Car theft is a pretty large problem in a few urban centres in Canada - the main ones being Vancouver and Winnepeg. In Winnepeg they have solved it as the insurance company there (car insurance in Winnepeg is monopolized as it is in BC which mean there is only one car insurance company that is provincially run for the entire province - there are benefits and pitfalls to this way of doing it - we can discuss them later if you like) is buying and giving strong incentives for people to buy high quality immobilizers.

IN BC, specifically VAncouver (also coined "the lower mainland), and more specifically a suburb of Vancouver called Surrey car theft is pretty rampant. One of the biggest reasons car theft has become so rampant is because of crystal meth. Crystal meth is one of the worst drugs out there. IT is HIGHLY addictive, and it is cheap to make, buy, and produce. And so a lot of car thieves are hung on the drug and need $$$ to get a quick fix. We have dealt with car theft a little bit differently than Manitoba. We have this program called the Bait car program which has had remarkable success. You guys HAVE to go to this website, the cops have made it and they put videos of guys they have caught with the bait cars on it, including one guy named Jeremy Osbourne who they believed (who is in jail but scheduled to get out in a year or so) to have stolen something like 1000 cars in the past 10 years and was highly addicted to drugs at one point. Around the time my truck was stolen it seemed like a rash of vehicle thefts were coming about in the area I live in.

http://www.baitcar.com - check out the videos.

The Police in BC have also picked up a new technology recently - automatic license plate readers that they put on their crusiers. They can read hundreds of license plates per hour as they drive throughout their shift instead of the former way where cops had to manually enter the license plate #'s which wouldn't get as many done.

One time a cop came on the news and said that they had police on bikes looking for car thiefs. They didn't have one single cop on a bike looking for car thiefs but because of the statement car theft rates dropped because all the thiefs were looking twice anytime someone would be near them on a bike.

 

Well, on my last 4Runner I had the exact same wheels you show with 33x10.50 BFG ATs. You could say I had no complaints, they were a solid combo. I just want to try something new and different (15x8 too) and the avalibility of Toyota wheels is sketchy. i was going to switch to a new tire long before my car fire happened. Those Coopers are a new model and I am just dying to give em a try.

With the IFS as I understand it the lift will take the front and back to within 1" of each other so the T-bar crank will be very minimal. Again, on the last runner I had em cranked to fit the 33s with no other lift up front and I was happy with that.

As far as exhaust, I don't think the money involved is worth the result, headers are very hard to install on the 3.0 and such. For my needs/wants (at this time) the almost new cat and Flowmaster I have wil be OK.

Husky liners will be black because I have a tan interior (more like the color of wet sand) and the "tan" husky liners are more like a minilla. Grey is out of the question, and because there are a lot of black parts, I think black will be my best choice. I wish I still had a grey interior.

As far as the lights and stuff, thats nothing, some guys go NUTS. I am a fireman (paid and volunteer) and a memebr of the county water rescue team, so I need to go paces in a hurry a lot of times. I also have the certifacation permit and training (emergency vehicle opertators cetifacation) to back it up, unlike some people that used to frequeent this board.

I new "stage" was gonna cause problems. :pat: At first I tried to put the items into stages that logicly went togeather and were dependint on co-mods or pre-mods. It sort of fell apart after stage 1 though .

Perhaps "catagory" is a better word. Don't loook for a snorkel before I get a new CD player, but a HO alternator will probably preceed the lights and such. Sorry for the confusion.


That baitcar is sweet. They should just make them self destruct though
Its good to see a fresh idea that works.

Also, thanks for taking such an intrest in my lame 4runner. You can follow along in the buildup thread in the off road section if you like, I have done 2 mods already.

Lamm

 

unless you're getting a complete header and catback exhaust kit (like downey's) should you really get hung up on a mandrel bend pipe?

without headers (which i don't think are in your plan, no?) are you REALLY gaining much by an (expensive and hard-to-find) mandrel bend pipe BEHIND the cat?

 

No, thats the thing, you can spend $150.00 on exhaust and get a great note with a little boost, but to gain 15-20 HP you need to spend $1000+ it seems. I don't need all that power anyway.

Lamm

 

That sure sounds like a kick ass truck.

 

my feelings exactly. though i know there are those who disagree. just seems like these vehicles aren't going to gain that much from an exhaust -- unless it's part of an engine and gear swap!

 

What's the point of even touching the exhaust if you're not going to do it right?

 

Coed: by "do it right" i assume you mean mandrel bend pipe or a complete kit (pre-bent, like a downey or jardine or something)...

well, let's say your muffler is toast, your exhaust pipe is rusted out, and your 10+ year old cat is probably clogged as well. you're not going to pass an inspection that way and need to replace (at least) the muffler. even a good muffler/cat combo is around $125 or so, then you've got the pipe to deal with...you can just have one bent for short $ or go spending much more for a kit (or custom-bent) BEHIND the cat where it really isn't going to add much value anyhow... if you were going to run new headers and replace the whole thing from the manifold back then, sure, mandrel bend would be a no-brainer.

just an opinion, but does that make sense? i mean, what's the point of eating a meal if it isn't going to be good --or good for you? and yet you can't throw a rock without hitting a mcdonalds or cheap fast food joint...