I know this is off topic as it is unrelated to buses but it is part of my skoolie experience because it involves Runner - the 2000 Toyota 4Runner AT 4wd that I bought as sidekick for my bus Lucille. So I'm dropping this in my conversion thread hoping it's somewhat relevant if not interesting. If it's a problem, I will delete it gladly.
I should begin with why I'm towing around a Toyota truck. My nomad lifestyle of choice is that of a digger. My two female partners and I are dyed-in-the-wool rockhounds, gold diggers and meteorite hunters. We plan to spend most of the year hopping site to site collecting and boondocking. December thru March will be the Quartzite and Tuscon Gem & Mineral Shows where we will sell, barter and trade to improve our financial standing and then ... do it all over again. In general, summers will be in the California Mother Lode or north of that, winters in western or southern AZ / Cali / NM. Once I decided to do this with a skoolie, it was clear to me an excursion vehicle, capable of going off road to the dig sites and hauling the spoils back, was necessary.
All my life I've heard about the Toyota legend for quality and reliability. Back a couple of years ago I had the chance to spend a few months in Australia. The outback is a place that eats vehicles unprepared for it's brutality. Toyota makes a utility truck line called Hilux for the Australian market and that's the only thing the locals will drive out there. This cemented the conviction in my mind that if I ever needed an off road vehicle - it was going to be a Toyota.
I bought Runner from an older gentleman who described himself as a wholesaler, selling the truck for a private party - in hindsight he probably was because he had skill. He met us at a remote public place on a wet dreary day hoping to hide the true nature of Runner's condition from us. People, including me, are less inclined to inspect an undercarriage closely when the ground & vehicle are wet and sloppy. Also, most noises that might be heard on a test drive are dampened by the natural noise of driving wet roads. Test drives are likely to be less vigorous or "testy" due to thye slippery conditions. As I look back on the entire process it seemed orchestrated to keep us A.) In the dark as to who the owners were and B.) from discovering the true nature of Runners condition. We tried to buy the truck on the spot but he said no, we had to wait until Monday and meet him at a title & tag shop. What he did was take the brand new spare on a matching aluminum rim that had been under the rear and swapped it for a crap steel wheel spare, I would find out later.
Anyway we bought Runner. Immediately it became our daily driver and it captured our hearts and heads quickly for all the reasons Toyotas do.
There were tiny issues I couldn't put my finger on though - like why it seemed very difficult to hold the truck on a straight line or center in the lane. I put it off to I wasn't used to it yet or crosswinds or whatever. One day, the driver side front disc brake pads exploded and on inspection the rotor was like rolling hills and valleys, yet the pads were nearly new. Some genius put new, but cheap, pads on a bad rotor to get out of buying the rotor. Brilliant. They're only $35 for God's sake. It was the easiest brake job I've ever done - I marvelled at the twin cylinder calipers. I'm used to seeing that on high dollar Brembo brakes, not factory stuff.
Then one day on a curvy road close to the house there was a thump from somewhere underneath in the rear. There was a wishy washy feeling to the truck as we drove home ... like we werent attached to the ground or something. It was weird. On arrival safely, I got out to look at the source of the noise and this is what I saw ...
I should tell you here that these pictures truly represent my experience but they are NOT my pictures. They are pictures of other poor souls 4Runners who had an identical, other worldly experience to mine.... and had the foresight
The 4Runner rear axle is a 4 link suspension with coilsprings and shocks. What you see there is the passenger side lower link tower which is supposed to be welded to the bottom wall of the frame rail. Toyota used a rectangular steel box frame that's 2 1/2 x 6 inches with no less than 5 structural crossmembers tying the frame rails together. This is the first time I'm getting under this thing and really looking at it ... and it's bad bad news under this truck. Frame rust and rot on a level I would not have thought possible on any vehicle - much less a Toyota. The inside frame rail wall looked like this ...
anyone with a brain can see the pattern of this rot - the worst of it is adjacent to the muffler which is a radiant heat engine. The radiant heat and temperature cycling at this location altered the metallurgy of the steel to the point of complete failure. This is an isidious process too because the rot comes from the inside out - the framerail is a metal box so radiant heat will penetrate and build inside the box. The steel inside will stay hotter for longer and thus will rot first and faster.
This is the rear axle ...
I am, of course, in deep shock at the degradation of the frame - at the same time realizing what that wholesaler perpetrated on us and, indeed, how the reputation of Toyota subverted my ordinarily cautious nature when buying vehicles.
I went on the internet and found out this frame rot is epidemic among 4Runners from '97 to '03, Tundras & Tacomas from the same era - some of those trucks were literaly breaking in half just where the cab meets the bed. Toyota stepped up and did full frame replacements for the Tundras & Tacomas. They chose to ignore the 4Runners. There were websites trying to drum up support to petition NHTSB & Toyota to do something. I'm wondering how all this has stayed so quiet - that I've never heard a peep about it. Also what the heck am I going to do about Runner? Can it be fixed? I started researching undercoating and rust mitigation strategies. The rust & rot had to be stopped ASAP if any repairs were going to be worth doing. I came across an outfit in California making a product called Rust Bullet. They had a three step chemical process they claimed would stop any rust condition permanently. I ordered a kit.
Meanwhile, we had taken the seats out of Lucille a byproduct of which were about 15 sections of frame grade angle iron which had dropped under the bus for each seat. These were structural reinforcements of the stainless steel floorpan where seat bolts came through it. I took one of these and held it in place along the perforated frame rail and it was perfectly sized to shore up that section of frame. 4 pieces end to end would cover the distance from the front of the lower 4 link tower to the next forward crossmember. I started welding.
When the Rust Bullet kit came, we set about working thier process. They insist you only need to wire brush loose scale and peeled undercoat to keep it from fouling the coating. After that, phosphoric acid is sprayed on all rust areas exposed. This acid turns rust into something else and preps the metal for the Rust Bullet paint. When I saw this acid do it's work, I ordered a gallon of it to spray into the frame rails. I used a bug sprayer to apply it. I followed the acid with something called cavity wax, which is purpose built for the job of rust prevention inside frame rails. On the outside of the frame we applied the Rust Bullet silver coating (two coats) then one coat of thier Black Shell. I have to tell you this stuff is great. Literally. it's bullet proof. Everything you get it on, it stays on - this includes you!
The welding of the angle irons went well and I decided to put another layer of safety in place by drilling a hole thru each angle iron (the face replacing the lower inner wall of the frame box) and thru the lower outer wall of the frame box. Thru this hole I placed carriage bolts with washers and locknuts, then welded them in place. The idea here was not to put the bolts under stress until and if welds broke on it's assigned angle iron. Those welds won't break. I've put them to the test. I added a safety layer to the lower 4 link tower by bending threaded rods into square u-bolts. I hung them over the top of the frame box and used drilled flatiron pieces to tie it together. These went to the front lip and rear lip of the 4 link tower, in case it's welds broke.
Runner is a changed truck now - she tracks straight and true. She doesn't vibrate at speed anymore and she feels solid and connected to ground. If you see us out there in the world - ask me and I'll let you look at how tenaciously bombproof Rust Bullet is. I really can't say anything bad about it - just watch what you get it on!
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