x150 +18 OS (incl spare)
SPC Front Upper Control Arms (model 25490)
Custom rear springs from Coil Springs Specialties +57% +3.00"
Radflo 2.5″ Front Coil-over (Eibach Springs) with 7/8" shaft
Radflo 2.5" custom rear shocks with 7/8" shaft, remote reservoir and custom mounts (apparently there are two different mounts on these rigs, and I have the less common of the two)
[FONT="]Bushwacker 30912-02 Toyota OE Style Fender Flare[/FONT]
LED bulbs throughout the cabin and doors
The astute viewer will note that we painted the chrome grille black (satin black trim paint and appropriate primer from an auto paint supply store), and also blacked out all the badges (Plasti-dip). While the fender flares came in black, we painted them to prevent fading, and to match the grille and trim.
Due to challenges with the shock mounts, we took delivery from Sierra Expeditions (they're great btw) the day before departing for Colorado. Had just enough time to run out to the desert to test it a bit, and then home to load up.
Bottom line, we LOVE it. It performed better than I imagined, even fully loaded...
Rides fantastic on the highway, less bouncy than factory, but not "trucky" (like the F250 and Suburban).
Tires are surprisingly quiet for what's basically an AT/MT hybrid, ride great on the pavement, and performed superbly off-road (dirt, gravel, lots of mud, and wet rock faces in precarious circumstances). The 33.8" fits in the spare-well (very tightly), but is now my low point (12" clearance).
The lift came out about 3" in the front, and 5" in the rear. I'm expecting the rear will settle a bit as I really only want 1-1.5" rake and hope it will level when loaded (Coil Springs engineers expected <1" rear end drop when fully loaded).
I've tried to be thorough, but feel free to ping me with questions.