2010 Sequoia: Rally Support/Tow Rig, Fauxverlander, and Vacation Hauler

I had originally started documenting this in my rally car build thread, but then figured anyone who actually cares about a jumbo SUV build probably won't be likely to look in that thread for it, so figured I'd break it out on its own (and only document really interesting stuff in the other thread). So here goes. 

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Some of you know I've always been a fan of Sequoias. I've my 2005 for about 10 years now - first it was my wife's kid-hauler and then turned into my tow / utility / rally service rig. It's been totally reliable and I've always been happy with it. However, like most Toyotas of that era, it has its share of frame rust (it was from a salt state) and in recent months I've pretty much decided to move on to something less rusty. The thought struck me to get another 1st gen Sequoia, but didn't really want to spend thousands just to get one that has a *less* rusty frame and probably way higher miles (mine has 135k, which is super-low for a 16-year old truck).

If you want to know about 1st-generation Sequoias, I actually wrote a "buyer's guide" for them here on GRM at this link: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/1st-generation-02-07-toyota-sequoia-buyers-guide/175653/page1/

Anyhow, long story short after a month or two of looking for exactly what I wanted, in my budget, one popped up about 180 miles from here in PA. Chris Nonack (from here on GRM) checked it out closely for me and gave it a general thumbs up, so I got a ride up there  and picked up this:

It's a 2010 Sequoia Limited with about 165k miles. Yeah, this is the third Toyota SUV I've bought in a row with MORE miles than the one before it. Maybe I'm doing this wrong lol...

This one has the features and I wanted (tow package, leather, 4WD, and the right interior/exterior colors) and not the ones I didn't want (specifically, the OEM rear air suspension. It has minor surface rust in some frame areas, but probably no more than my wife's 5-year old CX-9 - which is to say, pretty much none. Overall, had 9 pages of CARFAX history with basically dealer maintenance for its entire life, including all fluids flushed and changed in the last 20k miles at a Toyota dealer.

So after picking it up, I headed home down I-95 and an hour from home I got stuck 500' beind a huge accident with multiple cars, and two on fire big-time

So, we got to sit there for 2 hours, which gave me a while to dig around and find some of the features, how to use things, etc. I probably looked odd in the middle of I-95 messing with the power 3rd row seats and stuff like that lol...

A few initial impressions:

- On the 180-mile trip home I averaged over 18mpg, which is pretty excellent. 

- The previous owner bought the $500 TRD air intake system for it. I have no idea if it helps anything, and it isn't particularly noticeable in terms of sound, but it certainly looks cool under the hood...

- On a variety of roads going home, it took a while to get used to the larger size (it's about 800lbs heavier than my old one), but it's also totally obvious the ride quality is substantially better than the old one due to the independent rear suspension, especially on anything uneven. Otherwise, totally smooth, quiet, etc...as would be expected from something that cost (according to the window sticker in the glove box) $54,000 in 2010. 

- Storage: It's virtually endless. two glove boxes. the center console could probably fit a bowling ball in it. I think there are something like 7 cupholders accessible from the front seat. There are about 5 other smaller bins and areas for phones, etc. I know most large trucks these days have a lot of storage, but this is really a huge step up from the old Sequoia's storage. Also a storage bin behind the 3rd row seat under the floor.

- Both rows of seats fold down into the floor, though not totally flat. This is nice since I hate lugging the heavy seats out of my Gen1 in and out depending on passengers or cargo being hauled. To get a level load floor I'll proabably make one out of plywood to put in when doing cargo-hauling trips (like to rally events)

- Tow package on this is a Class IV, 7-pin, with a trans and oil cooler. It also has a transmission temp gauge, which is nice since the old one didn't. Also has a tow mode that adjusts gear holding, brakes, and steering. 

- Drivetrain: feels strong in regular driving. I haven't towed with it yet, so can't really comment. getting onto a highway on-ramp, this thing defintely GOES. The old one with the 4.7 was no slouch either, but didn't move like this one. 

I appreciate that this isn't a TOTAL redesign. I mean, it is, but Toyota kept a LOT of parts from the 1st gen Sequoia that are instantly recognized since I own one.....anything from various buttons to the safety latch on the hood, to reservoir designs and a bunch of other things. Basically, they kept stuff that worked well and carried it over, and redesigned stuff that wasn't good on the old one (like the tailgate latch/handle that always broke). 

Anyhow, I'll add stuff of interest as I come upon it, just for anyone's information (since I wrote the 1st Generation "Sequoia buyer's guide" here). If you want to see other things I do with it (i.e. modifications), I'll probably put that in my main build thread (rally car, porsche, tow rigs, etc).

old and new

First order of business today was to get my inspection and emissions so I can get title and plates for it. Went to my usual guy who has seen the old Sequoia for 10 years (never failed inspection, incidentally, he knows I take care of my stuff mechanically/safety-wise). He was highly impressed with the negligible rust on the frame....said he usually sees rusty ones.

So when I got home I dropped the spare tire since it was low on air (more accurately, almost totally flat) and tripping the TPMS light. From the looks of it, it is original, and has never been actually used. The wheel is a steelie and is pretty rusty too. I'll replace both of these when I get tires for the new wheels.

After that, I easily tracked down a heat shield rattle I noticed when driving it home. Like the old Sequoia, this one also had the shield bolts rust "out" of the shield itself. Someone had "secured" it with a ziptie at some point, which wasn't doing much good....

After that, checked out the frame more. It mostly looks like this.....clean but minor rust at welds. I also felt inside with my fingers and found no evidence of rust or paint chips. Totally clean inside the frame. YAY.

But, it can always be cleaner.....so I started the job of cleaning up any rusty spots and painting everything in POR-15. So today I did everything from the rear subframe back..The subframe and hitch area were really the only places that had any actual rust on them, so they got wire-wheeled first. then painted. 

Other random thing: in the gear compartment under the rear floor, I found an electric pump....from an Audi. Wonder it it's from the guy's wife's newish Q7 that was parked in his driveway...

One goal is to "delete" all the plastic chrome stuff.  I hate chrome on modern cars, and the Sequoia has chrome grille, badges, door handles, mirrors, and other stuff. The mirror caps pop right off and can be replaced for about $30 with body-colored ones. But that's $30 too much, so I popped them off, sanded, and painted and clearcoated them black. We'll see if it holds up. If not, I'll either repaint or buy some actual black ones down the road. 

So, did do a few little projects today. Since it looks like I should have tags on this before the next towing need, guess it's time to start setting up the things I need for towing. So I uninstalled the Prodigy2 brake controller from the old rig and put it in this one. It's nice that it already has the Toyota plug on it, and the car-side plugin on the new truck is in the same place. However, I wanted to put the controller itself in a better place than below the dash as it was (also, the new truck has knee airbags, so can't put it there anyhow).

After a bit of measuring, I found a good spot in one of the "cubbies" in the lower center console. It's almost like Toyota made it for brake controllers, since it's almost perfect size. Had to do a bit of drilling to mount the controller bracket and run the harness, but that was easy. Also noticed the P/O installed a pair of quick-charge USB ports down there, which is really nice.

So here's the finished product. I like this location a lot, it's pretty much perfect.

I also proceeded with more chrome delete. This time the surround of the rear "Sequoia" badge (which is gray). I thought this might be a 2-piece assembly that I could separate and just vinyl wrap the chrome part, but no such luck, so mask and paint it is....

Incidentally, all the trim on the tailgate comes off IDENTICAL to the old Sequoia, which is nice since I've taken that one off like 20 times fixing the rear handle. However, Toyota did this time put an access hatch in it in case the handle breaks, you can get to it from the backside. The old one was REALLY a pain, since the panel wasn't easy to get off with the hatch closed. Good thinking, Toyota. Here's some pics of the inside, for anyone who is wondering.

Anyhow, finished product. 

Today UPS brought me some things as I prep this thing to do some towing in a few weeks.

First up: Airbags. These are the same Air Lift bags I used on the old Sequoia, and they worked great, for less than $100. They come with everything needed (including exhaust heat shields for this model) and are pretty easy to install

While I had the wheels off, I POR-15'd that section of the frame and as much other stuff as I could reach without getting black paint all over my arms.

I routed the air lines to a single valve. On the old rig I had it pointing down under the bumper. On this one I found a spot right next to the trailer wiring hookup that seems more convenient:

So after testing that out and making sure no leaks, moved on to the other project "while I had the wheels off"

The truck came with pretty fresh brake pads and rotors (I'd say about 10k miles on them tops), and based on the service history I believe these are OEM Toyota pads all around. That said, the brakes feel a lot like my old one used to feel with OEM-ish pads: not enough bite and mushier than I like for trailering. As it happens, Tire Rack had a sale going on the Hawk SD (SuperDuty) pads, which are basically for heavy trucks hauling trailers. I watched a few reviews online of testing on Tundras and came away impressed. I had Hawk HPS on the old Sequoia, but these cost a lot less and are probably more appropriate anyhow. 

Long story short, I installed fronts and rears today and while there also painted all the rotor hubs and caliper bodies. I'll also mention that the brakes on this thing are substantially larger than those on the old Sequoia (which were basically 4Runner brakes and were really borderline for a truck so much heavier than a 4Runner). These are 14" rotors up front with bigger 4-pots and the rear rotors are pretty big too (I think it's all Tundra stuff). So, hopefully they'll be good. It'll get new/upgraded lines at some point, but not today. I have other things to do first.

Looking good. I ran the Hawk SD pads on the 4runner. They were quite good. 

Brake parts should be shared with the Tundra. 

Unrelated to your new build, but did you ever get your rear handle to work properly? I've gone thru three handles, one striker, and 2 latch assemblies. Broken handles, rattlely tailgate, and now too tight tailgate that requires putting your foot into it to open. 

lnlogauge said:

Unrelated to your new build, but did you ever get your rear handle to work properly? I've gone thru three handles, one striker, and 2 latch assemblies. Broken handles, rattlely tailgate, and now too tight tailgate that requires putting your foot into it to open. 

Yeah i got it to work, then it broke again (3rd time). So now its just a cable pull frim the inside. One thing I wont miss about the old one!

Cheap stuff. I hate chrome on modern vehicles. Especially chrome-colored plastic. The Sequoia has way too much of that. Most of the pieces (rear finisher, grill, door handles, badges) can be replaced with black ones by spending lots of money from Toyota (TRD stuff, etc). The door handles can be gotten in black off a Tundra, which is the eventual plan once I find one in the junkyard, but I'm not interested in spending a couple hundred for black door handles. I thought about vinyl wrapping them, but not real confident in my abilities on small curves like that, and would have to take them off to do it, which seems like a hassle.

So, Amazon to the rescue. For 20 bucks, some plastic "caps" with 3M tape on the back. I ordered these figuring they would probably fit badly or be really cheap junk. But they're actually pretty good quality and pretty much a perfect fit, with good finish.

So, takes about 10 minutes to install them. They line up nicely. If you look closely you can see a bit of chrome, but not if you're not looking for it.

Pre

Post

Now all I have to do is the badges and the grille, TBD what I'm going to do with that. The TRD grill does look really good, but that's not money I want to spend at the moment so we'll see. 

I want to turn all the cheomw in my Expedition to gunmetal. Was thinking to vinyl wrap it. It's a lot of chrome since it's a Platinum trim. 

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Check for knock off TRD grills, I have a feeling they are out there. I got one for my tundra, quality was very good.

Audi air compressor comes with most newer cars since they have a flat spare. Compressor is used to pump them up

Placemotorsports said:

Audi air compressor comes with most newer cars since they have a flat spare. Compressor is used to pump them up

Yeah I may actually stick this one in my old Porsche, since at some point it came with an air compressor but that is long gone. The Sequoia certainly doesn't need one since it will already have my big viair compressor on board whenever I'm taking it someplace!

java230 said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

Check for knock off TRD grills, I have a feeling they are out there. I got one for my tundra, quality was very good.

Yeah I've looked at the ones on eBay. A lot of selection but the particular one I like doesn't seem to have a knockoff clone yet!

This truck has storage. A lot of storage. Consoles, bins, slots, and hatches. The center console in particular is impressively huge. I'm quite certain I could put a bowling ball (plus a dozen tennis balls) in it. It also has a "hanging bin" that kind of sits in the middle of it and has a little tray and a deep bin:

with center bin

without

The main problem here is that the giant console just becomes a repository to put stuff in, and it's not the least bit organized. Kind of like my old Sequoia with the DVD player gone....the console just turned into a black hole where stuff goes and gets forgotten.

I looked around for a good tray organizer, but due to the 08-13 models' odd-shaped console (it's angled at one corner), all of the trays are only about half the size of the bin, so not real big. The 14+ models have a similar console, but it's totally square and there are good tray options for it. So I ordered one of those off Amazon for 20 bucks...

It's actually pretty beefy plastic and has non-skid inserts, a coin holder, etc. If I had a 14+ Sequoia it would drop right in and solve my issues. But I have a 2010. So some adjustments with a Dremel are needed. Basically, I had to cut out two of the "boxes" in the front left side and do some sanding.

Meanwhile, I was able to put the original center bin down into the bottom of the console to subdivide it somewhat:

And here's the top tray fitted, and loaded up with various crap the came out of the old Sequoia. You can also see the cutout at front left gives access to the power port in there, if I ever need it (even though there are 5 in the dash already). So overall pretty pleased with this little project. It was cheap and it will make a nice difference when it comes to stashing smaller stuff that I may need. I also will stick a first aid kit in there underneath.

Side note: while doing this I discovered the entire center armrest can slide forward about a foot in the event you want it up there. I don't, but it's still pretty nice to have the feature. The underside of the armrest, when it flips up, also has a bunch of holders and clips for various things that I assume can be obtained from Toyota. Looks like maybe a small first aid kit and some other accessories fit there. It also has a couple clips that hold the cover for the long skinny storage bin next to the shifter. I have the cover stowed there since I don't need that bin covered. All in all, there was clearly a lot of thought put into giving Sequoia (and Tundra) owners a lot of useful storage, which wasn't a particularly strong suit of the 1st Gen. 

After that, I continued on with frame painting and did the entire central frame and the two large crossmembers/transmisison braces. Man, it's nice to have a clean, smooth, painted frame with no rust showing!

Today was wheel swap day, but my buddy got held up and wasn't going to arrive until mid-afternoon, so decided to more or less complete my de-chroming. First off took care of the rear badges, which I painted with plasti-dip. I've never used it for this purpose (usually I just mask and paint), but figured I'd give it a try. Seemed to work fine, though coverage isn't as good as paint. We'll see how it holds up, and if it doesn't hold up well I'll take off the badges and paint them with actual paint.

Then I tackled the front grill. This one I actually did with about 6 coats of primer and acrylic paint, which I think should hold up better to the elements. Also did extensive sanding/scuffing to aid adhesion.

washed and drying

laying down the layers

Installed

Note that the center Toyota emblem is actually a flecked gunmetal/graphite color, which is the color the wheels will be after I paint them. Because I like little details. 

All in all, pretty happy with how it came out and it really makes the truck look better, by a big margin, in my opinion.

I also finished with the frame painting, doing the front sections

Then my buddy showed up in his LX470, which he is selling soon. Basically we just swapped the Sequoia 20s with "ok" tires (to help him sell it) for his OEM 18s with very questionable tires (dry rot). Since I'm getting new tires and my tire place is 2 miles away, not too worried. This is part of the transaction in which he's going to buy the old Sequoia as well. So this is "part 1" of the deal. 

His Lexus actually looks "not bad" with the 20s 

The Lexus wheels are in ok shape but have some paint chipping and bubbling - no biggie since I will sand them down and repaint

It's funny that 18's look so tiny on this huge truck. They'll look better painted and with some slightly larger and much more aggressive tires.

Hot day today, and time to take the wheels BACK off and sand and paint them, since I've ordered tires. I really dislike sanding wheels, but I'm too cheap to buy cool aftermarket wheels (I have 6 vehicles, and all of them have painted OEM wheels - though a few are OEM from other cars). In any case, these wheels had typical early-2000s paint chipping and bubbling, so did a lot of scraping and sanding.

Then primed and put on 4 coats of wheel paint + clearcoat

So, I think they came out pretty good (though I broke one of the centercaps, so will have to either not use any of them, or find one on ebay). They'll look better once they have slightly larger and better tires on them, but overall the truck looks much better than with the 20s, IMO.

Sitting around this evening and accidentally hit the facebook marketplace button (seriously, nothing on my "to get" list at this moment). First thing that randomly is at the top of the "you might be interested in" list.....a guy listing a OEM Tundra skidplate and some running boards. I don't need running boards, but this thing doesn't have any underbody protection to speak of and it may be a while before I can fab a skidplate. I need to get another big steel sheet for that and other projects, and I'm not paying for the fancy skidplates since this isn't a trail rig. So I shoot the guy a message, and about half an hour and a few Jacksons later I have a skidplate. 

Much like the skidplate on the old Sequoia, it's not particularly heavy-duty, but should be more than sufficient for the kind of trails this vehicle will be on (i.e. muddy service areas, fire roads, and stage roads), and also keep mud and crap out of the engine bay.  Also came with a pair of the OEM super-beefy double-eye tow eyes. Mine has those, but I'm sure I can find something to repurpose these to. Anyhow, I'll clean it up tomorrow and bolt it up. 

Interested to hear how it handles once all the wheel/tire/suspension stuff is done.  It sure was comfy on the test drive, even though the underinflated 20s made it handle like a barge.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Interested to hear how it handles once all the wheel/tire/suspension stuff is done.  It sure was comfy on the test drive, even though the underinflated 20s made it handle like a barge.

Yeah I put air in the tires before I hit the highway home with it and I thought it handled pretty nicely and the rear end is much more comfortable than the old Sequoia with the solid axle. I expect the fact that I'm combining a taller sidewall but putting on load range E tires may actually stiffen it up a little bit. I'm also going to put new shocks on it since these look to be original and are probably not at their maximum damping capacity lol.

When I switched to the old Sequoia from p rated tires to load range E it made a pretty substantial difference in terms of handling and boaty feeling. I think the new pads will also make it a much more confident driver with better braking. OEM pads are ok, but kind of soft in initial bite

So I kind of wondered why a Limited didn't already have a skid plate....but found out today that this one definitely DID. But three of the five mounting bolts were sheared off, which is why someone in the past didn't put it back on. Grr.  So since it was 95 degrees today I decided I'll drill those out and re-tap at a later time. Tires should be here tomorrow, so will maybe get those mounted in the next few days. Also ordered new shocks/struts.

I did spend a few minutes installing my phone holder. I couldn't find a holder I like for my Pixel2 with otterbox (I have X-grips in several cars but wanted something easier here). So I took the otterbox belt-clip holster and ground off the clip part and epoxied it to a RAM mount base. Then at the other end I bolted it through a little open spot in the center console, which puts it in a convenient place to use. I know, super-exciting...

In somewhat related stuff, the old Sequoia probably made its last trip for me hauling some large furniture for my neighbor. This thing is truly cavernous, probably actually more than the new one in terms of cargo area height since the seats some out rather than folding flat.

Time to sweat today. Looked like it was going to be a slow day at work, so I burned a vacation day and figured I'd get most of the truck projects done in one fell swoop. Did I mention it was already in the mid-80s as I drank my morning coffee? Maybe this wasn't the best idea. What the hell.

So, tires came in the other day, so first order of business was to take the wheels off the truck and take them and the new tires to get installed. My DMV appointment for title/registration isn't until next week and I'm impatient, so did it this way. My driveway is a bit sloped and this is a HEAVY truck, so made sure to drop the rear end down as low as possible to level everything on the (8!) jackstands. 

Then loaded up the wheels and tires into the Mighty Max Trailer and hauled them to the local tire place. Incidentally, this is the first time I've actually gotten to use this thing to haul stuff since I built it last winter. Worked great (and got a number of Jeeps trying to catch up to check it out)

After that, I took a few minutes and did a little side project with a leftover ebay flood light. I always like to have better reverse lighting so this is basically what the old Sequoia had. So welded on a little mount bracket and mounted the light. Will wire it at some point lol

UPS said my front struts would be here today, so figured I'd take everything apart so when UPS arrived I could get it done quick.  It's nice to work on a non-rusty vehicle....everything came off as it should, no real cursing or need for "special big tools." 

The old struts seemed ok, but as far as I know they have 165k miles on them, so time to replace before they go. In the middle of this, my phone beeped a "severe thunderstorm warning" so I rapidly got all my stuff into the garage and took a break.

While I waited for things to dry out, ran out and for $40 picked up another LX470 wheel and 3 centercaps from a local guy. 

UPS showed up around 5pm so I quickly put the new Bilstein 5100s on the front (rears will be here next week). I used the middle perch setting , which effectively lifts the front of the truck 1.5" or so to level it with the rear. Went together fine, and put everything back together and torqued things down

Sweating my ass off at this point...

As I finish that up, tire place calls so I run to get the wheels back before they close. I'll note that I got the BFG KO2s in 275/70/18 (stock is 65 series). I was going to get another set of the Wildpeaks that I had on the old Sequoia, but seems they have gone up in price a LOT....now about equal with the KO2s. And since I like variation......got the KO2s. 

Installed:

Looks good!

docwyte said:

Looks good!

thanks, looking forward to actually driving it again next week once I get plates for it lol...

Had a few minutes today to kill, so I got under the truck and drilled out and re-tapped three out of the five mount bolt holes for the skidplate (three broken drill bits, but eventually got it done. So now I have some protection for a few things up front, including the transmission cooler lines (which are VERY vulnerable without a skidplate).

It's just a stock skidplate, but it should do fine for what this truck will see

Random photo - a buddy asked my how large the cargo area was with the seats folded. Answer: 50" wide, and approximately 78" long. I'm 6' tall and can lie down stretched out comfortably in it. A bit curious, since I have a recollection of fitting an 8x4 piece of plywood INSIDE the old Sequoia, which by my measurements cannot be done in this one without moving the front seats way far forward. Or maybe I'm just remembering wrong. In any case, the old sequoia width was just barely over 48" inside the wheel wells, so this one is definitely a bit wider, if not longer or taller in cargo capacity.

Rear shocks came in about 4 days earlier than expected (thanks Tire Rack!). Install was about as easy as it could be. Nice to see Toyota changed to upper eye bushings on this generation - the Gen1 Sequoia upper mounts were a major pain to get to up behind the frame.

Old shocks don't seem blown, but were pretty old-looking

Installed

Also tapped into the 7-pin trailer connector's reverse lighting circuit to power my extra reverse flood.

So, I've pretty much done all the suspension/wheel/tire/brake stuff I plan to do for the time being (and have no plans to do any engine/drivetrain stuff). I should have plates for it in a couple days and plan to tow to the rallyspint next weekend about 3 hours away. Now I'm sketching out what I want to do for a roof rack, which I plan to make in my garage.

- Intent is to make it full-length on roof (around 8 feet) vice the 6ish-foot rack on the old Sequoia

- Intent is to put all applicable brackets and attachements on it before putting it up on the roof, since it's going to be fairly heavy and I don't want to have to take it down again (and prefer not to weld stuff with it on the truck.....made that mistake before). 

- Thinking about how I want to run wiring for lights, etc.