12TRDTacoma's Supercharged M/T "Accidental" build

I haven't had my spindles gusseted for the entire time I have been wheeling. Never bent them. However, I really started wheeling much harder since recently and in those recent times I have had air bumps. I think they had a direct impact on keeping the spindles intact and not bent. I just recently picked up some spindles with gussets on them, but I only got them to get a little peace of mind is all. I'd rather have them strengthened and not have to worry about it then potentially overdoing it out there one day and bending it. As long as you are bumped to such a degree that allows your uniballs or ball joints not to bind at max uptravel you will be fine. Because spindles bend due to the sudden stop during uptravel more than anything. The motion has to go somewhere once it stops. I hope that makes sense.

 

So you get bump stops for up travel and down travel? What do you mean by 'gusseted'? I'm pretty new to all this, I'm at about 50/50 for knowledge right now.

 

Gusseted refers to reinforced. Extra metal welded to the spindle for structural reinforcement to prevent bending. Ideally the more areas you brace on it the better, which is why I opted for the one which allows you to retain the sway bar from TC.

You get bump stops to slow the last few inches of up travel and control it better. You get limit straps to prevent the control arm ball joint or uniball bearings from binding and causing the misalignment spacers from crashing on the cage. The straps are an insurance policy. Bump stops are a must regardless of what kind of bumps you run but for the type of running you want to do, you might as well do air bumps. It should save your spindle as well from bending if you set it right.

 

Yea I won't be making a DIY kit lol

 

Not a DIY kit, but done by you. So DIY by you, preassembled for us, so we could just remove and replace. Hahaha.

 

Painting the new spindles and prepping them for install day. They go in sometime next week before or on Friday.



I also caved and went against my word of no doing anything today and replaced my passenger tie rod and my tires. I haven't driven on the tires enough to have any real opinion on them, but so far so good. Theh feel much better balanced than the BFG A/T's and took WAYYY less weight to balance them, which tells me how much better quality they are.

 

Moving forward in anticipation for the next wheeling trip. I stopped by and am visiting BAMF today to get my battery relocation box welded up.



Here is the box all finished up. The exhaust will need to shifted over a few inches in order to clear the box and not make contact. Overall, was an easy install, a few clips and bolts had to be undone, but thats it.



The awesome dinsosaur sculpture he made.



I am the test truck in which he will be building the biggest and baddest production bolt on IFS skid plate out there for the 2nd gens. It will only be offered in 1/4 plating. Will have newly relocated rearward bolt mounting locations utilizing heavy duty spacers (no joke) and will have reinforcement plating spread throughout the inside of the plate to offer even more strength for all you rock crawling and high speed wheeling fanatics. Yes it has a provision for the oil pan drain plug as well. Be aware that this plate will weigh quite a bit, so be prepared to have a friend to lift or to use a floor jack to install it!

He also mentioned being able to use it in conjunction with the LCA skids he offers and soon offering a mid skid between the transfer case and the IFS skid. I don't have time to be the test vehicle for that one, however.





The prototype is just about done here and now we move on to making the real version out of 1/4 plating.

 

Unrelated to wheeling or even Tacoma, but my little guy turned two today. What a great way to end the day.







He had so much that he had to take a nap after. Lol.

 

Got some work done today. The end of this portion of modding is nearing completion.



Bung for the AFR guage is now welded and can be wired up.



Turned out great and my truck is finally quieter. Lol. More to come soon.

Got it wired up now.

 

Finally was able to do the battery relocate. It gets plated and additional bracing later this afternoon at BAMF. Everything bolted right up nicely. There was even a ground bolt location for the battery terminal main at the back of the frame.



Even though I used 1/0 guage welding wire I still didn't feel that it had the kick that the starter liked to crank over and not be strained so I rigged up this up from a previous project I had laying around here in the garage in order to satisfy cranking. The side effect will be a more stable system that resists voltage spikes.





Starts right up no problem. No more weak cranking.

 

Is that like a ghetto capacitor?

 

It's a capacitor bank. If it was a ghetto capacitor I'd be using those lame ass stereo ones. 6 of them rated at 2.7V each regulated to 2.1V (roughly) by the regular battery and alternator wired up in parallel to the rest of the system. It's basically a second battery. It just doesn't have the capability to maintain the voltage of a regular battery without being hooked up to one, so it's more of an assistive battery to the circuit since it's capable of providing all of it's amperage quickly to the system. Light as hell, and without all the bulk of a regular battery.

 

U make it?

 

No. I'm not that cool. I actually bought it a long time ago off ebay. This company made a few of them and were putting them up for sale. That's why it's on a fancy pants printed circuit board. Very well made actually. It has LED's integrated into the board which show when each individual capacitor is charged up. Some of them went out when I accidentally shorted the setup as I was mounting it. Eh oh well. Shit happens. It all still works great and that's all that matters to me.

 

Vacuum seal that thing

 

For what reason?

 

The elements

 

Ahh. Ok ok. Makes sense. I cant really think of a good way to do that though.

 

Those food vacuum sealer things with the bag and little hose that u hook up and suck the air out and it seals the thing it's got adhesive around the bag so it would seal around the wire leads coming off it, I don't know just an idea

 

Ohh! I think I know what you are talking about. Got a picture you could post up so I could get a better idea of it all?