The Little Black Toyota-Michael Shaffer

The Little Black Toyota

Right after my wife and I got married we purchased a 2001 Toyota Tacoma, and over the next nine years we built and drove that truck all over the Southwest United States.

We absolutely loved the truck and had spent a ton of time building it. It was perfect … until we started having kids. One kid was okay; we could kind of make a car seat work in the back of the extended cab truck, but then the second kid came around. By the time he was ready to really hit some long trails with us, our third kid was on the way! At this point I knew our family of 4, almost 5 had outgrown that little extended cab Tacoma and it was time for a change.

My wife and I talked about a few different platforms, but really only one made sense to me for many reasons, and that was the third generation 4Runner. Seating for five was obviously huge, but the other big reason was it shares a very similar platform to the first generation Tacoma. That meant I already had a majority of parts sitting around to build the 4Runner, a huge financial savings! The search was on and in January 2015 (one week after our third kid was born), we found the one in southern Utah, a bone stock 2000 Toyota 4Runner Limited. It had everything I needed to be compatible with the parts on my Taco: v6, automatic, 4wd, and factory rear locker.

I test drove it around the block in Utah and made sure everything worked. I put it on a trawwiler, headed back to Las Vegas, pulled it in the garage and blew it apart! I hadn’t put a full mile on the truck when I tore it down. I had built the Tacoma to be a “dual sport” rig. My family loves overlanding and exploring old ghost towns around the Southwest, but we also love to rock crawl and push the boundaries of our vehicle. When I started this build, I knew I wanted it to be that same kind of “dual sport” setup.

So, with the 4Runner and Tacoma both up on jack stands, I started swapping parts. Some of the biggest pieces were the re-geared differentials with ARB front air locker, Marlin Crawler Taco box, Donahoe (Icon) front coilovers, and Camburg front upper control arms. With all the “good parts” off the Tacoma, we finally said goodbye to it and put all of our time into setting up the 4Runner for adventures.

The Tacoma had changed gradually over time as our desires for it changed, so we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted certain aspects of the 4Runner to be. We knew what worked and didn’t work for us. For example, when it was time to lay out the electrical, I was able to draw out the circuits I wanted ahead of time, gut the interior, and lay out all the electrical at once, instead of piecing it together over time and making a mess

of it. Not saying the 4Runner hasn’t changed over time, it’s definitely grown up in the almost seven years we’ve had it, but it was nice being able to lay the foundation from Day 1.

Part of that foundation and probably one of my favorite mods is the Marlin Crawler Taco box. It’s a reduction box that bolts between the factory transmission and transfer case. This gives me an additional low range at 4.7:1 that I can use by itself, or stack with the factory low range, giving me a total crawl ratio of 179:1! By slowing the truck down significantly off road, I have extreme control of the truck in the rocks. Pair that with the factory rear locker and front ARB locker, the truck is pretty much a goat on everything except the extreme end of trails.

Even with all the torque from the crawler, the axles and IFS have been super solid, really showing how tough these trucks are. I’ll admit I drive with a light foot, but it’s only because I can with the crawler and lockers. I don’t need to bounce over everything, I just point the truck where I want it to go.

Probably my most favorite mod is one I like to affectionately call the “Car Seat Mod.” It was the whole reason we built the 4Runner in the first place. It’s nothing special, just the fact that we could put 3 car seats across the back seat and make sure the whole family could get out and adventure! My wife and I love the outdoors and we wanted to instill that love in our children. I’m pretty sure we’ve succeeded in that!

One place I’ve struggled with the truck is trying to keep the weight down. Being “Dual Sport” means I’ve put heavy armor (bumpers, sliders, skids) on it to protect it on the hard trails, and also added stuff to make it easier for our family of five to live out of it (swingout, cargo storage box, etc.). Throw five people and all our gear for a weeklong trip to Colorado and it gets heavy and tight quickly! It’s taken us a few years to find a manageable balance, but with the right gear and an understanding of what we really do and don’t need, we’ve made it work. If I could get the kids to stop loading it up with every rock they find along the trail would help too!

This truck has served daily driving duty and taken us all over the Southwest United States with amazing friends, trails and camping with the whole family and all our gear in tow. Even with 265K miles on the clock it’s never left us stranded, which says a lot about the quality of these trucks and the abuse they’ll take with good maintenance and parts. Not sure what the next change is for the 4Runner, it’s always evolving, but I know it will be around for a long while still. I’m already teaching my oldest how to work it through the trail, and that’s what it’s all about.

Written by Michael Shaffer Photos by Nick Savatgy

RogueOverland

RogueOverland

RogueOverland

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