Project Mall Runner

[Ryan T]

Cool, I have a whole bin full of stuff too.  I need to detail/protect this oil burner wagon I bought when the weather cools off.

I give up with cleaning. Just going to pay someone to ceramic coat Jess’ vehicle and my next truck; whatever it is.

Me too. I'll wash my cars but that's about it. I take it to a local detailing place and let them do both cars about twice a year. I used to enjoy it when I had the Supra and the Vette, but it's just too much surface area on a crew cab truck and sedan.

[ScottyB]

800 miles down now and i'm starting to get more used to driving it.  averaging about 18mpg, which was our absolute best highway mpg in the past with the xterra, so that's nice.  the engine/trans combo is butter, pretty comfy overall with good ergo, and construction just feels super tight and smooth.  hate the brakes...its either nobody's home or monster strong and impossible to modulate.  i feel like a 16 year old trying to figure pedal pressure out again.  likely crappy OEM pads.  the turning circle's not impressive and the shifter gate is mega annoying (jigsaw puzzle maze vs just a normal straight line PRND21).  

anyway, first round of stuff coming in.  needed a crossbar solution that had more clearance than the factory bars (gotta buy those separately anyway) so our Thule Sonic XL mounting feet could close around the bars without contacting the sheetmetal.  

these 2 LFD Off Road steel bars were priced right, built like tanks, have tons of mounting options for accessories (ya'll better know i love to accessorize), came powdercoated with stainless mounting bolts/T-nuts and will allow us to use them as-is on the factory rails or add them into a larger LFD roof rack system later on if we really get super bro send-it overland style.  



its a minor thing but the packaging was really well done.  that says a lot.


tried the car out with them on this morning and unfortunately they have a pretty distinct noise/resonance at 50 and 70mph.  i'm not upset - every crossbar will make some degree of noise and given the blunt shape and hollow underside they're bound to have some amount of turbulence, even at the factory recommended mounting positions.  you just gotta try it to find out sometimes.  i'm going to get 1 more bar to mount at the very front of the rails and add LFD's own fairing to it.  that should take care of the noise and allow me to keep 2 bars positioned just right for installing the roofbox at any time.  in the future i'd like to add on their mounts for a set of MaxTrax as well as at least one Rotopax fuel container, but that's a ways off and there are other things that take priority first.

we've got eyes on a mid-October camping trip in N. GA which should give us an opportunity to stretch its legs on some trails as well as seeing how it handles pulling a trailer (!)

[Senor_Taylor]

You'll get used to the shifter and eventually develop Stockholm syndrome.

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[ScottyB]

You'll get used to the shifter and eventually develop Stockholm syndrome.

i'll have carpal tunnel syndrome before that happens thanks to this damn thing

[Deceus]

Just be glad you don't have this fucking thing:

[Jake]

Just be glad you don't have this fucking thing:

What's wrong with the knob? I like it. Most shifters are electronic now so I'm a fan of saving space in the console.

[JPolen01]

I'm with Jake. Big fan of what they did in the 2.0 Accord/MDX.

[Deceus]

My only real issue with it is trying to quickly hit reverse either in a parking lot or when I fuck up a u-turn because I forget I'm in a full sized truck. I end up throwing it into park like 9 times out of 10 because it's really hard to gauge. Not a huge deal but never had that issue until shifting with a knob.

[ScottyB]

passed over the 1000 mile break in period now so time to get to work.

had to pick up some 4x10 and 4x12 sheets of aluminum for the camper project and the only trailer big enough was one of uhaul's double axle utility variants.  its about 1800 lbs empty, so it was a good test to see how the Runner would feel pulling something with some actual heft.



piece of cake.  needed to hang gears a bit longer and was quick to jump out of overdrive on any inclines but otherwise the trailer didn't horse the vehicle around at all.  it should pull the camper like its not even there.

still waiting on another crossbar and the wind fairing due to a backorder which is annoying.

[Jake]

This only amuses me so much because I'm in Germany right now. That UHaul trailer at 1800 lbs would easily be pulled by a Mercedes A220 CDI or equivalent. We saw a Passat wagon towing another Passat today on the Autobahn. Granted, cars with trailers have lower speed limits but still... a twin axle trailer with a large VW, pulled by another large VW sedan. Bizarre to see.

[Apoc]

This only amuses me so much because I'm in Germany right now. That UHaul trailer at 1800 lbs would easily be pulled by a Mercedes A220 CDI or equivalent. We saw a Passat wagon towing another Passat today on the Autobahn. Granted, cars with trailers have lower speed limits but still... a twin axle trailer with a large VW, pulled by another large VW sedan. Bizarre to see.

Sounds like heaven!

Scotty - I totally pictured this thing and your tear drop with every similar rig I saw last week. I was only a little jealous that you can drop a trailer and drive somewhere else without having to take your bed with you.

[ScottyB]

This only amuses me so much because I'm in Germany right now. That UHaul trailer at 1800 lbs would easily be pulled by a Mercedes A220 CDI or equivalent. We saw a Passat wagon towing another Passat today on the Autobahn. Granted, cars with trailers have lower speed limits but still... a twin axle trailer with a large VW, pulled by another large VW sedan. Bizarre to see.

oh for sure...they are proper badasses over there.  us big bad Mericans "need" a powerstroke to pull a jetski, meanwhile some Frenchman is taking his entire family and a camper across the alps in a mini.

Scotty - I totally pictured this thing and your tear drop with every similar rig I saw last week. I was only a little jealous that you can drop a trailer and drive somewhere else without having to take your bed with you.

while i'm pretty happy about that part, lets say i'm equally/opposite jealous that you guys have so much "base camp" real estate with a tall van. we all make our getups work one way or the other though.

[ScottyB]

a huge deal in dealerships is the CSI or Customer Satisfaction Index ranking which is derived from customer surveys.  OEMs use it to drive certain behavior in the dealerships as well as gauge a franchise's overall standing.  the surveys are based off a 1-10 ranking on questions and for some reason if you give a salesperson anything less than a 10 it could destroy their job as the cumulative rankings actual determine how/if a dealer gets certain inventory.  its a very stupid survey system but that's what it looks like right now.  use that as a negotiating tool, although you may sound a bit like a dick. 

just a follow up on this - i'm currently working on a marketing piece for a big dealer in the RDU area. here's a text blurb from their content...

"We want to make sure you are completely satisfied and if for any reason you are unable to give us a completely satisfied score on your survey please let us correct it."

again...for whatever weird reason, in the dealership industry surveys are a huge, huge deal. there is big money at stake. whether its for buying or servicing, you have a massive amount of leverage through the survey process if you want to push the issue with a dealer.

[.RJ]

a huge deal in dealerships is the CSI or Customer Satisfaction Index ranking which is derived from customer surveys.  OEMs use it to drive certain behavior in the dealerships as well as gauge a franchise's overall standing.  the surveys are based off a 1-10 ranking on questions and for some reason if you give a salesperson anything less than a 10 it could destroy their job as the cumulative rankings actual determine how/if a dealer gets certain inventory.  its a very stupid survey system but that's what it looks like right now.  use that as a negotiating tool, although you may sound a bit like a dick. 

just a follow up on this - i'm currently working on a marketing piece for a big dealer in the RDU area.  here's a text blurb from their content...

"We want to make sure you are completely satisfied and if for any reason you are unable to give us a completely satisfied score on your survey please let us correct it."

again...for whatever weird reason, in the dealership industry surveys are a huge, huge deal.  there is big money at stake.  whether its for buying or servicing, you have a massive amount of leverage through the survey process if you want to push the issue with a dealer.

If everyone agrees the surveys are stupid and they suck......... why do they keep using them?

[ScottyB]

If everyone agrees the surveys are stupid and they suck......... why do they keep using them?

probably because some corporate middle man data processing company has both the manufacturers and the dealers by the balls and they've gone too far down the rabbit hole with precious data archiving to get back out of it, so the gravy train of BS keeps choochin down the tracks.

just a theory

[ScottyB]

just crossed 4,000 miles and went in for its first dealer oil change.  manual wants you running 0W-20 but allows for a 30 weight for towing, heavy loads, high temps and what not...so Quaker State Ultra Durable 5W-30 went in ($17 for a 5qt jug at wally world, score).  no plans to go back to a 20. 

already took a rock strike on the windshield, out of absolutely nowhere.  seems to be very common with these trucks due to the upright windscreen.  learned my lesson from the xterra about procrastinating on a small crack and having it turn into a huge crack, so off to safelite for a spot of epoxy before the temp swings make the crack grow.


got another roof rack spar and a wind fairing fitting from LFD Offroad again for 3 total.  we got a terrible howling resonance at 50, and 70mph with only 2 rack spars on the roof and no air management.  this solved the issue.  put it to work doing vaguely truckish things:


bro!  you parkin here bro?  mind if i join bro?  yeah dude 4runner mafia amirite bro?


first legit roadtrip was over to Atlanta for Thanksgiving, super easy drive and almost hit the advertised 20mpg highway MPG if it wasn't for the city's famous parking lots they call highways.  you definitely feel the truck roots above 65mph, steering gets a bit wandery, bumpy, and pushed around by the wind.  don't love the seats.  but it certainly doesn't lack for power and its quiet and mostly composed.  still a very nice place to be, overall.  its happy place seems to be around a 72mph cruise.

joined some local overlanding/4WD groups and looking forward to seeing what it can do in stock form, come warmer months.

[JPolen01]

Oil change at 4k? What gives Mr Oil Analysis? I thought you were in the let it ride longer camp?

[ScottyB]

Oil change at 4k? What gives Mr Oil Analysis? I thought you were in the let it ride longer camp?

yeah yeah i know.  i don't like running the first oil change long on a new engine....just my personal opinion.

after the 10k service i'll to run the oil between 8 to 10k miles per change, or annually, whichever comes first.  maybe even longer after i do an analysis or two.  yota recommends changing at 5k for severe service, or 10k otherwise.

[Senor_Taylor]

I had a wind deflector on the hood of my Tacoma and it did wonders.

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[JPolen01]

What's wrong with the factory oil fill? I've heard arguments both ways - factory oil has this that and the other for break in purposes. And, factory oil is cheap and should be changed pretty quickly.