And to round out the rest of the protection on the rig, I decided to pick up some sliders from (you guessed it) RCI Metalworks.

So I finally got the chance to test out the new suspension and tires and get a good coating of mud all over the 4Runner (including the inside thanks to a certain dumba** on the trip…)

Installing these was not tricky at all in the 4th gen, so lets see how hard it is on the 5th gen!

After some deliberation (and a timely sale from RCI Metalworks), I decided to bite the bullet and finish off my set of aluminum skids from them.

Had a free weekend so we decided to throw the kayaks up on the roof and hit the road to get away.

After doing some longer camping trips and utterly failing at off-roading at Rausch Creek, I knew I wanted to move the suspension/wheel/tire line item to the top of my mod list.