mjotrainbrain

According to AC's site the OME HD cols are rated for 110-220 lbs. The winch alone weighed 87 lbs and I'm guessing the bumper was around 100 lbs so (maybe more, not really sure; can't have been a ton because my scrawny self could move it around). I guess I was near the maximum load, however you would think if they're rated for it they wouldn't be struggling with it. It is certainly odd, I know you and @hawairish in particular have had fantastic results with your OME coils. Perhaps my situation is an anomaly. I guess in re-checking the specs the coils aren't supposed to provide nearly as much lift as I thought they were. Even so, why would there be such a huge difference between the front and rear? With the tools and heavy spare tire I carried over the back end, the front and rear coils should have been loaded in a manner which is similarly taxing on them, so I'm still perplexed as to why the rear coils proved so much more stout. Perhaps I just had bad luck or something, but the amount of rake I had certainly seems off.

I had OME HD up front, which should be rated for more weight than my bumper and winch since the tube bumper really wasn't terribly heavy, and the rear was OME MD. I had a 1" front spacer and 2" rear. Despite this, I had about 3 inches of rake. From how the vehicle sat, it seemed to me that the OME coils weren't capable of supporting nearly the weight they're supposed to. Honestly it was probably an inch better than stock but nowhere near the lift the rear offered. If you were stock weight I'm sure they'd be much better, but I'm not convinced as to how they hold up long term (rear was fantastic though).

Car club

Stock suspension is exceptionally soft, even with a smoother bumpstop you'll still have the issue of bottoming out all the time. If you're open to the idea, I'd highly suggest lifting it with some aftermarket/firmer springs.

That's what I thought I remembered, you may have some to work with, don't really remember how much. If you were to relocate the turn signals into the headlights (in place of marker lights; I do seem to recall having seen it before) and ditch the fog lights, you could get a pretty high cut in there. Not sure how it would look though.

Here's some more inspiration. The cut in the 3rd reply seems the most possible to replicate on a QX4 bumper without totally trashing it IMO. https://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/183205-pics-trimmed-front-bumpers.html

Glad you found a Pathy to drive in the meantime! Hopefully you will want to keep it for a long time to come, even after your truck is fixed. The manual transmission is a nice find, especially behind the 3.5L engine. As far as who all is active, there are actually quite a large number of active users right now; maybe not as many as you'd find on a 4Runner or Corvette forum, but certainly plenty enough to have a strong community of people to offer knowledge and help with whatever you may need. Welcome to the club, and can't wait to see you slip off track and start modifying it!

Ninja sword

sea foam

Banned for thinking it's only half!

Entry wound

Banned for assuming my pants are on...and for that joke, so bad...

Welcome! You'll want to look into it further, but I believe those have an issue with the radiator allowing the transmission fluid and coolant to mix, taking out the transmission. You can prevent it by bypassing the factory transmission cooler in the radiator and adding an external one.

Banned for having his pants off!!

Credit card

Banned for not being willing to embrace the weirdness

outdoor furniture

Those old commercials and that retro review are great! This is my personal favorite:

Banned for living without a schedule

Grand stand

Under wear

That looks great! A little narrow, but not bad. Although I am a little biased towards tube bumpers. ? Got any plans to widen it at all?

Gotta put that on your resume ?

Yeah man I'd love to have even a portion of those cool Japanese accessories. Maybe someday when I've made it big I'll have to import a JDM Pathy with those options and a diesel haha

Down Periscope (good movie)