• Bull bar - COMPLETE
  
• Roof Rack - COMPLETE
  
• Rooftent
  
• Raised air intake - COMPLETE
  
• Padlocks on doors - COMPLETE
• Rear Spotlight - COMPLETE
  
• Fit Sand Ladders over windows - COMPLETE
  
• Swing out rear wheel carrier - COMPLETE
  
• IPF Spot lights on roof - COMPLETE
  
• Mesh over rear window - COMPLETE
  
• Lights & Radiator screens - COMPLETE
  
• Awnings - SEMI-COMPLETE
  
• Jacking Points - COMPLETE

New "Africanised" Bundubasher with....
Click to enlarge

ARB Winch Bullbar

My 4Runner came with an A frame nudge bar and a light metal full width bumber, nice but I thought I'd like to upgrade it. So I looked around and found the ARB Deluxe Winch Bullbar (ARB34114070) from Frog's Island 4x4, and which is an awesome bit of kit! I'm not going to fit an electric winch yet (WARN XD9000), not just because of the cost but the ergonomics of an electric winch are in question too so I'll settle for my manual winch from BLACK RAT for the moment.

SAFARI Snorkel

Of course protecting my investment is utmost in my mind, but so is trying to increase the performance of my vehicle and allowing it to perform well in many different environments, and so I've bought, and had fitted, a Safari Snorkel System (SS106HF) from Frog's Island 4x4. Not really an essential item it does though protect my engine from excessive dust and water and at the same time delivers a continuous supply of cooler air needed for max. engine performance.

Roofrack

I'd like a roof rack for a roof tent and I'd like to be able to utilise the whole length of the roof. Thule bars will only fit above the door frames and there is no immediate solution to the problem of rear support. Because roofracks for the 4 Runner are so scarce, I tend to think that they are unadvisable as the roof may be too weak. Sheppard's book on "Vehicle Dependant Expeditions" also does not advise roof racks unless they are in some way supported from the chassis.

Now I've got a new "low cost" plan! I've been buying Thule roof bars off eBay and extra fittings from Halfords. So I've got one roof bar (No gutters, clamp on type) as far forward as possible, a second (clamp on) foward on the second door frame with a Thule "short roof adaptor" behind it giving me a third roof bar 70cm behind the second. This would support a sheet of Marine Ply (MP) approx: 2m long by 1.2m wide. By using a fourth Thule bar (not clamped to the roof) I can extend this to 2.4 m in length. The MP will be held in position by 8 U-bolts. This will give me a 2.3 x 1.22 m platform on the roof. This gives me: 1. A "double shelled" roof thereby making the interior "cooler" and 2. enough space for a game watching/sleeping platform; it might even take a spare tire or two! There will not be much weight involved in this method and the best thing is that it will be cheap!

I'll be painting the top surface white before I leave (to reflect the sun) and will be storing the two spare wheels above the driver and a rooftent to the rear. (I'll also try and squeeze an awning in along the side!)

Swing out spare wheel

Fnally fitted the spare wheel carrier that I got from Lucky on the Hilux Surf Forum. Fabricated some reinforcing plates and just bolted the thing on - no problems.

Aluminium Sand Ladders

Covering the two side windows (and hung on two specially fabricated aluminium hooks) are the two sand ladders. They provide extra protection for the large back windows and are easily accessible.

NB: Tried using them as bridging ladders and the bloody things bent! More usefull if I had bought 2 pairs instead of 1.

IPF Spotlights on roofrack & bullbar

The roads here in Kenya are frikkin awful! When we drove up from Zim, we mainly did so at night and this was mighty stressfull. The majority of big trucks that we met on the "Great North Road" refused to dip their lights when we flashed them and this caused us to pull off the road in order to make sure we weren't hit by them.

Having spotlights on the roof was a good decision for two reasons:

1. They help you see animals and potholes in the road far ahead and therefore allow you to take emergency action.

2. The lights are high enough to get in the truck drivers' eyes and so they do dip their lights once you hit them with these!

NB: MattF of the www.hiluxsurf.co.uk forum donated the 930 spots! Thanks mate!

Mesh over rear window

There has always been a worry in the back of my mind that someone might "smash and grab" kit via the rear window. So I used some of the same mesh used for the dog-guard to make a rear mesh screen. It locks on the left and right with pop -riveted hasps and padlocks.

I got a "Jua Kali" to fabricate some hinges and bolted those onto the roofrack. The mesh then swings down over the rear window.

Light Protection

To help protect the lights I used some of the spare material from above to make light guards and a radiator mesh to catch grass seeds &c before they get embedded in the radiator. Both are attached using large hose clamps, this allows them to rotate up for cleaning the lights. A couple more odd bits allowed me to make sidelamp protectors as well.

Awnings

To give me shade and protection from tropical downpours whilst working or relaxing, I've added two awnings that roll up at the sides of the vehicle. Basically I can park broadside onto the sun, drop the luff awning and open the lee awning, thereby keeping the car and ourselves cool. NB: Note the solar panel mounted at the front of the roofrack (just visible between the IPF spots), "poo" spade and the rear mounted 55W spotlight. There's also a lonely Hela 550 mounted up front - t'other got smashed off-road.

Jackpoints

In order to make jacking quick and safe I had some jack points fabricated and welded onto the cross member at the rear and bolted onto the ARB bullbar at the front.