Long Travel BS Thread

What happened to the fabricator you had lined up?

 

It will still cycle with a static pattern, goal is to have minimal anti-dive to not affect caster/camber too much. i like lots of caster and from ride height to full bump a good amount of negative camber

Removing the anti-dive will give a more positive and less "sloppy" feedback while in the rough, I think this is a good idea. Caster gain can make the vehicle feel different than a static caster. Some of this is driver preference, same as any geometry input.

Were it a quick build, or I was in your shoes, I would just bolt it up to the factory mounts and run upper arm gussets and be done with it. You will love it. What we are discussing is the next level up and could even be considered nit picky. All I can recommend as an absolute is from my previous post, make sure you have tubing structure from one coil bucket/coilover mount to the other. Preferably an engine cage.

 

What does that have to do with the ease of buying inexpensive coilovers?

FWIW I've heard the opposite about needing a cross bar from guys building pretty nice purpose built trucks and that run a race truck. More support will never hurt but it's the first time anyone's ever said a cage and / or crossbar are the only possible solution.

Not much luck fitting a cross bar on a first gen 3.4 with the amount of clearance under the hood. You are effectively saying the only way to build a first gen is to cut a good sized slot out of the stock hood or cage the engine and I don't think the overwhelming majority of people on here with first gens over the years have caged their engines bays. Are you saying they all twisted their frames from running lt kits?

I have heard on the other hand that a better front cross member than the skimpy skid hanger improves how tight the front feels. I will be adding a bumper that has one and someone helped me make beefy shock hoops.

Again not sure why this was mentioned in response to my post.

 

You got my number nerd.
You could just text me

 

Mine will be caged front to rear... mostly for the sake of safety for me and my occupants.
And it’s always good to get input from people like yourself, I’m always learning more and more about long travel and suspension.

 

I'll have to play with that when I start modeling mine. I'm trying to get the bump steer out right now, but if I can get the camber/caster to stay consistent throughout travel that would be a great bonus. Since I'm cutting the shock tower off anyway it's easy enough to put the UCA back where-ever I want.

I'm heavy enough, and my CG is far enough back that I don't think loss of anti-dive will cause the rear end to come loose.

 

that fitting is a MORB to JIC 45. the fitting on the left is straight thread and seals on the o ring, the right side is jic and seals on the taper at the end.

 

Cheap coilovers... hmmm, whoops, I think I took your post out of context, apologies if it came off asshole-ish, I was actually trying to be helpful.... here's some more asshole-ness, I would take the advice given to you by your friends building trucks with a grain of salt, or really analyze what they were saying and make sure we are in the same context. The average guy who puts LT on their truck and drives it on the street may never need the crossover... However if you beat on your truck you will. There are video's floating around of people beating on their trucks where you can see the shock tower moving, drastically. Its actually impressive. This same problem is the original reason that all of these kits have an option for heim'd uppers. People install the standard kit, hammer on their truck, their frame begins to twist, they run out of alignment cam adjustment and they need heim'd uppers to make up the adjustment room and get there front end in to spec. Now the heim'd uppers are used for more than just this reason, but this is where it started. All of the fab shops I know will not utilize a truck that has been hammered on for prototyping specifically because of the frame twist.

Just trying to pass on a little info to help prevent potential problems. I own a first gen taco and space is tight, however people have managed to put on crossover "hoops" on 1st gen tacomas for years, even with a supercharger installed. As for the front cross bar, yes this should be upgraded/replaced. If you really begin beating on your truck you will want to plate the cross members that connect your lower pivots.

 

Getting a cross bar is something I def want to do in the long run for these exact reasons. Obviously wont happen over night, but I bet over time if the truck is getting worked that the frame will start to get off enough that it could be too late before someone might notice.

 

Ok from what I have learned and seen from my own experiences and from others who weekend warrior to the 1450 race guys, 10 car baja champions, guys with plenty more experience than I will have all have the same general thing to say when ur building a truck...whatever you think you may need in reinforcement....do that and take it one step farther....and use it till that part fails then repeat... soo basically always go a lil overkill.
For example my recent J arm failures...I thought the boxed overlayed and gusseted uppers were going to be plenty strong....and they were fine till I went to links and started to hit things much more aggressively...the new arms are .25x1.5 dom and boxed and huge overlays there's about 7/8" worth of steel thicknesses throughout the arm with round tube that doesn't like to deform....overkill? Probably, but I dont want to have to make new ones again.

Food for thought

 

Like to see how my truck manages the speed bumps on my street - maybe this year.

 

There are plenty of ways to fit a cross bar on a 1st gen as well. Dirt Designs has 2 different variations on coil bucket mounting ones. one will work with a blower and one wont. Goes right over the motor with 1.75'' tube and unblots in and out. Just need to notch the wheel well.

 

That's sweet. No problem adding one of Steve's if the stock coilbuckets were still on my truck.

We had discussed making a cross bar on my hoops but where my shocks end up a couple inches back from and about 4 inches above the stock coil buckets, with the sc there's not a whole lotta places to make one where it would be most effective. We just gusseted the hoops to the remnants of the shock tower.

Before this came up I had already thought about adding an engine cage or additional engine compartment fabbing when I have time, space, and necessary skills (hopefully the last one will happen lol)

Haven't seen too many first gens (non race / caged trucks) with a cross bar other than the ones you just mentioned (forgot about his cross bars being for both gens). I was aware of all the other stuff @Canks mentioned but I'm hoping maturity will kick in by the time I drive my truck and I drive pretty moderately, so that what I have so far will be cool until it's obvious it needs improvements and I'll have to add a cross bar or cage the engine.

 

Rear ends fully assembled now time for bumpers. So close to being done

 

I’ve been watching your build on Instagram and I have to say I’ve never really considered smp until recently because his work seems so simplistic and clean. I love how everything is considered and nothing is over the top (especially the bedcage)

 

Thanks man!! I appreciate it. That’s what I’ve been trying to go with this build. Simple, clean, and effective. I’m glad I went with SMP, their quality and detail is insane

 

From Tim at DMZ: “It is simple to make something look complicated, but it is always complicated to make something look simple”.

 

I'll tell you. I have a new found respect for the fabricators that do this day in and day out. Building a bed cage from scratch was a chore but with the tremendous help of @Yotamac and his fabricating skills we got it done. We've got just a few things (Bumps and limit straps) to wrap up next weekend and I should be completley done.

 

that's some arch, what leafs are thosee?