Most overland builds get a slow rollout — a few weeks of fitment checks, a shakedown run, time to live with the parts before anyone calls it finished. This one didn't get that luxury. The crew at Apex Chassis wrapped the last bolt on this 2013 Toyota Sequoia at River Outdoors at 9:30 the night before, then drove it straight to Schnebly Hill outside Sedona to run it down Broken Arrow the next morning. If something was going to shake loose, they wanted to find out immediately.
That urgency matters here, because this isn't a typical build feature. It's a field test for steering and suspension components Apex is still developing — and the Sequoia happened to be the right platform to prove them.
A Family Wagon Gets a Second Job
Before any of this, the Sequoia was the family hauler — school runs, road trips, the unglamorous daily grind most three-row SUVs live out their whole lives doing. Apex took it off that duty and turned it into a rolling test bed, which is a more honest way to think about this build than "weekend toy." Every part on this truck either had to survive the trail or tell the team why it couldn't.
Lift, Tires, and Wheels: The Foundation
The build starts with a 3-inch lift and 35-inch Kenda tires mounted on Fuel wheels. That's a meaningful jump in unsprung weight and leverage over stock — which is exactly why the steering and suspension components further down this list matter more than they would on a stock-height truck. Bigger tires amplify every weak point in a steering system; they don't create new ones, they just find the existing ones faster.
Armor, Lighting, and Recovery
Up front, the truck runs a Coastal Off-Road steel bumper built around a Warn winch, with auxiliary lighting mounted for night recovery work. Underneath, RCI supplied rock sliders and a full set of underbody armor — the kind of protection that matters more on a trail like Broken Arrow than it does on pavement, where ground clearance and rocker panel protection are the difference between a scraped skid plate and a torn brake line.
Built to Camp: Roof Rack and Power
A Front Runner roof rack carries an awning now, with a rooftop tent on order and delayed in shipping — common enough in this industry that it's barely worth noting, except that it tells you this truck is meant to be lived out of, not just driven hard for a day and parked. Inside, a Dometic cooler and a Victron battery management system handle food and power without running the starting battery down on a multi-day trip.
The Real Story: Steering and Suspension R&D
Here's where this build earns its place on the Apex blog instead of just an off-road forum. The Sequoia runs BDS control arms, which come standard with Moog ball joints — but Apex pulled those and installed prototype Apex ball joints instead, using this truck to validate them ahead of an official Sequoia and Tundra release. That's not a small substitution. The Sequoia shares its frame and front suspension architecture with the second-generation Tundra, which is exactly why a single test mule can inform parts for both platforms at once.
The tie rods get the same treatment. Apex has prototype tie rods in the truck right now, and the team is still working out where to add material and strengthen the design before it becomes a shipping product. If you've put 35s on a Sequoia or a same-era Tundra and felt the factory tie rods flex under load, this is the part of the build worth watching — it's a direct response to that exact complaint, still in progress rather than already solved.
Fox Up Front, Carbon Out Back
Damping duty splits between Fox shocks on the front and carbon shocks on the rear — a pairing chosen to handle the higher unsprung mass of 35s without the harshness that comes from running mismatched valving front to rear. On a trail with the elevation changes Broken Arrow throws at you, shock control matters as much as ground clearance.
Full Build List
Everything on this truck as it sits:
-
Suspension: 3-inch lift, BDS control arms, Apex Chassis prototype ball joints (in testing), Apex Chassis prototype tie rods (in testing)
-
Shocks: Fox shocks (front), Carbon shocks (rear)
-
Wheels & Tires: 35-inch Kenda tires, Fuel wheels
-
Bumper & Recovery: Coastal Off-Road steel bumper, Warn winch
-
Protection: RCI rock sliders, RCI underbody armor
-
Roof & Camp: Front Runner roof rack, Taruca awning, Taruca rooftop tent (in transit)
-
Power & Storage: Dometic cooler, Victron battery management system
What's Next for This Build
Apex is calling this one "not finished yet" on purpose. The rooftop tent is still in transit, and the prototype ball joints and tie rods will keep getting torque-cycled and inspected before either becomes a catalog item for Sequoia and Tundra owners. What you're seeing here is the development process out in the open, not a polished final product — which is a more useful thing to show Sequoia owners shopping for parts than a glossy finished shot would be.
There's no product page to bookmark yet, since these parts haven't shipped. The only way to know when the Sequoia and Tundra ball joints and tie rods go live is to be on the list when they do — Apex is announcing new releases through its newsletter before anywhere else.
If you're running a Sequoia or a same-era Tundra and want to know the moment these parts ship, here's where to go:
-
Get notified the moment Sequoia and Tundra ball joints and tie rods launch: https://apexchassis.com/pages/email-sign-up
-
Shop Toyota steering and suspension parts available now: https://apexchassis.com/collections/toyota
Leave a comment (all fields required)