AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

FIFY

 

C tires are way more than sway bar. And I'm just going to copy Zane's suspension. So yeah.

 

no I don't think so. You can work with valving to over come E tires and even a sway bar if you wanted to to some extent.

There are also way to many factors with tires to claim that. Not all brands are equal and not all makes are equal when it comes to side walls. My MTRks even in C load are a lot stiffer than BFGs but not near as stiff as E loaded coopers.

 

Interesting. I hope that's right - I'd love to overcome my tires with better shocks and valving. A new thing to learn!

 

yeah the only down side is most aren't setup to do that on their own. You need your own nitrogen setup and taking the coils off to get to the coil over shock is a pain without a really nice coil compressor.

But you can work with it and make it happen.

Then you can enter the world of bypasses too..but that might be a bit too race truck for your needs....or wants even as they aren't quiet.

 

You have made my day. I complain about having to kneel for way too long every time I air up. As uncomfortable as it is, it's always at the end of 2-4 days of hard wheeling, camping, debauchery with friends, and I'm just ready to air up and get home. I end up not thinking about it again until the next time I'm kneeling over a 12 psi tire wishing my little ARB would hurry up. Haha! I'm definitely doing this. Appreciate you sharing.

The photography and write-ups here are fantastic!

 

Coincidentally, @Digiratus and I were just talking about how we might want to get setup to do shock rebuilds, since it's one thing that we can't do ourselves but that needs to be done on a fairly regular basis. I don't see getting setup for that this calendar year, but it seems like something that could be down the road, perhaps with costs defrayed by helping rebuild fellow TW members setups.

I've made a note to chat about bypasses and noise. It surprises me to hear you say that they aren't quiet - I'd never have suspected that you could hear the fluid movement.

Cool. I hope I can get my setup better eventually, because I made the same tire change and definitely noticed the difference. Though, I've never gotten the ST Maxx's down as low as the Duratracs - since I felt like the sidewalls on the Duratracs flexed more and so would handle the low pressure better.

Thanks. It's definitely nice to have the extended hose (and pretty inexpensive to build your own). I also use a velcro computer cable strap to keep the lever engaged and air flowing, so I don't have to stand there for 2 minutes. I just wrap the strap around and then set the gauge over the edge of the bed and go take pics or shoot the shit with a buddy.

 

I was planning to do exactly this after spending way too much on getting my springs changed out and nitrogen charged when I rebuilt my coilovers last year. I had a nice Branick wall mount spring compressor all lined up that I found on Craigslist, drove an hour South to pick it up and the guy sold it out from under me 2 minutes before I showed up, even after confirming that morning. Craigslist sucks sometimes, I've been keeping an eye out ever since but haven't seen another one.

 

I know i'll get setup...or steal my dads as he doesnt use the nitrogen anymore. Or "borrow it" and i'll buy the nice coil compressor to do his too.

Doing the shocks themselves isn't that hard. I was surprised at the ease of doing it. Its the coilovers that are tricky. Its really easy with resi's too vs an IPF.

bypasses click. Its the actual bypass tubes making noise. They are not quiet at all.

Damn! Thats the best one to get too. I wish I could find on on CL around here. I've used one several time at a tire shop that was nice enough to just let me do it myself. i've since moved though.

 

Don't Skip Let Day - Reinforcing the Rear Frame
May 12, 2018.

We all know how it goes - the list of things to do to the truck is so long that we have to prioritize. And often, that prioritization favors form over function. And from time to time, I've been as guilty of that as the next guy, for sure.

But not this time. This time, I knew that I needed the function with the form, lest I do irreparable damage to the Tacoma. So, when I installed the dual swingout CBI rear bumper in January, I purchased a set of frame reinforcement plates at the same time from @CBI Offroad Fab - knowing that with all that extra weight hanging off the back, that it was only a matter of time before my frame was going to get tweaked.

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Now, I know what you're thinking - that I'm using with incorrectly here since I installed the bumper (form) in March, and it's now May that I'm finally getting around to the reinforcement plates (function).

I would suggest that you should stop all that thinking; it just bogs you down in details - I gave thinking up completely several months ago, and it's quite liberating. At any rate, let's get back to the story.

Knowing that summer (and more, longer adventures) was fast approaching, the shop day at Mike's was going to be the perfect time to remove the bed. I figured I'd make that whole process easier by getting the swingouts off the bumper before heading over - you know, so we didn't have to lift the bed up over them during removal.

The passenger side swingout came off just fine - a little persuasion with the dead blow was all that was needed. The driver side on the other hand... well, it turns out I can jack the rear of the truck completely off the ground using that swing arm. It wasn't coming off!

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Unfortunately, that wasn't a huge surprise to me - getting that arm on was nearly a press fit, so I resigned myself to simply removing the tailgate, and then waiting to got to Mike's to take off both the bumper and bed. The tailgate came off easily enough - just two bolts on the bottom, and two screws holding the cables on the top - and I dare say that I like the look!

Of course, no tailgate leads to problems - just ask @mrs.turbodb - so the look is only temporary.

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At Mikes, removal of the bumper and bed was a simple 15 minute affair, thanks to help from @Digiratus, @Speedytech7, and @drr. Additionally, the fact that we were all lifting bits off meant that photos were impossible - clearly, it's time for a drone, to capture such action shots at a couple hundred bucks a pop!

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Without the weight of a bed or bumper on the back of the truck to cushion the ride, the drive home that evening made me realize just how smooth the truck was on the various washboard roads I've complained so much about in the past.

Not that I won't continue to complain about them in the future!

At any rate, the next step was removal of the spare tire carrier - something that's much more easily done with access to the bolts from the top, and mock-up of the reinforcement plates on the frame so I could make sure they were going to fit, and trace their outline with a sharpie.

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And then, it was time for metal prep. This isn't the most fun part of the project, but I dare say it's the most important. Shiny metal welds so much cleaner and stronger than dirty metal that it's insane. So, I spent some time - a good 45 minutes - with the flap disk on the frame, a wire brush on the reinforcement plates, and degreaser and mineral spirits everywhere to get all of the parts nice and clean in all the spots that would see a weld. Lastly, I decided to remove the tires and make sure the truck was level before getting going...

Because how much would it suck to weld your frame into a tweaked position because the truck wasn't level? (Hint: Suckage would be high.)

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Finally, I was ready to get welding. I started by tacking the plates in several places around the perimeter on each side of the truck. And then, I started stitching. This is not a fast process - by design. The idea is to weld a couple inches of plate to the frame, move to another (cooler) area of the frame and weld another couple inches, and then let that side (passenger) of the frame cool down by moving to the other side (driver) and welding a couple places over there.

You do that so that you don't heat up the frame too much, which can both cause it to twist, as well as weaken the metal in the frame itself - both things you want to avoid when you're ultimate goal is to reinforce the frame!

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In the end, and after several hours, the plates were welded completely around their perimeter, as well as rosette welded in all of the holes for additional strength. I figured that this was the surest way to prevent water infiltration between the reinforcement plates and frame, since rust there would be near impossible to treat.

Welding done, I put the truck away for the evening and came back the next day to get the bare metal painted up. A bit of griding and a lot of wire brushing got everything looking good, and then two coats of primer and two coats of paint were applied in short order.

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And with that, I was done with the plates. But I wasn't done with the frame - not by a long shot. You see, getting good welds between the plate and frame meant that I'd heated up the frame enough to burn the paint off the opposite side. That's good - because it helps you know you've got a strong weld - but it means I needed to do something to prevent rust from forming.

My solution: buy a new sand blaster (Campbell Hausfeld AT122601AV), so I could reach the interior parts of the frame that would be impossible to reach with a wire wheel. Plus, I'd get a new tool!

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While a bit messy, I had a blast! (ba dum dum) I wasn't sure if my little compressor would be able to provide adequate air flow - and the reality is that it couldn't. I could blast for ~5-10 seconds and then wait for ~20-30 while it re-pressurized the tank, but when it was blasting, it worked great. Paint came off easily down to bare metal, and the surface was left with a bit of roughness - perfect for paint. I even spent some time cleaning up my rear diff, since I happened to have easy access.

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Of course, the entire time, I was extremely happy to have my 3M respirator and earplugs, because it was super dusty and noisy. I'm sure the neighbors loved it! When I was done blasting, I spent a good 20 minutes blowing sand out of every little crevasse in the frame before wiping everything down again with degreaser and mineral spirits to prep for paint. And then, it was time to hit it with primer and paint, just like the outside - trying to get into every nook and cranny in the frame.

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With that, the frame reinforcement was done, and the rear of the truck had never looked better. Well, it probably had when it was new, but I never really looked at it then.

A couple days later, I headed back to Mike's with @mrs.turbodb and a buddy from work, and they helped me lift the bed and bumper back into place. We tightened down all the bolts, and I reinstalled the tailgate, bed rack, and CVT.

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It was nice to have the truck back to normal, and know that I could worry just a little less that I was putting form before function.

 

Would of been really easy to get the bumper on with the over head crane i have for pulling engines... to bad you dont live in norcal lol

 

Just got my frame plates today. The question is will I get them on the truck before the bumper shows up in 2 weeks...

 

Are CBI's frame plates sold as a set? Listed at 69.99 on their site and it could really go either way... Trailgear's are 115.49 for both

 

Yeah they are a set, I went with CBI cause I needed to order some ditch brackets as well.

Is that Trail Gear kit their frame plates or frame box kit?

 

hahaha, yeah would have been easier with a lift of some sort. Turned out to not be too bad - it's not really all that heavy, just awkward.

What's the over-under? Biggest thing for me was (as usual) prep and then paint prep. No point getting them on there and not getting it well protected.

Yeah CBI's are for the set, and are very similar to Trail Gear's plate set. CBI used to be two pieces per side, but now they look almost as though they come from the same cut template! Both are 3/16" steel, so I don't see any reason to pay more for the TG set ($115 vs $69). Of course, TG also has a frame boxing kit, which is going to give you even more strength than the plates if you want that.

 

Rad, I'll place an order soon! Thanks. Yeah, eventually I want to box the frame/relocate the shock mounts, but I can't weld yet. That's something I want to do myself down the line... for now I need some kind of reinforcement for the rust hole in my frame by the rear passenger shock mount.

Hoping to find somebody that'll do the frame plate welding for beer. Seems like it's not worth doing just one side, since you alternated to avoid overheating? May as well slap em both on.

 

I'm sure somebody in the CO BS thread can point you to a welder. I know @3378jakesr5 can weld and he's in CO as well as a few others. He won't do it for beer but maybe Dr. Pepper

 

I posted in that thread once already, will probably make another post once I have the plates. I'd be happy to bribe a potential welder with beer, weed, soda, whatever haha. Shoot, even a hundred bucks or something would be totally worth it.

I'll stop cluttering your thread now @turbodb

 

Too bad I'm not in the area, anything on that list would get those plates on your truck from me haha