2017 SR5 a humble off road story

Hello

I picked up my 2017 SR5 Tundra during 2020 can't find a truck crisis. I needed a family road trip vehicle I could trust taking out of state and my 2x Jeep ZJs just weren't cutting it for my growing family. I don't think I have any stock photos but the old girl needed some new shoes and instead of DT or AT purchasing new I stumbled on four 275/70/17 BFG KO2 mounted to Method 305 NV (17x8.5 +0) with a 5th matching rim (wheel?) for a great price and a 2hr trip to San Jose
And this is where the rabbit whole was located ..........

 

I figured I'm on rockslide for hunting, Jeep forums for Jeeps I figured I should get in a tundra forum.
Thanks to all you fine folks on this sight informing me, nay encouraging me to fit 35"s on my silver she devil I dug into the threads to convince myself it could be done

I was originally trying to go Bilstein 6112/5160, (on the cheaps) however Wheelers off road (don't buy from them) was out of 5160's and shackles, So i ordered those from BOSS 4x4. The rear components arrived in a few days and still nothing heard from Wheelers on the 6112's.

After 2 unanswered emails and 3 phone calls with Blinken or Lincoln.

"Did you say Abe Lincoln?"..."no I said 'Hey, Blinken.'"

I canceled my order with wheelers because they like to tell you they'll call back but never do and they don't know when your parts will ever ship out, even though they said they were in stock. And I've never once received an email replay. Hell I'm not even sure I got my refund...
So I'm done with them.

Unfortunately everyone else on earth was out of 6112 too.

I decided to try out the Icon 2.5 coilovers and ordered again from Boss 4x4.com who worked with me on the phone to ensure the parts I wanted were not only ready to ship but they shipped from the closest warehouse to my house once I let them know I was in a bit of a time crunch.

I received the Icons in a few days but because of the debauchery with Wheelers I was now 2 weeks behind schedule and my last free weekend to try and install the lift myself had passed.

We have a hunting trip coming up friday and a little clearance never hurt anyone. So I scheduled my lift to get plugged in by the local installers.

Icon 2.5 coilovers (not remote res), Bil 5160, Coach builder+2 shackles and a carrier bearing drop.
Rims Icon Rebounds 17x8.5 +25 offset

 

Got the lift installed

 

So after some research here on 35/34s, 12.5" vs 11.5" vs 10.5", mpg, CV joint wear all the other things I made a switch last minute instead of 315/70/17 KO2s C I got 285/75/17 KO3 E.



To be honest it looked like 35 would have cleared the BMC area however the CB+2 would not allow for much wiggle room on a larger tire


The spare is touching the shackle on the pass side and has about 1/2 to 3/8 clearance on drive side. I did drill out the brackets that arm meant to center the spare.

Wear long sleeves or a bicep guard and safety glasses you thank me later.

 

275/70/17 KO2 vs 285/75/17 KO3. The camera angle doesn't really do it any justice but there's more than a 1" of height difference.

 

Best part is my buddy just picked up his 2021 TRD pro today and guess who wants some aftermarket tires and rims. Looks like I just rented the methods for about 2 weeks.

Bye bye methods. I'll miss that +0 aggro stance those cute little guys had



Current 285 width just barely sticks out. If my buddy goes full 315mm width tires I might try to convince him to trade me back the methods for the Icons just for that little baby aggro stance it looked good.

He's paying what I paid for the tires and wheels being there's still 93.33% tread still on them, per my calipers.

That money will go into MOD#2 - Rock sliders!

Cali raised or RCI is on my radar

I have a slight inclination for the Cali raised step sliders just because they stick out a bit further than RCI and ive already used a tree pivot on an unarmored truck to get unstuck. With the way I drive I'll probably do it again might as well get the equipments for it

 

Interesting build thread you’ve started here. I have a silver Tundra so I’ve subscribed for inspiration.

 

So we got the trucks out last weekend.

Headed up to Bishop and the Alabama hills before going up the mountain proper.
aired down to 25psi, not sure if that was low enough but did made going over pointy rocks less risky and the ride felt good over mixed rock/dirt trails. I took is slow on the bigger obstacles.

My buddy took a bad line on some rocky switch backs and scraped the rear fender well of his new to him 2021 TRD pro. Good thing we removed the damage enhancers (cheapy side steps)

 

Initially I was about to have some buyers remorse on the ICONs since I kind of shot for a price point then researched them afterwards.

Alot of folks on the forums ran some hate for the digressive shocks and ICONs in general.
I wasn't sure I was going to like them. But after a week on the road and a week on the trails I like them alot!

I tend to drive a bit faster then average even off road/on-trail. The ICONs definitely shined in this area.

Airing down from 50 psi at install to 40 psi definitely made for a smoother highway ride. (chalk line test pending)

The ride feels similar to stock when it comes to cracked roads, potholes and bumps . Definitely not "rough". There's no body roll on sharp turns and it took me about a week to stop bracing the steering wheel on big bumps, ruts, and cratered out trail because the shocks were dampening what would have been a harder hit in stock suspension.

I cannot compare to Fox or Kings but as of right now I have no complaints with the ICON.

 

The thinner tires are growing on me. Power loss has been minimal. I have not properly checked to see what my MPG is looking like but I'm sure it would have been worse with 35x12.5s. wider tires might have rubbed more on some of the narrower sections of trail. It definitely made it easy to avoid some of the nastier rocks. And 3 to 4 points turns were manageable when changing direction on the trails

 

TRD pro Headlamps installed. I don't have a before picture for comparison but they are definitely brighter. My only complaint is the light tends to have a glare?, speckling? haze? In the upper portion of its illumination, above the hotspot, as seen in the pic aimed at the garage door. It looks like splash back off the garage door but I definitely notice it while driving. Some of that light reflects back from the orchards or corn fields on my way home at night.



I picked up a pug-n-play harness from iHacker and it was a very simple install. I basically copied what 1lowlife wrote about in his post and contacted iHacker requesting the same harness. The daytime running light is amber only and I can manually turn on the low LED DRL by clicking the light switch to the middle position. No fuse tapping, splicing or fishing wire through the fire wall. Very straight forward install.

As a side note I don't notice any usable illumination from the LED DRL, but in a way I wish it did enhance some soft light for parking since my street is very dark and I try not to blast my neighborswith my full on low beams when I come home at odd hours. So for now it's head lights off amber on or just 2 clicks back for low beams. YMMV

 

Cali raised LED step edition rock sliders installed.

I was able to mount these solo with a pair of jack stands and a wrench/rachet set along with the manufacturer install video. No issues there. I really like the step. They seemed a bit wide uninstalled but after mounting they're about perfect for what I was looking for.

With the back door open the kickout makes a perfect seat to put shoes on at camp

 

I installed the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro foggers. I like these a lot, very nice for cornering on dark af country roads. I finally got to use them for fog this morning and they work very well.

As part of my chrome delete I received an OEM Limited grill surround in color matched silver sky (1D6) but the hood bulge is back ordered for forever likely.

The chrome was killing me so I Plasti-dipped the hood bulge and bumper end caps along with the center emblem in the grill.

The OEM grill isn't quite color matched, I've seen it in other colors and it's a lighter silver, so this was intentional by Toyota, but it's so close to the trucks native color that I'm just going to leave the grill bars alone



The black spattering was road grease loosened up by our seasons first rain. Gives the truck kind of a smoked chrome look that I'll wash off this weekend. So far the plasti dip has held up to one Costco car wash without fading

 

My next item too look into is skids and/or a winch bumper.

For skids Im looking at Cat coverage and not an add on piece, so that leaves me with Valhalla (but they've had issues in here) and Talons garage.

CBI doesn't cover enough cat and RCI starts to get a little janky and pricy with the bolt on stuff

Does anyone know for certain if Talons garage full skids play well with Caliraised rock sliders??? Asking for a friend!


Valhalla has what they're calling a "z bracket" that attaches the skid to the frame

Talons has a tab that extends out from the main skid to wrap around the frame but Talons CS can't tell me if that will obstruct mounting it along side the Cali raised sliders...kinda frustrating no one keeps tabs on this.

I just sold a jeep so the this money is burning ba whole in pocket and CBI just discounted their bumpers