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

Say what you will about Bilstein... But here we go, yet again, on this thread.

Dude just dropped over a fucking grand to improve his truck. Is it Fox, Icon, or King? No. Is it a thousand percent better than stock? Hell yes it is. Is it going to be a good improvement for him? Probably.

If this guy is going from stock, (which it looks like he is, judging by his profile pic) to this, chances are this will be a great improvement to his truck. And chances are he doesn't need Kings for what he's doing yet (he may never need them).

But does anyone take time to ask? Nope... lets just tell this dude he wasted over a grand of his hard earned money.

I just don't fucking get it.

 

Well stated...

 

Very true! I was so happy getting rid of my saggy ass suspension

 

Made it to @Speedytech7's on Sunday night - a day earlier than I'd planned. Spent yesterday and today working on the truck with his help. Excited by the results. And oh, the ride.

People, if you are running a rear setup with leaf springs only and no shocks... stop now and install some shocks.

Was totally awesome to have Zane's help - made it a matter of doing rather than figuring, which was awesome! Made things go about 100x faster than if I was doing it alone. Thanks Zane!

Full write-up of course coming after I go put these through the paces!

​

​

.

 

What length travel are those? Those mounts look pretty close together.

Also, grab some these are clean up those resi mounts.

https://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/RESITD25-4.html

 

Resi's for the self-proclaimed (and everyone else proclaimed ) slow poke?!

Looks great man!

 

10" stroke. We did a bunch of figuring to make sure I'd use what I could. Shocks themselves are pretty short - 15.125 compressed; 25.125 fully extended.

Thanks! And yeah - now I'm going to call it slow and cushy - hahahahaha.

 

Those are super short for a 2.5x10".

Does still look like you have way more up travel to hit those bumps than what is left in the shock.

 

Yeah, I am never going to hit the bumps as-is. However, since these bumps are 2" taller than the stock ones I was running previously, I'll be 2" closer to hitting them, hahahaha. The Alcan's just don't ever go negative...which is both good and bad I guess.

Anyway, going to have to fab up some platforms for the bumps - should be easy enough; just didn't have time on this trip.

 

Fair enough. Just figured you would have addressed that at the same time.

And FWIW, I have no problems slamming my Alcans right into my bumps. Wouldn't want to bottom out those fancy new shocks too hard.

 

Looks bad ass man, how is the down travel with those Alcans?
Seeing how good of a job speedy tech does im sure those nuts are loctited. Even with that I would peen the threads or even put a castle nut and carter pin in there. They will back off from the shock and bushing movment and they nut doesnt need to be tq down hard, just keep the bolt in position.

You guys enjoy the nice weather.

 

Looks good!

Also looks like you could have put the upper mounts up higher to get the shocks closer to center travel??

 

Before

After Raptor Lining the whole truck...

 

That looks really nice, good texture and a light color makes it seem like paint from a distance

 

Thanks man.

The Alcan's seem to have ~8-9 inches of total travel when we separated the pack and used just the top leaf. We've got the mounts set so that the shock has a bit less than 1" additional travel each direction. What that means is that they don't have a ton of travel IMO. To be expected though, I think, since they are meant to carry all the additional weight and are approximately stock length.

Thanks!

Could have put the upper mounts higher, but then wouldn't have been centered travel wise. Also - photo is a bit misleading; at the bottom of the shock shaft there is a 1" rubber bump to dampen bottoming out. So there's an inch of additional down travel (well, a bit less really since I guess it can't compress to nothing) that you can't really see.

 

I take it the leafs are all .25in thick each? Did you measure the free arch of the pack or the after install vs stock gain. Looks like they are made for 500lbs extra with how thick it is.

 

Yeah, they're about 1/4" thick each. Pack is rated for +600lbs; installed about a year ago (Fixing the Stance - New Alcan Leafs for the Rear). Does great at that. Measured the arch of the top leaf only - we separated the pack and left only the top leaf installed on the truck as we did the work.

 

How much was total cost, how much did you have to buy, and did you have to sand down old paint job for prep? Thx

 

Looks great Dan. Luv the tailpipe mod.

 

Hm didn't want to flex that much. Curious. Well cool! Hope it rides like a dream