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Bought some new tires for the GX today! Went with Duratracs again, but back to stock size this time. Looking forward to a bit better fuel economy, and some extra pep in it's step with the smaller tires. Put about 70K kms on the old ones, and lots of tread left on them, figured I can probably get a few bucks for them to offset the new ones that way. Unsure what I'm going to do for wheels...I've been trying to track down a set of the FJC 8-hole wheels, but I'm coming up empty. The current FJC 6-spokes need refinishing if I'm going to re-use them as the powder coat is peeling, and I'd just as soon switch things up to eliminate the downtime associated with having these ones cleaned up.
I guess we'll be hanging on to this rig for a few more years, it's been great to us thus far.
Weather turned cold again, so I actually washed this thing for the 1st time in a while. I'm loving the look without the rook rack, wife is lukewarm on it, probably related to me not asking before I pulled it off, lol.
When I recently replaced a rusted out fuel tank strap, I realized both rear bump stops were broken and the rubber was hanging on by one side only. Since I scrapped the airbag setup I figured I'd replace them with the 4Runner/FJC spec rear bumpstops, much shorter than the GX470 ones.
I also decided to replace the air suspension switch with an OEM dash pocket, I set the shocks to full stiff before removing the switch so that's where they should stay set.
Big news, added a '15 4Runner Ltd. in Magnetic Gray to the fleet this weekend, so the GX470 is shifting back over to me for daily driver duty. This allows me to keep my '93 HDJ81 Land Cruiser out of the salt in the winter, while leaving me with something I can trust, something very comfy, heated seats, command start, can pull the snowmobile trailer, fully baselined, and can consume huge volumes of fuel, lol!
The Lexus is up on jackstands at the moment, I'm converting the front brakes to GX460 spec, and had a brake hose crumble between the caliper and soft line on the passenger side, so thankfully I all of a sudden have a 3rd vehicle and this isn't such a huge inconvenience! I'll also be replacing the upper control arms while I'm waiting on the part (needed to be ordered in) as they were clunking and worn out, followed by an alignment.
I'm also going to swap the FJC 8-hole wheels over to the 4Runner as the Ltd. trim 20" wheels aren't staying, and they look great on the gray truck. Sadly, the 4Runner has 32" tires from factory, and the 31's on the 8-holes look too small, so I'll need new tires for the 4Runner, and I was going to go back to 32's on the GX but it will stay on the 31's as they aren't even a year old yet. I've still got the FJC 6 spoke wheels in the attic, I'll have them refinished and put the 31's on them for the Lexus, probably in gunmetal finish.
The best news though, as it's now mine, I'll be pulling that ugly bug deflector off ASAP! Anyone looking for one? Or some 20" 4Runner Ltd. wheels?
Edit: I can't seem to figure out how to get a pic uploaded...any ideas?
Hit a deer on the highway last night, I was able to scrub off about half my speed before impact, he'd have run into the side of me if I'd failed to slow down. 1st time I've ever hit a deer, I expected it to feel like I'd hit something bigger, it pretty well bounced off the front corner and the truck felt unaffected other than the driver's side headlight aiming too low, but a closer inspection shows the old GX took a heavy hit and simply insulated me from it.
Looks like a front bumper, grille, hood, headlight, fender, fender flare, side mirror and whatever I may have missed. Hoping it's not a total loss as this was to be my winter vehicle this year. Terrible timing honestly.
Wow. Hopefully you didn't get any injuries(from airbag may be?). Good thing you are on the GX and not some small car or the deer could have been in your windshield. Hope things work out for you man.
Wow. Hopefully you didn't get any injuries(from airbag may be?). Good thing you are on the GX and not some small car or the deer could have been in your windshield. Hope things work out for you man.
Airbags didn't deploy thankfully, it might be the only thing that keeps it from being a total loss.
I tried to post pics previously, but something's janky with this forum software. Seems to work now.
Well, the truck is in to have the damages assessed today, pray for Lexie! Hoping she'll be back better than ever!
I did notice the driver's front wheel was damaged as well, and one of the tranny cooler lines was rubbing on a bent bumper brace, so I slipped some plastic sheathing over the hose to protect it.
10-14-16, 05:41 PM
