cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

I was confused the first time I saw an auto stall out. Was weird

 

Living in a rural area it's great. Sucks in the city with heavy traffic. Left leg is super muscular now haha

 

My auto stalls on steep climbs where I loose traction and roll backwards a little. Seems to happen frequently on steep climbs. To your earlier point on the 4.3 Atlas.vs a 3.8 or lower gearing. I have to disagree. However, it depends upon the motor+ transmission + terrain you wheel combo in your rig. In my FJC the 4.0L V6 and a 4.3 + 2.72 Atlas. The 4.3 is too much and not fast enough for Northern California trails. I can be in "D"rive and not be able to keep up with my buddies on the Rubicon, when in the 4.3 gear. I think the perfect gears would be a 3.8 for my rig. I rarely use the 4 speed. Only on very steep climbs with I engage the planetary gear. If I had to do it over I would have gone with a 3.8 2 speed case for my motor and trail combo. I have an LS3 + a 3.8 2 speed setting in the garage for the FJ40 I'm building. That should be a perfect combo to scare the crap out of me.

Previously I had an Inchworm dual case setup with a 5:1 + stock 2.56:1(?) setup. The 5:1 was way too low. I'd have to stop on the trail, shift into to high 4WD then go, in order to keep up with my buddies. When I decided to do the 4.3 I thought it would be enough of a drop in gear ratio, but I was wrong. Live and learn. I would like to swap my 4.3 atlas for a 3.8, but will live with it for now.

 

Ill take the 4.3 off your hands but I agree it's all personal preference. I like the lower gearing with the 4.7 with the 3.4 and auto and seem to keep up with whoever i follow with the gearing. Once the trail starts I normally leave it low and just shift between 2 low and 4 low. Very rarely do I shift into high unless we get on a road or similar. But I'm also not to concerned about being right on each other as we will catch up at the big obstacle or I'm normally leading for some reason.... but we also mainly wheel red rock/sand stone type trails (sand hollow, logandale, moab) but do have a few local trails that are similar to the hammers.

I never use the crawl box in mine (2.28) in fear of breaking the input or output shaft alone and rarely use them both in double low because it's to slow and normally doesn't have the speed if I need to power through something. If I know I can just crawl something without bumping it and it's super technical I will use it but that's pretty rare. My dad's tj with a 4.0, ax15 and atlas 3.8 he thinks is to fast coming from a 4.1 flipped Dana 300 and wished he went with the 4.3 or even 5.0 purely for hard stuff but finds the 3.8 is a happy medium but struggles finding a good geae for just cruising down the trail without getting the Crap beat out of him.

Looking forward to seeing the 40. Currently helping my dad build a '69 jeepster with an ls,4l60e auto with a manual valve body, and 2 speed atlas. Going to be on tons and 40s. He's doing a ground up build and just finished building the frame and getting the drivetrain partially in.

 

Put it in 4-lo and just along, that's what I tend to do

 

Do you have manual hubs?

 

Nope automatic

 

I did it this way on my pre runner. Tape that bitch up real good.

This is the route i wanna go

 

Dude. I've basically built a spreadsheet with parts for everything. Worst case I have to buy everything brand new for the front and rear axles, axles are like $10k, buying some junkyard/used parts, brings that down the $8k, and that price really depends on what needs to be replaced on the front axle. A rear 14bolt is going to be $3k, which includes gearing, an arb air locker, disc brake conversion, and a few other things. A front D60 Kingpin out of a mid 80s Ford F350 is going to really depend on what you want to do. I'd like to change the outers to Chevy stuff because it's stronger, but you can very easily spend $4/5k rebuilding a front axle, and that includes the $2k you're spending on gearing and an arb air locker.

Suspension is pretty simple, 4WU kit is going to cost you about $1k for just the brackets. Johnny Joints and Heim Joints will depend on what you want, but expect up to $50 for either. DOM tube for the links, is going to depend on your local metal retailer. 14" coilovers are going to be $500 a piece. Air bumps, $200 each. The rear end is cheap in comparison. Junkyard 63s will depend on where you buy them from. 14" smooth body shocks $200 each. The leaf hanger, perch, shackle hanger, shackles, u bolts and u bolt plates are going to be $225 from Ruffstuff.

Hydro assist is going to run you $1.5/2k very quickly. Tires and Rims are going to be another $2.5k and if you want beadlocks, like maybe some Trail Ready Beadlocks, double that.

I know that isn't everything, and this is spec'd out to what I'd like in my build, but I think in total, you could probably get everything for around $15k, maybe less, if you look for deals and get lucky with some stuff. For all you know in a year or so there could a fully built D60 to spec for what you want for a few grand.



I'm starting to think that I might know a little much for as far off as this is. Time to start saving pennies...

 

Your close but id add another 5-7k and I think you would be in the ballpark of what it would cost to link a tacoma on tons and 40s. Or buy someone's "project" they never finished and strip it of all the parts to move over to uours and sell/scrap the leftovers. Probably the best way to do it because you can get a lot for not a lot of money. It's just dealing with the headache of pulling/selling stuff.

 

Yea definitely. Probably better to say $20k once all is said and done. I should also think of the fact that I'll basically sell everything on my truck, so that should help put more funds towards the truck. I need to "finish" my spreadsheet to get a better idea of cost, but I like the idea of just buying someone's project and just stripping it for parts. Definitely the real pain comes down to just selling the remains of what you don't want anymore.

 

or just buy a built rig...but my truck and I are one

 

You could, but where's all the fun in building your own rig and knowing what's in your rig?

 

true!

 

Awesome build man!! I read through all the 69 pages. I am going to be following this post, as you are doing some mods I would like to do to my Tacoma.

 

So I got the chance to check out a Canon 6D Mark II and figured I might as well get a few photos of the truck while it's still all freshly painted. Disregard the fact that the truck needs a bath.


IMG_0019 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_0031 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_0040 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_0056 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

So I guess for a bit of comparison. First photo is Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi shot with the 6D Mark II; following that is 6D Mark II shot with the XTi. Both photos were shot with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.


IMG_0079 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_4650 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

It might not show up that well on TW, but the difference in quality is incredible. Pixel wise the 6D Mark II's images are twice the size of the old XTi's images. Looking forward to messing around with the 6D Mark II on the Rubicon this Summer.

 

I want to get a nice camera, but it's hard when the new phones do as well as they do and I'll probably need a phone in a year or so.

Hey how tall is your bedrack off the top of the bed rails?

 

Phones nowadays are definitely doing really well, especially since they're form factor is tiny. Personally, I don't expect them to surpassed DSLR, Mirrorless or Cinema cameras any time soon.

Bed rack is 12.5" off the top of the bed to the top of rack.

 

I was playing with a friend's iPhone X this morning and it sure was nice. I really like the things you can do with a DSLR in low light though.

Thanks, I have a source that I'm getting some from that are 16" above the bed. I think I might be able to trim them down an inch or two though.

 

The lower the better. It's a constant battle between going for super functional but probably having weight up high, or keeping the RTT as low as possible and keeping the weight as low as possible.