Offroad-Express

Hi all ! Does any one have any info on the difference between the off road abilities between a surf and 4 runner. I am looking at purchasing either between 1993 to 1995 and setting up for mainly for beach driving. I recently spoke to a 4 runner owner who explained to me the 4 runner had a "spider" type transfer arrangement and how his vehicle on a recent tag along trip in the sand outperformed nearly all other vehicles of similar size. He had no diff locks and like me was not fully conversant with the technicalities. Apart from manual hubs and probably a lsd(??) are there any other advantages with a 4 runner ? Any info greatly appreciated.

I'm happy to be proved wrong, but as I understand it the Surf and the 4Runner are identical, just different names from different markets.

I think the 4Runner was the name they were sold under here in New Zealand as well as the US, and the Surf was the original name they had in Japan.

Spider type arrangement? lol... I think he was using big words he didn't understand...

They have a fairly typical modern 4WD setup, with the most common motor being the 1KZ which is a 3 litre turbo diesel that goes incredibly well, coupled to (most commonly) an automatic transmission which is reliable as all hell or a 5-speed which is also pretty good, but doesn't like being thrashed with lots of power and racing gear changes. On the back of that is a transfer case which provides drive to all wheels wheels when the lever is pulled, and provides low-ratio drive to all wheels if required (which is what I suspect he was refering to as the spider arrangement - its sometimes refered to as the crawl setting). The front is a double a-arm (double wishbone) setup with torsion bars, and the rear in those models is coil spring. They are not too shabby off road - although they probably won't beat a well set up soid axle vehicle, they'll be much more comfy on road. Some have an LSD in the rear, get one if you can but don't expect it to make too much difference until you've had it tightened... they are pretty weak after several 10's of thousands of road k's

Hope this helps some... the upshot is whatever you get in that age range should be pretty good, regardless of its name. Just get a compression and leakdown test, and have the auto checked by an independant auto specialist before you buy it... just to be sure.

regards

Steve