2006 Sequoia Mild Build

Rezkid

New Member
Oct 12, 2017
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Hello all,

Long time lurker and I finally decided to do a build thread for my 2006 Limited. Short on it is as follows. I purchased “The Sequoia” (what my wife and kids refer to it as) in March of 2015 from a local dealer in Lubbock, TX. Before purchase I had run the VIN through Toyota’s owner website and discovered that it was a 2 owner truck that had spent its entire life in the Lubbock area and had service records going back to Day 1 at Gene Messer Toyota...score! With that knowledge I had little qualms about purchasing a 9 year old truck with 195,000mi on the odo. For the last 2+ years & 65,000mi it has been a nearly flawless machine taking us on several trips to Sounthern California, Wisconsin and everywhere in between as our primary road trip vehicle. So far the few maintenance item I’ve had to replace other than oil changes are the following:

- front rotors along with f&r pads (Aug 2016)
- spark plugs (NGK’s) (Nov 2016)
- trans fluid swap along with diffs/brakes/power steering fluid (March 2017)
- radiator cap (March 2017) original one decided to fall apart while on spring break in SoCal. Amazon to the rescue with a Toyota replacement the next day for 1/2 of what the local dealer wanted to charge me.

So what does one do with a Sequoia that just rolled over 260,xxxmi? You buy a whole bunch of goodies for it! Purchased and set for install this weekend are:

4 x 255/80R17 Toyo Open Country AT2’s
2 x Bilstein 5100 front struts (Tundra adjustables)
2 x Bilstein 5100 rear shocks (FJ Cruiser/4Runner)
2 x OME 865 rear springs
1 x Total Chaos diff drop kit

So far that is all the parts for Phase I of the Sequoia build, but there will be more to come as I build it up for general camping and exploring around West Texas, NM, CO, UT & AZ. I’ll get some action and in progress photos posted up this weekend but for now I’ll leave you with a picture of the goods soon to be installed.
 

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HardYakka

New Member
Jun 27, 2017
1
1
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44
Hello all,

Long time lurker and I finally decided to do a build thread for my 2006 Limited. Short on it is as follows. I purchased “The Sequoia” (what my wife and kids refer to it as) in March of 2015 from a local dealer in Lubbock, TX. Before purchase I had run the VIN through Toyota’s owner website and discovered that it was a 2 owner truck that had spent its entire life in the Lubbock area and had service records going back to Day 1 at Gene Messer Toyota...score! With that knowledge I had little qualms about purchasing a 9 year old truck with 195,000mi on the odo. For the last 2+ years & 65,000mi it has been a nearly flawless machine taking us on several trips to Sounthern California, Wisconsin and everywhere in between as our primary road trip vehicle. So far the few maintenance item I’ve had to replace other than oil changes are the following:

- front rotors along with f&r pads (Aug 2016)
- spark plugs (NGK’s) (Nov 2016)
- trans fluid swap along with diffs/brakes/power steering fluid (March 2017)
- radiator cap (March 2017) original one decided to fall apart while on spring break in SoCal. Amazon to the rescue with a Toyota replacement the next day for 1/2 of what the local dealer wanted to charge me.

So what does one do with a Sequoia that just rolled over 260,xxxmi? You buy a whole bunch of goodies for it! Purchased and set for install this weekend are:

4 x 255/80R17 Toyo Open Country AT2’s
2 x Bilstein 5100 front struts (Tundra adjustables)
2 x Bilstein 5100 rear shocks (FJ Cruiser/4Runner)
2 x OME 865 rear springs
1 x Total Chaos diff drop kit

So far that is all the parts for Phase I of the Sequoia build, but there will be more to come as I build it up for general camping and exploring around West Texas, NM, CO, UT & AZ. I’ll get some action and in progress photos posted up this weekend but for now I’ll leave you with a picture of the goods soon to be installed.
Classic spring and shock combo. Looking forward to seeing the before and after.

I have an '05 SR5 w/ center locker and love it. Bone stock

We just got back from the Florida Everglades and man did the Sequoia ever exceed expectations. We were exploring "unimproved roads" around the JW Corbbit Wildlife region. By "unimproved" they mean "water crossings that get water splashed over and on to your hood!" In reality the water depth wasn't above our diff breather ... But boy the Sequoia's skid plate can displace water when you send it :)

I was stunned how well the truck handled the black mud and muck. I didn't even need low gear, never skipped a beat.

Enjoy.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
 
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Rezkid

New Member
Oct 12, 2017
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Lift completed! Took most of Saturday and part of Sunday afternoon to get it knocked out. The rear was by far the most difficult, simply because getting the old rear shocks out was a pain in the @$$!! Ratcheting, flex head wrenches would have made the job 1000 times easier, love and learn I guess. I’ll just have to invest in some before I’m due for shocks again.
 

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Rezkid

New Member
Oct 12, 2017
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No real updates to speak of other than driving it as intended. I’ve put on ~1500mi since the lift was installed and so far the new suspension has handled better than expected. The ride is firm, but not overly harsh, pretty much all of the factory wallowley feel is gone. I am in the planning stage of a roof rack similar to Sal’s in execution, that is utilizing the factory rails and using 80/20 aluminum for my cross bars/load floor.
 

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mulze42

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Oct 10, 2017
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Will be curious how the roof rack goes as I'm in the planning stages of a rack similar to Sal's as well. I reached out to Prinsu to see if they would do one for 1st gen and they said not at the current moment so we are on our own.
 

edi

New Member
Oct 25, 2018
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Sal R, did not approve of this setup, of using FJ cruiser rear shocks on the sequoia. They don't extend enough to be used with lift coils. And some other members have reported that they get this jarring symptom when hitting bumps. Did you notice any of that?
I have the same set up in the garage brand new but I'm thinking of going with ome or Dobinson shocks.