Project Alpha Bound - 1985 4Runner Adventure Truck Build

[ab1985]

First things first - thank you Expo for the wealth of knowledge and the awesome attitudes here. This is the coolest crowd around, and I learn something new everyday reading here.

In the fall of 2009 we relocated from Nashville, TN to Louisville, KY, and in the process I ended up parting out the rock crawling project I had been working on for the last few years. A few months passed, and I wanted another project but decided my direction had changed. In February of 2010, after searching around my immediate vicinity, I found a 1985 4Runner in Salt Lake City that was in great shape and priced right. As many of us know, 1985 was the first year that Toyota introduced fuel injection for the 4Runners/Trucks and the last that they offered a solid front axle. I'm a die hard Toyota guy and missed my old Tacoma so this combination seemed like a great platform for my next build. I bought a plane ticket and flew out to SLC later that month to buy the truck and drove it home 1600 miles to KY.

Here's a pic just outside of SLC. Other than the bald tires this rig was in great shape.

 

[ab1985]

That was February 2010 and we were still trying to sell our home in Nashville. By July we had sold the house, moved, and (most importantly) got a new garage! But, alas, the transition with work was still such that I had too many things going on to really dive into the truck. I spent the next few months doing maintenance and cleaning the interior.

Christmas rolled around, and it was time. We were finally settled, and I had the bug to start the build. Before I could do that I needed to actually get out in the truck to establish a performance baseline to decide how I wanted to proceed. I upgraded the tires to a set of 33" KM2's and joined a group of old friends at Coal Creek in late January 2011 for some camping and wheeling:

 

[ab1985]

The truck performed very well, and it was a great upgrade from my Tacoma when it came to camping. Here are the goals:

1) Truck will be used as primary transport for family camping, so setup should be modular
2) Primary use will be solo camping trips (subtle difference from above)
3) Fridge
4) Winch
5) Onboard heated water/shower
6) External fuel storage
7) Awnings
8) 10lb Propane (more later)

I am shooting for a 10 day trip in the San Juan mountains in August, so I have a decent timeline. This is probably just enough to keep me motivated, though.

 

[ab1985]

First things first - I need a sleeping pad. I purchased a 2" Thermarest pad and slept in the garage a few times for testing, and this wasn't adequate. I then bought a 2" memory foam pad for a twin mattress and cut it down to match the Thermarest pad - this worked great! So my sleep/storage/fridge system was built around 3 premises:

1) The platform needs to be modular
2) I need to be able to stretch out to 6 ft
3) I need to be able to sit upright inside the truck in case if prolonged bad weather

This is what I came up with:

 

[ab1985]

Monkey bars!

 

[4runnerteq]

Nice rig. love the 1st gen runners.

 

[xkid]

Awesome!

 

[Derek24]

Love those old Runners! I like your sleeping/working setup, thanks for an idea!

 

[CaliMobber]

awesome setup!! Ive got an edgestar freezer as well. Love that thing!

 

[ab1985]

A few more:

 

[ab1985]

The most difficult part of the sleep platform was the carpet. I can't wrap Christmas presents to save my life, so this was a real challenge. I may redo it at some point, but for now it works. I ordered 300 lb drawer slides for the fridge from hawkeye which should be here in a few days. I think I'm going to add a drawer for storage as well instead of using storage totes.

Next up is building a rear bumper that will hold a spare tire, 2 20L gas cans, and a 10 lb propane tank. After the bumper build I'll be able to mount a 14 gallon water tank under the bed and begin the plumbing for a fresh water faucet and heated shower system. More updates to come.

 

[austintaco]

Is the propane tank for fueling stoves, lanterns, heaters, or for a propane conversion?

Nice truck. Very clean. What's the max size tire that you want to run?

 

[ab1985]

The propane will be used for the stove, lanterns, etc... I'm not that thrilled about putting it on the bumper, but I also don't want it inside the rig. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any. Below are a couple of sketches where I've tried to lay out the bumper functionality as it relates to storage and use as a kitchen covered by an awning.

33" tires are probably the max. I've got room to clear 35's but don't see the need to go any bigger. In time I may try to lower the truck a bit since there's excess room for tire clearance now.

 

[corax]

nice build so far. I like your platform in the back, is the front of the removable leaf just resting on the seat bottom (when it's flipped forward of course)?

 

[austintaco]

You can probably fit the tire in the stock location, or since you are planning on carrying it the rear bumper, you could look into storing your propane in the spare tire location with fill points made accessible for refueling.

There was also somebody that built a box that contained his tools and spare parts and put that in the spare tire location. He had an access hole in the floor board of the truck to get to it.