What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

It's a Smittybilt Defender roof rack, the compact version...they make a bigger one that covers the entire roof.

I'm sort of on the fence about keeping it...I've had it on for a couple years and lately it's been making a bunch of knocking/rattling sounds because one of the well nuts (I think) has come loose. Since it's bolted onto the roof it's going to be a pain to deal with lol.

 

I wondered about that with the other one, SC would probably suck it closed

 

Glad I missed out on that one then, lol

 

I’d do my same front king/total chaos setup. But I’d go spring under in the rear and do a low key bed cage

 

Does your rear suspension not keep up?

My Alcans with 10" Kings way outperfom the midtravel front.

 

The deavers are only about 1.5” lift over stock and with the wheelers bumps it doesn’t leave much room for up travel.

I bumped them when they are flat on bump but doesn’t leave much uptravel. And don’t have much room with the 2.5 kings I have... should have gone something with a short body

Also, have the lower tabs below the axle and upper bamf mount 1/4” from the bottom of the underside of the bed

Set it to use 9.5” of the shaft. Although only about 3” of up and 7” down

 

Got it.

I've got just about 50/50 up and down. That's with a lot of lift though, that probably the only difference. I bumped my leafs flat too.

 

Yea I was reading your setup when I was redoing mine for the second time ha. I could get more up travel by going to lower tabs under the rear end and making a new upper bump plate off the bottom of the frame. But the leafs would definitely be 2-3” negative and I’d have to strap the rear end for shock extension.

Not sure how much exactly bumping the leafs negative would shorten their lifespan?

or if my stock fenders have the clearance of the tires moving directly up... I know they will “tuck” if one side of the rear end is up and the other is drooping but not sure about directly up without taking the leafs apart again.. oh well I suppose

Running foam shaft bumps like some of the prerunner guys has helped a lot as well as actually getting the rear shocks tuned

 

I have one too...

 

Miller time




I need to get it installed this week if I want to make the group run this weekend

 

Nice! Did you cut the plate to fit the gears too?

 

Yeah, I cut that plate out of 1/4 to fit between the spiders and weld them together after doing some big tacks on the gears. Just welding the gears is probably enough but I figured it was worth an extra few minutes of effort to make it as bulletproof as possible especially given advice from a friend who has done several.

 

The plate method is always smart, yours looks like it fits really well too.

 

I have gotten better at reading a tape measure with age

 

Plus having big welder to crank the settings up on really lets you get good penetration on those teeth and makes it look a lot better than if I had used a little 110

 

Did my ac tensioner bearing, all three belts, and my carrier bearing today. Found the trans mount is bad too. Gotta do that soon.

 

Anyone running this relocation kit from @Wheeler's Off-Road Inc ? thinking about relocating my rear shocks and I came across this kit. I know the second gen shocks are also on the outside of the frame and I feel like it stabilizes the truck better. Any thoughts?

 

Thats the total chaos kit. Been asked about a lot.

You have to run spacers. Only a 2.0 shock. Likely rub a bit. Only a couple of people have it. Im planning on it, I have the brackets here in a box. Just haven't had time. Archive garage is making a new kit too for 2.5s.

Stability would be improved yes. You loose a bit of flex travel numbers going further out on the axle vs inside more. Its geared more toward people who want to go fast.

 

Makes sense. I like options that make my hwy driving better as well. I typically drive 3-4 hours before I hit dirt so its important to me that my I compromise my on and off road driving. The 2.5 option sounds nice too!

 

2.5'' means wide wheels and spacers. No way around that.

I wouldn't be too caught up in the fact shocks inboard aren't stable. They are totally stabile. With shocks like that and relocating you have to spend the time and effort to valve them to your rig and how you want it to ride. Can go lots of directions with it. Just have to do the work.