TacoSTIG: PNW MT Build

Truck looks sick love the speedway blue ! I fear @iJonny is right it looks like your tires are going to smash into your bumper, flares and bedsides. I don't think it is possible to stuff a 35 w/o chopping a couple of inches out of your bedsides and flares. Good news is that you can easily cut the bumper sides too.

 

Put down the credit card, close the laptop and back slowly away...

 

Not going LT anytime soon so no worries

 

His rear is LT on steroids... If I end up keeping my truck ill probably 3 link the rear too

 

It is actually only 20" of travel because we only used a 12" coil over, I did not want to penetrate the bed or take up any significant space in the bed because I use the heck out of the bed and camp in it etc. The guys with linked desert runners prob have 30" + because they are running 16" CO's or more.

 

I've talked to the guy (can't remember his username at the moment) that did yours and I got the details, its definitely the best IMO.

 

Cause he's flipped, my monies on that tire smashing it

 

I just want to give Jeff my truck packed full of money.

 

It was @jeffz0rz aka JTA Metal fab in El Cajon, CA. Jeff is a great guy, I had the crazy idea to do it this way without penetrating the bed and he was stoked to try it and I think it turned out awesome...best of both worlds kinda' deal. It's the " stealth long travel " truck. He did cry a couple of times that we could have made it 30" of travel if I wasn't a pussy about keeping dirt and mud out of my bed We did a couple of measuring sessions over a couple of weekends to assess if it was actually even possible and the tape measure told us it would work...so we blew up the truck and went for it

The only suggestion I would offer anyone else with a short bed would be to use regular resi's, don't do piggyback resi's like mine. My tires clear the piggybacks just barely ( 3/4" spacers to match the track width of the +2 kit in the front) but the piggyback made routing the gas lines from the OE fuel door a mother fudger...I spent days f-ing with making it work and ordering hoses and fittings from Summit Racing...and you will throw 6 CEL's if you don't get it right.

 

Trust me Im so tempted.. I wouldn't mind penetrating my bed now that I don't have a canopy

 

Holy crap... I step away for a meeting and now my thread is full of LT porn.
@Evenflow, your truck is insane... thanks for the notes, fenders will be chopped asap.

Appreciate all the feedback guys!

 

Oops

 

@TacoSTIG As your leaf springs compress your axle does not travel on a clean radius path, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the tire moves on a forward radius path. For 35's I would tell you to take 3" out of the flares ( no less than 2 1/2" ) so you get it completely cleared in one shot and don't have to trim multiple times. I would also suggest using a compass to trace the line from the outside edge of you flare against the rubber edge trim not from the inside edge of the flare that way what is left matches the curve of that outer edge.

 

This post alone saves me an extra day or so of work as I had planned on chopping 2" and seeing how that treated me. Also that cutting method is way smarter than what I was going to do. FuckinA cheers to that!

 

Hey seriously, use a jig saw it will make a far cleaner cut than a cut off wheel. A cut off wheel heats up the metal too much and lifts the paint at the cut edge which makes it harder to paint and seal up long term. A jig saw run at slow speed will also cut the flare super easy and leave a perfectly clean edge as long as you run it slow or just feather the trigger do that the blade does not heat up and melt the plastic as you go.

 

Had to learn that one the hard way with the bedsides, the edge trim was able to hide where I slowed down and the paint went to crap. Been meaning to pick up a jigsaw for the flares but didn't think to use it for the fender. How many teeth per inch would you recommend for the sheetmetal / flare?

 

Any basic metal blade for the fenders and a wood blade actually works really well on he plastic flares. I prefer the Bosch blades

 

Exactly what I used to cut mine.

 

I'll take you up on that if I end up doing it!