New guy checking in...

[4Rescue]

Hello. I was over on the Expo and I saw a link here in another members sig. Great forum.

Me: Live/work in Portland. Play wherever the rafting is good and the city is non-existant. I'm an Oregon EMT-b, as well as a Wilderness EMT, and I work in a Local ER. I'm wraping up my degree in Fire Science as well. I'm an avid rafter, and pretty much everything I do outside of work revolves around getting out of town. I've grown up with a family cabin down on the Alsea River, and have had the really good luck of spending alot of time with my dad growing up exploring all of the great back roads around there.

In 2002 I was lucky enough to land a job working on a cattle station in Australia. So I picked up and moved my lowly self down to Oz for the better part of 8 months. Best time of my life. It was here that I truly became the Toyota nut I am today when my boss tossed me the keys to a 92 Hj75 Landcruiser and said "you like 4wd's??" Now my only problem is we don't get any diesel's!!!






My Rig: Well, I came home, and suddenly, my Volkswagens just weren't cutting it. I needed to haul more stuff, and really have a do it all rig. SO I went out and got one.



She's an 89 4 RUnner: 22RE 5spd 4wd and pretty much a stripper model (although it has carpeted floors for better or worse).

When I bought her she had a pretty badly fried clutch, and a minute rod-knock at start-up. I fixed the clutch and just got to driving her. Well, it's been two years and uh 36K and I'm still in love with driving this truck.

I did have some issues with the old saggy suspension, but those cleared up nicely with the aditiion of some goodies from Old man Emu and SDORI.
I wen't from this :


to this: (in about 6 short hours)

I had become a pretty big beliver in OME and ARB in Australia so I knew exactly who I was going to use to make the truck feel better. I used OME Dakar rear leafs, and SDORI Ball joint spacers along with OME shocks and steering dampner.

Next up was the motor. In the intrest of reliability, parts availability and ease of matinence I put a new stock 22RE in the truck (as of writing this, I'll have the truck back tomorow). I had really wanted to put in an imported 1KZ-TE 3.0 Turbo Diesel, but cost was prohibitave since i don't do my own fab-work.




Next up will be a Rear E-locker (hopefully I can swing this) and 4.88's to match the 33x9.50's (an agressive AT of a few choices) I plan on installing very soon.


Cheers and No Worries

Dave King

[Steve]

Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you received a taste of using a 4x4 as a way of life in the Australian outback.

Also, nice job on the 4-Runner build up. Everything you have done is for reliability and practicability.

I hope to see you on a run in the future. If you're making any future runs in your area, feel free to post up a date and time.

Steve

[Jerry]

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum!
Jerry