BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

July 11, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): Mounting Tires and Wheels

Getting the new meats mounted



A nice feature I didn't realize when ordering these wheels is that they have two valve stems! Very nice feature. Now I can check air pressure while simultaneously inflating/deflating. They are also located inwards from the bead which is important because the Toyota pressure sensors are metal and don't flex. Very dangerous for Rock Crawling because it only takes one solid hit from a rock and you'll have to replace the entire valve stem on the trail. I've helped someone do this before. It's not fun.

Toyota pressure sensors in foreground, rubber stems in background. Nice placement away from the outer rim.



There are 96 bolts total that must be tightened in a crisscross pattern at multiple torque settings. Doing that by hand is crazy. Air really helps out here on low torque settings to speed up the process before finishing off the last two passes using a torque wrench.



WOOOHOOOOOOO My truck is finally running 40s! HAhaha not really. The tires are so large that with AP's 3" rear lift springs it cannot be sat on the ground without fender contact. Gonna need both a bit more lift and a lot of trimming.



All tires mounted, inflated and ready to go!

 

July 11, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): Rear Leafs

Next was taller rear leafs. I am not a fan of the reverse shackle setup but I also don't have time to do anything about it right now. I asked AP if they offered anything taller than a 3" and they said not really. I was surprised because in the Hilux world we have lift springs up to +6 inch, but it does make sense as it's not so straight forward to lift the front 6-inches...

...but what they do have is a heavier duty Expedition Spring that they said will get me a bit more lift so I told them to send it out. My thought here is that for now I'll run it and later I'll remove leafs to find the spring rate ideal for Rock Crawling and solve the rest with trimming.

With only two days to go for Rubicon this had definitely become a team effort.



The Expedition Springs are cRaZy heavy

Expedition left, regular +3" right

 

July 11, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): First time mounting all four 40s

Late that afternoon I had all four tires mounted up and WOW I love the look of this!! WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

WOW! This is amazing!

 

Here is what the front looks like when the truck is sitting nearly level based on the rear suspension.



The front shocks have not been cranked yet so the front sags big time with our shop lift down. No matter what I'll be doing a lot of trimming and will still need to figure out turning clearances.



I spent some time looking at the rear. The Expedition Springs allowed the truck to be sat on the ground without any tire to fender interference which was nice.

In considering what to do with the fender I took some pics and went to Photoshop. Here is one idea:

EDIT: TW's image service never likes my GIFs. If it doesn't work then try this direct link: http://board.marlincrawler.com/images/2016-tacoma/763.gif



I think this will work out okay. The only thing I don't like is that I really love the factory flares. The flares give the truck it's shoulders, it's aggressive look that I like. So I think I'll need to order another set of flares, cut all four in the middle, add flare material to the center to spread the flares wider, and then reattach them up higher on the newly cut fender line.

I probably haven't made this clear yet but I will not be lifting the truck much. I'd rather keep the truck low and let the tires pick up the slack in ground clearance. Also, I'd like to keep the truck low because it's way heavy and with it being the same size as a 1st gen full-size Tundra, any taller is going to make a lot of tight tree squeezes more difficult, such as the many famous ones on our local Dusy/Ershim trail.

 

After everyone had left for the day it was time to start cut'n!

First I drew an outline of where the flare originally was at. At the least I could visualize or play with Photoshop to see what it would look like



Here is the magical tool that's hopefully gonna make it happen! Thank you to our neighbor body shop for letting me borrow this!



At this point my main concern with turning clearance. Can't wheel if I can't turn So I knew I had to address interference with the body mount and inner fender wall and needed to get to where I can turn the tires.

So I removed the flare and then did my first cut at the bottom front corner so the tires can clear the body.



Here is the other side trimmed but with the flare on.

 

Making history man

 

July 12, 2017: Stage 2 (continued)

The next day I really needed to get the front end off the lift to see what I've got to work with. I made some rough calculations to get the springs compressed and get the truck leveled out a bit.



I knew early on this was going to be a long day.

Even with the springs cranked down about half-way down the shock bodies the front end was still sagging too much. Here are turning pics with a bit of help from our shop lift.



Surprisingly I could turn pretty far before the tire contacts the factory body mount. I wasn't expecting this. The relocated spindle is working great so far. No matter what I will greatly reduce or replace both body mounts.



In this shot I've got the truck up on the lift just enough to where the tire will clear the body mount. With conservative flex, at this height the 40s could actually work but the suspension A-arms are cranked way down here and I'm not sure if an axle shaft (at least one set had better show up today!) would even allow this much.



I'll be entirely honest at this point. I was leaving for the Rubicon in one and a half day. I remember thinking, "Geez, if I had a solid axle under here I'd be done. It would fit, I could lift it, I could move the axle forward, it would be much eaiser." But I'm not interested in the easy way with this truck. I'm interested in the "Extreme Practical" and want to make this work.

As much as I want to keep the truck low, I think I could live at this height shown here. I do believe it is still too high. Ideally the truck should come back down about half as much as I've changed it over the past week. There will be a lot of trimming. It's gonna be a long night.

 

More updates!!

 

Holy hell is this thread awesome.

 

First time seeing this thread and I feel like I’m in some kind of 4th dimension...

 

It would be more weird if you weren't in the fourth dimesion.

 

Looking good Mike!

I'm in the Philippines now for a few days. I am planning a day to look over the 2016-17 Hilux to check for parts compatibility for all of us. I am also going to check on some 4.5L v8 Diesel engines I have a line on. Looks like there may be a bolt in hard parts option to the RC series transmissions with factory parts but that is yet to be confirmed. The electrical is another issue in and of itself. However my gears are turning.

 

In for more info about those spindles that are moved forward an inch with new set of Uca and Lca. Is that only for the +2 or can they do it with factory length? Would make fitting 35s much easier.

 

I love the look of it, but I think those tires and wheels gonna put so much pressure on components something sure to fail especially in rocks.

 

and why not just go fiberglass fenders at this point?

 

Isn't that the point?? To build an IFS setup that can handle the stress of 42s. Of course it'll take some trial and error. But without people pushing the envelope we'd be stuck with pro comp and smitty built. Marlin has pushed crawling more than we all know and this is a great step.

Cause fiberglass fenders look retarded even more so on a crawler.

Not to mentioned theyll get destroyed with the added width especially on the Dusy

 

This thread makes my day every time I come to catch up. I really want to see videos of her cruising around. Those tires are unheard of on a Tacoma. Keep it up, mate.

 

What are the plans for the hubs? Don't 35s chew through those like crazy?

 

Did you ever investigate the smoking problem any further? I am having the same problems in my 17.