Let's Talk Rear "LT"

Title in quotes because TC lists as a mid travel kit.

So the front of my truck is done for now. I bought a dirt king 3.5 front. Now for the rear.

As you've probably read in the BS thread, I currently have Dakar rear springs Icon 2.5 shocks (10" travel) and icon hydraulic bumpstops. I also carry a RTT most of the year...so 250ish extra pounds.

After many suggestions from you guys the best bet is to go TC SUA with their heavy duty springs to support my tent and what not.

Shopping around on TC's site I see they have the SUA and some shock hoops...that utilize the same 10" socks I already have.

That got me thinking maybe I could get the SUA kit and their shock hoop kit and call it a day. But that's only 10" rear travel. It seems like more people are using 12" shocks.

Finally with that said. The most I'd get is the heavy duty SUA kit and their hoops. But keep my current shocks since they are the same spec.

Will I really notice a significant difference swapping to their SUA kit? Even though I won't be adding a longer shock. I'm looking at around 2500 bucks for the springs and hoops.

I currently can bottom out my current suspension so I wouldn't really gain much up travel using a SUA kit. Well I guess loosing the spring pack/u bolt plate would give an extra couple inches of up travel I just realized as I was typing this.

 

What is your use for the truck, thats the main thing. Any spring under imo rides better with some weight in the rear. I personally don't have any experience with the tc spring under but if you don't want to cut into the bed you can basically do any spring under kit with shock hoops and that will seriously limit your travel numbers (again this may not be important to you) and shops such as tc and dmz have done that before. You should call up total chaos, they are really great people and will talk to you about the product. You're going to want to get different shocks regardless, at minimum something longer than 10". I want to say there was someone on here who ran a 14inch shock angled and all kept under the bed.

Let us know what you want to do with it and what your goals are, congrats on getting the front done by the way!

 

I'd suggest the DMZ kit or the new Camburg Kit for your needs. I think Tim at DMZ told me his kit loves about 200# in the bed at all times and it rides like a dream. I had a full size space, battery relocated and ARB dual compressor in the bed along with my RTT (plus bed bars) So easily 200# in the bed and it rode like a dream. Also, I'd suggest matching your travel numbers to the front. Just because its SUA doesn't mean you instantly gain a trophy truck. You should be pulling about 13" at least up front, so you want to match or make more than that in the rear, since the rear is always the problem child when it comes to high speed stuff. I hit up Deaver a while back when I was rocking all that stuff on in my bed because I noticed it would bottom out and hard hits alot faster (had to turn compression up a little) and I lost about 1" of lift in the rear, Deaver said they could make me an AAL for the DMZ pack for $100 that would give me about 1 1/2" of lift and allow for more weight.

 

^^ Volcoms right, I haven't had much testing since I got the spring under done on mine, I'm running the dmz kit, but on my way out to the desert I had the bed loaded with a cooler, dirt bike, gear, 5 filled gas cans and it felt amazing. Noticeable difference even on the road. Smooth as butter and tracked great. Leaf springs do like some weight in the bed.

 

I'm also looking at the TC kit! I was just on their website looking at it before I came on here. If you do end up getting it you should let know what you think of it! I'm currently stationed overseas so I have a few months to do research and figure out exactly what I want still, but as of now this is my #1 option.

 

I have the TC rear, I still need to test it with more weight to see how the heavy duty springs measure up. Right now I got the Bamf relocation to get 12 inches cycled with this kit. If you look up SYTFU on here, he has an LT rig with the DMZ kit with a heavier spring pack to accommodate the weight of an RTT. I got this kit with the main idea that I wasn't sure I was going to go glass or not, being on the east coast it works for now. Long term plans are to go DMZ. If you look on TC's website, most of their "long travel" builds utilize DMZ's rear and not theirs. I think the mid travel route isn't a bad route, but I think you are selling yourself short if you don't consider the DMZ kit.

Not sure if you plan to do the welding and install yourself, but installing the DMZ kit is about double what the labor would be to likely install the TC kit as all the stock hangers and locations have to be removed and the kit has to be welded from start to finish. With the TC kit, all you have to do weld on the spring perches as the leafs bolt into the factory locations. With my TC kit, it was about $2500 in parts, and another $1700 for the install. You can expect to double that figure if you go the DMZ route. Rear is always the hard and expensive part because these trucks geo wise stock arnt made for this application.

 

Untrue on price, depending on where you're going. That's what YOU paid for your setup, it all comes down to what setup you end up going with and how custom you want it, and frankly where you end up getting it done at. I don't knock garage fabs until they've proven to be shit work. I think the TC SUA and a +2 kit up front would go together well for breaking in to LT or just wanting extra flex with a little high speed stuff. But if anyone is jumping right up to a 3.5" kit up front, DMZ really is the best option if you want to be able to use the front fully

 

Considering that I would go the shop route with getting the fab work done, it seems to me from folks at dmz and guys here to do it right will cost about 8k. Like you said, different set ups cost different amounts, but I would be impressed if you could get a decent bed cage and complete removal and install of the dmz kit for less than $3500 through a shop. I think fab work is the more expensive of the two pieces of the pie.

 

I had my truck built for 5k and the suspension works flawlessly. As I said, it all depends where you go and what you do. Big shops are gonna charge more for the work because of their overhead.

 

Shit if I ever go to the west, you got to let me know where you went!

 

Yeah there are a plethora of fabricators on the west coast that can and will do this work at competitive prices. You just have to find the right one

 

HOWEVER. Let's look actual prices right now, Everything for the DMZ Kit is gonna run about $2000 when its said and done. That includes the everything needed to install the kit. Then you're looking at probably a grande for Double bypasses used. If you buy new, maybe $1200-$1500 depending on where and when. I've seen them much cheaper before, but they're either not in the great condition and/or need a rebuild which is gonna put you back another couple hundred bucks (DSMS is $95 a shock IIRC). Bumps, are gonna run about a grand installed. I know TC makes a weld on and bolt on kit, both are something like $500 or so (off the top of my head) and bumps (probably 2.5"-3") are gonna run you anywhere from $400-$600 brand new (can usually get them around $200-300 used, but then rebuild costs, yadda yadda yadda). If you're doing it right you're gonna want to box the rear frame, or you're gonna have a bad time. I know there are people out there that install without and are just fine, but in the end you'll warp the frame and wish you had. I usually consider Bedcages as part of the install cost, But I think Tim at DMZ now makes a bolt in bedcage for right around $1500.

So, @Coot83 You're not wrong. I basically tell everyone, to do it right, and put brand new stuff on, you're looking at about Ten grand an axle for Long travel. And that with all the right gusseting and proper shocks and such for a well built truck. yeah you can find used stuff and find a garage fab guy to do it cheap ( ) , but that's about what you're gonna spend if you aren't doing the install yourself. Doing it yourself? Pfffff a weekend or two, a couple 30 racks of quality bud light, and a quality welder and bender. Bam, done.

 

I need to move out of my apartment and get a bender! That's my thing is since I would only be doing this once and don't have the experience, I'm worried I would mess up my drive line angles and such. I def need to look into his bedcage. I think I will look down the road to start getting the pieces together. I agree on the boxed frame though. I fee like you are asking for it if you don't do that.

 

I've got a 3-car garage with a welder, bender, notcher, grinder, sander etc etc but no real time to play with any of it.

 

You tease.

 

Camburg has a bolt on kit available I believe now. Any SUA kit is gonna need the leaf perches welded to the axle, but their kit is supposedly bolt on past that. Jealous because I waited a year for them to release it, 2 years ago, and finally went with DMZ. Got about 15" of travel in the rear and the camburg kit is pulling 18". All my bolt holes are covered up by DMZ stuff.

Yes, SUA will pretty much out perform SOA in most aspects, maybe not weight carrying capacity, but performance wise, yes.

 

It's the lack of up-travel that these Tacomas have from the get go that makes the rear of these trucks suck. Even with a bolt in SUA kit like a TC setup will be alot better than any SOA leaf pack due to the fact that we will gain more up travel by having the leafs under the axle... @Coot83 I'm sure can give some feedback on how his setup works with the LT front and "mid travel" spring under rear.

Cruising through the desert and hitting an un-expected bump, sending my bumpstops to the frame and having the rear buck is no fun... I can't do spring under soon enough.

 

I was about to wait and get that kit from Camburg as well, but at the end of the day I'm going to get the DMZ kit. Tim has excellent customer service and always finds time to answer any question I have Tacoma related.

 

Yeah, you need to kinda know what you wan't and who to talk to over there to get an accurate answer.

Guessing you're 4x4 so you don't really have to worry about driveshaft work like I do. I was going to do the bolt on deal too, but since I need to get the driveshaft modified, I'm going LT from the get go like I should have done with the front...

 

I ran a defined lt kit on my last truck...it was ok but not worth it. It was about 1400 or so