I spotted this on the Northwest Expressway and just had to stop and shoot. What happened here? Suddenly got in the mood for a change of wheels? And just a single bottle jack under the differential in the rear. At least there’s two in the front.
I swung across the expressway (not hard what with the typical Eugene traffic), to get a shot from behind. Want to speculate as to how this transpired?
Looks like a scene from a comedy movie.
Or any given day in the Bronx in the 90s five minutes after a break down.
#ZedSled
Too many parts on it for a 5 minute breakdown in NYC…. usually at least the seats, hood and doors would be gone by that time with engine removal in progress.
Drive faster! They’re gaining on us!
That does seem weird. I wonder if it had a major breakdown, and the owners didn’t care if it was towed, but really wanted the wheels/tires?
See how I can rotate all my tires at the same time…whoops…I shouldn’t have started doing this on a hill
Probably the tire shop told him they only sell tires in sets of 4.
Even if the tire shop required all four tires to get replaced, why not replace the flat tire and drive it in for the other three. I can see that the spare tire (there should be one) was also flat. All of the tires should not have gone flat at the same time unless it was driven through something to damage the tires. Why someone would have three jacks is odd (jacks appear to cost about $10 each) unless they are stealing the wheels…
It’s saltation.
We see this kind of thing a lot in Dallas, with Chevy Silverados (which WERE) wearing big wheels and tires. Many people love their Chrome wheels enough to turn them into ‘Steal-Wheels’.
No doubt this FourRunner broke down or ran out of gas and was on the roadside for a few hours.
Harbor Freight bottle jacks are cheap – much cheaper than actually buying your own wheels and tires, making wheel locks pretty much mandatory here if you have a nice, common, vehicle. More than one of my friends uses two lug locks per wheel.
The truck was stolen for it’s tires & wheels. I’ve seen it happen around the SF Bay Area a number of time. The goblins who did this were comfortable with getting this done before the cops showed up.
Looks like the sights, I saw from 1988-92 working between Manhattan and Co-op City… When I worked in New York doing inventory.
I think those rims and tires ending up on this monstrosity, I spotted at a car show this past fall.
Sure looks like my 95 minus wheels and tires but plus a rack. That would seriously put me in a mood to shoot someone.
That’s the next gen 4 runner than ran from 96 till 02, your is the prior gen. But I agree with ya!
Phase one of an attempted hovercraft conversion?
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
Hah! Nice.
Drove it until the wheels fell off. Either that or it’s a prop from David Copperfield’s “World of Highway Magic” and will stay levitated even without those jacks.
“Drove it until the wheels fell off” 🙂
“I believe I can fly….”
If it wasn’t stolen, then something major crapped out and the owner returned his wheels/tires to the rent a wheel. This is why I don’t put fancy wheels on my vehicle. Besides, my only experience with aftermarket wheels was through some Cragar S/S mags on a ’68 Mustang. Despite replacing the valve stems, they leaked air prodigiously to where I had to fill them almost every week except for the one on the right rear.
At least it’s not on gravel…
Is that a note on the yellow paper on the rear window back with an explanation? Brings new meaning to the term “air ride suspension”.
That orange sticker says “This vehicle has been noticed and will be removed on such and such a date”
A Jacob Munkhammar candidate.
More: http://www.autoblog.nl/image-gallery?file=0_Divers/Jacob_Munkhammar_Floating_Cars/#
Too bad THIS wasn’t with the Citroens in today’s CC Global Outake !
Here is a 4Runner I found last month in Portland. I think it was a Toyota fan doing swaps since the frame and engine was next to it and there was Toyota paraphernalia in the driveway.
Sure looks like this has been stolen and the rims removed, but an odd place to do the dirty deed. The tow operator is going to have fun moving this one.
My friend Chris and I were trying to get his little 60’s 15 foot boat with a Mercury motor to run and didn’t want to pay at a park to test it out so we went to the little pond in the pictures. Had a blast! Swirling around as fast as we could go and jumping in our own wake. I can only wonder what passing motorists thought of two dudes in shorts and tshirts and sunglasses drinking beer in the boat thought of us.
As for the truck, likely stolen.
I disagree with wheel theft. Why do it on a major highway when there are plenty places that a person can take wheels off without attaching attention?
My guess is that something happened to all 4 tires and it was easier/cheaper to call a friend/relative and throw all the wheels into the back of a truck and take it to a tire shop then to get the vehicle towed there.
If that road is like RT95/495 near DC, then it is possible some sharp debris was left in the road and there was no time to avoid it. On the 495 beltway, it seems there is always debris of some sort left there thanks to some shithead contractor who did not bother to secure his load in the back of a pickup truck or dump truck.
I don’t believe that the truck was stolen, I think it broke down and then someone stole the tires and wheels while it was sitting there. The real question is did it get the sticker before or after the wheels were removed.
If someone stole it for the tires and wheels they wouldn’t have parked it on the side of a busier road to remove them and there would probably be more things missing like the rather expensive aftermarket roof rack.
Being a Toyota, it probably just ran out of gas, then the tires were stolen. And like posted above, $36 for 3 Harbor Freight bottle jacks is cheap compared to truck tires. I just spent $871 for new 31-10.50-15’s, at Les Schwab, for my Ranger 2 weeks ago. Just replacement tires, already had these on my truck. Truck tires are stupid expensive.
And the cretins that do this, usually live in a van or trailer that isn’t worth $871. Sediment of Society. Credit for that phrase goes to Crabspirits at TTAC. And I can’t help but think that would make a killer name for a heavy metal band.
Maybe the owners rented rims got repo’d
Whew ~ wait ’till the next double bottom Semi goes whistling past @ Mach-12 , it’ll topple right off those Kamikaze jacks .
-Nate
Truck broke down. Wheels/tires were stolen. Simple.