JDawg562's Long Travel Tacoma

Really hoping to go with a +2 TC kit in the future! I would most likely keep the rear as a nice MT setup until the time comes where I can full LT Kind of tight on money right now until I start my breaks for college and can work.

 

I've seen some Used Mid Travel kits here for a decent price!
My original plan was to go all mid travel, then long travel rear, then long travel front, but two weeks after I got my truck I saw a used Long Travel kit with everything including coilovers for $2k so I bought it lol.
You should make a build page too!

 

Ya I think I might after I go wheeling again this weekend. I was just about to but had to get a new phone and didn't have any of my pics backed up. Where on TW, Craigslist?! Guess I need to start looking if someone was willing to sell that cheap lol

 

Right on!
Yeah it was on here in the 2nd gen marketplace a while back it was a Mid Travel. I think it had UCAs, king coilovers. It was a while ago, but keep looking on here. Everyone I've dealt with have been honest and give us a good deal. I like used stuff lol. It gets me over that "oh I can't damage it." phase. If you go mid travel then sell it later on for just a little cheaper than you bought it you wont lose as much money then if you bought it new.
Yeah my kit I got super lucky.

 

I got a little bored and printed out a decal, cut it out with an exacto knife, used a glue stick to put it on my bumper, then spray painted it.
It's not perfect. I just saw some stencil art and tried it lol.



There's still some glue residue that I didn't wipe off because the paint's still wet and some over spray where I didn't put enough glue, but meh.

 

Welp I bought some 2.5x16 smoothies.

 

Started designing a bed cage. I'm not a cad drawing expert lol. I just wanted to see the design I had in my head.




I wanted to keep my tool box along with saving as much space in the bed as possible.
It will be a bolt in cage so I can take it out for any reason. I also don't have a tube bender so all the cage will just be notched with a drill with a hole saw, grinder and miter cuts.

 

Here's what I finished last night.

 

Then I went to a gift exchange with my friends and they got this.

 

Here's what I finished up today it's all welded up now.

The day before*

Took it out of the bed to weld the spots I couldn't reach.

 

Dude that bed cage looks siiiiiick!!!

 

lol Thanks man! Going to throw in a few cross braces tomorrow and call it good for now.

 

Looks great man!!

 

Good shit bro! Rears coming along nice!!

 

Save a little spend a little lmao.

 

Here's what I finished today not a whole lot, but I have it all set up in my head so I can mount the shocks the next day I can work on it.
Tacked a couple braces and made some lower shock tabs with my angle grinder.

I spent most of the day figuring out where to mount the shocks, how big of a shock tab I needed to make, measuring, the angle of the shock, droop, compression, bla bla bla. My brain hurts.

As it sits now the shocks will be angled about 10 degrees forward from the center of the axle to the bed cage and I have to make tabs for the bed cage about 2-3 inches out to the top of the shocks. It will have ~9" of up travel and ~7" of down travel when I adjust my bump stops. I wont know for sure till I start chopping holes in my bed though. I'll probably drive around on this setup for a while then install the DMZ SUA I have sitting in my garage lol. It's just hard because I need to drive it home every night and drive the next following day.


The lower shock tabs I made and my cardboard stencil lol.

 

So awesome!!!!

 

Installed!
Cut a hole in the wheel well, made some shock tabs for the top, mocked up the shocks, tacked them, cut the bed a little more, tacked the bottom and burned them all in.
Now just need to finish some small detail stuff, welds and paint everything.

 

Finished up the cage today!

I also went to a differential shop to see how much it would cost to install a slip yoke driveshaft. I'm all set up for the DMZ Spring Under Axle!

Picture in the morning before I started.

Painting!


Back in!


I think it needs some braces, but for now it's done. I'm thinking of adding them in when I figure out where to mount a spare tire.

 

Dude that bed cage turned out looking so good!! I dig it!!! Great work!!