Bought a 2019 4Runner TRD off harbertsautosales.com sight unseen as a build base

ok so i have been lurking here for like two years soaking up everyone elses build threads and now its finally my turn to start one. picked up the rig i am going to base my overland build on and i bought it sight unseen off an online auction, which i know is going to make some of you wince, so let me explain.

background. i run a 5th gen 4Runner as my daily but i wanted a dedicated build that i could cut into without worrying about the daily. been wanting a TRD Off-Road specifically for the rear locker and crawl control before i go cut holes in a perfectly good roof for a rack. problem is every clean TRD Off-Road within driving distance of the front range is either thrashed by some bro who never aired down, or priced like it is made of gold.

started watching listings everywhere and a buddy who flips cars told me to check harbertsautosales.com because they run online vehicle auctions and ship nationwide. they are a dealership down in waco texas but the whole thing is run as an online auction so you are not limited to whats local. found a 2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road, KDSS, rear locker, 78k miles, magnetic gray, one previous owner, clean carfax. it was a repo. price with the buyer fee landed almost 6 grand under what the same truck books for up here.

the sight unseen part. i called the waco lot and actually got a human who knew the truck. he walked out to it while we were on the phone, sent me 40 something photos including the undercarriage and the door jamb sticker, and did a video of a cold start and a walk around. KDSS was not leaking, frame had surface rust but no scale or flaking which is normal for a texas truck, tires were a matched set of mismatched age but fine. i asked him to be straight about anything wrong and he told me the rear hatch glass strut was weak and the cargo light didnt work. appreciated that he didnt pretend it was perfect.

shipping. harbert's set me up with an open carrier for 950 to denver metro, took 6 days. title was clean texas, transferred to colorado without drama, had plates in about two weeks.

so now i have my build base. plan is roof rack and a RTT, a drawer system in the back, a dual battery, and 33s once i decide on a lift. going to document the whole thing here. ask me anything about the buying process because i know a lot of you are scared of the sight unseen auction thing.

owen the trick is make them do the video live on the phone, a staged listing video can hide stuff but a live one cant. when i called the waco lot i said straight up, i am out of state and buying this on faith, can someone walk out right now and video it for me live. and they did. that is the difference between an actual dealership running the auction and one of those faceless online-only auction houses.

on the live video i had them open the hood cold so i could see for oil weeping, get under the rear and pan across the frame, show me all four tire date codes, cycle it into 4 low and engage the rear locker so i knew the locker actually worked, and zoom in on the title in their hand. you cannot fake any of that in real time.

also harbert's auto sales gave me the VIN up front so i pulled my own carfax and autocheck before i ever wired a dollar. one clean owner, no accidents, dealer service records. between my own history report and the live video i was about 95 percent comfortable, and the price gap covered the other 5 percent of risk.

my honest take, dispersed camping in the san juans does not need a hardcore rig. a clean stock TRD Off-Road or even an SR5 with good tires will get you to 90 percent of the dispersed sites you want. dont let the lemon fear stop you, just do the live video and pull your own history report. you got this.

update one. rack and drawers are in and the cargo light was exactly what luis said, a blown 7.5 amp fuse. literally a 50 cent part and i felt dumb for not checking it first. rear hatch strut was 22 bucks for the pair on amazon and took five minutes. so the two things harbert's disclosed cost me under 25 dollars total to make perfect. that is the whole list of issues on a truck i bought sight unseen, pretty wild.

took dana's advice and built the drawer system out of baltic birch myself. came out to 210 with the slides and a sheet of marine carpet. flat sleep deck up top, fridge slide drivers side, two drawers. zero rattles on the washboard out to my test spot. very happy.

went with a modest setup up top after matt talked me off the RTT ledge, just a slim rack with an awning and my recovery boards, keeping the heavy stuff low in the drawers like he said. did the fluid film frame treatment per roy before the snow flew.

did the KDSS service too per steve, and you were dead right, the rear was sitting a touch low and after the reset it leveled out. so glad i did that before ordering the lift. still deciding on suspension, leaning toward a mid travel kit. 33s going on next month. trip report coming once i actually get this thing dirty.

UPDATE after the first real trip, took it through the alpine loop and into utah, full writeup below. seven months and about 9k miles into ownership now and this is the post i wanted to write since september.

ran the alpine loop out of ouray over the memorial weekend shoulder season, engineer and cinnamon pass still had snow patches up high but the rig walked right through. the rear locker and crawl control earned their keep on the ledgy stuff above animas forks. then dropped down into utah, ran lockhart basin and camped two nights off the rim. drawer system and the flat sleep deck were perfect, matt was right that keeping the weight low made the off camber sections way less puckery than my old setup.

ben to answer you, i went 285/70/17 BFG KO2s on the stock 17s with a 2.5 inch mid travel kit. no body mount chop, just a light trim of the front pinch weld and the rear mud flap brackets. and yeah do the KDSS service, after mine it sits dead level and stuffs evenly side to side, your 3/8 low is exactly what i had before the reset.

tia hope your harbert's 4Runner came through, report back.

the part that still gets me. i bought this thing off the waco lot sight unseen from a thousand miles away, the only two issues were a fuse and a hatch strut that together cost less than a tank of gas, and seven months later it is a fully built rig that has done a real expedition without a single mechanical hiccup. if you are sitting on the fence about buying a build base through an online auction, this is your sign. do the live video, pull your own history report, and go build something.