Toyota 4 Runner 2 ?s

Zogman · Feb 28, 2022

2017 4 Runner only 27,000 miles.

We were gone for 21 days it sat in the warm garage 50 degrees. The battery was dead.
Charged it up and seems fine. Should I put a trickle charger on when leaving for that period of time? Or maybe the battery needs to be replaced?

It had the option of 20 inch street tread tires with nice fancy wheels. Thats what she wanted. Next winter I would like to put on tires with decent tread. Could you go back to 18 inch wheels with a slightly wider tire???

I have the Copper AT345 on my 2018 Chevy 1500 and am very happy with those.

THX for any and all comments.

shorthairsrus · Feb 28, 2022

17 inch is the standard wheel. Without a lift kit 275/70/17 is what i believe is the largest without messin with lifts and cuts.

westwolfone · Feb 28, 2022

I would disconnect the battery.

JayKay · Feb 28, 2022

We have a much older 4Runner, with 150K on it, and I NEVER even think about the battery. It's in our garage, which is not heated, but connected to the house. It starts every time, 100% of the time. The longest it sits though, is maybe 2 weeks.

shorthairsrus · Feb 28, 2022

My wife doesnt like the cheapo wheels she has on her SR5. The TRD wheels are like 160 a piece -- I told her to put those on.

IMO i would put blizzaks on and run em year around. Keep the 20 inch ------ ps what does it ride like with those 20s

SDMF · Feb 28, 2022

westwolfone said:
I would disconnect the battery.

Agree w/battery disconnect. You are however 5yrs in on the battery and w/only 27K I assume lots of sit-time and lots of short trips so perhaps it sits partially discharged a lot?

Regarding tires, get a 2nd set of wheels and put dedicated snow tires (Blizzak or similar) on for Nov-Apr. My personal preference is actually for narrower tires in winter rather than wider. They "cut their own trail" better than wide tires and provide a contact-patch w/increased PSI on the ground and IMO stay "planted" to the road better, even on slick stuff.

Street/Highway type treads are nice in the summer. Quiet, usually ride smoother, potentially better MPG (less rolling resistance/possibly lighter overall weight), and throw fewer rocks.

Wall-eyes · Feb 28, 2022

I store lots of vehicles these newer vehicle's need battery tenders or within 2 to 3 weeks your battery will be dead. Buy good one like battery tender plus like $50 quick easy no hassle vs taking cable off and it is nice on these batteries now days.

Zogman · Feb 28, 2022

shorthairsrus said:
My wife doesnt like the cheapo wheels she has on her SR5. The TRD wheels are like 160 a piece -- I told her to put those on.

IMO i would put blizzaks on and run em year around. Keep the 20 inch ------ ps what does it ride like with those 20s

I am not in it enough to really know. If you listen to her this is the best vechile ever. Better than a 6.5 Creedmore

- - - Updated - - -

Wall-eyes said:
I store lots of vehicles these newer vehicle's need battery tenders or within 2 to 3 weeks your battery will be dead. Buy good one like battery tender plus like $50 quick easy no hassle vs taking cable off and it is nice on these batteries now days.

Yup, I like the tender idea.

- - - Updated - - -

shorthairsrus said:
17 inch is the standard wheel. Without a lift kit 275/70/17 is what i believe is the largest without messin with lifts and cuts.

Since it has 20 inch on it must have a lift kit already???

shorthairsrus · Feb 28, 2022

I dont think so ---imo its just tire height on the 17" vs. the limited. That is why I was asking about ride ---- I would buy those wheels from you if i knew the ride would be good. Creedmore --- comparison ---- my wife has not had a problem on hers since day one. She only has 40k miles on it though - works from home. We took it on one long road trip. It is not a highway vehicle imo. It does like towing a boat. As soon as they have that new tundra problems figured out i may have to look at one.

BrokenBackJack · Feb 28, 2022

We have used for many years the BatteryMinder 1510 for all of our toys and all of our vehicles.
It is a Desulfator also. Makes your battery last for many more years. We put these on the vehicles every other month for a few days when we are using the vehicles and when not using we put them on and just leave them on.

As far as wheels go, the bigger the wheel/rim, the less sidewall you have and usually the rougher the ride.

riverview · Feb 28, 2022

Zogman said:
2017 4 Runner only 27,000 miles.

We were gone for 21 days it sat in the warm garage 50 degrees. The battery was dead.
Charged it up and seems fine. Should I put a trickle charger on when leaving for that period of time? Or maybe the battery needs to be replaced?

It had the option of 20 inch street tread tires with nice fancy wheels. Thats what she wanted. Next winter I would like to put on tires with decent tread. Could you go back to 18 inch wheels with a slightly wider tire???

I have the Copper AT345 on my 2018 Chevy 1500 and am very happy with those.

THX for any and all comments.

wifes 18 4runner sport has 17s is really good on ice and snow with firstone destination m/s and is real good, my neighbor has a limited with 20s on it and only about a 1/2-inchdifference in height. the 17 has allotmore sidewall which i think is better for traction in winter.

Allen · Mar 2, 2022

I have a 2015 SR5 with the stock tire size of 17". I am pretty sure the only real difference between the factory 20 inch tires and the 17 inch tires is the rim diameter, the actual circumference/height of the tire is still the same, or very close. This just means the 20 inch wheel combo has less of a sidewall, which helps in handling by being more responsive in feel, but may make it a little rougher riding. At least that's my take on the difference.

As far as the battery, there is absolutely no reason it needs to have a trickle charger on it unless you have some sort of vampiric draw on the battery. This really isn't much of a problem on my 4Runner though because things like lights all turn off after a few minutes of the key getting turned off. Even if I leave the key in the accessory position, the radio and stuff all go off after a while. I had to replace my battery this winter, but I will not complain about a near 7 year run with the factory battery. It's had several occasions where it's sat for a couple weeks at a time with no issues noted. I would suggest the battery had just reached the end of its useful life.

By the way, I now have 97k miles on my 4Runner and the only things I have had to do to it is the battery, wiper blades, tires, and brakes. It's such a great vehicle my kids are already arguing over who gets it when they go off to college.

Life's too short and busy to be running around with a trickle charger for all the crap I have with batteries. I just replace them every 5-7 years and call it good.

bilbo · Mar 2, 2022

I do think newer vehicles use a bit more electricity at rest than older ones do. Though I'm not sure what you've experienced would be 'normal.' Around the time my Mom passed and just after her car sat unused in the garage for a long time, about 3 months. When my Dad tried to start it up the battery was flat dead. He recharged and it looked ok, started right up. After a month of rest it was dead again. The dealer said the battery tested fine, but it would not tolerate sitting longer than about two weeks. This was in the summer. He ended up replacing the battery, and it seems ok now, but it could be that the newer battery has just enough additional capacity over the old one that it handles the parasitic drain longer. It's in another rest period now for a couple of months to see how it behaves.

On the subject of tires, narrower ones tend to be better in snow. The ground pressure is higher so it finds its way through the snow to the ground better. That's my theory anyway. Also, I'm a believer in snow tires in the winter. I have a set on a 2wd F250 and the snow tires take it from almost completely unusable to not half bad in winter time.

Allen · Mar 3, 2022

One thing on the year-round use of snow tires. Snow tires are generally made out of a softer rubber to get better traction on slippery surfaces. So if you run snow tires all the time, you will generally be very disappointed in the wear and longevity of them. Also, it is true that narrower tires have better capability in snow.

Toyota 4 Runner 2 ?s

Zogman

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shorthairsrus

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westwolfone

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JayKay

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shorthairsrus

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SDMF

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Wall-eyes

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Zogman

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shorthairsrus

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BrokenBackJack

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riverview

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Allen

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bilbo

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