Quote:
Jagaliscious previously said:
I'm tired of being a mall-cruising soccer mom. It's horribly boring and it's time to put my 4WD FJ to work.
My roots in 4-wheeling were established out of necessity to get to our horse pastures outside of Flagstaff when I was a kid. I spent half my time between my mom in Yuma, AZ (and the dunes there) and the other half in the pines outside of Flagstaff as my dad was stationed at the Navajo Army Depot.
My dirty secret: my husband wanted to buy the FJ. I didn't want it. I didn't want to get rid of my new Lancer which was a manual transmission and I loved it. My husband can't drive stick though, so he won, I lost, and my compensation was that the FJ would be mine since my Lancer was newer than his 4Runner and I wasn't about to "trade down" to an older model car. Yes, I'm spoiled like that.
So in July of 2006, I got my 2007 Silver 4WD FJ.
My FJ is stock but I'm looking into practical mods for off-roading. It's time to get away from the malls and back to the solitude of the outdoors. My husband supports me but he's totally not interested in 4 wheeling or anything to do with camping, whereas I grew up doing all that stuff. Now that our daughter is nearly 2, I'm ready to learn to be the driver and not the passenger for off-road excursions.
So hi and stuff.  |
Oooooh boy... you're really opening the can, aren't you.
K... here's the few first things that I *strongly* suggest.
1) Go wheeling. You'll still have a good time totally stock.
Hook up with people who have a variety of different kinds of vehicles, and not just FJ Cruisers, though I'm sure you'll have your eye on whatever FJ Cruisers you see with modifications. The point being to get a first hand experience with the vehicle and figure out what you want to do with it based on FUNCTIONAL RESULTS.
2) Avoid impulse buying. The fever sets in before you know it.
There are tons of people with advice to buy this or that, and it can end up in a fever to bolt one of everything you hear of anyone else getting... onto your FJ Cruiser. This is a bad idea. Not every part of this vehicle needs replacement and dfferent people have different concepts of what "4 wheel driving" means. If you don't notice that the vehicle lacks some sort of capability that you want it to have, then you probably don't need to modify that aspect of it.
3) Be mentally prepared for the wear and tear that you'll put on your vehicle.
Here in Arizona, the shrubs take an immediate toll on the paint job. The rocks scratch away at the bumpers and undercarriage. Even if you never crinkle any sheet metal on an obstacle, you'll quickly become aware of the increased rate of aging on your FJ Cruiser. If that's a problem, be ready for it. Don't fail to keep up on maintenance. Be ready to spend more money on repairs and replacement of worn components than you originally anticipated. Tires, in particular, go faster when driving offroad.
4) Freely ask questions, argue, doubt, and force people to convince you of the validity of their conclusions regarding the decisions they've made to modify their vehicles before you follow suit. If something triggers your bull$#!+ alarm, pay attention to it.
5) Get used to the concept of picking compromise points. Every decision you make will be a choice between having your vehicle be more ROAD-worthy or having it be more OFFROAD-worthy. These goals are diametrically opposed. There is no "have it all" result. For each decision you face, you'll have to decide where along the spectrum you feel most comfortable.
Those are my recommendations on principles to adhere to when considering how to proceed with getting into 4 wheeling.
Dirt tires are usually the first thing most people put on a 4x4 in order to upgrade it's performance offroad. You'll see two broad varieties "All-Terrain" and "Mud-Terrain", although the mud type is really just a more aggressive tread pattern that is more specialized for offroad (not specifically mud) and the All-Terrain (AT) type is really a street tire that is a touch beefier so that it can do better offroad.
MT's are generally more capable offroad at the cost of being noisy on the road. Don't agonize over tread design too much. There's very little science other than big open voids between big fat lugs grab really well, but then the rubber is more likely to chunk away. If you get really aggressive tread, be prepared for problems with wheel balancing. Losing a chunk of rubber off of the tread is like losing a balance weight of almost twice that mass from the inside of the rim.
The most important aspect of offroad tires isn't the tread, though, it's the sidewall. Sidewall durability cannot be over emphasized. Many dirt tires die an early death (get thrown away with lots of tread left) because of getting the sidewall ripped open which is not repairable.
Larger tires increase ground clearance, which is a huge plus. That being said, the larger the tire, the more chance there is that it won't fit properly and will rub inside the wheel well during driving on rocks.
Many people think that you can do a lift kit and then fit larger tires. This is true, however, only for a car that remains parked. The types of lift kits typically done for the FJ Cruiser make it stand up a bit taller and give more ground clearance, but the suspension still goes up and down in the same space that it did before. If the tire would rub without a lift kit, then it will rub with a lift kit too... excpet perhaps not so often.
The best first modification for an FJ Cruiser would probably be dirt tires.
There are a variety of ways to decrease the risk of crushing important parts of the vehicle on rocks (other than intelligent driving), and increased ground clearance is one. Another is armor.
There are a variety of ways to armor the vehicle. Rock sliders are bars that go under the rocker panel (threshold of the car door) and protect it from rocks that might hit from below or scratch along from the side. There are also skid plates that can be bolted over sensitive bits.
Consider armor.
Finally, there's lift kits. The simplest ones are spacers that bolt into the exsisting suspension components. Spacer kits are inexpensive, but you need to get longer rear shock absorbers too. These kits are easy to install. A reasonably clever driveway mechanic can do a spacer kit in a day and have time left over.
The next tier is hybridized kits with some spacers and some upgraded springs. After that there are various types of complete suspension replacements with improved performance.
If you're going to get larger tires, then do a lift kit at the same time or before.
One clear "flaw" in the FJ Crusier design is that the front wheel well is limited by a stupid bracket that sticks out of the frame to take a bolted rubber mount holding the body onto the frame. This sticks forward into the wheel well slightly and rubs on larger tires. It can be safely trimmed back in a maneuver folks here call a "body mount chop". There are a half dozen versions of this procedure mentioned on this board. A reasonable garage shop guy can do this in a couple of hours. It's a major improvement if it gets you some peace of mind with decent tires.
Welcome to the forum. Welcome to the mania.
Consider marriage counselling up front, and avoid the turmoil down the road.
Old owner, new member - Phx, AZ.
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