Deeezy's Locked Sport Grocery Getter Build

I found these two videos which show the reason why I invested in a front locker. The first video is with just a rear locker, I couldn't make this little hill no matter what. The truck couldn't pull to the side of a rut on the top of the hill and would end up sliding into it. I think I tried about 10 times to get over it, to the left, straight, to the right, slow, wide open. It was very humbling and frustrating and I ended up taking a bypass around it. I ordered a front locker after this trip.

Second vid is front and rear locked. I needed to redeem myself.

 

I had a chance to work on and correct the HD shackles from ATO. The leaf spring side of the shackle was about an 1/8" too wide and ended up getting bent inward when torqued down on the leafs. I sourced some big 1/8 thick washers, like the ones on the UCA bushings, and used one on one side of each bushing.

I had to use a long bolt and some nuts and washers to bend the shackles back so each side was parallel to each other again.




You can see the washer on one side of the leaf bushing to take up the gap.

 

My air intake temps were a little high and fuel trims were a tad bit off from where they were normally. It was the acrylic cover to my intake. It was warped and not sealing, and letting air from the engine bay in, instead of sucking cool air from where it supposed to.

Luckily I found a nice scrap piece of 3/16" bronze tinted acrylic at work. The old one was 1/8" thick and flexes when intalled, and over time, warped.

I cut out the same shape, used some nice soft weather stripping, installed it, and everything went back to normal. Air intake temps back to normal and fuel trims steady and back to around 0% trim.

I guess the leaky cover threw off the fuel trims, maybe from turbulence?

 

The archive shackle has the same issue with all pro leafs.... Had to use a spacer as well

 

After staring at and comparing the amount of shock shaft on the rear of my truck, I noticed that the Allpro leaf springs locate the axle more rearward than stock. This wouldn't be a issue if I had relocated shock mounts, but I am using the stock mounts that have the pass angled to the front and the driver to the rear. I picked up these axle relocation plates and moved the axle forward 3/4".



It was a bigger project than expected because I had to relocate the u-bolt flip plate forward also, which needed another 5/8" hole drilled/relocated. I also needed to cut off the excess threads on the center bolt that holds the leafs together so the Wheeler's bump stops could go back on.




It worked out and now the axle is located equally between the top shock mounts and wheel wells, and the shocks now have close to the same shock shaft showing. It also keeps both the rear shocks closer to the same angle instead of before which had the pass side angled more than the driver's.

Before:




After:



The plates also added 3/8" of shock shaft because it added that thickness to the leaf pack. So, I will be cutting down the rear bumpstops to not waste any shock travel.

What is weird is that after moving the axle forward, the takeoff vibes I had almost all went away.

 

This might be a noob type question but what is the recommended/ideal amount of shock shaft should you have showing?

Always liked reading your build, right from the start! Thanks for sharing

 

Tire looks small.

 

The amount of shaft showing will depend on what your ride height is, length of shocks, etc.... I think the important thing is to make sure that you have about 1/2" of shaft showing when the suspension is fully compressed to make sure your shocks aren't bottoming out before the bumpstops. Fully compressed as in, your bumpstops are bottomed out on the frame and your axle cannot move up any further. If you have wheeler's super bumps, they compress all the way down to about half their height, maybe a little more on really hard hits.

 

Dude! They do look small.

They look smaller and smaller everyday.

 

I'm thinking you need 37's

 

Looks like you could fit a 37” in there haha

 

It crosses my mind. I want to learn how to weld first.

 

I got my rear wheeler bumpstop perches cut down for maximum tucked tuesday pics . After moving my axle frontward I was able to cut down the bumps an inch, since there is now an equal amount of shock shaft showing. Now, my setup uses every little bit of shock travel it can and has more space between the top of the bumpstops to the frame so the rear shocks can do their thing. Before, the frame always riding so close to the bumps. I think with SOA, the Tacoma is left with little uptravel, and with how it's setup now, is a good tradeoff between up and down. @xmods Thanks for the help!

 

Sounds like another run up Donkey soon

 

You know that....

 

Don't forget you went with lockers and swampers that second time! you just walked up that time

 

Yes! Your right. It was such a blow to my confidence, the first time I got denied on that hill, I went back fully locked with new Irok nd swampers. lol

 

Some flexing pics I took while checking clearance after cutting the rear bumpstops down. Works pretty good!

 

No better combo out there!

 

Happy New Year Dana!!!

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